End of summer

I thought this was fun to look at! (Paul Newman has always been one of my faves!)

I hope you are all enjoying your last few days of summer!

Photo Credit: Unknown

LES shopping

Yesterday, I had a great shopping day; I wandered down to the Lower East Side - a neighborhood that has so many fabulous boutiques, but I really never get to enough!One of my notable stops was Dear:Rivington. I had heard about it from Other Things Pretty and Duskin and was excited to check it out. I'll be honest, I didn't really do my research - I just saw some great pictures and knew that I had to add it to my list of places to see! It did come as a bit of a surprise that it was avant garde with a strong Japanese sense of style. The items there don't work for my personal style but they were so much fun to look at! There is a mix of vintage items as well as new design.

Although my poor roommate was not ready for it!

Quotes from the roommate:"What is this!? a shirt? A dress!?" "Oh come on, no one would actually pay that much for this!?" "Umm, these things look dirty" (they're vintage)So yes, it may have been a bit over the top, but it was fun to see! Another of my wild finds was Craig Van Den Brulle. I mean it's all completely unaffordable. I think the most tame of my loves there is this mirrored dresser. It's only $6,500 (ha) -- and actually one of the only items on the website that didn't say " price:contact dealer".

This set of 6 chairs was one of the items there that I loved because it's insane. I mean I think this only works in maybe Miami or Cali? And what I loved more was learning about the designer behind it. Milo Baughman, born in 1925, grew up in Long Beach, California. Being a creative child, his parents gave him carte blanche at the age of 13 to design their new family home. How wild is that?!

And the last of my crazy loves from the day are these Arthur Court Torchieres. They're just about 3 feet tall! So strange, but I love it!

All in all, I had a great shopping day, there were so many new, strange, unexpected items that I saw. It's just a nice change of pace sometimes!

Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction

Another one of our fab finds in Philly was this boutique slash art gallery located in Old City on North Third Street. Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction "firmly believes in empowering artists producing high quality work marked by fine craft and intellectual vigor." And with that mission they provide a unique array of men's and women's apparel, jewelry, body products, mixed in a setting of visual artist's, musician's and author's works.

The space is gorgeous with the vintage exterior signage and original brick walls.

The floors are beautiful too!

Kim and I loved this dress and were so tempted by the 40% off sale that was going on while we were there!

But our favorite was this Billy Kirk leather bag - comes with adjustable straps. (Unfortunately accessories were not part of the sale!)

The lovely book selection reminded me that I've been meaning to read In Defense of Food.

And I was introduced to this book, which is now on my reading list.

This is another of the must sees in Philly. The mix of boutique and art gallery makes for such a unique experience - don't miss out!

Pink Chanel

My favorite pink thing this week is the season premier of the Rachel Zoe Project. I DIE now that Flipping Out and Rachel are on! The first episode was all about Rachel getting her 5 clients: Debra Messing, Eva Mendez, Demi Moore, Anne Hathaway and of course Cameron Diaz - who got to wear this gorgeous Chanel gown, ready for the Golden Globe Awards Actually getting her hands on this dress was QUITE the to-do, including many phone calls and a request to Karl Lagerfeld to remove a sleeve on the dress. It was a nail biter waiting to see if it would all work out!

It really bummed me out hearing how the recession has caused designers to significantly cut back on the amount of couture gowns they produce. Of course it makes sense financially, but they're so pretty!

If you don't get Bravo, I highly suggest you reconsider your cable plan!!

Photo Credits: via Splendicity and lelaluxe.

Philly Visit!

My friend Kim just moved to Philly, so I went down to visit for the past few days. She hadn't started her new job there yet, so we were able to spend 4 days walking around the city, exploring and finding fabulous restaurants, bars and shopping. It was so much fun!One of our shopping finds was Matthew Izzo, which is located on North 3rd Street. The street is a fabulous place to shop, boasting a bunch of boutiques and art galleries. Matthew is shown above in the store which houses apparel and accessories on the first floor and furniture on the second.

The website doesn't include quite everything in the store - so I feel as though I must describe some of the jewelry that I fell in love with! There was a really fabulous natural and champagne jewel bib necklace that was really a steal at $46. At the time, I thought that I could try to replicate it at home myself, but really I just should have bought it! There were also a bunch of gorgeous jewel bracelets that really have that vintage vibe that I'm loving so much right now! We almost didn't see the stairs in the far back corner of the store that led up to the furniture show room. Thank god we found them because it's really quite wonderful. They have such a wide variety of vintage and new pieces. It's really such a great space. I also thought that the prices weren't bad either. It's certainly not cheap, but I felt that there was a lot in the $200-$300 range and not just small accessories, but like tables or a chair in that price bracket. One of my favorite furniture finds was an old drafting table. It was big enough that you could use it as a dining table. Perfect for me - had all of the character of being used for over 50 years and reminded me of my fun drafting classes that I took in high school. The next time you are in Philly you should really check this place out.

Photo Credits: Flickr (Go Phila.com, Nogoodnik, and City Life Philadelphia)

2010 Ikea Catalog!

I don't know if anyone is quite this nerdy... but I just got back to my apartment from being away for the weekend to find the 2010 Ikea catalog... and let me just say, it was heaven! I spent 2 hours going page by page, turning corners down and using my blue highlighter to mark all of the items I love!I know that not everyone is such a fan of the mass production, but the company has made an effort to lower prices since last year as well as introduce new and exciting product. I'm also a firm believer of mixing high and low and that you can make basically anything feel unique if accessorized properly.

A several months ago, Ikea sent out a survey to its email list asking for suggestions. I went into LENGTHY detail; having worked in retail, I think it's important to nicely voice constructive criticism, because without feedback how else will they know how to fix the issues!? I was so excited to find in this catalog that Ikea really listened. My biggest complaint was that while I loved the product in general, when they ran promotions, it was always on the product that I found the least interesting. I'd get the promo email, get excited and then get annoyed that nothing on sale was remotely special. My suggestion was to pick product that was more popular because if I saw that, I'd be more likely to run to my nearest Ikea that weekend. Remember this design board from a post I did in April? If not, check it out here. Anyways, I was so excited to find out that both the couch, coffee table, and square side tables were part of Ikea's new lower pricing strategy!

So rather than lowering the prices on items that I would never buy anyways, their price cutting included my 3 loves:

Karlstad Sofa - was $499, now $399

Lack side table - was $12.99, now $7.99

Lack coffee table - was $29.99, now $19.99

Other new loves from this catalog:

Dvala full/queen duvet cover set - $19.99 for a duvet and 2 shams -- it's cotton, just plain white - but for a price like this - I could dye it a beautiful grey, or get it monogrammed and still wouldn't feel bad when I would inevitably want to redecorate in 2 years. Koldby Cowhide Rug $249 - you know how I have been loving these!

Ludde sheep skin rug -$39.99 it looks a little funny in this pic, but it looks normal in the catalog picture!

And this isn't just nearly all - I suggest getting your own copy of the catalog and go to town!!

Meow!

I'm taking this idea from Domino - a while back they had done a cute photo gallery of all of their pics that had pets in them... and being a pet lover myself, I had to do one too!

So cute!!

Kids Rooms!

I'm loving these kids rooms because they feel sophisticated but still friendly!

Photo Credits: Vallone Design, Sunset, Elliston Lutz, Tradional Home Mar08, Traditional Home

It's Pink day!

Happy Wednesday! Here are a few funny ones!

Some sculpture in MontrealI hope this pic is real and not photo-shopped! A pink flowery light fixture! Fun for a party or a girls room!

Photo Credits: Flickr

I'm so predictable!

I picked these pics with the intention of doing a random design day... but surprise surprise, it turns out there is a theme to what I'm liking: White! I'm loving the casual look here of tons of pillows thrown around on the couch and the open windows and white washed beams are to die for! I can't say I'm loving the orange shag, but I think the mirrored coffee table is fun!

I guess the second theme is that I'm loving black text and numbers on a white background.

Photo credits: Marie Claire, Elliston Lutz, Desire to Inspire, Ashleys Busy, Caitlin Moran.

Engagements!

So I guess weddings are on everyone's mind. I've had 7 friends get engaged this summer!!! --- so I figured I'd share my FAVORITE wedding dress. I don't have any plans to get engaged soon, and I wouldn't want this beauty to just go around unworn!!

It's the tulle cascade wedding gown from J Crew. I've been eyeing this thing for years! I love that it's a little bit unexpected with all of those tulle ruffles!

J Crew has so many sophisticated dress options at a really good price! So if tulle ruffles isn't exactly your thing... there are plenty of other gorgeous options.

Congratulations to Sarah, Kelly, Lauren, Julia, Jackie, Joanna, and David!!!!

It's AC season, but I'm loving these fireplaces!

I had the lucky experience of waiting at a doctors office last week... and I mean lucky because they had a ton of old design magazines. So between the magazines and the air conditioning, I was quite pleased to spend almost two hours there rather than at my hot apartment!! One of my pretty finds was this Atlanta house owned by interior designer Kay Douglass. It was the gorgeous fireplaces in this home that kept drawing me to it! Kay removed the original green marble which seemed too formal and replaced it with this concrete and salvaged wood mantel. Another gorgeous concrete fireplace is in the library. I'm loving the materials in this outdoor room. The brick work, slate flooring, and woodwork on the ceiling are beautiful and add so much texture and dimension! I also love the mirror and chandelier, I think details like this really help blend the line between interior and exterior spaces.

There is a fourth beautiful fireplace in the master. Having a fireplace really adds such warmth and elegance to a room.

Unfortunately not every pic of the house can have an amazing fireplace, but this shot at least has those stunning french oak doors that lead outside to the loggia.
Steel casement windows in the dining room add for a beautiful detail.

All of the character that this 1932 Tudor exterior has, the bricks, slate roof and vines... I just love it!

Photo credits: Traditional Home OCT 2007

Check out the party at Hooked on Houses!