So i too was at the gift show yesteday. I spent quite a while on the lovely Hable Construction stand and i was inspired to do a Flower of The Week by those super stylish Hable sisters who had this vase divine flowers on their stand. They are not as you might expect paper whites, they are, quite fabulously, called Cheerful. I really love the narcissus family, they smell so good and promise that spring is not far away.

Kathleen Walsh has been at it for a couple years now with her Walteria Living collection (anti-design for the home) and this gift fair she received highest honors with a prize for Best New Collection. Above is her well known Carlos night light in porcelain which comes complete with a cone around his neck suggesting perhaps he just came from getting a little something snipped... ouch. Her new pieces are smart and playful. Hecho En Los Angeles (which I love since LA is my hometown) is a set of four dinner plates depicting LA landmarks from Olvera St to the tarpits using 'papel picado' to achieve the beautiful cut out patterns, a style of paper cutting from Mexicoand 60 Watt is a porcelain cast light bulb votive which emits a warm glow without using any electricity. Find a retailer near you here. And stay tuned for more goods from the gift fair later in the week.

Going throught the latest issue I was struck by the vignette illustrating "purge with a purpose" (page 148).  Nevermind that I love, love, love to donate some old clothing and junk (and will intervene on friends who need to do so); I kept thinking that the image was a great lesson in deceptively simple decorating.  I see a little flea market French chair, quirky old chest and cute lamp (Jonathan Adler or West Elm? You tell me).  The key here is how it's all pulled together:  a shiny dark wood floor, lots of white trim, and a color palette that's almost monochrome.  To me, the yellow chest looks more green next to the sage-y chair, which looks more khaki in front of the two shades of wall.  Matchy-matchy is just too easy: if you want to stick to one color, try to fool the eye with at least one near-miss and unify it all with a very dark or very pale floor.  For a similar chair, I've always liked this corner one from Wisteria:
Its scale and carvings are nicer than most budget options ($629), but I think you could do just as well at a flea market or auction.  Plus I'd recover it and use white piping like the one in the pic.

It looks like we might have our first bit of snow that sticks for a minute here in NYC. And I'll be making my way through it over to the NY International Gift Fair looking for some great new design to bring back and show you. In the meantime, check out Corey Arnold's website. His photo documentation of his life aboard a fishing a boat is quite stunning, sometimes quiet and eerily serene and sometimes you've got to wonder just what possesses a man to do what he does. Happy snow day.

I recently found out I had a fan all the way out in San Francisco, Jordan who writes a blog called Oh Happy Day. So sweet!  Jordan likes "good weather and pretty things" -- a woman after my own heart -- and she also turned me on to these Fabriano Artist Journals :


I love all the colors! These are available at Utrecht for $19.99 and I think it might be a good replacement for the dog-eared spiral bound notebook I keep in my tote at all times.  What an embarrassment!  Or I might go back to a trusty Rhodia graph paper pad:
I still can't get over the orange cover flap and tree logo, and they're $4!  French women must use them to make their shopping lists for market.  For me it's more like that sweater I've been eyeing at Club Monaco ... underlined and starred. Anyway, thanks Jordan and keep sharing the pretty!

To continue the delicous theme of candies, cookies, chocolate bars and macaroons that i seem to have been following this month i would like to introduce this glorious blog ParisBreakfasts. Carol Gillott spent three weeks in paris and spent her time checking out every patisserie there, and painted what she saw and ate. The result is a web of watercolours like the one above and glorious things like tarte au citron competitions that are up on her site. She knows her stuff too, not Fauchon for this girl, Jean-Paul Hevin, Pierre Herme, Laduree and on and on - the whole thing is divine and if you are remotely into cakes and Parisian Patisseries then this site is real treat.

Take a look at her gallery, and view as a slide show - each watercolour is prettier than the last, i would love to do a whole wall in them. Carol sells them for $95 each plus postage (a steal) and they measure 9x11 inches.

I found this, GM's Volt (an electric concept car), on Mocoloco this morning and it got me wondering if the US auto makers were really in line to begin making an effort in the enviromentally socially responsible auto making department, but of course I'm not holding my breath because just as fast as these ideas seem to be introduced by the "big three", they disappear again without a trace and a new and bigger and more gas devouring SUV is introduced. And does anyone really like the design of this car anyway? Wait, let me rephrase that, does anyone who is in the market for an enviromentally friendly car respond positively to the aesthetics of this automobile?

There is a shop that i would like to share with you. It is on Sixth Avenue between Prince and Spring. John Stypmann is the name of both the shop and the charming man who owns it. I will probably receive a bullet to the back of my head for sharing this source, he is a rare find in this city. His shop is filled with antique china like this set which is about $150 for ten fabulous tea cups and saucers and all those plates and coupe a la fruit - those little dishes are what the French use for fruit - like wild strawberries and berries. The last time i was in his shop i got a pair of really pretty white and gold espresso cups and the time before a wonderful table that is now in my sitting room looking fabulous, there is also a mirror that i want to get for my bedroom, he has everything. This is an excellent spot for digging around, a proper junk shop - in the finest sense of the word.

John Stypmann Co.
190 Sixth Avenue, NY NY 10013
212 226 5717

I think it's time to replace my shower curtain.  A while ago I bought the perfect one from Bed Bath & Beyond, white with black triple stripe embroidery that reminded me of beautiful hotel linens like these shams from Schweitzer:

Oh, how these stripes and colors make my heart sing!  My curtain isn't exactly high thread count, but style-wise it got the job done ... until an unfortunate bleach accident in the laundry wiped out parts of the (black) stripes. Of course I tried to fill them in WITH A SHARPIE, which actually worked -- until the next laundering.  Anyhoo I went back to BB&B and it seems my deal now qualifies as Beyond, meaning nowhere to be found.  But Eureka! Ballard Designs carries the same one for $29.00:
They'll monogram it for free, but I'm not a big fan of the loopy script.  I'll buy it plain and spend the extra cash at a tailor shop for something more Brooks Brothers, like the diamond serif below.  Centered and as big as possible, not a lonely little letter in a field of white. And I've learned my lesson with the bleach.

In my search for a manufacturer for some dishware I want to produce I came across a ceramicist from London who I think is exceptional. Her name is Natasha Daintry and from the images I've found of her work so far it all looks quite simple, elegant and pure of form and her use of color in glazing her work is absolutely spot on with very even tone. She graduated from the Royal College, has taught at Central St. Martins and won the Elle Decoration "Future Classic" award in 2005. Not a bad dossier so far. Her website is under construction, but I'll be checking back regularly and will let you know when it's live. And if anyone has any tips for me on where I might begin my search for a facility to produce my dishware please drop me a line. I'm hoping to find something in the states, but I know that might be a dream.

Laduree, purveyors of the finest macaroons are finally coming to New York. Sadly not for a while, they are planning to open a store in September 07 and those are all the details I have so far. If you were at all enamoured by Sofia Coppola's Marie Antoinette then this will be your heaven, the movie was basically Versailles meets Laduree. The flavours of macaroons they have are amazing, salted caramel being one of my favourites, licourice (strange but delicious) blackcurrant and violet, orange blossom, pistachio, raspberry, vanilla, chocolate, coffee - the list goes on and on. They literally disolve in your mouth and burst with flavour and they come packaged in the most divine boxes. Check out the site and we should all remember to say our prayers at night so that they have an easy passage over here.

I was disappointed that the Moravian star centerpiece Timothy Whealon used for his Woodycrest House unit is no longer available (current issue, page 134). Was it really from Target? How did I miss it?  I should check their website more often. Mini rant:  why can't Target come to Manhattan?  WHY??  Anywig, it looks like a hanging fixture we always use from Circa Lighting (a great source) and Pottery Barn carries a glowing table lamp version :

I like it, but maybe not for $199.  So I got to Googling and found these Christmas lanterns:

$24.95 -- now that's more like it.  Looks fab as a light fixture but I wouldn't be afraid to hide the cord and use it as a centerpiece like Timothy did.  How about spray-painting one Chinese red? The 22-inch diameter makes for a perfect scale and it's a CHIC all-year alternative to candles or flowers.

It's no great secret that I love stuff, love products, love all things material that are well made and well designed and of course satisfy my aesthetic sensibilty. And until recently the most important requirement a product needed to possess to qualify for ownership was a significant amount of permanence in its design and fabrication. I don't want disposable design filtering its way into my home so the pieces I choose to own, with any luck, will never make their way into a landfill and I think this is a pretty green appoach to consumerism. Not the greenest for sure, but green nonetheless. But after watching "An Inconvenient Truth" the other nightI was really struck by the grave state our planet is in and will henceforth, without the use of any soapbox, try to bring to you design that meets all my other criteria, but also in some way reduces our impact on the environment. And if you're so inclined and haven't seen this film already, I highly recommend it.

At last the long awaited cold snap and the opportunity to light a fire.  I have spent the last week trying to find a good fireplace for a job that I am doing in the city.  Chesney's is a British company that make wonderful fireplaces and where I found what I was looking for.  As with all good companies, working with them is easy because they know what they are doing, can give a certain amount of advice on scale etc, and are extremely professional.  This is a very good name to hold on to for the moment when you need to buy one.  Check out their site, it is not all contempory either, there are original antique mantlepieces as well.

Please forgive the awful pun, but honestly how amazing is this tray table from CB2??
It's $39.95!  I love the Eames-y bentwood tray top but I would definitely paint the outside edges black to make it pop a bit more.  Perfect for a minibar in a small living room, or you could sit two in front of your sofa for drinks and tv dinners. 

But if you ask me (humor your Deal Hunter on this one), the real draw here is the collapsible metal X-base.  Very Maison Jansen!  Buy two, use the trays for dinners on the terrace, and make a new top that spans the two bases out of opaque plexiglass.  Have Canal Plastics make a custom top in 1-inch thick black or white, 15 inches by about 5 feet or so. Just rest it on the bases and you have chicest low altar table!

It is really hard to choose which image to show from this charming bakery Dancing Deer's website.  they have got such pretty things for Valentine's, these cookies are adorable for Children's tea or for desert with ice cream.  The site is very child friendly, designed with the most charming illustrations like the ones shown on this box of daisy cookies.

For the more sophisticated, and these are another ideal coffee tray treat, are their chocoloate and tangerine cookies...

. 

Almost everything here is perfect for sending as gifts. Cakes or cookies are a treat to recieve, especially when you want to send someone flowers but aren't sure what the local florist is goign to be like, a Chocolate ganache heart shaped cake is a reliable alternative.

Thank goodness Al Gore invented the Internet or I may never have found these out-of-this-world marbled papers :

I was actually looking for inspiration to paper my IKEA coffee table (yes, it can be done--with rubber cement!) when I stumbled upon a site called PAPERmojo which is full of colors and styles.  My favorite is the agate pattern at top. I've never seen this peach, aqua, yellow and red combination anywhere--it could be a room unto itself.  If you're not up for a furniture treatment you could use the 22" x 29" sheets to wrap presents or make your own envelopes--just deconstruct a regular one to use as a pattern, fold and rubber cement the edges.  If I had kids (Nick Jr. and Sheila Laverne), all their textbooks would be covered in marbled paper.  Don't these remind you of the insides of beautiful old books anyway? Four dollars a sheet!

With the coming of each new year we have to decide whether or not we want to make any resolutions or we wonder if this will be the year we finally find true love or will my career take off... will I actually have a career at all? Maybe it's more trivial and you just want to know if blue is your color for 2007.Do like the Turks and find the answers in the grounds of coffee or in this case a reinterpretation made by Brooklyn designers Redstr/Collective. Each fortune, permanently glazed into a pocelain cup, is unique and can set your mind at ease because now you'll know exactly what to expect.

I wish I had a home office like Gina Harrell's, with a cantilevered desk and lots of white-on-white.  But my favorite is her slatted wooden bookcase (February issue, page 119) by Etel Carmona.  It looks like an oversize Japanese version of a popsicle stick craft project ... but it's $5,620. I bet you could get a similar (if less delicate) look and good storage with wooden crates.  I found a website called, no kidding, Crate Creations that offers these nesting crates for $58:

Why not buy a few sets of these and some metal brackets and wood screws and work out a few arrangements? Turn two of the same size on their sides (handle on floor) and attach then back to back, then top it with another on its side, opening facing front. Repeat this and stack them up to ceiling!  You could stain it, paint it, or just leave it bare. 

And make room for Russia. The Ugg has long been on top of the game when it comes to the stylish (..or maybe the word trendy would better suit this particular brand) wooly boot of choice. But finally something to rival the Ugg, and with more design sensibility I might add, has come along. Again, I need to correct myself because I think these other boots have been around for a century or three, so the phrase "has come along" actually doesn't really apply unless we're speaking purely of my own knowledge of their existence. Anyway, the Valenki, a seamless felted wool boot with a removable rubber sole or as they call it, galoshi, is a purely utilitarian boot which will keep your feet warm even in the most arctic of temperatures or just act as your new boot-slipper at home.. galoshi-free of course. Rumor has it that Manolo has little taste for these boots and thinks they should be left to the Russian babushkas who once stockpiled cheap toiletpaper, but I'll leave it to you to decide. He probably didn't much like the Ugg either. Check them out, learn more, buy them at valenkisrus.com.

Did anyone else get that evil debilitating flu? It totally knocked me out for two days. My girlfirend, who also got the flu, made the astute observation recently that our son, who incidentally gave us the flu and who is nearing a ripe seven months of age, propels himself across the floor much like someone might if they were wounded in battle, with one arm out to the side for balance and the entire forearm of the other used to gain ground while the sad lame legs are dragged behind. As I lay in bed thinking about how I might make it to my computer to write a blog entry on Friday, the image of me pulling myself to the dining table like my son, on my stomach, brow furrowed, sweat building due to the fever actually made me kind of smile. And I did stumble to my computer with the intention of sharing this great website with you on Friday, but just didn't have the strength to type a single word. But here it is now... and if you got the flu too, I hope you're feeling better.

Lumas - Photo art editions. They have work by quite well established artists and up and comers too and the good ones seem to go fast!

For one of the best bars of chocolate (and packaging - I judge EVERY book by its cover) go for Bonnat.  Frankly I am relieved that the product is so good because their label is hard to pass by.  Bonnat produce a series of bars of dark chocolate ranging from 65-100% cocoa and one or two milk chocolate bars. These are very chic to serve on your coffee tray. Dark chocolate is not so fattening--it is actually quite good for you--and really good dipped in hot espresso. All available at Worldwidechocolate.com

In true domino style I want to keep sharing the work of new artists whose work I want for my own walls.  If you haven't noticed, I'm in a very colorful, poppy, cartoony mode right now, and the other day an email from Andrea Heimer popped up in my inbox--she's a Washington state-based artist who creates "party art for the new kind of collector."  Acrylics of pretty girls and boys engaged in miniature melodrama.  I say she's Roy Lichtenstein for the 2000s, and some of her originals go for only $50. Looky-loo:

Some of my favorites are sold, but see her website for more plus prices and show dates.  And Andrea could I put in a request for more collage?