hatching of the eggs,
carefully cultivated;
the babies
display their beauty

They are one of a kind and if you are looking for affordable artwork this is it, prices range from $9-$40.

I usually blow off Gap for the more stylish Banana, but they are coming on strong this Spring with these stylish handbags at surprisingly hefty prices, $198 for the leather hobo bag and the leather rope bag! But I’m into it, keep it up Gap!

One of my blog readers Mia just sent me this great website Paper Mojo, which is going to start a paper obsession, so look out for more posts on pretty paper (and send suggestions!). This is a fantastic site for everything from flower paper, italian paper and my favorite japanese paper. I like to always have a few unique sheets of paper for wrapping gifts or covering gift boxes but the uses of great paper are endless really. Here are some pretty groupings from the prints and patterns section.

I just got back from an excursion to Forev’s (Forever 21) and as usual it was a pattern explosion in there. I kinda can’t deal after about 10 minutes in that place there is just too much going on. But it’s pretty impressive the amount of prints and styles they can come up with. They did have some cute cropped jackets though, I bought a faux linen one in brown for $28!
I then hit my all time fave Anthropologie and bought two over priced tops and debated heavily on a dress but decided to wait on the dress. I can’t find pics on their site to share with you, but trust me good stuff

Ok it’s February but it was almost 70 degrees here yesterday, glorious! Sorry East coast I know its still dumping Winter on you but I’m ready for warm weather and skirts! Here are some really cute wrap skirts from Made with Love by Hannah. According to Hannah she takes her inspiration from the German style skirt called a dirndl and being a little German girl myself I guess that explains why I an attracted to these skirts. I love her take on the traditional style. Really reasonable at $62 a pop too.

Here is a gorgeous spread from the color issue of House & Garden this month. This realm of blue is what I’m looking for to redo the chairs below. I love #11 a soft blue mohair and #12 in blue/grey leather which might be a whole new way to go. I like the camel color mixed in here as well, maybe I could do camel colored matching cushions. The possibilities are endless!

For my make believe anything is possible house, I would have these cool chairs I found over at Moss Online by Karim Rashid. I love the pink of course but they come in blue, white and green as well and they won’t completely break the bank ($195). They just make me smile

First of all I love the name of Lia Hoods website: Good Morning, Morning, it’s right up my alley in the cute name department and she uses vintage fabrics in bright colors which I generally find irresistible. Lia has a bunch of cute styles, like the bookbag tote and the gathered bag. Each item is one-of-a-kind which is cool, but a bummer if you fall in love with one and its sold out, so check carefully before ordering. The price is reasonable as well ($22-64).

If you need some home decor inspiration one of my frequent stops is The Home Port. I actually surprised myself by liking these sculptural antler’s made of basswood. They have some really cool table-top accessories like these busts and vases plus they have a great selection of unique lighting like these lotus chandeliers. Enjoy!

Some fashionable finds for a Monday morning. Le Train Bleu boutique is sort of Anthropologie with an edge and is one of my favorite spots for hard to find designers like Vena Cava, Erotokritos and Mint. They always have interesting shoe styles and if you check often enough they have great sales as well.

I just received word from Velocity Art and Design that Amy Ruppel and Matte Stephens have new work available! I want to get another Amy Ruppel so I have a pair but I really love Matte Stephens ladies with the bouffant hairdo’s. Affordable artwork this cute is hard to come by, what to do, what to do!? (Amy Ruppel is $270-$485, Matte Stephens $150-$465)

I managed to drag the hubs out for some house shopping on Saturday with a strict 2 hour deadline. My time ran out before we could hit the mother of all stores Home Depot, but we hit Bed Bath and Beyond, and an awesome furniture store Via Diva in San Rafael where we finally found the bookcases we’ve been searching for! Anyway now I want to add some knick knackery to the new bookcases so I went to Jonathan Adler’s fabo website. I have been a fan of his pottery since my art consulting days back in 2000 and I bought my first Adler menagerie pieces (2 fish) with my 2003 bonus. These are my four favorites from his menagerie collection and I’d like to buy one. What say you?

So in case you were wondering I finally bought some boots. The styles I had listed previously were either sold out or they didn’t have my size or they looked like crap-a-doodle-do when I tried them on. So I just bought these puppies from Zappos, they are Charles David so I figure they must be fairly nice. They arrive on Thursday, yeah!

I saw this poster on the cover of Domino mag last year and promptly ordered one (I bought the pink). I absolutely love it, but it’s HUGE! I haven’t been able to find a prefab frame that will fit it and if I have it framed to match the one on the Domino cover it will be MASSIVE. The hubs has already nixed the idea of putting it over our fireplace in the kitchen so it looks like our guests will have an enormous poster to contemplate when they sleep over in our guest room. You can buy the extra large limited edition poster for $30 at Village.

Me and the hubs are planning a little getaway in April or May to celebrate our 5 year wedding anniversary this year (yikes!). I would like to go back to Kauai and the Princeville where we spent our honeymoon but they have more than doubled their rates since 2002, nutty! So we’ll probably rent a condo instead. I want my biggest decisions of the day to be “where are we going to snorkel” and “which pretty dress or skirt shall I don?” Here are some faves in silk dupioni from Calypso.
P.S. If I were to get married over again, I would have dressed my BM’s in something like the long purple skirt with a simple top for my beach wedding, they might actually have worn the outfit again!