One of my loyal readers, Molly, bartered with a friend of hers for this antique cabinet. Only Molly could have seen beneath its layers of chipped paint and cruddy wheels to see that this was a gem in the making. After coating it in polished black paint she used Snow & Graham paper to give it a pop of color for the finishing touch.  This is just the inspiration I needed to give my old bakers cabinet a much needed face-lift - stay tuned for that! You can purchase Snow& Graham paper through Paper Mojo.

I way overbooked myself this past weekend and now I’m paying for it with a crappy head cold. Friday night was Phil & Friends at the Warfield, so long Bill Graham it’s been a great run. Then Saturday was spent gardening and cleaning house. Saturday night was dinner with friends at the new Cavallo Point restaurant Murray Circle. The consensus was that it was overpriced for the small portions but the food was delicious (out of this world butterscotch dessert), still it’s hard to recommend a place that leaves you wanting a slice of pizza because you’re still hungry. Sunday a.m. we were up and at em to watch Bay to Breakers which was by far the best people watching experience of my life, well except for the Castro during Halloween. Then it was off to Home Depot and more gardening. I hate that I’m sick now but it was all worth it.

Now on to some pretty things worth sharing. Brocade Home has all sorts of lovely boudoir items to shabby chic-ify your home. My favorite is this green bed frame for a fairly reasonable $399. They have a great selection of feminine laser cut furniture and colored chandeliers. I love this tufted lounge chair in my favorite shade of blue/grey, I feel better just looking at it.

As kids, Haley and I used to escape to the backyard apple tree to hideout and make up songs or whisper swear words to each other over and over thinking that if we got them all out at once, we’d never swear again. True story: once after saying s**t Haley went and washed her own mouth out with soap and then told my Mom!

I’m too cautious now to go climb a tree so I’ll have to satisfy myself with a more grown up hideaway from Cocktail UK. The teepee swing would have been perfect for us as kids, we would have filled it with all of our stuffed animals and books. Nowadays I could sit happily in the GLOBO swing seat and swear away until my hearts content - no soap included.

Needs some inspiration for reupholstering your Sunday Flea Market finds? Head over to the incredible Lotus Bleu for designer Jeannie Fraise’s boldly reupholstered vintage furniture. Jeannie travels annually to France and Southeast Asia to gather her beautiful fabrics for custom upholstery, cushions and curtains. I’ve got my eye on some bedding from India and I’m definitely filing this place away for my next upholstery project. Bonus for me, Jeannie’s store is in San Francisco!

One of the things I miss the most about our years living in San Francisco was meandering home from work, up and over the hills, to our apartment below Russian Hill. I loved the discovery of a new boutique on Polk, taking a peek at the menu for the latest hipster restaurant on Hayes or stopping into a little sweet shop on Union for a before dinner treat. So last week I came up with a plan. The hubs and I commute home together, so instead of waiting around for him I decided to get a head start and walk in the general direction of the Golden Gate Bridge and he could pick me up wherever I ended up.

This plan led to the best SF discovery I’ve had in awhile, the design boutique Eden & Eden! As soon as I turned the enormous antique doorknob to enter I felt a wave of awe fill my soul. I was like a kid in a candy store, oohing and awing over the ferm Living wallpaper, the stunning Ivana Helsinki clothing and bags, colorful Antoni & Alison cashmere sweaters and my new favorite, People Will Always Need Plates witty mugs and of course plates. The shop has a real international vibe, due to owner Rachel’s British beginnings. There are items from Denmark, Finland and the UK all displayed with the sophisticated eye of a curator. On the Eden & Eden website they have made a select few goodies available for purchase which gives a sense of the diversity and the quirky personality of the shop. Rachel could not have been more kind or easy to talk to, in fact I think I talked her ear off!

If you like what you see at the shop, Rachel and Christiane from ferm Living have joined forces to offer design consulting. I would love to hire an interior designer but have often been intimidated by the thought that a designers taste might take over and my home wouldn’t feel like mine anymore. I was happy to hear Rachel talk about their low-key design services, often reusing items you already own to revise a room or an entire house. It is truly a pleasure to visit this unique boutique, if you live in San Francisco or come visit don’t miss Eden & Eden! Located at 560 Jackson Street at the base of Columbus Ave in North Beach.

Here are some snaps Rachel graciously allowed me to take on my last visit.

I was recently hired as a freelance blogger for a new eco-blog called EcoSalon.com. At EcoSalon I will be covering artisan, decor and fashion items, similar to the things you find here at Little Willow but with an eco-edge. The thing that sets EcoSalon apart is its authenticity. It’s real people sharing how to live an eco-friendly lifestyle without being preachy or crunchy. For example you can find out how to properly wash a pillow (which I am doing as I write this), where to buy stunning recycled glass carafes made from broken windshields or how to get a healthy high from herbal espresso. I am really excited for this opportunity to contribute to the rainbow of “green” knowledge available to women! Feel free to send me suggestions and if my Editor approves, (yes people I have an Editor now, it’s the big time), we’ll write about it!

We had an amazing weekend here in the Bay Area and I did bad things to my skin all in the name of a Vitamin D deficiency. George and I spent some QT on the deck in our old and uncomfortable deck chairs, and we both believe we need some new chairs. I did some searching and found Pedlars UK, now my latest obsession for miscellaneous items. It’s a family run biz with a great selection of unique products with an eye on the environmentally friendly aspect of “things”. I love these deck chairs ($250 each) with hand-printed weatherproof canvas in your pattern choice of “pigeon and jelly” or “rabbit and cabbage”. Get lost here…

I thought I’d share a picture of my chair living happily in our book nook. Maglie made a pillow for me out of the extra pinwheel fabric and gave it that finishing touch.

I adore the latest Amy Butler pattern for her Gum Drop Pillow, seen on blogger Yvestown, who made her own, below.

Maglie get your sewing machine out, cause once I buy some fabric from the neat-o Japanese fabric spot SuperBuzzy, we’re making a pouf!

Yvestown’s Gum Drop

Check out one of Maglie’s latest creations

I would marry these lamps that’s how much I love them. Another fabulous Bodie and Frou find. Made by textile artist and ceramic designer Flavia Del Pra you can see the influence of her Brazilian roots in the colors and patterns. Each lamp is one of a kind, so it’s kinda of like a collectors item, so $450 is totally justifiable!

I wish I had the courage to go hog wild and decorate the house completely modern but I don’t know if I could live with it for very long, plus the hubs would hate it. If he had his way the house would be an ode to his Irish heritage with lots of wool, Celtic symbols and plaques with Irish ditties. Anyway back to the reason for this post…I really like these modern tables and lamps by Kartell Panier all made of polyethylene, which you can purchase online at Unica Home.

Here’s an inspiring artist for you: Jessica Gonacha from Boulder, CO. Jessica creates organic collage style paintings with oil, acrylic and glitter, some on masonite and some on paper. They have an Art Nouveau/Gustav Klimt vibe that I really like. She also creates paintings on top of tables made of steel. Her paintings and furniture are available in many sizes, paintings start at $450. You can contact her through her website or check out her Etsy shop.

We had 12 friends over for dinner on Friday night and I realized I had a serious shortage of places for everyone to sit. We have an enormous coffee table that everyone can sit around so something short would be ideal. I am checking out these Moroccan poufs over at Authentic Morocco. They are $64.99 and I could steal my friend Maglie’s idea and stuff it with my old clothes!

Anthropologie has this gorgeous handmade needlepoint ottoman but at $348 it’s not really an option.

I just found this cool company Zafu Designs, they make meditation gear that would make nice seating. I could use a daily meditation practice, so these could serve more than one purpose and at $49, they’re reasonable. They also carry yoga gear and their pillows come it lots of colors.

So we have a 50’s ranch house and I have this fantasy of remodeling the kitchen with a 50’s theme, much to the hubs chagrine (he thinks it would hurt the resale value). This may be partly because I started reading the amazing magazine Atomic Ranch for mid-century home owners and they had an ad for these candy colored 50’s style appliances by Elmira Stove Works. They carry refrigerators, ranges, hoods and dishwasher faces. I like the idea of something that looks old but is completely modern and new, plus it would just be fun to have that much color in your kitchen.

Ona is a Lithuanian website with an amazing line of products by artists and designers from, you guessed it, Lithuania. I really like these laser cut tables and lamps. This is a good site to shop around for a unique gift for someone.

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

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!