you've got something on your shirt

right....

there, on your collar, looks like you spilled a little penguin (or 50)

from a far it looks like a graphic pattern. but up close,

lots of little baby Emperor penguins playing in the snow white ice.

baby penguin shirt from tokyomade $45.00

ringing your hands

lovely little rings from blockpartypress at etsy. 12-15 dollars. how cute are these for a casual day in shorts and flip flops. sort of organic and very fun.

blue berries and brown gingham

lazy days of summer....

family slide show

i remember first reading about this little indie family vaudville group in the new yorker. it's comprised of dad, jason, mom, tina and daughter rachel.

several years ago, while living in seattle and running a dog walking business, dog-walking with Rachel, Tina found an old slide projector and a box of slides at an estate sale from a family trip in Japan during the year of 1959.

When Tina suggested to Jason that he use the slides in his music, Jason then wrote a song to accompany the slides. The song was titled "Mountain Trip To Japan, 1959"

the end result is this, kooky, catchy little act.

i have yet to see them in concert but would love to.

there's a post-modern-chinoiserie-l.a.-chic thing going on

and suzan fellman neatly packages it in her showroom of the same name (her name not the title of this post). fellman, a designer, here in l.a. has gathered collections of things that run the gamut from very cool vintage lamps, hand made items, great funky vintage stuff to a great collection of chinoiserie pieces.

i love the look of these old 'french' (i'm guessing) iron beds.

hand made silk scarf pillows. chairs my parents had on the patio...love these! they leave a wicked (and wicker) pattern on the back of your thighs though. these, deer? i so dig. one thing is certain, suzan has a blast on her buying trips! and because of it, we in the L.A. area get to benefit.

Check out the website if you're out of town: suzanfellman.com

or pop by if you live in the l.a. area suzan fellman showroom is at:

678 south cloverdale avenue, los angeles (that's the wilshire/labrea area) or phone them at 323-936-7759

minding your own business

JOHN KNEAPLER, originally uploaded by dailypoetics.

another great business card that i've always admired. a cute kid pic will always win. you think this guy gets a lot of play when he passes this out in the bars? um ya.

beach walls

i have a thing for good ,vintage nautical maps. i think they make splendid art. and just now, on my lunch hour, i did a little spin through the virtual racks at ebay. look at this one! it's fantastic. the vineyard. a nice black frame. bingo. ooh, and while we're at it. how about this little crab painting on an adjacent wall. (wait, didn't i see this in some ruthie sommer's room somewhere?) got it: see how great these guys look framed? cute eh? sort of a patina look -yellowed. well, no matter. i think these would be great in my little house by the sea. crab art painted by nancy westfall ruthie sommers room, courtesy of house beautiful 7/07

new product at shine

you've heard my glowing praise for shine's innovative lighting line (one of my, hands down faves) they now have a new line of occasional tables that are equally as lovely.

"the new pieces interweave Shine Home's signature use of shape, color and texture. The occasional tables feature intricate patterns of nail heads meticulously inlaid to create striking design elements. Coupled with sweeping curves and geometric angles, these tables bring a fresh look to one of today's decorating staples."

shine, of course, still offers a full line of elegant lamps

uno mas

uno mas before i get back to bin-ness...... delta. sigh. it's obvious, my feelings on this matter.

enough said.

the dominican republic is a fantastic place to visit. once there, the beauty of the country, the geniality of the people and the gorgeous ocean had me sucked in. simply beautiful. mid-day lightening storms gave way to hot, clear skies and balmy nights. great food, great conversation with friends long into the night, romps in the surf and on the surf, not very good shopping but lots of good eats and drinks. and forever great memories.

'adjustment of bertebrades'

surf school in the mango groves.

german surf instructor (on right) hey, marcus, if you're reading this, i owe you $20.00. sorry, couldn't find you before i left.

beautiful beach in cabarete. hundreds of kite surfers. they look just like butterflies (well, i mean if you squint)

beautiful people of sosua

back to reality!

donde está mi equipaje

thanks to the lovely and talented, koreana for allowing me to use her photo!

dear delta,

thank you for delivering me to my final destination with such an exciting yet unexpected itinerary! what a fun surprise that you decided to cancel my flight at 1:oo a.m. i guess you realized that i was the kind of girl that could lie cheek touching carpet at LAX. and, truly, atlanta IS a beautiful town. so thanks for forcing me to visit it.

but, boy, i'm sure glad that i didn't take you up on your free offer to stay at the holiday inn....ha! ha!

that was a funny joke! you know, how you made the rest of my fellow travelers show up at a completely full hotel, only to be turned away? super funny.

oh and how funny was it the way the one guy had security called on him because he was so irate. you slay me! i'm still wiping the tears on that. good one delta! (wink, snap, finger gun)

you know what was best? how in first class, you don't offer pillows and you just give a resounding: 'hell to the no!' when it comes to feeding a traveler.

let them eat 'sunchips' you say! and like it! so that was cool. i enjoyed that.

oh! and you know what else was really cool? the way that you lost my luggage on the way home. thumbs up. you guys rock. i kind of hope you get it back to me though. i sort of liked all of my clothes and shoes that you lost.

so, anyway, thanks again for being such a fabulous outfit. truly your mothers must be proud. if you see my luggage, it would be great if you could give me a call!

best,

bb8

i'm usually a size small

'tag' photo unwittingly contributed by flickr member callum finlay

upon arriving home late last night-baggage-less (more on this later-god love delta and all of it's total inadequacies) i've been 'tagged!" by two different fellow, bloggers, robyn @ gardenrooms and leah @ morewaystowastetime.

which in turn means i will keep the game going by passing the challenge on to 8 other "blog-eagues"

so here goes. 8 things you may or may not know about me.

1. i had a crush on abe lincoln in the 3rd grade, upon learning about his altruism (i may still have a teensy crush) .
2. i skipped the first grade
3. i'm too pragmatic to believe in 'magic' and "luck" but every wish i've made on a shooting star has come true. go figure.
4. i can't remember a string of numbers so, instead i assign a letter to each, to create a word.
5. in junior high, i had a HUGE crush on andrew jackson's visage on the 20 dollar bill (what? you'll never see a 20 the same way again.seriously, he is sort of hot.)
6. i wanted to be a veterinarian but chose a collegiate social life over academia. plus it was much easier to illustrate, than to memorize periodic tables.
7. i have a B.F.A. in illustration, but am not inspired by my abilities and so don't illustrate too much these days.
8. i am the mother of 2 little girls who are my raison d'etre.

and so in accordance to the rules, i shall send this challenge along to my following blog-eagues. (a few won't know me from adam)

thank you for choosing delta...

i hate to bring you into my personal life. but getting this trip going, was a bit of a bear. arriving at LAX at 11:00 p.m., to take a red eye to atlanta found us re-routed and sleeping on the floor until boarding time at 3:30 a.m. (3 hours later than originally planned) which meant, missing our connection in atlanta. did you know that there are a lot of agro people and crying babies in the airport at that time in the morning? ya. there are. also, apparently this is when the celebs fly-out..... as there were a few, with the throngs of papparazzi in tow (you can find those shots in the magazines at the grocery store) but that guy at the very end ( below picture) white shirt... is someone named 'patrick dempsey' (no idea who that is) also, not to be a hater, but delta has some sort of angry people working for them. thankfully, 2 days later, we made it. and btw, atlanta is a very cool place.

dominicans have good cans too

with all due respect to this, truly beautiful country..... i bring you some merchandise from the local supermercado. finding beauty in the mundane is such an importance in life.

dialed up

PICT9985, originally uploaded by i_love_kaernten.

guess what, there is internet here. but it's spotty. and it's dial-up. remember that? good times. i can, very, occasionally get on-line. which is really probably a good thing. but i'm determined to bring you the best of design that the D.R. has to offer.

now i just need to figure out how to get invited to oscar de la renta's manse.