Domino: The Book of Decorating Giveaway

The design community is still mourning the demise of Domino, a great shelter magazine, but Domino: The Book of Decorating lives on! Simon & Schuster sent me 2 copies to giveaway to my readers. Lucky you! The book is filled with decorating tips and tricks as well as great pictures of amazing interiors, of course. And with such a pretty cover, who wouldn't want it as a nice coffee table book? So post a comment here if you want a chance to win! I'll draw the names at random, and I'll announce the 2 lucky winners on Thursday (April 2nd) at 12 noon PST when I'll be announcing another fun giveaway.

My (bad?) Taste

I went to the thrift store earlier this week and got a few great things. What's wrong with me that I like this lamb sweater and these lightning bolt style 80s shoes equally as much? I think I have strange taste. Or maybe just bad taste! The shoes went into my etsy shop, and I think they are really fun. But I'm keeping that goofy sweater, which to me runs into decorative Christmas sweater territory, but I just love those little sheep, baaaa. I also got this great bag, which has a really cool design and interior. The handles are coming apart though, so I have to see if I can get them repaired. I thought this one was worth trying to save. Hopefully I'll get it fixed soon and list it in my etsy shop.


PS. Just about everything at the Salvation Army on Valencia Street is 50% off tomorrow (Saturday 3/28), including all women's clothes (but not shoes or red tag clothes). So if your a thrifter and in SF you might want to go!

Inspiration From My Desktop

I keep an eye candy folder on my desktop of random pictures of things that I like. Some decorating things, some craft things, some fun kid things--all pretty pictures. I've saved them from blogs and other web sites here and there, but unfortunately I don't remember where they all came from. Sorry about that! But I can remember where I saw a few of them. The one above I saw on Brown Button and is from Family Lifestyle Home. The image just below is from SFgirlbybay. I remember that one because I have a crush on Rico and because Victoria named my lady Stella. I was thinking about the paintings I brought home from Switzerland and how much I'm always drawn to floral paintings and lady portraits--they get me every time. I'm always drawn to interiors that have oil paintings of flowers or ladies. Why that is, I have no idea. Guess there's no reason to question it though. Here are a few of my favorite pictures from my inspiration folder.

Thrush

Lately I've been trying to decide if I want to get a dress form to shoot my clothes for my etsy shop or just model them myself and have Andrew take the pictures. Recently I noticed that one of my favorite vintage etsy sellers, Anne from Thrush, is using models instead of a dress form now, and I love all of her new pictures. All of the models look great, but I'm especially drawn to this girl. How amazing is she? I have a girl crush. Everything looks so good on her and makes me want to shop! Don't you have a crush on Thrush now too after seeing these?

Marin Farmer's Market

We're back home in San Francisco now, yippe! Home. Our bed, our stuff, our favorite restaurants and places, etc. We had a great time during our European adventure, but it's great to be home. This week I've spent most of my time unpacking and going through our ridiculously huge pile of mail. In between the unpacking and mail opening and errand running, while Lois naps, I've also been updating my etsy with a bunch of fun stuff. I took a lot of the pictures in Zurich (of things I bought there), so it's been pretty easy to post a bunch of things. Today we got back in the swing of our usual routine and went to the farmer's market. Normally we go to the Alemany Farmer's Market, but we didn't end up getting over there yesterday, so today instead we went to the Marin Farmer's Market at the Civic Center there. We've been to this market a few times and really like it a lot. It's a bit pricey, but they have a lot of good produce, and a number of vendors have delicious prepared foods, like the roasted chicken below. You could smell the roasting chicken from the parking lot. Yum.




On our way, after we crossed the bridge, we saw a rainbow! A reminder of why it's always a good idea to bring the camera. You never know when you'll see something extra special like a rainbow.

This rainbow was especially spectacular because it made a full arch and there was a second rainbow right next to it (though that one was more subtle). You can just barely make out the second one to the right of the one above.

It was so pretty!

Alsace

For our last weekend in Switzerland, we decided to take the train to Alsace, France. Above is a little collage of some of our pictures. Thanks to Caroline for showing me how to do that! (I've only been meaning to learn for forever.) Alsace has a long history with German roots, which you can see in the style of architecture throughout the region. The town we stayed in, Ribeauvillé, was so darn cute that it looked a little bit like a theme park at Disney, only this was the real thing. The scenery was beautiful, and the wine and food delicious. We stayed at a nice hotel on a hill that provided an amazing view. We also had a terrific dinner at the hotel restaurant (with Lois sleeping soundly in the car seat next to us). We had an equally great lunch at Zum Pfifferhus. It was a great way to spend our last weekend in Europe, and we look forward to going back!

I left my heart in Alsace! Really, though, we did have one of these little tarts and it was sooo good!

Above is a Kugelhopf, which we didn't have, but the area is known for them. It's a type of cake or sweetened bread. Just ask MyKugelhopf, she'll tell you!

A real castle on a hill! We saw quite a few castles on hills.

The view from our room. It might be hard to tell since it's not quite spring there yet, but the hills were covered in grape vines.

The sky looked pretty.

Lois and Andrew had a great time. Here they are on our patio checking out the great view. See you next time Alsace!

Going Home

This past weekend we went to Alsace, France for our last weekend getaway. It was beautiful and we had a great time. I'll post pictures of Alsace and a few more from Zurich when we get home. We leave later today to start our journey home. We fly to London tonight then San Francisco Tuesday morning. Time to get packing!

Bracki Bags

Yesterday on the way home from the grocery store Lois and I strolled into the Bracki just for a fun peek. It's conveniently right next to the grocery store, which is conveniently right down the street from us. Holy handbag heaven! I went to the purse section just to see if anything was new from last week and they must have unloaded a truck of just handbags. Me and two other girls were giggling in the bag isle for about 10 minutes. They speak German (or Swiss German, I guess) and I speak English, but yesterday we spoke the same language, mostly in giddy ooohhhs and ahhhhs over sassy handbags. I tend to use the same old, plain old purses for myself, but like fun costume jewelry that I don't really wear either, I just love handbags. Here are a few that I bought to sell in my etsy shop when I get back. I also took some more pictures at the Bracki with my phone. I just have to decide which of the 50 or so pictures to post.

I love this burgundy bag. I found a few bags of this same brand. I think the logo is pretty interesting--an "A" with a star. Does anyone know what this brand is? I can't find any info when trying to search for it online.

My friend Connie emailed me to suggest that it might be a vintage Etienne Aigner bag. It reminded me of just their bags when I saw it, but I don't know that they ever had a logo other than the big horseshoe looking "A" . . . hmm.

5 Month Birthday

Lois turned 5 months yesterday! As usual we had our birthday photo shoot. This time, though, I wasn't sure what to put on her for her birthday. She's already worn all the cute outfits I brought with us in other pictures and birthday shoots. So we tried a few different things, including her pink bear jacket and a hat Andrew bought for her at Laku (one of my top favorite San Francisco shops). The hat isn't especially girly because of the colors, but I love it, and she looks so cute in it even if people might think she's a boy when they see her in it. Here are a few of my favorite pictures. It's so hard to pick just a few! Her most recent pastimes are yelling and sticking out her tongue.






She doesn't always like these little photo shoots, you know.

Zurich: Kanzlei Flea Market Take 3

Today is Lois' 5 month birthday! I can't believe it--5 months already! We've had a great birthday so far and plan to have our little birthday photo shoot later today (I'll post those pictures tomorrow). This morning we met Kerrin of MyKugelhopf at the Bürkliplatz farmer's market. What a treat! I took a few pictures at the market and will post those later this week too. In the meantime, on Saturday before we went to Uetliberg, I went to the Kanzlei Flea Market. This time I decided that I needed to focus on small stuff if I bought anything at all. I think I've reached packing capacity with my treasures so far. I may have to ship a few things though I'm trying to avoid it. Here are a few pictures from the flea market.






Did I mention that there's food at this flea market? Nothing like food (and a bathroom, which is nearby too) to keep a girl shopping.

Below is what I came home with--a black apple and some fun costume jewelry. I spotted this black apple the week before and wanted to ask the price but the vendor was in a heated argument in Italian with some other guy. This weekend I saw it first thing and went straight to his table. Again, he was in a heated argument with someone! This time I just stood there politely and held up the apple until he noticed me then I asked the price. This time I left with the black apple. I love it. I'm not sure how I'll part with it, but I bought it to sell in my etsy shop. I see brass and silver apples often, but have never seen a black one. And it reminds me of Emily of The Black Apple and her cute fashion blog.

Here's the apple with the jewelry I bought--a silver and diamond crown pendant, a bone heart ring, a glass heart pendant, a silver heart pendant (am I into hearts lately?), a lucite and diamond ring, and a silver leaf necklace.
A shiny black apple!

A pretty leaf necklace (that needs polishing).

And a modern lucite and diamond ring (well, I'm not totally sure it's lucite, but something like it).