Getting the Most out of Your Garden Roses

The Rose Chronicles or Getting the Most out of Your Garden Blooms:
1. Look out in utter disbelief that you have woken up to such an insane amount of blooms.
2. Think, "What did I do right?"
3. Pick and cut as many blossoms as possible (before the petals fall off in less than half an hour) and surround yourself with them in as many places as your abode has to offer.
4. Look at them constantly and think, "Oh you little guys. You little magical miracles."
5. Put your nose in their soft little blossom faces as often as possible and breathe deeply. Cliché sure, but let it be said: intoxicating, right?
6. Catch all the delicate velvety petals (which will fall off in the aforementioned half an hour) and scatter over your husband while he sleeps, throw in your bath water, save for your ice cream or make jam or use for this something delicious, (as long as you don't grow them with chemicals.)
7. Let them make you fee romantic. Suffer tiny heart pangs if you have to leave them for a few days. Appreciate them as fleeting jewels, inspirations, the kindest offerings you can give to yourself as they keep on coming to you and you stop. to. smell them...

*I both blame and thank P. and Marie for David Austin.

ICFF & Stationary Show Walkabout

card I love and the "sunprint" section from

the new book buy Christine, Yellow Owl Workshop
Must to buy this book asap.

Watery prettiness, a sneak peak of Linda & Harriet's new calendar

A hint of the new amazingly intelligent and gorgeous collection by SusyJack*

favorite calling cards from Set Editions

Bluff City lamps from Brooklyn based Roll & Hill.
These I will have, the perfect lamps for my newest Frenchie/seaside/early 60's interior project, TBA.

Really Love the Sky planters from Boskke at the ICFF

like a lyrical library/ butcher cart from akmd

new wall coverings from the gorgeous new collection from
eskayel. This will be mine.

Took a (six hour) walk through both the ICFF, the International Contemporary Furniture Fair and the National Stationary Show Sunday, with the very sweet Melissa of Melissa Loves fame and finally got to meet Vana (!) from Le Papier Studio, in town for the show. I was really inspired, not only by some of the incredibly creative and down-to-earth new industrial designs at the ICFF but by all of the talented and smart ladies I met at the Stationary Show. The hard work and beautiful products created by Breck from Sesame Letterpress, Susy from HeySusy* , friends I specifically came to see, was impressive as was the good conversations with all of the above.

Pictures above, my favorite picks from both shows.
I sense a theme?

P.S. I particularly loved meeting Christine from Yellow Owl Workshop, hoping she'll come and live with me for a while.

Oh and also take a look at the Bamako Collection by Katherine Ladd...love

Monday Dose of Inspiration: Mas de Pancho

from Pancho Tolchinsky's Folk Project

from the Sweet Gray Days project

from the 30km Away project

From the Feels Like Home project.
all photos courtesy of Pancho Tolchinsky

Hard to know where to start talking about why the photos of Pancho Tolchinsky inspire. Born in Mexico to an Argentine family, raised in Israel, he and his wife, artist Catalina Estrada, (originally from Medillín, Colombia), now live in Barcelona.

I'm thinking his background can partly explain the expansive world view I look at in each still moment in his photos, and somewhere in the magnificent, saturated colors and the beautiful mundane objects found in his projects from travels around the world, in each quiet moment he shouts a louder message of places and people and corners not often exposed, a melancholy with respectful purpose, the poetry of small far-off places and their private concerns. The impact of each sometimes difficult, always hopeful aspect of the everyday life of his subjects shines through in the things he notices with his camera. It's the unsentimental truth each of us carries in our navigation through our lives. His are photos that ask questions, that invite us to ask questions, photos that linger in memories, and are ones you can't forget.
Mas de todo...More of everything...

See his current projects and commercial work here. Own some here.

Design on a dime.

Hello, bonbons! It's Bee from The Lil Bee, and I'm honored to be your guest host. Like you, I come here for style inspiration—jewelry, design, photography...whatever Deb's got cooking on any particular day. So, I thought I would share with you some of the things that have inspired me in my quest to decorate my not-so-new home.

The first thing I did when we moved from NYC is search for wallpaper. Beautiful, lush, delicious wallpaper. It's inconceivable to put up wallpaper in a Manhattan rental, so for the last decade I coveted the stuff. Florals, toile, ikat, abstract, Baroque... you name it, I needed it.

But there was a problem. Wallpaper is... expensive! And you have to COMMIT to a particular STYLE for a long, long time! I chickened out. I humphed and pouted in frustration. And then... then I discovered the magic of decals.

So, for you, sweet bonbons, I present some of the most darling decals I've found, to date. They can instantly spruce up any space, and they're all quite affordable. Take a look...

Wouldn't laundry day be so much sweeter with a colorful clothing line?

A gorgeous design for a Sex And The City-worthy walk-in closet.

This pretty print* would be the perfect backdrop for reading a book and sipping hot tea.

Here's a stylish substitute to a pricey chandelier.

And for the little bebe...

...or la bambina.

I do hope these designs have inspired you, as well. Thanks for indulging me and have a wonderful day!

*via Belle Maison

A day in the life...

I was living out my now- daily dream this summer: I spent 3 weeks living in New York.
I used to live in NY, for about 10 years. And then I decided I needed a break. So, I took one.
All the way to San Francisco.
Turns out, that break has been too big.

I looooong for NY.
*********
It sounds like a "meeting":

Hi, I'm Molly, from A Little House in the Clouds, and I love New York.

Hiiiii, Molly!

***********
Coming back to live for a few weeks really has it's little perks. One of them being seeing people and things in a whole new way.

I first met Deb when my sister and I had a shop on Crosby Street. She was getting her Bonbon on and we always had a good time talking notions, beads and bits. Years later, we re-discovered each other through blog-land.

We met up this summer and it felt like hanging out with an old friend. Turns out, another perk, is doing the Union Square farmers market with someone who gets as excited by as you do. Deb and I laughed our way through the crowds as we stopped to ahhh & ohhh over the beautiful veggies, bread and vendors!
Ah, the little things.
There were other major perks while living in that big apple that I realize more and more as things change. Over lunch, Deb and I talked about craft and art and being an "artist" and having a hard time saying that word, and the craftsmen and women who are slowly being pushed out of New York (or anywhere for that matter--with time comes change, huge change). Back in the day, (my sister and I, for many years, having a manufacturing business) one of those great perks was like going back in time when you were really just going to a vendor's warehouse.

No longer there, but still doing business, was a place called Dulken & Derrick. It was a flower making, notion warehouse, if you will. They made flowers for everyone in the business (the Sex & The City girls) and everyone not in the business (Eleanor Roosevelt). In the family for years and years, with the old filing cabinets, peeling paint and dusty boxes to prove it, this place was an absolute find. The fact that, each time we came in, we were given access to every nook and cranny just made it all the more special. The final visit, I brought my camera and shot away.
Each petal was cut and curled according to flower type. To watch the whole system for a day was incredible.


Hundreds of old flower molds, shelves and shelves of them, faced this one little "machine". After the fabric was cut into the shape of the leaf or the petal, it was placed in a 2-part mold, cranked under the block for just a moment and pressed. It's a lost art.
The other constant vendor perk was Tinsel Trading. On the surface, a gorgeous shop with more than enough to look at. But, one day, after many, many years, Marcia finally let us into the basement. Tinsel Trading was her Grandfather's shop and we came across packages from 70 years ago that had never been opened. It was a diggers' dream! It was notion heaven! And it was a another piece of New York history that continues to blow my mind. Many times, I was as taken with the basement itself as I was with the metal ribbons and sequins.

to see lots, lots more feel free to flickr

(Someday, Deb, someone's going to come poking through your new workspace, your beautiful studio, and have the same glee as they pick thru your beads and baubles and watch you work!)