From Julie:

For the uninitiated, Piet Hein Eek is a Dutch designer celebrated for his use of scrap materials in creating compellingly naive, yet somehow refined and sophisticated, furniture. The prolific designer has added children’s pieces such as bunkbeds, high chairs, and wardrobes to his repertoire:

I am absolutely in love with the beautiful blockprint motifs and the rich colours. If you love a specific print, you can also shop by print...wow, now that is awesome:-)

Do check out Saffron Marigold to bring in that Indian luxury & elegance into your homes...

(images from Saffron Marigold.com)

It's as simple as soap and water. It's all you need for most outdoor furniture. You may want to ...pick up a power washer.

• Acrylic Cushions
• Resin Furniture - Resin furniture is easy to clean. Spray off dirt and grime and let dry. If there are scuff marks, use a gentle abrasive to remove. To remove mildew, follow the instructions above.
• Wicker -You can use a hose or pressure washer.
• Wrought Iron, Steel Frames & Aluminum -Use mild soap and water to clean.
• Fabric
• Umbrellas
• Wooden Furniture

The only maintenance we recommend for your teak furniture is occasional cleaning. This should be done with a mild soap (such as gentle hand cleaning soap) and warm water to preserve its natural elements.

Chat tables are new this year, says Jan Booth of Patioworld in Fresno. These tabletops are higher than coffee tables but lower than dining tables. "It's high enough that you can put a cup there, but it's not like sitting at a dining table," she says.

Mesh on metal or wood pieces: Patio pieces that have mesh-type material over metal or wood frames also are popular.

"You can lay a towel on it or go without a towel, and you can lie on it. You don't stick to (the mesh), and it's very comfortable. You don't lie there and get sweat on your back and tush."

Posted by Kerstin

During this important year (presidential election and all), I readily admit that I don't rush to the front page of the New York Times or the Washington Post each morning.

More than likely, I am flipping through party pictures on style.com or my new favorite: a weekly blog feature on New York magazine hilariously dissecting the latest "Top Chef" victim.

See the latest cooked turkey, Spike, below.

I plan to return each Thursday (the day after the Bravo show airs) to read through the silly commentary. After that, I will look through this and last season's archives.

It's frivolous. I am not learning a thing. But a girl needs to ease into the weekend.

Share your online guilty pleasure -- we won't tell your boss.

Posted by Bluelines

While the biggest music release of the season will be Coldplay's Viva La Vida, it's not exactly the kind of album that will prompt non-stop dancing and fun at your summer party.

For that, you will want something that moves and sways. Chuck Brown is a perfect good-time starter.

Known as the "Godfather of Go-Go" (a musical mix of funk, R&B, and hip-hop), Chuck is over 70 and still pumping out exuberant, swaggering songs.

You won't regret picking up a classic like "Do You Know What Time It Is" along with extra ice and bug candles.

What gets your party started?

I really went gaga over legendary magazine editor Mary Jane Pool's apartment that was featured in the March Domino. I thought it was such a beautiful mix of graceful antiques, 20th century pieces, and gorgeous fabrics and wallpaper. So, while I was reading Tiffany Taste(aka Table Settings of the Rich and Famous) the other day, I came across a chapter on Ms. Pool and her style of entertaining.

According to the book, Ms. Pool has a fondness for all things Venetian (this is confirmed by the Domino article, which notes that Pool has a decent sized collection of 18th and 19th c. painted Venetian antiques). For a summer lunch, Ms. Pool would likely start with a salad of shredded celery, mushrooms, Gruyère, white truffles, and a vinaigrette of olive oil and balsamic vinegar. The main course might be a pasta gratinée of green tagliarini, béchamel, prosciutto, and tomato. For dessert? Chocolate twigs or truffles, grapes, or strawberries accompanied by mandarin orange tea. Oh, and no wine- "nothing dangerous"- with lunch, only San Pellegrino. After all, when you're an editor of a magazine, you have to stay on your toes!

What I enjoyed most were the photos of Pool's Sutton Place apartment circa 1986. Author John Loring wrote that Pool "knows as much as anyone about the domestic pleasures that make life sweet." I wholeheartedly agree.


What a sumptuous mix of yellow satin curtains, yellow walls, and red satin(?) chairs. In fact, those chairs appear to be the same ones that were featured in Pool's Olympic Tower apartment, although at that time they were covered in orange cotton pique. The mirror is 18th c. Venetian. And notice the pedestal table, which Pool still owns today (see image of Pool at top). According to Tiffany Taste, the base is in the shape of a neoclassic Italian urn.


Another Venetian piece- this time an 18th c. painted commode. The tea service is Royal Berlin, and the silver Tiffany basket is filled with chocolate twigs.


Tiffany's classic "Chrysanthemum" flatware and "Nymphalidae" dessert plates adorn the table. Strawberries are nestled in a Tiffany sterling basket.

(Image at top of Pool- photographer Annie Schlechter)

It was back in December that she had first heard of her.  Ingrid Pullar.  Ingrid was  photographing a story that the New York Times was running on Marrakech.   No slouch, in addition to the New York Times, she had taken photographs for Time Magazine. 

The blogging girl took one look at Ingrid's portfolio and emailed her.  The email didn't have to go far- - only to Casablanca where the Swedish photographer had lived for years.   Ingrid was friendly, and they exchanged a number of emails and phone calls.

Life hadn't been easy for the blogging girl recently, and so she turned to Ingrid's photos for beauty therapy.  Then she thought that perhaps, just perhaps,  you might be in need of a little beauty therapy, too...

*

Picking Moroccan saffron.  The poetic spice culled from an equally poetic flower.....

A tagine, the ubiquitous Moroccan stew seen bubbling all around the city.  Cooked in a conical dish by the same name.  So delicious.

Moroccan roses in a hammam bowl......... Morocco has valleys filled with roses.  No wonder that Moroccan souks are filled with rose soap, rose cream, and rose oil, made fresh.

The editors considered all items in the "art of making" which include architecture, interior décor, home furnishings and gadgets.

Main Dining Room, Hospitality Design, May/June 2008, Photo by Mathjis Wessing

Ella Dining Room and Bar is at the top of my list of restaurants in Sacramento. So I was not surprised, but very pleased to see it in the latest Hospitality Design magazine as the winner of their "Hospitality Debut" Award.

Bar and Lounge

The interiors are a great indicator of what you can expect from the superb menu: unpretentious, but extremely well done California dishes with a creativity that doesn't get so out there, you are scratching your head in confusion. It is all about the food, not the "foam". The farmhouse family style tables encourage mingling. The creative use of lighting, the sophisticated color palette of soft greys and beige's, the natural olive branches all converge to give one the relaxed, and comfortable atmosphere to enjoy wonderful food and company.

Owner, Randall Selland and his wife Nancy Zimmer, have been creating top notch food for many years in their original exhibition restaurant, The Kitchen. This is their latest baby....and it is growing into the hottest dining spot in the valley.

The architects are Sacramento natives: Darryl Chinn Architects. The interiors were done by UXUS, Amsterdam.

Private Dining Room

Just another reason to visit "Sactown". Come, sit and enjoy!

this sunday, april 6th is the first day of the 2008 brooklyn fleamarket! i’m so thrilled to be a part of this fantastic community project, organized by the gang at brownstoner. every sunday from now till later this fall, a wonderful range of vendors will set up shop in ft. greene from 10am-5pm, rain or shine. in addition to a great collection of vintage sellers, clothing, food and accessories, i’ll be curating a section of the flea called the design*sponge collective. if you’re a reader of the site you’ll probably recognize the names of our vendors (artists like lena corwin (image above), sian keegan, wayne pate and many more) but it will be even more fun to recognize them in person! so if you’re in the nyc area this weekend please stop on by and say hi to these incredible artists. i’ll be out of town for this weekend but i’ll be back, manning the section, every weekend (or as many as humanly possible) for the rest of the summer. hope to see you there! a sampling of the incredible artists and products in the d*s collective are below. want to attend? click here for details.

[image above: bags and pillow by lena corwin]

[image above: bracelet by mollie dash]

[image above: fabric radishes by sian keegan]

[image above: there will be fabrics cut and sold by the yard from repro depot in the d*s collective]

[image above: reupholstered and refinished chairs from chairloom]

[image above: new coasters from sesame letterpress]

[image above: prints and tshirts from wayne pate at good shape design]

[image above: stationery from moontree letterpress]

[image above: tshirt from jezebel design (stationery will be available, too)]

[image above: photographs by john murphy]

[image above: cards and prints from foxy and winston]

I used to love shopping for stationery… But I swear the cash registers at Target and Trader Joe’s are the only places I check out in person anymore, mostly due to my 3-foot shopping companion, whose idea of fun is removing absolutely every product from the shelves. Trust me, this type of behavior is not conducive to picking out a belated birthday card. Then a few months ago, my favorite stationery designer Cheree Berry told me about Redstamp.com, an online boutique that truly mimics the go-to neighborhood stationery shop?where the owners source all the best current designers (Cheree, of course, plus Thomas Paul, Snow & Graham, Egg Press, Russell + Hazel, Night Owl Paper Goods and dozens more), and will actually talk to you in person if you have pressing questions (no 1-800 number here).

As busy moms and business women, the owners Erin and Renee understand that service is as important as style, and that’s where Redstamp soars in my book. You just can’t top their “send for you” service, where an anonymous someone with impeccable penmanship will hand-write, hand-address, and mail your cards for you. Definitely worth an extra $5 if that belated birthday card is at risk of hitting way-beyond-belated status. ? Megan K.

We couldn't find what we were looking for anywhere. We considered remodeling our tiny first home with a second story. We looked at an empty lot in our old beautiful neighborhood.

And then.....I took a different route to get some forgotten homework to my daughter's school by the dreaded due date ( I know....how will they learn...but sometimes you just do this kind of thing). And there she was. "FOR SALE BY OWNER" It was a sign. (Really... a sign). With my brakes screeching, I stopped and took down the number, raced to the school to drop off the homework, and got to work where I immediately called the number. Yes, it was for sale. Yes, it was well within our budget. Yes, I could see it on my lunch break. I arrived promptly at noon. I saw the inside. It was love. The possibilities crystallized in my mind, I phoned Mr. K and he saw it that evening. The rest is history.



We have been hard at work ever since creating the treasure we knew was here. You have seen the progress on the inside: the new kitchen, powder bath, family room and basement. We are still doing alot of fine tuning inside. But we have turned our sights to the outside. We want to get the plants in for the rainy season.

So this is our front yard. We have been digging....well by "we" I mean Mr. K......trenches for the new irrigation system. Have I told you all how very handy Mr. K is? Well, he used to be a landscaper during college. So we will soon be the proud owners of a new lawn after amending our hard-pan clay soil.

We took out three trees: one a diseased pear tree that blocked our path to the house, another, a type of oak that holds its dead leaves for a good 3-4 months out of the year after Fall, and the third was a large Persimmon tree. We did love the Persimmon tree, but it's roots were tearing up the porch, and the fruit would ripen to jam and plummet down onto our unsuspecting cars where in the Indian Summer heat would harden onto the paint jobs like glue. The neighbors were rejoicing, I kid you not. So.... this is the first time I could actually photograph the front of the house so you all could see it! We are replacing the Oak with an Elm like the rest on the street, and the Pear with a Dogwood a little closer to the house.

This is the right part of the front yard showing our planting beds and our front gate, which I love. There is a Gardenia on the right, and Flowering Quince to the left of the gate behind the Japanese maple. We put in Boxwoods at the back of the beds with ferns and hostas in front (very shady). In spring we add Coleus and Impatiens. Does it look like we are digging for gold?

This is a view of the new stair well leading to the basement. Having these French Doors at basement level completely changed the space from a "basement" to very nice living space. We now have a "view" of sorts. I am going to cover the wall with weeping fig and add some potted plants at the bottom of the well. The steps and pathways will be blue stone in an irregular rectangle pattern. We will have vertical plantings along the fence...something flowering I hope!

Just another view of the side showing how high the house is here. A garden along a skinny shady path like this will take some thought. Suggestions are always welcome!!!!!!!!!!

When we started to do the grading for the back yard drainage, we thought we really had struck gold! An undiscovered emperor's tomb perhaps, or ancient Indian burial site? And even though most people would find it very mundane, perhaps even a tiny bit "icky"....Mr. K and I were fascinated and were showing it off to all of the neighbors:

There was alot of careful craftsmanship put into this. Still stumped?.........It was the old septic tank. Our house was built in 1911, and all of the houses had septic tanks when they were first built. They have all long since been on the main sewer line. We are lucky that no one fell into this cavern during the remodel. It was filled in last week with gravel and dirt. We gave up on the idea of making it into a wine cave for obvious reasons.

On the side of the house, we have a bit of yard where Mr. K built the cutest potting shed and raised planter for vegetables. We were late for planting this year, but put in some herbs and peppers. Next year it's going to be full of tomatoes, zucchini and carrots. We put pea gravel in the paths last week. The lawn is new too. We will be planting the beds on either side in the coming months in time for the rain.

So, as much as I would love to find buried treasure....I think the treasure we make ourselves is perhaps the most satisfying. Thank you to my wonderful Mr. K who works so hard for us. I'll take your beautiful shed and garden over gold and diamonds any day!