GOL!

"GOL! That's "giggle out loud" for those not into leeks."

oops, i did it again

oooh. there are more grown up melamine plates at elsewares. search keyword melamine if the link doesn't work.

oops

you know melamine? the kind of hard resin plates that are a much better option for those of us that find "unbreakable" corelle plates aren't as unbreakable as they claim? well, they're usually available only in solid colors or kiddie patterns. but i came across these and they're so pretty! and so grown up. i think i might pick up a set. designed by bongenre.com, available in the bay area at nest and a bunch of other places.

that's cool. that's cool

i had so much stuff going on yesterday and then earlier this morning i thought to myself, oh my gosh it's tuesday, i totally forgot about checking fourfour! but weird thing, the recap wasn't even posted until today. so yay!

oh that dionne, she never fails to crack me up.

jackson square extension

there are a couple fairly new (within the past year or two) stores on the very outer fringe of jackson square. and they're really cute. i'm not talking about glamour closet because everyone already knows about that place. actually, i remember walking by that store maybe a week right before daily candy wrote about them. yea, that made me feel special for a whole second.

anyway, i'm talking about area and eden & eden. yea, i'm sure tons of people know about these two shops too, but they're still worth mentioning. they're only a block or so away from dwr and about the same from kartell.

area is a very stylish home and garden store. i think the owner has been there (with a smile and warm greeting) every single time i've walked into the shop. which is pretty cool, especially if you want to ask about any particular piece (i hear he hand picks each item in the store). i'd call the place a high end restoration hardware. but "high end" as in high style, because the prices aren't totally ridiculous. here are a couple items that stood out to me. i guess i was in a white/gray mood.

a few tabletop items. i really liked these geometric laser-cut placemats.

and the story behind these intricate frames is that the artist supposedly found an old frame in his brother's attic and liked it so much that he casted a mold out of it.

just two doors down is eden & eden. i could have taken dozens of pictures in here because everything was just so pretty and unique. but i felt kind of awkward since i was only one of three or so patrons in there. anyway, they have home accessories, clothing from ivana helsinki (a finnish designer), paper goods, jewelry and just a bunch of cool stuff. so i'd call the place an indie anthropologie but on the fresher side (as opposed to shabby chic).

you can see part of a plate on the upper edge of the photo. there were a bunch of these neat plates with line drawings of architecture. much cooler in person.

you can definitely spend a whole sunny afternoon in this area, visiting eden & eden, area, dwr, kartell and all the art galleries and antique shops in between (provided that they're open). and maybe grabbing a lunch at the ferry building. yea, sounds like a total hipster day.

hello miss lapin

so i spent yesterday reading up on, well, what everyone else was reading.

i also spent some time sifting through tons of blogs and added a few new good ones to the links sidebar (only like 10% of what i actually looked). and i wanted to post a hilarious picture from one of them, but i can't seem to track it down now. i even did a quick click and scroll through my history, but can't locate it. oh well, it's an old joke now anyway (a drawing of an LV purse in the shape of madonna's malawi baby, captioned as "hollywood's hot new accessory")

anyway, as i was scrolling through absolutely beautiful things, i came across fifi lapin! i can't believe i missed her yesterday! so glad i revisted the site.

she's the cutest and most clever bunny ever! the artist even does private commissions at no extra cost, so now all i have to do is figure out my favorite outfit!! oh, and she has a stalker too. too funny!

a t-shirt?!

dionne continues to crack me up. natasha too but not as much.

the way you're making me wait ... you're teasing me

so this is kind of a repeat from monday. but i am so all over these shoes by miu miu. and i'm totally surprised because i've never liked miu miu before.

oh man, they better have them in my size. and i mean they better! oh, and they better be comfortable. seriously, not even kidding.

fresh fresh exciting

jt wanted to grab some sugar lychee parfum from fresh, but we decided it smelled a little too syrupy. like the syrup that canned lychees sit in. just too sweet.

so she started to test all the bottles sitting along the back testing station. and the winner was ... pear cassis! too bad it's discontinued (she actually snagged the last bottle). but 100mL should last a while.

anyway, while she was testing scents, i decided to walk around a bit and smell the soaps. verbena and vanilla smelled pleasant, as expected. patchouli was sitting among the bunch. ick but i smelled it anyway, and ick. and then there was hesperides.

what an odd name. hesperides. and the wrapping was a dark teal. not very appealing on the surface but i gave it a big whiff and wow! nicely fresh and pleasant. a mix of lemon, orange and grapefruit top notes; bergamot, lotus flower and jasmine middle notes; and rhubarb, musk and peach at the base. too bad they don't make it in candle form.

it's now right up there with my penhaligon's and diptyque favorites. which are rather similar, unsurprisingly.

diptyque's oyedo is described as "citrus fruits and thyme on a ground of woody scents," while penhaligon's quercus is layered with cardamom, galbanum, lime, bergamot, lemon and mandarin on top; jasmine and muguet in the middle; and sandalwood, treemoss and musk as the base notes.

wholahay!

wholahay/brown/dionne's stock is definitely going up. and brit(tany)'s is taking a serious hit.

shopping: not a spectator sport

and there continues to be some serious ugly going on for fall 2007 accessories. i won't even torture you with images here.

but, fortunately, one style seems to be making a noticeable comeback: the spectator shoe (specifically wingtip detailing)! it's like they knew i blew out the heel on my vaurigards! i'm excited! looks like i'll have plenty to choose from ...

( alexandra neel ... derek lam ... giorgio armani ... ... gucci ... miu miu ... miu miu again )

i'm really feeling the miu miu options. haven't decided how i feel about the superfluous ruffle though.

dang, that's one hot dress

i was just killing some time before my flight, so i decided to catch up on the stack of catalogs piled up in the living room. i picked up the "garden of delights" mini-catalog from neimans and looked at the cover and said, "dang, that's one hot dress ... but wait a minute, it looks eerily familiar"

here's the dress from the cover, along with a sketch and the resulting custom made dress from my spring 1999 "collection"

sure, the construction and execution of the neimans dress is way better than mine, but seriously, it's not like i knew what i was doing back then.

anyone know whose dress that is on the cover?

yay for spring!

it's spring. did you hear? apparently no one told the guy i saw yesterday. he was wearing a green crewneck sweatshirt with snowmen on it. maybe it was laundry day?

anyway, here are some details i'm currently digging for spring ...

and here are some spring trends that you can be sure will elicit a signature dirty look or scoff from me if i see it on you (don't be a fashion victim. just don't) ...

turbans for fashion? belts so big you can't even sit comfortably? ridiculously chunky shoes? lucite heels so you can look like a stripper?

oh man, i'm so expecting at least one of these from someone i know

wahhh!!!

oh no! shoewawa just wrote about the shoes i've been eyeing for like the past five months! they were supposed to be my secret shoes! but that's ok, because most people will think they're ugly or old-looking. but i like what i like.

i've been keeping an eye out for similar shoes (since i find loubies to be rather uncomfortable) but to no avail. maybe i'll have to give these a try and hope they aren't as unwearable as the other ones i've tried. doubtful though, at 4-3/4".

and the coloring looks different ... i'll definitely have to check it out in person.

meow!

natasha says: "fourfour antm commentary is up!"