Needs some inspiration for reupholstering your Sunday Flea Market finds? Head over to the incredible Lotus Bleu for designer Jeannie Fraise’s boldly reupholstered vintage furniture. Jeannie travels annually to France and Southeast Asia to gather her beautiful fabrics for custom upholstery, cushions and curtains. I’ve got my eye on some bedding from India and I’m definitely filing this place away for my next upholstery project. Bonus for me, Jeannie’s store is in San Francisco!

While I’m on the subject of type-art, check out these fun and funky typographic rugs from Sweden based John Pour Home. Made from felt and cut by hand they are available in several bold and bright colors with pre-fab sayings or you can customize your own. I’d like a big fat M for our last name for the entry or maybe 1973, the year we were born for the kitchen floor. What’s that noise, oh yeah the hubs saying NO, *sigh*.

I’ve been meaning to write about artist Jessica Gonacha’s newest work for a couple of weeks. Inspired by her love of “type-art”, Jessica’s latest experiment are these sweet gocco prints that provide a little reminder some of us need everyday. At $7 how can you not buy one for yourself or someone you love (this would be a perfect belated Mother’s Day Gift!). I have a certain very special and very LOVED relative who might benefit from her “You Are So Loved” print today. Check out Jessica’s Etsy shop or her fun blog Treasuring for more inspiration.

This baby sling from Serena & Lily is on my someday-baby wish list. I love the simple snap design and the pretty embroidery. It will be available in June but you can pre-order one of the three sizes now for $129.00.

Also peeped in Domino this month, Carolina Irving Textiles! Her gorgeous patterns are hand-printed on 100% hemp and have a casual Indian vibe. I definitely need to hit some flea markets for a hidden gem to upholster with these beauties. The Peak of Chic, another obsessed fan, wrote a post on how to find these fabrics until Carolina’s website is more complete. If you live in LA, you can find her prints at Hollywood At Home. (LA friends we’re going there on my next visit).

This has nothing to do with anything, except that it’s awesome! Delta has a new seat design, The Cozy Suite. I love the staggered design and the wrap around head, plus the extra 2 inches of leg room. With the cost of airfare getting higher and with fewer and fewer options for customers, I’m glad to hear about an airline making upgrades like this for passenger comfort. I guess the only downside would be if you luck out with your own row you wouldn’t have the luxury of stretching out. At this time they are only slated for International coach flights but if you plan to travel abroad, look for them in 2010.

(via Wired)

I spotted ceramic artist Mae Mougin’s hand made porcelain pieces in the most recent Domino and quickly added her monogrammed plates to my wish list. Summering in the Hampton’s? Yeah me neither, but if you were, you can find Mae working out of her Southampton converted garage/art studio making her whimsical and homey designs. Most of her items are available on commission. Check out her website on how to contact her directly to create your next family heirloom. Aren’t these child plates the sweetest!

I love bead shops. I love the millions of colors and the various textures and shapes of beads. I like the shiny glass beads, the smooth stones and the exotic names like amazonite, carnellian and tourmaline.

So it was easy for me to fall in love with Keri Starker’s Kayla Designs, a sophisticated collection of one-of-a-kind hand-beaded necklaces. With an elegant boho vibe Keri’s designs combine rare and unusual beads and stones that she has collected over the last fifteens years of traveling the world. Her passion for travel and individuality clearly inspire her chic designs. You can email Keri directly to purchase any one of her designs or for custom orders. If you live in the NY area she is also available for an intimate trunk show where you and your girlfriends can try on her designs and shop in your own living room.

Back to blogging, good causes and Mother’s Day. The always delightful jewelry designer Amy Bengtson is donating a portion of her jewelry sales to the Breast Cancer Three Day Walk during the month of May. In honor of Mother’s Day buy your Mom a sweet piece from Amy and a generous 20% will go towards the fight against breast cancer. Or treat yourself anytime this month!

Wow, we had a blast! There is truly no place like New Orleans, especially during Jazz Fest! We saw more music than I can remember. Not only did we have an incredibly talented and diverse musical smorgasbord to choose from at the festival but then at night we had a huge selection of music at the clubs. Standouts from the festival were Kermit Ruffins, Widespread Panic, the all female brass band The Pinettes, John Butler Trio (blew me away!), Stevie Wonder and local SF fave Michale Franti & Spearhead.

At night, The Howlin Wolf became home base mostly because the fierce musical showdowns they hosted every night. We saw a mash-up of musicians including Marco Benevento, Stanton Moore, Garage-A-Trois, Russell Batiste, Karl Denson, Paige McConnell and DJ Logic. We caught the late night show at the House of Blues - when I say late night I mean Greyboy Allstars didn’t take the stage until 2AM! We boogied to The Lee Boys at Chickie Wah Wah’s and lastly caught Galactic at Tipitina’s, a legendary music venue where my feet ached from dancing in flip flops for three days.

I made sure to hit Cafe Du Monde for amazing beignets and we grabbed a late night pulled pork po’boy that knocked my flops off. We dove right into a steaming hot bowl of crawfish Monica at the fairgrounds and ate our weight in gumbo. We didn’t tour around too much but we did spend time in the French Quarter - but avoided Bourbon Street, too many tourists in tacky t-shirts. One of our best meals of the trip was at the memorable Tujaques. The place is so old school, set menu, best Pimm’s cup in town, tons of celebrity photo’s on the wall, not a waiter under 45 years old. We couldn’t resist our own photo with the chef - hey Tubbs and Crockett were proudly featured, why not us!

New Orleans is still a beautiful city despite the wreckage Katrina brought. The people were really warm, the food is incredible, the music is like nowhere else on earth and the spirit of the city is very much alive. I can’t recommend enough a trip down there. We are definitely going back, there is still so much I need to see….and eat!

Forgive me if I am a little distracted today but we leave for Jazz Fest in New Orleans tomorrow and I am so excited I can’t focus! I’m looking forward to soaking up the New Orleans vibe, hearing some funky beats and gobbling up some tasty treats!

Things I want to see, eat and hear in no particular order:

Stevie Wonder, Crawfish Monica, Kermit Ruffins, Beignets, Po’boys, Muffuletta Sandwich, John Butler Trio, The Gospel Tent and maybe this guy! If you have any suggestions for a New Orleans newbie please comment!

(thanks to photographer Monica L. Shulman for letting me use your photo’s!)

Beadiful jewelry designer Catherine Howe has succeeded in making beautiful and substantial looking designs using luminous Swarovski crystals and brightly colored gem stones. I really like the combo of the thick gold chain with chunky rose quartz on this necklace, its sweet but strong at the same time. Also don’t miss the Beadiful bracelets, earrings and her Swarovski crystal blingy rings wrapped in 14k gold or silver. All her of jewelry is available customized. If you live in the Boston area look out for her Trunk Show at Splash Spa located in The Sports Club LA on April 29th from 5-8PM.

These photo albums from IF’N Books + Marks with illustrations by artist Jen Corace might be cute enough to inspire me to finally organize my photo’s. $36 each. Also don’t miss her fun journals. Each limited edition journal has hand screen-printed covers with thick Italian paper and sturdy spines. Each one is part of a limited edition of 500. I think I need the pirate journal. $24 each.

Design*Sponge recently featured artist Lisa Congdon’s delicious kitchen. Lisa’s kitchen is filled with her collection of vintage kitchen wares in bright pops of color and she shared some clever and inexpensive design ideas from frosting her windows to a creative display of plates. This adorable paper cuckoo clock caught my eye immediately. From Etsy seller DecoyLab, the clock is available in limited colors for a very reasonable $28.00.

Fancy schmancy metallic leather change purses from Anya Hindmarch for Mother’s Day. With sayings like “Mom’s Money” and “Mom’s Bits & Bobs” or you can create your own custom message. My Mom is one of the few people I know who still saves all of her receipts and uses them to balance her checkbook every week. She could use one of these glamorous purses to help keep her receipts from getting lost in the depths of her purse (like mother, like daughter). £78.00 lb’s = $156.

I’ve been a busy bee lately and have found it’s hard to keep up with all the things I want to share with you. I’ll keep my blurbs short and sweet so you and I can both enjoy these finds.

I love these mixed media on plywood pieces from Berkeley, CA artist Sheila Metcalf Tobin. Check her etsy shop for availability:

Orfeo an online boutique based in London has an assortment of adorable items for kids from around the world. Here are some yummy hand crochet bits and baubles from designer Anne-Claire Petit.

In honor of Earth Day, love a tree today with this “Save a Tree for Me” limited edition print by Camilla Engman. Printed on 100% post-consumer paper with soy-based inks it’s available at one of my favorite LA shops, Reform School Rules for only $35 buckaroos.

Feminine and sweet ceramics from Laura Blumenthal:

Sigh* I love these dainty letterpress cards from Satsuma Press:

Banana? Nope, a necklace with vintage beads rescued from a 1950’s broach by PetitOiseau:

Three crafty ladies make up The Cupcake Girls. These fabric covered acorn key rings are their latest creation:

I love this mumm printed wall sconce from Design Public. The shade is silk and comes in a variety of cheery patterns. When we bought our house, the seller had installed all new light fixtures. Unfortunately he bought the Home Depot generic special so over time I want to replace all of them, but you’d be amazed how expensive new lighting can be. In our living room he installed these faux alabaster 1/2 shell looking sconces. They’re nice and we can totally live with them, but these are much more my style! $110-$150 depending on size.

I recently convinced the hubs that we needed to upgrade our second-hand Urban Ore kitchen table - I promised it would be the only thing I put on the credit card and I would pay it off in 6 months (wish me luck with that). I decided on this beauty from Sundance and I waited until it was 20% off so I got a decent deal on it (yes that is me still justifying my purchase). Unfortunately it doesn’t look right with the Depot chandelier over it so of course that means we need a new kitchen light.

Any one of these ceiling lights from Rejuvenation, the amazing repro lighting company, would look fab over this retro table and would be a nice addition to our future remodeled kitchen.

I’m digging these linen hand drawn silk-screened pillows and lamp shades from Garnish Studio (a fellow Aeolidia designed website). The symmetrical prints in cool colors are modern and would look great in a West Elm inspired home. Using her background in art, designer Dana Killion launched Garnish to offer an alternative to the boring old white lamp shade. I really like the addition of color coordinated tassels to her pillows, it gives them just a touch of whimsy. Her organic designs remind me of Karl Blossfeldt’s abstract and elegant photographs of plant parts.

Aren’t these fun necklaces by jewelry designer Donna Macayza!? Inspired by the shells and stones she collected on the beaches of Lima as a child, Donna has created a colorful and bold jewelry collection. Now living in NYC, the multi-lingual designer hand crafts each piece using vintage lucite beads, semi-precious stones, sterling silver and vintage gold chain. My faves are these large wire wrapped blue quartz necklaces. This is most likely because my sweets addicted self thinks they look like blueberry flavored lollipops!

One of the things I miss the most about our years living in San Francisco was meandering home from work, up and over the hills, to our apartment below Russian Hill. I loved the discovery of a new boutique on Polk, taking a peek at the menu for the latest hipster restaurant on Hayes or stopping into a little sweet shop on Union for a before dinner treat. So last week I came up with a plan. The hubs and I commute home together, so instead of waiting around for him I decided to get a head start and walk in the general direction of the Golden Gate Bridge and he could pick me up wherever I ended up.

This plan led to the best SF discovery I’ve had in awhile, the design boutique Eden & Eden! As soon as I turned the enormous antique doorknob to enter I felt a wave of awe fill my soul. I was like a kid in a candy store, oohing and awing over the ferm Living wallpaper, the stunning Ivana Helsinki clothing and bags, colorful Antoni & Alison cashmere sweaters and my new favorite, People Will Always Need Plates witty mugs and of course plates. The shop has a real international vibe, due to owner Rachel’s British beginnings. There are items from Denmark, Finland and the UK all displayed with the sophisticated eye of a curator. On the Eden & Eden website they have made a select few goodies available for purchase which gives a sense of the diversity and the quirky personality of the shop. Rachel could not have been more kind or easy to talk to, in fact I think I talked her ear off!

If you like what you see at the shop, Rachel and Christiane from ferm Living have joined forces to offer design consulting. I would love to hire an interior designer but have often been intimidated by the thought that a designers taste might take over and my home wouldn’t feel like mine anymore. I was happy to hear Rachel talk about their low-key design services, often reusing items you already own to revise a room or an entire house. It is truly a pleasure to visit this unique boutique, if you live in San Francisco or come visit don’t miss Eden & Eden! Located at 560 Jackson Street at the base of Columbus Ave in North Beach.

Here are some snaps Rachel graciously allowed me to take on my last visit.

It turns out the hubs is not invincible after all. He had minor surgery yesterday to remove his appendix. His pain started on Thursday when we were up in Napa. He was in so much pain by Friday that he went to the DR who ruled out appendicitis because his pain was not in the lower right quadrant of his abdomen. By Saturday he was barely able to get off the couch and we spent the day calling all the DR’s and nurses in our families and researching online. Early Sunday we decided it was time to head to the ER.

After a CAT scan it was definitive, he had appendicitis and was going to have surgery. It turned out his appendix, for whatever reason wasn’t in the normal spot so they missed it on the initial exam. Neither one of us has ever had surgery or been admitted to a hospital so I was surprised that I felt scared. My fear came out in the strangest way though, I got the giggles! I felt bad that every time the DR came in to talk to the hubs I had to stifle my laughter.

The surgery only took about 45 minutes and went great. Turns out his appendix was super infected and was on the verge of bursting so it was a good thing they took it out when they did. He’s still in quite a bit of pain but they are taking really good care of him ie. lots of pain meds. I have to say our experience at Kaiser overall has been really positive. But I’ll be glad to take the hubs home tomorrow.

Back at work today after playing hooky yesterday. The hubs had a business conference at The Carneros Inn up in Napa and the client put us up for two nights. It was swanky! We had our own little cottage, with a private deck, a heat lamp and an outdoor shower! I knew he’d be in meetings all day so I made a massage appointment in the morning at their amazing spa and then after some cheese for breakfast (yum!), I made my way to the pool for a long lazy day of swimming and sunning. The Inn is surrounded by vineyards and at times I felt like I might have been in Greece or Italy. It is such a beautiful setting, and surprisingly private. I would highly recommend splurging for a romantic get away up there. I can’t wait to go back, better start saving my dough.