We've Been Tagged: Our Own Uninteresting Happy "Things"

A fellow blogger, Meg, over at Pink to Green created a wonderful post about listing your "6 uninteresting things that make you happy" and she "tagged" whoever was willing to play, and we took her up on the challenge. Here it goes...

1. Climbing into a comfortable bed, with clean sheets, smelling of laundry detergent

2. A good thunder and lighting storm (if you can be inside, enjoying it)

3. A cold glass of lemonade, pink or yellow

4. Walking into a hardware store, to stand in front of an entire wall of paint chips

5. The first snowfall of the season

6. Receiving a piece of mail, whether it's your favorite magazine or a letter from friends or family

*Images compliments of House Beautiful

For the Love of Wrapping

There is nothing like receiving a gift, the excitement of pulling off the wrapping and unveiling that wonderful item inside. Personally, the act of giving the gift is more rewarding than receiving a gift myself. And part of the joy of giving that gift is the presentation, the beautiful paper, the decorative ribbons and the wonderful cards to be included as well.
This post was inspired by one of my favorite rooms at the San Francisco Decorator Showcase. The room was originally a linen closet and was converted into an extravagant, gift wrapping dream come true. The walls are covered with boxes, wrapping paper, fun cards, ribbons of all shapes and colors and scissors hanging from clips attached to string.

One of my favorite graphics for wrapping paper is stripes. Any color combination, thin or thick works. The most bold statement is black and white wrapping paper with a large vibrant colored ribbon.
During the search for wonderful paper, Snow and Graham Paper Company came up. They have the most amazing collection of wrapping paper and stationary. Ans there products are sold all over the United States, which is great! Some of there fun papers are shown below.

The greatest discovery I ever made when I moved to San Francisco was the store Paper Source. They have walls of ribbons in any and all colors and sizes you could imagine. They also have great, unique gift cards, which are generally hand made. But the wall that I always gravitate to is the wall of custom paper, all with wondrous graphics in the most exciting colors. You can grab all different ones to save for emergency wrapping or for specific people that you know would love them. (*trick for not ruining the visual of the paper* use double sided tape, rather than putting a strip over your beautiful wrapping paper).

* Images compliments of Dutchbaby, Apartment Therapy, Snow and Graham, Tres Chic

Sea Glass

Sea glass is a very special tradition in our family. Every weekend we take the dogs to the beach and put our heads down as we talk and the hunt starts for sea glass. There are goods day when we find beautiful colors, green, whites , turquoise blues and brown. On the very lucky days someone will find a deep blue! We always say that " its going to be a good day." We have two hurricane lamps in the house on the dining room table both equally full of sea glass. I even used the hurricane lamps with the precious collection of sea glass for staging jobs and every one was in a panic about when they would be returned and put back on the table. The sea glass are not just any piece of glass off the beach. It has to be worn on all sides and not have any sharp edges. If it is not perfect, it is thrown back into the ocean to be worked on some more. There are times of the year we are not all together and when we are strolling the beach, this is when we call the girls to check in. I can not tell you how much they are missed and I cannot wait for them to be home for our sea glass hunts on the beach. I grew up with this tradition of hunting for sea glass with my Grandmother who had mason jars filled to the brim with sea glass in her Martha's Vineyard kitchen house.

All of the rooms and objects that are pictured below reminds us of the colors that we have found on our beach combing sea glass walks.

This is one of Amanda Talley's beautiful pieces of Art. The colors look like one of our hurricane lamps.

House Beautiful- water siting Room- Iceberg by Benjamin Moore

Anthropology Necklace $48

These chandeliers have the feeling of hanging sea glass.

I am obsessed with these gemstone knobs by Marjorie Skouras! They are so fun!!

*Images compliments of House Beautiful, Anthropology, Coastal Living, Jane Coslick, Sandra Morgan, Amanda Nisbet, Massucco Warner Miller, Palmer Weiss, Amanda Talley, Marjorie Skouras

Flip for Decorating

Flip for Decorating by Elizabeth Mayhew is a fun new book on decorating. Elizabeth shows how to decorate with what you have and some small additions. It is a step by step guide to decorating the four most commonly used rooms. Living room, dining room, family room and bedroom. She helps with prioritizing your decorating and gives examples of her favorite paint colors. She show how to measure and determine the best style of window treatments for your windows, how to pick the perfect tables, lighting, sofa and chairs and how to layer accessories on table scapes.

It is a great little box almost the the size of a pocket guide that is easy to carry around on shopping excursions to use as a reference guide.

Elizabeth Mayhew is a design consultant and Today show lifestyle expert. I was so excited to meet her and purchase this fun book on decorating.

Elizabeth, Wendy and Lydia pose for a photo before Elizabeth signed my new book, in which she wrote, "Wendy, have fun Flipping!" So Cute. Thank you Elizabeth, what a pleasure to meat you. Elizabeth could not be nicer. The book signing was at one of my favorite stores in Westport Ct,

Bungalow. They are a great source of french antiques and beautiful accessories. Wendy does the tour in Europe for antiques and lets clients shop from containers in front of the store a couple times a year. The goods never even make it into the store! Bungalow is full of very unique finds and I always a go to when I have projects.

Metropolitan showhouse San Fran

Last night was the opening night of the San Francisco Metropolitan design show house. The crowds were out the door, 700 people RSVP for this event. The designers showcasing there talented work at the house were Martha Angus, Jay Jeffers, Gary, Hutton, Orlando Diaz, Steven, Erin Martin, Nicole Hollis, Jim Ho.

The highlight of the evening was Martha Angus teenage Boy bedroom and bath. The team of Martha Angus and Phillip Parton designed "an out of this world" fun boys room. It was so different from any other boys room I have ever seen. Such an new innovative spin for this type of room.

This is the hallway leading into the boys room. Love the orange rocket and moon photos.

Fabulous bed, loving the wallpaper. It is so cool with the thin vertical black and cream stripes. The photo on the wall is amazing. I wonder who had to hang that! Good job. I love the orange mod lamp and white chair.

Steel armour is perfect and red military coat punches up the red bathroom.

Who would have thought of a doing a red bathroom like this? Red is a signature color of bathrooms for Martha.

Red tile dots work with red bathroom.

What a fun teenage boys room and bath. Martha is an expert in great design. She is so creative and it shows in this outer space bedroom and bath. Check out Grant Gibson's great post on the gala event.

Metropolitan Show House

2201 Baker St. at Jackson St. in San Francisco

$25 entry fee with proceeds going to the SF Ballet.

Jardins en Fluer

"Garden in flower." Jardins en Fleur was created by Simon P Scott who has a passion for beautiful things, choinoiserie and hand-painted silk wallpapers. This collection is made up of hand painted silk panels and wallpaper, lighting, furniture and accessories to add the chic-est highlights to any interior.

These silk panels contain botanical scenes with blossoms and flora, birds, butterflies and pagodas. The color ways of the panels are so soft and tranquil, adding a shimmering effect to a room. In a dining room, living room or bedroom, they would look sophisticated and lovely anywhere.

I love the legs on this white dining room table. They are really beautiful and make an ordinary table look extraordinary.

This red chair paired with the dining table from above would be really cool with the spark of red and the chalk white. It would also look great as an office chair.

This large white cabinet, a pagoda breakfront, would look great in a dining or living room with china or silver or books, anything in large groups. It is such a statement piece and gives great height to a room. The Pagoda tops it off!

This is a spectacular pagoda coromandel "Etagere". It looks beautiful with blue Chinese export ginger jars or with large pieces of white coral.

This table is one of my favorites! It is an end table and I would love to have a pair of these on either side of my bed.

This is a consul with great Greek key motif. Placed behind a couch or against a wall in a foyer, with navy lamps would make your space look wonderful.

*Images compliments of Jardinenfleur.com

Turquiose Opal Pre-Fall

It is amazing to relate things in collections of designers either in fashion or interior design back to nature. We found some fabrics and jewelry pieces that resembled these similar colors and organic flowing patters. The black and turquoise opal jewelery is another fun way of utilizing these colors in design and remind us of the both the ocean and the Tory collection.

I love the organic feel of this fabric. It would work for both a sea-side and mountain home. It has a Japanese feel and uses the colors we love.

Kelly Wearstler fabric through Lee Jofa in navy and green tones, upholstery weight fabrics. Some ideas for the use of these fabric's; pillows on a sofa or bed as accents, upholstered head board material, on club chairs.

Even though the fall collections for designers come out in July, around Melissa's birthday (I always get excited to ask for a new fall dress in the middle of July) here are some of our picks for thepre-fall collection that comes out now! The navy's and greens of Tory Burch's new collection are just so glamorous and look so great together. Navy is my all time favorite color. The combination of green and navy are really going to be a problem for me and my bank account... Here are some of our favorite pieces and styles.

Tory Tunic
Stephanie Tunic

Patricia Dress

Milia Dress

Julia Dress

Agate Top

Metallic Reva Clutch

Glazed Leather Zip Continental Wallet

Efram Hobo

Canvas Jelly Medium Cosmetic Case- I would love to carry this around with my favorite lip glosses and mascara.

Ambroise Hobo
Ambroise Shoulder Bag

Slim Card Case

These are the Tory Burch Revas. They are so comfortable and look beyond cute with really anything. The black ones with the white contrast are on my list as the next flats and I can wear them all day at work or wear them walking around the city.

*Images compliments of Tory Burch, Kelly Wearstler, Susan Barrett Designs, Great Barrier Reef

New Kravet/ Lee Jofa Showroom

Kravet/ Lee Jofa just opened a new showroom at 360 Fairfield Avenue 2nd floor Stamford Ct. I had the great pleasure of attending the grand opening, which was sponsored by Kravet, Lee Jofa and Connecticut Cottage and Gardens lifestyle magazine. I was especially thrilled because one of my favorite designers, BarclayButera was introducing his exclusive fabric and carpet line for the Kravet Collection. Below are the pictures of the new showroom, some of Kravet's fabric lines and a little something about Barclay Butera.

Here is the adorable Megan Dillion. Megan is the show room manager and is very helpful to a designer in navigating the new showroom.

Here is Megan in front of fabric flags and new showroom in the back ground.

Scott Kravet showing designers Barclay Butera Fabrics to designers at show room opening gala event.

Kravet and Lee Jofa has a wide array of talented designers and beautiful, well made products. From trims to fabrics, furniture, carpets and lighting, they always have what you are looking for. Below is a little sampling of our favorites.

Kravet trims are always have the most luscious colors. Water blues, celedon greens are some of my favorites.

They also have have a beautiful line of shell trim that can accent a pillow or lead edge to a drape.

Kravet also has an amazing furniture line. They have both a custom and standard collection. I know I can always count on the quality and comfort of their furniture line.

Alexa Hampton Fabrics

Windsor Smith

Barbara Barry

Micheal Weiss

Micheal Berman

Calvin Klein

Echo Designs

Joseph Abboud

The oh so talented Barclay Butera and his assistant. Barclay was the celebrated designer at the showroom on opening night. He was showcasing his exclusive Fabric and Carpet collection forKravet . The fabrics will be featured in four lifestyle books: Beach, City, Mountain, and Town and County. These four lifestyle categories are also the four areas Barclay covers in this New Design Book "BarclayButera Living in Style." I love this book because it shows his work which is glamorous yet livable. Barclay has a wonderful way of layering a room with furniture and accessories. He also uses great symmetry to balance his interiors. Barclay is a true Hollywood designer.

Had to have two pictures of Barclay!

This is Barclay Butera's new Design book with fabulous photos of his work.

Here are some of Barclay Butera's fabrics. The patterns are fantastic and the colors work well in design setting.

*Images compliments of Kravet, Lee Jofa, Barclay Butera