Blogger's Favorites -- L.A. in Bloom

This week's list belongs to Heather Beth Taylor of the excellent blog L.A. in Bloom, and she is (in my humble opinion, although I think few would disagree…) an insanely cool gal.

Heather’s a self-described Los Angeles lover, fashion enthusiast, art world business woman, passionate consumer of food (love that one especially)…

PLUS:

• She rocks headbands in ways I can’t even fathom.


• She co-owns an art gallery (Taylor de Cordoba) with her love Alex.


• She has a seriously enviable home (pretty + comfortable + a bit groovy.)

I fully intend to one day pop into Heather’s gallery whilst on a visit to L.A. and force her to go to lunch with me at the Ivy…

Herewith Heather’s favorites…Happy Friday.



1. COOKING - Hands down, my favorite activity. Sometimes I pretend I'm Nigella Lawson.



2. LOUNGING POOLSIDE - Hands down, my second favorite activity. My sun-loving friend, Linlee and I partake nearly year-round.



3. MY POET SISTER - I've been pretty transfixed by my little sis since she was born when I was three. Nobody makes me laugh harder.



4. SUCCULENTS - Living in LA, succulents make the most sense for beautiful, sustainable landscaping. My boyfriend, Alex and I hike around Amir's Garden, a 5-acre succulent garden, to get ideas for our garden.



5. THE PARKER PALM SPRINGS - This hotel in the middle of the desert is my favorite oasis.



6. FRIDA KAHLO - One of my favorite artists and style icons.



7. PRADA - Miuccia can do very little wrong in my book.



8. VINTAGE DRESSES - I love vintage frocks and was recently very inspired by the YSL exhibit at the de Young museum in San Francisco. The Way We Wore is my favorite place to browse through the archives of fashion history here in LA.



9. WOODY ALLEN - I've seen every Woody Allen movie. Annie Hall is my all-time favorite.



10. SWEETS - It's hard for me to pass up delectable little pastries or cookies. My ideal afternoon snack is a coffee and something sweet from Joan's on Third.

If I lived in Brooklyn…

I’d want some über romantic flowers from Saipua for Valentine’s Day.

Love. Them.

+ I love their soaps, and candles, and her blog, and especially her new column on d*s -- it’s witty and pretty and cool…

images via d*s and saipua

A Little Homage

Like you, I am completely bummed about the demise of Domino... It was by far one of my favorite mags. My mourning process has been to start lovingly leafing through old copies to ogle my favorite spreads... My all-time favorite "home tour" is Ione Skye's from the first Domino (she's also one of my major girl crushes.) I love her groovy hanging wicker chair, her record collection, her fireplace.... But architect Will Meyer's house in upstate NY is a very close second.

What was your favorite?

I Can't Help It...

I like paper doilies. I do. A lot.

So it goes without saying that I like this valentine from pretty. pretty. paper (great name, no?)

A. Lot.

p.s. she has a great blog too...

What I'm Not Buying

A.P.C eyelet dress. It's sold out, which is quite helpful actually...

Love...

I am totally enamored of Elizabeth’s photography and styling (via lula.)

...and that wallpaper (+ those gardenias) -- swoon.

Simplicity + Quality

anita calero's home from domino via 2 or 3 things...i think frank lloyd wright would have approved of her aesthetic, no?

A couple of you have asked…we read Loving Frank for our latest book club. It was historical fiction about Frank Lloyd Wright, and I have to say it was a doozy, but it made for great conversation.

One of my favorite passages from the book:

“Mamah stepped down into the make-do studio to cool off. Frank had furnished it sparsely with objects that pleased him – a wool scarf laid over a table, topped by a fat glazed pot full of tree branches, architectural drawings pinned to the floral wallpaper, a small shelf lined with simple Italian vases.”

While Wright was selfish and somewhat difficult, he was indisputably a genius. No matter how snobbish it seems, I was especially intrigued with his unwavering commitment to surrounding himself beauty and quality… He would opt to possess a single perfectly-made suit over owning five shoddily made ones.

I love that philosophy. And while I can’t always afford to live it, I do apply it to my absolute, 100% favorite thing – I buy a lovely, well-made leather handbag once a year. I’d rather save for that purchase for months than have a closet full of poorly made bags that I’ll likely toss one day.

Jordan posed this question recently, and it’s a good one. What do you “splurge” on?

The Spending Hiatus Support Group – Week Two…In the Groove

Here’s what we did in lieu of shopping this week:

A “nature walk” with the girlies…

Chalk murals on the back patio (of course there were rainbows involved...)

Plus:

• Another yoga class (I am totally digging yoga right now...)
• A mother/daughter double date at the movies with Audrey, Miss Aimee and her awesome five-year old daughter M...
• Our couples book club, which included the most amazing comfort food themed meal prepared by the equally amazing Julie and Tim (beef stew, no-knead bread, salad with pomegranate vinaigrette, homemade chocolate cake…)

A smidge over two weeks in and I’m actually finding the hiatus, well…kinda easy. Sure I still see lovely things that I want (and I post about many of them, sorry...), but it’s almost a detached admiration, like say, going to the museum. I’m enamored, but I know I’m not going to purchase them, so there’s no real lusting.

It’s strangely freeing. I’m not thinking about buying anything or returning anything or feeling guilty about buying something I perhaps shouldn’t have, so there’s a lot more time for playing and reading and hanging out…and a lot less buzzing in my head.

I’m officially digging this.

And, I’m especially digging the fact that we now have 44 folks in the support group. So cool! How are all of you doing?

The Return of Blogger’s Favorites…

I love putting together the Blogger’s Favorites features for you guys, so I’m jazzed about having a whole new line-up of great lists after a little holiday hiatus.

First up is the lovely and über tasteful Abbey of Abbey Goes Design Scouting… Regular readers of her blog (and if you aren’t, you should be!) will already know that she has an insanely lovely NYC apartment, a super romantic husband (for her 29th birthday, he gifted her with 52 tiny red envelopes with a handwritten love note and a bit of cash in each, just enough to run across the street to the flower stand and make a bouquet, once a week) and a most excellent etsy shop.

Herewith Abbey’s favorites, enjoy…Happy Friday!

• Amaryllis -- plants never fail to makeme happy.
• Wolf Kahn 2009 Calendar -- I make a point of buying this calendar every year -- it hangs in our kitchen and it is one of the first things I see every day. Wolf Kahn's ability to render light warms up the darkest days of winter.
• Laura Mercier Tinted Moisturizer -- makes me look put together with a minimum of fuss.
• Gold Binder Clips -- make even a stack of bills look glamorous.
• PaperMate Flair Felt Tip Pens -- somehow give me amazingly chic handwriting (the fuchsia color is my favorite...
• Levenger Circa Notebook system -- changed my life. no joke. I use the junior size and have a section for daily to do lists, for ideas for my blog and business, for ideas for projects and even a section for vintage items I want to remember to look for on Ebay. I spend a lot of time on the bus and this notebook-cum-universe-of -my-mind never fails to fill the time.
• Chowhound city boards -- I love love love ChowHound's city specific discussion boards. Every time I'm taking a trip I read the boards before I leave and come up with a short list of cafes and restaurants that sound like foodie paradise.
  Sometimes it is the best burger stand and other times the best steak dinner, but ChowHound always makes me feel less like an outsider and guarantees some amazing meals, even in places I'm sure there isn't anything but fast food.
• The Week Magazine -- is a weekly summary of national and international news from a wide variety of newspapers and journals wrapped in a perfectly designed 20 or so pages. And, the recipe of the week is always worth cooking!
• J Crew Solid Washed Favorite Tank -- I literally have ten of these tanks. The purple color is my favorite (although it is currently sold out). I've found this tank is a perfect pregnancy layer.
• D'Aulaires Book of Greek Myths. This was one of my favorite books as a child and continues to delight me as an adult.

Handle and Spout...

images via handle and spout

Is now officially another crush... Seriously how cute are these girls and their lovely offerings!

A Few Very “Swoony” Things…

And yes, I’d like to buy them all. But I won’t...I promise.

Lina Rennell dress (I think I like the dress as much as I like the name of her collection “Big Sur Meets Helsinki”)

Groovy ikat pillow…

Sweet little girl dress made by the genius Leslie…

Lovely wooden chair…

And While We’re On the Topic of Food…

image via gourmet…for curried carrot almond soup, which both Bittman and Pollan would most certainly approve of....

I might have a smidge of a crush on Mark Bittman. I love his blog, his pantry tips, his culinary adventures in Spain… Then I heard a segment with him on NPR this morning, and that sealed the deal. So along with In Defense of Food (I have an crush on Michael Pollan as well), Bittman’s new book Food Matters is officially on my reading list this year.

Breakfast Part Two (aka You Guys Rock)

Jen Causey’s perfect breakfast photos via simply breakfast...(She’s really the goddess of breakfast, no?) Buy the book here.

I LOVED reading through all your comments on the breakfast post! Seriously you guys are so amazing... You eat some pretty excellent stuff in the mornings (and some of your hubbies even make breakfast for you, which is awfully dreamy.)

Some of my faves:

• Flora’s chocolate cake + a sweet chicory with oat milk and nut cream
• Anne’s oatmeal with wheat berries, ground cinnamon, chopped walnuts, a drizzle of agave nectar and a small dollop of peanut butter
  
• Uncle Beefy’s coffee & a cupcake
  
• Sarah’s eggs & greens – “I sauté some greens with garlic or onions, or alone, season w/ salt and pepper and vinegar, and scramble or fry an egg or two!”

Now with the whole peanut butter salmonella scare,I’m just trying to figure out how to mix up my "go-to" breakfast for the mornings I drive into the office… I’m going through withdrawals here friends.

p.s. A few of you asked...The smoothie is just some fresh blueberries, a cup or so of organic vanilla yogart, a bit of orange juice (I love Odwalla), a little water, some wheat germ and a few almonds. Super simple!

The Spending Hiatus + Support Group -- Week One

The last three things I purchased before I stopped purchasing things…

A "tunicy" top...



"THE" boots...

The meyer lemon...

Well I made it through 10 full days without purchasing anything, and I have to admit it feels pretty. darn. great.

Admittedly there were a couple of temptations -- most noteworthy, a super cute (+ super cheap) bathing suit that I was so, so close to buying. (I was 90% through the online check-out and then came to my senses and closed the browser.) Why?? Well, it wasn't because I have amazing will-power… No, it was because of you. I couldn’t very well kick off the great spending hiatus and then be the one to cave after only a few days. So I guess this whole support group thing is working already, no?

Another key to getting through the first “week” was lining up lots of activities to replace shopping. A couple of days into the hiatus, I (sadly) realized that shopping has become a go-to pastime for me. Many Sunday afternoons, Audrey and I head over to Northpark to check out the art and grab a coffee (me) and a giant pink cookie (her, but sometimes me too…) And enivitably, I end up picking up a top or a knick knack from Anthro…(that is when I’m not trying to offload Audrey on some unsuspecting pop star.)

So here are a few of the things I did instead of shopping this week:

• Went to a yoga class
• Made dark chocolate s’mores in front of our fireplace
• Cleaned out my closet
• Got sick – this one was by far my biggest shopping deterrent, as it's hard to shop when you can't even get out of bed.

As promised, here's a list of everyone joining in on the spending hiatus. Now it’s your turn…how are you doing? What was hard? What did you do to get through it? I’ve been poking around and already seen tons of good posts out there!

p.s. – if I missed you on the list below, shoot me a note, and I’ll add you super quick… And on the flip side if you’ve decided you want out, let me know and I’ll take you off the list. (We won’t taunt you… I promise!)

Janssen
Sarah
Miss Aimee
Amy
Rachel
Simone
Cassandra
Jackie
Michelle (I think ;-)
Jenny
Amy T. Sharp
TX Girl
Stephanie
Annady
Johanna
Kristina
Skye
Loop and Lil
Paula
Amanda
Lynne
Jenn
Dora
Cassie
Jackie
Karen
Amanda
Alicia
Kasey
Rita
Aran
Abigail
Nicola
Patricia
Red Frame
Erinn
Cass
Amy
Susan
Jen
October 12
Terri
Beshka
A Girl
Color Me Green
Apartment 20H
Lauren
Sarah H
Sara
Mia
Sarah
Melanie
Mrs. Guilbeau