laundry in french is so much better

i so love all these textiles from french laundry home...gorgeously spun linen that sings with that vintage, timeless look. they're made in plain, in pitch-perfect stripes and then also in coordinating prints - i really love the whole grain sack look, and the numbers too. do you not just want to crawl into a bed dressed with these beauties? i think with too much of it, it could easily be overly sweet (like this), but with one or two thrown in unexpectedly to an otherwise eclectic or modern mix, i'm in love.

and how about these chairs? would love one at a mixed-and-matched table of chairs, no two alike. it's this concept, though i've started to like the idea of leaving each chair in its own color too.

essie 's carry-on collection for fall

what are your thoughts? i love that the fall collection is bag themed and i like how this year's fall collection lines up with last year's, seen together below (last year's, then this year's). it looks like neither a copy nor a departure, but an evolution, and don't we all love evolution where we can get it?

i'm interested in each of this year's colors, i suppose, especially very structured, case study and glamour purse. i'm confused by power cluctch which appears greenish above, though gray in a different image i've seen, and is described as a gray-green. i guess i'll HAVE to get a mani to get some clarity.

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sweet and simple

i love things like this...ideas that come together often out of necessity or even laziness, but then they create something so sweet and so simple. some of my favorite little corners of my favorite homes seem to have come together this way. do you have an impromptu tableau that reminds you of this? 

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plain and simple

i think everyone interested in home design knows about the truly amazing selection of drawer pulls and cabinetry hardware available everywhere from anthropologie to urban outfitters to home depot and the myriad ways it can spruce any room. they make such amazing ones that are pieces of art in themselves.

but the dresser above was a pleasant reminder of how lovely it can be to choose a very simple and unfussy option - they don't have to be expensive or complicated or vintage or anything in particular. doesn't this combination look nice?

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a flowery idea

i mean - can you believe the size of this hibiscus flower? my parents have a couple of bushes of them at the foot of their driveway and they are RIDICULOUS. they're HUGE and so perfect and gorgeous!  here is my car key next to it so you can really get a sense of their out of control size.

the sad thing about them, like many amazing and wonderful things, is that they're incredibly short-lived. they seem to wither and crumble up after just a day or so, but the upshot is that there are so many blooms always coming and going that the bushes always look full and healthy - it's just the lifespan of each tissuey, gauzy one that's short.

so my big idea? how beautiful would it be to have each dinner-plate-sized bloom atop a dinner plate at a party? imagine everyone arriving at the table, greeted by their very own hibiscus...and imagine how totally stunning that table would look. you wouldn't even need floral arrangements, and could go just with simple votives, or perhaps interesting little objects like my aunt louisa brilliantly did here. it would be amazing on a table dressed all in white linens, a wood table with no linens at all, or a cacophony of floral, striped and patterned linens. if i were doing this, i'd probably want to ditch the dinner party and just play around with options all night!

in the same way a charger is used under a plate and then removed when it's time to eat, the top plate holding the bloom would be removed, revealing the dinner plate beneath it when it's time to eat. 

goin' to the chapel

do you remember dina manzo from real housewives of new jersey? don't lie. well she has a new show on hgtv called dina's party, and here's a sneak peek. thoughts? feelings? i'm kind of excited - i really liked her. i feel like i want to be a manzo, second only to wanting to be a kardashian. (do i watch too much reality tv?)

okay, so here's a really pink wedding she did...here is the "before" of the living room...

  
and then here's an "after" where it became a chapel!

not what i would have done, per se, but a pretty amazing transformation and it certainly makes you look at your living room differently. here are some other pictures from the same event. i'm a fan of the alternating place settings like these.

again, not really my style, but i think it's clear that dina knows what she's doing and she does it in a big way, so i'm looking forward to it and seeing her on my screen again!

and raise your hand if you're ready for HGTV's forthcoming magazine!