Target Missed: No Nate on the Shelves

All across blogland, for the past six months, we have all been hearing and celebrating the hype surrounding the launch of the Nate Berkus for Target collection, set to launch YESTERDAY Oct. 21st. At 10:00 AM, I drove to my nearest Target (a Super Target, mind you) soooo excited to see the new collection, take pics and blog my heart out about it.....only to find.....NOTHING!! There was no sign of Nate anywhere in the store. I just knew that couldn't be right, they probably had some big fancy display set somewhere prominently in the store to herald the arrival of NATE! After a while of searching in vain, I asked a 'team member' about the situation and she said, very casually, "oh, yea....it might be in tomorrow." Really?! So, I'm set to head back in about 10 minutes here and see if indeed, anything came in. I guess this is happening all across the country, as I have see a few other posts about it. Just finished reading Lynda's post over at FOCAL POINT where she made some excellent points about how Target 'should' have handled this. Regardless, I know the collection will hit the shelves sooner or later, so I'm still excited to see it in person.

LOVE this

All right, I'm off to go check it out.....if it's there!

My Craigslist Affair: Deal O' the Day

Oh Craigslist, as if I even need to explain my affection for you....you lure me in with your one liners "Vintage look Mirror with hooks & shelf" or "Vintage Wooden Folding Garden Table Shabby Green Old" and then you make me laugh with your charming typos and cross cultural language phonetics. It is so cute when you say "Dinning Table" and when you let me know if something is in "good conditions."

My love, just recently you gave me two of these lamps and I only paid $30 for the pair....

You are so generous to provide two and they could have easily cost double that EACH. You also show how much you care by the quality of these lamps; No breakable glass or lightweight metal here, these are heavy, solid chrome and could be used as a weapon in the event you are not around to defend me. You knew I wasn't a fan of the black shades, but you encouraged me to try them anyway and explained I could easily change them out later...you are so positive like that! Finally, you proved to me you were really listening to my desires...you obviously realized how much I love shiny silver objects like I wrote about here and here, and these beautiful lamps combine my love of impractical decoration with a more useful purpose. Oh Craigslist, how I love you. Please, let's go on like this forever......

xox,

So Chic in So. Cal.

A recent trip to L.A. had me visiting places I haven't seen in years, but remember vividly. I grew up around these here parts (Orange County, to be exact, but I spent plenty of time  in L.A!) Things have changed. For the better. We visited the Third Street Promenade and adjoining Santa Monica Place Mall. Now, back in the 80's this mall was just like any other: A big, boxy, poorly lit, two story maze of all the usual retail suspects. Now, however, it's a sleek, open-air, visually appealing, style haven. With the pacific ocean a mere two blocks away, the conversion to an open-air concept was definitely the right choice. One can stroll through the two lower floors and window shop any of the fashion forward retailers, then head on up to the third floor food court for lunch and an ocean breeze! I had a great time people watching and window shopping, aka dreaming. And as if the mall weren't enough, the Third Street Promenade is just a hop, skip and jump away. Head over there to get your fix of Z Gallerie, Urban Outfitters and Anthropologie, not to mention a whole slew of independently owned, quirky little shops. There was definitely plenty of inspiration on which to draw. So, without further ado, here are some of the things I saw.

 This sculpture was literally hanging off the side of a building about 20 feet up. A glorious cluster of stainless steel spheres forming an undulating wave. I've told ya'll before about my obsession with silver orbs here.

 I could have stood gazing at it all day. I was quite mesmerized.

Ooooooo...pretty shiny things!

Directly across the street from the silver ball sculpture was this beautiful building.

I remember this as having always been there. It looks like some of the buildings in downtown L.A. There are some beautiful buildings downtown, when you remember to look up!

 At the entrance to Third Street Promenade, poppies colorfully greet you!

My daughter took advantage...

One seriously chic Ladies Lounge in Bloomingdales (aka the bathroom!) That's wallpaper made to look like concrete on the walls. 

 This chair had a polished aluminum backrest and back legs, a wood set of front legs and a black patent leather seat cushion. Very funky!

I'd like a few of these planters in my garden, please.

 A cool bench made out of a cool slab of glass. I wonder how much this weighs?!

This bench was also glass....the slats were long pieces of amber glass. I love the movement it has and the polished chrome legs and center bar.

So there you have it...just a FEW of the things that inspired me......

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Quicksilver

I have never been a fan of gold.  I have never worn gold jewelry and I never owned a pair of gold spandex pants!  I can't explain why, it's just one of those things.  I think gold is pretty and I admire when other people wear it or use it in decorating, but when it comes to my own style, I have never even considered it.  So instead, I choose Silver!  And frequently.  Everything in my home has some touch of silver to it, including all of my 60+ mirrors!  You can read my previous post about Silver Love here.  In the past, my use of silver has been limited to accents,

like this silver pillow.

 But more recently, I have considered using it for larger pieces, like,say, the whole couch.  I can't tell you how excited I was to have been combing the Joanne's bargain remnant rack, when I discovered about 10 yards of a silver foil vinyl!!

The price per yard was not quite the "bargain" it was advertised as, so I pointed out some flaws in the finish and talked the price down to $4 a yard.  I took it home and "sewed" together a slipcover for a bench similar to the picture above.  When I say sewed, I really mean glued.  The vinyl was way too thick for my sewing machine, so using industrial strength spray adhesive, I turned the edges under and constructed a fabulous, shiny, gleaming silver slipcover for my living room! It was glorious!!....for about two days. Wah Wah Wah...I quickly understood why the vinyl had been on sale.  The foil began peeling away from the backing, leaving bubbles in the surface of the cushion, which eventually began 'popping', leaving all too tempting holes for little fingers (my kids!) to poke in and peel away the foil, leaving what looked like an exploded mylar balloon all over my living room.


It was a disaster!  But I'm really most upset that I didn't get any pictures of the finished product, because it really was spectacular, and exactly what I had envisioned, even if ever so briefly.





After this experience, I googled 'silver couch' and was delighted to find so many beautiful images of gleaming goodness dancing before my eyes!  There is a whole world of silver furnishings I never knew existed.  Some things, like the Moroccan pouf, were expected, but this was just about the cutest use of one I've seen:

Photo courtesty grahamandgreen.com

And these examples just leave me wanting a silver couch more than ever!

 

Georgeous, right?  Am I alone in my love of silver furnishings?  Based on these images, I don't think so!  I haven't given up hope of reconstructing my silver settee, I just need to find the right material.  I am fully confident I will, because (you know I have to say it!) every cloud has a SILVER lining!


gleamingly yours,

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Silver Love

I guess you could call me a Magpie as I'm attracted to any shiny thing.  Particularly silver and particularly round shiny things, even more so!  In fact, Freud himself might have something to say about my obsession with silver balls!  I have them in just about every room in my house, and never tire of looking at them!

Whenever out shopping, I keep a lookout for these beauties as they make great gifts, especially at this time of year.  In fact, I have been the instigator in several friends newly aquired obsession of all things round and silver!

I guess gold or bronze would be cool too, but I've never seen the same availability or selection in those colors.  What do you think?  Would you do silver, gold, bronze or a color like blue or green?  Also, do you prefer glass or stainless steel orbs?  The glass ones are available at most Mexican imports stores and the stainless ones seem to have the best availability at garden centers.  I like both, but stainless is more practical for me since I have kids.  Stainless = no breakage!  All of my glass orbs are up high, out of reach, nestled together above my kitchen cabinets.  While not usually a fan of over-cabinet-decoration (read: dust magnet!) I think these catch the light and lend an otherwise dead space some much needed life.

Hope you enjoyed sharing my silver love/obsession with me and as always, won't you consider following my blog on the right side bar?  Thank you so much for visiting!

As ever,