Purple Tulips and Amaryllis this week. Loving my new square vase!

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This coin bank over at Three Potato Four caught my eye, for $10 I think it makes a great gift for an architect friend or really just a tongue in cheek savings reminder in this financial crisis.  And it would look cute as part of a holiday vignette, too.

I saw this and just had to buy-it-now.  (This is the reason I have been taking a 3-month Ebay break).  But, I am turning 30 after all, which makes me an Old Abbey!  (Kidding, kidding)…  But I have made cordialized brandy (back when I lived with Nancy).  So, this just reminds me of good times.  Someday I’m going to put it up on my gallery wall.

San Francisco was great. I love to travel, to just be in motion, to be unplugged from the phone, the chores, the daily grind. (Random: I also love airports. Yes, the dirty carpet, the terrible food, but also the people watching, drama, all the possibility).

We stayed at the Mandarin Oriental which was as you can imagine just perfect. Not too pretentious, amazing, gentle service. My favorite part? Turn down service where they put out a small linen beside the bed on the floor that said “good night” and “good morning” on opposite ends.

We love using Chowhound to find places to eat whenever we travel and this was no exception. The first night when we were tired and wanting something close to the hotel we went to Slanted Door and the second night when we were a bit more adventurous we went to Sociale (which is down an adorable garden alleyway). Slanted Door is amazing California-asian-fusion with amazing water views and the Sociable was a perfect low key (delicious) neighborhood restaurant that made us feel like locals and imagine what it might be like to live in SF (very nice we decided!).

I walked around SF during the day, checking out Gumps in person (which was being in a wonderful grown up candy store (except instead of candy they sell beautiful decorative things, books and amazing stationery)). Speaking of candy stores, Miette did not disappoint either!

Screw my pretty ponies. I want to be a pirate. Buy yours here.

Thanks to Jordan, last time we were in IKEA we headed to the rug section and spent spent some serious time mulling our choices.  Rugs can be really expensive (try $2800 for a piece of medium-nice wall to wall that we were thinking of having cut to 10 by 12 feet).  We’re in a rental and that just seemed like WAY too much money for a rug we might never get to use when we inevitably move apartments or cities.  So imagine our delight when we found this rug, 100% wool, hand-made for $159.  We bought two, had two pieces of rug pad cut at ABC Homes for around $200 and laid out the rug pads in such a way that the overlap of the two rugs doesn’t really show.  I’m so happy with how it looks and really see how much rugs help finish rooms and make them comfortable.

I’ve long been an admirer of Katherine Wolkoff’s amazing photography (well, really six months, but that feels like a long time — I first found them on the lovely cup of jo!). Three weeks ago, I screwed up my courage and emailed her asking if her deer bed series was for sale. She was lovely, she had a few left over from her show at the NY Photography Show and now one is safely lulling us to sleep. It’s a joint 30th birthday gift — Tim turns 30 in two weeks and I turn in February (and just as Stephanie says, we figured that a great piece of art was the best investment we could make in these crazy financial times).

PS: YAHOOO! TO THE ELECTION NEWS!

I got up, I voted!  Here is last week’s bouquet — hydrangeas, freesia, amaryllis.  See them all here.

Over this past weekend, my mother and I presented a paper at the American Popular Association Conference. It was so much fun to work with my mom in a professional setting. (We presented on the material culture of film, using the two Father of the Bride movies and looking at the changing role of fatherhood in America). The technology provided by the conference was basically nil (although everyone was really really nice) and that meant a number of last minute trips to the local Best Buy. It also saw me in sitting in our rental car desperately trying to open clamshell packaging of our newly purchased speakers. While it was practically tear-inducing in the moment, it is now comical and I’m really without words to describe the contortions and pure force of will it took to open the packaging without damaging the contents or myself. All of this is a long way of saying that this morning when I logged into Amazon.com (I’m in the market for a new small camera) I was THRILLED to see they are working with suppliers to reduce “wrap rage” and packaging waste. I think that it will take the leadership of companies like Amazon (and the support of consumers like us) to reduce the environmental impact of the insane amounts of packaging currently used.

She just seems like a pistol.  And I like that red clutch.  via the Sartorialist, of course.

Check out the fantastic the gallery wall in this office.  I LOVE that fish! And the red pendant.  This is my dream office.  Yes!  Except I’d get a different rug, but, really whose asking?   The rest of the home (and garden is equally inspirational).

Remember this post about my hotel lust?  Well we’re headed to San Francisco cutesy of Tim’s job and staying in an awesome hotel!  Yes to free travel!  Where should I go?  What should I eat?  Where should I shop?   Joanna just blogged about Glamour’s great SF guide. Yes!

Oh my god: my pretty ponies. I was obsessed as a child. I hadn’t thought about them in probably 19 years. It’s their 25th anniversary.  See more here.

Remember this? Loving this mirror wallpaper from Deborah Bowness.

Nancy sent me a link to this set of collecting ideas from the great site myhomeideas.com (although poorly named!).