Mosaic Monday: Kauai Pics

Today I'm joining up with the folks at Mosaic Monday courtesy of Little Red House.


Here is a selection of pics from our trip to Hawaii which may or may not end up as framed art to brighten the walls of Chateau Struggler. Mr Gecko in the top right corner is currently hot favorite :)

(Blogger and Picasa are conspiring to make the mosaic above a little on the small side, however, in most browsers, if you click on it, you'll get the deluxe version.)

Have you framed any of your travel photos for permanent display? Any tips on what works best?

The most amazing shoes I've ever seen

I was rumbling around the neighborhood recently and came across this breathtaking display in the window of a Palo Alto shoe shop. I don't believe these shoes are for sale, let alone intended to be worn, but I had to share them with you as I think they're quite possibly the most amazing creations I've ever seen.


It turns out they are the work of talented artist Corinne Friedman, who uses feathers, ribbons, glass shards and even watch parts to create her wonderful shoe collages.


Like fellow California talent David Rose, Ms Friedman has a book available which features wonderful pictures of her work. That would make a lovely and unusual gift for anyone who is passionate about shoes.


Photo thanks: All photos are the work of and copyright of Corinne Friedman.

Still Thankful, if not Stylish

Thanksgiving Day (for those of us in the US) is a wonderful reminder to pause and be grateful. In pondering some thoughts to share here, I realized that this post I wrote in May is still 100% valid. So here it is again.

I wanted to pause for a moment to acknowledge that, if stylishness is the most struggly part of my life, then I'm enormously lucky. Given the millions of people on this planet without a safe place to live, enough food to eat and clean water to drink, for me to chirrup on about curtain colors seems pretty trivial. Closer to home, thousands of people have money worries, job uncertainty, health concerns and relationship troubles. Whilst I'm in a tizz because my Beloved Husband won't agree to me painting a wall red? Go figure.

So, before addressing vitally important issues in the next few days such as whether a certain skirt should be ousted, or which type of desk chair to buy, I'm taking today to be grateful for the incredible fortune I enjoy in other areas of my life. Last time I looked, I had:

• Good health,
• A wonderful husband,
• A loving family,
• Friends on two continents,
  
• Enough money in the bank to pay the mortgage and still afford chocolate,
  
• A job I enjoy with people I like,
• A safe and quiet place to lay my head at night.

I would love for my other blog to be the one that heralds world peace and a cure for cancer, but that's not too likely. So while I keep chuntering on here about trivial things of an unstylish nature, I know I only have the bandwidth for that because I'm incredibly lucky in far more important parts of being alive.

Photo thanks: George Bosela

Dangers of buying online

I'm not quite sure how many folk read my ramblings from within the USA, and how many visit from further afield. If you're stopping by from beyond the 50 states, I'll just mention that this Friday is known here as Black Friday and seems to mark the crazy, gleeful and yes, totally commercial, start of gift-shopping season. For reasons I have yet to fathom, Beloved Husband (who hates shopping) actually gets a kick out of visiting the mall on this day. Perhaps he feels there's safety in numbers or maybe it comforts him to see so many other people parting with their hard-earned cash too. Suffice to say, we will be joining the frenzied throng at some point during the day - assuming we survive the parking pandemonium, of course.

Now, saner human beings, especially those of us lucky enough to have an internet connection, seem to have adopted Black Monday instead, where we do a significant amount of our gift buying online. Clearly, this makes huge sense, especially for anyone like me who is daft enough to move continents and then find they need to arrange gifts for family members gathered around a tree five thousand miles away. I do vast amounts of shopping online and for choice, timely delivery, and often price, it's impossible to beat.

But before we all get carried away and start thinking that the web is the answer to every Santa's stress, I'd just like to remind you of the huge difficulty in just one area of internet shopping: color accuracy. My recent experience with pendant lights was a timely reminder that no matter how beautiful and stylish the online photo, if you buy it over the web, you run the risk of abject disappointment.

So, before buying that beautiful, special gift for your enormously chic and rather picky friend, remember that I thought I was buying these:

Note the subtle brown/cream/grey mix of colors there? Just right for my guy-friendly bathroom remodel, or so I thought.

Instead, this is what arrived:


Colors online are never quite what you think. In this case, since I wasn't keen to add an explosion in Toys-R-Us to our mellow, understated bathroom, I forked out for hefty return and restocking charges and went, tail between my legs, to Lowes.

Sometimes, you really do need a bricks-and-mortar store where you can see and touch bricks-and-mortar products. Remember that, when someone nips in front of you into the last remaining parking spot at the mall this Friday.

Photo thanks: Alpeviolen; Lighting Universe

Seasonal candelight tips from Ethan Allen

I take my blogging duties ever so seriously. Not content with gathering breaking news and style advice for you from the folks at Pottery Barn, last week I went more upscale and attended a session at Ethan Allen on Decorating for the Holidays.

This workshop was more sparsely attended than the one at Pottery Barn (only about 6 of us in total) and was a curious subject for them to pick, considering that they don't sell many of the smaller seasonal accessories which help to create a festive look. Many of the featured products were in fact sourced at Michaels. And, even though I admired the lovely Ethan Allen candelabra we were shown, at $519 I wasn't about to reach for my wallet!
In fact, given the general pricey-ness of Ethan Allen's range, it's hard to imagine that this session led to a huge swarm of new customers for them. However, I appreciated the seated format (rather than P.Barn's approach of having you wander around the store) and the free cookies were not to be sniffed at, either! I'll keep an eye out for future workshop topics and who knows, one day I may invest in a pillow or something ;)

As mentioned, I take my blogging duties seriously and made careful notes. Looking back on these, most of them were related to using candles effectively at this time of year:

• The kind of candle you buy is important. Look for long-burning and non-drip. I suspect this is an area where economizing may cause problems.
  
• Trim the wick to 1/4 inch before each lighting, to reduce smoking.
• Keep candles off side tables (where there are often lamps or other things close by or overhead) and on coffee tables and dining/buffet displays instead, where there is probably more open space around them.
  
• Candles are ideal for parties (heck, even my house looks great by candlelight!) but with a house full of people, stay away from tall displays. Hurricanes are a great choice here. And if necessary, consider nominating a candle friend to check them all about once an hour - that should give you one less worry.
  
• If real flames still feel too risky (children, animals and my favorite fear of earthquakes all spring to mind), consider LED candles instead. I did buy a pack of these recently and I reckon, if you disguise them inside a nice hurricane holder, you'll get a pretty good result.

Are you a big candle user? Have you any further tips on getting that soft glowing look, without compromising the safety of your home or your loved ones?

Photo thanks: Ethan Allen and Pdsimao.

Surprisingly tempting party dresses

I have mentioned before that I am a little wary of stepping through the doors of Coldwater Creek. They certainly have some nice pieces and every so often Sher at Fashion After Forty shows us a real winner that she purchased there. And yet I remain nervous that C. Creek will somehow add twenty years to me and make me look like someone's mother in law.

So I was extremely surprised to come across not one but four very attractive party dresses which I would freely consider owning and wearing. They all have a hint of retro about them, which might explain the appeal.

Purple dress, $119


Bronze dress, $119

Teal dress, $99.95
Black lace sheath dress, $109

Will you be buying a new party dress this year? Do you even have a "Posh Do" on the calendar? Or is your idea of dressing up to put on your smart jeans and a red top? :)

DavidRo Rocks!

I have been a fan for some time of California artist David Rose's work. David produces wonderful kilnformed pieces in colored glass and his designs are so fresh and vibrant:


Much to my disappointment, he doesn't have an Etsy store, but I was lucky enough to attend a semi-private sale last week where I snapped up one of his beautiful pendants.

In addition, I purchased three incredibly well-priced greeting cards which I plan to frame... oops, I have a small pile of stuff at home that is waiting to be made official behind glass - must get this magpie habit under control!

If you're in northern California, you can catch David at one of his upcoming holiday shows. Sadly if you're not local, you'll have to join me in pestering him to consider the Etsy option. Alternatively, treat yourself or someone special to one of his stunning 2010 date books which are available online.


They are a bit of an investment but I'm in love with the fabulous colors and different design on each page. As our musings about calendars concluded, sometimes pretty isn't enough and you need space to write too. This book certainly serves that purpose, in style.



Photo thanks: All images are the work of David Rose.