Looking Ahead to 2011!

See you in the New Year!  Henry Road will be closed Dec 25 to Jan 2.  We plan to be bright eyed and bushy tailed when we open again on Monday Jan 3.

Merry Supermarket Christmas

Wonderful walls by SupermarketSarah!  Wishing everyone a very Merry Christmas!  I am taking a break and will be back just in time to look ahead with wide eyes to 2011!

Friday's Fabulous Man: Oscar Niemeyer

This month architect, Oscar Niemeyer celebrated his 103rd birthday(!!!!!) with the unveiling of a museum designed by him and showcasing his work on the outskirts of Rio de Janeiro. According to the BBC:"A student of the French architect Le Corbusier, he developed a distinctive style defined by stark concrete and sweeping curves. He famously once said the stylized swoops in his buildings were inspired by the curves of Brazilian women."  Gotta love a man who loves curves!  And designs them into over 600 buildings.

 Top image: Portrait of Niemeyer by Gretta Sarfaty Marchant.   Buildings from here and here.

Great Package Design

Via theDieLine Via CafeCartolina.

Hermes New Store

A new Hermes store opened up on the Left Bank in Paris recently.  It is a huge space and the central atrium used to house a hotel swimming pool.  The huge space has cleverly been filled with wooden structures matched by spectacular sweeping banisters. More info and pics here and here

Yummy Bench

I picked this bench up from the upholsterer this morning and love how it turned out.  It will be perfect in a hallway, at the end of a big bed or as seating!

My Kind Of Kitchen

via designlovefest

Ballets Russes

Spotted a mention in the latest Vogue Living for an exhibition of Russian Ballet costume at the Australian National Gallery.  The gallery bought an incredible collection of costumes including photos and drawings.  Per their website: "Through 140 costumes from 34 productions from 1909 to 1939, the vivid and innovative dance design of the early 20th century will be brought to life on the 100th anniversary of the Ballets Russes."   How gorgeous are the images and costumes?

Kenzo

It's pouring with rain making it a perfect day for curling up with a good book.  If I wasn't headed to the shop to wrap last minute gifts, this is the book that I would be curled up with.   I love books!  And every now and then a book comes along that happily and completely blows me away.  The current book-of-my-love, my-one-and-only is the new book Kenzo which celebrates 40 years of the brand's fantastic work.  It is a heavenly treat of creativity, stunning design, amazing pattern, beautiful photography and styling, and glorious color!  Okay so I love it!

Best of all, we have it in the store so I get to take a peek at it every day.  Needless to say one of these lovelies is coming home with me.   At $75, it's an investment but its a big book and worth every cent if you love design.

If you get a chance to browse through it, I highly recommend it.  The cover may be different from the one in the pictures below as the copies that came in and sold in early November had a different cover.  I wish my miserable photos were a bit better as I feel that I haven't done it justice.

Happy Weekend

The lovely Brooke Fischer's paintings that are on our wall appeared in the LA Times Blog yesterday with a brief round up of some of the other goodies in our store!

Friday's Fabulous Man: Blake Edwards

Today is a tribute to a talent who created iconic roles for woman (and men) in unforgettable films: Mr Blake Edwards.  I have to thank you for Audrey Hepburn in Breakfast at Tiffanys, Bo Derek in 10, Julie Andrews in Victor Victoria. . . . . and Peter Sellers in The Pink Panther (To this day if anyone says "Does your dog bite?" in a French accent, I start to giggle)!

Edwards started his career in film as an actor -- the handsome photo below was in The Tamarind Seed in 1974.  RIP.

Holiday Windows

It's the best time of year for some window shopping creative displays. Here's ElleDecor's top picks.

It's Beginning to Feel. . .

We finally have some weather in LA that vaguely resembles winter.   The sky is grey and its cool enough for boots and long sleeves, I have a great cup of hot coffee, the volume on Christmas songs CD cranked up, and the latest issue of Selvedge mag just arrived.   Perfection!  Photo is the view down the alley behind our little blue shop.

Sweet Countdown

A yummy December countdown on SweetPaul accompanied by lovely photographs.

Ideas

Some great ideas in these: 
Pic 1: Want everything: the sofa and pillows, the lovely orange lamp, the great vases... the wine.
Pic 2: Am always going to love a raspberry wall with lights around the window.  And how perfect is the resin buddha and yellow lamp.
Pic 3 & 4: Same house and I think same room.  Gorgeous pouf, fantastic amazing incredible fire guard and so many cool items on the shelves.  Everything in other pic is pretty bland made interesting by the eclectic collection of stools gathered together as a coffee table. Love it!

images via DesireToInspire

Smilin' Monday

Rising Waters in Venice

The only time I visited Venice, it was pouring with rain and the waters were rising.  It was the middle of Summer and we had so much fun!   I was reminded of this happy time by these wonderful images via manderine. Wishing you all a great week!

Sunday Sun

This beautiful pink flower greeted me at the front door this morning.

Before heading to another busy day in the shop, I had a busy morning.  I went to the Rose Bowl Flea Market and found some great gems (some are below), before detouring across town to Renegade where I found a few interesting things but mostly had fun visiting friends: Michelle, Hannah, Matt and Kim.   I was completely overdressed in a long sleeve t-shirt--it was in the high 80 degrees today and crazy hot.   Can't really complain about amazing weather but it is winter...

Winter Snow

I have been in shirtsleeves the past few days which on one hand is the crazy wonderful that is winter in Los Angeles, on the other hand, snow just seems so seasonal and romantic--especially from afar:)  So I am going to live happily vicariously in Pia's winter wonderland in Amsterdam photos!  The black building on the bottom reminds me of a bar that was host to a hilarious fun-filled afternoon in Amsterdam a long time ago.  Truth be told it may well look nothing like it but that is what it looks like in my head!

Festive Happy Weekend

Festive photo from BrassyApple

Friday's Fabulous Woman: Julia Morgan

I was having a conversation with one of my favorite customers last week about how much I loved finding out that my favorite fountain in Paris was designed by a woman.  She mentioned that lots of people would be surprised that San Simeon (Hearst Castle) was designed by a woman.  So off I went googling and found the very impressive Julia Morgan.

She was a woman of firsts: the first woman to graduate with a degree in engineering from the University of California at Berkeley, in 1894; the first woman to enter (and graduate from) the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Paris; and the first woman architect in California.  From the moment she opened her own practice in 1905 until she retired in 1950, she designed upwards of 700 buildings.

Images here and here