i still remember it like it was yesterday...

the first domino cover with ruthie sommers....the graphic divid hicks la fiorentina fabric from lee jofa on that camel back sofa is something i will never forget....and to this day, i still adore the print....here's a collection that instantly puts a smile on my face :) and if it puts a smile on yours then you might be interested in this....

*images courtesy of all the best, chic coles, the estate of things, la dolce vita, material girls, palmer weiss, maison luxe

i'll take the beach please.....

this weekend i realized how lucky i was to be able to roll out of bed and be at the beach 10 minutes later. my husband has a sat. morning tradition of taking barron to the beach so he can run and play in the water. for some reason, i never go...that is, until this sat. me and tay joined the boys and headed to the beach. it was one of the best 2 hrs. i have ever spent on a sat. AM. taylor loves the beach and with the dogs running around (there is a leash law on our beaches- they can only be on the beach from 8-10 am), she was just thrilled. we actually spent a lot of time on sullivan's- dinner on fri and then we went to the beach both sat. and sun. what i love most about the beach is the feeling you get when you drive up to it; it's like all of your worries go away and you just become carefree....

this week, i think i am going to devote my posts to living at the beach and so here are some things i want in my "pretend beach house":

rachel ashwell's warrenton shelf, kerry cassill's cobalt swirl fabric, laurin copen's french steel baguette trolley's ....

i love fabric....

love, love, love fabric- i could look at them all day. before i went out on my own, i worked at an interior design firm for 7 yrs and one of the ladies who worked w/ me made me aware of a habit i have. whenever we would receive new samples or i would be meeting w/ a rep, i would have to rub my hand over the samples i was looking at. strange. anyways- right now (actually for awhile) i am really drawn to linens- in particular printed linens. basically, if you sit sea cloth (or quadrille for that matter), raoul textiles, victoria hagan, or lulu dk in front of me- i will be a happy camper.

nobody does it like jim....

my brother is off on one his trips to thailand (he travels there at least twice a year, lived there for about 7 yrs, and has plans to return there eventually)...which makes me think about jim thompson and my love for his gorgeous fabrics. there is nothing as beautiful as the thai silk fabrics this company produces. when i was a freshman in college, my family went on a trip to thailand and i passed up the opportunity to go tour his home....probably to do something lame like layout by the pool. of course, my mom came back just totally mesmerized by his beautiful residence...10 years later, i am kicking myself for not going and seeing it. but you know, i guess at that time in my life a tan was more important...my how times change.

i'm back.....

and all i have to show are some random fabrics and a matchbox from pieces. i wish i had some great pictures to share w/ you from my trip to ADAC and pieces but i don't. it was a really quick trip. i was semi disappointed at ADAC b/c i really didn't see much "new" stuff. i found some great wallpaper from schumacher but it is being mailed to me b/c i didn't have time to wait around for all of my memo samples. victoria hagan has some great furniture additions...and i am obsessing over some wallpaper that ruthie sommers has in her office (its not new though....just new to me). when it gets here, i'll share them.

pieces was great. i was sad b/c lee wasn't there and i would have liked to have met her. i wanted to take a picture in there and i asked the guy working and he didn't seem too down w/ it. so unforunately, all i have to show is this matchbox. i think one of my fav parts about the store was the handles on the doors...huge lucite ones. i would love to get my hands on some of those. the store is amazing...everything organized by colors- yellow, kelly green, etc. i will say, if you can't make it to the actual store, the website is a great representation of everything she has. i kind of felt like i was in my computer b/c i have stared at her inventory for so long!!

so i am sorry i can't share more but like i said the "atl" part of my trip was very quickly done....also i have caught some kind of funk going around and am not feeling the best. hopefully, tomorrow i will be better....ta ta for now.

my desk chair...

so i have had my desk chair for 3 yrs now and it still remains how i bought it- with ugly white (well dingy white) damask fabric on it and around the arms the fabric is actually unattached from where i had my upholster look at it so the horsehair is exposed. i am not a damask kind of girl...well maybe funky damask but definitely not traditional. i love my chair...the lines on it are amazing...i call it a lady's chair b/c it hugs your body when you sit in it. it is an antique that i purchased at a flea market with all intentions of reupholstering it and placing it in my LR. however, once i started my own design company it became my desk chair (no staples roller chair would do). i have always known that it would be recovered and look fabulous one day. it has just had to sit here b/c upholstery is expensive, especially in c'town b/c everyone seems to jack up their prices.

i am so excied about the fabric that i have chosen to use on my chair. i have been in love with geometrics since i received the very first domino magazine. i just drooled over the camel back sofa that ruthie sommers had in her house (now i think its in her amazing store). i contemplated using that fabulous lee jofa fabric but with all of the wonderful geometrics out there i decided on china seas aga. it gives me the amazing geometric pattern that i am in love with. and to throw a twist into the chair (and to save some cash), i am going to pipe the double cording and back in either a pink, kelly green, or tourquise linen fabric. i cannot wait to see the results. i went with the brown and cream colorway b/c it will easily go with the rest of my house if i ever want to pull it out when company arrives. now all i have to do is save for the small fortune it will cost me to have this done....but xmas is only a month away...maybe santa will surprise me....

O & L delivered

well i met with the grizzel and mann rep yesterday and as always, osborne and little gave me some good staples for the upcoming season. i will have to say that i saw a ton of black....there was a lot of it in the backgrounds of the fabrics and in the wallpaper collection. and i am not going to lie- i like it!! for a girl who was sold on the robin's egg blue/chocolate brown color combo three years ago, i was relieved to see the new color palettes. there is still a ton of that blue color out there though. i loved the vintage II wallpaper by O & L, the pic above is one selection from it (i love the acid yellow and plum color combo). apparently, vintage I came along while i was on bed rest, so i will have to backtrack and take a look at it. liberty (a division of o&l) had some good cut velvets. i love the art deco one featured above. if you are in the market for some fun fabs and wallpaper, check out O & L with your local interior designer.

i also got to see raoul....i love this company (even more than O & L, which i sometimes get tired of). they offer gorgeous linen prints that are very subtle, organic, and earthy. they had a lot of ikats and of course, unique botanicals. if you have the cash, this is a great company to splurge on! well, that's if for the rep meetings this season. i am excited about my new samples. when they come in, i'll share a few that are my favs! have a great thursday, i'm off to battle the rain and look at some granite. until tomorrow.....

disappointing rep meeting....

i was so excited about getting back out there and seeing reps again since i have been gone for so long. unfortunately, there wasn't much to get excited about with earnie gaspard. i felt like there wasn't a lot of change. ralph lauren's collection was completely blah, but they have never been one of my favorites. b. berger yuck and yuck again. quadrille's linen prints were cute....some ikat patterns and some remininsent to china sea (they actually overlapped in their appearances). one of my all time fav's, china sea had some good ones (two are featured above). but they weren't screaming "new" at all. the color palette's are the same...i saw a lot of navy and orange in china's collection. chocolate brown is still a very prominent color in all of the manufactures. romo had some fun fabrics and wallpapers but do you ever notice that their collections are always very similar to the ones previous....its like they take a flower and tweak it slightly and than there's the fall collection. kind of strange. i did like their wallpaper book this season. it had a lot of the geometric patterns featured in it...a two color flame stitch pattern that is done in a metallic could be fun in a powder room....anyways, that's about all there was to report from that meeting. i go see osborne and little today so hopefully that will be a lot more exciting! i'll let y'all know.