Domino Magazine is closing?!!?

How come no one but the Huffington Post is talking about this?  I haven’t seen any of the big blogs say anything yet?  (Hello Apartment Therapy are you there?!)  Meanwhile people are talking about it NONSTOP around my office.  I’ve already received several emails of distress.

I hate to be melodramatic here people…but is the world ending?!  I mean, when you’re taking away one of the only decent American home magazines left, then where are we?

Are bread lines next?  Ok…I’m trying to calm down.

Update:  Apartment Therapy just confirmed the awful truth.

Sunday night with family

Three generations of family sitting around eating takeout pizza together becomes much more fun when you’re washing it down with champagne out of vintage hollow stem glasses.

Note:  In the words of my boyfriend’s grandmother, “Champagne makes everyday a celebration.”  Did I already say that I like her style?  She’s 94.  Her favorite toast is “Here’s to the girls that want to be wild, and the three things that are keeping them mild…Love of Jesus, Contagious Diseases, and Fear of having a child.”

Yep…she’s a keeper.

San Francisco…yep, just as good as I thought it would be

I only had two days in San Francisco…so it was a whirlwind tour to say the least.  But in that time, I discovered many great things such as:

Nachos made to order in the Mission.  Heck yeah!!  This reason alone is enough to make me want to move there.

High quality thrift stores.  There were so many great little places with an awesome assortment of stuff.  I realized that if I did live there, I would drive myself crazy seeing so many amazing things and a tiny apartment to live in.  Heck, I already own more furniture now than would fit in most places.  No wonder there are so many great things in the vintage stores there.  Perhaps no one can fit any of it.

Muir Beach Overlook.  I mean, c’mon.  It’s gorgeous.  There’s really nothing else to say other than that.

After looking through all my photos, I realized that I didn’t have that many great photos that were worth posting.  Most are just random tourist-y photos.  I just didn’t have enough time to do anything there that was truly photographically awe-inspiring.   However, I did take some pics of my friend’s apartment (with his permission) because I thought it was inspirational enough to post here.

He has fabulous taste…and lives in Russian Hill.  Here you go:

This is the entry to his apartment.  Looking into his gorgeous dining room.  I LOVE his apartment.

Here’s the view from his apartment.  What’s that in the distance?  Oh yeah, the Golden Gate Bridge.

This is just another view of the interior.  Detail shot of his fireplace.  And it works!!

Anyways…I loved my time there.  And of course, staying at my friend’s place was great.   I could downsize to an apartment with that view!!

The art of packaging (and coffee)

One of the things I’ve been talking about lately at work is the art of packaging.  The subtle (and sometimes not so subtle) exterior of the product itself that attracts us to it visually and compels us to purchase it…as opposed to all those other items on the shelves.   Sometimes the packaging itself is better than the product inside.  Personally I’m attracted to fabulous packaging like a mosquito loves stagnant pond water (good analogy, eh?), so this topic isn’t something necessarily new.  But tonight the conversation was sparked due to a new purchase.  Coffee.

Yes.  Coffee.  My love of the latino brands of coffee began with my obsession of the 50 cent espressos from the corner bodega near his apartment in Jersey City.  They’re not just good, they’re AMAZING!  And so, we began to explore those other brands of coffee.  I’ve never been one to drink Maxwell House or Folgers anyways.  (And don’t even get me started on how much I hate Starbucks coffee.  It tastes kind of over-roasted.)

Anyways…so we tried Cafe Bustelo first.  It’s delish!  And since I really can’t find it anymore at our local store, I went around to another supermarket and found El Pico.  Also delish!  Anyways….the reason we tried them is because we loved their packaging.  It makes me happy whenever I go to the grocery store and get one of the cheapest cans of coffee, in one of the best looking containers, and it tastes soooo good! 

Oh, and in general, I have a thing for great tins.  So it’s not like the coffee cans are a new thing.  Here’s a smattering of some of my collection of vintage tins.  These are pretty cool too.

How do you guys feel about packaging?  Does it suck you in too?  Do you feel the same way I do about tin containers?  (ie. I hate throwing them out. )

Orla Kiely for Target: Are you kidding me?!!!!!

SFGirlBytheBay just informed the blogging internet about Orla Kiely’s new line of home goods with Target.   I’m so excited that I can’t even stand it!!  Will you just LOOK at how cute that tray is?!  Can you tell that I’m just a little bit in love with her designs?  I did wallpaper my previous vestibule with her floral wallpaper.  Hopefully if this product launch ends up successful, she’ll increase her offering with them.  My only wish is that they had a pre-order on their website.

Appearing soon in California…for a short time only!

Next Friday I’m heading out to Los Angeles for two days!!  Not only am I getting to head somewhere warm to escape this dreadful cold weather in Philadelphia, but I’m excited to see a great friend of mine that works for Shabby Chic!!  Woohoo!  Maybe I’ll get to meet Rachel Ashwell too?!  (I doubt it though…because I’ll be working myself.  However, I did see her several years ago in High Point.  She’s quite attractive in person, I must say.)   At any rate, that’s alright b/c at night we’re going to be celebrating her husband’s birthday.  What great timing, eh?! Arrive in L.A. for work,  work all day, and then head out with old friends for cocktails?!   I love it!

Meanwhile, after work is done on Sunday…I’m heading out to San Francisco for two days!!!  I’ve never been there before so I’m SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO  excited!!!  Can you tell how excited that is?!  (I’m using an awful lot of exclamation marks in this post, so I hope I’m getting the point across that I’m EXTREMELY excited.)  Oooh, San Francisco.  I’m intrigued by your beauty!  By the thrift stores, colorful exteriors, hilly streets, trolleys!  Yay!  Oh, and I forgot to mention that the [official] reason I’m headed up there to visit is because of yet another friend (who also happens to work in the home decor business — for DWR).  So next weekend is going to be chock full of talk about design, antiques, decorating, blah blah blah.  OMGGGG!  I’m salivating just thinking about it all.  I can’t wait.

Okay…calm down.  I promise to take LOTS of pictures!

For the wine lovers out there…

N’s mom made us a little night light (?) for the kitchen out of a wine bottle from one of her favorite Cabernets.  It’s not something that I would consider to be “normally” my style, but I quite like it actually.   Maybe I’m just having a real thing for twinkling lights these days.  Hmmm….not sure.

Anyways…if you’d like to make one of your own here’s what you do:

1. Save the bottle of that delcious wine you had with dinner last night.

2. Clean it out.

3. Stuff a tiny strand of Christmas lights into it.

4. Decorate it however you’d like to.  She used faux grapes & twine

5. Plug it in.

Et Voila!  You have a twinkly little wine bottle for your kitchen.  It’s a conversation starter.

Hilarity on the spice aisle

Call me bored on a Saturday night, but I couldn’t resist changing the label on one of N’s spices while cleaning the kitchen.  Seeing “Dill Seed” just struck me as too hilarious.  And it will probably take him months to notice.  I look forward to that day.  Tee hee!

Lessons learned: First “serious” dinner party

N and I just had his parents and little brother over for dinner this evening.  It was stressful getting prepared, but in the end it was a hit.  Along the way, we definitely had a little drama here and there.  At one point I thought to myself, “How does N’s mom do it?!  Whenever she has us over she’s completely prepared and looks fabulous!”  This was not the case with us tonight.  (Of course.) Although in the end, everything ended up okay.  However along the way there were definitely some things I took away from the evening:

1. I need more serving plates & bowls.  We had virtually nothing to put the food in other than what it was cooked in.  Tomorrow N and I have decided to head to “It’s New to You” first thing to pick up some vintage treasures.
2. I also need more serving spoons & such.  I mean…people can’t dip out those veggies with their fingers, can they?  I never even realized I had nothing to scoop [and dip] things with.
3. I need a tablecloth for the dining table.  There were a couple of spills that almost gave me a heart-attack because all I could think about was….”MY DINING TABLE!!!”
4. I also need more dinner plates.  I broke two of my antique bone china dinner plates [shown below] last night and I almost started crying.   I’m still more than a little broken-hearted about the whole thing…but I’ll just keep searching ebay non-stop until I find more.  There not easy to find though…they were discontinued in 1851.  *sigh*

And as I mentioned in the last post…my New Year’s resolution for 2009 is to have people over more often.  This was the first attempt…and I think it turned out well overall. 

Easy dessert for a New Year!

Happy New Year you guys!  I’ve been enjoying taking some time off from the blog these past few weeks and just having fun with friends and family.   There has been a flurry of parties, food, long drives, laughter and music.  I’m thrilled that 2008 is over.  It looks like 2009 is going to be a good year.

And with that, one of my New Year’s resolutions is to entertain more often.  So we’ve started off by inviting N’s parents over for dinner tonight.  He’s making all the food (as usual), but I offered to make dessert.  The other week I was in NYC and went to Magnolia Bakery, and noticed their assortment of delicious cakes.   Well one of them is a simple icebox cake.  And it reminded me that “hey, I know how to make that!”  It’s delicious and a snap!  Just make homemade whipped cream (heavy cream, sugar & vanilla extract)…and spread it in between layers of Nabisco chocolate wafers.  Easy.  Done!  I decorated mine with strawberries and made a little special strawberry compote on the side.  I can’t wait to eat it tonight!