Julie and Julia -Living the Dream

Did you see Julie & Julia this weekend? It's a terrific movie. We strongly recommend it.

The movie, as you know, is about the parallel lives of Julia Child and the blogger who blogged about cooking with her cookbook. The movie is about food and cooking, obviously, but to us, the main theme is do what you love and the rest will follow.

The story of Julie Powell is truly a Cinderella story. The chance of a blogger being picked up for a book deal AND a movie deal is like, shall we say, the same chance of wining the lottery. Technorati estimates that there are 133 millions blog out there. Now, most of them are about what people eat for lunch, but there are some amazing blogs that are written with such care and love. You can tell that they are written by the people who are truly passionate about their subjects...

If after seeing the movie and totally loving it, you might want check out these food blogs. They are our faves...

Orangette
Chez Pim
101 cookbooks

Moroccan Decor from Zodax

We love to travel. Well, that's like saying you like to walk on the beach, isn't it? Who doesn't like to travel? It's one of those things that just open you up to all kind of possibilities.

One of the places we've been dreaming about is Morocco. It seems so exotic, doesn't it? Morrocan style decorating is big too. If it is done well, it's a wonderful look.

Here are some Morroco-inpsired home accessories from Zodax. They need some colors mixed in (deep jewel-tone, preferably). We'll follow up with a post on that later...

This line is really inexpensive. The web site is Zodax.com, but it is to the trade only and is password-protected, sorry. Drop us a line if you need help though..

PS If you are interested, here is a travel article on Morocco from the NY Times.

Very Pretty (and Very Inexpensive) Decorative Pillows from Surya

Are you a bargain hunter? We are. But we are not the digging type though. We have friends that love outlets and closeouts and the likes, but we prefer to get things that are new, nicely packaged, and in perfect condition when we get them, at a great price, of course.

This is why we really like this pillow collection from Surya. They are only sold in pair, but they are so inexpensive, like $40-50 per pillow including shipping!

Here are some really pretty ones:













You'll find these soon under our decorative pillows section (by the end of this weekend. Just remember to flip toward the end a bit...

PS For those who really, really like to dig, check out propertyroom.com. It's a site that sells unclaimed goods and there are some great bargains there, particularly for jewelry and electronic goods.

More Hollywood Regency Furniture from Worlds Away

A few years back when we saw Worlds Away for the first time, they only make these funky headboards and table covers. But my, how things have changed. We just saw their new products recently and we were quite pleasantly surprised.

If you are into the Hollywood Recency look, you might like them as well. The furniture is very chic and modern, yet moderately-priced.

Here are pictures for some of them:

This is a great nightstand. It comes in white and brown. Retails for $1095 or so...


Love this cabinet, don't you? Shown here in white, it's available in lime-oak as well. Retails for about $3000.
This is a cute side table/plant stand...
We use this as a console table for the hallway. It also comes in a nickel finish. Retails for about $1200.
This is a nice change from a typical sideboard. We use it as a TV console. Retails for about $2500.







To see more products, visit WorldsAway web site...

Pretty Fabrics & Wallpapers from Romo

We were at a hospitality show in Vegas sometime last year when we saw the fabrics and wallpapers from Romo. Have you heard of them? It's an English company that makes divine fabrics and wallpapers. In fact, if you think about it, most of the very cool wallpaper and fabric manufacturers are UK-based.

Here are some examples from the line. The colors and textures are just amazing.









This line is pretty pricey, but it's so worth it.

To see more of the line, visit the Romo web site. They only sell to the trade though, so if you need help, send us a line...

Organic Decorating from DK Living

There has been news lately regarding organic food--as to whether it actually makes you healthier. A major study by the London School of Hygiene and & Tropical Medicine concluded that consumers were paying more for the "perceived" health benefits. To read more about the study, click here.

But this blog is about decorating, not eating, so let's focus on organic decorating instead. By organic decorating, we are talking about products that use natural materials vs synthetic, and styles that are hand-made vs manufactured.

But we're not the DYI kind of people, we're more like do-it-for-me kinda people, so we rather buy the "perceived" hand-made part.

Here are some that we really like from DK Living:

This is a fantastic rockstone bowl that's great for display fruit and can be used indoor/outdoor. It' retails for $200.

This is a pedestal, but we think it can be used as a side table as well. It's about $150.

This is sold per piece at $25 per piece. It's fantastic as a ground cover for your garden. We love this rock bowl . It's about $300.

This ball looks fantastic in person. It comes in different sizes and we like to display them in group. This one is 12" and it's about $75.
Here's some more rock mats...


We'll be putting these up on our site soon, but in the mean time please contact us if you need any info...

Vintage Decor from Barreveld

Our taste leans toward modern decor, mostly. However, once in a while we really like vintage decor as well. It's kinda like anti-hip, anti-cool, and we like it.

Honestly, we're a little bit tired of hipness--why such a need to be cool and hip all the time? What's wrong with letting our stomach hangs out in an old t-shirt and chugging a beer once in a while?

(Okay, we have to admit we only do this in private--never in public. We live in LA, for God's sake.)

Vintage decorating is like wearing an old t-shirt, actually. It's comforting and nolstagic. We found a bunch of products from Barraveld that we really like.

Here are some of them:

This couch is cored in soft beige linen. It's about $2000.

This antique book is about $30.
We love this door knob, dont' you? It runs about $25/each. We adore this settee. It's about $1900.
This cream/sugar set runs about $125 for the set.

We don't know if this actually works or not, but this antique telescope runs about $400 or so...

This adorable horse retails at $150.
We love this light fixture, either for outside or inside. It retails for $300. This garden conservatory is $4000-it's a real one though! We have no idea how much it costs to ship!

Most of these products can be used in a very modern way. If you want to see an example of this, go to Gjelina restaurant on Abbott Kinney in Venice when you have a chance. They have a fabulous way of using vintage decor in a very chic way. The food is fabulous too...

We'll be loading this up soon in our vintage decor section. In the mean time, if you want to see more or have questions about any of the products seen here, please contact us.