The Viceroy Hotel

Kelly designed the Viceroy Hotel below. It is over the top beautiful.

We stumbled on Kelly Wearstler's office after having lunch at The Spanish Kitchen. Tons of great shops on her street but all closed on Sunday perhaps due to Thanksgiving. It was put on our "to do" list for our next L.A. trip.

The top 2 photos are taken in the bathroom. It was almost as beautiful as the lobby.

Cocktails at the Viceroy.

I have seen this photo before and it never occured to me that it was outside. The chairs are covered in a vinyl I believe. This is a small sitting area tucked away from the pool. It is stunning at night.

In the lobby of the Viceroy.

This is the bar we sat at for cocktails. We were thrilled to be surrounded with such beauty.

H.D. Buttercup-more Los Angeles shopping

Located in the former historic Helms Bakery building, H.D. Buttercup is a must on your shopping list. Located in Culver City which we hear is an up and coming hip neighborhood. We loved all the shops in this little enclave.

H.D. Buttercup has 150,000 sq. ft. of furniture both vintage and new, lighting, rugs, accessories and an overwhelming amount of inspiration. We were blown away. The important thing for us in staging is that you can purchase it right off the floor. No ordering or waiting. A stagers dream...

This cute display reminded me of Kelly Wearstler's display at the Viceroy in Los Angeles below.

Just a tiny bit...

Fashion District

The Los Angeles "Fashion District" is most certainly a colorful part of town but the "fashion" part is lost on us. Tons of stalls of fake leather shoes and hand bags. Cheap jewels and tshirts. All was not lost as I did find some cute headbands for my sweet salon.

Staging Supplies

We have had this on our list forever. Very grungy space but kind of fun to splunk through all of the objects. When a hotel gets remodeled the old furniture, hair dryers, ice buckets, pictures, etc. come here to be sold to the public. It was well worth the trip!

 

Imagine this mirror painted a high gloss white or black or even a daring orange. We tried to purchase a couple but couldn't fit them in our car so were hiring a trucking company to deliver them to us. These mirrors came from the l'Auberge Del Mar. It's fun when things come with a story.

Thinking of ways to make this cute stool better. They had tons of them.

Relaxing and it feels so good...

Began our morning with exercise and an hour by the pool. Can you stand it?  We are here to get motivated, inspired and fill up our cups. The hotel has been a great source of inpiration.

These "rooms" are all situated around the pool.

We had a ton of laughs-more on that later...

Los Angeles we have arrived!

We have arrived for our long awaited shopping trip ready to relax and enjoy a slower pace. Our list is long but just lingering over our morning coffee while the sun is coming into our room is almost more than enough for us. 

Our Hotel: The Avolon. It's a quiet place that's pretty hip in the day and lovely by candle light at night. We are happy...

We rolled into town and stopped for a $70  lunch at The Ivy. Of course there was a couple of star sightings by Sister Extraordinaire. We sat street side so you can't help seeing the limos arrive and who was getting out of the cars. You could feel the energy in the air changing-it's weird. We saw:

Adam Corolla

Jeff Bridges

Tara said she would promise to be a better poser for me becasue I am not always posting cute photos of her. But here you have it. Tara at the Ivy.

Behind me is where "everyone" arrives.

We are off to a fabulous start!

Happy Thanksgiving!

I give thanks for creative people.

Cool Stores.

Great Neighborhoods

and

People who are nice.

Three knit turkeys all in a row! (I wish you could see the other 2.) This is such a sweet store front. The window displays are always amazing. Created by Zoe Sherman-super star window designer for Hilltop Yarn on Queen Anne in Seattle. Rumor has it she's for hire....

Add to your contacts

My friend Lisa is an amazing woman. She has an eye for treasures. Her story of finding a beautiful diamond ring in a pile of costume jewelery is just one of her many adventures. Phone her to view the ever-changing collection she has set up in her garage. I have also attended the Estate sales Lisa has conducted. Below are some of the things I saw today while I was picking up a mirror for my sweet salon.

I thought of my stylist friend Kamie. She would love this!

This pretty mirror sits on the porch waiting for a friend of mine. How lucky.

The "mirror" against the wall is going in my studio. I am painting it a high gloss white and using it for my idea board. It's almost as tall as me.

Lisa found this mirror for me. I had to paint it and add glass but even with that it was a steal!

My dining chairs and table came from Lisa.

This summer I picked up this pretty little canvas from her. I'm telling you she has treasures galore!

Call her to fancy up your home.

So many creative ways to save the earth

.

Who would have thought that a font would change our consumption? I know that between my two businesses we use a ton of ink cartridges and it drives me crazy. Ecofont uses up to 20 percent less ink by omitting parts of the letters. Here is a creative way to reduce your ink consumption. Cleverly created by a Dutch firm.

Hoo Hoo wants chocolate?

Loving the creativity that goes into Chocolopolis' window displays.

This is a lovely chocolate shop on Queen Anne. Everyone raves about their fancy hot chocolate. I love each season's window display.

rain rain go away....

Seattle is wet. The rain has striped the leaves off the trees so it is very dreary. We are leaving soon for Los Angeles... The timing could not be better!