The Glove + Zipper As Inspiration

Reed Krakoff, Fall 2010 Show, NYC. The Glove. With slight zipper detail. Those impractical heels for the autumn chill. Glove + zipper + open strappy high heel? Take me away. In a good way.

We have no snow here today in Newport like the rest of the East Coast. I am jealous. But due to my freedom of no precipitation (except maybe in the form of driving rain) I am going to possibly wear pleather leggings out tonight. I said it. Pleather leggings. Out. In Newport of all places. I am practicing for someplace a slight tid bit more cosmopolitan...

And One More Thing...

There it is, the denim jacket, again. With a lace skirt and the belt? Brilliant. Outside of the Ralph Lauren show, of course.

Image from The Sartorialist.

Collecting Design Collectives

This photo below is just a snippet of what you can find on a blog called Good Bones Great Pieces. My friend DK discovered this gem after seeing a magazine spread about a little NY apartment that the mother-daughter design duo managed for the daughter herself. In the wake of our loss of beloved Domino magazine, we have to build a collective of design inspiration to gap the missing monthly home design treat harshly ripped away by Conde Nasty. (No offense CN, but I think you see your mistake now) Any suggestions of other interesting blogs are encouraged.

An Homage To My Youth

Yesterday I heard a song in the UPS Store - "Let's Go All The Way" by Sly Fox. It reminded me of the time (I have reminisced about before on this blog) when I would sit in Melissa's bedroom and she would play a hall-of-fame-worthy selection of 45's like she was Dick Clark. She bought them at the Mentor Mall in the record section of a store similar to Woolworth's near the GAP.

I bought it last night on itunes. Much better sound quality but lacking that youthful excitement of plunking down a fiver for a 45. (How much did 45s cost? I feel like it was my entire cost-of-living based allowance circa 1985.) This brings me to Jake Ryan. I saw a mint Porsche 944 on East Main Road yesterday, took a picture of it and sent it to a few friends. Jake was not driving...oh how we all wish he had been...

I haven't written yet in 2010...and my 25 year old memories of Sly Fox (I mean that was a DIRTY song in1985!!!) and Jake Ryan seemed the best way to kick off The Sugar Buzz 2010.

Happy New Year. Metal Tiger is right around the corner.

HB

If You're Shopping For Me...

This striped couch is perfect for winter. It looks happy, it looks warm, and who doesn't need something stripey and colorful when we are having some kind of sick nor'easter and it isn't even the shortest day of the year??? Available at Anthropologie online, they take credit cards and will deliver it right to my doorstep. You don't even have to wrap it!

Gift Guide Part 4...Let Them Eat CAKE!

Checkerboard cake? $14 at Sur la Table. Don't forget the checkerboard ice cream. Or maybe striped neopolitan...love print mixing.

Bundt cake eludes me. Although this castle shaped bundt cake pan could persuede me to reconsider the entire movement. Sur la Table, $36.

Simple and perfect cake stand, appropriate for all occaisions and design. Conran Shop. Available in 6", 8.5", and 11" diameters.
Now you're in business. Striped cupcake boxes...so cute! Great for the homemade happy cake gift giving. Sur la Table for next to nothing.
Tartan cupcake liners. I'll write it again in case you missed the point. TARTAN cupcake liners. They match your grandmother's taffeta skirt that you'll be donning as gay apparel with your gray t-shirt and duck boots. You cannot put a price on tradition. But if you did, the cupcake liners are $7.99.

Gift Guide Part III - Coolest Kitchen

This could be the coolest toaster I have ever seen. Even you minimalist people can appreciate this kind of countertop clutter. Leave it out, toast at will, toast for design. MoMA store, $225.

Brilliant glass half-pint creamer. Available for $14 (!!!) at the MoMA store online. This is an inexpensive and witty gift. Who wouldn't appreciate this?

I'm not sure if this is exactly the kind of message you want to send this festive holiday season...but I do love some humor in domestic life. Knife Guy, on sale $158 at A+R Store.

Gift Guide - Part Two - I Smell Bacon

Let us begin the Parade of Bacon. Slightly odd, mostly funny.

Well, I guess because wearing a real strip of bacon over a wound may raise a few eyebrows and cause an irritating and obvious following of flying insects and dogs. Bacon Bandages, $9.

I am not 100% sure that this bacon flavored floss will help prevent any kind of major dental issue. I think it may assist in landing someone in an asylum (do they still have asylums?).

In order to smell like bacon at all times since you cannot eat it continuously...bacon soap, $8.

To carry all of the money around to buy bacon. Bacon Wallet, $16.


Those are bacon flavored jelly beans. I suppose for snacking, craving bacon and something sweet, and also for reviving the bacon flavor in your mouth after flossing with bacon floss and also eating real cooked bacon. $5.95.

And finally (I could keep going with bacon products, scary but true) - for the person so bacon-obsessed that they have ceased making any rational decision and now must refer to the "What Would Bacon Do?" ($4.95) decision wheel. This one thing taken seriously plus any of the above will certainly land you in a bacon-free zone monitored by friends, loved ones, or men in white coats.
All kidding aside, I think these are hilarious gifts for that meat lover (or vegetarian that has a decent sense of humor) who has everything except some Bacon Accoutrements. Obviously these are not terribly kosher or approved for any kind of Hannukah celebration or hostess gift.

Gift Guide - Part One - Inexpensive Jewelry for the Girls

Grill for your wrist, $112. Far less expensive and less intrusive than getting one for your actual mouth. This plus the Brooklyn Bridge ring would be a statement and a half. More statement than possibly most average towns and people could really handle.

This Paper Plane necklace is fantastic. I'm at such a loss for words over this I should stop narrating the blog photos. $68

Eiffel Tower earrings at $13...since you cannot fly your Paper Airplane necklace over the big blue sea.

These "Critter Earrings" (above) are only $16, and you get six pairs of little studs! What a great thing to buy and divide up into sets for friends.

All jewelry available on FredFlare.com.

A Day Off Island...Providence

It is the time of year where Dockwise has made it's last pick up in Newport Harbor (this past Tuesday)...sure restaurants are offering weekday specials and there is no wait for a table any longer. All of it makes me sad for the summer we didn't really have here this year due to Mother Nature's incongruent decision to offer rain and chill and a teaser of sun and a chilly fall.

More importantly, we can run off to Providence as an escape to a "city" without dragging ourselves North on Rt 24 into Boston driving madness. Design*Sponge has aWONDERFUL Providence Guide online that features the cityby neighborhood. I say choose one and explore. This is excellent for the doldrums blowing down with the Canadian air... Pick one this weekend! I am going up there today to scout some of my favorite vintage stores and make a much needed hit on Sephora for skin survival gear.

Possible Dream Job, But For Now A Cool Show On TV...

With the recent conclusion of some borderline trashy but possibly inspiring reality shows (Rachel Zoe Project and Flipping Out), I have been seaching for something different... Alas! The Sundance Channel answers my tele-box frustration with Man Shops Globe airing new episodes Wednesdays at 10 p.m. can we talk about that Union Jack lampshade please? (above)

Here is the best part...Keith Johnson (the man shopper) is titled "Buyer At Large" for Anthropolgie. Are you joking? This could be the coolest job (and most untouchable) I have heard of in a loooong time. Hats off to you, Keith.
DVR or watch this show On-Demand immediately. Maybe it will inspire you to create a cool job like this to spread your own style influence into a growing empire like Anthropologie.

More Than A Pet Peeve

I absolutely cannot contain myself one more second about this subject. Therefore I am starting a new month of entries with a little note to all of you about my very severe and yet-still-growing distain for the phrase: "to be honest with you".

I would not hire someone who uses the phrase, and I am seriously considering de-friending people (in real life not on that faux life website) who are using this phrase. Whether you are little George Washington (below) or Honest Abe, the bottom line is that when this cliche is used I think that you are: a) about to lie to me, or b) have already told me a lie somewhere in your previous words.

I know some of you may argue that it is not your intention to make the listener feel so betrayed when you thoughtlessly blurt out the cliche: "to be honest with you". Please, argue. Use more cliches to prove your point. But I will still think you are lying or have lied in some capacity.

So do all of us a favor, including your founding fathers, and stop saying "to be honest with you" and "honestly". They are trash words taking up space where thoughtfulness and intellegence should be instead.

Tomorrow my entry will be colorful and aesthetically pleasing.

*The GW is for you Miqui...you may need to send me pictures of your "Washington Monument" to share...it is inspiring and makes that chore so entertaining.

Giddy Up

I mean, come on. Fabulous. Stirrup cufflinks. Vintage.I hesitated posting this because even though I am not a wearer of cufflinks I think it would be a good deed to have these remade to improve the Lives of Men. And the women who look at them. It's all in the details, guys, in case you didn't already get that memo.

Home Sweet Home

Home Sweet Home...

If you want to visit Newport, here is a great guide on Design*Sponge written by a one-year resident**. **good job Andrea McHugh, whomever you are...glad you are enjoying the Fishbowl.

Just Chillin'

This is the coolest ice bucket I have ever seen. It is also handmade from sterling silver. Available on Ralph Lauren's Gift Vault site.

My Change Purse Has Whiskers

This mouse. Is brilliant.

It has whiskers*.

I love a dash of humor, especially one that involves animal shapes.

Available on the Colette website.
I have to say, bringing the superbly edited finds from Colette's brick and mortar in Paris right into my computer is possibly one of the greatest bits about this thing called the internet.

*Whiskers: a favorite word...say it out loud right now.

Cuff 'Em

I am not a huge fan of the live, roving, squawking, mating Peacock. When I lived in the Village on Longboat Key there was a throng of "wild" Peacocks. They had been driven out of every other block by annoyed neighbors into a six house radius at which my house was the center. They are endangered or might come after you in the night since they are the size of Great Danes; so my neighbors protected them. It wasn't even the tourists stopping to take pictures of them in my yard, it was the mess and the loud squawking. I can still imitate them, it is quite a party favor for anyone who has lived with Peacocks. However, I do approve of the Peacock cuff above. Designed by Pippa Small and made of 14k gold and Labradorite (!!!), it is finally a Peacock related item that I can stomach after a decade of distain. It is also 14,000 Pounds on Astley Clarke.

Next is something more affordable and less Peacock. A Carnelian cuff by Asha by ADM. It is listed as approximately $995 also on Astley Clarke. But the designer Ashley Dodgen-McCormick's current collection is on her website. She is the next collectible and elegant jewelry designer, at very affordable prices using high quality stones in timeless designs. I encourage the purchase of some of her jewelry. The cuff below is a brilliant start.

Lifesaver

Tony Duquette's new book More Is More is available now...combine this with Assouline's lifestyle book GYPSET about the designer-hippie-brocade-Ibiza-gold-tan-private jet set...and we have a recipe for getting through the next week or two with a little more inspiration than these grey New England skies can provide. Add in the Tony Duquette ring above and, well, we should call it a lifejacket.

It's no secret that I am not a fan of the cold weather (unless it involves a chic shearling, two feet of snow, and a roaring Vermont stone fireplace).

Signing off: Looking for Inspiration to Keep Me Afloat...HB

Overbite

I'm not insanely fond of the Walrus. Except that cartoon Walruses are cute. And I do like their tusks. Things with fangs and tusks are pretty adorable. It's like a helpless super-bad overbite.

That said, I am not sure I would wear this cuff. But I sure admire the creativity and craftsmanship that goes into making this little guy.

David Webb...again.

Rings on Parade, Part One...

I never fully got the concept of "cocktail ring" since my Grandmother, who owned the rings and allowed me to wear them to picnic dinners (sometimes), was no longer "cocktailing". The term confused me...

...Until later when I heard stories about all of the previous cocktailing she and my Grandfather had done during the summers in the 50s and 60s. Two solid decades of cocktailing. It skips a generation; my parents did not go out and tie one on.

My love for occaision jewelry was born. To wear everyday to picnic dinners, and to wish I could have been a firefly in the yard at some of my Grandfather's Mint Julep parties.

Tony Duquette Cabochon Ring - coral, turquoise, peridot, and amethyst.
Vintage David Webb Labradorite and Diamond ring. One word: Phe-nom-i-nal.

And finally with a regal but subdued presence, another vintage David Webb ring (do you detect a theme? Yes, he was a genius). Carved onyx with rose cut Rock Crystal. So good!
Happy Monday.
p.s. These are actually all for sale right now ($$$$$$) on 1st Dibs.