>> peachy-palm-beachy

Stubbs & Wootton "storm" slippers ($395 for ladies, $425 for gents—and there's a 30% off discount right now with the code: SPRING); Vintage Cocktails ($50); Current Elloitt trouser roll shorts ($189); Rod Stewart's Greatest Hits on vinyl ($6); Rodarte x Opening Ceremony "Roy Orbisons" ($218); Marcel Breuer's f41 Lounge on Wheels ($2,165); The Kennedys (Eunice, Bobby, Ted and Jean in 1941).

>> spring break

I'm having a serious hankering to be poolside or oceanfront. It's freezing in L.A. and I don't like it!

Chance beach towel ($65); woven tote bag ($495); 1973 British Military Rolex (ummm...); Pellegrino; Zalo loafers ($165); Field Guide to Seashells, 1968 ($30); "Fear and Loathing" aviators ($120).

>> welcome home

My friend Rebecca's newest book, Welcome Home: Make Your House a Healthy, Wealthy, and Happy Place to Live ($15) will hit the shelves next week. It's a cute little gift book full of tips covering everything from fertility to fever, hornets to headaches, peacock feathers to Palm Sunday. Buy a few.

>> allegra hicks: an eye for design

Lately, I've been buying books like they're going out of style. Oh. Wait. Well, anyway, I'm happy with my most recent purchase, Allegra Hicks: An Eye For Design ($26), its focus is textile patterns, but there are some great interiors shots, and not your run of the mill "Domino/Lonny" look. I also have to say the cover is really gorgeous.

>> digging out

I was shocked to find out last night that it's not shorts weather everywhere in the country. Hang in there dudes!

Filson log carrier ($75); Patagonia special edition down sweater ($275); Potpies: Yumminess in a Dish ($19); Wings + Horns blanket ($156); Texting gloves ($24); Shearling-lined Bean Boots ($149); First Aid Kit ($89); Ergonmic shovel ($30).

>> postcards from penguin

My brother and sister-in-law sent me this AWESOME set of 100 postcards of Penguin book covers ($25, it says they're out of stock on Amazon, but click the "17 new" link below). From classics to crime, this box contains seventy years of quintessentially British design in one box. It is hard to part with them, but too much fun to send them out. Thanks again M+B!

>> scenes from the city

It was quite a week to be tromping around NYC with buckets of snow blanketing the city (accompanied at times with thunder and lightning!). Central Park was unreal; kids sledding on trays, dogs chasing snowballs, and the skeletal trees plumped up with a coating of white. I was in NYC because my other blog, Tomboy Style, is on its way to becoming a book (Spring 2012), so it was a dream to walk into the Rizzoli book store on 57th street and take it all in. But I have to say, the best part was seeing all my friends and meeting the newest member of our gang, the beautiful two-week old Mister Augustus Fitch.

>> living architecture

Just back from the west coast book launch of Living Architecture ($75), a beautiful Assouline tome chronicling 20 of America’s most innovative and iconic houses of the 20th century. Your coffee table with thank you for it.

>> take ivy

It took me about .3 seconds to become fully obsessed with Take Ivy ($15), a photo book full of candid photographs shot on Ivy League campuses in the mid-60s by Japanese photographer Teruyoshi Hayashida. It was originally published in Japan in 1965, setting off an explosion of American-influenced “Ivy Style” fashion among students in Tokyo, which is still lingering today. Required reading.

What I saw in more than a few stores in Tokyo's Daikanyama neighborhood in November of 2008.

>> dogs days of summer

Emeco Heritage Rocking Armchair ($875-$1,745); McClure's garlic dill pickles ($14); glass juicer ($12); classic cotton hammock ($99); Peterboro bike basket ($34); Fatboy dog bed ($139); Propello desk fan ($145); oval hurricane ($18); My Dog Skip ($10).

>> I heart your style

Major book crush on Amanda Brooks' chronicle of how to define and refine your personal style. The photos (like the above Sabrina Guinness in a floral print dress on a date with Prince Charles circa 1979) and smart commentary are both top notch. Pick it up here ($14). I heart this book.

>> straight from 1970

Check out these scans from The Practical Encyclopedia of Good Decorating and Home Improvement! Gotta love the fact that there is no irony, referencing, or over intellectualizing going on here, it's just the straight dope from 1970.

>> counterpoint books

We took a stroll down to Franklin Avenue this weekend and stopped into Counterpoint Records and Books where I spotted a first edition copy of Memoirs of a Fox-Hunting Man by Siegfried Sassoon. I'll admit it, I really just wanted it for the cover and the Royal Tenenbaum-esque interior illustrations.

>> arrowed

The arrow saga continues. Think I gotta have these mid-century brass arrow bookends ($145), and obviously this hat—all from Paris Hotel Boutique.

>> nothing but blue skies

Public D1 bike ($600); Best Made Co. Axe ($200); Happy Socks ($10); Magritte by David Sylvester ($35); Partners & Spade and Fresco studios' (which monograms Goyard's bags) table lamp (TBD); Sydney Albertini Dipped Pasta Bowl ($250); Tretorn Skymra women's sneaker ($70).

>> i lego n.y.

Being a total Lego freak (i.e. huge nerd), I've been loving Christoph Niemann’s blog Abstract City which runs on The NYT website. One of the most notable chapters, I LEGO N.Y., is one of the most clever, genius, hilarious things man has ever done with Legos, and now the series has been turned into a book. Get a copy here ($10).



***Update***
Check this out! Delores of Humble Ablog re-created the George Nelson platform bench using only Legos. It'll knock your socks off.

>> vintage book covers

These vintage book covers ($18) for iPad or Kindle DXs caught my eye today. I would definetly like my seat mate on my next flight to think I was reading The Practical Handyman's Encyclopedia.

>> rip jd salinger

"What really knocks me out is a book, when you're done reading it, you wished the author that wrote it was a terrific friend of yours and you could call him up on the phone whenever you felt like it." —Holden, Catcher in the Rye

>> antique color

Online antiquing can be addictive. I've been combing the internets lately looking for things and I've come up with a list of candy-colored items I wouldn't mind having in my home. Above: Late 18th/early 19th century painted Smith tin tinderbox ($595) from Richmond, NH.

Balthazar by Lawrence Durrell, 1st Ed. 1958 ($65) from PHB in San Francisco.

Vintage pieces blanket ($250)—I think I saw these at the LA Gift show—from Jayson's Flea.

Vintage Highballs ($35 for four) from the Etsy shop White Elephant Vintage.

David Hicks on Home Decoration, 1st ed. 1972 (sold, sorry)

Vintage Scandinavian books ($40 each).

Mid-century Palm Beach Chippendale ($1,395).

Assouline forges West

Melrose Place is looking a little more bookish today as Assouline, the Parisian publishing house for "people of taste", opened up its first L.A. boutique inside the restaurant Bastide. The townhousey bookstore-cafe will serve food under the helm of Joel Pytka from 8am to 10pm. Looks like a great place for lunch and a cocktail. Who's in?


That's Prosper Assouline himself who founded the publishing house in 1995 with his wife Martine Assouline...

...who was looking as chic as ever in the Garden Room with her leopard-print coat on over her shoulders. And did anyone else notice the Beverly Hills Hotel palm wallpaper?



There's a cozy fire place around the new editions in the main library and a vintage room off the entry of gems personally curated by Prosper Assouline.



Ingo Maurer chandelier in the main library = awesome.