Recent vacation

So one of the the things we were doing on the two month break from posting was vacationing.  Not for two months of course - just 10 days but was a nice break. Can you guess where we went?

Due to hubs schedule we were forced to go in April and it rained the whole time. Well almost the whole time - we had one good day at Versailles. Quite lucky we chose that day to go!

Yes on every trip I have my head in a guide book

And when it rained we spent our time in museums and shops! Recognize this museum?

Hope you enjoyed the pics!

Liebster Love + Eye Candy 003

That was me last week when I saw that Pam over at Cherish Toronto picked lil old me as a Liebster Award receipient.  So there are rules to obey when you receive one of these but I'm going to have to give it a little thought - its like an Oscar speech...I'll have to write mine.

Meanwhile here's the final in my series of photos when I was home shopping in LA - especially for Pam who is going there in March.

You may have seen mention of Rejuvenation in Canadian House & Home magazine.  Its a reproduction lighting and hardware store with absolutely beautiful goods.  In LA the store is in the 'Helms Bakery District' which is a home store district. They have plenty of pretty stores there including Room & Board.  However I spent so much time (3 hours) in Rejuvenation I never made it to the other stores.

I have a penchant for taking slanty photos

Later, I am so changing out the hardware in the house

We really wanted one of these fancy doorbells but the chimes you need to buy are way too bulky looking

For better pictures go to the House & Home blogs - Decorating Finds - Jan 19, 2012 (sorry no easy way to link) or better yet check out the store's website.  I'm off to it right now to find pics of what we bought to share - tomorrow :)

Eye Candy 002

So yesterday I posted pics from my recent trip to LA (what you wanted the Hoolywood sign!)  One stop I always make in LA is the Jonathan Adler store.  I have yet to buy something (1- I'm cheap and 2- its hard bringing stuff back on Air Canada).  I love the Adler style:

Love the coffe table

Those lamps are scary!



Love the mirror



Hubs loves the art. Me not so much.

Sign in store. I agree

Eye candy 001

So Hubs and I were in LA this past weekend (work thing) and so of course we indulged in tourism - retail tourism!

First stop: Kelly Wearstler's store. It was a bit of a disappointment to me only because the store's focus is clothing. But here are pics for your viewing pleasure:

The coolest thing for me was probably this dresser in the window:

Across the street from Kelly's store was this infinitely cool tile store (Check them out at http://www.soliusa.com/). Here are some general pics:

Bottom left - chevron is cool

Rather cool mosaic - if you're brave enough for colours

And here's what I really loved there: ONYX. Onyx is more beautiful than marble (you can see such a beautiful reflection in it) but requires more care. It was like $45 a square foot for the beige and green. The blue sandblasted was $100 per s.f.  My favourite was the beige.  Btw - am curious do you ever play "I'm richer than I am"? Like when you look at something that is 10 times what you can afford and say "that's exactly what I'm looking for." We do :)

Beige onyx

Aquamarine onyx - they mixed sandblasted and polished in the display

Blue onyx - but you really need onyx to be polished to appreciate IMHO

Another cool sighting was this marble that looked like hardwood flooring. Sorry if my pics aren't great - I wanted to look like a casual shopper not an eager blogger in the store.

Marble that looks like hardwood

The saleslady was really practical and told me that with onyx being the feature wall I should go for simple flooring like these basalt planks. These were 'only' $12 a square foot. Basalt is apparently stronger than granite and non-porous. Again - sorry - sunny LA as you can see

Basalt planks

 Hubs loved this glass tile - each one is rounded and has a bamboo feel.

Oh and check out these mirror mosaics. They are over a $100 sq ft!


That's it for me today. More eye candy from LA coming soon.