A Peek into a Spring NEST: Berkeley and San Francisco

Living Etc., the UK decorating magazine says that "Nest" is #19 of "the 50 hottest interior shops

in the world".  THE WORLD!!!!

I had only known the Berkeley store to date, and conveniently (says Mr. Paradis),  on past visits to 

the Bay area,  I had arrived at the Berkeley 4th St. store only after closing time.  The original, Fillmore St. store, I had never visited, and did not know at all.

HAPPILY.  Such was not the case on the occasion of my latest visits.......

TO BOTH THE STORES -  Berkeley on a Monday,  AND the

Fillmore St. store on a Tuesday.  (After a long and informative walk from the Union Square

neighborhood.  Through Nob Hill.)  If you were a woman after my own heart, you might have been

making mental negotiations like mine: "I DO need new car because after all, I live in L.A.!

(Where a car is a MUST. ) BUT,  if I DID NOT BUY A NEW CAR,  but I tried instead to keep the old one going and bought the entire contents of at least one, if not BOTH of these Nest stores......(with the money I'd "save")

could I make myself the HAPPIEST PERSON ON EARTH FOREVER  and 

never need to leave home????"  "It seems very possible", a person like me might persuade herself, "because the Nest stores would provide everything

I have ever, could ever, want or need?"

Would you feel like a Chinese person or an Egyptian, knowing that you could die happy

with everything you'd ever need in your afterlife as well?  The way I do in this magical place?

Is that what heaven would feel like?  That you'd been transported to somewhere utterly wonderful and not wish to ever leave again?  "They" say that heaven is as simple as that.  And through millennia we've been inclined to believe it.  

That there is a heaven.  So perfect, so pleasing, yes, small, perhaps but infinitely varied and pleasure-able.  That heaven for me must surely be NEST.

Chinoiserie at Christie's South Kensington

Have you ever lurked in an auction house exhibition hall?

Mr. Paradis and I have poked our noses into them on Bond Street and it was intimidating.

Even though we were only having a look then at some vintage childrens' books and Bob Dylan paintings and sculptures (not many people know about Bob's sidelines - did you?)

The auction house team seemed to think that we might be members of some

international ring of smash-and-grab hoodlums.

Happily, it was a different visit on an easy sunny day at Christie's in South Kensington.  Where everyone was very solicitous and welcoming (maybe the sunshine put them in a good mood?) and left us to wonder undisturbed at the goodies displayed.

It was better than a museum.  We were able to get very up close and personal with this grouping 

of beautiful robes.  The needlework was delightful and imaginative.  Little hidden treasures imbedded in what are otherwise fairly plainly constructed, and simply shaped, womens' garments.

I have always had a weakness for this jewelry made of kingfisher feathers.  (But I am sadly not capable of being a properly responsible caretaker of such treasures.  I have too much reverence for them to imagine it would be a good idea for me to take any home.)

There was a whole further selection of blue and white porcelain which other visitors were allowed to handle and examine more closely:  (we were also offered such examining privileges but we declined)  brush holders, bronzes, chinese export things you might normally expect.

For me the visit was all about the robes and imagining Chinese ladies of old, with their tiny bound feet - reclining in carved and brick beds heated from below, or perched on little stools

with streaming lengths of silk

and dreams of dragons and chrysanthemums.

(Please excuse my clumsy retouching job.)

Imagine what the piece above might have looked like in its original colors.  (Which would be more beautiful - plain, or colored?)

This ornately rendered bodhisattva seemed to perfectly embody my own - and perhaps some others' - conflicted feelings about the country and culture of my mother's birth.

Don't be too timid if you get a chance at a similar visit.  Just because you don't have a giant checkbook doesn't mean you should deny yourself access to such a wonderful experience and resource.  Christie's auctions change frequently, there will always be something new to view and choose from.  And when you're done...the V&A is also close by!

We're having a Fourth of July weekend here in the U.S.  The week has been marred by even more tragedy - one thinks it will never ever stop now - so, so discouraging.  On a cheerier note, the plucky Icelanders have come from nowhere to hold their own, beat the Brits in the the Euros and scored two goals against Les Bleus at the Stade de France.   (Bravo!  Pretty good for a bunch of dentists!)

Stay well, Stay safe and Enjoy your Sweet Summer Days

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Little Things That Please My Heart - Dim Sum at Jia, South Kensington, London

Jia!  Happy Weekend!!!

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Moving Miniatures

Sometimes a theme develops.

 (Photo by Artemis at Junkaholique)

Stars align.

 (handmade by hand in the traditional Chinese way presumably, by Paris' Petit Pan)

Great minds think alike.  That sort of thing.

As Nadine at Tiny Woolf* recently pointed out to me, Artemis at Junkaholique and I covered some of the same ground in London this past month.  Artemis got to Clifton Nurseries before me.  She cadged the tin caravan at a South Bank boot sale (methinks).  Me, I have saved Clifton Nurseries pics for you for later.  And I cadged pictures only of a little boat and an emergency van.  (The originals of which I encountered at the Conran Shop and in Camden Passage in Islington.  Pics 2 and 3 respectively.)  I think though, that all three share in common a very appealing simplicity of form and refreshing graphic qualities.  SO NICE!  I JUST HAD TO SHARE!

Yes, I'm giving you just another idea of some cool things you could become an avid collector of!  No need to thank me.  I know.  I get it.  

Anybody else have samples of similar miniatures?  Send me a pic and I'll add it/them to the post!  Wouldn't that be fun?  We could make a virtual-visual-cyber-collection.  I know, I know, someone's probably doing it already on Pinterest.  But wouldn't we rather be different and a bit retrograde?

*(So nice to have lunch with her in London!  We were enjoying chattering/eating together so much we forgot to take a picture!  I promise you, it was a happy lunch.)

HAVE  A LOVELY WEEKEND ALL!

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Canal Walk - Maida Vale to Regent's Park, London

It's just marvelous isn't it?

A watery alternative universe

plunked right

in the middle of

London.

This walk starts in Maida Vale near the Warwick Avenue Tube Station.

Did you know that Richard Branson's Virgin business empire originated

in a houseboat in Maida Vale?  (Also known as Little Venice.)

Or that some scenes from A Fish Called Wanda

were filmed here?  Such a characterful place.

And, since it IS England, just because you live on boat, doesn't mean you can't have a garden.

The route is changeable and full of surprises.  At just about Lisson Grove near St. John's Wood it's necessary to rejoin the street above and then.....redescend........to the water.

Some boat dwellers live in "gated communities"on the canal, that you will not have access to, or that are locked at night.

Brilliant blue paint and miniature gardens are a consistent theme.

I think you might know what I thought about encountering this character.......

I WANTED TO BRING HIM HOME (to L.A.!) WITH ME !!!!!!

A very jaunty and creative bunch seemed to be inhabiting

this particular stretch

of the canal.  But its character changes rather abruptly

as you enter Regent's Park.   Just above

the London Mosque with it's twinkly minaret.

Great doings are underway, apparently.

And yes, those are PRIVATE HOUSES set in prime London real estate.

And yet, cheek by jowl.... right next to...the London Zoo.

More specifically, the warthog exhibit!  (No, really!)  The hyenas are in the next enclosure over.....

and across the canal from them....a peacock aviary.  One does have the sensation by this point of having falling down a particular kind of rabbit hole where thing's do get.....

curioser and curioser.

Because this segment of the London Canal route ends in

a.......Pagoda!  That floats!  (And where you can eat Chinese food!)  I was not expecting that, were you?  

One is reminded again of the saying:  "when a man is tired of London, he is tired of life; for there is in London all that life can afford." - Samuel Johnson