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.

The Mart Collective Venice, CA - Part Two

If you know me, you know I love vintage.  Well, almost any kind of vintage.

Especially if it's well made, colorful and has a patina.

I'm always surprised at the wealth of goodies that L.A. harbors, considering that it is a relatively

young town, in the historical scheme of America.....and so far from so many other places in America

where all of these things might have been carted, shipped, shlepped from.

I have to remind myself that L.A. is the site of one of the biggest ports in America.

That it is a place people come to to reinvent themselves - maybe more so than the rest of the U.S.

And that the movie industry is a voracious borrower and purveyor of material culture.

Hence cast offs, re-coups, collecteds, cadged......Treasures, and treasures......

Of every sort.

I don't need to own them.  I don't want to DUST THEM!

But the hunt, the hunt...the multiples and the patterns...the history.  It speaks to me.

the MART COLLECTIVE Venice  

A magpie paradise

Have I Mentioned Vintage Shopping in Venice? Mart Collective, Part One

If you are looking for your hearts desire.......

In Venice you need only to go looking in your own backyard.

What they don't tell you on all those gossipy TV shows about Los Angeles

and in the course of those glitzy promotional campaigns for the latest Hollywood offering...

Is that L.A. is h-e-a-v-e-n for vintage shoppers.

 You might have the impression that Venice is only about personal-style-at-the beach

or glam-architects and a certain kind of post-modern relaxation......

It's true that Venice is about those things and ocean sunlight.....but that's not all, folks.

There's more!  (And more!)  Come back for the other Parts?!  Of the Mart Collective, Venice.

SEE YOU!

LASSCO - Goodies, Part 2

No words.  Literally.  I have a summer cold, and frankly, I'm a little talked out after our two weeks of political conventions here in the U.S.!!!!!!  So enjoy the pics.  Here's the link to LASSCO.

HAVE A LOVELY END OF JULY WEEKEND!!!!