Hollywood Farmers Market

So this was the bounty at the Farmers Market two weekends ago.  

Remember the white strawberries I posted?  White mulberries, who knew?

This is not a sight you see often enough in a town that is right next to the ocean.  What is that?

Garlic flowers.

Funky Porcini!

What do you think I'm going to find this Sunday?  Can't wait to find out!

 (I-phone photos courtesy Mr. Paradis.)

Beverly Blvd (LA shhhhh! Shopping) Part Two

So thanks to everybody who's left comments this past week or so!!!!  Sorry I'm not always responding to you all individually.  I've been trying to finish up some projects (which I hope to share with you EVENTUALLY) and last week hubby and I were winding up THREE FULL UNINTERRUPTED weeks together which hasn't happened in a really long time.  So you know, that's why I was celebrating summer with him and making nice things to eat and trying very hard to BE HERE (or rather, THERE) NOW.  But I hope you can tell by my Corner View that I'm visiting and keeping up with you all and being thrilled by what you do and if sometimes I don't leave a comment it's only cause I'm just STUPID TIRED.  Some days are just like that.  

So anyhoo....here's my wind up to the great Beverly Boulevard adventure.  I've pared it down to about eight pics so I think I can fit them all into one post.

I actually enjoyed the fact that it was a Sunday, because then I could just peer in and take pics

and noone was in my way and there was no pressure to PURCHASE either from the Seller's side or my own.  I could just enjoy the visuals and concentrate on the photos.  This shop is Gibson.  What's not to like here?  Stuff with patina and personality and history.  I like to have stuff like this in my house to add texture and another dimension.

I love that the surfaces have been handled by someone else, that someone else's eye has already caressed something, and deemed it WORTHY.   I like that things can be imbued with talisman-like qualities.  That they carry an aura of somebody else's ambitions, imaginings, fantasy.  To then possess that thing yourself is a little like time traveling, or occupying a parallel universe.  The thing is both yours, and then not.  And so, mysterious.  Let's face it, we all enjoy a little mystery.  It's one of those spices of life.

This next little shop is also a bit fantastical.    It is called IGE.

I like the light in it.  And I would like very much to visit it when it IS open.  I would like to go upstairs

and poke around in the kids stuff which is so tantalizing from "down here".  There is a very individual point of view going on in this shop.  I MUST INVESTIGATE!  Kind of curio shoppe, chinoiserie corner, cool kids emporium and highbrow library vibe.  I'll let you know!

And now.....to pots and pithoi at rolling greens.

This store has a great relaxed indoor/outdoor vibe kind of like the Bluebird space on the Kings Road in London.  OK yes (anybody listening?) all rolling greens need to do now is get some cafe action going on out here!  Yes?!

All the plants above are real and beautifully cultivated.  You can't fail with healthy, vigorous, well priced plants from rolling greens.  I was a little disappointed with the pot selection here at Beverly Blvd. but at their original store on the steep hill in Culver City the selection is practically encyclopedic!

On the other hand, if you have someone cleaning at home who likes to dust.......

these are all very attractive options in plastic!  I have been tempted.  Sorely so.  But these "everlasting" plants are in fact no bargain.   So I bought the real things instead.  Succulents are so low maintenance, and at half or quarter the price of the plastic - why ever not? 

I have asked hubby over and over to make me a table like this.  If he could only leave off globe-galloping long enough. It would suit me down to the ground for entertaining company ...... or embarking on large-scale art projects, pet pageants, photo sessions.....hmmmmmmm...showcasing massive dog sculptures...... 

Now. THESE!!!!!!!  WHAT EVER USE COULD THEY BE TO ME????!!!!!!

Well none! - - - - - Except for loading them up with kittens and cuddly toys and gadding about town showing off pretending to be a charming eccentric with Edna Everage glasses.....

BUT.  I.  LOVE!!!!!!!!!  THEM!  (and the price was right-ish.)  So deco, so debonair.  So DESIGN-ey!(so...slightly...shiney!) ......But imagine the night of the earthquake (yeah, the BIG ONE) and all I need are these things rolling around the bedroom in the dark - while I'm trying to gather up cats and take cover in a doorway or under a strong table.  They would be like so many menacing Derby girls (I mean the roller rink, not the English county - you notice there's no brake on the wheels) on ECSTASY.

 So. 

I pass.  (Sad face.  Did not know I could feel this way about shopping carts.)

Meanwhile, live plants in strange arrangements.

And yes, you guessed it, marble balls. (Someone's got to have 'em.)

Well whoops!  That seems to be the end to Beverly Blvd. Part Two.  That was quick!  Did you think so too?  And I was just getting going.  Oh I remember!  Yes. There is a Part Three to this series.  It is called Heath Ceramics.  Which I will post at yet another date.  Because I think you will love it.  If you'd like to see more about rolling greens only, Kevin at Hollywood Forever did a great post just a little while ago.  You can see it here.

So if you are a dedicated follower of (indoor) fashion, come back in about a week.  You won't be disappointed.

Toodles from an incandescent evening in L.A.!

Corner View - Daily I'm Amazed

Jewels from just the past couple weeks.  What inspiration and refuge to be found.......

Yui, a sensitive and talented person.

ritva's amazing pictures - shakes up the way i see and want to take pictures.

from papier mache magazine.  so embarassing that i can't remember which blog i found this on.  love these.  they remind me of hockney opera sets and the kitchen appliances my dad made my sister and i for christmas when i was five.  and i want to make art that looks something like this.  hmmmmmmmmm.

 can't remember either who this came via......tumblrk57t

found by Mary Ann Moss, in my neighborhood...must mount an expedition.... cuz I haven't found it in real life yet!  

Claudia's excellent adventures in Paris and.......I would die for such adventures!

Can you believe Gennine made this with paint, pen and photoshop?!  Genius Gennine!

For more inspirations and Corner Views:  check out Jane's site here:  http://spaindaily.blogspot.com/

Gazania Love

OK.   I couldn't grow these on the East Coast.   

And I'm not growing them yet in L.A. 

But they sure are purty, aren't they?

Any Special Makings for the Weekend?

We have been messin with fixin's all week.

 And we did pretty well too, but still......I think  

I'll be asking hubby to make me RESERVATIONS!  What are you going to be doing?

The Big Picture - Beaton and Hockney

OK sorry to be a terrible tease but I'm going to finish posting the Beverly Boulevard shopping series next week as there are so many pictures yet, I might have to break them up into several entries!  

Instead can I treat you to a photo and series that appeared in the English newspaper, the Guardian, recently. To get you in the mood for a light-hearted summer weekend.  I have to share, because of the greenery and the smiles, and despite the suits-socks-wristwatches-and-camera, that this photo reminds me just a little of the atmosphere off of Fire Island in New York on a summer weekend where and when it would not be unlikely to see, as you are putt-putting across the Long Island sound on the Ferry with your bicycle, your loved ones and your weekends supplies, another boat alongside CHOCK-A-BLOCK full of quite naked, carousing, insouciant, GAY MEN!!!!!!!

To paraphrase someone I loved very much, it takes ALL KINDS to make up a world.  And to each, his very own kind of PARADISE.  Certainly these two with their cheerful insouciance have each in their own artistic ways, over many years, created very special kinds of Paradise for all of us to share in.  (And if you don't know them already, you MUST GOOGLE!  You don't know what you are missing!)

Here's a link to the very witty series written by Peter Conrad:  The Big Picture.  Where you will also find links to other Big Pictures of other kinds and times.  And interesting and informed comment to go along with!  Cheers!

Beverly Blvd; Landscape Los Angeles

W a n n a  c o m e  s h o p p i n g ? 

Here is a place in West L.A. where West Hollywood and Beverly Hills meet.  The actual corner is Beverly and Martel. Fairfax and La Brea can be found just beyond in either direction

We are only a stone's throw from CBS studios, the L.A. Farmers Market and "The Grove" - the ersatz "village" shopping mall  ......

......with the very best designed car park that I've every experienced.  (That's meaningful folks!  After years of trying to park in NYC, London and Honolulu.)  But despite middle-of-the-road tourist central being two minutes away (on a good traffic day) by car, this is actually a very classy area.  It's the place you would 

shop when you're grown up and earning (seriously) and upgrading from the Melrose Flea Market.  The shops and styles remind me a little of Pimlico Road in London.  The quality and the ideas are just that 

little notch "above".  Brenda Antin (no weblink/site) is the name of this beautiful shop full of graceful pieces with history.  There are three Brenda Antins altogether in L.A.  This must be what they're calling the Hollywood store, with two others in Santa Monica.  The pieces are displayed to complement each other and the choices are thoughtfully edited so that you're never tripping on other so-so stuff to get to the treasure.

Mosaik, this Aladdin's cave of not-quite-the-usual

Middle Eastern and North African delights.

You will find things of scale here.  And a little bit of pedigree.  And did I say taste?

It's a very small area.  Really just the intersection of two roads with a collection of shops

clustered nearby.

Modernica.  Is the go-to place for new and gently-used mid-century furniture and the extensive

extensive selection of George Nelson lamps.  If you have had your modern L.A. home photographed and published in any glossy magazine in the past seven years,  you probably had George Nelson lamps in that house

and you bought them here.

Also to be found here at this dazzling-in-the sunlight lo-rise kind-of-in-the middle-of-not-much couple of blocks in the center of the sprawl that is Los Angeles, is the newly opened "Rolling Greens" outlet.  If you like ABC Carpet in NYC (- but not necessarily for the carpet -) you will like Rolling Greens.  In addition to turbo-charged super plants at very manageable prices, Rolling Greens offer properly distressed home and garden furnishings, flowery decorative accessories and now, design books and gourmet food products.  But on a much smaller scale than ABC.  Its very near neighbor on Beverly heading towards Fairfax is Heath Ceramics.  Iconic mid-century tableware made fresh and showcased in a modest brick building.  Come back tomorrow for these!




P.S.:  In the same way that I've said I appreciate smaller museums that you leave feeling refreshed, I appreciate these little neighborhood knots of shopping that it's possible to find in L.A.  And may I say, further to my post two days ago....this is not necessarily a post to encourage you to shop!  These pictures were taken on a Sunday, when the shops were closed and so....no damage done to credit balances or fragile ecologies by this little wander around.  You'll notice that many of the goods in these windows have lived other lives.  If you must shop, what better than to adopt something a "second time around".  And if you're not shopping......inspiration and visual enrichment are thankfully so far, still FREE!  So enjoy!  No guilt!