Truly Odd.

I had a few customers in early bird style yesterday - I opened a bit before 11am as we had horrid film people filming at LA Mill (horrid because they kept trying to move my sandwich board and kept trying to stop my customers parking out front even though they had NO permits - I don't think the horrid film people knew or cared that December's a pretty important time for tiny independent retailers but whatever.)....anyway.....an early bird came in and left their keys. The key chain has their car key (toyota) and house key attached. I find this utterly odd because how did they get home? How did they get in the house? They couldn't have done either right? So how come I haven't received a call from a frantic person trying to locate 'em. I lose my keys ALL the time so I'm not passing judgement but when I do, I for certain harangue every place I've been in that day until I find them or give it all up me being a useless human once again.

Weird.

Favourite Cover Of The Week Winner

Neo-Japanese Graphics - $75

Scrumptious. Chitty-Chitty-Bang-Bang-Truly-Scrumptious.

LouBou.

Louise Bourgeois - $65

Went to see the Louise Bourgeois show at LA MOCA - totally brill. I went nerdy and attended the talk by the curator who was exceedingly informative. I'm not sure if it's totally intended but I think her work is HILARIOUS. It makes me laugh out loud.

"Art is the guarantee of sanity" Louise Bourgeois.

Waarom gemakkelijk, als het ook moeilijk kan?

Dries Van Noten 01-50 - $300.00

"There is an ironic Flemish saying that asks "Waarom gemakkelijk, als het ook moeilijk kan?" Which translates roughly as "Why take it easy, if you can choose the hard way?" Sometimes it seems as if Dries Van Noten has adopted this theme as his mission statement. Because if there is a more precise and demanding, less obvious way of doing things, Dries will usually find it."

This is from the introduction to this INSANE Dries Van Noten book I just acquired. I've been lucky enough to have had it in a couple of times before and it always flies out the door - it's extremely rare, there's only one on amazon and that's going for $397. The book documents the first 50 Dries Van Noten fashion shows and is just sublime.

Interesting fact DVN is one of the last wholly owned, independent fashion companies.

I have a bit of an obsession with Scandinavia and Nordic-ness - typing out the Flemish saying made me love it even more. It seems way more fun that Engerlish.

The pictures aren't the best - I have the shakes today.

Karl Lagerfeld - Chanel Silent Movie

Love! There's more coming tomorrow on the Chanel website.

Totally. Totes.

Ivanhoe Book Totes - $8

My new totes arrived! Yeah! I love them! I'm something of a buffoon and only got them printed on one side - I wanted double-sided but didn't even think to ask (= buffoon). So I'm going to get some patches made up which I'll sew on the back that read - "There's No Such Thing As Too Many Books." I'm also thinking of having this tattoed across my eyelids which will induce subliminal marketing when I blink.

Morandi.

Glenn's friend Aaron came in yesterday - he found a real life Gauguin on ebay - and he pointed out that our sets of ceramic bottles look like Morandi paintings. He's totally right! He also told us that there's an amazing Morandi exhibit on at the moment at the Met in NYC. Maybe that's why he had Morandi on his mind?

Set of ceramic bottles $75 each.

Milk.

Went to see MILK (directed by Gus Van Sant) last night. Golly Gosh that Sean Penn's a right good actor. Should be seen for sure. Bit disheartening to think that Harvey Milk was fighting for gay rights in the early 1970s, specifically that bonkers Anita lady in 1978 and 30 years later California passed Prop 8. I s'pose things haven't changed that much at all. People are still badly educated, sanctimonious, bigoted arses. One day this must change and I do believe it will.

This week I also went to see Slumdog Millionaire and Twilight. Both extremely brilliant for extremely different reasons.

I go to the pictures a lot when I'm needing a bit of a break from the world.

Well. Why not?

Bill Gibb: Fashion & Fantasy

Bill Gibb: Fashion & Fantasy by Iain R Webb
$45

The dress on the front cover (pictured above) is made from leather and sequins. Yep. Leather and sequins. True Genius.

"British designers are story tellers, fairytale tellers, dreamers and I think this was really the essence of the romance behind Bill Gibb." - John Galliano.

Fortune: May It Smile Upon You

Fortune Box M&C Co - $85

Complete with wood to knock on, a horse shoe, some salt to throw over your shoulder and inexplicably a bag of tiny mung bean seeds.

Rubiks Cubes!

Wooden Puzzles $35 each
Rubiks Cubes - $15 - $38

Don't know what to get for the person who has everything? Well - maybe one of these vintage puzzles might do the trick. If nothing else it would shut them up for half an hour. And couldn't we all do with a little peace and quiet?

The Owl & The Pussy Cat

Owl Bookends - $65/pair


The Owl and the Pussy-cat went to sea
In a beautiful pea green boat,
They took some honey, and plenty of money,
Wrapped up in a five pound note.
The Owl looked up to the stars above,
And sang to a small guitar,
'O lovely Pussy! O Pussy my love,
What a beautiful Pussy you are,
You are,
You are!
What a beautiful Pussy you are!'

Pussy said to the Owl, 'You elegant fowl!
How charmingly sweet you sing!
O let us be married! too long we have tarried:
But what shall we do for a ring?'
They sailed away, for a year and a day,
To the land where the Bong-tree grows
And there in a wood a Piggy-wig stood
With a ring at the end of his nose,
His nose,
His nose,
With a ring at the end of his nose.

'Dear pig, are you willing to sell for one shilling
Your ring?' Said the Piggy, 'I will.'
So they took it away, and were married next day
By the Turkey who lives on the hill.
They dined on mince, and slices of quince,
Which they ate with a runcible spoon;
And hand in hand, on the edge of the sand,
They danced by the light of the moon,
The moon,
The moon,
They danced by the light of the moon.

Interview, World War 2 & Thunder.

It is POURING with rain in LA today. Torrential. It's superb. And we have thunderbolts and lightening. It happens about once a year like this. My garden is singing! Although my succulents look a little shocked and horrified.

Interview magazine has undergone a re-design - I know I am a little late in noticing. It's about 3 issues in to it I think. I subscribed after I received one of those demented "subscribe for 12 issues for a penny" thingies in the mail. I just got this Cate Blanchett issue and it's such a stunning cover. The guts of the magazine is pretty solid too, good articles and lay-outs.

It's coincidental too because when the mailman arrived with this magazine of mine, I was randomly watching Cate Blanchett in Charlotte Gray on the telly - I was ironing and flicking channels (I am a terrible ironer - nothing but nothing ever comes out wrinkle-free. I think I have bad iron-wrist -action). Charlotte Gray is about a woman who goes to France to join the resistance in the second world war. I've also just finished reading a book on the second world war. All I can really say about it all is that I am a reaffirmed one hundered per cent pacifist person.

Small Cheap Gifts!

Small Pop Top Vase - $7.50
Large Pop Top Vase - $8.50

Lovely, inexpensive vases - wouldn't these look wonderful with a couple of flowers plucked from the hedgerow? Oh hang on. This is Los Angeles - right right. No hedgerow picking to be had. Well they would also look delightful with some sprigs of umm, bougainvillea or euphorbia.

Brilliant Bilbo Bloggins

My friend Glenn who lives in Los Angeles has a friend Karyn, who lives in New York - I met her once in the store and thought she had mad magical style. It was with great joy and yippees that Glenn recently told me she has a blog about....what she wears every morning...

Yahoo!

It's perfs.

http://reasonigetupinthemorning.blogspot.com/

ps. I swear that one day I will start posting pictures again.

Stories, Echo Park

The most amazing new bookstore has opened in Echo Park - it's everything I would like to be when I grow up - anyone who lives in LA and anyone who visits LA and thinks of themselves a book-person should go and see this. It's exceedingly heart-warming and uplifting to see a store like this open.

Look at what RackedLA had to say about the whole thing - click here

Gorgeous Website!

Been a bit obsessed with websites lately due to having mine designed. A friend (who has a infested hot tub - but that's another story) sent me this one to have a look at and oh it's gorgeous.

http://www.charmingwall.com

Check it ou-u-u-u-t.

Website.

I am being a slow-poke and posting not a lot of anything because I am furiously trying to get my website done by yesterday. I will be back to blogging madness next week!

Felt Club!

Felt Club!!!
150 Vendors plus DIY Classes, Music, Prizes, Food & Booze!!!!
Sunday November 16 2008
11am - 7pm
$5 donation at the door

Shine Auditorium
Expo Center
700 West 32nd St, LA, CA 90007
www.feltclub.com

I'M SOOOOO GOING!!!

Susan Miller on this month's Astrologyzone has put the fear of God in me about the evil and pernicious full moon that's headed our way on Dec 12th....apparently it's going to get all of us - and one of the things she advises is to get Holiday shopping in early as this foreboding full moon could throw a spanner (wrench?) in our collective works and cause previously tried and tested time frames to fall into disarray...SO....we should all go to Felt Club on Nov 16 and get our pressies bought and bound like early birds.

I was talking to one of my favourite customers the other day - he's rather handsome which is probably why he ranks as one of my favourites - anyway he was telling me that there's a whole astrological sign that was removed because it made the astrological calender out of whack with the Julian calender. It was between Scorpio and Sagittarius I think and although I can't remember it's name, this star-sign's animal was a SERPENT BEAR. Makes my Ram of Scary Aries look a little tame that's for sure. But I did just find out my Chinese sign is the dragon which makes me feel a LOT better.

The Grammar of Ornament by Owen Jones

The Grammar of Ornament by Owen Jones

This was another sparkly gem we found at the estate sale last week - you can't tell from the images but these are HAND-PAINTED and it's from 1910!!!! It's the most beautiful thing I've ever seen - there are pages and pages of these glorious patterns - all taken from pieces at The South Kensington Museum, London - which is what I am assuming is now the V&A Museum.

It's too beautiful to sell so we're not going to.

Gentry.

Gentry Magazine No 2 Fall 1952

This is the best thing I've found at an estate sale possibly ever.

Yesterday morning we snagged four issues of the men's fashion magazine Gentry - all from the early fifties. They had articles with titles such as "What Defines A Man?" and "How To Build A Finnish Bath In Your Home". I say "had" because I put them on the shop floor this morning and a handsome man just came and bought the lot. All the clothing adverts had fabric swatches attached and one seed produce company even attached a tiny bag of oat seeds. It was like watching MadMen ads come to life.

The Book About Moomin, Mymble and Little My.

The Book about Moomin, Mymble & Little My.
$29

Here's little Moomintroll, none other,
Hurrying home with milk for Mother.
Quick Moomintroll, it's nearly night.
Run home while there's a bit of light.
Don't hang around in woods like these.
Strange creatures lurk between the trees.
The wind begins to howl and hiss.
Now, guess what happens after this.

Beyond the forest, bathed in light,
The air tastes fresh. The grass glows bright.
The sun shines down on fields of flowers.
Moomintroll's walked for hours and hours.
But, happy to be homeward bound,
He kicks his legs and leaps around.
He sees a tall shape. A house? His own?
How very tall the chimney has grown,
When yesterday the roof was flat.
Well guess what happened after that.

That's not a roof or chimney pot -
It's Mymble's hair, tied in a know!
She's weeping on a big tin can,
"Poor thing" thought Moomintroll and ran
To Mymble, begging, "Please don't cry!"
"I've lost my sister Little My"
She told him, and began to yelp.
She ran away! Oh Moomin help!"
Moomintroll frowned. "Well, let's begin
By checking if she's in this tin,
Some villain might have stashed her in it."
Now guess what happens in a minute!

This book is sold at Yolk - it's wonderful and full of beautiful illustrations and cut outs.

Moomins are a personal favourite of mine. I think the world is a better place with Moomins in it. And as Maria says "Moomins Not Mormons".

(This was in relation to a conversation we were having about Prop 8 in California - it turns out Mormons have donated $25 million to push the prop through. They don't even LIVE in California and should a religious group that once upon a time preferred polygamy really be in a position to judge what constitutes "marriage"? MOOMINS NOT MORMONS for sure.)

An Alphabet by Peter Blake.

An Alphabet by Peter Blake
$35

Glenn makes fun of me for ordering this book but I love it.

The word alphabet comes from the Greek alpha and beta - the first two words of the Greek alphabet. The Greeks took this from the Phoenician alphabet which meant ox and house respectively. So when you scream "Show us your alphabet" at someone you love, you're actually shrieking "Show us your ox-house". Something to bear in mind when the moment sweeps you.

Vintage German Apothecary Jars

We got in a selection of vintage 19th century apothecary jars. They look very cool and all but I wonder is it safe for me to be located this near to 19th century Natriumcholrid? And what exactly is Natriumcholrid anyway?

My brain sure doesn't need any further addling.

Squirrel.

Roost Squirrel Light.
$125

This light fixture came in a couple of weeks ago and has been a big hit. He's great at giving off a dusty glow but he's probably not suitable for reading. He's also pro-Obama so if that's bothersome I would perhaps resist the urge to run down here and get one.

When I was little I always wanted a squirrel as a pet. I compromised by getting many small rodent-esque animals. I was the proud owner of the longest living guinea pig ever - Tinkerbell, who lived to the grand old age of nine. Yes NINE. Guinea pigs normally have a shelf life of about 3 years. Tinkerbell was superhuman (superguineapig?) and outlasted her colleagues Wendy and Tigerlily by many many years. I also had Oliver The Black Rabbit who suffered an untimely demise when he was eaten by my dog Jasper. When I moved away to university I continued my small rodent fascination with William & Charlie Surprise - my two gerbils. William was very sociable and would come to lectures with me. He was small enough to curl up in my clavicle and sleep while I learnt about the social policies of Pericles.

I have since learnt that squirrels are vicious and vindictive. They live in the walnut tree in my garden and they bombard whoever is in the garden with sharp remnants of dissected walnut shells. This is no random occurence - many visitors to my garden have noted that even if they move positions to avoid the onslaught of piercing shell shards, the squirrels move too. They also make a lot of noise. They incessantly chatter to one another in high pitched yips and yaps. I no longer want one for a pet.

Moscow & St Petersburg

Moscow & St Petersburg
1900-1920 Art, Life & Culture
$50

You have to look at this.