Yup, I still heart NY

You know, just because a souvenir-like item is touristy doesn't mean it ought to be lacking in great design. You can show your love for a favorite city without sacrificing your aesthetic principles. Take NYC, for example. New York is one of my favorite cities to visit - in fact it is one of the most beloved in the world. Some past evidence of my NY love affair can be seen here, here, and here.

Gotham-themed souvenirs abound - conventional or otherwise. Let me point you towards a few of my personal favorites:

It may look like a toy but the New York City in a Bag set by Muji is not just for kids. I still regret not taking it home with me when it caught my fancy at the MOMA Design store.



My first introduction to Josef Frank came in Domino a year or so ago, in the form of his delightful Manhattan print. Get your own Manhattan tote at Svenskt Tenn.



Then there is the NYC Pentatray, new at Room and Board. Produced with the now iconic graphics of the subway system, these would make a playful and graphic accent to any home. Thanks to Christian Quilci for the heads up.


How great is this modern trompe l'oeil, the classic Happy to Serve You Cup produced in ceramic?


John Derian is a favorite, as always. I like to save the best for last. I love the nostalgia and collectible quality of his decoupage pieces - when I visited his wunderkammern-like store on the Lower East Side I was swooning like a lovestruck teenager. Apparently a proud New Yorker, Derian produced a series of paperweights with old maps of different neighborhoods. Here's the one of the West Village..my adopted NYC neighborhood ;)



I'll top this off with a wee wonderful clip from one of my favorite Sex and the City episodes ever...can you guess the ep title?
Ok, here's a big hint:


...yes, that is a plastic bag floating about in there!

Grey's Anatomy for the Home

Did y'all watch Grey's Anatomy last night?

I swear, that show is becoming soapier by the minute...and I am lapping up the drama! That sizzling mix of humor, suspense, tragedy and romance is just inimitable. Not to mention the amazing soundtrack which has changed my life. I could happily live without a television and just watch movies on my Macbook if it weren't for Grey's.
So what does this have to do with anything, you might ask?
I was totally reminded of my Grey's obsession when walking around the East Village last weekend in Manhattan. It was late on Saturday night and an antiques mall was closing up. I watched as a man loaded an anatomical torso onto a truck. You know, the kind they use to teach med students:

Find it here on ebay.
It's like a car accident. You just can't tear your eyes away.
Talk about subversive decorating! Can you imagine sticking this in some random corner in your home for unsuspecting visitors to happen upon? I was thinking like on top of an armoire in a high-ceilinged room. It's less elegant, perhaps, than a skull (poor Yorick!) but it's also kitschier, and less creepy.

There's just something I find so appealingly quirky about medical imagery, particularly of the vintage strain. These coasters, for example:

Beautiful, right? And I love the mise en scene.

Then there's this pocket mirror. I love the illustration's facility of line and the way the red and blues make it pop:


How about this "In Good Health" wall hanging from John Derian?


Look at this eye diagram tray, also from John Derian. When I visited the store on Saturday, I wanted to carry it away with me.


Finally, why not wear a bit of anatomy, courtesy of Tilly Bloom? I think her jewelry is so much fun.

I Heart New York, enfin

Even more and more things I love about New York:

JOHN DERIAN. John Derian, John Derian, John Derian. More on this later.

Pylones! This awesome French chain is like Alessi on crack. I was so excited when I walked past their Soho location - I found this shop in Avignon when I was there last summer and didn't think they had any locations outside of France.
Below: Pylones superhero salad servers on top, Alessi corkscrews on bottom:



MOSS - The high altar of design. I swear I check their website everyday, and their New York store is a must visit. This trip I was only able to look in the window (it was closed), for which my wallet thanks me. Not that I could afford anything in there! The last time I was there in August, my mom and I sighed over a spectacularly lacy white iron garden bench by Tord Boontje that was about $40,000...like this more wallet-friendly curtain on steroids.


Magnolia Bakery cupcakes. I was so ready to proclaim them overrated. Too bad! At 10:30 on a Saturday night, the line was out the door...and they really were that great. Although I would draw the line at taking a dozen ecstatic photos of my treats like the people ahead of me were doing. (the photo's not mine, I promise - courtesy of About.com!).

Biography Bookshop. So it doesn't have the musty, cozy ambiance of bookshops I found wandering around Bloomsbury in London. All of the books I found were pretty new editions. But I found lots of great deals on "name-brand books" - Simon Doonan's OOP autobiography, still wrapped in plastic, and Evelyne Lever's bio of Madame de Pompadour (Nancy Mitford's version will always have a soft spot in my heart, but I'll give this one a chance) being two such examples. And it's kitty-corner from Magnolia.

Feeling the rumblings of the subway beneath me at Angelika as I watched a wonderful French film, Fauteuils d'orchestre...like an earthquake moving to the surface.

My brunch at tiny East Village eatery Prune, the best meal I've ever waited 1.5 hours for. The eggs benedict and hot chocolate were fantastic.


Glitter and Doom, which just closed at the Met today. It was an amazing, amazing show of Verist portraiture during the short-lived, decadent, and utterly corrupt Weimar republic. Otherwise known as the roaring twenties in Germany. I would exhort you to go, go, go but, uh, it closed today - so sorry!


This room. I usually spend most of my time in the 19th century rooms at the Met, but they were mostly being renovated and I decided to switch it up and spend the afternoon in the American wing - boy am I glad that I did! Maybe I love the wallpaper so much because I picked out something very similar for my very first decorating project - my dollhouse!

Coming home to find my March Domino smiling up at me from the table outside my door.
I'm going to read it right now.

Silhouette Fever

Right now I'm loving silhouettes, of all sorts (not just of the head variety). There is something about their stark simplicity that I find really lovely and elegant. The silhouette look has a rather romantic, gothic quality that's very much in vogue right now. What started my obsession was Laura Yaggy's apartment featured in Domino in December 2005. I loved her whole apartment, really, it was totally my aesthetic. She has a huge collection of silhouettes of all sorts, displayed throughout her charming apartment.
See:

Speaking of gothic and romantic, I do hope you've been watching the BBC's stupendous rendition of Charlotte Bronte's Jane Eyre. Part I aired last week and the penultimate bit will be on tomorrow night at 8:00, courtesy of Masterpiece Theatre. I felt that they really did justice to the book, which was one of my favorites as a young girl. I will admit to cheating - last Sunday eve I was so enthralled that I hopped on to YouTube and spent hours watching rather grainy clips of the second half! For example... [WARNING - spoiler alert!]

Anyhow, here are a few things I've been drooling over:

I love these Thomas Paul plates at ELSEWARES, I've been mooning over them since November. You can't beat the price ($28 for the set of four!).


Another Thomas Paul piece with a lighter feel at Bluefly.


Larchbed linens at CB2.
These are great. The teal shade adds an element of fun. I just wish they had them for twin beds as well. I have the dubious fortune of a doll-sized bedroom - if I had a queen or even full sized bed there wouldn't be any floor space to speak of.


Twig table runner, also from CB2. There is also a set of placemats for the ridiculously cheap price of $3.95 each. I like the clean, almost zen feel.


I'm in the market for a lampshade, and I love the texture of this flocked one. It also comes in a delightful sunny yellow! From Urban Outfitters.


Of course, you can't do a discussion of this style without a bit of John Derian. This one's a paperweight with a vintage silhouette.