Do you ever visit a store and wish that you could move in immediately, Anthropologie style? That’s exactly how we feel about Bell Jar, a relatively new boutique in the ever-cooler Mission District here in San Francisco. Owner Sasha Wingate fills her airy space with vintage finds, fashionable wears, and fabulous letterpress greeting cards. Everything is displayed in such a beautiful and thoughtful presentation - it’s hard to resist! There is even a gallery space in the back with changing exhibits.

Bell Jar

3187 16th Street

San Francisco, CA 94103

415.626.1749

www.belljarsf.com

We were introduced to the designers from Mizzonk by our friend Stacy (another fabulous designer!) and were immediately blown away by the intricacy and level of detail in their work. As a Canadian based design workshop, they produce an amazing laser cut art collection (featured here) as well as furniture and home accessories.

Mizzonk’s work is sold in stores and galleries internationally. For a list of retailers, please click here.

Lyndie Dourthe is a French artist that we came across via the lovely folks at Rag and Bone. She makes these amazing little dioramas and bits and bobs from paper, fabric, beads and other ephemera. We love the mysterious, cabinet of curiosities inspired quality of her work. Given our ongoing fascination with the aesthetic of 19th century natural science and the like, we find these magical little bits of nature captured under glass absolutely irresistible!

Her boîtes à trésors are available at Egg Mercantile. They feature images taken from encyclopedia illustrations of the 17th & 18th century. The images are transferred onto coarse cotton canvas which is then filled, embroidered and/or beaded, and hand stitched. Each has a silver plated stick pin attached so it can be worn as a brooch and comes in its own painted box. Lovely!

Although we are slightly obsessive about all things vintage, we also have a strong affection for modern design. Especially modern design from Publique Living, a local San Francisco studio. Although everything that Publique Living creates is truly well designed and beautifully crafted, some of our favorite pieces include these limited edition posters, which feature a typeset airport code over a graphic interpretation of a landmark of that particular city:

They also produce stunning gift wrap, as well as luxurious alpaca throws, which we are coveting something fierce!

But our all time favorite item are the laser cut placements - don’t they just make you want to have a dinner party tonight?!

One of the best things about going to the big shows is meeting people that you truly respect and admire. We set the bar pretty high with our encounter with Jonathan Adler, but we were still more than thrilled to meet stationery icon, Anne Taintor.

Anne has been making some of the most clever and witty stationery and gift items for the past twenty some years. Her collaged cards, magnets, totes and other products bear such ingenious phrases as “I love not camping,” “martinis….they’re not just for breakfast anymore” and “someone was going to have to set a bad example.” Anne’s booth is based on the design of her kitchen, and it fits the retro quality of her products perfectly. She even has a section on her website that interviews the models (called Taintorettes!) used in her products. Anne is an inspiration to those in the stationery world and she was so kind and friendly - great to meet you Anne!

As you know, we love to visit our various stockists around London and especially those close to one of the four branches of Ottolenghi as there is nothing better after an arduous spell of summer shopping than a lazy lunch in this bastion of good food (…other than a lazy dinner!) The heaped displays of puddings and salads almost pull you, siren-like, through the doors and the fresh ingredients for the kitchens are stacked waiting along the walls of the dining room.

Their philosophy is to create familiar, straight-forward and yet highly innovative food such as the stuffed courgettes and pea salad shown below and both of which went down a treat! The only difficulty may be in choosing what to have as everything is so beautifully prepared and meticulously presented.

Ottolenghi also run cookery courses, cater events from the smallest of dinner parties at home and have published a book of their recipies. We prefer just to be spoiled from time to time - all in the name of work!

Ottolenghi have branches in Notting Hill, Islington, Belgravia and Kensington.

Today, we had the honor of meeting one of our biggest design crushes, Jonathan Adler, when he stopped by our booth at the New York Gift Fair. We can’t begin to describe how happy this made us (see our died-and-gone-to-heaven smiles above!).

Maybe it was the feng shui of our booth, or maybe it was just meant to be. We used Adler’s fabulous Utopia Totem Vase in our booth display, and just yesterday shot the cover story for The Nest magazine at Sabrina’s house, which is features several of his pieces. The day before, we’d even received an order from India Hicks, host of this season’s Top Design (on which Mr. Adler is a judge), for her lovely shop The Sugar Mill in Harbour Island, Bahamas.

We’re thrilled to say that he was simply charming in person - and was even kind enough to pose for a photo with us. Our crush lives on! Swoon!

We always love catching up with Tracie Stier-Johnson, owner of Broadway Paper, and she recently e-mailed us to tell us about her brand new blog. It’s a fun place to learn all about goings-on at the store (including celebrity sightings!) as well as musings about life and Tracie’s wonderful family (we did her daughter Hunter’s birth announcements what feels like ages ago!)

The shop is a paper destination in Milwaukee and carries some of our favorite fellow designers, including Egg Press (love their thumbprint note cards!), Snow & Graham, and newcomer Susy Jack.

Located at: 191 North Broadway, Milwaukee, WI (414) 277-7699
Store hours: Monday - Friday 9-7; Saturday 10-5; Sunday noon-4

We happened upon Paper Dragon Books on our way to the gift show. Intrigued by their antique book presses, we invited ourselves into their studio. Owner Gavin Dovey was kind enough to show us some of the projects that he was working on, including these stunning handmade boxes made to look like classic leatherbound books:

Paper Dragon hosts classes at their Chelsea studio, as well as creating their gorgeous custom work. We loved their airy studio filled with tools, buttery swatches of leather and a vintage guillotine paper cutter:

Paper Dragon Books

145 West 26th Street

New York, NY 10001

www.paperdragonbooks.com

We’re set up (finally!). We filled our frames with cards today, and it’s looking pretty cute. Okay, so maybe we’re a little biased, but we’re quite proud of ourselves, given that we had less that two weeks to pull it together! It’s a amazing what can be accomplished with a can of spray paint and a Sharpie. You can’t see us, but there’s some back patting going on! Tomorrow is the first day of the show, and we are (hopefully!) all ready. If you are in the New York area, we are in Pier 92, booth 36009. Stop by and say hi!