For many girls, it's the iconic Tiffany's "little blue box" and its whispered diamond promise that sets hearts fluttering. Without going all Blood Diamond on you - great movie, by the way - let's just say this is the box that makes me a little light in the head.
I have collected Hermes scarves over the years, and I treasure each one because they all represent a special moment in my life. I wear them as belts, headbands, sarongs, and of course the classic wrap around the neck - a college boyfriend told me I looked like an airline stewardess but he dug it anyway. The recent Life Is A Tale campaign featuring stills from childhood fairy tale favorites is so dreamy.
So is the Hermes "Cheval Turc" silk scarf pillow at Vivre - a gorgeous website I enjoy visiting when I am in a Back to Absurd mood and like to believe I have a bank account bigger than Buffet's. Otherwise, Martha Stewart gives a decent lesson on how to transform your favorite scarf into a pillow here.
I also love the idea of framing a favorite scarf - below is an image from Martha Stewart:
In my old life I framed an Hermes scarf featuring the Tower of Babel in my living room because I am entranced by the story - the birth of language, the spirit of man's arrogance (which I applaud), and Babylon - the city of dreams and the song I love. It's something I no longer possess, but Back to A is believing that memory negates loss. Perhaps that's why I'm always taking pictures. Transience disarms me.
I fell in love with this lamp at Gracious Home - it's called the Robert Abbey Sabrina Lily table lamp and you can order it online here if you love it, too.
Then I went to Lexington Lampshade and bought two crystal finials for $20 - a lamp finial is critical and so often overlooked. I'm the girl who very often misses the big picture, but I could spend a lifetime in a detail.
As for the lampshade? Not Hermes, but at $60 just the makeover my table lamps needed to go from anonymous, pretty lamps at Gracious Home to personalized, Back to A lamps on my night tables.
Don't fret - I'm still all about the yellow - but a little splash of Hermes orange gives me a kick. A new lamp shade is an affordable and simple way to make a dramatic change to a room - I hope you are sitting before you go here because you might faint. I know I did when I saw those beauties - Lamps Plus in my opinion is hands down the best place online to get the coolest shades.
I know it's only a one bedroom rental I'm pimping out, but it's my personal Babylon. Life is indeed a tale.
Harold and I went to Gracious Homes - the one on the other side of the street where the boys go - and we were not messing around. We needed weaponry.
I was playing this on my iphone (yes, yes, I had the stereo headset thing on so it was just for me) but a word of advice - music is not just for working out or hanging out. Your life should have a soundtrack and if you play the right song at the right moment, it's pretty deadly.
We had no tools at home, and we were going to take four chairs and and bring them Back to A. I got this idea from Material Girls and upon reading that post, I was completely inspired. But I needed a Phillip's screwdriver and a staple gun. Yeah, baby.
In my old life there was a fully equipped tool box that my ex-husband used to store in a cabinet above the fridge. I couldn't even reach it, much less ever thought of doing so. So it may not seem like a big deal to you, but these two tools had all the power of mass weaponry to me. I bought them because I needed them, and I was going to ultimately store them someplace lower where I could reach them. Because I will be reaching for them often. Back to the task. (Remember the song that's playing - no messing around. Right now we're playing with the boys)
I found this incredible table off Craig's List for $40 dollars. You should cyber-by (my word for online drive-by. Shakespeare made up words all the time and he wasn't even that famous when he did it) Craig's list like, five times daily. Even if you aren't looking for anything in particular. I wasn't looking for the Derek Lam dress I bought this weekend, but when I saw it I knew I had been looking for it all my life. Craig's List is like that. A Japanese girl was going back to. . . well, Japan, and she didn't care that this table was lucite and heavy and gorgeous and worth a few grand. She wanted it out, and she wanted it out on a Sunday. There was an ad for "Man With A Van" on Craig's List as well; I called the girl and the man with the van, and by noon on a Sunday I had this amazing table in my house. I told you I meet the best people online. Always time for Green Flea, and I went in search of chairs.
They were quite beautiful, and at $200 for all four quite a bargain. The nice man at the Green Flea stall said he would drop them off with my doorman on his way home, and once procured I popped the seats off with the phillips screwdriver (it took a very long time, I'm embarrassed to say - - not because it's hard to get four screws off, but playing with the boys does not always equate to boy strength). Once off, I brought out my favorite Hollandlac paint, sanded the babies down for about ten seconds and got bored again, and started painting - obviously with Pandora playing America Radio in the background - can anyone deal with how painfully beautiful Bertie Higgins' Key Largo is. . . might be the only song that makes me cry a little bit. Reminds me of me when I'm not feeling particularly Back to A, which I do sometimes. It's okay to slip. It's okay to spill. Anything that drips can be wiped away.
My place was a war zone. It made me think of what other people do in their apartments. I might be alone in the level of activity that occurs in mine. . . but I like it that way. It's a factory of one over here - sorry Harold, one and a half - and let me tell you, we know how to rip it.
As the chairs dried, we went in search of a fabric that would accent our Madeline Weinrib rug and the hot pink knobs on the coffee table. We searched far and wide - our heart was set on the typical Hollywood Regency trellis patternKelly Wearstler uses so well - and just when we were utterly discouraged, we found a shower curtain at Gracious Homes (the girly side) and wondered. . .why not? It was cheap, we cut it up, placed the cushions on them face down, and took out the staple gun. But we could not figure out how to work a staple gun. I went on g-video with a male friend who said I was a loser (affectionately). As helpful as that was, I brought the cushion, the fabric, and the staple gun back to Gracious Homes where the awesome man behind the counter showed me how it worked. It's really easy - you just have to lean down on it and not treat it like some delicate stapler. Push your whole body into it - BAM! Bam! Bam! Bam! The sound is thrilling.
We went back home and went to work on the other three cushion covers - you don't have to be neat at all - only psycho guests will get on all fours and look under your chairs. And you probably shouldn't be friends with people like that, anyways. I tend to decorate in the evenings (sorry to any neighbors reading this, yes that was me with the bam bams) and I usually have my best girlfriend in D.C. keeping me company on g-video. She thinks my nighttime decorating is fascinating and hilarious. When it was all done I played Key Largo again. . . but it didn't really make me sad. I found the lines that made me smile.
Here's looking at you, kid. We can find it once again. Just like they did in Key Largo.
