Finally left the house. It was a gorgeous day and I met my friend Jamie for a little coffee and bite to eat at le Figaro in Los Feliz. We ended up spending hours around that little table talking and catching up and it felt so good to be out and about again. I do wish the weather would cool down a bit.

Jamie and I both agreed that Los Feliz is the closest thing LA's got to being like San Francisco.

Favoite San Francisco Spots

So last weekend, before I got sick, I was in San Francisco for a wedding. I had a whole morning to myself and packed a lot in. San Francisco is one of my favorite cities: it's beautiful, it's got the kind of weather I love and it's filled with so many possibilities for food and flavor that it boggles the mind. I basically ate my way through that morning:

First stop, blue bottle, an independent coffee roaster and quite the hip little place. It's the Bay Area's Intelligentsia (if you will):


Just take a look for yourself, the space is gorgeous: high ceilings, lots of natural light, a minimal interior, and...


these things. I don't know what they're called (siphons?). But gosh aren't they interesting in a turn of the century TESLA kind of a way?


Also, the best latte I've ever had. It was smooth like hot chocolate but still very much coffee. I'm a dedicated sugar adder and I didn't need a single grain of sugar to drink this mother down.


I was also starving so I ordered what they call a gravis murphy: baked potato with some of the potato scooped out, filled with scrambled eggs and topped with cheddar cheese. Delicious. And easy enough to make for a brunch (maybe a christmas brunch that's casual?).

Next up, Miette Confiserie et Pattisserie:

I went by their stall at the Ferry Building and decided I needed to see the real shop so I went over to their Hayes Valley Locale and was not disappointed.



The shop is styled as an old fashioned confectioner: a cross between main street USA and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. Yes!

They're known for the Macarons (I think) but I opted instead for some of their cookies (chocolate chip and lavender shortbread) and an old fashioned cupcake. Delicious.


I promise I ate lunch soon after this, but I forgot to take a picture: it was an apple, walnut and bleu cheese salad and it was good. So good that I decided I needed a little bit of ice cream to finish it off. So off I went to the Bi Rite Creamery in the mission.

Bi Rite is a creamery that produces small batches of ice cream using local/organic ingedients whenever possible. I was tempted to get a more unusual flavor like balsamic strawberry or creme fraiche but opted instead for what I was craving: cookies and cream and coffee toffee.


The weather was perfect so I walked with my cone and checked out all the people doing the scavenger hunt along Valencia (I think it was organized by 826 Valencia). It was lovely and then it was time to go to the wedding.

home sick

oh i'm home wrapped up with my hazelnut and I'm sick. Had a glorious weekend in San Francisco and woke up today feeling meh. Then it hit me like a ton of bricks: the aches, the chills, the headache, the cough! God willling it isn't swine flu. If anyone knows how I can try not to get E and the girls sick, let me know.

Blog Out Loud Event

Hope you guys can make it out to this Blog Out Loud Event in Santa Monica. Yours Truly will be on the panel along with Gregory from AT, Haily Zaki (one of my favorite people), Alissa Walker (someone I totally admire) and Emily Goligoski of the sanfranista who I can't wait to meet!

WestEnd Lofts

Just noticed that WestEnd added images of the lofts we worked on to their website. Looks pretty fancy (if I do say so myself). See some before and afters right here.

My Favorite Bedroom Right Now, Plus Some Others

It's Cure Time over on Apartment Therapy and I need it. I'm scaling back my posts over there (and some of my other responsibilities) so that I can focus back on having a place I love. So while I'm writing posts about the Cure, I'm going to be participating to the best of my ability.

I've lived with E for almost 9 months and I still more or less want to kill myself every time I walk through the door. I don't need this place to be magazine worthy, I just want to want to be here. So here are some images up for inspiration. Above is another amazing room from AB Chao. Thanks to Down Pipe and some yellow, this room is awesome. I might be ripping it off very soon.

Otherwise, these are some bookmarked images I have in my files. My apologies, I haven't kept track of where they came from, so if you know, please chime in!






(This one is Maxwell's Bedroom, from AT and even though he wants to change it, I love it as is.)

This would make me so happy

especially if it was cats instead. Thanks Lacey for the tip! From Retronevation.

I'm in Living Etc!

So I got the latest Living Etc in the mail and....dear friends, I'm in it! They used my photo of the books in the rafters for their 'living with books' article and called it a 'clever idea':
I'm also quoted in it talking about where the idea came from (my dad's time on boats and small spaces that need storage).
Overall I'm so excited, Living Etc. is my very favorite interior decor magazine, so this is a total honor!

You're Looking At My Free Time

Oh she's growing up so fast. Life here has been busy, so any extra time has been spent snuggling with Miss Hazel and not blogging!

Small Chat on Loving Living Small

Here's a little interview with me about my expertise in the realm of small spaces and design. Thanks to Rebecca at Loving Living Small for asking me to participate in her Small Chat feature! Enjoy!

Birthday Weekend in Palm Springs

Just getting back into the swings of things. Nice weekend away (though much too short). Packed in a lot and there's a busy week ahead. More vacation photos soon and an update on what it's like to be in my thirties.

Designer Stuff for Cheap in New York

So I'm working on this big event in LA this week and we had to buy a ton of stuff for it. We're shipping it to New York next week for the same event. I'll need to unload the stuff we bought because I'm not shipping it back to LA. So if you're in New York (or know someone who is) on october 8th and want in on crazy deals, email me.

You can click on the pic above for more info. And here are links to the stuff we have:

14 Tom Dixon Copper Pendants asking $275/piece
4 Tom Dixon Fat Spots (unavailable in the US) asking $300/piece
3 Arc Lamps with white marble base: $100/piece
5 CB2 City Slicker white tables asking $75/piece
12 Piece modular Vecta sectional with vintage fabric and new foam asking $1600

Except for the sectional, everything was bought new and just used for the events. If you're interested in something, make me an offer, I'll consider every offer. And obviously if you're interested in more than one piece we can definitely negotiate. But I'd need everything picked up on October 7th after 10pm (we're packing up after the event) or October 8th during the day in SoHo.

Thanks!

Party Decor

As I mentioned, this is my last week being in my twenties. So this weekend (after a very long week at work) I'm going to Palm Springs for a little r and r with some friends. I've had so much inspiration for putting together an over the top party involving tents, lights, long tables, messy chic flowers and paper decorations but have no time so these bits of inspiration will have to wait for next time.






(From Scout Holiday (one of my favorite blogs), Max Wanger (photographer du jour), 100 Layer Cake and Anthro)

My New Project

So, it isn't finished or perfect or totally polished, but I wanted to unveil something I've been working on. Many of you might know that I have a degree in photography but haven't really parlayed it into a career. I always have a camera on me and I've shot tons and tons of interiors and house tours for apartment therapy but I never really made the commitment to being a photographer for hire. All that is changing. When I found out that Living Etc. (yes! THE Living Etc.) wanted to publish one of my photographs for a Fall Issue, it made me pause and say to myself: wait a second, why aren't you doing this for a living? I couldn't come up with any good reasons not to so here it is, the launch of my interiors/architectural photography career:

laurejoliet.com



Take a look and tell me what you think. Later I'll add more pages and have a food section, a still life section, gardens and more interiors. For the moment I wanted to keep it simple and get something online.

I'm scouting my first job tomorrow!

So if you're in LA (or thereabouts) and you're looking for someone to shoot your newly remodeled space, need pictures for a real estate listing (or know someone who does) pass my info along and I'll offer a 10% discount to them or a 10% finders fee for you.