Linnea's Lights Love!

There are so many candle lines out there, really- SO many. But when we met Laura Cler of Linnea's Lights at a small show in NYC organized by our favorite graphic designer, Erika Firm of Delphine studio, we knew this was a candle line to get behind and it has been amazing!

Throughout her life, Lynn Cler, co-founder of Linnea's Lights maintained a passion for fragrances and luxury items, and was inspired to create her own line of candles as a hobby. Often disappointed in the high price of luxury items, she knew she could create a superior product of better value. Lynn and her husband, Danny Manley, began selling her handcrafted candles at local craft fairs and markets in Indiana, and soon the couple had propelled their candle-making hobby into a small, freestanding company - Linnea's Lights had been conceived! After Danny's passing, Laura partnered with her mother, and, with the additional help of close family and friends, Linnea's Lights launched as the luxury brand that it is today. The dynamic mother/daughter team kept the name Linnea's Lights, which is in tribute to their Swedish family lineage. The Swedish name, Linnea, from which the name "Lynn" originated, has been in their family for five generations, and is a nod to the national flower of Sweden.

Linnea's Lights candles combine natural soy wax, lead-free cotton candlewicks, pure essences and fine fragrances to create clean burning, perfectly scented and highly aromatic candles. Each candle is triple scented so the subtle fragrance keeps throughout the entire burn. All of Linnea's Lights natural soy candles are meticulously hand-poured in small batches and tested for quality assurance. Every step of the process involves the use of human hands, and each candle is packaged and designed locally in Indiana with recycled or recyclable materials.

In our opinion, they are absolutely divine- beautiful scents, responsibly made and gorgeous packaging!

Our holiday candles, Winter, Fireside and Fir were all featured in this month's Shape magazine and online You should go get this issue- the cover is an amazing shot of Kelly Osbourne, 50 lbs lighter and looking so strong. She is my idol! Watch this adorable video of her. I just love her spirit.

The Winter candle which was also in last year's Martha Stewart magazine and has been our best seller by far. This year, it can be seen in this new amazing web magazine called Gifted by the ultra talented blogger Ez of Creature Comforts blog. Spend some time perusing this magazine. It is incredible beautiful. It has great product, amazing photography and gorgeous layouts and it is very inspiring, especially if you like to do crafts. We are so honored to be mentioned in such a beautiful magazine!

IMM Living Best Years wine stoppers in Real Simple and Country Living!

One of our favorite gift items of the season made it into the Real Simple Gift Guide and the Country Living gift guide! The IMM Living Best Years Chinese zodiac wine stoppers are fun, unique and a perfect gift (that is very well-priced) for that person who has everything! It's a great way to personalize your gift also by choosing an animal the correlates to your wine bottle or the year your friend was born. We used them for a baby shower this weekend. We put the tiger (for 2010) bottle stopper in a silver Chinese take-out box and wrapped up some custom made fortune cookies with characteristics about the Tiger. They were also chosen for the Country Living gift guide! Use coupon code: COUNTRYLIVING to get 10% off! Read more about these great stoppers here. Note: actually color is closer to the Real Simple picture.

Designer Spotlight- Jill Rosenwald

(image from Holly Becker of decor8)



Mass production, large factories, big containers coming here from Asia . . . now where is the romance in that? Yes, we have all consumed mass market product so there is nothing really wrong with it but I still love the handmade item and I love finding a really cool and really fun artist that still does just that. Born in NYC, Jill Rosenwald fell in love with making things by hand at summer camp in Vermont- you know macrame plant hangers, leather bracelets, etc. In her words, "I succumbed to the power of the handmade life very early on. As time passed, and college loomed, I realized I wanted to find a school that would speak to both sides of my brain the academic and the artistic. But after graduation, realizing that it was time to make the donuts, I decided to bring my work to the people of NYC, and I set up a box of earrings on a soho sidewalk, and as they say a star was born and I was forever hooked." She opened up her sunny downtown Boston studio studio in the late eighties in a very artsy section called Fort Point Channel. She works with her husband Lawrence Mcrae, also a very talented ceramic artist, and 7 artists who throw the earthenware, fire it, glaze it and hand-paint it. It's a long arduous process but a labor of love for both Jill and her husband. Jill has had much success with various home good licensing agreements (rugs, lighting, baby, etc.) but her studio line is just that- lovingly made in her studio and I think that is just perfect. This has been an amazing year for her - she introduced the much acclaimed line called the Hampton Links at the NY gift show in January and it appeared in several magazines from InStyle to House Beautiful. Her newest collection, introduced in August of this year is just as fabulous. It's called Buckley Chevron. It's a simple, trend right, "Charlie Brown" (as she calls it) pattern. She makes it special by the rich color combinations she puts together- orange with navy, yellow with light blue and light chartreuse with ochre. Jill gets inspiration from everywhere- a yellow and purple bed of flowers, Pucci scarves found in her Grandmother's drawer after she passed away, a pair of orange and white stripe pants she saw someone wearing. She snapped an image of a back bay balcony of an old townhouse that would later become inspiration for another new fall pattern called Newport Gate. Her designs are colorful, unique and so aesthetically pleasing. They will add a great pop to your home. I have a few pieces in my kitchen and they make me happy every time I look at them! And of course, they are just perfect for gift giving. Oh, and more importantly- she's a great person- full of life and hysterically funny!

Each piece can take several days to create from throwing to firing and painting. See the amazing process (highly simplified) below:

1. The inspiration:



2. The design- sketching and picking the perfect colors





3. Making the bisqueware





4. Sketching on the bisqueware



5. Painting



6. Glazing and firing





7. Voila!

Introducing Imm Living to Orange and Pear!

Imm Living creates modern cultural artifacts by drawing from traditional and popular cultures. Their products address notions of the past and present by playfully reminding us that culture evolves through experiences lived and shared. Their products are a synthesis of these experiences and they embrace them as artifacts. In sum, they design really cool items for your home that are also perfect for gift giving.

We love the "Best Years" wine stoppers for the beauty of their design and the novelty of it. Designed by Willie Tsang, each wine stopper is shaped like the animals of the Chinese Zodiac and represent their different personalities. The twelve-year cycle means you can drink and be merry, whether you were born in the year of the rat, pig or any creature in between.

There are so many fun ways you can give these totally cool wine stoppers. You can go to http://www.chinesezodiac.com/calculator.php and type in your birthday or your gift recipient's birthday and get the animal that coordinates with their birth year. Or get a different stopper for everyone in the family. Or, you can get the animal that coordinates with the year of the wine that you are bringing to the party. Or you can go here: http://www.chinesezodiac.com/signs.php and read about the qualities associated with each Zodiac sign and give the animal that most matches your friend's personality! Or just pick an animal that you like. These are great for hostess gifts, client or corporate gifts. Perfect for the boss-especially with a bottle of great wine. But, you probably should refrain from asking the boss the year he or she was born- in that case just pick the coolest animal- like the horse or the ox. The pig or the snake might not be the best choices for the boss though- just a thought.

Orange and Pear in Woman's Day!

Thanks Woman's Day for featuring our mercury glass votive set from Roost in their special Halloween Celebrations edition (on new stands now)! The set comes with 6 votives, each one is different- giving the set a really cool, vintage feeling. They are perfect for Halloween decorating, and gorgeous for the Holidays. Of course, I love them year round. I still have mine on my mantle and I just love the way the look. Stay tuned for some more great products from Roost for the holidays!

fall colors

Wow, what a cold day in CT today, although it's nothing compared to how cold it's going to get pretty soon but it's just so hard to get used to! Regardless, fall is a wonderful season-I love the muted earthtones- the reds, ochres and golds. So, I put together a little collage of some of our items that make me think of the warm, rich colors of fall.

from left to right
1st row: John Derian Native American's sitting, CDP Orange Blossom cream, Lucia tea leaf and honey soap, Royola Pacific Designs utility tray
2nd row: Sukie City notebook, Jill Rosenwald orchid vase, MZ Wallace Olivia in cranberry, John Derian Native American's Standing
3rd row: Linnea's Lights pumpkin candle, Ted Rossi studded wrap bracelet, Rebekah Brooks gold swallow necklace

Oh and one more thing, for our lovely blog readers, now through Friday, 10/8, get 15% off! Use code: Oct15.

Trends . . .

I recently had a chance to catch up on all my magazine reading. It can really pile up since I subscribe to a ton of great magazines! I'm kind of a magazine junky. Anyway, there are so many great trends out there but I saw three mentioned in InStyle and the New York Times that we have covered. Stackable rings- we have some beautiful sets from the talented Robindira Unsworth. Large hoops earrings- we have great hoops by another wonderfully witty and accomplished designer- Amanda Sterett and Robindira. And Leopard in the New York times. I've seen leopard mentioned everywhere! We have the best leopard bags by MZ Wallace- they are simply gorgeous!

The Magisso Cake Server- a great design, a useful tool!

We are constantly searching for that unique gift that you know your gift recipient doesn't have- a gift that is well-priced, beautifully design and offers great packaging for a perfect presentation. And if this item could solve a little problem or two- well, we are all over it! That's what the Magisso cake server is all about- great design, great packaging and just darn useful. It is designed by Maria Kivijärvi, a young Art & Design student from Finland. In Mariaʼs own words, “despite the recent trend for functional and innovative design in kitchen utensils and tableware, the basic idea of the cake server had not changed in a long time. For this design, I was deliberately searching for a completely new functionality and appearance for the cake server”. Ok, how many times have you tried to put your beautiful masterpiece of a cake on your guest's plate with a skinny pie server for it to just topple sadly upside down? Or even worse- break into two pieces! That's what this amazing invention is all about. Style meets function in this unique object that simplifies the task of cutting and moving a piece of cake in one action. By pressing down on the cake with the Magisso cake server, you can cut a perfect piece of cake and hold onto it! By lightly squeezing the handle, you can lift the piece of cake, then release it on your guestʼs plate. Voila- cake piece intact!

The Magisso cake server in stainless is made of mirrored stainless steel, which is cut and bent to give it this unique shape, it is then polished by hand to assure a great finish. It is the perfect gift for families and friends and just won a 2010 red dot product design award. It ships in a fun, well designed box that's great for gift-giving. Check out this video to see how this nifty tool works.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F4NVLcfXcfE

New this year are this great vibrant colors- black, lime, purple and white in strong plastic. At $19.00, they make a perfect hostess gift!

• dishwasher safe
• made from BPA-free, food safe plastic

Calendars!

It seems crazy but yes, we have already received many of our 2011 calendars and yes, they are already selling! We have a gorgeous wall calendar from Snow and Graham- over sized and making the perfect statement for any wall or bulletin board. We also have the best selling desk and mini desk calendars from Snow and Graham that are perfect for gift giving. New for this year, Snow and Graham introduced a great "write-on" calendar that offers cool design and practicality. Linda and Harriett offered yet another absolutely beautiful letterpress calendar for 2011 with tear-off postcards. Liz Libre, the owner of Linda and Harriett is about to have a baby, so we are happy to have her amazing designs before the baby arrives and starts to take over! This calendar sold out before Thanksgiving so get yours before they are gone! And have you seen her birthday calendar? It's great to keep handy to help you remember to celebrate all the important people in your life! We'll keep you informed about some new ones that we found in our travels. Stay tuned!

MZ Wallace Fall Collection is in and it's gorgeous!

We really love this collection- great colors, perfect prints and so many different, useful and unique shapes. Nothing looks too, too "fall" so they can be used year-round. The silhouettes are fresh and modern. It's no wonder MZ Wallace has such a loyal following. They know how to keep their customers happy! Let us know what you think! We just got in over a dozen new styles and they are already selling fast! So, check it out!

Jill Rosenwald- a little Hamptons, very Palm Beach and so fun!

We have loved Jill Rosenwald's ceramic designs since we met her a year ago at the NY gift show. She works with a small staff in her studio in Boston. Each piece is handmade, hand painted and full of love and a lot of spunk. She introduced a great new collection this year called Hampton links and we think the timing is just perfect as the masses from Manhattan hop on the Jitney to Southampton. And yes, it has a little dare I say "preppy" feel but it also reminds me of great Moorish windows and architecture and it definitely fits in with Palm Beach decor. Either way, the colors are right on, the patterns are bold and fun and trend-right. These pieces will "pop" any mantle, shelf, office or kitchen and they make extra special, very unique gifts. This group was also featured in InStyle in May! Check out that monogram tray, what a fabulous wedding gift for the Lilly-lover bride!

It's hot and I'm feeling blue . . .

top row (left to right): Madeline Weinrib pillow, Tre Giselle ring, handblown glasses
2nd row: stripe dress, Naomi Murrell painting, Tivoli radio, Claus Porto Ilyria soap
3rd row: DvF cover-up, Jack and Lulu crab stationery, Roberta Freymann napkin

Loving animal, snakeskin for now and for fall!

top left then clockwise
1. Leighlena whitemarked lizard bracelet with antiqued goldtone lock
2. Lauren Merkin Eve rainbow serpent clutch, on sale now!
3. Ted Rossi large python cuff (adjustable!)
4. Leighlena narrow python bracelet with antiqued goldtone lock
5. MZ Wallace (new!) Bea handbag in leopard print

I'm just loving animal, python and other exotic skins or prints right now. They are perfect for summer and transition beautifully into fall. Check out that fabulous MZ Wallace leopard print bag we just got in!

Lucia, fabulous packaging, great soaps and candles

Yes, we swoon over beautiful packaging. Can't help it. It's just a fact. Lucia, a new line from Canada, offers both great packaging (that you'll be happy to give as a gift) and great quality. We are now carrying their candles, soaps and a few soap gift sets. We chose 5 of our favorite fragrances- goat milk and linseed, olive oil and laurel leaf, tea leaf and wild honey, wild ginger and fresh fig and sea watercress and chai tea. We also have their great gift set of assorted miniature gift soaps that include all 8 of their amazing scents. Their soaps are handmade, triple milled and made with organic shea butter which will leave your skin soft and lightly scented. Their fragrances are fresh and subtle, not overwhelming. We love the trio candle gift set that comes beautifully packaged in a great gift box and includes 3 small candles, all made from 100% sustainable soy and each candle burns for about 5 hours. You can spread these out in your bathroom(s), on a mantel or throw them in your suitcase when you travel. This line has been written up in multiple blogs for its amazing presentation such as design sponge (a wonderful home decor and stationery blog), the die line (a great packaging design blog) and multiple stationery blogs such as paper cut panic and our favorite paper crave.

Staying at someone's house this summer or need a great thank you gift? Consider giving one of these beautiful products as a gift. You know they will be much appreciated and enjoyed!

Amanda Sterett- beautiful jewelry, handmade in Dallas, Texas

We met Amanda of Amanda Sterett at a tradeshow in NYC and immediately feel in love with her collection, her Southern spunk and her style. She attributes her fine attention to detail to her family. Her father is a sculptor, painter and remodeling designer. Her mother owned a children's boutique. But it was her Grandmother's marvelous jewelry collection that inspired her interest in handmade jewelry. In her designs, every stone is carefully selected from hundreds of options and from all parts of the world. Her collection is handmade in Dallas, Texas by a team of wonderful people who she is happy to praise (see above photo). She studied fashion merchandising and then worked at Ralph Lauren for 6 years. Her collection has been featured in multiple magazines such as In Style, Real Simple, Child and on Daily Candy. Her jewelry is fun, colorful, feminine and always timeless. The collection is all gold-filled and beautifully crafted. She is also one of the nicest designers we've worked- which is quite important to us! Now through 6/10, enjoy 15% off, use coupon code: jewelry15.

Robindira Unsworth- gorgeous jewelry inspired by treasures found in Turkey and Morocco and Byzantine architecture

We just fell in love with Robindira's Unsworth's jewelry line. It is unique looking, artistically created and attainable. We love her color choices of smokey quartz, turquoise and milky quartz- some of our favorite colors. Robindira started her jewelry business in 2001 along with her husband Robert Unsworth. Her line represents a "fusion of the couple’s Northern California aesthetic combined with their appreciation for the exotic cultures of the Middle East, Asia and North Africa." Her line is contemporary and exotic a the same time.

They are known for their "long slinky layering necklaces, gold crowned pendants dangling from oxidized sterling chains and modern chandelier earrings that catch the light--all reminiscent of treasures found in a Turkish bazaar." Her rings are absolutely spectacular!

Their jewelry is handmade with care in their studio in Northern California. Their offices and design studio are decorated with "Moroccan carved wood furniture, exotic textiles, fabulous jewels, and are highlighted by high ceilings and grand windows looking out at the hills of Sonoma County." Their inspirations run "far and wide from Byzantine architecture to white washed walls covered with sun soaked jasmine." They are likely to seek their muse "from travels to the souks of Marrakech as to opening their eyes to the splendid canvas of their own garden--finding great inspiration from gazing up at the iconic vines of our ancient wisteria." They believe "in grace and that beauty is bountiful when you keep an open heart and mind." We love that!

Her jewelry has been featured in InStyle, Bazaar, Elle, The New York Times "T" Magazine, Allure, Marie Claire and Lucky, and has been featured in numerous editorial spreads as well as magazine covers including the iconic cover of The Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue in 2009. Robindira Unsworth Jewelry is also a favorite of numerous stylish woman including Jennifer Aniston, Kate Winslet, Debra Messing, Jennifer Love Hewitt, Uma Thurman, Amy Smart, Jada Pinkett Smith, Maria Bello and Camryn Manheim.