Cuckoo for Coral!

I'm really crazy for all colors and shades of the red family. Being an Aries and a fire sign, might have something to do with it. I do tend to love the warm reds, ruby, pomegranate, coral, watermelon, etc. I also especially love them with their complimentary colors in the blue family, but basically with me - anything goes when it comes to these delicious shades that appear in every form of nature! I fell in love with this darling tree frog - I found it on a friends blog that I didn't even know he was writing! My friend from Kansas City, Brian Morley owns Bergamot & Ivy a gorgeous floral and gift store. I found this tree frog on his blog, which is very fun to read it is called Green Mansion Composts.


I was also inspired by this beautiful floral arrangement from Design Sponge.

I can't forget my mascot - Le Papillon!



I couldn't resist showing this, one of my very favorite textile designs that I did in 2002. This was my daughters room at the time and the duvet looked lovely with my box pleated burlap bed skirt. Don't mind the faux walls, they really were rough plaster as it was a 1920's Spanish Colonial home, and this was just a color wash. This turned out to be one of my all time best selling fabrics. I initially designed it years earlier with a bright red background (it was also a great seller)! More of my designs from the 1990's were the following toiles in coral and terra cotta.



Several of my favorite designers use corals and I love them! The following pictures are from Amanda Nisbit Designs.






Another major favorite group Mancuso, Warner and Miller!





A newly found wonderful blog called Avolli led me to this gorgeous picture with a Josef Frank fabric on the window.


Never disapointing, the fabulous Absolutely Beautiful Things and Anna Spiro, one of my design heroes!


From Houzz


Another favorite (new for me) designer, just check out her website! Krista Ewart from Domino.


Random beauties...




Christopher Farr fabric...

Love this Kenzo fabric from my friend Melanie at Le Petit Cabinet de Curiosites.


For me this coral Utecht chair is so yummy! Can you believe it was designed by Gerrit Rietveld in the 1930's? Wow, that's what I call enduring style and color! Found this little gem in one of my favorite books Southern Accents on Color, by Frances MacDougall along with the editors (some old friends) of Southern Accents.

Luxury Camping - "Glamping"!

I was so surprised and excited when I read Tobi Fairley's blog the other day about this subject. There, as the first example was a project that I designed years ago for El Capitan Canyon, outside of Santa Barbara, CA. Right off the coast with the mountains at your back, this was Chumash Indian country and I used the motifs from cave drawings as inspirations for the furnishings for both cabins and safari tents. I knew it was popular when we first finished, since "The Today Show" had one of the safari tents with all furnishings - shipped to New York for a taping! I hadn't thought about it for years, but now I can see that since then it has been the subject of many articles on "Luxury Camping", and as the cover story for the same subject in Sunset magazine. Or the travel section of the LA Times. The cover story for Ventana-Fine Living in Ventura County, titled "Comfprt Camping" started like this "Don’t forget the marshmallows—or the Veuve Clicquot. The luxy digs and new spa cabin at El Capitan Canyon offer “campers” the best of both worlds."

I even discovered it on fabulous travel blog with really hip spots for the whole family! Ciao Bambina. which then led me to another really cool blog Vignette Design, with another story on tent living - You've got to see this one! I guess it is the triple digit temps here that made me long for my own summer camping days in the Colorado Rocky mountains.

Only in Vegas!

Well, maybe New York and a host of other cosmopolitan cities around the world, but I happen to live in Las Vegas right now, so this is a treat for me! You might say that all casinos are gaudy and tacky, but not to me anymore. I already loved "The Hotel" at Mandalay Bay, the lobby and one of my favorite restaurants - Mix, all decked out in white! Now let's talk about visual stimulation and bold fun colors! Not surprising for Las Vegas, but this place in person is more beautiful than these pictures can convey. Usually, one might be writing about the scores of world famous chefs that have flocked to the city to open their mouth watering restaurants, trust me as a "foodie" I have tried out many of them and words can't describe how delish they are. But I want to tell you about the many famous designers and architects that together built the astonishing collection of hotels, casinos, restaurants and shops that is CityCenter. Just a few of the names - Karim Rashid, Adam D. Tihany and Jacques Garcia, you must see it (and taste it) to believe it! Here are some of my favorites, but for a full post go to Hospitality Design.