I wasn't going to decorate for the holidays this year. In fact, I've been free from any urge to dig around in the decades of Christmas archived in the attic for a long time. So, for reasons I'll never understand completely, I found myself in said attic, ferreting out lights, and then I might as well get out the angels, right? Here are the fifteen-year Read More | Comment »

It starts like this. Grinding around in the car, the friend says he needs to stop at a bead store. Uuuuuuuungh. He promises that it won't take long, and refuses to let me wait in the hush of the running car. We go in, and I can barely keep my eyes open, until I spy something promising, "Wow!!" Read More | Comment »

Weed: a plant that is considered by the user of the term to be a nuisance, and normally applied to unwanted plants in human-controlled settings (Wikipedia). Weed, the recreational drug, and probably the band, are of no interest today in favor of the garden variety. Read More | 3 Comments »

From the most memorable sports accessory, the Wisconsin Cheese Head, to ubiquitous face paint, and all the bobble-head earrings in between, we pretty much thought we'd seen all the sports toys one can hang off the body. That is, until this frigid pre-game week, when news cycles, frozen in a usually busy time, Read More | Comment »

Truth be told, who doesn't get a thrill on a routine trip to the hardware store? All of those strangely-shaped fittings and L-joints are begging to become something, but since we're usually there for errands that are anything but fun, our numbed minds can hardly process the impulse, much less formulate a new aesthetic on the spot. Read More | 1 Comment »

We just ran across these wonderful miniature chair pendants from Montreal-based Bruxe Design's Tiny Little Chairs collection. Read More | Comment »

From now until August 31, the city of Austin is asking Austinites to add a little shazam to the city's website by voting on a new design. Read More | Comment »

Fashionable women all over the city have been mourning the passing of Pink hair salon on South Congress since it closed last June. Yes, I know that you, your sister, and practically every stylish celebrity in Austin went there for perfect highlights and eye-catching cuts for ten years. Read More | Comment »

Is your otherwise beautiful modern house lacking something? Wouldn't it be great if there was an easy, affordable way to give it that one modern design element that would take it from the nicely preserved, yet pedestrian, to being a post-modern rubbernecking hazard? Modplexi has more than one answer for you. Read More | Comment »

With times and finances tight this holiday season, isn't it a bonus to buy a Christmas present that's also a gift to a good cause? If you're still looking for that last minute (or belated) gift, the Art Bra Calendar 2010 could provide that double whammy. Read More | Comment »

If there's anything we know about Kanye West, it's that dude knows what he wants: for starters, the MTV awards and glowing (in the dark, perchance?) concert reviews he feels are his due. So it shouldn't be surprising Yeezy's also got some rather particular – and rather expensive – taste in fashion, clothing, art, and design. I mean, he did get pop artist and one-man industry Takashi Murakami to design his last album cover, right? They don't call him the Louis Vuitton Don for nothing, right? And so to that end: Kanye's blog. It's a consistently updated tour of things largely awesome in the world of design. Occupying the front page right now are a funny/terrifying series of models with animals styled into their hair by Nagi Noda (another Japanese popster), an exceedingly clean-lined mid-century modern (right, Cindy?) house by Mexican architechts K&A Diseño, and the upholsted fiberglasss Eudora chair. So you haters can rest easy that Mr. West's contribution to design didn't begin and end with those damn Stronger glasses. (Although you might be able to afford a pair of those.) Read More | Comment »

A few months ago I lamented in this space about needing something a little snappier than my tattered Chucks for adventures outside Austin. I bought a fancy pair of Ferragamo Varina flats, had a stern talk with myself in the shoe closet, and felt relatively prepared for a civilized gathering. Then came the call that my husband and I would be traveling to Miami for a family visit and then on to the Bahamas for four days. Rummaging for our dusty passports, I suddenly had the feeling that I wasn't as put-together as I had imagined. Never having been on a strictly fun-in-the-tropical-sun vacation, I knew that this time I was going to need more than a guidebook and a good pair of sneakers. I bought two swimsuits and some sunblock, but something was still missing. Another hopeful appeal to the Shoe Closet Gods yielded some sparkly evening shoes, but no revelations.

Then one afternoon came the very equipment I lacked, in the form of a birthday present from my groovy stepmother, who can be counted on to define the cutting edge of anything. Whistling through the front door via express mail, it was tokidoki to the rescue! Check it out: The venerable brand of sport-utility bags, LeSportsac, teamed up with tokidoki designer Simone Legno and toymakers Toy2R to produce six seasons of tokidoki-themed bags. Inside the box were three bags, pictured here. The gew-gaws! The qee man charm! OMG, the rainbow-teethed zippers! One of several patterns created for LeSportsac, the one seen here is our tokidoki girl as Tattooed Pirate Girl. See her pillage exotic destinations with her barrel of TNT, then relax to examine new tattoos and ogle her loot! Tight. Read More | Comment »

I basically hate pink. When I was pregnant, I refused to find out the gender of my child so that, in the event it was female, I wouldn't be cursed with a cotton-candy explosion in the nursery.

Now that two years have passed, I have a fabulous, high-energy daughter. And I'm tired of fighting. I have flown the white flag/thrown in the towel/surrendered to glitter. Pink won. Read More | Comment »