Trade Secrets Book Signing

If you know me (you know me by now), you know I LOVE a good book signing. I love to have all my precious design books signed by the designers. It makes it special. Above are just a few of my signed books: Bunny, Bunny, Albert Hadley, Barry Dixon, Vicente Wolf, and Celerie Kemble. Anyway, enough about me. When I heard that there was going to be a book signing at Trade Secrets, I was SO JAZZED. There are EIGHT designers who are going to be there at the Johnnycake Books table (could that name be cuter??) between 10 and 1 to sign books. Besides Bunny Williams, I'm most excited about Carolyn Roehm because I've never met her and love her classic style. I own one of Florence de Dampierre's books as well and adore her. I can't wait to see the garden designers though as well. Gardens and landscape design is something I don't know a ton about but I find it totally fascinating. A beautiful landscaping job can make a home when you first approach it.

For more info about this, visit the Trade Secrets website. Okay, off I go to tour the gardens and see all the beautiful people!

Alicia B.

Trade Secrets Weekend!

This weekend I'll be doing what I do EVERY YEAR on this date...going to Trade Secrets! If you don't know, it's an annual garden tour and sale in beautiful Sharon, CT in which the proceeds go to Women's Support Services, a non profit organization to help victims of domestic violence. Design idols like Bunny Williams (who actually founded Trade Secrets) and Martha Stewart have been spotted there as well.

Bunny's house is on tour every year and her gardens are spectacular and incredibly charming. I'll give you an update after I see them! This year the new designer is Lynden Miller, a landscape designer who specializes in public gardens.

Intriguing, I know. If you live in NYC (of if you've been there), you've probably been to a park that she helped design or rehabilitate--Central Park is one of them. She heads up the Conservatory Garden of Central Park. Above is a shot of a garden at Battery Park City in lower Manhattan.

Who knew there was such a garden in NYC? Above is the British Garden at Hanover Square.

I'm excited to tour her garden home up in CT--don't worry I'll report back to you all! Have any of you been to Trade Secrets?


Alicia B.

I'm still alive...

Sorry for the silence, but I'm finishing up my semester tomorrow and have a huge project to present and I've been drowing in it for about 3 months. I designed a restaurant named Ciaroscuro based on a Caravaggio painting and I have been drafting, rendering, and modelling my butt off. Here is a snapshow of the model I made.

The walls are lined with a black moire fabric, the red tissue paper is a red capiz chandelier, there are insets with custom made (by me) and painted wallpaper made from black and gold marbelized paper and yes, I made wooden spiral stairs in which I stained my own wood. YEAH.

Wish me luck tomorrow!

Alicia B.

Lilly Coming Home

I've been meaning to post about this...for...a long time but have been completely swamped with my life. So, for those of you who don't read 1000 other interior design blogs, then this will be news to you--Lilly Pulitzer has a new furniture line coming out!


You might be thinking, this could only work in a little girl's room, or in my vaca home in Palm Beach, but I think it has some actual versatility.

See what I mean? This sideboard cabinet is so sophisticated and has just the right amount of embellishment in the knobs. SO gorgeous.

I love faux bamboo so this bar cart would look amazing in my NYC apartment. Really--does anybody want to step up to the plate to make that happen?

I want to trade out my super cool bar stools for these now! You guys know how much I love yellow and these are just SO YELLOW.

The Morgan Ottoman is just adorable. I love the wide pleats--this is perfect for setting a tray of treats down on. LIlly knows that we're not always out at fabulous parties or lying on the beach and that we like to kick back and watch TV sometimes. I love the blue on the inside of the cabinet and the cute little brass drawer pulls.
As a side note, I'm thinking of wearing this dress to my rehearsal dinner--thoughts?

So what do you guys think of the Lilly Pulitzer line? You know how I feel (can't breath with excitement). Practical? AMAZING? It comes out this summer, so you have some time to make room for it. (Images from Lilly Pulitzer, HFI Brands Facebook page, and CocoCozy!)

Alicia B.

Shopping at Claremont...but not for myself

One of the best parts of my new job is shopping! I get to pick out beautiful and amazing fabrics and textiles for our clients. Though i am beginning to loathe my old place of employment, the D & D building, I am learning so much. Seriously, the D &D is a huge time and energy sucker, but there is nothing to do about that--its the life of a design assistant. ANYWHAY, the most fabulous place I've been thus far was a showroom called Claremont. It's not in the D & D, but a few blocks north. It has the most beautiful printed fabrics and embroidered silks. It was like the high end version of Pierre Deux in the style sense; French Country but with a little city flavor, if you know what I mean.

The showroom was bright and cheery and I almost blacked out at how beautiful and perfectly organized it was.

All the fabrics were stacked one on top of the other. I hated to mess them up but I needed to dig into the gorgeous textiles. (pic from Brooke Giannetti's blog!)

The showroom (this is the LA one) carries about 7 or 8 lines of fabric. This one is Penny Morrison's welcome to the showroom. From Out to Lunch.

Speaking of awesome designer, Brooke Giannetti, she used this paisley fabric from Claremont to recover a client's chair. I love how the traditional pattern is made more modern with the poppy color.

The showroom, started in London in 1931, started with George Le Manash of Paris. I'm ABSOLUTELY obsessed with his fabrics.

OH MA GAWD I'm obsessed with this room. Le Manache is a fabric design god.

OH, I'm going to black out again (can blacking out be the new "swoon"?). This is another Le Manache fabric room. I love matching fabric to wall covering--but only when it's a good/amazing fabric. Photo from HERE.

I'm recovering this Saturday night from a crazy week at work (in a good way), and Saturday 9AM class. Thankfully I got the new House Beautiful to help me unwind. What are ya'll up to?


Alicia B.

Happy Birthday to my Sister!

Joe Nye from his book Flair.

Yup, this is how things roll in my family. Anyone who matters has a birthday in Spring or Summer--it's just the way things are.

Want to know more about the birthday girl? My sister is the baby in the family, has more nicknames than anybody I know, works in finance but is obsessed with Joe Nye. This hot redhead has nothing on my ginger sister--from the Sartorialist.

She's supremely fashionable, unlike her boring preppy sister (moi). Image from Kate Spade.

She is my go-to person (one of two--I have two sisters, okay!) if i'm having a life conundrum, or more importantly if I have a cute picture of a kitten I have to show her.

I hope you have a fabulous, flair filled birthday (even though I won't be there to celebrate). 23 is going to be a ridiculous year!

xoxo
Alicia