accidental art: paris

photo: delphine

natural weirdness

photo: waysidegardens.com

This crazy flower is called a Cephalanthus 'Sputnik.' Isn't it fabulously weird??? The spiky flowers are full of nectar, so it's a good way to attract butterflies & bees to your garden. The natural habitat is wet, boggy soil. This sucker is huge: it can reach 12 feet tall and 10 feet wide!

favorite color

photo of russell+hazel's national stationery show booth by delphine

One of the most fun parts of being in this industry is working with color. I love this vignette from Russell+Hazel's National Stationery Show booth display. This year they introduced two new shades of orange. Love them both.

best magazine stand EVER

This is the best magazine store EVER!!! It carries hundreds and hundreds of titles, and I'd guess that roughly 80 percent of them are foreign. They specialize in fashion, design, and home décor magazines. I could have stayed there for hours. I bought a brand new title: Cote Paris, an ELLE fashion report from the Spring/Summer shows, and an Australian ELLE home décor magazine. If you're in NYC you must visit! It's on 40th, across the street from Bryant Park, between Fifth and Sixth.

National Stationery Show GUIDE

If you're headed out to the National Stationery Show today, don't miss some of my favorite booths:

Hello Lucky: booth 1356
Little Oranges of California: booth 1363
Mixed Co: booth 1448
Old School Stationers: booth 1551
Night Owl Paper Goods: booth 1644
Hammerpress: booth 1762
Mr. Boddington's Studio: booth 1752
Orange Beautiful: booth 1944
Boatman Geller: booth 2341
Blue Barnhouse: booth 2469
Whitney English: booth 2545
Waste Not Paper: booth 2903
Elum [my pick for best booth, although I haven't even had a chance to walk in yet]: booth 3013
Louella Press: booth 3176
Cat Seto: booth 3208
Green Paper Company: booth 3456
Russell+Hazel: booth 3524
Kate Aspen: booth 3614
Chronicle books: booth 3740
Twig & Fig: booth 4240
Motel Deluxe: booth 4235
Whimsy Press: booth 4242
Blue Ribbon: booth 4227

I KNOW I missed a bunch and will try my best to list more later on, along with photos and links.

Best of luck to all you fellow stationers for the last day of the National Stationery Show today! We (delphine) are in booth 3845 so please do stop by to say hello if you have a chance.

National Stationery Show Update

So I had these big plans ... I was going to post from the National Stationery Show every day with photos and updates. Obviously this is not happening. I have no real excuse other than that I have been so busy that I haven't had a chance to touch the computer...and also I lost my camera for a few days. I'm headed out early to the Javits today so that I can take some photos.

Our annual Monday Morning Mimosas was a blast (co-hosted with Russell+Hazel) and I would like to thank everyone for taking the time out of your schedules to join us.

Last night I had cocktails with some lovely friends from the show, including:
Blue Barnhouse (booth 2469)
Old School Stationers (booth 1551)
Night Owl Paper Goods (booth 1644)
Orange Beautiful (1944)

I'll post photos soon :-)

BTW: "Le Poire" at the Royalton Hotel comes highly recommended by moi: Grey Goose Poire vodka, Pear slice & champagne!

don't forget ...

photo: ebay

If you're on your way to NYC for NSS/ICFF/Surtex/Design Week don't forget your umbrella! I live in sunny So. Cal, and the thought never entered my mind to pack an umbrella. I don't even own one! But if I did it would be one of these umbrellas by Marc Jacobs.

pack rat

photos & products: Container Store

I have always loved traveling. My parents took me on my first big trip when I was only a few months old: from my home "town" of NYC to Haiti. Ever since I have had the traveling bug, I suppose, and haven't stayed put for more than six months at a time without taking a trip at least out of state. I thought I had the packing and traveling thing down ... I have lived out of a backpack for a summer (or two) in college and can go for a month-long European vacay with only a carry on.

Packing for work/trade shows, however, is another story. I find myself dumping my entire wardrobe in my (very, very, very large) suitcase. When C introduced me to these Eagle Creek Pack-It Folders I was skeptical at first, but was quickly converted when I realized I could cram (without wrinkles, no less) all my clothes for a week-long trip in one folder.

Also essential are the Nalgene leakproof bottles. No more lotion explosions!

Now if only there was a way to shrink my size nine shoes so I could cram more in my bag ...

Lulu

images from Amazon.com

Yesterday CC showed me this gorgeous gorgeous book when I was visiting her at SoLo: Lulu, by Lulu De Kwiatkowski. Upon return from The National Stationery Show this will be my first purchase. I look forward to a lazy day in a lounge chair, with a big, tall, alcoholic beverage and hours to pour through this book. I love visiting SoLo. CC always fills the shop with inspiring treasures.

studio wish list

photo: delphine

Yesterday I went to visit CC at her fabulous shop SoLo and fell in love all over again with this "coffee table" in Jennifer Price's corner of the store. It is perfect for my studio: great paper storage. And it would go great with the steel/glass garage door that I covet.

circle vase

vase & photo: baccarat

While strolling around Place de la Madeleine last fall with C, we spotted this stunning circle vase at the Baccarat shop. C is a glass blower, and I fantasize about designing fine china, so we were drawn like magnets to the Bacarrat shop--we didn't even have to discuss whether we would venture in or not.

Designer Arik Levy recently won a well deserved Elle Deco International Design Award for the circle vase design. C says the vase is deceptively simple: it looks plain but is quite difficult to make. I have a feeling that next time she finds some time at the studio she will be attempting to learn the technique so she may apply it to her own gorgeous designs!

cuff me

photo/bracelet: J. Crew

Lately I've been noticing a "ladies who lunch by the pool in Palm Springs" trend in fashion and jewelry. Sort of retro-chic. Sort of Tory Burch. Sort of Kelly Wearstler. Sort of double martini & lobster salad lunch. Sort of fabulous. Loving it, but not sure if I have the guts, the alcohol tolerance, or the smoker's cough, to quite pull it off.

icff

rug: emma gardner design

Now that our National Stationery Show booth is packed and shipped I have a few moments to breathe. I was looking at the calendar and realized that this year, because we (okay, J) did so much prep work on the booth before we shipped it, I will have time to walk my favorite show: the International Contemporary Furniture Fair (ICFF) on Saturday (the day before NSS opens). The rug shown above is from Emma Gardner Design (booth 2148). I'm always blown away by the booths that exhibitors put together at ICFF, not to mention all the gorgeous & innovative product designs.

love this pillow

Photo and pillow: Urban Outfitters

I'm a sucker for anything with letters/numbers on it, as I'm a not-so-secret typophile. This fun pillow from Urban Outfitters would look chic in an urban studio ... or adorable in a kids room.

the crate

Javits Center, here we come ...

nss preview

photos: delphine

The studio is NUTS getting the rest of our boxes ready to ship out to the Javits Center for the National Stationery Show. Minor disaster last night when our centerpiece frame broke, so today we have to scramble to find a replacement TODAY. Yikes.

love these pedestal tables

photo and pedestal tables: Pier 1 imports

Love these metal, laser-cut pedestal tables. Saw them at Pier 1 yesterday when I was scouting for photo shoot props. They're on sale for less than $50. Of course I love the green one best. Alas, I can't squeeze any more furniture into the studio at the moment--the floor is covered with boxes of inventory!

fun sunday

photos: delphine

It was my extraordinary pleasure to spend the day yesterday with nineteen South Bay girls and an uber-talented staff of local (Southern California) photographers & stylists on the set of a Seventeen Magazine and CosmoGirl photo shoot. The theme of the shoot was "Smiles & Self-Esteem;" the wonderful Jessica Davis did an amazing job of getting every girl's sweet personality to shine through onto film and I'm looking forward to designing the spread!

tulips

photo: Jay Kelley

Apparently nobody told C that she is supposed to tiptoe through the tulips ... not stomp on them! C is a Southern California girl, suddenly transplanted to grey, chilly Belgium; she was jumping for joy to be around bright colors again a few weeks ago when she visited Holland to see the tulips bloom.

sneak peek

photo and invitation: delphine

Here's a sneak peek at one of our newest designs: Sullivan. It's inspired by wild seagrass on Sullivan's Island, South Carolina and California poppies. We'll debut this new design later this month at the National Stationery Show.