At Le Bon Marché artist and photographer Julie Ansiau has created a wall with a hundred little colorful felt pillows that are embroidered with new year’s offerings, as well as cases of wonderful little characters and objects. “I made a wall with a hundred ex-votos in felt. They are all embroidered with a wish on it, you’d want to make for the new year, and you buy the one that you need or that you like…They are like little pillows you can read but in fact they are offerings.” -Julie
I met up with Julie in Paris and she is so wonderful and has some amazing projects in the works that will hopefully be on exhibition in some very big shops in this coming new year. Meanwhile hurry to check them out at Le Bon Marché until the end of the year, before they’re all gone. Bon Année!

Fleet Foxes - A Take Away Show from La Blogotheque on Vimeo.

Wishing I would run into one of these while I’m here..

La Blogotheque’s “Concerts a Emporter” (concerts to go)
via the Moment

I’ll be away on holiday for the next 3 weeks, and will post when possible. If there’s anything you think I shouldn’t miss in London or Paris leave a comment.
image by Yelena Yemchuk

This weekend I went to a holiday masquerade party hosted by Corinne, who has the most amazing house. I made this little mask to wear at the party. There was a fire outside with marshmallows to roast and it was such a nice time.

A bit last minute but here are some small gift ideas that I thought I’d share. Not quite as extravagant as my very selfish wishlist but I am mostly making gifts this year and like to look for little things to go along with those gifts. These little wood elephant bottle openers are amazing, my favorite Postalco notebooks available from South Willard, Tortoise and Auto, Juniper Ridge California Bay Laurel soap smells like trees! I love it and it’s actually made of trees and all natural ingredients, I have also seen it for sale at Mothers Markets so you might find it there and avoid shipping, this little box is just interesting and would make a great little lunch box, a lovely little print from Fifi Lapin, colorful rock soap, a Honey in the Rough knotted headband, and the easiest gift to give is Papabubble, it’s really amazing how they get the letters so small in this amazing candy, I miss stopping in there to say hello to those guys. I also received a very cute letterpressed calendar from SeeSaw letterpress, and I love the colors and linear layout of it, it’s a very sweet gift.

I just recently went to check out Endovanera in Echo Park and I had heard it was really good but it far surpassed my expectations. They make really cool, really nicely made menswear and are just starting to make womenswear as well. There were only a few women’s pieces when I went in but I would wear a lot of their menswear pieces which tend to size like Dior Homme, a little on the smaller side. They had some really amazing coats and button-up shirts, which I was told could be made in a different color or fabric if I wanted! I think a lot of it is made in house and I know that at least 2 of the people who started this line are from WORK, the custom denim shop which is now Ladyboy shoes. This place is a hidden gem in LA. Menswear of this kind doesn’t really exist in LA outside of what is sold at South Willard and Opening Ceremony, and what’s really nice is that it has a simple but unique feel to the designs.

One more thing for this weekend. The lovely ladies of the Piece are having a holiday sale in LA tomorrow from 1-4.
To attend this event RSVP to: thepiecela@gmail.com

Preparing to brave the cold weather of London + Paris soon. Busy working on a coat to bring with me, back with more next week!
image from Lula.

The table pictured in the image above with a “stone-slab top has a geographically correct depiction of the Amazon River carved into it, a pump providing a flow of water and a cluster of succulent plants thriving on top,” and the steel cabinet below has a mechanical toy train that runs in the tracks carved into the slab. Both pieces were designed by Wolfgang Laubersheimer. I wish all furniture could be this subtlety interesting and entertaining.
The Wolfgang Laubersheimer’s Amazonas desk and steel cabinet are on view at the “German Avant Garde Design of the 1980s” show at Demisch Danant gallery in New York until December 20th.
via Hint

A bit more selfish than a gift guide, and mostly quite a bit unrealistic for me right now, but a lot more fun.. Here are things I am wishing I had right now.. Junya Watanabe black twist sleeve dress, Vogue Living, Flowers from Saipua, Hudson Bay Wool blanket, Built by Wendy Pippi striped top,
Elizabeth Peyton book, Postalco pass case, Proenza Schouler Large Leather PS1 bag in midnight (regardless of this being an “it” bag right now, to me it’s simply a great bag at a not so great price), A.P.C. Scottish plaid scarf, PLAY by CdG gray men’s cardigan, MM6 by Martin Margiela drawstring waist tunic, Saipua soaps, Ladyboy tie back shoes, Acne Bird short sleeved blouse, a Bonsai tree, Jamie at Home cookbook, Steven Alan navy Sabina beret, Isabel Marrant blue plaid Holly scarf, Ligne 6 Martin Margiela elastic neckline trench, Rachel Comey leather Belt, Marc by Marc Jacobs black shoes, Steven Alan navy basketweave knit vest, more flowers by Saipua.

This sale only happens once a year, and as an added bonus there’s hot cocoa!

I love this photo. The colors are amazingly bright but it’s such a nostalgic image. I think I had a very similar haircut at that age haha. How cute is she! I ran into her outside Opening Ceremony when I lived above it and have to say she is super cute in person.

My latest obsession, I love these little fox-like pups. Scout is friends with a couple of these types of dogs in New York.

I just discovered the work of Paris based artist Yui Taniguchi who is Tremplapin. She was featured as a newcomer in So-En magazine for 2009. I am always so amazed by these tiny incredible things people knit, I especially love those bunches of strawberries in the Confiture Bonne Maman jar. I wish her work was included as part of the upcoming Colette in-store Chalet dedicated to knitting that is up for the month of December. Hopefully we’ll see more of Tremplapin’s work in the coming year.

The two most beneficial things I have read recently were an article titled Farmer In Chief and a book, In Defense of Food: An Eater’s Manifesto, both by Michael Pollan. They have very simply opened my eyes to what I am eating and really inspired me to cook more and feel good about what I eat. And while on the topic of reading about food, the most enjoyable book I have read that revolves around food is A Year In Provence by Peter Mayle, who is Jane Mayle’s Father. It is a beautiful story that makes you want to move to the South of France and, for me, eat things I would never ever normally want to eat, and yet also consists of a diet and food culture that surely would be Pollan approved.

Who wouldn’t love a little gift wrapped up like this? As someone who uses paper doilies and ribbons for any excuse I can find, I am in love these beautifully wrapped packages made by Emma Cassi.

I love this photo of Karl in his Memphis phase. Check out that boombox behind him!

It’s here! And they’ve collaborated with my former employer from years past, Sanrio, I am very curious to see what came out of that.

Acne Jeans has collaborated with Bianchi on some very beautiful racing bikes based on the old Pista model. Leave it to Acne to leave me once again dreaming of beautiful bikes when I have just completed my own.
via Hint

I’m so excited that I have finally completed customizing my bike. It took a long time to get it to happen. It was an old metallic olive green women’s Motobecane and now it’s a finally a silvery lavender.
This was quite a process to get it a different color and then rebuilt. It had to be stripped of parts and then of paint. I had to find a paint genius who could match the color in my head, which I did! Ray from Ray’s Auto Paint in Los Angeles is a color genius. I then had to figure out how to paint it which did not end up being possible until I came to LA, all the auto shops in nyc that I contacted said they were “amused but too busy” to paint a bike. So I ordered a spray gun, used my Dad’s air compressor, and using a pretty serious air mask David painted it for me. Then we took it over to Tony who is a crazy bike expert and he rebuilt it and gave me a good deal. It’s been a long and slow process so I decided to share this in case anyone out there was dreaming of a bike in a particular color like me. It took a lot of friends to make this happen so thank you to Dan from the Arm, Ray, Tony from Chicago Bikes and most of all David.

I was so surprised to see this pretty imagery in the new issue of Nylon today. Reminds me of the Nylon I used to love, it’s been so long!

Right now I am working on designing a new coat for myself, only I seem to have lost my very detailed drawing and have wasted the past few hours digging for it. So, more interesting posts to come tomorrow.

photos by Lina Scheynius