Just got word that Domino magazine is teaming up with Grange to celebrate their new retail space on the 5th floor of ABC Carpet + Home at 888 Broadway at 19th Street in NYC. You can meet a Domino market editor and enjoy live music, cocktails and 20% off Grange furniture. Fun!

The event takes place on Wednesday, May 17 from 6:30-8:30 p.m. and you must RSVP to get your name on the guest list by May 12th.

To RSVP please call 866-211-1627.

(image from domino)

I’m trying to find some simple tube lights and I came across these… What do you think? They’re available at Lighting Works in the UK. I like the idea of using bold flower photos and wonder if someone knows how to DIY these… Does anyone know of any DIY lighting kits? I seriously need to take an image transfer class. I’d like to be able to create something like this.

These are so pretty though, and if you’re interested in them, you can purchase yours (already made and ready to go!) at Lighting Works.

(images from lighting works)

Fresh Finds from London at The White Company!

Seat Pads available in azure or lime check, tahiti floral and lime or azure bali in pure cotton. Delicious summer table linens, and of course, lovelies for the kitchen – adorable aprons, oven mitts and tea towels. With items for the home, to wear, for kids, and much more, you’re certain to enjoy The White Company and their cool summer vibe. Catchy!

If you’re in the UK, you can visit their retail stores, too!

psst: love these cube planters, don’t you?

(photos from the white company)

Joy recently mentioned Vanilla in her blog, so I had to go check them out since they are based in the UK. Vanilla is one sassy shop. Lots of fun to browse, and my favorite, unique wares. I’m loving the birdies on the wall – they remind me of something I saw in Domino magazine, but I can’t recall the issue…

(images from vanilla designs)

Hope you are all doing well today! It’s been a bit rainy and overcast here for the past several days, but you know how it goes, showers bring sunshine, so I’m sure we’ll be having a nice weekend. My best girl pal, who is more of a sister to me, is coming up on Saturday to stay with us until Tuesday. I always love when Miss Katie is around. It’s hard to catch her, as a hair stylist, she is always back and forth between Boston and Brooklyn to transform clients from shabby into chic. I transform rooms, she transforms people. She’s been texting me a lot from the road lately telling me she needs “holly time”, so we decided this weekend will work best for both of us. It will be nice to hang out and chat, spend long nights flipping through fashion magazines, taking walks, cooking, watching our favorite DVDs and going out for margaritas. When Katie is around, we both warp into ‘tween mode… I’m sure you have a friend like this, someone who seems to bring out the lighthearted carefree kid in you. That’s Katie. Last summer, we spent a very long weekend at a place we sublet in the Upper West Side and she constantly proves to me what a good pal she really is – she could have stayed with her friends in Brooklyn for free, instead she opted to stay with me to help cover the expenses of the sublet and so that she could simply ‘be with her holly’ as she put it. Her wit, her positive attitude, her ability to turn everything into a party – it’s contagious and I truly love her for it. She is also totally offline. I sometimes envy that, as there is a lot more time and freedom when you aren’t always hooked into a computer. Katie doesn’t even read my blog, she looks are her email maybe a few times a month, and she has no clue what blogs are really about and no desire to live in the hooked-in world in which I dwell. She doesn’t care about design or decorating – she’ll run in her stilettos to catch a sale at Black House White Market or Bebe, but you won’t catch her browsing the aisles of a home store. I doubt she has ever read Elle Decor and she has no clue what Domino magazine is. Yet, we are the best of friends. She loves clothes, tanning beds, the gym, chasing boys, and doing hair.

I think this is why we are so close, we each have a lot to bring into our friendship so the well never ceases to have water. I learn from her, she learns from me. I laugh at her boy stories. I love hearing about her adventures in New York. We travel together. We respect eachother. We appreciate one another. We love making other people happy – that’s why I’m a designer and she is a stylist. Both people-pleasing professions, in my opinion.

Recently, we were on the phone having one of our usual animated conversations with hands flying (I always put her on speaker so I can really talk since I use my hands a lot), and I made her go to her computer and type in my URL and look at my blog. She loved it, started reading through it, and when she looked at the collage of photos of my husband and I, she said “Oh I miss you guys soooo much, how soon can I come up?”. She promptly logged off (again, no interest in design-y things) and we began setting some plans into stone. She lives 1.5 hours from me, so we have weeks in which we do not see eachother – thank goodness for text messaging.

Do you have a friend that doesn’t care about the internet, blogging, design? I’d love to know if you have friends that aren’t into email or the web and what they do that allows them to not need it.

(photo from stiletto style)