Flea Market Find Mondays ish.

I've been traveling the last two sundays, so i actually haven't been to the flea market in two weeks.  I've been getting the shakes and taking my withdrawl rage out on Bearcat.  I'll snap at the smallest lack of purr or start weeping randomly.  

Poor thing doesn't understand what is ailing her mother.  I want to explain it to her, but there is a huge cat/human language barrier that no matter how hard we try, we can't seem to get over.  

but that's another story.

So Corbett and I went to South Bay on Saturday to check out Big Daddy Antiques, which was great in a way, but also every thing was the same expensive John Derian vibe.  I thought it was going to be a big junk store, but nope, kinda fancy pants.

So not wanting to waste a perfectly good day of shopping we headed to an antique mall even further south that wasn't awesome, but not terrible.  And determined to have something to blog about and to not have wasted 5 hours and a half a tank of gas i did find a few things after like 3 hours. 

Why yes, this is a brass tic tac toe set, of course.  It was $10, which is probably too much, but I kind of love it.  Not sure what i'll do with it, most certainly NOT play tic tac toe, but its my objet-du-jour.

'60's bar set.  I don't need, but I love.  $5 each.

Awesome little turquoise vase.  It's gonna look perf in my shelves, although a bit brighter than I normally go for.  It reminds me of this Amazing pottery:

Except decidedly cheaper at $25.

And every house and horse lover needs a wooden foot-thingy to put in her shelves.

It's pretty and rustic and natural and overpriced at $28, which I bought anyway.  

And then for future clients I bought these two things;

vintage green chalkboard, 18"  $12

and Hugo Guiness-y 1929 original car drawing $16 - perfect for a bachelors gallery wall, no?

It's pretty awesome.

Must run, doing my first series of holiday commercials today for HGTV.  Back in New York and shooting at a studio I used to style in for years.  Except this time i'm in the hair and makeup chair instead of schlepping and unpacking boxes all day.  

So weird.  And completely awesome. 

I do not look like Judith Light, thank you very much.

So Ian tells me often that i dress like Angela from Who's the Boss.  And then he goes off in Tony's bronxian accent, 'MO..na, JOna...tan..........SamAn........ta'.  Which is hilarious. 

But saying that I dress like Judith Light is not.

NO way. 

Except I just bought this dress which has shoulder pads  

(which i wore this week for the blogger lunch and the RUE party)

 It's by Joie and you can find it here.  Yes its slightly 80's, but not like this:

I always protest and say that I dress more 70's, less 80's and he says I dress like Angela circa '83 but still wearing her late '70's clothes. which i find quite specific,  and i don't totally understand.  and then i remind him that he is a straight man who wears rodeo pants and gold medallions.  everyday. 

So in my defense, here are my latest '70's inspired fashion pics.  not 80's, mind you, the 70's

Dsqared2 tennis blouse.  and can not find where to buy it for the life of me, so if anybody knows, please help me out.  I need this shirt.

Emersonmade bluebells.  These are on their way in the mail and that makes me very very very happy. 

Buy them here

I bought my first vintage coach purse when i was 16 and wore it for 5 years.  

I'm not a handbag chick, and i hate the branding aspect of them, but Coach did it so well in the 70's -just leather and the necessary hardware to keep it together.  

I still have the one that i rocked for years, but its pretty beat up. 

So last week in New York I bought this one:

Pure and simple design and function.  and with a bit of brass thrown in there.

And maybe i'll top it off with this shirt from etsy:

With either these vintage 70's frye boots (which i can't find) or these new ($100) wedges from Lucky:

Yep.  The 70's.  

I hope i proved my point, but pretty sure that I didn't.

Am I the only one that secretly wants to look like Jodie Foster in Taxi Driver?

sans the shirt-thing and the hat, but just the overall vibe, right?

Finally its announced...

Secrets from a Stylist has been picked up for 26 episodes!!!!!!

Yep.  

which is also my age.  

or was my age a few years ago.  whatever.

So my midnight post is dedicated to trying to find new houses to cast for the show.   If your grandparents need a restyling, if your brother-in-law needs a restyling, or anyone really that lives in LA that owns there own place needs a restyling by yours truly, please follow the directions below. 

*****UPDATE:
Email casting@triconfilms.com

Here are the conditions:  You have to live in L.A. (if the house/people are so great I think we can travel to Orange County or within 30  miles of LA, but really ideally we are in LA)
You have to own your space.  I know. I'm a renter too and it would totally bum me out, but this is how it is will all these shows.

If you live in a duplex and are best friends with your landlord then you might be able to swing it, but apartment buildings with a bunch of other tenants create a lot of problems)

We will only be doing 1 room, not a whole house.

At this time we are not doing any bathrooms or kitchens, if that changes i'll let you know. It's not a reno show, its a style show and those are to costly and timely for production.

You will be on TV.
And your schedule has to be flexible as we shoot 6 days a week
 (you won't be on all 6, but will need to be available when necessary).

The bigger the personality, the better.

Oh and the room should be 15x20 or else amazing.  We  need big rooms.

In your email, include pictures of you/your family/your space and info on what your styles are and what you see for the space.  And don't be conservative with your personality, bring it.

Everyone that left a comment, just go ahead and email them to casting.  I'll try to get back to people, but I probably shoulda just waited 'til I had the proper email to post....but instead I had some sake and was really excited to tell all my virtual friends...

And remember - I want to do anyone.  woah...

You might think that your cousin that lives in LA has completely different style than me, but that's what we want.  As much I love doing all vintage-flea-markety-hipster, I want to do some traditional styles (shopping from flea markets, too, don't worry) or crazy minimal styles, anything that will make the show interesting week after week.

I can do any style tastefully - because every style can be beautiful when shopped correctly and when mixed properly.

Bring it.
and email
casting@triconfilms.com

GOOD LUCK.

My best friends wedding.

I know.  So pretty if i do say so myself. The bride is one of my best friends, Nicole.  I helped her with the vision of her wedding because well.....i'm a bit controlling when it comes with anything flower or fashion oriented (and she's a big Nike exec with not too much time).  

The goal for the whole wedding was 'effortlessly beautiful' - no matching bridesmaid dresses or tight perfectly arranged flowers, but of course this doesn't happen exactly 'effortlessly.' 

NOPE.

Chelsea from Frolic executed the flower vision perfectly, she went beyond my expectations and styled them even better than i was hoping.   And all these gorgeous pictures are by Lisa Warninger

It's exactly what i pictured.  Each arrangement is different, totally random and looks like it was just plucked from the garden

The flowers were all in season dalia's, garden roses, and random wildflowers and greenery.  

We were at David Hill Winery outside Portland, with a big yellow country house and ridiculously pretty hills and vineyards.  

The stems on the bouquets were left uncovered and untrimmed - Chelsea just tied them up with ripped white linen strips and Nicole's was tied with a silk floral hot pink scarf that i've had for a while.  

And yes, those are blackberries - Chelsea's idea and right on.

This is a total testament of bloggers uniting over shared taste.  I knew that Chelsea has done flowers beautifully and has great taste when it came to styling. So instead of hiring a traditional florist - that might've no matter how much i stressed it - done things to perfectly, through Chelsea's blog (Frolic) I knew that she got the look.  

So sorry.  Post is coming.  just have conference calls all morning (and a crazy last few days).  

But the post might involve:

 My relationship with Nate Berkus, 

Meeting a ton of awesome bloggers the last couple days - people who i've read for years and love, 

or a wedding that i was just in.

Please come back later today.  

Por Favor.

Wahoo!!! A New Magazines in the Hizouse. (with pictures of hizouses)

Ok so in case you are dead or otherwise, well, "working all day" and "not checking the blogs constantly", a new on-line shelter magazine launched yesterday. 

Rue Mag 

It's awesome.  Oh and look....huh, that's weird...what a coincidence....I have a story in it....styled and written by me.  I rarely read the articles in magazines myself, i'm a much better "picture reader" in general, but check it out if you are up to "words" and "sentences".

I use very few big words, i promise.   Unless you consider 'wallpaper' a big word.

I'm not gonna post the whole story on my blog, this is just the first two pages. 

(of 10 plus pages, and a  VIDEO) 

You must check it out by clicking here, starting on page 138.

In the story you get to see me hang out with some of my best friends:  Brian (he's the best of all my friends), our LA best friends Ian, Corbett, Leigh, and their best friends from Texas Anne and Andre, and our other great longtime friend Enver and his lovely lady Christine.  There were like 30 people in our teeny apartment with photo equipment, lights, food, fashion, makeup/hair everywhere.  Kinda a nightmare production-wise but nobody cared because it was super fun. 

Shot by the awesome David Tsay

Fiore beauty did our hair and makeup.

The Life Styled (hi, Catherine) put awesome clothes and jewelry on us.

So please check it out.  

And look at the whole magazine.  

My friend, Jen's company Ban-do has an alternate reality 80's party story that makes you want to eat sequins and shove cupcakes in your cupcake.

My secret mission in D.C. is almost finished.  

I ran into Jason Bourne. 

oh, and he also likes blue.

but he does not like princess sleeves. we talked. 

What I wish I was wearing today....

Ever since this whole TV thing happened I decided that I should start to dress less like a crazy person.  Don't worry, still slightly cuckoo, just mixing in a little awesomeness here and there.  

For the special I kept putting off wardrobe shopping because I was so busy shopping for the house, and then i was out of time.

so this time, i'm a-thinkin' about wardrobe in advance.

Now a lot of you who know me know that I can get very equestrian very fast.   Maybe its because one of the few movies we were allowed to watch growing up was 'Man From Snowy River'. 

Are you with me ladies?  You know you are.

 

Not sure how that chick was the leading lady....

I can get behind all the leather, tweed, canvas, princess sleeve jackets, denim and brass accents any day.

So here is what i'm thinking: my new dream outfit for work:

Jacket:  Emersonmade, amazing. Just perfect.   $238 and worth every penny.  Many of you might say, 'But Emily, you already have a jacket just like that.  You wore it all throughout Design Star'. and I say to you, 'Correctamundo, my friend.' But i lost it the last day of the shoot much to my, and America's sorrow.    One less princess sleeved, perfectly fitted vintage tweed jacket in the world.

 

AND p.s. if anyone sees anybody wearing my jacket in NYC, tackle them take off the jacket and turn them over to the police.  These kinds of crimes can't go unpunished.

Ok, i will wear the jacket with these James Jeans (twiggy cut, they have stretch but not jeggings and are super dark and therefore rather flattering)  $114 (i have three pairs of these, different colors)

Um, but lose those heels lady, i'm going to be wearing these with them:

My god, you are beautiful. clogs and boots combined! no you di'int.

Anthropologie, $580.  What? be quiet. a girl can clog dream can't she? 

Oh and this'll be my new bag

From A.P.C.  $580.  yep, that's not happening any time soon. but i love you.

And dios mio I love Lauren Moffatt. (top $240)  Modern femininity at its best.

There we have it folks.  And if anybody ever happens upon me in a piano bar after a few too may, ask me to play the theme song from 'Man from Snowy River'.  And hopefully i won't, but there is a chance i will, cause i know that one by heart folks.  

You know the one.

And if you don't,  ask yourself what exactly were you doing in the 80's if not watching period romances from New Zealand? eh?

or just click here and listen to it with a montage from the movie.  

i just did.  and i cried. seriously. 

stupid nastalgia, i hate you sometimes. 

Am i the only person who saw that movie?

I Heart Blue Tuesdays

So in line with making sure my head doesn't explode, but I still keep up the blog i've decided that along with mondays being 'Flea Market Mondays' (I lost the 'find' in there, i could tell you guys weren't digging it) Tuesdays are going to be 'I heart blue Tuesdays'.  

I was going to call it 'just because I wear blue doesn't mean I am blue' tuesdays, but Brian nixed it and said it was too long, and then i said 'ah, i think its funny', and he said that it actually wasn't.  

Whatever.

Welcome to I Heart Blue Tuesdays. Where i will feature my most beloved color 'blue'.

Starting with Peter Franks den:

Cindy and I shot the Garnet Hill Catalogue probably 5 years ago here at Peter Franks house (via House Beautiful) up the Hudson Valley.  It was the first time that I saw (or fell head over oxfords for) blue grasscloth.  I remember thinking it is just so warm, but quiet - a texture without pattern.  

Peter is a stylist and his house is beautiful in every way, but this room in particular looks so 'weekend' and comfortable but still high end. 

Kudos, Pete.  Can i call you Pete, Pete?

You guys probably have seen this, but I hadn't for some reason.  (via apartment therapy).

I was surprised to find out that it was a home, i thought it was a catalogue for whomever makes those crochet thingy's (is it their home, does anyone know?)

But the colors are what does it for me.  And to all of you who think that wood panelling is out, i say to you, 'nay, NAY 'tis in'.  Granted i'm the 70's girl, but i love some painted white or stripped and washed wood panelling any day.  a la this one:

Sorry no blue in that one.  

But i leave you with this happy happy space.  

from Patricia Gray's blog

Do we like 'I heart Blue Tuesdays' 

and yes it will include some fashion, accessories, links to products, etc. anything i want, really.  

As long as its blue.

Flea Market Find Mondays

Rose Bowl Sundays = Flea Market Find Mondays.

This might be a new Monday thing since I flea market every weekend and I like show and tell a lot - not in a weird way, just in a 'look at my pretty things' kinda way......which is actually kinda weird now that i think about it. 

I love me a landscape watercolor.  You know it. $20 and about 10x14"

Ethereal, moody yet totally in my color palette and with a ton of age and character.

I shall frame promptly.

Check out these bad-boys.  They are old brass English measurers for whey or hops for english beers.  They are hand-welded and totally imperfect.  I love that they have a modern silhouette, and act as a grouping of sculptures, but are old and could be functional as well.  

They will go either in my shelving or just on a console as a grouping.  If i feel crazy i might just put branches in the tallest one. who knows. i'm totally unpredictable when it comes to foliage. 

looky at the little stamped measuring details on all of them. these were $90 for the six.  I know.  it was a splurge but I love them very much.  They catch the light so perfectly and make a huge statement without being gaudy.  

I love an extendable lamp, $30.  From the 70's.  In brass.  Lord how I am obsessed with the 70's.  

Perhaps its because I was made in the 70's.  

Does that make me vintage?

Wait, does anyone know the guy at the L.A. flea markets that was a hoarder and now is trying to get better so he is selling everything, but before he sells each item he takes a picture of you with it?  

he's awesome.  And then he hoards the picture. I'm not kidding, which actually makes a lot more sense. 

 I find it so strange, but incredibly sweet at the same time.  I imagine him just flipping through the pictures on a Saturday night, reminiscing on each glass bottle or silver pencil cup, hoping that it has a good home now and fantasizing that they will meet again.  

I thought he wanted a picture of me because of DS and SFAS, but nope, he had no idea who i was (as it should be), just wanted one last memento of his lamp.

Let me know if you guys are into Flea Market Find Mondays.

I always like to know what people are buying so i can either scoff at them or envy them, but if you guys don't have the same neurosis, then i won't subject you to mine.  

I need a blogging intern. Yes i do.

I don't know how to do a blog 'button' so I'm just going to dedicate my thursday evening post to this:

It's the new online magazine that is dropping next week.  I have an entertaining story in it, and so does my friend's (Jen Gotch) company, Ban-do.

Support people, support.  

Pretty pictures don't pay for themselves, people have to read magazines for them to stay in business and for photographers and stylists to keep working. 

Ok, my lecture is officially over.

I'M ON THE SEARCH FOR A BLOGGING INTERN! 

No, i'm not shouting, just excited. 

Someone who knows what they are doing in blogging world.  They probably can post videos, get sponsers, social network media stuff and help me blog when i start to get crazy busy. 

Unfortunately I need someone with experience and references, in both blogging, computers, photoshop, etc. and they need to love home style.  So PLEASE only apply if you have those things - otherwise i would hire my husband....or Bearcat, i need someone with skills that i don't necessarily have, but with the style obsession that i do have - and i know you guys are out there.    

I am redoing my blog and web-site right now, thanks to Squarespace, but I know that soon i won't be able to dedicate as much time to it and I want someone who can be my right hand man.  

Someone who has been in the blogging world for a while, knows how to research online, post everything, upside down if need be and has a personality.  

Obviously this could lead to other opportunities.

LA based is necessary, sorry.  If I don't find anyone here, then yes, I will post this again, i promise.

But it would be crazy for me not to try to find someone who i can meet and work with face to face.

It will start as an internship, 10 hours a week, with credit, of course and mad linkage to your blog.  

And hopefully it will be a crazy success for both of us and lead to more things.

I set up an email just for this, and will check it often for a while, but it isn't my main email (i'm working on getting one just for the blog as we speak) So if you email this address in 2 weeks, don't get mad if I don't get back to you because i may not check it too often.

thebrasspetal@yahoo.com

As you can probably tell, personality is important and resumes bore me.  I'm not saying to not send a resume,  but you know what i'm saying - let me know about you.  

 And most importantly don't forget to link to your blog. and if you don't have a blog, then 'blogging assistant' probably isn't the best fit for me right now.

I can't wait!!!

Ian's master bedroom

OK.  I'm back.  and I realized that I forgot to post/blog about Ian's master bedroom redo.  The below picture makes me want to build a time machine (as we all know i'm great at building electrical inventions) and go back 6 weeks to style this bed better. I'm not there when the pics are taken, I OK them, and then leave the house to do other around town shots, and then stuff happens.   

So I love Ian's bedroom regardless of the messy bed.  I really wanted it to feel masculine but not too hotel room and I feel like mens bedrooms can go in that direction really easily.  And the more you decorate a man's bedroom, the less straight he looks.  But at the same time I still need to 'design' the room.  So here's what I did.  I painted the walls 'Sandy Hook Gray (BM) which is beautiful, and toom down the window treatments.  Ian didn't want any at all, and I agreed. That room doesn't get very much light and is surrounded by trees, so he doesn't have privacy issues.

After replacing the carpet - OOH i haven't talked about that yet.  So replacing the carpet wasn't in the budget, but i insisted on it because the bland beige looked dirty and just didn't work with any of the colors we had going on.  I looked at a bunch of options that we could possibly afford and get in only a few days and most of them were either too suburban for Ian or too cheap looking. So we went with this medium toned gray commercial grade.  Calm down.  Yes, its kinda weird to put commercial grade carpet in a home, but YES it totally worked and looked great.  (oh, for the record we got estimates for replacing the carpet with wood flooring, but because of the sloping of the hill and how irregular the rooms were it would have taken 10,000 and 3 weeks to do, so not an option unfortunately).  

The carpet was simple and clean and while it was warmer than wood, it still feels modern.  And the whole house (including 3 bedrooms, 2 staircases, 2 hallways and the TV room) was $800 - installation was $1200.  To get the other carpet that I wanted or to get sea grass flooring - wait is that what its called?- it would have cost 3-4000 just for the carpet, plus installation and i'm not sure that it would have looked as good.  This carpet, because it has such a low pile is still cool to throw rugs over. 

The bench I bought at a thrift store and had it reupholstered, by the same guy who did the headboard. I handed the guy navy linen with a picture of the west elm headboard:

 I like it what I got, but there was supposed to be box piping around the front of the sides and more tufting, same with the bench.  Kinda annoying, but nothing you can do about it except learn from it and realize that no matter how much someone says they understand, put EVERYTHING in writing.  The headboard only cost $350 for a queen (west elm was $510 with shipping, and no navy fabric).  The bench cost $100 to reupholster and refinish - although he was supposed to strip the legs and just treat them without staining so it would be a light natural wood and instead he stained them dark which i don't hate, but i don't like.  This is a case of 'you get what you pay for'. 

Diamond foam and fabric (where i got the wingback and 60's chair reupholstered) does amazing work but they aren't cheap.  This guy has a little shop in Echo Park and came highly recommended and is crazy cheap, but we took a risk, for sure.  

The dresser came from Pepe's in Echo Park, it was $350 and its in perfect shape, but from the 60's.  The lamps were Ian's lamps already, but in that terrible green color, and for the show we wanted to use as much of the owners stuff as possible, so I decided that the shape wasn't bad - and the shades were great, so we spray painted them.  Same with that mirror. It came from a thrift store and was brown and ugly metal.  Don't worry, i won't be one of those 'spray paint everything' designers/hosts.  But some things just need it.  

The Sconces:  yes I put goose neck lamps on the wall.  because i be kerazy.  they look awesome and totally work.  For those at home - these lamps have holes at the top, but not the bottom and while they work on the wall ok with just the top being adhered to the wall, eventually with use, they move to much. So you need to drill a hole (with a metal bit) through the bottom, too.  These are great for reading, but not good for ambient lighting because the shades are metal and focus the light down.  

The bedding.  The duvet is from Ikea, we tried to get this one: 

But they were out of stock.

For the pillows:  we made these gray linen pillows - you might know about my obsession with linen.  Its strong durable, textural, cheap and gets softer and softer with age and washings.  There are some linens that cost $30-$40 a yard, they are mainly imported from France and Belgian.  But the American or Asian linens are great and sometimes cost around $7-$12 a yard.  Wash them twice before you use them, so they get super soft and textural.  And the throw pillow that is on the bed is a fabric sample from Diamond that I purchased, then put linen backing on it to make a pillow.  

I've added an awesome turkish rug in here,  and put some art on the wall above the asian chest on the left.  It just needed a couple more elements.  I'll take pics.    

Any questions, folks?

Vacations over, folks. Lame.

Obsessed with the picture on the right.  It makes me want to paint my body orange, and eat an orange orange.  Both from Skona Hem.  

Right now all i want to blog about is how starting this second i'm on a serious all-you-can't-eat diet.  that doesn't make sense, actually.  my brain is done, too full of fried foods and booze. point being, my friend Corbo's (click her name to check her blog, yo) and I are going to do some drastic de-toxing for a while.

Summer takes a toll on the body, especially a summer with a lot of celebration and a lot of stress-eating/drinking.  My summers are always debaucherous and being the virgo that I am i always insist on going super hard and hitting bottom before the requisite Fall productivity mode.  (I do this around the holidays, too....its strangely self-destructive and super effective at the same time)

So my birthday was last week (same as Rachel Zoe's i was not surprised but extremely happy to find out) and I had my best friends wedding over the weekend - which was effing amazing in every way, will post pics as soon as i get them.  So, I did such a good job hitting bottom, folks.  I mean, i'm terrific at hitting bottom.

And its time to move this pale little bottom into gear.

.....  starting tomorrow maybe.  I have hours of RHONJ, RHODC, Flipping out, Rachel Zoe, Sarah's house, Real Genevieve, Project Runway and Top Chef to catch up on.  Shut up.   I used to feel guilty about the amount of reality tv i watched considering my husband is an actor (whose job is perpetually endangered due to reality tv), but now that i'm in the unscripted Hollywood world (thanks to a reality show), i feel its my duty to give hours of my week to the best of the unscripted.  For it is thee whom i love the most.

Regular post tomorrow.  After a 3 mile run where i will not stop whenever i want to (every other block). I promise.

Check what i'll be wearing, fools.

No time to blog.  But wanted to show you my bridesmaid dresses.  'cause i'm sure you all were asking what i'm wearing on sunday.  Each of us have different floral or hot pink cocktail dresses.  And I LOVE mine.  will wear many an occasion.

it's bcbg, not sure if they are selling it any longer.  

But she be KEE-UTE.

Coastal Living, Big Sur

Check out this story in Coastal Living that I did about a year and a half ago.  Sometimes stories don't run for a long time, for whatever reason.  It's on the shelves now, pick it up yo.  Coastal Living, September. 

This house was insanely beautiful -and that view?  shut the front door.

These shots were taken by David Tsay, styled by yours truly.  

The house was redesigned by Carver Schiketanz.  They do crazy good work.  But I just came in and added accessories, rearranged the composition for the camera, added flowers, food, shoes, etc.  

Yep. it was like a treehouse.  Read the story and it gives more info on the architecture.  It was somebody stupidly famous, but my little brain no remember details so well.  

That's it folks.  It was a beautiful house, and the setting was sick.  And this was just the guest house on the property. The main house was being redone by the same firm as we shot there and it was  - i mean - there are kinda no words to describe how big and awesome it was.  But this was more bungalowey and more my style.  On the same property there was the kids house.  

Yep three houses on this huge plot of land on the cliffs in big sur.  It was such a fun 4 days.  Brian was my assistant and we were put up at this AWESOME hotel, which i'll get the name of, and ate at all the best restaurants in big sur.  Sorry, i hate it when people brag about their jobs, but this one was particularly braggable.