as if you didn't already want to shop at anthropologie all day

Watch this.

Finally recovered from Houston. Let's review.

We met some amazing people, many of them some of our favorite fabric and pattern designers like Anna Maria Horner, Sandy Klop, and Liesl Gibson of Oliver + S. And Jay McCarroll. What? Yes, the winner of season 1 of Project Runway was at Market to show off his new lines of quilting fabric. Jay and I were maybe the youngest people at Market (quilters are on average like 30 years older than me) so I think we had a special bond. We had a chance to visit every day of the show and you'd better believe I will be sending him photos of what we concoct out of his fabric.

I'll save more details for our shop blog when our website is up and it's time for the fabric to come. But here's a peek at something he made to show off his fabrics.

I have to say, Jay is such a lovely person. Full of compliments and stories and quips. On the first day the booths were open, he was sitting at his booth watching some Japanese industry people wander around. Thinking his designs would appeal to the Japanese aesthetic (they totally would) he started shouting "kawaii! kawaii!" which of course we know means "cute" thanks to Gwen Stefani, in hopes they would hear and want to come over and see what was so cute and discover his fabric and want to buy it all. This wasn't just once, he kept at it, but I think the Japenese group just wandered away. I also got his opinion on recent PR winners: he likes Leann but not Christian. I could go on gushing but I'll spare you a recount of every single conversation.

I'm also really excited about Anna Maria's new line shown here in frames:

You'll be able to get all these things in our online shop when they come out, by the way. We were pretty much giddy and exhausted the entire trip. We picked out a bunch of new fabric for the shop that will come next year, saw Kings of Leon, the wildest fashion show, and some quite interesting accessorizing, and had a heyday picking out vintage trims and buttons from someone named Dusty.

The International Quilt Festival happened right after Market where there were endless exhibits of quilts. I quite liked this one.

There's more but I'm worn out all over again.

utah doesn't suck.i swear.

Amber and I had heard about some place in Draper called Pirate O's that was supposed to be Utah's version of Trader Joe's. Such a bold claim had to be investigated.

mp3: Salty Pirates - Common Sense

Despite our wariness and their ridiculous name, we were impressed. It was a relief to see that they weren't a sad knock off, Chadders style, but a well-stocked international market with local charm, including

an entire wall of hot sauces


a cold room with cheeses galore


and Irn Bru! Praise tartan.


We continued our exploration of unsucky Utah, heading to the new Sunflower Farmers Market across the street from Fashion Place. In three words: decent produce, cheap.

Then to Red Butte Garden which none of us had visited before and where

little Andy licked this rock fountain


and I got obsessed with these huge leaves that look like they're quilted.


mp3: The Concretes - Under Your Leaves

What to investigate next, Ams?

NYC Part IV: Fiberosity

Obviously I did lots of shopping on NYC. Top on my list of new places to visit this time was Muji, the Japanese non-brand, where I got tons of modern office supplies. Another new and exciting stop: Purl Patchwork. Probably nobody in the state of Utah sells Liberty of London fabrics, and I am now obsessed. The patterns are just gorgeous and the cotton is so fine and soft. This is how they are displayed in Purl's tiny fabric store in Soho.

[image from purlbee.com]

They had that peacock print in black and pink, which I could only afford to buy half a yard of. I love that the girls running this fabric shop are young and super cool, not like the crotchety old ladies I sometimes run into in fabric shops. [edit: After a complaint I shall specify that many old ladies I run into in fabric shops are quite amiable.] Being that I've been making lots of stuff lately, I also had to make rounds in the garment fashion district. Got some vintagey silk organza at Mood and buttons & vintage ribbon at M&J. I just love the possibilities there.

Now what do you suppose I shall do with all of it?

Adventures in Utah County: Part II

2nd stop: Chadders in American Fork--the In-N-Out ripoff. In a blatant and spineless sort of way. But at least it got In-N-Out to finally expand. The burgers were good, but not as good as the real thing. Fries were pretty close. Until In-N-Out comes to SLC, I'll be satisfied with Crown Burger and Hires.

Then to Provo. We missed the D.I. this time around so off to Mode Boutique which gives those BYU kids a place to buy their Nudies and Cheap Mondays, as well as great local lines. And I always like their earrings and sunglasses. While there I picked up an Eliza magazine to flip through and to my shock, this is what I found.My dearly beloved Mitch! The whole store heard me freaking out about it. Kept flipping and saw several more girls I know from NYC. Deal is, this is Eliza magazine, based in California, targeting good little LDS girls who still like to be worldly. It's a pretty great idea. So because she knew someone who knew someone, and is adorable, Mitch ended up in it. Of course. She knows everybody.

Then to Coal Umbrella, concerning whom I hope to have some exciting news soon. They have a very impressive collection of Members Only jackets. Last stop of the night coming up...

Adventures in Utah County: Part I

Tomorrow I leave for NYC for almost a week and I probably won't be posting much while I'm gone. But I've still got to tell you about my Saturday adventure with Ams, so I'll push out a bunch of posts on that to tide you over.

There's a soft but constant buzz about everything that's going on in Utah County these days, so Amber and I took a day trip to check it all out. First stop, Highland Gardens.

Ams and I had been plant shopping recently, but wanted something more than what we had seen so far in SLC. Highland Gardens to the rescue! This nursery happens to belong to my Aunt Lynette and Uncle Ken and run by my adorable cousin Jessie, but I hadn't been there in years. All bias aside, I was so amazed. Some of the things I love about it:

• humongous selection
  
• incredibly knowledgeable and friendly staff
  
• everything is organized and clearly labeled, including prices
  
• the lovely and helpful website

Not to mention the gorgeous plants.

I'm obsessed with these fuschias. I got a miniature version for myself.

I probably won't go anywhere else for plants now. If you can make it all the way to Draper for Ikea, you shouldn't let point of the mountain keep you away from HG.

seriously?

Just in case you've been looking for a bag that looks like a cat's underside. Ultrasuede teats and everything. [at Etsy]

Meet Stolen Pony

All I want to do these days is make stuff. So, inspired by Ashley, I decided to start an Etsy shop. I'm adding new things slowly, but Your Heart Out already featured one of my bags on Friday! This is a close-up of the bag I made Erica for her birthday, of which there is another on Etsy that has yet to be monogrammed. I also realized I can put my vintage shopping luck to use here. One thing I love about living in Utah are the D.I.s and other thrift shops. Some of my favorite items in my closet and jewelry box are thrifting finds. I figure the time I spend scouring would be worth the price for somebody to acquire some of the gems that I can't keep myself. Like this dress my sissy modeled. So my Etsy shop is part my own sewing experiments and part vintage treasure trove. I'm taking the approach that I wouldn't sell something on Etsy, whether I made it or found it, that I wouldn't want to keep myself. Take a look, it has been christened Stolen Pony. Maybe I'll put a widget in the sidebar so you can see the new things that get added.


Speaking of Etsy, I got some adorable rings and hairpins the other day from this cool shop.

don't bother

At first a Sephora in Utah sounds splendid. Then you realize you have to go to JCPenney to get to it. A JCPenney in Ogden. In a strip mall. Sephora has started putting stores in JCPenneys all over but might as well have chosen 7-11 to team up with. You could tell Sephora for free, faster than any market research they pay for, that their average customer is not the average JCPenney customer. Not to be frontin JCPenney cutomers. JCPenney maybe.

This Sephora opened last week in the JCPenney on Riverdale Road. Bad bad poopy location, but since I drive past Ogden regularly I was still quite excited about it, ready not to have to pay online shipping or wait until I make it out of town to hit a Sephora. Until I realized, I'm shopping in a JCPenney. While I expected a Sephora in a department store to be smaller, at this size it serves very little purpose. I can get many brands they carry at Nordys. But when I want Loccitane, Fresh, or any number of other favorites, I will still have to order online. Plus, I would prefer paying and waiting for shipping than dealing with these salespeople. I interacted with several of them and they were simply underqualified, unprofessional, and unhelpful. And, your Sephora insider card isn't even valid here since you're actually shopping at JCPenney. News has it Sephora is opening a distrubution center in West Valley to serve stores west of the Mississippi. It would be pretty convenient if while they're at it, they just open up a real one at Trolley Square.

Yo, Sal

Ayayay! I love Nordy's and the Rack. Today I scored some killer Ferragamo flats for super cheap. I'm a sucker for a good wingtip.

Does Steve Jobs know Voodoo?

The same day Apple announced the iPhone firmware update, my Palm Treo started freaking out. Now it pretty much doesn't work at all and nothing will fix it. I promised myself I would get an iPhone as soon as the 2nd generation came out, but it looks like that is not happening in the foreseeable future, and now they've enabled sending multiple texts at once. So there's an iPhone in my online shopping cart, ready to roll... do I just do it?

update: I did it! And now I want to have babies with my iPhone. Thanks for the push, Kurt.

bow ho

Several weeks ago I was at my mom's house when her Time magazine arrived and we a freaked out. Her dream and my dream, the classic Ferragamo pump in all the colors, was on the cover. This is the perfect shoe, timeless and comfy. I remember my mom wearing it in navy for all my youth, and I've been searching for a good knock-off since I can't quite afford the real thing right now. So what did I find last week?
I had to refrain from getting the hot pink and white ones as well. They were a total steal, on sale and at about 1/15th the cost of the real thing, but still from a quality maker I know and trust. Not shopping for myself during the holidays is not happening this year.

mp3: Jenny Wilson - Let My Shoes Lead Me Forward

Happy Black Friday. While everyone was out at real stores, we visited Kings, seen here, and the D.I. in Preston. Other adventures were had, but must be saved for telling another day.

Investigating Steve & Barry's

Niccole and I had to ease our curiosity and visit the new Steve & Barry's in Murray last night. I'll start with the good news. I got a pair of narrow straight jeans from Sarah Jessica Parker's Bitten line in a great dark wash with a darling shock of purple zipper for $16 even and they fit like $80. The bad news, the place is kinda depressing. Bitten is overall decent but unimpressive and the rest of the store is full of dowdy officey clothes for women, polos for men, and sad sad slogan tees that say things like "I'm a virgin but this is an old shirt." The good news, much of Utah will love all those things. The bad news, you have to endure an awkward interview with Amanda Bynes about her line Dear on the hanging flat screens while you shop (and I like Amanda Bynes). The good news, it's all under 20 bones.

slc is movin on up

First Ikea, then Cheesecake Factory, and now Urban Outfitters (and soon American Apparel and Whole Foods!)  Yesterday I got a little backstage sneak peek at the Urban that will be opening at the Gateway in Salt Lake City next Thursday November 15. I respect company wishes so there are no photos from inside, but the place is huge and looking ready for ransacking. Tim and I went in to help with the insane prep they're doing to get the store ready. You don't even want know what I did for seven hours. It bordered on retail Twilight Zone. But ok, pretty fun too. I have to say, the handy man construction worker type guys that work for Urban have tighter pants, more hair product, vintagier shirts, and thicker rimmed glasses than any handy man construction type guys you'll ever see. The mood was slightly frantic in anticipation--I hope you all go in Thursday to see their hard work and buy lots so Dirk gets good opening numbers.

covet

NY Fashion Week is on! I'll be reading the Fug girls' updates here and watching the runway shows here and here.

And whoa. Have you seen the new iPods? I wish mine would break so Best Buy would replace it with a 160gb. But I don't know how I feel about the all metal. And I'm still waiting for the voice recognition search feature. At least the nanos are cute.

a little double irony

You wish it were true, but wouldn't admit it because then you'd actually be taking yourself seriously and we can't have that. So you'll wear it to prove otherwise. Thanks, Threadless

Libertine at Target

Libertine's line for Target's GO collections hit stores yesterday and of course I had to check it out right away. I have to say, I'm impressed. Especially after the big disapointment that the last designer line from Patrick Robinson was. The finishing and details, often lacking when it comes to the mass budget designer collections, is surprisingly good this time around (cute rose buttons, no unfinished edges). And although the skulls and whales theme is a bit too J. Crew meets Hot Topic for me, there is a good range of excellent pieces where Libertine's preppy-punk thing works like its supposed to, like big creepy birds and trees on jackets and tees. A few of my favorite items: a pin-tucked and peter pan collared blouse, a striped and suspendered vest, and a bibbed shirtdress. And they seem to roll out new stuff over the course of the 2 months that the line is available, so keep your eyes peeled. Much more, including bermudas, minis, and trenches, at target.com/go.

oh well oh well oh well

There are a million music blogs out there but only a choice few I still check on a regular basis after all this time. My intention is not really to do what they do. I've been rethinking this whole blogging thing recently, wondering to myself what my objective and intended audience has become. I couldn't really answer that question, so I'm sort of starting over. One of my main reasons for doing this whole thing in the first place was to share my daily obsessions with my friends spread all over, and I want to get back to that. But without limiting myself to just talk of music. So things here are going to be changing up a bit. There will still be lots of mp3s, but plenty of other stuff too. We'll just see where it goes.

Blah blah. That said, what I really want to tell you about is how my Jack and Meg USB drives came the other day! (3,333 were produced with the new album on it in Apple Lossless.) I was being a purist and avoiding all the streams and leaks and waiting until they arrived to listen to Icky Thump at all. I should have known they'd ship late and just bought the CD on release day.

So it was a pretty exciting day, what with these little adorable flash drive dollies and listening to what I was sure would be a better album than Get Behind Me Satan. And I believe it is. The Whites will never be as innocent and childlike as they fancied themselves in the beginning, as seems clear in "Little Cream Soda." But they can evolve and still give me silly banter and raw blues slide guitar, so I'm happy.

mp3: The White Stripes - Party Of Special Things To Do