Well hello there! I am back from the dead finally, in case you were worried. Last week I came down with a bad case of strep throat that left me immobile in bed for days and then work to catch up on after that. I am just now coming out of it and starting to feel alive again. The beautiful 70+ degree weather in San Francisco this weekend didn’t hurt! Weekends like this one make me feel lucky to live in the great state of California, especially with the rest of the country digging themselves out of the snow!

While I was holed up I did find some inspiration to keep my spirits alive. Sharing with you here my 5 things that got me through the week….

 One Day by David Nicholls

I blew through this cute, girly novel last week. It reminded me of one of my other favorite books, The Time Traveller’s Wife, in that it is a fragmented love story told over a long span of time – 20 years in this case. Each chapter is one day of the year  (July 15th) of the lives of the two main characters, Emma and Dexter. Through this one day you learn their life story and witness their love story develop and unfold. I highly recommend if tis sounds like your cup of tea. The story is currently being made into a movie starring Anne Hathaway and Jim Sturgess (that cute guy from 21).

Rue Magazine’s  3rd issue. The ladies of Rue continue to impress me – they keep pulling out all the stops and have not slowed down!  Their 250+ page bi-monthly interior decor online magazine is true design lover’s eye candy. It was fun to have the time this week to really devour this issue. These were some of my favorite features:

the happiest of wall art (pg 44):

Feature on the vintage-quirk style of adorable musician Alison Sudol of A Fine Frenzy (who was born in Seattle!) (pg 97):

Inside the studio of jewelry designer Jess Constable (pg 50), Inside the home of blogger Nicole Cohen’s glamorous Manhattan apartment (pg 103):

A peek inside Faire Frou Frou, a whimsical and girly lingerie boutique in LA (ooh la la!). I’d like someday for my personal boudoir to be styled like this shop! (pg 238):

 Google’s Art Project     www.googleartproject.com  …  Last week, Google launched a pretty amazing new product, Art Project. They took their street view technology inside some of the world’s best museums and have brought us virtual online tours. In addition, they took 7,000-megapixel rich images of each museum’s prized works and uploaded them on the site for us to view and zoom in on. As a lover of art (and former student of) who has travelled the world over to see these masterpieces, I can’t get over the fact that I can now view, experience, and interact with these pieces of art seriously up close and personal thousands of miles away from where they live.  Being able to see the rough yet carefully planned texture of Van Gogh’s visible brush strokes that changed the course of art forever from my bed is pretty mind blowing. I’m totally obsessed. This is the art history textbook taken way to the next level. Here are some of my favorite pieces from my favorite museums on the site:

Van Gogh’s Starry Night from the MoMA in New York (below)

Sandro Botticelli’s La Primavera from the Uffizi Gallery in Florence

Cézanne’s  Bathers (Les Grandes Baigneuses) from the Nation Gallery in Washington DC

Degas’ Swaying Dancer from the Museo Thyssen – Bornemisza in Madrid

 Getting excited for Glitter Guide! I am already loving Taylor’s tumblr site (here!) of inspiration and I can’t wait for the official debut of this daily “blogazine.” What’s better is that my good friend Alicia is a contributing editor! See Alicia’s interview with Taylor, the woman behind Glitter Guide, and what inspired her to start this new venture here  ♥ 

  

The Ultimate Merchant, Miss Diane von Furstenberg.  ♥♥♥ 

Gilt Groupe has started doing a series of interview videos –  “Unracked”, and I just discovered the DVF session (thank you to JoAnn of I’d Rather Be Shopping). As I head back to work on this Monday morning, I can’t help but be inspired by this lady to get me through the week. I hope someday I’m lucky enough to meet her. I highly encourage you to watch the interview here, maybe you’ll feel as in awe of her as I do.

“You have to like yourself, and in order to like yourself, you have to see the truth.”  – DVF

…