Palm Springs

Palm Springs is about 2hours out of LA, or maybe a snippet more. We drove there on the way through to Vegas so it was a short visit.

I did manage to see the Kaufmann House, as mentioned in a previous post, and also drove by this house.

This is the house that Elvis and Priscilla went for their honeymoon. I like Elvis. He was a cool cat.

A couple of interior shots ...

I'd planned to write more about the house, but stumbled across this blog that covers off everything and also where i found the above piccies. Please read it. This house is utterly amazing i so desperately need to stay there.

The following houses were within the same vicinity that the Kaufmann House is in. I snapped them whilst driving and hanging my arm out the window, so they're not great, and not the best Palm Springs has to offer but they're little gem’s all the same.

 The onyl house i saw with grass

Edris House above built 1953/4. Alot of the houses up near the Edris house (they're higher) have hardcore signage about private property and stay out etc etc. Serious security system action.

I really liked this gate above and  the use of besser bricks for the fencing below.

So above they've used the bricking width ways and then on the house walls below, long ways. I love how that looks. It's like tiling but not.

 

On the way out, the clouds were coming in. The mountains looked spectacular.

Cool old car below. In fact, cool vintage cars everywhere over there

 This is the town centre, we went to the diner that you can see with the red awnings over it

This was inside. It was like we were in the scene in Greese where Sandy says ' I need some money' to put a song on the juke box.

Reflecting on my pic's it doesn't make the properties look that good. But they are. All in rows with a glorious mountain backdrop, palm trees that've been in the ground for decades, great angles, glass, brickwork, timber detailing. I wanted desperately to get up to some properties nestled into the hills but they're gated communities i think.

The way out. Can't wait to go back.

Bergdorf Goodman Windows 2011

As mentioned in a previous post, and to bring on a little Christmas cheer (even though most displays have nothing to do with christmas...) please find Bergdorf Goodman's New York Christmas Window displays.

Be warned, there's alot of photo's, but they are very, very creative - so have a flick through and tell me which one's your fave. I like the woman in the red dress where she's sitting down. They're quite overwhelming to try and decipher in a photo. So much going on in each window.

This is one of the boys one's but there were people everywhere and i was on my way to show so had to dash ...

It must take all year just to come up with each window design and source the props. The detail is so amazing.

$5 rugs and other things

I popped to Ikea last week for some frames. On my way to the frames (they're so crafty with the layout of that store) i saw these rugs for $5. In an effort to make the christmas tree look a little more festive, i decided to buy a bunch and lay them together. What do you think? Kinda cute for $25.

  

Good shades of yellow, blue, navy and red. The beige/greeny one on top ties in the honan matting i have in the adjoining room. They had a cute Navy and Pink one as well, i think that was the only colour i walked away without. I love that i can throw them in the wash and use them in the bathroom, front and rear doors, foot of the bed. Versatility is good.

Great shell. Purchased recently from the one and only 'The Old Boathouse' at Cottage Garden Nursery. There's still a few left of varying sizes and very fairly priced (i may have taken the last one of this size...) Thank you Catherine and Kristen - you continue to furnish my house with beautiful pieces. These'd make a cute chrissie gift filled with chocolates or lollies too and the big one's are fab as door stops.

Pretty clutch snapped up from 'Lilly G' at Camp Hill. It too has shells on it...

 

I had this pic on my phone - thought i'd throw it up seeing this post has turned out to be a show and tell. It's an old pocket watch style electric clock i carried all the way back from Palm Springs. Just need to rustle up a good worn gold or black chain and then find a wall. I saw it and had to have it regardless of baggage allowance.

I love the feeling of christmas. Bing Crosby, twinkly lights, crowded Dan Murphy's and Woolworths stores. This is my little chrissie centrepiece on the dining room table - nothing fancy smancy. I bought these hanging paper things a few months ago from a place called 'Trads' at Cannon Hill shopping centre ($1 ea) - the dodgy end. Very lovely shade of red. They do the trick and i think they still have some left in green and white.

 

Christmas in 12 days - how did that happen? I need a new eye cream.

a few snaps from the trip

I've been incredibly slack. Mainly because i've been on a  lil trip to LA, Palm Springs, LV and NY. I've been back for two weeks, but with the shock realisation that Christmas (gasp!) is 3 weekends away, i've been a busy bee.

Last night i accidentally deleted all of my LA photos including one of a very cool original oven/stove in our room at the Chateau Marmont plus the bungalow Marilyn Monroe stayed in at the Beverly Hills Hotel. I do still have the photo of her house, or, ahem ... front gate. Same thing - in Brentwood. Safe to say that i like Miss Monroe.

Hmmn, maybe i seem a little 'crazy fan' that I know her address ... it was only because it sold last year, and i happened to make a note, and our valet at the BHH happened to tell us her Bungalow number... she stayed there for a few months when making a movie.

Her house above is in a lovely little suburban cul-de-sac well away from the grandeur of Beverly Hills and their incredibly large blocks. Star's houses don't appeal to me, just hers - it's cloaked in mystery .... 

Palm Springs was so ... fab! These are my shots of the Kaufmann House, i'll do a separate post on other properties i snapped within the same estate. I could've spent days and days cruising the streets. The mountains make a brilliant back drop for what are, fabulous mid century desert homes... and so many of them. Heaven.

This was the view on the 'back road' drive to Vegas. You can't see the rattle snakes and scorpians ... but they were there creeping around - and if we'd had a tyre blow out - our lack of mobile phone and the fact that it was pitch black with no one on the roads would've meant ... i hate to think! Silly, silly 'Ossie' girls. It was a stunning view at dusk that this picture doesn't portray. A tad eerie too. The dirt looked like water.

On the last night in NY i went to see if  Bergdorf Goodman had finalised their display, see last years post here. This was one window of the gloriousness for 2011. I'll do a separate post on the others. I took loads of photos and they are truly worth having a look at.

And this is Tiffany's. (NY current version of Holly Go Lightly there ... )

And Fendi

Giant sized baubels

Central Park in Autumn. Gorgeous colours.

This photo below i zoomed in on in central park would you believe? I like it alot.

And a couple of other random shots i took.

The Dakota building where John Lennon was shot. I love the old gold phone booth still restored to original condition. Yoko still lives there. It was the anniversary of the shooting yesterday i heard on the radio.

Inside the Empire State Building. The gold framed glass you can see is actually the original mail drops which you'd throw your letter in, like a laundry shoot, and it would go down to the mailroom. Reminds me of the original movie 'How to succeed in Business without really trying'. They did it so well back then.

I took photos of doors, obsessively. I like them. This was one on 5th Avenue.

I just liked the street light. Why? Not sure. just did.

Good colour.

Cool planter idea

On the last afternoon/night i chose to do my own thing which i found in NY to be easy and great fun.

I saw a Broadway Show at 3:00pm called 'Other Desert Cities', went to an old Jazz bar called Birdland at 8:00pm for dinner and live music (Latino and African American Jazz Band) and finished the night off with a couple of whisky sours at the bar in Robert DeNiro's Greenwich Hotel. I had a good yarn with the barman Carey from New Orleans and for the first time saw the city. New York is a pretty cool place. All in all - it was a great holiday. My brain is already putting together a revisit. Shame it's such a long bloody flight!