turquoise’s vanessa de vargas (better to known to some of you an editor of apartment therapy’s LA blog) was sweet enough to give me a little heads up about the fantastic new shop she’s opening in los angeles. vanessa had always dreamed of opening up a shop to house her gorgeous collection of custom vintage furniture and she’ll now be opening up shop in venice beach’s popular abbot kinney boulevard area. located in a little japanese house (which was originally the ticket booth for the venice of america fair in the early 1900’s), vanessa’s shop will be decorated with her re-vamped vintage line, which includes furniture for the living room, dining room, bedroom and more. she’ll also be carring some new accessories as well as offering interior design and consulting services- if you check out her work you’ll see she’s got one heck of a portfolio. click here for more info, the shop should be open by labor day. congrats on the new shop, vanessa!

i’ve been a fan of peculiar pair press ever since stacy pancake introduced them to few a year or so ago. based in the san francisco bay area, peculiar pair press is the design team of mary beth fiorentino and amy elizabeth hayson. amy emailed me last night to send some pictures of their gorgeous new wrapping paper collection and a series of decorative journal/notebooks they produced with chronicle books. colorful, sophisticated and modern, peculiar pair’s work ranges from custom invitations to a retail line of cards, notebooks and now wrapping paper. you can find peculiar pair items all across the us, but you can click here (then click “find us”) to find a shop in your town that carries peculiar pair. enjoy! [thanks, amy!]

i’ve mentioned secondhand rose before but i wanted to add this gorgeous peach and silver mylar paper. a reader just sent me a picture of it framed in her home and it looked stunning so i thought i’d share it here. available right here. enjoy!

seeing david byrne last night reminded me about risd and risd works. like so many great design schools, risd churns out some of the most talented designers around. most recently i heard from designer (and 2002 risd grad) heather guidero who produces a really lovely jewelry collection from her studio in providence. i thought you guys would enjoy the bubble and starburst colllections…click here for more info. [thanks, heather!]

i’m a big fan of happy owl glassworks- their playful nightlights and cufflinks are too cute for words. if you like happy owl you’ll love their teeny tiny etsy shop where they sell one off samples. currently there are a few experiments for sale- little glass animal plates. $30 a piece right here (for the moment…). enjoy!

thanks to see jane work for the little shout out in the product pics for the pepperpot internet journal. need to keep track of your favorite shopping sites, blogs and web journals? check out pepperpot’s colorful solution right here ($9.50). [thanks, kelly]

i don’t normally post this close together but when i found a picture combining cillian murphy and a great new product i jumped to the laptop. blik has launched a great new wall decal called iron vines. this fun floral/semi-baroque pattern comes 6 fun colors and, for some reason, a collection of photos including cillian murphy, viggo mortensen and maria bello sitting in front of the decals. you can pick up a pack of 9 decals for $50 right here. enjoy!

tara heibel and co. at chicago’s sprout home are having a great end of summer sale- starting september 1 there will be sales of up to 50% in the home and garden portion of the store ranging from candles and pillows to perennials and trees for your deck. so, check it out! these fun little vases ($18-$41) aren’t a bad place to start…

[speaking of sales, if you're a parent in need of modern cribs, check out sparkability's crib sale...]

i just watched pr this morning because we went to revenge of the bookeaters last night [david byrne is amazing!]. i thought the idea was fantastic but i was pretty much bored by the entire thing. i would have loved to have seen alison design for someone. clearly jeffrey has an attitude problem, but i really wish his mom would have straightened him up some. oh well. i’ll have to say, vincent’s dress wasn’t bad. but i don’t know. the season lacks heart and real edge to me. i look forward to seeing where michael goes and what uli does. we’ll see. so, discuss. do we hate vincent or love him now? should jeffrey still be there? can we rally to get alison back?