Design*Sponge » Blog Archive » hello, los angeles! (and welcome amy ruppel!)

hi guys! i’m reporting from LA today…and loving it! the weather is phenomenal and i’m still recovering from an incredible whirlwind tour of the city yesterday thanks to the fantastic bauer sisters- susie and heidi of rock scissor paper. we hit the ground running and they took me to lunch at chateau marmont (where we saw sienna miller and rhys ifans) and i fell in love with the hollywood hills- the homes were so beautiful. and the views! then we took a quick walk in runyan canyon (photo above) and drove through some beautiful neighborhoods on our way to silverlake, where we briefly stopped to say hi to the reform school crew and grab some tea at intelligentsia (yum). afterwards i met up with a college friend and her husband and took the bumper-to-bumper ride to santa monica for a delicious seaside dinner. it was quite a day and rather than try to fight my jet lag i’m going to give myself a break and take the morning off. there’s a city guide coming up next but then i’m going to head off to prepare for the meetup and enjoy the day in LA. see you wednesday with a full day of posting!

and in my traveling daze yesterday i forgot to welcome one of my favorite artists of all time to the d*s guest blog: amy ruppel! amy will be joining us this week from her hometown of portland, oregon to share posts on her favorite artists and portland spots. click here to check out her first two posts!

[i loved these tiles at intelligentsia]

I was just out there recently and of course stopped by Reform School and Intelligentsia. Those tiles are so incredible! Thanks for taking a picture, my sister and I were admiring them but we BOTH managed to forget to take a picture! Have a wonderful time! I love LA.

The tiles are eco friendly too!

Domino’s green list came out as they were being installed into Intelligentsia.

From Domino’s Green List:
Granada Tiles use a 19th-century French technique using tinted cement rather than clay (requires no firing and less energy) to produce vibrant, Provençal patterns.

I’m glad that you’re experiencing the pinnacle LA weather (although today looks a bit murky)– and Runyon Canyon looks quite clear.

They took you to some great spots. There are some solid book stores around LA: Skylight, Book Soup and Hennesy & Ingalls. Silverlake strikes me as the area you’ll like best.

ah wonderful post and photographs! bring some of that warm sunshine back to new york with you. :) we actually just put those very granada tiles on our kitchen backsplash and fireplace hearth. they’re lovely and really warm up the house. fantastic eco-friendly company, too.

Welcome to LA, my current hometown. Intelligentsia is awesome, but you should also check out LA Mill for total coffee decadence and their glam decor. Scoops on Heliotrope (near Vermont) off of Melrose is a must for one of a kind ice cream. If you’re around through thursday, check out the wine tastings at Silver Lake Wine. Have fun!

You were right in my ‘hood! I love Intelligentsia, though the line out the door is usually INSANE.
Fantastic meetup tonight! I had a really interesting time and was so grateful for the chance to hear all you ladies share your invaluable experiences. It was definitely inspiring. Thanks & do come back to L.A. again!
–Rachel (who asked you about publicizing your blog. your response was great; thank you yet again.)

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