I love shops, shopping and shopkeepers. These are a few of my favorite things from a few of my favorite shops. Items made by people who love what they do, sold at shops run by people who love what they do. Sam Kaufman, South Willard, Stand Up Comedy and KIOSK are the best shops around. Period.

top to bottom:

Wall-Plaque by Roger Capron at Sam Kaufman Gallery

Elena Estaun Coil Bracelet at Stand Up Comedy

Water Willow and Juniper Seed Baby Rattle at KIOSK

David Korty Ceramics at South Willard

A Détacher Furry Pillow at Stand Up Comedy

Stan Bitters Sculpture at South Willard

Freestyle is an orgy of depressingly awesome New Wave architectural details by Frank Gehry, Eric Moss, Brian Murphy, Peter Shire and Thom Mayne and Michael Rotondi of Morphosis.

top to bottom: Painted ceiling by Ros Cross; April Grieman’s house/laboratory; Bobby Houston’s office with murals by Eaz and Kiz; Wall sconce by Brian A. Murphy; Formica gone wild in Peter Shire’s kitchen.

Freestyle, The New Architecture and Interior Design from Los Angeles
Written and photographed by Tim Street-Porter
Stewart, Tabori & Chang, 1986

Tony and Claës Lewenhaupt
Crosscurrents: Art, Fashion, Design, 1890–1989
Rizzoli, NY, 1989

This is probably my new favorite book. Sort of bizarre and awesome; it never disappoints, presenting parallels between fashion and art, architecture and product design. Crosscurrents was originally published in 1988 in Swedish as Tidens Tecken.

My friend Alex has an awesome tumblr called Weird Friends with a crazy good collection of vintage and incredible textiles and objects. The archive of mostly original posts goes deep; 1,008 posts in August alone! You can tell she has a library card. She found Navajo Pictorial Weaving at the library and as soon as I saw the posts I ordered a copy for myself.

Navajo Pictorial Weaving 1880–1950 (Folk Art Images of Native Americans)
Tyrone Campbell; Joel and Kate Kopp
First Edition, 1991
Dutton Studio Books, New York

via Weird Friends (Happy Birthday Alex!)

Hi there design*sponge readers. This is Andy Beach and I’ll be posting here this week. I have two blogs where I post things I like. There’s no better way to describe them, Reference Library and Stork Bites Man are each a mix of found objects, eBay losses, art, design, architecture, kid stuff, things friends make and do, and lots of stuff. The things I like. This week on the d*s guest blog, I’ll be posting different stuff each day — from old books, from favorite blogs, from eBay, from nice shops and from around my house. Today’s post is STUFF FROM EBAY. Thanks for following along. —Andy

Some recent Items I Didn’t Win:

David Cressey scratched Architectural Pot-tery
Opening bid $400.00; ended with no bids.

Elephant, Ironweave, Fast Color — Bandanas x 4
Ended at $121.00

1940s toddler size Jerky Tag Levi’s 501
Ended at $159.50

Lucite Acrylic Plexi Mod 70s Console
Ended at $1,551.00

Arne Norell Rosewood/Leather Safari Sofa
Opening bid $1,450.00; ended with no bids.

Pair of Lightolier Light Bulb Lights
Ended at $150.00

Headlight Overalls Time Book
Ended at $14.49

Hugh Acton Travertine Marble Bowls
Opening bid $150.00; ended with no bids.

Ben Seibel for Raymor “Flexible Lighting Unit”
Ended at $1,375.00

I’ve had such a fun time guest blogging this week on Design Sponge and I’m so sad to see the week end. I really cannot thank Grace enough for this wonderful opportunity, and truly appreciate all the wonderful comments everyone left during the week. I am always amazed at the talent I get to feature on a daily basis, so when Joy Thigpen and Jose Villa recently collaborated I couldn’t resist ending my week here on Design Sponge with some images from their time together. Joy was also kind enough to send over a few details behind the shoot…

A few weeks ago I was so giddy to receive a call from none other than Jose Villa who was headed to my side of the continent and wanted to put together a little engagement-style shoot with me. Just for fun! We wanted to keep it laidback and I wanted to create an environment for it (of course) but I wanted it to be the kind of thing that someone could easily do for real and without breaking the bank. With the kind of love that surrounds an engagement, simple beauty and a little free-spirited fun are sometimes all you need. And achingly beautiful photography doesn’t hurt either. :)

CLICK HERE for the rest of the photos (including all 15 on one page) after the jump!

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Yeah, so apparently we like peaches. This shoot was pretty much inspired by this engagement shoot the Simply Bloom girls did, these dessert plates I came across, and some strong urge to hold on to the end of summer. The images from the engagement session were so lovely and I guess I kind of imagined what this couple’s wedding might be like. Simply Bloom was kind enough to come over and shoot the environment we set up and I’m so happy with the way they all seem to belong with the original portraits…thanks ladies!

Amy Osaba rocked the flowers for this shoot. Are you kidding me? I think they are ridiculously cute. (If you look closely you’ll find ranunculus, fever few, veronica, devil’s tail, lisianthus, a few {beautiful} weeds like joe pie weed and a few other things we had no idea what to call, black dahlias, scabiosa, figs, stock, dusty miller, and some strawberry plants.)

CLICK HERE for the rest of the photoshoot (and all 20 images on one page) after the jump!

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