i’m so thrilled to add a new city guide to the site today- this time written by one of my all-time favorite bloggers, joy of oh joy! joy hardly needs an introduction so i’ll just say she’s one of the coolest ladies around and has one heck of a great eye for design. when i left my philadelphia inquirer column to write for HG i couldn’t have imagined a better person taking over so when it came to creating a philly design guide, i wouldn’t have dreamed of asking anyone else. thankfully joy was kind enough to take time out from her busy schedule of blogging, writing, and designing to create a fantastic city guide for us. thanks to joy for her hard work- i hope you’ll enjoy the guide! click here to read the full guide or just click “read more” below. [stay tuned for a new product guide at 2]

[image above from gophila.com]

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i am more thrilled about today’s new city guide than i can possibly express. one of my all-time favorite blogs, sweet juniper, was kind enough to create a guide to their newly adopted hometown, detroit. i’ve been reading sweet juniper for over a year now and am constantly blown away by the beautiful photos and well-written posts. if you haven’t checked them out before, i highly suggest it (you can also check out their beautiful mies van der rohe home sneak peek right here). jim griffioen, better known as “dutch” to sweet juniper fans, was kind enough to sit down and write what is easily one of the most detailed and interesting city guides we’ve ever published on the site. a writer, amateur photographer and former lawyer, jim moved with his family from san francisco to downtown detroit in 2006 and “hasn’t regretted it for a second”. while detroit may not be a mecca for the type of design seen in magazines and blogs like this, it is home to incredible architectural and design history- as well as some wonderful local artisans. jim’s guide is a must, must read and is full of humor, history and great finds. i hope you’ll enjoy the guide as much as i did. click here to view the full guide, or click “read more” below for the full post. jim also went to the trouble of creating a fantastic google map for the guide, which you can access right here (or below the fold). [thank you to jim for all of his incredible work!]

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i’m thrilled to add another city guide to d*s today! today we’re headed to dallas, texas- thanks to paige phelps at the dallas morning news. paige kindly offered to lend her local expertise to d*s and created an incredible guide arranged by categories like mid-century/vintage, funky finds, bargains, entertaining at home, handmade, green and local letterpress designers. i hope you’ll enjoy the guide as much as i did. thanks again to paige and everyone at the dallas morning news for their help. just click here for the full guide or click “read more” below.

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the lovely jamie kopke at design klub kindly offered to create a denver design guide for d*s. i’d love to head out to colorado sometime next year so i’m thrilled to have a local’s guide. jamie divided the guide into home shops, gifts and decor, unique finds, coffee & tea and then three great neighborhood guides for colfax, broadway and downtown. i’m going to be adding custom google maps for each guide asap so stay tuned for that in the next few weeks. in the meantime, click here for the full denver guide (or click “read more” below). thanks to jamie for all of her hard work!

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this week is guide-madness at d*s. we started with yesterday’s chandelier guide and will finish with 4 gift guides starting at 12 pm today. but before i launch the first gift guide i wanted to post a new city guide: baltimore!

i associate charm city with john waters, duff goldman and his motley crew of bakers so it’s wonderful to have more fantastic shops and personalities to associate with baltimore. baltimore designers anne ditmeyer of prêt à voyager and felice cleveland (who was a d*s scholarship finalist!) are to thanks for this wonderful guide- and the personalized google map with everything marked out. i can’t thank them enough for the wonderful guide to eating, shopping and all-around fun in the baltimore area. so, click here to view the full guide, or just click “read more” below!

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i may be in chicago today but d*s is all about the twin cities today! writer alyssa ford of midwest home magazine wrote one heck of a guide to minneapolis and st. paul, arranged by city and neighborhood. i’ve added in some of my favorites (and reader suggestions) at the bottom, as well as some local letterpress artists from the d*s letterpress guide. and as always, feel free to suggest your favorites in the comment section. thanks again to alyssa for all of her hard work, we hope you enjoy the guide! click here for the full guide or just click “read more” below.

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it’s a happy day when i get to post something that celebrates the design world south of the mason dixon. writer meaghan clark offered to build a charlotte design guide for d*s and i’m so thrilled to finally have it live on the site. joining it soon will be guides to baltimore, denver, detroit, the twin cities and dallas so stay tuned for many more to come. but today we’re focusing on charlotte- one of my favorite spots in north carolina. meaghan has included all of her favorite haunts, as well as a few of my favorite so just click here (or click “read more” below) to view the full guide. as always, city guides are instantly archived and available in the guides section of d*s for easy access. enjoy!

[photo above from visitcharlotte.com]

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who says d*s doesn’t do the mid-west? today i’m thrilled to add another mid-western city to the growing list of d*s city guides. today’s installment belongs to kansas city, missouri and was written by kc local, kate harris. she’s included a fantastic list of shops, studios and museums so i hope you’ll enjoy the guide and if you’re in the area feel free to add suggestions below if we’ve missed anything. for the new year i’m going to try to create google maps for all of the city guides and use blurb to print these as a little book for anyone who’s interested. i know i’ll be using them when we travel this spring (i’ll be adding 5 more cities before the holidays). thanks again to kate for the great guide! click right here or click “read more” below for the full guide.

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i’ve wanted to visit austin for a long time now but haven’t been able to make it out yet (i have been to lubbock and amarillo however- beautiful places if you ever get the chance). i was hoping it would win the biz lady vote but sadly, no dice. i figured, why not be prepared when i finally make it out there sometime so i asked austin resident, and artist-extraordinaire, alyson fox to help me out with a design guide to austin. as always, these lists are meant to grow and change so if you feel like something is missing feel free to add it in the comment section below, but please keep it in mind it’s an edited list, not a guide to everything and anything home-related in austin. we’ve included shops and places to eat so hopefully you’ll enjoy our choices below. just click “read more” or right here for the full guide. thanks to alyson for her great suggestions!

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