Follow up on Prop 8 and Same Sex Marriage

I’ve been out of the loop due to being on medical leave, hence my not posting anything in a while… I was taking a walk with a friend the other day and we were discussing everything that is happening with gay rights and that polls in California are showing that a majority of people are supportive of same-sex marriage finally. I ‘m superstitious and cautiously want to feel relieved that all of the amazing PR to support the civil rights of the gay community that’s been happening since the horrible election year of 2008 has actually worked. I am skeptical about paying attention to polls because often times it doesn’t really reflect what’s really happening. On our walk, I mentioned this movie that my friend had never heard of… I think it’s excellent. 8: The Mormon Proposition. I know it’s a little out-dated but the movie is a good reminder of how we need to stay informed so we don’t get side-swiped by the power of the media, and really stay in tune with the truth of the issues at hand. I was living in Newport Beach during the election when I was working on a golf club down there, and it was disturbing how many people voted “yes” on Prop 8 without really thinking about the consequences of what they were voting for or how they were directly effecting individuals’ lives… OK I’m stepping down from my soap box, but try and watch the movie (!).

Checking In

Checking In.

Peter Dunham “arabesque” fabric spotting

New bolster in Peter Dunham fabric! Great price $150.

Checking in on the environment and how we consume

I stumbled on this great infographic and thought it might be a good time to check in on how we consume. Much of what I do at the shop is try to have home furnishings at all price points available to my customers, to make environmentalism accessible to everybody. The amount of energy alone (aside from the use of other natural resources) that goes into making new items, along with the packing materials, is astounding, so remembering to buy vintage, antique and re-purposed goods is a really important way to save the planet (and often times your money) when re-decorating or building a house. Take a gander at this chart from Visual Loop.

VisuaLoop

Original painted malachite side tables by Tony Duquette

We have this fabulous pair of side tables by Tony Duquette. He painted his famous malachite finish over them in the late 70′s or early 80′s, and in some places he did not remove the ormolu, so there are some traces of his handy work on the gilded metal.

Tony was a legendary artist, decorator and designer who was originally discovered in the trade by Elsie de Wolfe who took Tony under her wing. He went on to create and design movie sets in Hollywood, and won a Tony Award for costumes he designed for “Camelot” on Broadway.

The size of each is 29-1/2: x 29-1/2″ x 30″ high.

Still Life Photography by Steve Lovi

Lovi was an editorial photographer for Vogue in the 1960′s where he photographed and worked with Twiggy and Dame Miriam Rothschild. He was a teacher of Annie Leibovitz at the Art Institute in San Francisco. His fine art photography that we’re showing is a group of still lives created with his collection of porcelain and flowers collected throughout the gardens of England. He lived in London for over 18 years before landing in San Francisco once again.

The pieces that we have at Homme are styled incredibly; obvious that he hails from the family of Vogue… They look like paintings. We are selling editions of 4 per image. His dye transfer prints are available as well but are close to double that of what we have here in the shop. We will post more images later this week.

Shop window today and the Waterford chandelier

I’ve started blogging more mostly because of my finally caving to the world of the iPhone when I lost my Blackberry about six weeks ago and discovered the WordPress app! It’s awesome and so much fun, so many times I’m out and about and want to write about something and then loose my mojo by the time I’m immersed with work back at my computer.

I took a photo of the shop today, finally with nice weather, a sign, and incredible tables by Tony Duquette I couldn’t resist sharing.

We’ve also finishes putting the Waterford chandelier together… I’ve ordered some super white wax sleeves with no drips to make it feel fresh… It’s so weird to me that Waterford would sell their lights with plastic candle sleeves.

New Sister Parish Home Accessories

We’re so happy to represent Sister Parish Design’s new home accessories collection. Currently we’re selling the waste basket for $80, dish for $20 and larger round tray for $65 and we ship anywhere. We’re so inspired bringing back old school pieces like this… LOVE…

Assembling a Waterford crystal chandelier…

Here we go!!! This has been in the back of the shop, it was disassembled in England and I was given the task to put it together and sell… John is here with me today to start the work with me. Dan the electrician may be coming by later to help wire up the arms… We’ll keep you posted. This is just the beginning, we have four more boxes to unpack, crazy!

Phase one completed… We can’t believe we just did this ourselves!

Phase three… We’ve hit a stand-still for the day because the electrician can’t come until tomorrow… We’re so proud of ourselves, it’s so empowering just to take a step back and take the time to figure something out, and we’ve had a great time along the way… This I where we are about 3 plus hours in:

Treasure Island Flea Market – New to the Bay this weekend!

It could not be a more beautiful setting for a flea market… I’m having a very late start today, but such a fun outing and I can already tell there are some goodies!

UPDATE (8 minutes later):
I’m so disappointed to report that the “goodies” I mentioned stopped short of the first two vendors I saw… this was much worse than I was expecting because the first day of the new Candlestick flea was actually really good. This is like a swap meet with new items (hats, Chinese embroidered silk accessories, big  shiny sculptures) and tons of food stands. Still very festive given the weather and setting, just not the right place for the serious shopper… Let’s put it this way, I was the only person in a fairly long line with a push cart. I might not try it again myself until I hear it’s changed otherwise. There were only a few “typical” flea market stands there with vintage finds, perhaps literally five or six, I’m curious where they all were because I went to Alemany earlier this morning and that market was empty as well… I thought they must’ve been on Treasure Island. I went zero to zero today. Bummer!

Leaving the Treasure Island flea and heading back to San Francisco: