Lillies, Theatre District, New York

We all met up for a few beers and some great food at Lillies at 249 West 49th Street, New York, one night last week. The two Irish guys that created Lillies, have imported authentic antiques from Ireland and Europe to create a Victorian restaurant and bar devoted to the 1800's, and the Lilly Langtry era in particular. It has very high ceilings, pillars, elaborately gold painted details, stained glass and rich dark wood panelling and a bar. It was buzzing that night, the beer was coldddd, and the food was robust and very enjoyable. Here are a few photo's from inside, but follow the link to the their website to get a much better look :

Inside the fireplace was a secret door ! 

Surtex 2012

This year's Surtex was a little quieter than last year, but it was still very busy for us. The nice thing is we always seem to meet new clients each year, which is the reason we try to make the booth as exciting as possible. Sunday is turning out to be the busiest day in recent years, which is surprising as New York was in the middle of a heat wave when the show started ! Blue skies, bright sunshine and a multitude of weekend street markets would normally be a good reason not to be at a Trade Show, but visitors turned up in numbers from early on Sunday morning. There did seem to be more exhibitors this year, which is a good sign in the current economic climate, and walking round the hall the booths were looking bright and exciting.  
By Monday the weather had changed dramatically to grey skies and rain, and the Javitz decided to let it rain on a few of the Exhibitors as well ! Due to a few leaks in the roof of the centre, water was descending into the hall, and it was pot luck if you were underneath it or not ! We were lucky, but just two rows over a couple of the booths had to get covered in large sheets to protect the artwork while workmen fixed the leaks.
Surtex is a show we look forward to every year, it does take a lot of planning and work putting the displays together, but for us that is all part of the creative process as well.

Oh no, it's raining ! 

Need To Breathe

It was great to spend some time with our friends Lamont & Jeannine while we were in the States. Driving around the New Jersey countryside and down to the Jersey Shore we got treated to some great new music. One of the bands we heard is called Need To Breathe, and how we've not heard of them until now I'll never know !

Here is a track from their last album called The Reckoning :

This one is Oohs and Aahs :

And this is a live track from an album called The Outsiders : 

Anthropologie 5th Avenue New York

We love coming to New York in May for Surtex, and Anthropologie is one of the first places we visit. The store at 85 Fifth Avenue in New York is in an older building, and their organic style blends really well with the natural wood floors and high ceilings. This year the fabric prints have an ethnic feel, with warm colours and bright highlights. The bowls, plates, and tableware have much richer colours and many of the prints have a Moroccan feel. Here are some photo's taken last week :

What a great lampshade ! 

Pottery Barn Kids

We are currently in NY getting ready for Surtex. The sun is baking hot and NY city is buzzing with the sunshine vibe, so we visited a few stores to see whats going on. Pottery Barn kids is our first port of call. A riot of textures, pattern and chalky colours in the window draw you into the store. A vision of sealife graces many of the products, as well as fruit and vegetables, and garden themes. The freshness comes from the painterly watercolour techniques applied to octopus, sharks, turtles etc. As always PB are masters at creating cute characters from mixing different patterns, check out all the patchwork toys.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Little Creatures aka Dunnys !

We have been picking up these little characters over a couple of years now, some we found in LA and others we bought in Tokyo. The thing is, you get teased by all the different ones in the cabinets, but you can't choose which one you want. You have to buy a sealed box and it is pot luck what is inside ! We haven't been disappointed in what we have so far, and luckily we have not duplicated any ! Some of them came from Kidrobot, they also have plain ones from Munnyworld that you can paint and decorate yourself.