The question I get asked most often (besides questions about my ethnic background) is probably where I go thrifting in L.A. It’s a bit of a sticky subject because, obviously, I wanna find all of the cool shit, and if you all start going to the same places that I go, well, you might find the cool shit–and then what would I blog about?? BUT I’ve been thinking about it lately and I’ve realized that there is enough cool shit to go around–so today, my dear readers, I’m going to give you a special treat. I’m gonna give you a little L.A. thrifting guide and include some of my favorite little spots where I find my thrifted treasures.  I will preface by sharing a few general rules of thrifting that I like to follow:

1. Bring the right tools: Iphone.  Cash. Measuring tape. Iphone for photos and looking up info on antiques. Cash because some places don’t take cards and sometimes if you pay cash you get better deals. Measuring tape–well, duh.

2. Don’t Be Cheap: A trap that’s easy to fall into while thrifting is that all of the sudden anything over $20 seems expensive. I get it,  a big part of the thrill of thrifting is finding deals, so if you see, say, a great table for like $100 it seems super expensive. Forget about the fact that you just went to Madewell and bought a $130 pair of jeans or that that exact table on 1st Dibs would cost like $4500– you’re at a thrift shop and so everything should be like $4, right? Wrong. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve passed up stuff because I deemed it “thrift-store expensive” only to see the identical item at a boutique (or even the Rose bowl flea market) for three times the price later on. When evaluating prices at thrift shops, don’t think about thrift-store prices, think about boutique prices and then evaluate if it seems like a good deal.

3. Make Friends: Making friends at thrift shops is a good idea. The people who work at or own these shops can tell you when new stuff comes in, can call you if something of interest shows up and can even cut you deals. It can also help if hablas español.

OK so ready? Let’s go thrifting!

Favorite Thrift Shops–
(can be hit or miss so check back often, also because all of these shops get new stuff in all of time, it’s hard to say which is best, you just have to be persistent):

Society of St Vincent de Paul Thrift Store
210 N Ave 21 Los Angeles, CA 90031,
Neighborhood: Lincoln Heights (323) 224-6280

BTS Thrift Boutique
Culver City Store:
10409 Washington Blvd (@ Motor Ave)
Culver City, CA 90232
p: 310-204-4058

(I found this at BTS Culver City yesterday)

Santa Monica Store:
1908 Lincoln Blvd (@ Pico Blvd)
Santa Monica, CA 90405
p: 310-396-4141 f: 310-204-4706

As far as I’m concerned this is the best Goodwill in the L.A. area:
14550 Victory Blvd
Van Nuys, CA 91411

If you visit the Goodwill, stop here, too:
Valley Value Center
13630 Victory Blvd
San Fernando Valley, CA 91401

Sun Thrift Store (a bit of a schlepp for me, but usually worth it)
8800 Foothill Blvd
Sunland, CA 91040

Not exactly thrift shops, but not boutiques either:
These are the kind of stores where stuff may be stacked on top of each other, but the owners know what they have–so no serious deals to be had, but they all have beautiful stuff that is more affordable than that ‘normal’ vintage boutiques.

Tini: Mostly mid-century– can find decent deals on stuff that may be a bit scuffed but still totally doable in the right context.
515 S. Fairfax Ave.

Pepe’s (also does custom building, but be patient)  (213) 483-1049. 3204 W Sunset Blvd 90026

Hernandez:  (Good stuff, not cheap, but not Beverly Blvd. prices, either–for example the masks below were about 3.5′ tall and $85 each).  6158 Santa Monica Blvd

Sunset Bazaar:  (213) 353-0576  2508 West Sunset Boulevard Los Angeles, CA 90026-3904

Revival: Good spot to find gems at affordable prices–weird hours though, so call before hand. (323) 222-6069  181 N Ave 21 Los Angeles, CA 90031

Do you have favorite spots that I’ve missed? Come on Angelenos–I showed you mine now you show me yours!

We’d made a bit of progress over at Cami’s house this week so I thought I’d share a few snaps! I love the way this huge vintage painted canvas looks in her space:

Almost looks like earth from space, yes?

We hung up this vintage glass box in the bathroom for her blingy bling bling. Mighty happy with how it looks.

We got a new furry pillow friend from West Elm for her kitty to play with–plus it add that little sexy something to her bed, n’est pas?

And this patternful corner is coming together! The framed print is a vintage print of a design for a Navajo rug. I love it juxtaposed with the God-Bless America chair–like Nouveau Americana! We’re getting close….!

I love that One Kings Lane has started to sell artisanal wares! The first artisanal sale launches this evening–gorgeous wall weavings from some seriously talented ladies: All Roads, Heather Taylor and Justina Ashbee of Native Line,   (By the way, Justine and I met years ago at a cafe in Williamsburg, if you’re reading this, Hi Justine!–remember me?) Anyway, the sale is worth a click and I look forward to seeing who the OKL team brings on in the future.

You know I like it wild, right…I mean in home decor, sheesh people! Well in order for things to be wild enough around here, it is necessary to add a touch of wildlife, like these realistic little fine feathered friends from Iota Bristol (place put a bird on it joke here…) I like to perch mine (besides on my shoulder) in the corner of the bookshelf or a top a hanging plant (and out of reach of Luda the cat)–These little birdies make people do a double-take when the enter the room (which I love!)

Today you’re gonna get a chance to win a couple birdies (a parrot and a budgie) and a string of these hand-painted ceramic lights (yes you read that correctly–they’re CERAMIC!) So here’s what you do to win: Check out Iota Bristol and then come back here and tell me where you’d put you’re little bird! Would you wear yours like I like to do? Or have you got other plans for your tropical friends?

$104 USD Value. Winner will be chosen at random on Tuesday June 24th at 5PM PST. Winner will be contacted via email after comments close, and announced at the bottom of this post.  International entries welcome. 

After spending extended periods of time in Denmark, Italy and Switzerland I feel like I’m qualified to say that Europeans know how to ROCK outdoor spaces.  Copenhagen has THE MOST amazing parks and children’s playgrounds, we even encountered trampolines on the streets, rock climbing structures, outdoor gyms, hammocks and ping-pong tables right along the sidewalks and in the parks– out for everyone to enjoy. In Bern,  Switzerland where my parents used to live, there were picnic tables and tables with sandboxes built-in to them for the kids, just lined up along the sidewalks. In the summer they were packed with families eating lunches, kids playing, folks listening or making music, and yes–drinking beers (you gotta love Europe for that, too)! One of my favorite things about this outdoor fun in that it encourages physical activity in a way that my daily routine here in Cali does not usually make room for.

I was thinking about ways to bring the European summer feeling to my California summer experience and came across UK company The Range that has a lot of European-style outdoor goodness including garden furniture that I’m tempted to bring to the jungalow this season. They’ve got those very same picnic-tables sandboxes and the trampoline may not be built into the sidewalk, but at least it’ll bring my bounce back (I have wanted one of those in my backyard since I was seven). Fancy a game of skittle or cricket anyone?

1. Hula Hoops
2. Sandbox Table
3. Cricket Set
4. Grill
5. Skittle Set
6. Trampoline
7. Hammock

Top Photos by J. Blakeney.
This post was created in partnership with The Range. All words and ideas are my own.

I wanted to end this week of posts on a happy note, and I realized I haven’t shared any Ida this week–so here’s my favorite #idagram from the past few days–a bright-eyed snap! Now I’m off to the re-opening of Echo Park Lake–so happy the lake right near my house is opening after being closed for two years. Happy weekend!

So, the other day I mentioned that some friends of mine were having a party, and that I found out through my instagram feed that I wasn’t invited.  The issue seemed to resonate with a lot of readers so I thought it was worth revisiting. Today, I’d like to talk about exclusivity.
I think everyone can relate to the shitty feeling of being excluded. It brings back childhood memories for me–my younger brother and older sister were really close and sometimes I felt like the odd one out. I think in families where there are three children it’s easy for two of the kids to pair up and leave the third one hanging. Then of course there’s high school where exclusive cliques are about as ubiquitous as crazy teachers with tenure.  I remember very well moments where I was included and excluded by the cool kids clique and what that felt like. Both experiences came with feelings of superiority and inferiority.  When I was excluded I assumed a ‘so what I’m better than them’ attitude as a defense mechanism, and when I was included I felt guilty, somehow inauthentic but also all of the sudden I did feel cooler (in a kind of a dirty way).

As an adult one would hope to have overcome these childish issues. I mean, I think we all have more important things to think about than who invited whom to what. But these days (and social media plays a huge part in this) so much of my work is dependent on this popularity contest and how one manages being exclusive vs. inclusive. On a daily basis I have people asking me “How many friends” I have on facebook…”how many followers I have” here or there.  My popularity is intimately tied to my professional success. Oy.

Have you experienced being on Twitter and tweeting at someone once, twice, maybe three times–and not getting a response? Well I have. I tend to give up after the third try and write that person off as someone that, apparently, I’m not cool enough to talk to. It makes me feel pretty shitty for a few minutes and then I get over it. Because I don’t like how it feels when people don’t respond to me, I try not to do that to others. And if I am in a rush or something, I’ll at least “favorite” the tweet–so the person at least gets I little “I hear ya.” I mean, it’s not that hard. What makes one stranger worth responding to and another not? The amount of ‘followers’ that person has? Does that make them a more interesting conversationalist or a more likely future friend or colleague? I don’t think so. And it’s not about someone having ‘too many followers’ to respond–look at Will Taylor from Bright Bazaar. He’s got a bajillion followers on every platform but always manages to respond to people in a chill, sweet, humble-ass way. You gotta love him for that.

Then there are the all-illusive conferences, summits, events, ‘camps’ etc. where it seems the same ten people are invited to speak every year.  I find myself asking what types of ‘lines’ the exclusivity is falls on–are they just all friends? do they care only about numbers? are they (gasp) racists? Then if I ever do get invited to any of these all-illusive conferences, summits, events, ‘camps’ etc. I get that same awkward high-school feeling of feeling guilty, inauthentic and, yes, I sometimes fall into the trap of feeling just a little bit cooler than everyone else. In other words, I become a perpetrator of the exclusivity paradigm–and I don’t like it, not one bit.  I see these events flaunted on Instagram and comment after comment on these posts are “aww that looks like so much fun, how can I get invited to one of these events?” And no one responds. And it gets to a point where it seems like what is being shared is done, not for the purpose of inspiring others or spreading beauty, but for the purpose of making others jealous and making others feel excluded. Wtf? Have you noticed this, or felt this way, too?

It’s strange and paradoxical how this new world of “sharing,” (sharing thoughts, images, tastes, works, creativity, ideas) is somehow fostering a new kind of exclusivity–people feel comfortable taking snootiness to a whole new level on social media. It’s not like in real life my friends would have felt comfortable saying to my face ‘oh, we’re going to have an incredible party and you’re not invited’ but that is what they’re doing implicitly by sharing on social, when they know I will see it.

I admit that it is very easy to get seduced by the cool kids and that it *does* feel good to get invited to ‘exclusive’ parties, events etc.–but the problem with exclusivity is that if you were included that means that someone else has been inherently left out–and it sucks. What are your thoughts on exclusivity in the social-media age? Does this sh*t feel like high school to you too sometimes? Have you found yourself feeling excluded by people you don’t even know on social media? How do you manage your own inclusivity vs. exclusivity? What do you think we as bloggers can do to make sure that sharing is about including people in our life, and not excluding people from it? I am so curious to hear your thoughts on this. I’d like to end today’s post with an apology to you all if I ever did make you feel excluded in any way–my intentions here are to make you feel included, my goal is to connect with you all in an authentic, inclusive way. I want this blog (and the extensions of it–my twitter, pinterest, instagram etc. ) to feel like a group hug (a really pretty, colorful, well-designed group hug ). I hope you can feel my warm embrace as I wish you a kick-ass weekend.

I’m a fan of Hatch Collection not just because I like their soft fabrics and silhouettes, but because I can get behind them conceptually. The idea of a collection that I can wear before, during and after pregnancy is practical, smart and just makes sense.  Also, as much as it seems like I dress crazy all of the time–secretly, my steeze is pretty basic. I just  layer on fun shoes, hats, bags, scarves and jewelry that make my outfit seem a lot more eccentric than it actually is–but alas I digress, today’s post isn’t about accessorizing me–it’s about accessorizing a space using the Hatch’s principles of practical, simple, timeless pieces colored in with fun, funky, textured accessories.

My first room is inspired by The Kaftan from Hatch’s new Plage Collection.  I picture this home just blocks from the plage–an ocean view for sure. A room that’s easy going and full of relaxed, textured pieces–a room that has elements from Camaroon and Italy, recalling beachy moments from sparkling coasts around the world:

Pompom curtain
Butterfly Chair
Rattan Table
1930′s Hand woven rug
Juju hat
Eilerson Sofa
Mid-century Italian Lamps

And this room is inspired from Plage Collection’s Tahiti Dress. This room with huge windows and the sea-air blowing through is smooth and textured like the white sands…natural pieces recall beachy botanicals: palm trees, bamboo, sea grass. White linens and a sculptural lamp that is like a puffy white cloud floating above the shore finish off this airy design.

Beach Chair
Jute Rug
Turkish Beach Towel
Outdoor Chair in Salt
Spiral Pendant
Pillow
Chaise

*My Kaftan dress above c/o Hatch Collection.

Digital print on linen?!? Why didn’t I think of that? I’m just kinda in love with these pillows!! Are they a ‘yes’ for you? (From AbcHome)

My favorite chair

Stools and Ottomans at ABC Carpet and Home

Serapes1 2 3 4 5 6

Serape Pillows by Catskillkiwi on Etsy

Mexican Serape blankets remind me of the summer time. We keep a couple folded in the back of our station wagon this time a year in case we stop at a park and need a picnic blanket. I found that chair pictured up top at the Rose Bowl years ago and it always had me thinking what a great material Serapes are for upholstering, too. Then when I recently came across those gorgeous stools and ottomans at ABC Carpet and Home I knew I’d have to do a post about this because it’s a gorgeous buy, but also a really simple and affordable DIY.  I love the bright colors of the Serape Saltillo and I also love that these beautiful pieces can often be found at prices that don’t murder the bank account. The blankets above are all under $100 and could easily be used to upholster multiple items. I’ve also been seeing the serape pillows pop up in a few places lately and I think they add that geometric pop of color that can work well in both modern and more boho spaces. They just make me happy looking at them, yes?  I also love the look of stools and ottomans in recovered in suzanis, sheepskins, and kantha quilts. What are your favorite types of textiles for upholstering?

My favorite chair photo by Annie McElwain