I thought I'd start with a follow-up to yesterday's love your 70's rambler post with some pictures of the floor:


It's Vinyl Composite Tile (VCT) and was extremely inexpensive (but very labor intensive because of the circles). I love it. There's something about a crazy, colored floor that just makes me happy, and I think a small room like a bathroom is an ideal palette for such a floor. As a rule I believe neutral is better for major components of decorating because I have a tendency to get sick of stuff quickly and I wouldn't want to be decorating around a blue and purple floor in my living room for the next 10 or 15 years. In the bathroom a little craziness works because I don't spend a great deal of time there. Plus it's a smaller space and therefore less of an investment in materials.

Anyway, here's some more Things I love: the short list...

Michel Cluizel Noir au Cafe chocolate

Silpats and Orkas

Microplanes

commercial sheet pans

expertly made small handbags and leather goods

expensive shoes, especially stilettos. It's 80% of the reason I was a Sex in the City fan. The other 20% was the outfits.

MAC

the Pacific Coast Feather Company's Down Around Pillow. Changed my life.

functional beauty

my homemade chocolate chip cookies with toasted almonds. talk nice and I'll tell you my secret recipe.

my homemade Tiramisu...again, talk nice.

Dupioni silk in bright colors

Nike running shoes...I know, I know, that whole child labor thing makes this so unPC but still...

obsessive attention to detail

Extra fine point Sharpies. The multi-colored 24 pack made me squeal in the asile at OfficeMax, really.

Lance Armstrong. It's a blond thing.

my Chantal tea kettle. It whistles like a harmonica.

French press coffee. Drinking a carafe now....

Battered, deep fried mushrooms with horseradish sauce. Not breaded and not Ranch. Yuk.


Things that should not exist: just the highlights...

Wallpaper borders.

wine for "Decorating"

Silk flowers in colors that don't exist in nature...or maybe just silk flowers.

Emeril

chopped garlic in a jar

collagen injected lips: frightening examples here

Emeril

Buells

printed fleece

neighborhoods that are a sea of beige vinyl siding and three styles of house

Red Heart yarn, although I do admit to acutally buying some to make the Hallowig

"Vanilla" Haagen Daas. I don't know what they did to it, but it's not vanilla anymore