Do-shi-rak aka Bento Box

Do-shi-rak is Korean for a type of packed lunch, typically presented in an artful way in a plastic or metal container.  How rad are the below do-shi-raks?  If you were a kid wouldn’t you be psyched to open your lunch in the cafeteria and have the Simpsons or Hello Kitty staring up at you?  Talk about a way to make children eat their vegetables.

Vermont

We at Major Tropical Vacation took a team building trip to the most beautifully quaint and somehow still luxurious B&B in Newfane, Vermont called The Four Columns Inn.  It was a much-needed respite from New York City and a little drizzle here and there didn’t keep us from exploring the surrounding hills, the Vermont Country Store or sampling the delectable assortment of cheeses and chocolates!

Dana Barnes: Souled Objects

It’s no wonder textile designer Dana Barnes won the Editor’s Award for Best in Textiles at ICFF, part of Design Week in NY. Her designs are so beautiful I don’t know if I could bring myself to actually walk on them.

Kate Neckel at Ace Hotel NY

Check out the latest Ace Hotel artist collaboration with photographer and illustrator Kate Neckel.

Close-ups of the doodles.

Some of Kate’s photos.

Store Opening: Strawser & Smith

I’ve been trying to articulate what my personal aesthetic in interiors might be.  Despite my best efforts, I’m definitely not a mid-century kind of gal–though I have to admit it’s pretty rad.  I do like some antique French pieces (old Louis XIV chairs, etc), but I’m not so frou-frou in general.  Likewise, I’ve inherited some big heavy country furniture, but I’m not into the gingham-check and scallop-edged stuff that’s typically associated with country interiors.

I think Strawser & Smith, which just opened shop on Driggs and North 9,  brought me one step closer to establishing my taste. Formerly “Jack the Pelican Presents,” Strawser & Smith offers heavy-duty refurbished vintage and “re-purposed relics of America’s industrial past.”  I’ve flirted with industrial accents in my apartment before (I’ve been on a mission for “trouble” light fixtures for the last year and a half), and have always been a sucker for Early American what-not, but I guess I didn’t realize how powerful–and inexplicably warm–industrial interiors can be.

If I woke up tomorrow morning with a million dollars and a raw loft space, you can bet it would look something this.  I love the roughed-up leather couches, epic steel dining tables, and I WILL find a way to buy one of those lamps with the hand-blown glass shades.  Swoon.

487 Driggs Avenue, between North 9th and North 10th

It’s Korean BBQ Time!

Remember what I said about those juice fasts and lowfat yogurt obsessions? I think we all put whatever eating regimens we’re currently following aside last Tuesday night when we indulged in Korean BBQ followed by cheap, weirdo Korean desserts in a nearby market. Every diet needs a break once in a while! (Forgive the iPhone photo )

Dead or Alive

Two pieces by Maria Fernando Cardoso in “Dead or Alive,” currently at the Museum of Art and Design.

Pining for the Cemetery Screenings

Shame on you if you’re in LA tonight and don’t go see The Wizard of Oz ‘below and above the stars’ at the Hollywood Forever Cemetery.

Brimfield Fever

Why is Brooklyn so empty? Because everyone’s at Brimfield, scouring miles and miles of Massachusetts countryside for antiques of all conceivable origins. Need an old tin box with one small handle and space for a name tag? Done! Need 400? Done! A Revolutionary War-era flag? Done! Masks worn by early Masons? Done! A box bakelite umbrella handles, a mountain of weather-beaten brass instruments, old clothes, old hats, old baseball bats? Done, done and done.

The Brimfield Antique Fair is not for the faint of heart. Teams of buyers for designers, restauranteurs, shop owners and big name retailers (the Ralph Lauren folks communicate via walkie talkies strapped to their shirt pockets) head out to this thrice yearly festival of all things old and wonderful to bring their finds back to the big city to either use as decor or sell outright, with a much higher price tag, of course.

Photos courtesy my bf.

Saw this on A Continuous Lean. “Vendor taunting the Ralph folks.”

Major California Vacation

My California vacation got off to a nice, 85 degree start in Palm Springs where I drove from Pasadena with Mom and Pop in tow to thaw out my frozen NY bones. Palm Springs is a strange mix of early casita-style, mid-century modern and late 60s retro homes, but as they all tend to favor long lines and low profile, they actually go together quite well.

The fam and I kicked things off with an early morning hike in Indian Canyon.

See the lovely rocks?

And the lovely vistas?

Yes, the rocks and vistas are lovely indeed, unless you get lost in them and run around for 12 miles without water or a map, which is what happened when I went on ahead and got separated from Mom and Pop after jogging 3 miles past a fork in the trail I should have stopped and waited by if only I had seen it. How can I present this mileage with such accuracy? I had my handy little friend, the Nike+iPod in my pocket. So I may have been a little stressed out on the last stretch of the hike, but hey, I burned 967 calories!

The rest of the weekend was spent poolside. Unfortunately, Palm Springs’ hotel pool scene isn’t this tame anymore and involves the drinking of many colorful, garnished beverages to a soundtrack of DJ music. One guest even brought his own tray of jello shots, which he took around the pool (carefully avoiding Mom and Pop and I who had G-Rated Family Together Time stamped on our foreheads) and used to make new man friends.

Here’s a fun fact. See that house in the pictures? That’s where Elvis and Priscilla honeymooned in Palm Springs. They liked it so much they stayed for almost year.

This is where they bathed.

And this is where they slept, though I doubt they were using the quilted Elvis throw.

I’ve been cooking out of “Ad Hoc” since January so when we got back home we went to Bouchon to have the real thing.

I had an epic bowl of mussels some wine and fancy beer (made by Brooklyn Brewery especially for Thomas Keller’s restaurants) some other snackies and the Iles Flottante for dessert, which I’ve only ever seen on menus in Paris. (Yeah, it’s an iPhone pic)