Mom's need a hand...

Come to Brentwood Country Mart Post 26 today. Say hi to Clare and get a gift for mama.

P.S. OK. That was easily the worst post ever. I do not know what happened to the image for the Post 26 event - this is what is was supposed to be. But anyway it is over and it was great. I love that store. And the Country Mart is a lovely place for an afternoon shop. 

Day in the Life

Good morning Monday. I arrived to work with a blog in my head and stressful emails in my in-box.

So first, I thought I'd finish the blog: I've been taking a lot of pictures around the studio lately, finally I get to share some.

On a typical day at the studio these days, there might be Scott very skillfully hand-painting stripes to our Pochettes.

These have been getting a lot of blog love lately, among everything there's this: from oh joy and this from simplesong.

They are amazing...

This could be Mat's desk. We got a massive amount (for us) of orders for our cognac clutches with orange zippers from our Lucky deal of the day.

She is often adding finishing touches to clutches.

When she's not doing that she may be packing bags for shipping - like, the first batch of clutches to go out to lucky Lucky customers. But, besides that, how cute is Matilde? I say it all the time, but really! She's wearing vintage pumps. Phshaw $700 Isabels! Although, I do really want them ;)

And to top off all the things we have going on around here...On a typical day there's also Paco. He's Oscar's new puppy and while O is at school, Paco will be hanging out with us at studio for a while. Ummm, yeah. He's a major muffin. A little lamb.

And after work, some days, I might just go see PRINCE, during one of his 21 nights in Los Angeles. And I might just wear a gold studded, black jumpsuit.

A la 1985 when my big sister was going out to First Ave in Minneapolis to actually hang with Prince. I texted her on the way to concert (during the 2 hour sitting in traffic there was ample time to text safely), that I was wearing a tribute outfit to her, but that I was missing the headband she would have been wearing. She wrote back that it would have been a fedora. Ha! Touché.

Holly Flora

I had the good fortune to co-host a brunch last Sunday afternoon.

I was responsible for setting the table and I was pretty pleased with the lovely glasses, my colorful napkins, nice silverware, etc. 

 Then the flowers girls of Holly Flora came in with their floral delivery for the fete and I was completely blown away by not only their ridiculously beautiful choices of flowers and the artful way they arranged them,

(which was simply exquisite, I mean, come on!)

the handmade pots they were in, 

 but also the fact that they went above and beyond the call of flowers and made arrangements to match the Mexican theme of the brunch with bowls of roses mixed with cacti, and even long wooden vessels filled with black beans, pinto beans, tomatillos, garlic, etc. 

They knocked my simple table setting to a crazy whole other level. 

I was really in awe. Holly Flora is owned by Becky and Holly, two young women who have established a very successful independent business on their own, building their clientele on talent and acumen alone. 

I'm so happy to know them personally as they are true inspirations to me.

p.s. These pictures were taken with my iPhone and there were many more arrangements I didn't even photograph. If you ever need a florist in LA, these girls are serious masters.

(p.p.s. my mother just emailed me that I'd written "to" instead of "two" :) )

Sign Painting Makes it Real

Master sign painter Richard has at it!

 It was cool to see someone skilled at an old art form - hand sign painting.

 He set up scaffolding, outlined letters

 and had it done in a matter of hours. 

  The drop shadows are sick, as the kids say.

    Eh Voila. The sign makes it real...Opening May 7, 2011.

Le Weekend

Thursday, Friday and Saturday we hung out at Siren Studios for Lucky Shops LA. The sale was a big success. The event was set up like a nice department store, with these big clear orange signs with the designer's name over their area.

 

It was my first time seeing such a big sign with my name on it! I was excited. We even had good placement right across from that other little bag designer Kate Spade, kitty corner from Foley & Corinna, and a few feet from Steven Alan. I should have asked if I could have my sign as a momento. Wow. Dork out. :)

 

Matilde and, our newest edition to the CViv crew, the fabulous Scott, held down the fort for most of the weekend. Mat looks like a veritable clutch rack in this pic.

Lots-o-CViv clutches

 

We had 1 Trop at the sale. It was gone very fast.

As soon as we closed up shop on Saturday, I headed over to Taylor De Cordoba gallery for their 5-year anniversary. Each of their artists has one piece of art work in the the show.  I was so honored to see a bunch of really lovely ladies carrying CViv that night. Above, is Lady Simone LeBlanc with an orange foldover clutch and Wren white blazer. Nice. KB had a clutch in her hand too, but you'll have to trust me on it.

The artists were in the house, for example, this is Jeana Sohn with her CViv blue pebble oversize clutch. Jeana's piece sold that very evening. Not surprising though, she's unstoppable.

 

Gallery owner, and soon-to-be-bride, Heather Taylor with blogger extraordinaire Amelia Morris. Yes, that is a navy minisac slung across Madame Bon Appetempt's torso. By the way, if you haven't already read Amelia's post In the Kitchen with Grandma, you've really got to set aside a moment to treasure it.

I met Meghan Pickrell, above, at the gallery and she was carrying a black pebble clutch she'd coincidentally gotten at the Lucky sale the day before and had met Matilde! The world is small. But wait! What's even crazier as that man she's with is her fiance who just happens to play soccer with le mari a few times a week. You know, one of those weird-o men's soccer leagues where they don't actually know one another at all, and don't try to be friends with one another either - which would never happen to a group of women as we'd go out for drinks after and tell each other about our entire lives. Anyway, I met Meghan, a lovely girl carrying my bag at the gallery and it turns out her Carlos knows my hubby - but only in soccer shorts and cleats and calls him by the name "Henri" (which is not his name) as he's French and a soccer player, comme Thierry Henri, mais bien sur! Very small world.

Jeana Sohn and Lauren Soloff looked so chic and their big smiles are really the best accessory, well, after their clutches. ;)

It's a Lucky kinda week

In case you didn't see this and you're in the market for the perfect cognac clutch with bright happy zipper contrast for a steal of a deal, go here.

Get your shop on!

So I'm figuring out that opening a store, moving a business, running a business, while trying to maintain a semblance of a family life doesn't leave much time for my blog! I'm so upset about this. Just when I was on a roll...oh well, soo we'll be at LUCKY SHOPS LA. Apparently this has been a really great sale in New York for a while now and this year they are starting it in Los Angeles. Some really good lines will be there, like Kathryn Bentley ;), Wren ;), and many, many others...

 

And I've been obsessively trying to find inspiration for the store. It's coming along, but far from ready. I'll post some work-in-progress pics in a bit, but until then, here are a few shops I've found inspiring. When I look at these pictures I start to get really excited to have a shop! I've never thought of it this way, but they're great places actually. At their best they are dreamy spaces where things are perfect, and clean and everything is beautiful all the time - respites from the crowded street and world outside. I'm excited to provide that for people coming in off Sunset in Silverlake. :) We have projected early May as our opening time, but we'll be at LUCKY SHOPS starting tomorrow night through Saturday. Buy tix here and come get your shop on!!