When I was in college in upstate New York, I would hop on a Greyhound bus for a 5 hour bus ride to New York City to visit my grandmother in Brooklyn during school breaks. I would walk out of Port Authority and down 42nd Street just to get my big city fix, before getting on the N train to continue my journey into the boroughs. Boy, has a lot changed in Times Square over the years!

On our last visit, I was pleasantly surprised by some exciting artwork in the Times Square subway station:

The Return of Spring (above), and The Onset of Winter on the opposing wall, are mosaic installations by artist Jack Beal depicting scenes of street life in New York City.

This is my favorite corner in our home - I love spending lazy weekends there with a good book or a design magazine, and a nice cup of Hong Kong style milk tea. The lighting is just perfect in the afternoons.

The wall hanging is a Marimekko Hektia Moments fabric panel stretched perfectly over an aluminum frame (borrowed from a piece of Ikea artwork). In front of it is our beloved Eames Molded Plywood Chair - a very generous wedding gift from our good friends. It is accompanied by a pillow made with Maharam fabrics, and a stuffed owl made by my very talented friend Devon. Lots of design goodness in a little corner!

I am a big fan of Bravo’s reality shows like Project Runway and Top Chef, and am sometimes amazed at how close our stars are aligned.

Last year, when I was in New York City for work, I stayed at the On the Ave hotel on the Upper West Side and loved it (so much so that we stayed there again this year). A few weeks later, while watching the Project Runway finale, I realized that the finalists were staying in this very same hotel during Fashion Week. They must have checked in literally hours after I had checked out! So close…

Then, earlier this month, we were back in NYC to celebrate Edgar’s birthday. Le Bernardin was one of the restaurants on our “must try” list. I had the White Soy-Yuzu marinated Fluke with Seaweed and Spiced “Rice Crispies”, and it was just out of this world! We even saw Chef Eric Ripert in person that day, which was a treat.

When reading his blog Avec Eric today, Edgar saw that he recently hosted an episode of Top Chef in his restaurant with the final six contestants, just ONE day before we were there!

Maybe it’s a New York thing? Regardless, it makes me feel good that I had made some good choices in my travels.

I hate to admit - I went to see The Confessions of a Shopaholic over Valentine’s Day weekend, and I dragged Edgar with me. I’ve read most of Sophie Kinsella’s Shopaholic series (thanks to many long airplane rides), and I wished that the movie would have been shot in London where the book was originally based. While it was fun to relive scenes of the big apple where we were recently (including the trendy Henri Bendel), the movie itself was pretty predictable. For a matinée at our local theater, it was not bad, especially since we ended the afternoon with a vanilla macaroon and a nice cup of latte at Pamplemousse down the street.

We were lucky enough to have visited several amazing restaurants in New York City a couple of weeks ago, and our Kidrobot Devil Robots Dunny put on his black and red scarf and braved the cold to accompany us on our trip. It looks like he had a good time!

Le Bernardin:

Ippudo:

Per Se:

In 6th grade, a couple of my friends and I decided that it would be fun to memorize pi to as many digits as our little brains could handle (3.1415926535… clearly I knew more digits then than I do now). Nerdville!

While I am no longer obsessed with mathematics in the same way, I am always amazed at how much my youthful fascination dictated my own taste and work, even as an adult. Here are a few of my favorites that are noticeably geometric:

Bilbao Bag by Issey Miyake Pleats Please

Chair One designed by Konstantin Grcic for Magis

Seattle Public Library by Rem Koolhaas and OMA

Blow Up by Campana Brothers for Alessi

Orla Kiely Spring Summer 2009 Collection

I first “met” an Orla Kiely bag at Saks in NYC when I was in college back in the 90’s, but my real crush for her began at Harvey Nichols when Edgar and I went to London five years ago. I was entirely smitten by the use of bold, colorful, modern graphics in her designs. Since then, I have collected more bags, accessories, luggage, and clothing from this UK designer than I care to admit. I have visited her boutiques in London, Tokyo, and Hong Kong (all but Paris!). I keep catalogs of her past collections, and magazine clippings of her home (gorgeous!). Sometimes when I crave for eye candy, I do a search for “Orla Kiely” with flickr or google images. See, it’s an obsession!

Can you imagine how excited I was when my friend Rebecca told me that Orla Kiely will showcase a line of home accessories at Target? Affordable, easily accessible Orla Kiely goodies? In the States? I’m so there! The full collection is scheduled to launch February 15^th, but a few items are already available for preview. By some miracle, one of my nearby Targets decided to display an even bigger selection, which meant that I was able to get my hands on some goodies ahead of everyone else:

Orla Kiely for Target

I feel like a little kid playing house. I can’t wait to see the rest of the collection at Target!

By the way, how cool is this tram? [apartmenttherapy]

Orla Kiely Tram in Hong Kong