Aloha Hawaii!

{Photo by Elle G Photography}

Straight from my trip to Atlanta, the next morning I jetted off to Hawaii for a friend's wedding. The wedding was located on the sand at Waimanalo Beach in Oahu, Hawaii. As  you can see from the image above - absolutely breathtaking!  It was great to get away and spend a few days in Hawaii for the wedding and a much needed vacay too!

The wedding party and guests gather on the beach for Morgan & Tyson's wedding.

{Photo by Elle G Photography}

My friends Brooke and Morgan (bride) at the luau reception at Paradise Cove.

A picturesque photo I took at sunset from Paradise Cove.

After much research, I ended up booking a stay at the Waikiki Parc Hotel which turned out to be a good choice.  The hotel room and views were amazing, the service was incredible, and the hotel is currently offering some exceptional packages.  It is also the sister property of the famed Halekulani hotel which gave us privileges of that hotel, too.

Guest room at the Waikiki Parc Hotel.

This was the view from my room (from the balcony in the image above).

And one morning I woke up to this! It was actually a full rainbow.

View to street from my balcony, that's the Halekulani hotel and pool.

In the main entrance of the hotel, there is a Nobu which happens to be one of my favorite places for sushi in LA.  We had brunch every morning in the restaurant which was designed by the Rockwell Group.

We also spent a lot of time at the Halekulani (sister property to our hotel) - which I am in love with!  Hopefully, one day I can come back and stay at this hotel!

The Halekulani even has a suite designed by fashion designer Vera Wang!

The bedroom of the Vera Wang Suite at the Halekulani Hotel.

One of the best features of the Halekulani are the grounds and the pool (I took this picture with my iPhone).

We also had lunch one afternoon at "House Without a Key" - one of the three dining spots at Halekulani.

And dinner the next night on the outside terrace overlooking the ocean at Orchids.

When we weren't hanging out at the hotel(s) or dining (or shopping!), we did a little sight seeing.  This is a photo I took at Waimea Falls which is located on the North Shore of Oahu.  We took a shuttle up to the falls and then walked back down through the nature gardens.

We also stopped by the Dole Plantation and checked out the gardens, varieties of pineapples, and the koi fish.  Unfortunately, didn't  do the maze - which I later found out is the world's largest maze.

On my last night, I met up with a friend & former client for dinner at the Top of Waikiki which is a rotating restuarant with 360 views of the entire city of Honolulu/Waikiki.

Congrats to Morgan & Tyson!

Tigressa SoftStyle Carpet from Shaw Floors Event

The Material Girls were recently invited to a preview of the latest product launch from Shaw Floors, a new and innovative line of carpet called Tigressa. As part of the exclusive sneak peek event, I got to experience Tigressa up close and personal - and it lives up to it's name as being both soft and strong. Tigressa has a unique fiber shape to create an ultra-soft texture and the advanced yarn engineering produces a pleasant, luxurious touch with superior durability. Having grown up in the carpet industry, I can attest to this being the softest carpet I have ever felt. The experience of this event had a very personal impact on me. I was practically born into the carpet manufacturing industry since my father was president of a division of a local, Southern California based carpet mill called ETC/Westweave Carpet Mills (which later expanded to Western Solutions, and acquired Sunweavers & El Dorado). The carpet mill is no longer around but through-out my life I was familiar with the "big guys" in the south - that being Shaw. In fact, some years ago my father along with the former president of ETC Carpet Mills (Paul Reznikoff) had dinner with Bob Shaw in Dalton, Georgia. To actually have been able to take a trip out and experience the mill in person was really, truly very exciting for me!

For the two day event, myself along with other attendees, got to stay at the beautiful Barnsley Gardens Resort just outside of Atlanta, Georgia.

The first day began with an evening cocktail hour and dinner introducing us to the new product line where we got to see the many colors and textures of Tigressa carpet.

The preview and dinner event was held at the Ruins located at the Barnsley Gardens Resort.

Attendees experiencing Tigressa up close and personal.

Group photo of the attendees which included fellow bloggers, writers, the flooring industry, and Shaw Carpet Mills. (I am about the 3rd row back, on the far left, in black.)

Over dinner I got the opportunity to sit next to celebrity guest speaker Amy Devers (of TLC's hit show Trading Spaces) who was a fantastic and engaging speaker that enlightened us on her personal stories with carpet (such as loving carpet in the bathroom - yes, that's correct - the impracticality of carpet in the bathroom, something I would never recommend to my own clients but Amy loves the feel and I can relate since I grew up with carpet everywhere - including the bathroom - that's the life of having a dad in the carpet business, wall to wall carpet in each and every room!)

{the next day...}

We headed to Dalton, GA to visit the facilities of Shaw Carpet Mills which included an overview of the carpet manufacturing process and the technical aspects of carpet. (I will have much more to report on this in upcoming posts.)

It was such a great expereince to meet up with other bloggers and I enjoyed getting to know everyone!

We got the opportunity to visit the design studios of Shaw and create design boards ourselves.

We put on goggles and toured the manufacturing facilities, which included the tufting machines and the yarn dying process. Even though I have seen this many times before, Shaw certainly has some advancements when it comes to their manufacturing process and carpet quality.

Sporting (personalized!) lab coats we toured the technical facilities of Shaw where all the product testing is done.

The afternoon finished with one last look at the Tigressa line of carpet and it's availability to the market brought to us by Flooring America and Carpet One.

As part of the promotion, proceeds from Tigressa Carpet purchases will benefit the "Save The Tigers" fund. For all Tigressá sales made between May 16 and August 20, 2010, they’ll donate a portion of the proceeds to the National Fish and Wildlife Federation’s Save the Tiger Fund (STF). STF sponsors effective efforts to stop the killing of wild tigers, enabling them to recover and flourish, and empowers local people to live in balance with natural resources, providing tangible benefits to them whenever possible.

Designers Salute Hollywood

A few weeks ago I featured a blog post about the Legends of La Cienega window vignettes. Each display featured an amazing range of talent from local designers and decorators who participated in creating vignettes honoring movie sets or tv shows celebrating Hollywood for the Legends of La Cienega design events in Los Angeles.  If you haven't seen all the window displays (I featured a partial selection in my blog post) you can now visit the Elle Decor website to view all the windows and their descriptions and vote for your favorite window! Check it out here!

Haute "Chair"-ture

Loving this chair.  I know it's been around for awhile but recently I was "reacquainted" with it while researching desk chairs for a client who is looking for something eclectic to pair with her traditional desk.  And now this chair has been on my mind: I. Want. It.

Designed by Philippe Starck in 2003, and made in Italy by Kartell, the chair features the haute couture glam of Dolce & Gabbana leopard print silk upholstery .  It's available for $950 and can also be purchased through such websites as: YLighting, Emmo Home, & Unica Home.

Outdoor Decorating for Summer

Summer is right around the corner, and the start of the outdoor season is fast approaching.  It may be time to spruce up your outdoor space with some fun summer accessories.  I thought I would put together some inexpensive options for outdoor decorating.  Here are some great finds - all of which are under $25!

These cute outdoor pillows from West Elm come in both Espresso & Papaya and are just $24 (currently on special for $20)!

Candle votives from Design Public, set of two, $25.

Garden Party Doormat from Crate & Barrell, 18"x30", on sale for $24.95.

Galvanized planters from CB2, starting at $9.95.

Melamine Jungle Flower Tray from West Elm, $18 (currently on special for $15)!

Hope your summer is filled with fun outdoor decorating!

Elle Decor Cocktail Party at Baker Furniture

To culminate the past few days of the "Legends of La Cienega" design events, the Baker Furniture showroom hosted a cocktail party with Elle Decor along with a book signing by Margaret Russell for her book, "Style and Substance: The Best of Elle Decor." On Saturday evening, I once again met up with fellow blogger Christian May of Maison21 to attend the last celebration of the two day events.

The entrance to the Baker showroom on La Cienega featured the LCDQ logo and the latest cover of Elle Decor magazine.

The lovely desk where Margaret Russell signed copies of her book, "Style & Substance: The Best of Elle Decor."

I was so happy to finally meet Margaret Russell. There have been many other book signings, but up until now I hadn't been able to attend any of them. It was great to be introduced to her as the Los Angeles blogger for Material Girls Blog and she was also delighted to hear that I used to work for Felicia of Bravo's Season One from Top Design.

So happy to finally have a signed copy!

Margaret Russell with designers Woodson & Rummerfield, who's vignette inspired by the movie Auntie Mame is on display at the Baker Showroom.

The window display is actually much prettier in person and I happen to see it in evening lighting as the sun was going down.

Loved these zebra print ottomans in the Woodson & Rummerfield window display!

Thanks to Elle Decor & Baker for such a lovely event!

{Photos by Mark Savage Photography and me.}