How cute is this white crested treeswift birdhouse from Anthropologie? Furthermore, it’s weatherproof and it’s cast from the Balinese baskets that hold betel nuts, which are offered to visitors as a sign of hospitality. And even better, it’s on sale for only $19.95! Alas, with renovations finally underway, I cannot simply buy any birdhouse that strikes my fancy, but if you happen to be in the market for a birdhouse for a special little bird, why not snap this one up in my stead?

…when you want to pack up and move to a store? In this case, yours truly wants to go live at Alice Lane Home for a spell. I think owner and designer Jessica Bennett and I must be operating on similar wavelengths because I adore almost everything I’ve seen of this Utah shop and design hotspot.

Pretty, yes? But I’m guessing my desire to buy a plane ticket to the “Industry” state to go live in a shop might also have a little something to do with the fact that it’s muggy as a bog here. The atmosphere provided by a cranky hot baby doesn’t help much, either.

Please, take my mind off things and tell me: What store do you dream of occupying?

I know that it wasn’t that long ago that I posted a selection of purple interiors — which y’all loved, yay! — but a recent search for purple slipcovers brought this versatile hue to the forefront of my mind once again and I started tooling around Amazon in search of cool stuff in said color. Here’s just some of what I found:

As always, click on any of the pics for more info. My faves are the purple slipcover (obviously), the purple coffee maker, and oddly enough, the wide mouth thermos. The lamp is a pretty close third, though!

Every now and then I highlight a shop here on the Home blog, though admittedly I haven’t done so for quite some time. Nothing, to tell you the truth, has caught my eye lately. Today’s seller of note, The Conran Shop, actually re-entered my field of consciousness when I found an advert I’d ripped out of the New York Times Style mag ages and ages ago. I loved the selection of products featured in the ad: multi-color headphones, a miniature electric guitar and amp, toy helicopters, retro iPod docks, and other stuff designed to add a little fun to life.

Here are a few things that just now caught my eye… Charles and Ray Eames succumbed to the charms of the elephant and in 1945 designed a toy version made of plywood. However, it never made it into mass production, until now! This adorable red one is plastic, but what can you do? And how about that spacey radio? Designed by Yves Malka & Pierre de Poucques, the Apollo AM/FM radio’s controls are integrated into the design, rather than relying on buttons and knobs. Have a blast watching your friends figure out how to turn it on! Then there is the cheerfyl Japanese moneybox, the magnetboard sheep with farmalicious magnets, and all of the gorgeous furniture sold by this store.

Seriously, go and have a look — it’s worth the time. Even if, like me, you can’t afford much, it is still fun to browser shop.

It’s summertime. Unfortunately, here in MA’s north shore, it doesn’t feel anything like summer, and it hasn’t for ages. I have about had it up to here with gray days and rain, and apparently we were even hit with some hail the other day. That’s right, early morning hail in July! On one hand, all the plants in my garden, from the cukes to the tomatoes seem pretty happy and I don’t have to worry about remembering to turn on the sprinkler. On the other hand, weather like this makes me want to do something drastic.

Like shop. And if I’m shopping to drive away a case of the blahs, you know that I am buying something pretty and cheerful and possibly pink and, damn it all, it had better be floral. Cherry blossoms fit the bill beautiful. My bank account may be shrinking rapidly, but at least my sanity is intact!

I’m digging on cherry blossom lamps and cherry blossom sushi sets and cherry blossom art prints, for starters. I’m not sure what I’ll end up with, though the cherry blossom rice paper lamps are pretty tempting. Cherry blossoms just feel like such a breath of fresh air in this horrid weather.

(click on anything above to make your house very cherry)