Start spreading the news....back from New York

And so....I've been absent from my blog since I've been in New York for work.  This freezing fabulous visit had me travelling from Manhattan to upstate New York to Connecticut.

No visit to New York is complete without a visit to ABC Carpet & Home Emporium in the Flatiron district.  This is my favourite place in the world. It's been likened to walking into a fantasy tour of a very rich and well-travelled ancestor's attic. This two-building emporium is legendary and deserves to be: It's the ultimate home-fashions-and-furnishings department store. On the west side of the street is the stunning 10-floor home emporium. The goods run the gamut from Moroccan mosaic-tile end tables to hand-painted Tuscan pottery to Tiffany-style lamps to distressed bed frames sporting meltingly soft Italian linens to much, much more, all finely displayed. An entire floor of on-the-bolt upholstery fabrics is to die for.

ABC is like a fantastical Turkish bazaar, abound with goods from all over the world

Luxurious lighting and chandeliers are everywhere at ABC

ABC Carpet & Home - the fabulous entrance

Furniture at ABC

Linens at ABC

This trip, I got to appreciate the superb design influence the Art Deco period had on Manhattan.  As I wandered the streets around midtown I knew that this must have been the epicentre of design in the 1930s.

Even footpath surrounds have the deco style

Ambassador Hotel - luxe!

My favourite all time building in New York - the Woolworth Building

Woolworth building foyer - it is a religious experience.  It feels like a church chapel

The fabulous exterior of the Woolworth building in downtown

Close a door another window opens...

To quote Maria from the 'Sound of Music' - when one door closes...another window opens.  I am drawn to doors and windows.  Perhaps it's something subliminal like beginnings and endings.

Perhaps, but I think it is something about framing a space that I like, a door or window sets a point of perspective.  Each of these pictures look to me like true pieces of art. 

Lovely charcoal door, black urns with florals

Mackenzie Childs Wrought Iron Gate

Chinese lantern + fretwork window

Mirrored ironwork

Moroccan curtain + white button chaise + mirror

A picture paints a million feelings...

I love beautiful art, because it is a way to express the human condition in colour and shapes.  However I think what is more impactful to me is truly beautiful photography.  Of course we all know the celeb photographers like Annie Leibowitz, Helmut Newton and Richard Avedon, but I follow photographers who really are artists in their own right.

This is how I feel about Michael Eastman.  He is a true photographic artist.  Not only does he feature my favourite colour quite a bit (green) he looks at lines of architecture and landscape and finds something moving in every shot.  His works are highly collectible and he is represented by galleries in New York, USA.

I feel with his work I'm intruding in on a very private scene - looking through a keyhole or a door into another room.  Eastman seems to relish and delight in those things that aren't accessible, that are vanishing or in decay.  Enjoy these truly inspiring works of art courtesy of Michael Eastman Images.

Cuba - Green Interior, finally found my Havana green!

Rome - River God (doesn't this feel like you're spying on someone?)

Cuba - Blue Arch

Urban landscapes - Brick reflection

Landscapes - Hillside, Montana

Vanishing America - New Orleans school

Urban Landscapes - Lobby

Vanishing America - Shotgun House, New Orleans

He photographs European architecture to Midwestern storefronts. His work is in many collections, including those of The Metropolitan Museum of Art, the International Center of Photography in New York City, The Art Institute of Chicago, and the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. Eastman has been the recipient of a National Endowment for the Arts grant and has been published in Time, The New York Times, Life, American Photographer, and Communication Arts. He lives in St. Louis, Missouri in the US.

Cuba - Flatiron, Havana

Cuba - Portrait

Show stopping popping armchairs

Red & green a perfect pairing

I'm a chick with a truly 1970s childhood, I was totally immersed in bold patterns and colours with my parents' decoration of their business and home. Lime green was big, red was another feature colour. It was nothing to put mandarin orange with lime green and chocolate with turquoise and hot pink with canary yellow. 

What I like about bold fabrics for armchairs - is that the chair assumes a 'personality' of its own.  I can't wait to get my feature chairs covered now!

Michelle Nussbauer - beautiful green pagoda chair

The Eponymous Squint Design - a cavalcade of colours

The Waterloo Armchair

Orange Imperial Trellis cushions, turquoise mirror & beige couch. 

Turquoise pagoda covered love seat

Light chartreuse green walls with candy red stripes and jacquard prints

Washing your cares away

The spray of water, the fresh soap clean smell and the cold crisp feeling of tiles underfoot.  I really need to upgrade my bathroom - right away!

Old factory windows as a shower screen.  Source: Remodelista

Love the worn mirrors!

Marble & glass the layered shower bath wet room

Mirrored bathroom furniure - J'adore!!!

The bath angle of the same bathroom

Amanda Nisbet bathroom with Manuel Canovas wallpaper

Zinc tub

Another angle - lovely.