i love the interiors portfolio photographer r. brad knipstein recently shared with me, including the home of the very talented stylist, Rosy strazzeri-Fridman. brad’s been sharing a bunch of his interior shots with me, and i’m excited that he’ll be sharing more with us from time to time! in the meantime, here’s rosy’s beautiful home ‘en blanc’. so pretty, right? brad has a blurb book out, too — so if you love his work i think it’s very much worth checking out.

the very lovely stylist, photographer and author, Pia Jane Bijkerk has been capturing my attention and imagination for years. her photographs of places like amsterdam and paris always make me long for travel, and drive me to create eclectic spaces that put me at ease, as much as they inspire. pia’s shared a few things she coveting with me, and now she’s got me wishing for them as well! i’m excited to bring you pia’s beautiful “it list”.

1. I’ve been coveting a cassandra ellis quilt for some years now. I love her choice of fabrics and her modern patterns, and I also love that she makes quilts from your own fabric collection. She runs courses on quilt making in the UK, and this October her first book, Quilt Love, will be published.

2. Armadillo & Co make the most beautiful woven rugs, each one is ethically produced and made by hand. The founders are Jodie Fried (from Bholu) and Sally Pottharst, who both have a lovely aesthetic. I love the entrance mats, bold striped runners, and I adore the flower mat, it would look so lovely on my cork kitchen floor.

3. I’ve been wanting to do a weaving course for ages – Harriet Goodall holds day workshops here in Australia, and I’m hoping to attend at least one this year. I’d love to learn about what materials I can use to make simple, loose baskets, and if I am daring enough, I’d love to try my hand at making a light shade for my office. (photograph of Harriet’s work by Chris Chen)

4. Speaking of workshops, I’ve also always wanted to do a ceramics course of sorts, creating free form vessels and small sculptures using modern and ancient techniques. I’d love to make things like bone china feathers, chimes, plant tags, bottles and tea cups. This collection by Una of House of Ceramics is so sublime. And I adore my friend Kylie Johnson’s work where she imprints her poetry into the clay – you may recognize some of her pieces in Anthropologie.  And one of my long-time favorite ceramicists is Emmanuelle Wittmann (who I featured in my book, Paris: Made by Hand) – Emmanuelle holds workshops, so next time I’m in Paris I’ll have to make sure I attend!

5. I am right into paper art at the moment, and I am smitten with this petit paper & shell sculpture by Erika Ekrem of Odelae. How sweet is this? And so creative, very clever. I’m inspired.

6. Island retreating. Yes, I love a bit of jungle living, and one such place is Langkawi, just off the east coast of Malaysia. My partner and I have been traveling there once a year for the past few years, staying mostly at the Bon Ton  which has two fabulous restaurants. I love to imagine myself living in such a place one day, surrounded by huge coconut palms, sipping iced tea in my jungle hut (dreams can come true, right?).

• photographs by Pia Jane Bijkerk.

Jennifer Causey is a wonderful brookyn-based photographer, and originally a southern girl, drawn to simple things, home cooking, and beautiful landscapes, which is evident in her photographs. Passionate about telling stories through her images, jennifer is constantly searching for beautiful light and interesting details. She can also be found documenting her daily breakfasts or taking photos of inspiring makers. she certainly inspires me.

• all photos by jennifer causey.

there’s yet another amazing home tour on the selby this month. damn, todd selby blows me away — in fact, my mighty life list includes my dream of having him shoot my home one day. i was honored last week to be included with the talented Mr. selby in the telegraph uk’s 20 best interiors blogs. our names have never been in such close proximity before, and i was elated. but back to this house. it’s a doozy. it’s the japanese home of hitoshi uchida – owner of j’antiques tokyo. eclectic, minimalist vintage-modern at its finest!

it’s been a shamefully long time since we’ve had unexpected guests, but today we’ve got a great one. i’m a big fan of our guest, laure joliet’s interior photography, and her fabulous sense of style, so i’m excited to share her 450 square foot apartment in Echo Park, Los Angeles. talk about small spaces, big style — laure’s 1920′s bungalow is all that and more. spared down and stylish, laure shares her cozy mid-century modern space with Hazelnut, her beautiful Abyssinian cat.

you can take a peek at laure’s most recent work for the new york times here and here and you can also see her shots of The Brick House in the brand new Design•sponge book! you can also check out laure’s lovely blog, at home at home, here.

Tell us a little bit about your space:

It’s a small space and I wanted a place to lounge on a couch and also a space to work (since I work from home) that could double as a dining room table for entertaining. It wasn’t easy to fit it all in. Morgan from The Brick House came over and helped me tweak.  She worked with me as a stylist on the TV show and I am a convert. she is gifted at that last 10% tweaking that makes a space come together. She convinced me to change up the floor plan (it’s laid out differently from when you sneak peeked it) and then she styled my shelves using all my same things but making it look a little nicer.  She also helped me figure out what art to hang. And when to not hang it.

What are a few of your favorite things to do in your neighborhood?

I live in Echo Park nestled right between silver lake and downtown LA.  I lived in Venice for years so coming to the east side was a switch for me, but so far I love it.  I can watch the fireworks at dodger stadium from my bedroom window. I love that Echo Park is filled with hills and little bungalows and that in the morning the fog rests in the trees and makes it all feel like magic.  I’m big on yoga (to undo the effects of shooting and then being on the computer all the time) so I love the new studio that opened up down the street: yogala echo park. We also have great coffee at Fix which can double as a great place to work if I need to get out of the house.

What are your top three online shops?

I’m not a big shopper but when I’m ready to buy I always look for simple, classic design.  Quality and longevity are key: A.P.C.; Magpie and Rye; and Muji.

What’s your favorite flea market, or secondhand find?

Does all of my grandmother’s furniture count?  I inherited a ton of my grandmother’s danish modern furniture and don’t know what I would do without it.  She took really good care of it and so now I do, too. It’s nice to have family history all around me.  Most recently I found the little slab coffee table when Morgan took me thrifting in the desert. That little guy was just $20. I’ll probably end up using him as a nightstand when I have a bigger place.

What’s your favorite possession?

I aspire to be a minimalist and not be super attached to having ‘stuff’ but I am guilty of hanging on to things for sentimental reasons. Among the things I will never be able to let go of: old family photographs, my mom’s old modeling photos and these little photo books my french grandmother made for me when I was young (it’s no wonder I’m a photographer). I have a couple of the most important images up in my hallway so that I actually live with them and not just have them shoved away in a box. Oh, and my cat. She’s a possession, right?

What five things can’t you live without?

Coffee, my phone, my camera, tomatoes, the possibility of adventure and travel.

What bores you to death?

The technical sides of things.

What’s your “go-to” specialty – a cocktail, a recipe, a certain flower arrangement?

Hands down, my vinaigrette. The secret is seasoned rice vinegar.

If you could go shopping with anyone in the world, who would it be?

Isabel Marant. She’s someone I imagine has impeccable taste and an opinion. And I demand that we have an unlimited budget and can travel to the ends of the earth to find textiles, weird leather shoes, paintings, piles of rope, great t shirts, amazing old chairs and anything with patina.

Guests are coming over — what’s on your soundtrack?

I like to keep it mellow so a combo of fleet foxes, jose gonzales, adele, feist, the shins, bon iver.  Someone just gifted me spotify for my birthday so I hope to let that choose the soundtrack ;)

• all photos courtesy of laure joliet.

i absolutely covet the interiors shot by stolkholm-based photographer amelia lönngren widell. cozy cottages that are eclectic without being cluttered or overly-fussy. even her more ornate styled shots like the one up top have me drooling — they’re just so european and cosmopolitan. i do love the scandinavian aesthetic! here’s a look at some inspiring interiors from lönngren/widell.

okay, so i am just an absolute beginner, and i don’t want to embarrass my awesome blogshop teachers bri emery and angela kohler too much, but i learned so freakin’ much at weekend’s workshop, i can hardly stand it. i just want to keep making blog posts all night & day – it was that much fun. i have been flying by the seat of my pants in photoshop – never before taken a class, and to finally know what i’m doing, is just so satisfying. i made these post layouts in blogshop class, and while nothing too crazy — i’ve never even worked in photoshop layers before this — let alone opened them up! we learned masking, layering, barreling, and then some serious retouching techniques, not to mentioned animated gifs (things could get fancy around here)!

blogshop was awesome and inspiring, and i can’t recommend it more highly. really – we had a blast, barely wanted to stop for the delicious lunch, and met some wonderfully talented classmates at teahouse studio, where the worskshop was held. blogshop is traveling the world – so if you want one in your city, let them know! i think they are working on blogshops in paris and berlin. i suggested london, baby! how does that sound?

• photo credits, top to bottom: hilda grahnat, beach chair from gallant & jones, and lucy snowe photography; elle decor, is photography, sfgirlbybay. lonny and decoratualma.

the lovely and talented photographer, miss bonnie tsang and her assistant joanne were in town this week to shoot a wedding, and suggested we share breakfast at tartine. okay, twist my arm! now mind you, i’ve seen on twitter how much this tiny girl can ingest, and it’s clear she loves her food…but lordy, this girl can eat. and i mean that in the best way possible — i love a person who’s loves good food, not to mention someone who likes to photograph their food as much as i do. i kinda wish i’d just shot these, and not eaten them, but c’est la vie!

i have never been faced with so many delicious breakfast options in my life — oh, sure let’s have one of almost everything. and in-between scrumptious bites, we’re both photographing our food like lunatics — just my kind of fun! if you never been to tartine, i suggest you hightail it there pronto. and, go with bonnie if you want to eat the best breakfast of your life.

tartine, the no name café. no sign required…just look for the daily line at the door @ 18th and Guerrero.

• all photos © sfgirlbybay.

last night i went to one of my favorite old theatres in the city, the castro, to see Bill Cunningham New York.  i was told before i went that i would be grinning from ear to ear throughout the entire film, and they did not lie. a few tears slipped in as well, as i was just so completely moved by bill cunningham, the person. the film is a documentary of the life of bill and his career as a photographer. the original sartorialist. i just had to share. have you seen it? did you just love it?

Living life simply — to the point of eccentricity — and using a bicycle to get around, 80-year-old photographer Bill Cunningham documents what people are wearing on the streets of new york and in the salons of the wealthy. Through his columns in the Sunday New York Times, “Evening Hours” and “On the Street” bill uniquely chronicles the city’s fashion trends while maintaining an almost childlike sense of joy in the process. his is a moral code we could all learn from. and whether you’re a fan of photography or not, i think it’s almost impossible and highly improbable that you won’t fall in love with this film. it’s in limited release, but soon to come to netflix.

“We all get dressed for Bill,” says Vogue editrix Anna Wintour.

• images via the sartorialist; Bill Cunningham New York.

Now. I wanted to share with you some lovely loveliness by Andrea Garuti, a photographer based in Milan whose work I only just discovered. Andrea’s work spans areas of advertising, fashion, interiors, landscapes, as well as his own personal research project of which you can see more here. It is quite clear when looking at these shots that Andrea has worked with a few super clever stylists for publications such as D casa, Elle Decor, Casa da abitare and Wallpaper*.

Not bad. Not bad at all.

Now please excuse me while I go and stick some of my furniture to ceilings, cause I desperately need to clear some floor space.

x dana

• All images courtesy of Andrea Garuti.