I've mentioned before my infatuation with bags, but did I admit I love shoes too? A year ago I bought these great Allen Edmonds that I absolutely adore. The natural coloring on them is what won me over. Well last week I decided it was time to retire my Nau messenger bag and get something a little smaller to carry to work everyday. I've been wanting a good quality leather satchel for years, so I took it as a sign from the gods that I had just gotten a 30% off code at Bonobos and they had the BillyKirk School boy satchel in stock. The hefty price tag and a bad review almost discouraged me from pulling the trigger, but ultimately I decided it was just too irresistible. I've only had the bag for about a week now, but I'm absolutely ecstatic about it. The quality seems superb, the leather is beautiful and soft, and it happens to match my shoes almost perfectly. I snapped the above instagram picture in the elevator the other day when I first noticed it. 

Billy Kirk School Boy Satchel $365

On the other end of the financial spectrum, right before I went to New York last week I picked up this little duffel made by a local company Springbar. They usually make heavy duty waterproof canvas tents, and this Basic Duffel is made out of the same waterproof canvas. Basic is a great word to describe it too. It's pretty much a no frills duffel, it doesn't even have a shoulder strap. The canvas is amazing though. It's a great blue/green/gray color, totally waterproof, and strong as hell. Oh, and the $17 price tag is pretty sweet too. 

Basic canvas duffel $17

I posted a while ago about the Bexar leather tote I got hooked up with. I'm still in love with the bag and grab it for my go to tote. Well if you've been on the fence, now is your chance to get your own. Bexar is having a 25% off sale on everything on their website. Good through July 5th.

Bexar

Day two of my resolution to keep the blog up to date with my day to day doings is a very late recap of the Palm Springs trip I took two months ago. It was the last weekend of Coachella and I flew into LA to meet my girlfriend for the weekend, one night of which we 
spent in Palm Springs. The majority of my time in Palm Springs was spent in two places, the Ace Hotel, and a short strip of MCM thrift stores in an obscure section of Cathedral City.

I have absolutely nothing but good things to say about the Ace Hotel. Everything there was wonderfully styled, and cleverly marketed right down to the paper card holder your room key came in.  The Palm Springs Ace Hotel is an old Howard Johnson and was much larger than I imagined it. There are at least 3 different buildings with rooms, and two separate pool areas. 

The food and drinks there were surprisingly affordable for "hotel food" and were super tasty to boot. I think we pretty much ate all of our meals there, and didn't even think twice about it. In fact it's honestly the first time I have gone to some sort of destination resort type place that I didn't feel the need to get outside the compound as soon as possible.  I could happily spend a full weekend poolside and never leave the hotel. 

Speaking of poolside, it was exactly what you would expect at a Palm Springs swimming pool party. We were fortunate to be invited to a Madewell pool party which meant free food and drinks for the day. It was a perfect afternoon of hot sun, cold cocktails and beautiful people all around. 

The next morning after a few cups of coffee and some much needed chilaquiles we set out to do some furniture shopping. We had a tip from a LA local about row of MCM stores in Cathedral City. After driving past random strip malls and building supply stores we found what we were looking for. Just off of Perez road before you get to  Palm Date Drive is a group of 4 or 5 MCM stores full of treasures. 

Hedge was one of my favorites with its combination of classic MCM and Danish alongside less traditional vintage pieces. 

Others that deserve recognition is the amazing collection of Danish furniture at JP Denmark, and the amazing yet occasionally strange Colin Fisher Studio that was like being in a museum or a famous drug lords home. 

I'm far from being an expert on Palm Springs, I'll leave that to Paul Kaplan and others, but I do have one little neighborhood I always like to drive through on my way out of town. I first discovered the Vista Las Palmas area when I was doing a video for the fiesta movement a few years ago. I still enjoy driving through it and looking at all the classic Palm Springs homes that are so similar and so different at the same time. 

So thats my trip! 

Now I want to hear what YOU love about Palm Springs, and your must do things when you are there. 

On my way to Palm Springs last week I stayed in LA for one night in a AirBnB apartment.  It was tastefully decorated, bright and cheery. Looking around though, it was obvious that there was a lot of Ikea furniture in there. A lot.  Not that I'm anti Ikea. God knows I've bought my fair share over the years. But what does one do if they are on an Ikea budget but are looking to express their individuality. Pretty Pegs is a Swedish company that makes different styles of legs so you can swap out your Ikea ones.

Anyone try these?

Have any other good sources for furniture legs for DIY projects?

I'm super excited to be heading to Cali for the weekend to spend some time with the misses. I'll be in LA tonight, and then tomorrow we're going to Palm Springs to catch some end of Coachella madness. We are staying at the Ace hotel, and looking forward to putting in some serious hours poolside, even if it's supposed to be over 100 degrees. While I'm sure I'll be too lazy to blog about the stay, I'm sure you can catch some photo action on Instagram. Follow @creede for all the action.  Speaking of photo's, I stole the fantastic one above from here.

Any advice for LA or PS? Hit me up in the comments.

When I was in Paris last month, I spent a decent amount of time in book stores browsing and looking for gifts. One thing that I stumbled upon that I probably should have picked up, but didn't is this fantastic Alexander Girard memory game made by Ammo Books. The book has a total of 72 cards featuring textile designs and illustrations by the MCM folk master himself.

New Alexander Girard Memory Game$ 12

As much as I've been trying to avoid it, I am finally back from Paris. I can confidently say that everything went off without a hitch, and it met all expectations that I had. So what did I do? Nothing. Absolutely nothing, and it was wonderful. I didn't spend the day in any famous museums, I didn't get my picture painted on the street, I didn't go on any tours of famous sites. I just enjoyed good company, amazing food and drink, and spent all day long exploring an amazing city, and I would gladly do it all again in a heartbeat.

I'm happy to report that both my new bag acquisitions worked wonderfully. The Bexar Aviator tote became the daily carry and was perfect for everything from morning trips to the boulangerie to get some baguette to daytime shopping trips or bringing home a bottle of wine late at night. The german garment bag was an equally amazing and swallowed up 10 days of clothes with room to spare. It was a bit heavy to lug around but I didn't miss the option of having wheels at all as I carried it up and down the steps while riding the metro.

While I was gone you guys did a good job taking over for me.  We had reader submitted stories on chairs, clocks, lights, and beds. All the posts got a lot of love, but the winner was Jaren of Modern Union for his amazing submission of the best looking espresso machine I've ever seen.

Cold days call for hot drinks, and when you are on the move that means you need a good travel thermos. While there are lot's of good ones for coffee drinkers, if you are wanting to steep some tea on the run the choices are a little more slim. The Noble Travel Thermos definitely wins points for looks, but it's not all looks. It has some solid functionality as well. The stainless steel infuser holds your loose tea, and the double sided glass keeps the heat in. Available in a 12 or 16 ounce size.

Noble Glass Travel Thermos $29

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I was in the Bon Marche in Paris  today, and I was surprised to find that they had a very good selection of modern furniture.  Everything from the lovely yet semi ubiquitous Eames Lounge chair to some that I had heard of but never seen before, like the Paulistano chair. There were some really good pieces too from companies I've never heard of before. The one that caught my eye the most was the Bella Desk by Hay. The picture above doesn't really do it justice. It's well designed, well built, and reasonably affordable. If memory serves me right it was just over $1,300 EURO.

Anyone else know about Hay furniture?

OK people, here's the deal. I need your help. I'm heading to Paris for 10 days, and I'm officially handing over the reigns of GRM to you while I'm out of town. Truth is, you guys are the most qualified. I have some of the best readers ever, and so much of my content comes from you guys anyway. So now I'm making it easier than ever to share, and I'm giving you all the credit. With the new website redesign, I created an easy pop down menu (follow the arrow!) for registered users to submit photos and links. It takes just a few seconds to fill out, and once submitted it goes into the cue to be posted. As soon as it gets approved, voilà, you are an official GRM blogger. I'll bring a little something back from Paris for whoever submits the best post.*

Not registered yet? No problem. Head over to the registration page, fill out some info, and you're all set.

Questions/Problems? Let us know in the comments.

*What do you get? Who knows, but it's from Paris so it will be awesome right? Who say's which post is best? I'll just count how many people "heart" the post to determine that. Once again you guys are in power.  Ties will be decided by the randomizer.

I mentioned last week my new found obsession for bags.  I've been looking for a good leather or waxed canvas tote for a while now, and I was stoked to happen upon Bexar Goods Co. They were kind enough to send me a Black Aviator Carry tote last week, and I've been putting it to good use ever since. First impressions? I was really really impressed with the quality of the workmanship and the details.  The copper rivets have got to be my favorite part of the whole bag.  They look amazing, and are super sturdy and functional. The strap is just the perfect length to slip over your shoulder and the contrast between the black bag and the tanned leather handles is really nice. Overall, I couldn't be happier, and while it's not the cheapest bag, I'm betting it's the last tote I have to buy for a very long time.

Bexar Goods Co. Aviator Carry $219

I have a 10 day trip to Paris coming up at the end of the month, and I have spent the last couple of days frantically looking for the perfect piece of luggage to take with me. This Klein 24" deluxe leather bag has absolutely stolen my heart, and while ultimately I didn't end up picking it up, I will own one someday soon.  In the meantime, you can check out some of my other favorites on Pinterest, including a number of fantastic (and affordable) Masonry bags.

So what did I end up getting? Price, size, practicality and style made the East German Garment bag (below) the best choice for me. I'll let you know how that works out.

Follow me on Pinterest

Pantone housewares (ornaments, tins, and mugs--oh my!) have been hot items for a while now, but did you know that there is an actual Pantone hotel??  For real.  It's in Belgium.  And it's full of colorful, Pantone-y goodness.  I'm not usually a "hang out in hotel lobbies" kind of person, but I might make an exception in this case.  Also, can you imagine what their gift shop is like?  Pantone heaven, most likely.  Check out more here.

LINK: www.pantonehotel.com

More pics after the jump!

Admittedly one of the biggest perks of blogging is getting invited to fantastic press events. A few weeks ago Scion was kind enough to fly myself and several other lifestyle bloggers down to Manhattan Beach to take a peek at their new car. During the whirlwind trip I found myself talking to the singer from Devo, surfing, driving the smallest car I've ever been in, and best of all, checking out some famous SoCal Case Study houses.

Read on for the whole story, and more pictures...

First off the car. Those that know me, know that I am a bit of a car nut. In fact I've been described as having car ADD, rarely keeping one for more than a year. My personal taste leans towards european sports cars, so I admit I wasn't overly enthusiastic about driving a sub 10' Scion IQ. I did get a little more excited when I learned that Aston Martin rebranded the IQ in Europe as a luxury micro compact. Branding aside the IQ was a surprisingly comfortable and solid car for the size. Even 6' 4" Tyler from Plastolux seemed pretty comfortable in it.

Scion is an interesting brand, and puts a surprisingly large amount of effort into supporting the arts, and more grassroots style advertising. For this event they had pulled together a wide swath of lifestyle bloggers, so it was interesting to get to meet other people "in the industry". I even had the chance to make be "real life" friends with some facebook friends I've had for a while, like the lovely Erin Loechner from Design For Mankind. I have a total design crush on her...

During our dinner Mark Mothersbaugh from Devo spoke to us. I'm admittedly not that big of a Devo guy, but I did recognize him as that awkward artist from Yo Gabba Gabba! Turns out her really is an incredibly accomplished musician (outside of Devo) and artist. Go figure.

Between surfing sessions, Tyler and I rented a car to search out some of the iconic Case Study houses. We didn't have appointments for the Stahl house (Case Study #22) but the son was gracious enough to let us peek through the gate. It was AMAZING! From the street, it doesn't look like anything at all, but as soon as you poke your head through the gate you get that amazing view that Shulman captured so well.

Our next stop was the Eames Case Study house #8. It's been on my bucket list for a long long time to go and check that house out, so it was incredible to be there. They are in the process of moving the majority of the interior to LACMA for an upcoming exhibit, but the place still looked amazingly intact and original. In fact if you have ever seen the classic Eames film "Lucia Chase Vignette" it looked like nothing had changed at all in 40+ years since it was filmed.

You can see my whole Eames House photo set here....

and more pictures from the Scion IQ event here.

I have absolutely no idea what I was looking for when I stumbled across these interior shots, but when I saw them I was awestruck. I especially like the stark white interior mixed in with the warm walnut table and brick accents. Located right next to the London bridge, you can rent this three bedroom apt for £2,250 a week.  Who's in?

Lot's more photo's after the jump.

Photos by Dominic French

Brotzeit. Airline food re-imagined...

We at Postlerferguson developed the “Brotzeit” design proposal that is aimed to inspire decision makers in the airline industry to rethink their approach on how to deliver and serve meals to their customers and what kinds of products are being selected.

All foods can be supplied by local specialist manufacturers to the airline and packed into the Brotzeit boxes of each passenger. Every culture has a rich “on the go” cuisine of pre-prepared dishes, fresh produce, salads, pickles, conserves or raw foods. These foods are made for travelling and we believe future airlines should take advantage of this healthy and divers food culture – it`s Brotzeit!

By London based PostlerFerguson

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I ended up on a sort of last minute whirlwind trip to Chicago over the weekend too look at some new things DIRTT and Corian are doing (more on that later). I snapped the pic above while taking a quick dip at the Hotel Palomar before dinner. The Marina City buildings are some of my favorites in Chicago. I have a whole camera full of other ones I need to get to, but I'm heading  out the door right now to check out NeoCon. I'll be updating the Grassrootsmodern Facebook page all day, make sure you check it out. I'll get around to the official recap later.

IFIrst off, thanks to everyone who offered up suggestions on places to go on my way home from ICFF.  There were so many fantastic suggestions, but unfortunately too little time. I ended up spending the better part of yesterday in Mill Run, PA looking at Kentuck Knob and Falling Water. It was absolutely incredible. I'm still digging through all of my photo's, but I'll get them uploaded next week.

This morning, I'm sitting at Hotel Indigo in Columbus, IN surrounded by all sorts of great MCM furniture. This is definitely the place for design geeks to stay, and this town is a sort of architectural goldmine. I still have over 24 hours of driving ahead of me, including the push across Kansas today, but I'm going to see as much as I can before I head out.

So in the next couple of days I'll be taking a road trip back from NYC to SLC. I figure I'll drop by Falling Water on my way, but I'm looking for any other amazing must see ideas on the way. Any suggestions?

I'm SoHo bound today.  Any suggestions of must see shops, leave them in the comments.

Photo by Anita Boldt February 1980. via