Hello to new visitors from Daily Candy…please shop our website or even better, visit us in person in Brooklyn, where we have much, much more to offer. A note for newbies: the Rare Picks truly are rare, limited or handmade just for you, so please give us some time to get your order to you!

The Brooklyn shop will be CLOSED from Thursday 3pm through the Labor Day weekend – we’ll be in California scouting out the best new designers to bring to New York (and partaking of Frog Hollow peaches, Blue Bottle coffee and ice cream sandwiches from Citizen Cake). We’ll be a little bleary-eyed but back to business as usual on Wednesday the 6th at noon. See you soon!

The Camilla Engman prints are back in stock…get them while you can! If they last a week or two I will put them on the website for sale.

I have been adding things to the site to buy, at least 6 or 8 things, check it out. I will be going away next week but someone will be shipping and checking email…

The ladies of Fokus Fabrik in Finland got a nice little writeup in Wallpaper* yesterday…it’s funny, I haven’t read that magazine in years really but if you want to find out about truly international product design, there you go. Anyhow, there is a little packet in the mail of Fokus bags and skirts and I’m really excited to get them. I am investigating having handbound journals covered in their fabric as well.

That’s it for today – in between everything else I am reading about melancholy as I like to do on sunny August days

An emerging designer co-op in Atlanta, Beehive, is launching a new concept this fall – a franchise of their store concept that is the “anti-franchise” in their own words. This could be very interesting as there are many, many people who want their own store but need a little more guidance, support, etc. Check it out here. I’m excited to see where these will pop up…

As promised, a few pictures.

Erin at Sodafine, Grand St, Wburg

Susanne from Umsteigen and mannequin friend

Myperennial pillows

On the way: more bags! Fall clothes from House of Spy. More little birdie coinpurses. Other amazing this n’ that.

Blogger seems to be killing my browser whenever I try and post pictures, so we’ll just have to do with our imaginations today.

- Lots and lots of Karin Eriksson ceramics, including some new big vases and some bigger, noodle-sized bowls. Beautiful as usual.

- New tops and dresses from Umsteigen, printed and sewn entirely in Manhattan. Susanne makes new patterns, shapes and color combos every 8 weeks so you are guaranteed a limited-edition piece.

- Fun pillows in colored canvas by My Perennial, I am getting some mod graphic designs soon but these are great big hand-drawn folk-art monograms that Jen silkscreens in black or white onto 16″ pillows. Fun for a kids room or maybe as a wedding present.

I broke down and put some fall clothing out…come by and check it out first!

PRESS: Thanks to design*sponge for featuring our new vases by Andrew DeWitt and LightenUp! Designs. Also, Tonfisk tells me their tea lantern set has been chosen by Wallpaper* for a ‘Designs of the Decade’ article that will be out soon. Big congrats to them! We’ll have to get that set up on Rare Picks, I’m not sure why we haven’t already!

HOLIDAY SCHEDULE: We’ll be closed Labor Day weekend (Friday through Sunday) so please plan your visits accordingly. I’ll be in Northern California eating at old favorite places (Minako Sushi) and new (Canteen) plus visiting designers and stores. If you know of any new boutiques I should visit, let me know!