Down in Hayes Valley

I've been back from the Bay Area for a few days now.  It was one crazy, fully packed trip!  I saw so many good friends and family members.  Alameda, California is a second home to me and if I didn't love Portland so much I might move there.

I had a great time visiting a part of San Francisco with which I was until recently unfamiliar: Hayes Valley.  It's the kind of place where I couldn't afford most of anything that my friend and I saw in the stores, but I'm going to mention them all because we had fun and got a lot of good ideas.  I'm still searching for the perfect bedspread, and we stopped in Reliquary to see a quilt I had looked at on my last trip.  If you follow the link, you can see many of their colorful quilts on a shelf.  Alas, it was too small but at least I have another reason not to spend money I don't have on it.  We paid another visit to Lotus Bleu to see their rugs and textiles again.  It's such a beautiful store, the kind of place I tell myself I'll come back to when I have the money.  One of my favorite places that day was Nancy Boy  , a store with vintage furnishings and their own line of bath products.  The guy that worked there was super nice.  One of the reasons I decided to blog about the place is that he told us that they get business through word of mouth, so I wanted to make sure I did my bit.  He also recommended that we try mixing tea with "cawfee" sometime for a surprisingly refreshing and delicious beverage.  I haven't tried it yet but I will, though for now all I have at home is herbal tea and instant decaf so I don't think it'll be as good as promised.

Ah, San Francisco

I'm attending a convention here in the Bay Area, and it happens to be in the Design District of San Francisco.  It's not an interior design convention, but the Alternative Press Expo or A.P.E.  I'm getting inspired by a lot of creativity here.  I'm lucky because I parked in an area where there are some great stores, such as Roche Bobois, a European furniture place.  These are some very high end shops!  My tastes aren't really expensive (as you can probably tell from the pictures you've seen so far) but I can appreciate good quality when I see it.

I'm looking for a really great bedspread I saw in a book called Paris Style vol. II, it was in the bedroom of Christian Louboutin.  I can't find a picture of it at all on the net, so here's a photo of a chair in his living room to give you an idea of his aesthetic.  He's the shoe designer, in case you don't know who I'm talking about.

The bedspread doesn't really look like this, but it's very bold and colorful and exotic.  I think I stand a chance of finding something to fit what I'm after here in the Bay Area, don't you think so?