Two By Two: Welcome The Love List And MA Belle

I am overwhelmed (in a good way) by the talent of other bloggers, and could spend the rest of my days reading and looking at their prodigious output of work. Each one has a unique point of view, even though we are all riffing on the same life style topics. That we share a love for beauty, high style, a good time, and life makes it uplifting, in fact a real blessing, to read these blogs with morning coffee, or in a stolen moment at the office.

Today I am adding two more of these blogs to the roll: The Love List...
...and MA Belle.The Love list is a very good looking blog done by Jessica, a graphic designer, and a lover of many beautiful things she shares with us her gentle readers. Lately she's been presenting the homes of us readers in a clever presentation called the Blogger's Home Tour. This past Summer she called for entries from anyone out there wanting to give a tour of their home, and she has gotten some really cute places to share with us.
Today, she presented Michelle's Manhattan apartment. Michelle writes the blog MA Belle, and owns a business called Rubie Green. Rubie Green sells beautiful organic fabrics that use an eco friendly printing technique. This headboard sports Rubie Green fabric, and it is just beautiful, don't you think?
Of course I particularly loved this Blogger's Home Tour entry, as it reminds me of my last apartment at 129 West 15th Street, in a neighborhood I call the Chillage (now called that by everybody - including neighbors Susan Sarandon and Tim Robbins - on the block!), because it borders Chelsea and The Village. I lived on the ground floor that had a tremendous back garden. Before I got studio space for my business in the flower district, I used 129 West 15th Street as my office, work space, and home (so I know about using compact spaces to great effect). The upstairs apartment became available, and I turned my friend Kate Edmonds onto it. She was starting her event planning company then, and she used her new place upstairs as her office. We were quite the little creative brownstone humming with people coming and going. When I moved on, Kate took my downstairs apartment too, gaining the garden, and a bedroom and playroom for her son.
Michelle has done wonders with her small New York apartment, and you can read her complete description of HERE. It's very feminine, and very New York. I could move right in and be happy there for the rest of my days. I love her homage to Audrey Hepburn who played the quintessential New York girl Holly Golighty in Breakfast At Tiffanys.
Come on into her home! New York apartments often have narrow hallways like this, and Michelle has turned hers into gallery space.
This is her living room, and she gets the proportion of the furniture perfectly. I would like to ask her where she got the I Heart NY poster, because I sure would like one for my home in New Orleans.
There's always alot of discussion among us about book storage, and this seems to be the easiest solution: That you make the books the furniture! In this adaptation it's a tall column with a bird perched on top. I love the skirted table she uses as a desk, another New Yorker's trick to gain a little hidden storage space underneath. The curvy lamp is very pretty too.
Michelle recently won third prize in a decor contest! The Jonathan Adler Happy Chic Home Contest! I think that third prize is pretty amazing, considering how many entries there were. She won this autographed copy of his book.Here's Michelle's bedroom with that fabulous headboard she sells at Rubie Green! It's great to see it in an actual room setting. The bookshelf is cleverly used in this tight space, as a night stand with a reading lamp.
Michelle longs for the day when she can have a real kitchen and a walk in closet, but in the meantime she makes every inch of her precious space beautiful and useful, and lovely to visit.
I love the way she drapes necklaces on the bust, and on doorknobs. Whether you have a small or large place this is such a charming way to "store" your jewelry.
Hope you enjoyed this little piece of New York, and please do go to The Love List and MA Belle.