Dustin’s uncle bought this house recently; the interior needs significant renovation (the previous owners wanted a ‘Tuscan villa’ look and totally ruined all of the flooring, walls and woodwork), but it looks great from the outside at least. It’s huge, over 4000 sq. feet, with two stories and some great built-in features and brickwork. Also, the multi-level yard! Wow. It will take a long time to refurbish it, but I’m excited to eventually see it looking more like its original incarnation again.

I ordered some Birkenstock sandals on eBay last week. They arrived Friday; I tried them on and found they fit a little weirdly. On closer inspection, they were fake! Aarrggh.
(For comparison, picture shows real [blue] Birks on top, fakes on the bottom.)
The seller was cool about it and offered a refund, but still, sucks getting burned on eBay. Luckily I have mostly good experiences there, but the occasional issue. EBay is a mysterious beast.

I have a small obsession with this designer. She has done some furniture and housewares but specializes mainly in fabrics, clothing and bags/pouches. This is my most recent Orla acquisition; I found this on sale at Nordstrom when I was out with my mom and sister this weekend. It’s so well made and generally awesome. The material is laminated canvas (so it’s waterproof but still light and flexible) with leather on the handles/closure, lined with cotton in another cool print.

I’ll go more into my collection later, as I would like to document it and it’s getting ever larger — recently I’ve realized through selling and finding neat older pieces on eBay I’ve refined the collection to the point where I can’t bring myself to sell any more of the ones I have… hm.