 | Small bisque porcelain coral spoons ($134 each) and porcelain shell ($154) by Ted Muehling. Alabaster tray ($115). All available at Grange Hall. Cranberry sauce by Andrew Ormsby catering. |
The Gift Guide
Picking the perfect holiday present is a fine art. Allow our editors to guide your search with some of their favorite ideas.
Peace on Earth
The holidays need not be capitalism gone wild. Here are some simple gifts for you or someone you love.
 | Doves are a gentle offering. The white variety of Ringneck Doves are $29.99 each. But buy two – they need to be in pairs because they form permanent mates. Backtalk Birds Center. 14560 Midway Rd. 972-960-2473. An olive branch is a sign of peace. Olive trees come in all sizes, but they are enchanting in terra cotta pots. Texas Olive Co. 6907 Old Preston Place. 214-325-5787. Seedlings priced at $10, mature trees, up to $600. This beautiful piece of linen is called Meditation is a way to clear the mind. Lama Dudjom Dorjee is the resident lama at Karma Thegsum Choling, a meditation center in Oak Cliff. You can learn, study, and practice there. Visit www.ktcdallas.org. |
On a rare occasion, a room is created with peace in mind. The Rothko Chapel in Houston is one such place. Visit www.rothkochapel.org to read about its history. It is worth the trip. You are worth the trip!
______________________________________
The Good Word
Give them, receive them. Editor David Feld’s favorite decorating and fashion books.
 |
Chanel (the Metropolitan Museum of Art Publications) by Harold Koda and Andrew Bolton. Yale University Press, ($39.95, www.amazon.com). If fashion deity Coco Chanel read every book written on her, she would still be alive, reading. But this one is worth the money. Produced for the Metropolitan’s exhibition “Chanel,” which ran in summer 2005, it is outstanding.
Home is Where the Heart Is by Ilse Crawford. Rizzoli, ($35, www.amazon.com). Bound in crimson satin fabric, the book at first put me off. It’s organized into sections that “mirror our needs as human beings” – Survival, Protection, Love, Respect, Self, and Detail. It is a wonderful albeit unorthodox approach to home design books, with lyric photographs.
Jacques Garcia: Decorating in the French Style by Franck Ferrand. Flammarion, ($75, www.amazon.com). A lavish book on one of the greatest living decorators, but Jacques Garcia’s work can’t be stylistically categorized. Perhaps the only thing his diverse projects share is that they all look distinctly French.
Sotheby’s Collection du Baron de Rede, Provenant de LH´tel Lambert, Paris Mercredi 16 & 17 Mars 2005. Norton, ($295, www.goantiques.com). This is the polar opposite of Crawford’s book, and more correctly, the Sotheby’s catalogues from the sale of the late Alexis De Rede’s property. The Baron De Red was the last of a type, and this book is a visual biography told through personal things such as letters, invitations, and personal objects.
Frances Elkins: Interior Design by Stephen Salny. Norton, ($65, www.amazon.com). Frances Elkins was the precursor to what we now consider modern decorating. Pair it with The Country Houses of David Adler, also by Salny, as Elkins and Adler were siblings.
______________________________________
Boys In Toyland
High tech doesn’t have to mean low style. Give gifts with a dash of panache, like these cool gadgets.
| Enjoy some close encounters of the sonic kind with JBL’s alien-inspired Encounter 2.1 computer speaker system ($129.99). Best Buy. 9378 N. Central Expwy., multiple locations. 214-696-2089. Make a joyful noise this holiday with Apple’s impossibly thin iPod Nano ($199 to $249). Boasting a crisp color display and a travel weight of only 1.5 ounces, this sexy black beauty can hold up to 1,000 of your favorite songs. Apple Store. 3101 Knox St. 214-520-8532. Created in 1962, Brionvega’s sturdy yet elegant Doney portable television ($850) is the epitome of old-school charm delivered with Italian flair. Bravo! The Conran Shop. www.conran.com. Designer David Turpin’s FM radio ($24) is cleverly shaped like a medicine |  |
Dallas Rocks! Ease Into It “Didn’t Cha Know” “The City Sleeps” | Rev it Up “Since U Been Gone” (Jason Nevins Rock da Club Edit) “This is What I Do” | Wind it Down “Air of December” Edie Brickell & New Bohemians “Come Away with Me” “Godspeed | And Keep it Simmering
All music available from |
______________________________________
White Christmas
Like snowflakes, each of these white objects is uniquely textured, made from bone, porcelain, china, ceramic, and wood.
 | From left to right: Ceramic bottles, $29 to $35, Natuzzi; cylinder vases by Rina Mendardi, $295 to $390, SMINK Modern Living; large 18th century Blanc de Chine vase, $1,156, Ceylon et Cie; Arcade/Avec Italian wool throw, $1,145, SMINK Modern Living; long neck opal cased glass vase, $155, Ceylon et Cie; Murano glass decanter, $950, Jan Showers & Assoc.; bisque owl from Nymphenberg, $1,300, Grange Hall; bone lobster, $1,100, Ceylon et Cie; small Murano glass ashtray, cup, and matchstick holder, (not shown) $925, Jan Showers & Assoc.; 19th century Blanc de Chine figure, $669, Ceylon et Cie; artichoke on pedestal, $68, and filigree compote, $98, Anthropologie. |
