Rima Suqi

At John Derian, no less. See? You can afford stuff there.

PS the image was drawn by a kid named Hugo.

…and most of you probably don’t care. But in my house this was a big day, because my mom and grandmother are both named – you guessed it – Lucia. My grandmother would occasionally belt out a round or two of the Santa Lucia song, whether it was “her” day or not.

Anyway, today I give a shout out to one of my Lucias, and fondly remember the other (who, true to that photo, wore a hat and gloves every single day).

Forgive the crappy scans….

The more you write about stuff, the less stuff you want. I want for almost nothing, but damn, I’d love a set of these Seven Deadly Sins tumblers, designed by Stefan Sagmeister. He also did seven heavenly virtues but I personally prefer sins, and judging from the last line of the Lobmeyr release, I think they do as well:  “Can the pleasant surprise of a pair of beautiful breasts at the bottom of your glass start a discussion about Good and Evil at the dinner table? Cheers to that.”

They’re $2,415 for the set at TableArt in LA (or $305 each at Barneys). Check them out here.

When you’re in the business of writing about “stuff,” looking through gift guides is a different experience. There are few surprises, but when there are some, they’re pretty good. Paging through New York Mag’s guide I zeroed in on color coated loafer pennies credited to Allen Edmonds (but sadly not sold on their site).

Why would I even care?

A couple years ago I was obsessed with finding the perfect pair of loafers. I ordered and returned probably 5 or 6 pairs before stumbling on the Mark McNairy for Bass perfect loafer – in navy no less — in the men’s department at Jeffrey. Yes, I bought men’s shoes. It was not the first time, but it was/is the first time I’ve had to worry that two of my best guy friends might show up to dinner wearing the same shoes.

These coated pennies will now be my point of difference. Turns out Cool Hunting did something on them a couple months ago. They’re by a Minneapolis based company named Benjo’s, that became known for making colored laces for boots. They come in a bunch of colors and are $16/pair. The irony is not lost on me.

Buy them here.

All you people who make fun of me for still having a Blackberry – let’s discuss how long it took for me to recharge that sucker  (1/2 the time of your iphone) and how long the battery lasted afterwards (a couple days). End of discussion.

You’ve probably seen the billboards all around town. Target is doing more designer collaborations for holiday gift giving. They launch December 1, and include some good and not expensive home things. Well, they look good in the photos. In person can often be a different story. Here are a few I liked from (mostly) jewelry people.

A letter opener by Eddie Borgo –

A box by Philip Crangi –

And a cocktail set from Rag and Bone:

Please note that if anyone is actually shopping for me, ignore these items and instead consider  this bracelet from Eddie Borgo, this bracelet from Philip Crangi and these boots from Rag and Bone.

I was going through a plethora of emails for holiday gift guide merch, when I ran across one from the Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago. Scroll, scroll, blah, blah and then this:

WHAT? SERIOUSLY?  A coloring book featuring images of Bill Murray. Yes, THAT Bill Murray. I mean, what could be more perfect?

Who are these people who commissioned artists (including Nicholas Stevenson, Anneka Lange, Murray Somerville, Donald Ely, Hattie Stewart, Bridget Meyne, Tobias Hall, Tilly W, Lucy Ketchin, Mike Force, Rich Fairhead, Mary Cheung, Sean Wars, Mary-Louise Plum, Sam Morrison, Logan Fitzpatrick, Catherine Askew, Michael Kilkelly, Brooke Olsen, Chris Arrowsmith, Jonny Packham, Jaypee Murray, James Burgess, Thomas Key and Nathan Dirienzo) to create 23 illustrations of Bill Murray that can then be desecrated by anyone with a crayon?

(for the record, they’re Brits. I cannot believe that Brits – BRITS — beat us to this one).

Buy it here.

A dinner at Blue Hill at Stone Barns is, to me, a phenomenal gift. It’s also quite expensive (but trust me, worth every penny). So, you have the dinner, you’re blissfully bombed and overfed,  stumble into their store and buy decanters by Deborah Ehrlich.  They cost as much as dinner, but last longer (Water Carafe,  $285; Wine Decanter, $315, Magnum Decanter, $345):

Whenever you work on a gift guide there are many things left over that didn’t find a space. And while the NYT home section did take a stance against birds in decor – a stance I would generally support in an “I’m over it” way – for some reason I thought these items, by Whitney Smith, were worth considering. Cute things, cute pricing.

A cupcake stand, $34,

and this bird vase, $40