Not Your Average Wedding Invites

Leigh is making beautiful, custom wedding invitations and I am working on a way to get married again to have her design my invites. They are just the right amount of mysterious - not enough to scare Aunt Zelda, but enough to get people REALLY excited.

See more of her work here and/or email her directly with custom queries.

the Thin Line collection by Bittersweets

Behold! Bittersweets has created the slimmest, shiniest wedding band in town. The Thin Line collection lays compltely flat and is perfect for guitar-playing gentlemen far and wide.

The Thin Line collection is available in 4 widths, 3 colors of gold, and 4 finishes: choose your ring like you chose your love! A wide range of personalization is available - letters, numbers and symbols.

(Bittersweets Thin Line collection- available in store or by phone, $295-$450)

A Single Man

I have yet to see the movie but I am so impressed with the design restraint in this poster. I've been working on the new catbird candles and trying to show some design restraint myself. I find it hard. Sometimes i really like to junk things up.

Sleepy-eyed girl in a wide awake town

My grandmother was named Hannah, and until she was known as Nana Hannah, she never liked her name. This leaves me somewhat predisposed towards Hannah & Landon. Hannah Metz was won me with her bedhead, her love of kittens, and her liberal use of leopard print & lace. I too share a somewhat nervous disposition when confronted with those I've only met intergalactically, so I neglected to say hello when I saw her at the Tribeca Grand, and again crossing Bedford Avenue. After all, real life doesn't have a delete key, and the delete key is my best friend. (discovered via our intergalactic friend, East Side Bride)

Public Service Announcement

We went to Caracas for the first time last night. I dreamt about it last night, and I know what Joanie and I are having for lunch today. Get thee to Caracas immediately. I dub this the Age of the Arepa.

Design*sponge's Brooklyn Guide.

The good people of design*sponge have posted a Brooklyn Guide, (with a great drawing from Julia Rothman), featuring us and many of our friends and neighbors. 'Cause everyone should know that Brooklyn rules.

Badass Hall of Fame

Life just published 20 breathtaking, never before seen pictures of Steve McQueen for what would have been his 80th bday (today).

(Thanks Leigh)

Rob Ryan

Rob Ryan Shining Stars Card $3.95, photo from stylesightings.com, Cecil Beaton

When I saw Rob Ryan's Stars Shining card I instantly thought of a star nimbus slightly askew, and of Cecil Beaton's Miss Nancy Beaton as a Shooting Star. I'm taken with the star motif played out in this English morning rose, madcap Zuleika Dobson sort of way.

Ups and downs.

Last week was a rough week - here's hoping this week is better. Tomorrow I am getting a vernal equinox bouquet from Saipua delivered as part of my birthday present from my awesome sis. (A bouquet at the start of each season!) Things are looking up.
(Oh -also Saipua soaps here. Duh.)

Night and Day

Decanter Set $88, Water Carafe $32

Start with one, make sure to finish with the other. Take my word for it.

Hat, In Memoriam.

This hat. It has a secret. An awesome secret. See?



Can you believe it?

Mon Petit Fantome

I thoroughly enjoy both Chad's blog, and his art. Sweet with a hint of malice. Perfect for a kid's room, no? These prints of his original papercuts, (à a Rob Ryan), are only $15. I may need to buy a few for my littles as soon as this most wretched moving business is sorted out.

And doesn't this:


bring to mind these?

Wink, wink, flutter, flutter

Stephanie Simek eyelash necklace, 14k + fake eyelashes, Catbird exclusive, $140

Good morning, Mr. Sunshine. Yeah, that's me winking at you.

Bizarre bazaar

earrings from Turkmenistan, $36 (in store only)


Rony and I went to a jewelry trade show a few weeks ago and it was bonkers. The vendors had all sorts of wrong ideas when they found out our store was in Williamsburg, and we got a little panicky under the insane lights that makes everything look particularly sparkly. I loved how casually numbers and large jewels were thrown around. The man who was selling these earrings had massive rings in the shape of all your favorite spirit animals strewn casually about a littered tabletop. When we asked him the price, his answer was a rapid-fire "Seven fifty!" I was elated that they were $7.50. Right, no. Try $750, wholesale. Just scattered about like candy wrappers on the subway floor. La did da. We bought these earrings from him instead.

Not just a clever name

from Martha Stewart Weddings via Moodboard

I'm not normally the kind of girl that goes gaga for weddings, but a wedding inspired by Tim Walker is just my speed. We stock Hello! Lucky in the store, and it is no surprise that their creative director, Eunice, is the bride behind this magic.

Some things we love.

Digby Rakish Hand Necklace, $320 // Moroccan Glasses & Poufs (in store only) // Mounted Webs, $77-110 // Brass Bird Box, $19 // Scosha Thou Shall Not Talk Shit Necklace, $194

Chocolate Festival 2010

ШОКОЛАДНЫЙ ФЕСТИВАЛЬ from zoë wolkoff on Vimeo.

Joanie is running an AMAZING contest on her blog, Pheasantland, inspired by an afternoon she and her sister spent sampling Russian chocolates. Key fact: neither Joanie nor her sister read Russian, so what sort of chocolates they were an eating was sort of a mystery.

Contest details:
How would you make people hungry for this chocolate with words? We invite you to select one or more of the treats listed above and write a blurb of ingenius product copy for it. Send it in to zoewolkoff@gmail.com. If your copy is selected for the top 3 best unknown chocolate promo schpiels, we'll design and post the appropriate label along with your entry! First place receives a modest bag of imported Russian chocolates. Deadline: March 28, 2010.

Visit Pheasantland for more details!

Dogbird afternoon.

Yesterday, 1:15-1:20. Lots of animals, including a shrimp-pink cockatoo, in a short period of time.

The finest swag.

One of the great boons of our job is treats from our amazing jewelers. And, its very, very nice that treats for us generally come in the shape of jewels. For Valentine's Day, Rebekah of Flotsam & Jetsam gave all the Catbirds 2 finger rings cause we're really tough. She is the loveliest, we are the luckiest, and Joanie sent her this card as a "merci beaucoup."

Pinky rings.

Frank Sinatra / Coco Chanel / Elvis Presley
Digby & Iona Rakish Hand Necklace, $320

Not for the faint of heart. I wonder if Edgar Allen Poe would love this necklaces as much as I do. The pinky, equipped with 18k gold and diamond ring, moves just this side of menacingly. Easily one of my favorite necklaces ever.

Catbird Alphabet Ring, $88

Available in tiny sizes. Great for pinkies or first knuckles, as well as those other fingers.

I just can't get you out of my mind

Chang & Eng Bunker, Chang & Eng figurines $33

Chang & Eng, the conjoined twins who spawned the phrase Siamese twins, also collectively spawned 21 children.  They were discovered in Siam, and while on the touring circuit, they became  smitten with North Carolina, where they settled, married 2 sisters, and had many, many babies.  These little statuettes are contemporaries of the twins, and were made in India. We suggest giving one to your other half. (Available in store and on line.)

Boutique of the Week

A lovely mention, on a lovely blog. How she got the store to look EVEN girlier is a mystery beyond mysteries.

Moroccan Glasses.

We're on a real Moroccan kick as of late. Kick back and relax on a Moroccan pouf while sipping some sweet mint tea from a Moroccan glass. Or store your toothbrushes (or tooth-bri, as we call them in my house) in one of these bright glasses. They un-drearify any bathroom.

Crowning achievements

The Selby: Jessica, how did you get into doing ribbons?

Jessica Grindstaff: I needed to award myself.

We've had Grindstaff's (now 8-9-3's) award ribbons in the store from the get-go.  Such fun to see Jessica's home/curiosity cabinet up on The Selby.

Tilda Swinton as Marchesa Luisa Casati

"Nude servants, gilded in gold leaf, attended her. Bizarre wax mannequins sat as guests at her dining table, some of them even rumored to contain the ashes of past lovers. She wore live snakes as jewelery and was infamous for her evening strolls, naked beneath her furs, while parading cheetahs on diamond-studded leashes.

She was tall and thin. A thick blaze of flame-colored hair crowned her pale, almost cadaverously white face with its sensually vermilioned lips. Above all, however, the Marchesa’s large green eyes cast the strongest spell of her unique beauty. She exaggerated these further still with immense false lashes and surrounding rings of black kohl, while droplets of poisonous belladonna made them glitter like emeralds."

From Acne Paper

Do like Diane done did

Diane Keaton, age 18 & Kerry Cassill scarves, $18

Great ladies wear kerchiefs. Its a rule I learned in the early 80s via many Sound of Music viewings, and its a rule that was reinforced during my teenage years in the later part of the grunge era. I am proud to say: I love a lady in a kerchief, and I love a lady in a dress over denim. Well, sometimes on that second part. Dresses over denim live in the land of terrible, with occasional trips down the block to the country of sublime. Kerchiefs, though? All for one and one for all.