Cool Stuff: Eva Zeisel Vases

As far as I'm concerned, you can never have enough white vases (and if you doubt me, you should come over and take a look at our china cabinet).

So when I spotted this expanse of pristine ivory porcelain with legendary designer Eva Zeisel's trademark graceful, sensual curves, I was instantly smitten.

The Eva Upright Vases are $55 to $140 each at Vivi.

Object of Lust: Ghost Tree

I saw this white tree sculpture on the table of contents in Domino magazine awhile back, and fell hard. There was no buying information for it, though, so I sent a pleading email to the magazine asking where one could find this thing of beauty. To my amazement, one of the junior editors actually wrote back with the 411.

The tree is by Seattle artist and product designer Erich Ginder. It stands nearly six feet tall, and is constructed from rubber-coated resin. It can be used as a coat rack, though I would simply place it against a bare wall (painted an intense color for contrast) and admire it for its gorgeousness alone. The price? A mere $1,700.

Here's the thing: I'm cheap -- and more often than not, broke as well. So as much as I totally dig this, it seems to me that you could just find a nice dead tree somewhere -- or even a large dead tree branch -- nail it into a base, and spray paint the whole thing glossy white for a similar effect. (Cost: Nada, plus spray paint.) I think that's what I'll do.

If you want the real (fake) thing, though, you can find it here.

Cool Stuff: Porcelain Blooms

I spotted these gorgeous porcelain flowers at Alabaster in Hayes Valley a few months ago. In a fit of frugality, I passed them by -- and have obsessed about them ever since. They have a delicate, ethereal quality, but also a surprising weight and roughness to them. Happily, I just found them at Vivre. At $10 to $25 each, they are *so* mine.