There is a beauty to twitter’s ability to connect you instantaneously with people/brands that fascinate you… it’s almost magical. It’s how i “met” Jawbone, who then introduced me to Four Seasons Los Angeles… which led to chats about the Jamboxes being available to their suite guests… which has led to me curled up in a big suite bed tonight having one of my first little vacations in Beverly Hills. (Silly as it feels to be a few minutes from home!)

Now, before i get to the Jawbone Jambox service at Four Seasons Hotel Los Angeles at Beverly Hills, you first need to see the poolside unbox! Slightly out of order, i had so much fun playing with the in-room Jambox, i decided i needed to own one to bring home, and since you can buy them from the front desk, i had one sent up to the room! And being Jawbone, of course the packaging is physically, ecologically, and graphically gorgeous ~ so naturally an unbox was called for! The Jambox made quite a splash this holiday season, and it claims to be “simply the smallest, best sounding wireless speaker and speakerphone on the planet.” And while that sounds bold, it does in fact sound impressively awesome, and it’s ability to be shared with hotel guests proves just how easy it is to pair! But more on that later, for now ~ unbox! Click on to the next page…

TO PAGE 2 of "Jambox Poolside Unboxing at Four Seasons LA"! ----->

This week’s NotVentures roundup is full of travel inspiration from around the world. Do you fancy at trip to the cloud forest, Istanbul or the French alps? Find out more about each destination by clicking its individual image.

Clean vectory iconic goodness, i always have a soft spot for the work of Ryan McGinness. And his latest to launch today is an installation of Women: The Blacklight Paintings (being put up now!) and vinyl installations at the Standard New York’s Shop and Le Bain presented by Country Club. This latest project is a follow up to his Miami Art Basel show. Just received some pictures of the vinyl installations, and they make me want to run over to my vinyl cutter and cover my windows and blank walls with stickers! Fun playful imagery of women, almost abstractly tribal in their varied curviness. And of course, there are also limited edition posters and silk screened print of the Blacklight Nudie playing cards. While the Playing card print is a bit pricey for most, no worries, the actual Blacklight Nudie Cards will be released in LA in the Spring and available across all Standards. Take a peek at them on the next page!

TO PAGE 2 of "Ryan McGinness’ Women: Vinyls at StandardNY"! ----->

Since i’m missing the screening in NY tonight, surprise DVD just arrived from the lovely folks at Bentley, and i just lost about an hour totally engrossed in their factory process. Who doesn’t love Ultimate Factories on National Geographic Channel? There’s something beyond mesmerizing about the tiniest details of how these larger than life objects are made! Tomorrow’s episode focuses on how the Bentley Mulsanne is made, and takes you from the sketching, to the clay, to the wood shop, paint shop, leather shop, details of how the engine is assembled and tested, to the assembly line, customization shop, on the road and more. It really is quite incredible how much detail goes into each step, and how many facts and digits they manage to throw at you in a mere 50 minutes, and nice to see how much pride their craftsmen take in their work!

I couldn’t even figure out which parts to show you pics of… so decided to show you a sneak peek of my favorite part! The WOOD! From 3’ diameter root-balls of nearly hundred year old trees… shaved paper thin… to show some incredible marble like patterns, which are then cut and hand matched (magical stacks cut perfectly and mirrored to blend together)… before going through being fused to the panels… Anyhow! Check out the Bentley Mulsanne Ultimate Factories on National Geographic Channel tomorrow night, and take a sneak peek into it on the next page!

TO PAGE 2 of "Ultimate Factories: Bentley"! ----->

Sketches! I love when fun sketches come through the inbox ~ these are from the much anticipated Mondrian Soho that just opened in NY. Fun to see the direction the designers headed with it and where it evolved to. Morgans selected Benjamin Noriega-Ortiz, the visionary behind the re-imagined Mondrian Los Angeles, to create Mondrian Soho in collaboration with their in-house design team.

“Noriega-Ortiz’s design for the hotel draws inspiration from Jean Coucteau’s 1946 romantic French fantasy film “La Belle et la Bête.” A powdery French blue color palette unifies the hotel interior and a custom carpet adorned with a rose vine design provide entryway to the jewel-box guest rooms, whose interiors features large dramatic mirrors, 10-foot ceilings and floor-to ceiling windows. No decorative art is hung in the rooms as the views are intended to be adornment enough and set the tone and scene for the guest.”

Sounds like a dream ~ and now i keep help imagining Beauty and the Beast (yes, the old disney one) and some of this lovely designer furniture coming to life… can’t wait to see it in person, but for now, take a peek into their world on the next page!

TO PAGE 2 of "Mondrian Soho Sketches"! ----->

Our roundup of fashion’s finest from NotCouture has something for him, her and the kids. To find out more, click each image.

Beautiful minimalist posters by Mark Brooks for Santa Monica Legitimate Wear in Barcelona. My favorite is definitely the Turbulence poster above, and the Deer, Gorilla, and Giraffe aren’t exactly what you’d expect too! Mies is more takes a splattery look at the Barcelona chair… check them out on the next page!

TO PAGE 2 of "Mark Brooks for Santa Monica LW"! ----->

That - up there - became a chair. As beautiful as the Tokujin Yoshioka Moon chairs for Moroso are, its the initial water color sketches that inspired the chairs that really grab me! There is a messy simplicity i just can’t resist… anyhow, starving and really ought to get to lunch, but wanted to share this one before running out! See how the chairs turned out on the next page, as well as more watercolors!

TO PAGE 2 of "Moon: Tokujin Yoshioka for Moroso"! ----->

It’s back! I felt so free again this morning when my passport came back. There’s something about not having a passport on hand that feels like being trapped… albeit trapped in a HUGE country. On fun firsts, i finally reached the point where i had to add passport pages. One of the silly things i have been curious about since i was a kid, it now looks a bit frankensteined with completely different pages sewn and taped into the center! So, of course i had to take some pics to share the details of how it turned out! Take a peek on the next page… they even had some fun with the quotes and graphics!

TO PAGE 2 of "Adding Passport Pages"! ----->

This week’s NOTCOT.org roundup is full of fun, including a Scataolgue, Hipster Bingo and a bit of “PewPewPewPewPewPewPewPewPew”. To find out about these posts and more, click on the individual images and check out NOTCOT.org.

Swedish, String Furniture, designed by Swedish architect Nils Strinning has been “modern since 1949”. I’ve been quietly lusting after their shelving systems for years now, even tempted to carry them back from Sweden! Somehow there doesn’t seem to be a US distributor/store listed (hint hint, awesome design stores?) ~ but upon noticing some of the smaller systems available at Finnish Design Shop that ships to the US, i couldn’t help delving into all their gorgeous options… which have beautiful photos on the String site! So take a peek at the really fun shelving as it fits in to so many scenarios, colors, and lifestyles on the next page!

TO PAGE 2 of "String Furniture"! ----->

Just in from the UK ~ Justine just showed me the most adorable pictures of a baby tapir she took, and i had to share! See what she has to say below…

The Bristol Zoo just had a beautiful new baby tapir and I couldn’t resist going to meet him. I had heard about the new arrival from Zooborns and just had to see the little watermelon striped baby for myself. The Brazilian or Lowland Tapir (Tapirus terrestris) is listed as ‘Vulnerable’ on the IUCN Red List. Find out more about them at ARKive and see some of my favorite pictures (including a tapir yawn!) on the next page.

TO PAGE 2 of "Baby Tapir at Bristol Zoo"! ----->

Beautifully packaged in black and white… and a bag of all black rubber bands… which are made of recycled bicycle innertubes… from Switzerland! Awesome! I found these Plattfuss rubberbands by tät-tat and designed by Brigitta and Benedikt Martig-Imhof at Seed People’s Market. Take a peek at the packaging, the bands, and the story scroll hidden within on the next page!

TO PAGE 2 of "Plattfuss: Bike Innertube Rubberbands"! ----->

Get some getaway Friday travel inspiration from NotVentures. To find out more about each destination, click on its image.

Packaging based impulse buying at the market kind of day. But i was craving fresh cookies too… and while killing time at Mother’s down in Newport Beach… the packaging on the Eat Pastry vegan cookie dough jars sucked me right in with their playfully complex graphic label. The San Diego based line has a few flavors of cookie dough (Choc Chunk, Vegan Gluten-Free Choc Chunk, Peanut Butter Choc Chip, Chocoholic Chunk, Cinnamon Ginger Spice, and Oatmeal Raisin Choc Chip) ~ and its really the speakeasy-esque eyes peeking over what is either an open book or a mustache on the front as well as the fun fonts that lured me in first. And of course there’s the lady with the monkey on her shoulder ~ both enjoying cookies. And the mustache shaped barcode that can’t be ignored! Take a peek at the lovely packaging on the next page… cute branding continues to the Eat Pastry website as well. And i have a few cookies coming out of the oven in a few!

p.s. apparently i have a plastic screw top container thing… or they tend to have pretty packaging and yummy food within… remember Sauces N Love and Talenti Sorbetto?

TO PAGE 2 of "Eat Pastry: Cookie Dough!"! ----->