A sunny Saturday at the Desert Star hotel, Palm Springs

My dear friend and I celebrated milestone birthday this winter with a fun long weekend in Palm Springs. But why Palm Springs? Let me count the ways….
1. Sun, sun and more sun—354 days of sunshine each year.
2. The airport is 2-3 miles from hotels, which means I didn’t have to give up my chauffeur taxi habit.
3. Elizabeth Taylor, Liberace, Eisenhower, Suzanne Somers, Trina Turk. All fabulous people go here.
4. Modernism galore: Neutra, Cody, Frey Lautner. Plus all that vintage shopping.
5. The hotels! Oh, the hotels! The Parker, The Ace, and our casa, The Desert Star.

Not a single guest at Desert Star didn’t daydream about installing a deadbolt in their bungalow and moving in for good. The rooms were outfitted with Case Study-style furniture and iPod docks and fuzzy robes and cutting boards and decent knives and blenders (blenders!). All of which meant it wasn’t at all challenging to slip into a bikini, pour a cocktail (with garnish!) and don the fuzzy robe to the pool (see pic).

We were told of the wonders of the San Jacinto trails and glory of Joshua Tree and about that “great vintage shop down the road where everything’s just your size,” but we are cold-climate dwellers and so we did this. Every day. For hours. Until the sun dipped past the mountains and were forced to find solid food (Cheeky’s, El Mirasol highly recommended). I’ll return to Palm Springs and I’ll hit that vintage shop and I’ll see those mountains, but probably only if it’s raining.

At the DCOTA: 1stdibs.com founder Michael Bruno, decorator and retailer Phoebe Howard, moderator moi, designer-bloggers Brad Ford and Brian Patrick Flynn and Pamela Jaccarino of Luxe magazine. Image by Tom Grizzle.

But we’re so much more that that! Here’s a snapshot of the Evolution of Design panel presented by The Editor at Large at the DCOTA in sunny Dania Beach, Florida, last week. Missed it? Good news—we’re bringing the Revolution of Design to the PDC in LA this spring and Michael, Brad and Bryan are coming with!

Portugese toys at Kiosk photographed by Michael Falco for The Globe and Mail
If you’re expected a holiday present from me, it’s likely namedropped in here, my story about holiday shopping in NYC, which published this weekend in the Globe and Mail. And no, you’re not getting the Taytu tie-dyed handbag. (That’s what I want for myself; Santa, take note!) Read it here and here.

Madame X dons the original little black dress (with regards to Mr. Sargent)
This month for Manhattan magazine I asked designers to name the LBD’s of design. Read what they came up with on pages Pages 42-43 here.

Custom molds, Frederick P. Victoria & Son, L.I. City

Handsome father-son duo Tony and Freddy Victoria whirled me around their studio. A highlight: boxes of beautiful embellishments that add j ne sais quoi to French furniture. Also, lounging in a Louis XV voyeuse, which has a little shelf for resting your arm.

Editor TV interviews Metropolitan Home Editor-in-Chief Donna Warner

What’s more fun than attending a party? Working a party! Just ask Joyce Wadler, the NYT scribe whose defunct Boldfaces Names column was recently resurrected in the Home section as Seen. (Yes, the interior-design crowd revels so frequently it deserves its own gossip column.) What’s more fun than Seen? Editor TV, of course! Since hooking up with The Editor at Large, I’ve been hitting fine fetes around town—film crew in tow! Donna Warner, EIC of Metropolitan Home was one of Editor TV’s first interviews, and she’s not the only one to be put on the spot. Boldface designers from Christopher Coleman to Thom Filicia to Amy Lau to John Saladino are among our conquests. Next up: the grand opening of the new Buck House.

Photo by Michael Falco for the Globe and Mail

Check out my musings on Red Hook (which neighbors my neighborhood). Home to quiet bike-ride-able streets, killer street-scapes, charming shops and bars and, most importantly, creative people like my friends Amy and Matt—it’s one of my fave spots in the world.

Won’t you be mine? Colonels’ Row, Governors Island, NYC

Dear Governors Island,
You have so many empty houses and all I need is one. Could you spare a Colonial? I promise to love it dearly and rehab it thoughtfully. Love, Sophie

Four eyes, Upper East Side, NYC

Birds of a feather! An impromptu photo by a Patrick McMullan lenswoman at a party for the new Diamond Baratta book All-American prompted decorator Scott Sanders to comment on our bespectacled glory! I pulled in design editor extraordinaire Suzy Slesin whose Pointed Leaf Press published the book—and who always has irresistible specs—for the photo op with my now-famous friend Eddie Ross, his dashing partner Jaithan Kochar and Julia Noran, who just launched The Editor at Large, a fab new site I’m helping out with. Say cheese!