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Happy Friday everyone. The weather is wonderful here in Santa Monica, sunny with a cool breeze not too hot, no too cold and pretty much the perfect day for ice cream. A new ice cream shop recently opened in the Brentwood Market. It is called Sweet Rose Creamery and let me tell you it is absolutely amazing! The ice cream is made with organic and top quality ingredients and you can really tell when you taste it. It isn’t too cold and doesn’t melt too fast, I think it may just be the best ice cream I have ever had. The store itself is adorable and has a retro feel with modern touches.

“At Sweet Rose Creamery we make small batches of homemade ice cream using only the best ingredients. We use organic milk and cream from Clover, organic eggs and sugar and we never use any stabilizers or ice cream bases. We believe that quality ingredients and thoughtful preparation leads to delicious ice cream. We also make all of our toppings, cones, sauces and ice cream sandwiches from scratch daily.”

I have been there twice now both times amazing. The buzz flavor they have is salted caramel with rock sea salt on top, delicious. I had that with a scoop of  peanut butter and chocolate chunk the first time in a fresh made waffle cone. This time I tried a scoop of strawberry and a scoop of banana, both rich and creamy and you can taste the real fruit inside. My brother got a double scoop of the salted caramel and then an additional scoop of hoji tea, which is similar to green tea in taste. I highly recommend all of them.

I am not usually a fan of West Elm, but after seeing their new fall collection debuted on one of my favorite blogs, poppytalk. I just had to showcase here, the designs are great and I love that they are partnering with design colleges like Pratt and Parsons. Doing that is such a smart idea and will really elevate their brand to a new level.

West Elm has launched their new Fall 2010 product line showing off their new direction along with their collaboration with Mike Miller and, PRATT Design School. Click here to see what’s new. All new items will be available August 10, 2010.

Anybody who knows me definitely knows that I love cookies! They are my favorite dessert every, I will take a cookie over anything else anytime. Also if you know me you know I have zero willpower when it comes to sweets…especially cookies! So I am always on the look out to make recipes that are a little healthier.  Here is a new recipe, for healthy oatmeal chocolate chip cookies, adapted from health magazine. Enjoy.

6 Tbs unsalted butter
3/4 cup light brown sugar, packed
1 1/2 cups old fashioned oatmeal
1/3 cup all-purpose flour
1/3 cup whole wheat flour
3/4 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 large egg, lightly beaten
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 cup finely chopped pitted dates (I didn’t have any dates, so I left this out)
3 ounces dark chocolate, chopped (I used a little more than 3 oz)

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Lightly grease baking sheets (or line w/ parchment or silpats).
2. Place butter in a medium, microwave-safe bowl. Melt in microwave, just until completely melted. Remove from microwave and add brown sugar. Stir until smooth.
3. In a medium bowl, whisk together oats, flours, baking soda & salt.  Stir into butter sugar mixture along with egg, vanilla and dates. Fold in chopped chocolate and mix well.
4. Drop Tablespoonfuls of the cookie dough onto prepared baking sheets. Bake for about 12 minutes, or until they appear to be set and not gooey in the middles.

Yield: About 30 cookies

Nutrition Facts (Mine vary slightly since the dates were omitted)
Serving size: 1 cookie
Amount Per Serving
Calories: 99.35
Calories From Fat (32%): 31.37
Total Fat 3.64g
Saturated Fat 2.07g
Cholesterol 13.16mg
Sodium 75.71mg
Potassium 82.09mg
Carbohydrates 16.37g
Dietary Fiber 1.24g
Sugar 9.15g
Net Carbohydrates 15.13g
Protein 1.47g

I think I am going through a little apartment envy right now. I love my new place, but I really love these places. Looking at these images just make you happy and you can start to imagine the people that live in these spaces and what they would be like. Most of these images are a from apartment therapy, desire to inspire, and fffound. Enjoy, cheers.

Love the pop of orange color, and somewhat tacky wallpaper that works so perfectly here.

That chair is so cool, and I like that everything is very vintage inspired but still looks modern. And the birdcage is great.

Those lights are great and adds such a cool detail to the space.

I have been eying that Eames rocker for quite some time now, and that shag rug is identical mine which confirms that it would look great in my house.

Same space at a different angle, love that green wall, with a fireplace.

Very fancy and grand, the ants make it so fun, and those windows are to die for.

The pops of pink and that weird mannequin on the hutch really makes me like this space, and keeps me wondering what the rest of the house looks like.

This is really fun, having doodles on any wall makes a place much more charming and quirky.

A space done by Jonathon Adler…stunning.

I really like black and white art, and think that it sets a certain mood and tone like no other kind of art can do. These are some of my latest

I like this image and its so somber and kinda of sad.
Via Apphotnum

I like the dog in this, makes it very quirky.
Via Bright Wood Studios

Very European and romatic
Via Travel 67

This reminds of the movie City of God, which is one of my favorites.
Via Electric Edge

This is really funny…
Via Haw-Lin

Fun and bright packaging will definitely catch your eye, and put your product in the eye of the consumer, that seems to be a given. I recently read an article called The Tyranny of Best Practices by Joshua Handy from Method products. I think these are some products that break the best practices rules which is why their sales are amazing and they get people talking which only adds to your brand’s credibility.

An absolutely adorable range by Finland based Hasan & Partners. I would buy this bread just because the packaging is so much fin.

These Norwegian Baking mixes are fresh, colorful new packaging for Strangeland Molle by Camilla Rosenlund and Norweigan design agency,Proconta.

A new line of fruit smoothies for Swell by the Ruiz Company in Barcelona.

Illustrator Nicola Meiring recently did some prototype packaging for Bonaqua, for 3 variants of 100% natural juices.

Neat packaging designs featuring illustrations by UK artist Ben Javens for 8th Continent Soy Milk.

From Plastac, a new line of soaps for “la compagnie de provence” located in Marseille France. One colour per perfume, once opened you can make an origami with the paper, instructions are inside.