Friday Favorites

1. Kokako — an old post office turned café.
2. Fabio Ongarato's brand identity for the QT resort and hotel in Port Douglas.
3. This Erin Considine necklace.
4. Caroline Gomez's woodwork.
5. Making modern art from custom rubber stamps on Emmadime.
6. The Balance lamp by Studio Mieke Meijer.
7. A typographic ode to the Constructivism movement by Polina Joffe.
8. Brian's stellar new website launch.
9. Daughter's cover of Daft Punk's Get Lucky.

Have a great weekend!

Scenes from the Central Coast

Some highlights from a jaunt up north last week for a photo shoot along the central coast of California — one of my favorite places to slip away to. There's just something so serene about driving along Highway 1 as it traces the coastline. Friday was spent location scouting from San Francisco to Carmel, pulling over and snapping away on my phone. I'm convinced you can't take a bad photo in this part of town; the landscape makes it so easy...

—Images: Jessica Comingore

Plümo

I was recently introduced to Plümo and the traveler in me immediately fell in love. The brand evokes this great feeling of discovery with products that manage to feel both beautifully designed and thoughtfully thrifted — a combination I'm always looking to emulate in my own life.

The kind folks at Plümo asked me to narrow down my top three picks from their summer collection on their blog this week {no easy feat} and I've included a couple more here too. Lucky for you guys, they've also extended a 15% discount on all SS13 items for the next four weeks, using code JESSICA. Happy shopping, friends!





1. Mija Shirt / 2. Savannah Necklace / 3. Yellow Amphora / 4. Tippi Sunglasses / 5. Elwin Bag / 6. Camille Flats / 7. Etoile Silk Wrap / 8. Nadette Purse / 9. Kiki Shorts

What's Cookin' » Berry Almond Yogurt Cake

The lovely ladies at Rue were kind enough to ask me to share a recipe for their In The Kitchen column last week, and I thought I'd post the recipe here as well to add to the What's Cookin' archives. This Berry Almond Yogurt Cake is an easy treat to throw together while fruits are in abundance this spring, and equally delicious for both breakfast or dessert. My favorite part about this recipe is its versatility, as it can be made with most anything on top — peaches, strawberries, blackberries, you name it. Just make sure you use a preserve that is complimentary in flavor.

A big thanks to Rue for having me on board! You can click here to peruse the rest of their mouth-watering recipes...

Serving Size: 8

Ingredients
1/2 cup almond meal
1 cup flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
Pinch of salt
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup plain yogurt
3 eggs
1/2 teaspoon almond extract
1/2 cup canola oil
1/2 cup fresh raspberry preserves
1 cup fresh blueberries
1 cup fresh raspberries

Directions
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Butter a 9-inch cake pan and set aside. In a medium bowl, combine the almond meal, flour, baking powder, and salt, and set aside. Place the sugar in the bowl of an electric mixer and combine with the yogurt, eggs, and almond extract. Stir in the dry ingredients, and then add the canola oil. Stir until incorporated and pour the batter into the prepared pan.

Bake until the cake is golden and slightly pulling away from the sides of the pan, about 25 minutes. Cool 10 minutes in the pan before unmolding. Melt the preserves in a saucepan until spreadable, and spread on top of the cake. Rinse berries and pat dry. Arrange on top of preserves in any pattern you’d like. Let cool, and enjoy!

—Images: Jessica Comingore

Mixtape Monday No.77

♫ LISTEN: 8 Tracks | Spotify

1. Phosphorescent | Sun, Arise!
2. Caveman | In The City
3. Leonard Cohen | Dance Me To The End Of Love
4. Devendra Banhart | Daniel
5. Jonathan Wilson | Canyon In The Rain
6. Kurt Vile | Too Hard
7. Beach House | Heart of Chambers
8. The Shins | Weird Divide
9. Beirut | Venice
10. Real Estate | Motorbikes
11. No Bold Villain | Timber Timbre

—Image: Benedict Brink

Margaret Howell

Margaret Howell: forever speaking to my desire to be British, live in a seaside New England cabin, and open my closet to a collection of perfectly designed classics. Her most recent collection is certainly no exception...

Whenever I'm at a loss for inspiration, I find myself thumbing through this profile on Margaret in T Magazine. Design that doesn't date — a true feat.

—Images: Margaret Howell

(On The Road) Favorite » Spartan

En route home from this year's SXSW, our lovely contributor Cara stopped by Spartan, a store we've long admired from afar. From the same folks behind Portland-based Beam & Anchor, and Bay Area Voyager, Spartan is stocked with items that celebrate the beauty of craft.

Best For: Treating yourself to a little special something.
Hightlights: Billy Kirk's line of indestructible leather totes and wallets.
Recommendation: One-of-a-kind handmade jewelry by Takara Noon.
Visit: 215 South Lamar
Austin, TX 78704

—Images: Cara Robbins

Scenes from Mexico

Spending the day editing photos, listening to Mississippi John Hurt and reminiscing about last week's scenery. The folks in San José del Cabo are livin' the good life. Traveling really has a way of putting things in perspective, huh? Trying to let that feeling simmer this week before falling back into the daily grind...

—Images: Jessica Comingore

Recent Work » Project Bly

So, so excited to be able to announce the launch of Bly today — a project I've had the opportunity to work on since it's beginning stages almost a year ago {remember those trips to San Francisco?}. With a simple motto of, "Travel Far. Live Well." Bly is a website dedicated to marrying travel with design where you can shop a beautifully curated collection of objects, textiles, art and jewelry from the world's most far-reaching bazaars. From Bombay to Bukhara, and everywhere in between, Bly will highlight a new destination every few months, sharing not only it's product, but also the food, faces and fashion of its bustling streets.

Today marks the launch of the first collection, taking us to India's capital, Mumbai. I photographed and styled the look book for this collection, and teamed up with the lovely Caitlin for the third collection, which will be launching in July. A selection of shots can be seen above, but I encourage you to take some time to wander through the website and virtually travel across the globe. For the next 48 hours, you can get 10% off anything on the site using code: BLYANDJESS {I've got my eye on these brass measuring cups}.

Lucky for me, I had a chance to ask a few burning questions to Rena Thiagarajan, the founder and Adventurer in Chief of Bly about what inspired her to start this brilliant venture and why she prefers to travel light...

Create + Cultivate Workshop

For all of you Los Angeles-based readers, I'm excited to announce that I'll be a part of this year's Create + Cultivate event taking place on May 18th at The Standard in Downtown Los Angeles. Create + Cultivate is an ongoing creative event series hosted by (NO SUBJECT). The event has been held previously at the Ace Hotel in Palm Springs and Ruschmeyer's in Montauk, and its goal is, "to bring together an amazing group of creatives, learn a few things, enjoy a few cocktails and get our hands a little dirty."

I'll be hosting the first workshop of the day on Inspiration: Where To Get It & How To Use It. The workshop will explore where to find inspiration as a designer in the current creative landscape. How to organize it, what tools to use and how to apply it to a project. I'll be sharing my tips on how to stay inspired and not overwhelmed by finding your creative voice and defining your style.

If you're interested in hopping on board, the folks at (NO SUBJECT) were kind enough to extend a presale discount of $25 off to readers using promo code COMINGORE. Tickets can be purchased here! Looking forward to meeting some new faces, sharing some tips and spending the day with some talented Angelenos. Come join me!