Daily Derian

A few months ago, I received notice through a Gilt email that Target - possibly the best store of all time - was expanding it's line of collaborations with famous designers. They do this often, and more often than not I find the offerings somewhat "meh" as my interest in home furnishings and decor steadily supplants a dwindling obsession with handbags and clothes. In late 2008, they collaborated with John Derian, a famous designer and creator of some of the most fabulous eye candy in the world. Known for his decoupage designs using carefully curated antique and vintage prints, he has a large following of fans drawn to his beautiful cakestands, paperweights, bowls, and all sorts of lovely things (check out his website - screw Disneyland, this is the happiest place on earth).

His first collaboration with Target kicked off a frenzy among girls, well, just like me. Every blog was talking about it, everyone was waiting for the goodies to hit stores, everyone was growing frustrated with Target employees who would stare at you blankly when you tried to locate the items ("He's really quite famous - you should know who he is!"). It was tough to obtain anything in store, but somehow (and by somehow I mean I had to drive to Sacramento for a set of coasters) I managed to get my paws on a few treats. With all this madness in mind and furthermore more people exposed to Derian, can you imagine what it was like a second time around this year?

For brevity's sake, allow me to create an outline of how it went when I saw the email notifying me a BRAND NEW collection would be available PRE-SALE on the Gilt site:

1. Elation! Fear! Joy! Panic!
2. Set Outlook Calendar with 5 day, 2 day, 1 day, 2 hour, 15 minute reminders. Check.
3. Perusal of financial situation. Is a savings account absolutely necessary in life? Creation of the Derian budget.
4. Should I take the morning off work? No, don't be ridiculous. Just don't work at work from 9am until however long it takes.
5. The morning arrives. Coffee consumed. At work an hour early. Waiting. Compulsively hitting Refresh starting at 8:57am. You must be fast. You must be efficient. Quick decisions or it will be gone within seconds at the hands of greedy girls who won't love it as much as you will.
6. The virtual gates open! Cakestands! Coasters! Tumblers! Trays! It's all in the cart! What? Oh god! The last card I used on the site was shut down two days ago because of fraud. System not allowing me to upload my new card. SYSTEM CRASHING! A cyber-stampede of women has taken it down! PANIC! Did my cart save? What is the customer service number - why ISN'T IT LISTED?! (People like me is why).
7. Google to the rescue. Dialing. 20 minutes with a sympathetic befuddled operator who can't help because *dun, dun, dun* it is the office network firewall more tech words not letting the page load to input new C.C. info. I SHOULD have stayed home!
8. PANIC!!! Idea: WILL! Dialing. Honey, don't ask me questions. I need you to do this for me. (I'm later told Will heard the desperation in my voice and immediately took out his credit card without a word). Success! We're in. My stuff is in the cart - the same thing happened to everyone, so no purchases have gone through, it's all still HERE! JOY!
9. Waves of relief. Heartrate returning to normal. Eruption of cheers from the small crowd of Special Events ladies that has assembled around my cube (it was just like Rocky!).
10. Fabulous stuff arrives. All is there. But something's not quite right ... they've accidentally given me three sets of extra coasters that I didn't actually purchase. SCORE.

Later, I also picked up more stuff in-store and on the Target website itself. I know, I have a problem. But the fun (and nutsy) part is that I've photographed it all, and plan to share it with you piece by piece in a new feature I call "Daily Derian."

Day 1: The Desk Organizer

I honestly didn't think I needed this. I actually just bought it because, well, it was there. However, you can see for yourself that I really did not it afterall. My desk is so Zen-blissed out now.

BEFORE: The infamous middle drawer

ENTER: Pretty and functional thingy

AFTER: Awesome