Christmas Cuteness Alert

You may want to avert your eyes....

Every December I get to go to San Francisco before Christmas. I do my rounds of design, décor and darn cute. The first cute stop is the windows at Macy’s on Union Square. They build fanciful habitats that are populated with adoptable critters by the San Francisco SPCA.

The crowds line up at night to watch them snooze. Inside Macy’s they have a room with available pets. The woman in charge told me they’d been doing it for 24 years.

A friend adopted a puppy years ago when the SPCA put puppies in the windows at Gump’s Department Store. Gumps the dog is gone, but the tradition lives on. I managed to leave Macy’s with only some socks.

And a picture of three sisters in matching polka-dotted tulle outfits writing letters to Santa in the Holiday Lane area.

Then down Maiden Lane to Britex Fabrics, four floors of fiber.

I was glad to find that All Saints, a London boutique, has opened a San Francisco branch right next door to Britex. Just as in London, their façade is covered with old sewing machines.

Inside the store is clothing for chromophobics who think gray is the new black.

But the sewing machines were shiny.

Anthropologie always has the wackiest decorations. Here's a tree of yarn balls with a tree of mittens on the left. I can see I need some giant stryofoam cones.

 This year the feature is a patchwork of sweater parts on

 a) Trees

b) A miniature house

c) Taxidermy deer armatures

Bloomingdale's

I usually walk around glitter-dazed, making unintelligible notes for next year’s tree. Every November my friend Georgann and I decorate a tree to be auctioned for a local children’s charity. This year our theme was pink and white and Japanese cherry blossoms.

with kimono-clad bunnies from Urban Outfitters.

I’m thinking red Chinese fans for next year,

Sort of like this tree at Bloomingdale's. Unless Georgann wants to knit a lot of patterned squares to cover a deer head.