day at a glance

spring walk

2010-04-13T09:01:00.000-07:00

I went for a walk with my friend Cole today. Here a few photos of our adventures.

spring?

2010-04-04T13:10:00.001-07:00

Spring is trying hard to break through the rain I just know it.

seasons

2010-04-03T13:03:00.000-07:00

I found this on Pinkshirtsandcarwrecks this morning. I thought you might like it.

back to the blog

2010-03-29T23:47:00.001-07:00

I haven't been on my blog since the holidays. I think about it often and I always have these great posts that I want to do but things have been 10 times busier than they were last year at this time so I am having trouble finding time to do everything that I want to do. I have decided to keep it simple and post a photo I took yesterday. Richard and I drove up highway 1 from Pismo Beach and stopped in Big Sur to look around. We went out on this cliff and I took some photos. This is one of the photos. Hopefully this will get the blog ball rolling.

Can't believe it's almost April.

tree

2009-12-19T12:49:00.001-08:00

We finished trimming the tree last night. It all came together so fast. The new addition to the crew this year is the little elf in this last photo. I found him at a flea market 2 weeks ago. He seems right at home. I LOVE his little boots.

Happy holidays!

holiday spirit

2009-12-18T15:19:00.001-08:00

this is a photo of the top of the tree in the lobby of our building.

The whole holiday thing is really moving fast this year. Our holiday projects are well under way with cookie baking, card making and tree choosing. Here are a few photos of our tree and card projects. We still have to trim the tree but it looks so damn cute just sitting there that we have been enjoying it without all the stuff on it. Maybe we can get to it tonight.

Richard with our lil tree

the very beginning of the holiday decorating projects

pre-trimmed tree

I ran out of Gocco screens that we needed for our holiday card project. I was horrified to find out that they aren't making screens this size anymore. I didn't have time to buy anything on Ebay so Richard and I came up with a plan to reuse old Gocco frames with new screens. We were pretty pleased with ourselves.

after we cut out the old screen we lined the edges with glue stick

then we glued the new screen to the sticky, glued edges

we thought it would be a good idea to put the screen under a heavy book for a few minutes to make sure that the new screen stuck to the frame

we had a little help keeping the book and screen in place

After the glue was dry we reinforced the edges with clear packing tape and we were ready to burn the screen!

Richard's holiday drawing just before we burn it onto the screen

short movie of me using the Gocco printer that Richard gave to me two Christmases ago

Richard taking advantage of his obsessive tendencies by make sure to evenly apply ink to each card

the card drying station

Next post will include cookies and tree trimming!

december?

2009-12-18T15:11:00.000-08:00

The weather is so amazing today that I just have to wonder if it's really December. I probably just jinxed myself by typing that...well, the day is gorgeous and the rain we had two days ago didn't totally do away with all the flowers around our building. I'm posting a few photos of what things look like around here.

TGIF.

summer at a glance

2009-09-15T15:06:00.000-07:00

This entire summer has been a whirl wind. I was lucky enough to travel to NYC in April Cape Cod in June and NYC a few times after that. I was also surprised to see parts of California that I hadn't seen before. In this post I am just showing photographs of the summer with a small bit of info. There is no particular order to things just an at a glance view before I have to admit that fall is here and winter is on the way

drinks with the girls at The Ramp by moonlight

fabulous olive wing back in Hudson NY at Arenskjold

fabulous love seat in Hudson NY at Arenskjold

the best set of chairs in Hudson NY at Arenskjold

the sectional in the basement of Arenskjold in Hudson NY

movie being filmed at night in the LES

Harlem garden

Aspen NY

a view of the Standard from the High Line

a view of Chelsea from the High Line

Fresno figs from my parents tree

Hudson NY at dusk

Carter's studio in Hudson NY

Hudson bouquet

coolest woman in southern California

Palm Springs

photo safari with Cole

Cape Cod view

"Sound Suits" from the Nick Cave exhibit at Yerba Buena

Charlie working on a landscape

Carter in Red Hook studio

Connecticut from the train

Richard on the beach in Cape Cod

window sill in Harlem

Bay to Breakers aftermath

Wolfgang in downtown LA

New Work from Todd Hido in NYC at Bruce Silverstein

detail from Tom Sachs studio tour

Castaneda/Reiman installation at DCKT NYC

David Byrne showed up to Carter's opening at Salon 94

photo I found at a family reunion this summer

fun in the sun with Jason and Cole

flying

windows at Prada NYC

delicious lunch in Brooklyn with Miss Emily

chunk of "iceberg" at the Titanic exhibit in NYC
Limentaur Beach fun

Cole perfecting Ninja moves for Halloween

last beach day of the summer

socal

2009-08-07T07:34:00.000-07:00

This is a photo of a woman that I took in HB. You can't tell from this photo but she was perhaps the coolest person I have ever seen. She was taking photographs of surfers the day before the US Open of Surfing started. Perfect jeans, striped shirt and hat. I really wanted to know who she was but chickened out when my chance came to chat her up. I kept wondering if she had ever made an appearance on The Sartorialist blog.

I am back tracking a little today. I am finally publishing a post about a trip to SOCAL that we took at the beginning of the summer. Richard had some work to do down in Huntington Beach and we both had people we wanted to visit in Palm Springs and LA so we took about 5 days and headed out.

dessert before Palm Springs

cabazon dinosaur

My friend Kelsey was in Palm Springs for the weekend so we drove down for the night to join him. We decided to drive through the dessert. I ended up getting caught in a CHP speed trap and now have to pay a $332. fine. The scenary was gorgeous though. I am trying to remember how beautiful it was and not how irritated I was at getting the ticket.

The photos above are from the lobby at our friend Roger's office. We went to see him once we got into LA. I just love how the spirit of old Hollywood glamour pops up in the most unexpected places.

Chicken Boy

While in LA we had dinner in Highland Park. I was a little scared by the landmark over the restaurant but learned later that Chicken Boy is a benevolent landmark. You can read all about it here.

I have quite a few photos of our trip that I uploaded to flickr that you can view if you want more but for now I close with some of the gorgeous flowers that fill up most of Los Angeles in the summer. Anything will grow there and the weather keeps everything thriving.

Thanks for looking!

stephanie's garden wall phase 2

2009-08-07T00:13:00.001-07:00

Today we started really digging into the Stephanie wall project. I pulled out my bag of pigments and opened the cans of simulated milk paint that we bought from Olde Century Simulated Milk Paint and we started mixing plaster and paint colors.

The first step was to lay down two distinct layers of plaster. One in a pale gold tone and the other, a dark earth color. Then we outlined a few prominent areas where trees would go.

Richard painted in a light mountain range across the wall and I painted in a nice beeswax color to give the wall some warmth.

We then washed over the bottom brown layer with a darker brown color and started painting in the first layer of trees and bushes.

Towards the end of the day we went back over a few of the darker painted areas with plaster that we will then paint over with lighter bushes and reeds. Above is the last picture of the day. We won't be picking it up again for at least a week as I am off to NYC in the morning.

I hope to be mobile blogging about my trip while I'm away. I am really looking forward to seeing the High Line and spending some time in Hudson. More soon!

Thanks for looking!

sfgirlbybay

2009-08-05T19:46:00.000-07:00

I was checking in with one of my favorite bloggers and was surprised and flattered to see a few photos from my flickr account in one of her posts today. Victoria just started a great flickr group called sfgirlbybay that consists of mainly photos of home interiors. I am always inspired by photos and stories I see and read on her blog and was thrilled to join her group.Thank you for including me in your story about the group Victoria! You ROCK!

I'm sure everyone knows about how fabulous her blog is but just in case you don't here's a link to sfgirlbybay.

stephanie garden apartment project day 1

2009-08-05T19:12:00.000-07:00

the end of day one

2 weeks ago I blogged about starting a project for my friend Stephanie. She has this great apartment that looks out onto a gorgeous ivy and jasmine covered fence. It really feels like a garden in there. Anyway, today was the day I actually started the project and I am really happy with the completion of phase one. Tomorrow is phase 2 and I am really hoping to get it all done.

Phase one included playing with pigment in the plaster and patching rough areas on the wall. Tomorrow I will go over the entire wall with pigment tinted plaster and then Richard and I will paint in the landscape scene on top of the almost dry plaster. SO FUN!!!!

I will be plastering the wall and then painting a mural on top of it, inspired by the one shown in the inspiration page above.

This is the apartment right before Stephanie moved in.

This is one of the pieces we picked up at a flea market. We will install it once the vision for the place comes together a little bit more. Not sure if we are going to paint it yet.

I found this little gem at the Alameda flea market. The plan is to buy an actual slices of a log for the top of it. I think it was a bird bath but will be a fabulous end table when we get finished with it.

I love a good interior project. I just can't wait to see what we end up with tomorrow.

Thanks for looking!

stephanie and the garden apartment

2009-07-14T12:20:00.000-07:00

This is a before photo of the room we will be working on

About a year ago my friend Stephanie moved into her apartment. The view from the main room looks out to vines and trees and really feels like a garden. Just recently we discussed truly embracing the garden theme and painting a fresco on one of her walls. This is something I've done in the past and really enjoyed. Richard agreed to give me a hand and now we are just putting all of the pieces of the puzzle together. We should start working on it next week. I am still working out the details but I thought I would share some of the photos that are inspiring the project. I am not totally sure which magazines hey all came from but they are most certainly Nest and World of Interiors. My hands down favorites.

I can't wait to get started!!! I will be posting progress photos as we go.

beach chair recovery project

2009-07-14T11:54:00.000-07:00

Last summer I bought two great vintage beach chairs at a flea market for $5.00. The fabric was cracking with age so they couldn't really be used. I decided to put them into storage until the time was right to recover them. Last weekend I was cleaning up my storage locker and I found them again. I decided it was time and I went out looking for fabric. I went to a few places to try to find a fresh beach stripe, like the original but I find it is a lot more difficult to find classic anything especially stripes. I decided to go in a new direction and headed out to IKEA.

I ended up finding two really great designs. They aren't exactly classic beach chair fabrics but I really like the look of the two together.

I took off one of the covers from the chairs and cut my new fabric to match. I then sewed and stapled my new covers onto the freshly cleaned and waxed beach chair frames and I swear they look brand new! I can't wait to take them to the beach!

Thanks for looking!

needlepoint

2009-06-30T11:57:00.000-07:00

I have been an admirer of needlepoint for many years but never really thought of it seriously for me. Since the Brigid Berlin Show in NY back in October and of course the Johnathan Adler pillows I had thought about dabbling in it. It wasn't until our last trip to Cape Cod that the idea really took hold. Richards mom has done a lot of needlepoint over the years and there are these great well worn pillows all over the house of the family dog or initials of her children. There was something really comforting about it and when we got back to California I decided to give it a shot.

I bought two really great needlepoint books from around the mid 70's (thank you ebay) I love the covers.

I also found a great screen of a deer that will be perfect for my friend Brody's birthday. I found a great place here in SF called Elaine Magnin. The woman there helped me choose thread and offered some great advice. Now I just have to get started. I have a short time to get it all done but I tend to be a little bit obsessive so off I go!

This one even comes with a sample screen and sample thread.

I should have a good chunk done by next week. I will post an update when I have a respectable portion done.

Thanks for looking!

bye michael

2009-06-25T17:30:00.000-07:00

bye farrah

2009-06-25T11:22:00.001-07:00

flickr favorites

2009-06-19T09:17:00.000-07:00

green porn

2009-06-18T10:18:00.001-07:00

Although this Sundance Channel series has been out for a while I just discovered it yesterday. It is amazing.

cape cod shell lamps

2009-06-17T14:54:00.000-07:00

Richard with his sister Kate while the shell lamp looks on

On our last visit to Cape Cod Richard's parents offered to give us the shell lamps that Richard grew up with. They had been sitting in their basement for years and were about to be thrown out. I was so excited to get them that I took a few days to fully open them. I wanted to savor it. Here area some photos of the lamps getting use to their new home.

TADA!

Now all we need are lampshades and a whole new living room. YAY!!! Welcome to the West Coast!

my new favorite thing

2009-06-15T11:20:00.001-07:00

I was cruising around flickr this morning and I found Nolan at the owls go. He posts photos and home movies that he finds at flea markets and garage sales. Through his site I found Lost in Light. Lost in Light was a project that ended in August of last year. It was created to showcase and preserve 8mm footage that is slowly disappearing. They would transfer actual film to video in exchange for the rights to post those videos on their site. I am going to be spending a lot of time going through the archives. If anyone knows of a similar project going on anywhere please let me know.

Happy Monday!

AJ Fosik

2009-06-15T11:11:00.001-07:00

Saturday night we went to see the new show by AJ Fosik at White Walls Gallery. It was really fantastic! It is up for the next month. If you have a minute to swing by you really should. It will put you in the best mood!

These photos don't do the color palette he uses any justice. It is so much better in person.

mini garden progress

2009-06-14T16:40:00.001-07:00

the beginning of the sprouts

Back in March I decided to start a few plants from seed. I planted sweet peas, cherry tomatoes, thyme, columbine, rosemary, and basil. Today I transplanted the ones that made it this far.

cherry tomatoes looking good!

columbine, thyme and basil in their bigger pots

Soon enough we can start picking tomatoes right off of our little plant. Can't wait!

quick flickr favorites

2009-06-14T16:20:00.000-07:00

castaneda/ reiman opening

2009-06-14T15:50:00.000-07:00

On Thursday night we went to see our friends Charlie and Brody at their opening at the Wirtz Gallery here in San Francisco. They showed a grouping of plaster landscapes and installations which include porcelain rocks and large photos of the original landscapes that inspired the work. If you live anywhere near SF you should try to make it down there for to see the show. It will be up all summer and these photos do not do it justice at all.

It was really fabulous.

heidi's birthday

2009-06-07T12:45:00.000-07:00

yesterday we hosted a birthday party for our friend heidi. I baked a cake, richard hung some art and we both cleaned the apartment. here a few photos.

chocolate thunder cake with buttercream/ coconut frosting and blueberry lemonade

our tiny but warm kitchenette.

richard hung up our two new cleon pieces.

new additions to the seascape collection went up

seascapes went up above and below the sand collection

the after party just before it ended. fun times.

happy birthday miss heidi.

quick flickr favorites

2009-06-07T10:41:00.000-07:00

I am getting ready to go on a photo safari with my little friend Cole today. I was just going through some of my flickr favorites for inspiration and I thought it might be nice to share them here. So many talented people out there.

Happy Sunday!

cape cod crafts and a big birthday

2009-06-04T12:37:00.001-07:00

We headed back to the East coast and Richard's family on Cape Cod for his mother's birthday.

The first day was gorgeous! We walked on the beach, flew kites and ate ham until we felt sick.

There were a few kites in the basement. We brought out a nice big dragon kite. Richard flew it so high that it was just a speck in the sky. Richard suggested sending notes up the string to the dragon. I had never done that before. I can't even believe it works. Here is a short movie of one of our notes going up.

We had a really fun time out there. As the weather turned a little colder we brought the fun inside by starting on jiggly eyed crafts with the shells and rocks we found during the day.

We even broke out the Shrinky Dinks. I totally forgot how fun they are. We will definitely be having a west coast version of the Shrinky Dink craft day.

before

after

When it was time to celebrate we did so in two or three parts in two days. We had two dinners and a present opening session. Above is a photo of this cute little gold wishbone pin that I gave as a gift. Below is the second dinner. DELISH!

We took one day to visit the Edward Gorey House. I loved the whole place but there was one part that stood out. He designed wall paper for a stage production that he had worked on. Below is a sample of that wallpaper. I just kept thinking that after the play was over they probably just threw the wallpaper in the garbage. I would have killed for wallpaper like that when I was in high school.

Our last meal on the cape was a classic lobster and corn meal with a TON of butter. I swear I gained 6 pounds in one week.
After dinner we went for a walk on the beach and I picked up sand for my collection.

Here I am in front of the neighbors house picking up sand.

I leave you with this amazing photo of Richard with his sister Kate. You will notice a fabulous shell lamp to the right of where they are sitting. That shell lamp and two others are on their way right now from Cape Cod to our apartment here in San Francisco. I am so thrilled I can't even deal. More on that later.

Thanks for looking!

back home for a minute

2009-06-04T11:03:00.000-07:00

It is so great to be home and back into some house projects...even if it's just for a few days. The most recent project is to get organized. I have been desperate to transform our office into something that will inspire us to be more organized and streamlined.

I have been taking trips to one of my secret spots looking for nice looking wooden file cabinets. I finally had a little luck. I found two perfect file cabinets that just need a light cleaning. They were $35. each.

With the new layout I was able to use a great piece of furniture that I bought almost a year ago. I found this great little library drawer set up for $20 at the flea market a while back. Now that it actually has a place to live I cleaned it up and made cute new labels for it. I love the way it turned out.
Now that I have a place to put everything I just need to file it all. If all goes well I should be organized by the end of June and ready to start the next really big project.

Thanks for looking!

the first blueberry and uncle julian's collections

2009-06-04T07:56:00.000-07:00

After our trips were over I went down to Fresno to see my family for a few days. I love visiting the valley during the spring. All the fruit trees start promising fruit for summer and it isn't too hot to enjoy it yet. In another month it starts to hit 115 degrees.

Dad with his first blueberry of the year. He had to hide his plants from the mockingbirds to get any blueberries at all. I think it makes them taste sweeter when you have to fight for them.

We went to visit my Aunt Bernice. She has such a green thumb that all plants will thrive in her yard even if she ignores everything.

My Aunt Stella and Uncle Julian live out in the country and have a lot of space to grow things and more importantly collect things. I paid them a visit and took a few photos.

fabulous tool shed

I forgot to ask my uncle why he has bottles over the fruit from his tree but I have a feeling he is trying to protect it from the birds.

After touring my uncle's yard I told him he missed his calling as a set designer for old westerns.

Just before I left Fresno my mom gave me a super cute Bauer planter with a plant in it.

The next time I visit they should have ripe figs on their tree. I can't wait!!!

birthday beach house

2009-05-30T08:20:00.000-07:00

As soon as we arrived in San Francisco basck from our month in NY we had to basically unpack and then pack. A group of us decided to rent a beach house in Stinson Beach for my birthday. I knew that it would probably be overcast and raining so we brought lots of food, gossip magazines and crafts to keep everyone busy.

Night number one included a strawberry cake that Brody made.

I finally opened the Gocco printer that Richard gave to me as a Christmas present, 2 years ago. I can't believe how fun and easy it is to use.

I brought lots of material to make tote bags. Here is Heidi cutting out her bag.

Cole helping me sew.

Cole's golden bat tote drying by the fire.

Seahorse zombie tote

porcupine eyeglass case

We had a great weekend of crafting, working on puzzles, walking in the rain and of course....eating. Maybe next year we will get a little sun.

NYC Round up

2009-04-22T13:00:00.000-07:00

*This post was started in April. I had hoped to be able to upload photos from my phone to make it all come together. It wasn't working so now that I am back I am uploading photos to complete the update.

We arrived in NYC earlier this month. We have been here for a little while already and I have been wanting to do a post about our adventures. I keep waiting because I don't have a way to download photos from my camera. I hear I can upload photos from my iphone. I am going to attempt to do that today.

The first part of our trip included a screening of my friend Carter's film Erased James Franco at the MOMA. It was a great event! I have most of the photos from that night on my camera so photos from that part of the trip will have to wait but it was really fabulous. The event was sold out and the reviews and "buzz" about the film were all pretty positive.

Q & A after the screening

Carter and James at the after party (notice our friend Chris hamming it up in the background)

Carter and I at the after party

Since the screening Richard has been working on finishing some pieces for his upcoming group show at Cinders Gallery in Brooklyn. I have been using the free time to see friends and walk around the city. The last few days have been really gross with rain ruining my walking plans but before that I took photos of spring in New York. I am attempting to use the iphone to post them here.

My friend Stephanie at Macy's Flower Show (that's a flamingo)

delish knish

Richard and I took a train to visit his sister in Connecticut for Easter. I wanted to bring my one of my favorite NYC treats for the occasion. Below are photos from the Cupcake Cafe. If you've never had one of these cupcakes you need to get on it.

Of course we ate them all before we could make it out of NYC so I ended up making tea sandwiches instead

Richard's sister Elizabeth made the most amazing cake. She calls it Thunder cake. Once I have the recipe I will post it here. It is insane.

Once we were back in NY Carter and I hung out at his studio in Brooklyn, going through old Polaroids and dorking out.

after a while we decided to walk over to the Ikea ferry and take a ride into Manhattan

It was such a great thing to do. Fist of all the ferry is free. The only thing better than free is that it is an insanely gorgeous way to get into the city.

During the final days of working on his group show at Cinders Richard became reacquainted with his love of shredding the gnar. Below is just a taste.

We decided to take a quick trip to Coney Island before Richard's opening

We rode the Cyclone

Richard got whiplash

This is the image used on the C.H.U.D.Z show put on at Cinders Alex Berry, Josh Slater and Richard Colman C.H.U.D.Z
The opening was packed and the show looked great!

The rest of our trip was spent walking around the city, looking at art and making sure we didn't miss anything before it was time to leave. Below are some of the highlights.

Deitch Projects in Long Island City

The view from the back side of Deitch Projects LIC

We dropped by the Marilyn Minter opening which was really great. I love her paintings.

Richard traded some art for a new tattoo detail of the bathroom wallpaper at tattoo shop

On my way to the Campbell Apartment for drinks.

Went to Mood and wanted to buy everything.

Me at the Cloisters

Rich at the Cloisters

Prospect Park in Brooklyn

Time to leave New York. I miss it already.

fresno projects

2009-04-05T01:03:00.000-07:00

I haven't seen my parents for a while and I decided to take a few days to visit and help them with some outstanding projects that need to be dealt with. We put in a garden and renovated my dad's music room/man cave.

On the left is the before photo. the photo on the right shows progress.
Here is the new and improved pot collection

Here is dad putting in the baling wire trellis. We planted sweet peas and morning glories just below so it should look pretty gorgeous by the end of the summer.

Here is a before photo of my dad's man cave. We had already sealed a door and covered over it with plaster by the time we took this photo but you get the idea.

Once I finished with the 3 layers of plaster and then primer and then paint I moved in furniture and accessories. The man cave never looked so good.

The entire yard was in bloom. GORGEOUS! I am so yard jealous

cool Fresno tree

That about does it for Fresno trip. I will be checking in with the garden over the summer and will post the progress.

the new dresser

2009-03-10T22:43:00.000-07:00

One of the things that we desperately need is more storage. I can't tell you how frustrating it is to not have enough space to put all of our clothes. Anyway, we have been needing a good dresser that would fit in with the rest of our dressers and after looking everywhere for months I finally found one on Craigslist.

We drove up to Marin to a woman who runs a vintage dresser business. She buys up dressers in need of repair and she overhauls them and then resells them. We drove 30 minutes north for a dresser that looked perfect via email. When we arrived it was clear that the dresser was WAY TOO SHABBY CHIC! Luckily we found a sad looking dresser that had not been cleaned yet. The seller said that she pulled it out of an old hotel in San Francisco and was planning on painting it white. I guess we felt like we needed to save it so we bought it and brought it home. Below you will see a little before and after the cleaning.

Before is on the left after on the right

I sprayed each drawer with bleach and scrubbed each one with Murphy's Oil Soap. Then I rubbed on the miracle wax stuff called Revive.

The photo at the top shows the finish product. The other dressers seem to like it and so do we.

terrarium fun

2009-03-10T22:40:00.000-07:00

When I was a kid my mom and I use to make terrariums together. She owned a plant store called the Elemental and she would sell all sorts of plants, pots and terrariums. For the past 2 years I had a great terrarium project in mind but no container. A while back I found this great Pyrex container at a flea market for $5.00. I have been wanting to turn it into a terrarium and the stars finally aligned to give me the time and opportunity to put it together with my friend Stephanie

We bought all the necessary terrarium mish mash and set about making our terrariums.

Once we started I realized that I want to make a ton more. I have all these great ideas now for little terrarium villages. The end results for our first attempts are shown below.

I can't wait to see how the terrarium fills in. I also need to hit the hobby store for some little miniature inhabitants for the terrarium. SO FUN! If you haven't attempted a terrarium yet you really need to get on it.

Thanks mom for the inspiration.

chitown at a glance

2009-03-10T20:22:00.000-07:00

I am happy to report that we were able to enjoy some of the truly unique food that Chicago has to offer. If you end up any where near Chicago you have to make it to Hot Doug's. Here is photo of the best hot dogs I have ever tasted.

While we were in Chicago we stayed at the James Hotel. The first night we could hear a party going on through the walls of the hotel. When we couldn't take it anymore we called to ask if we could be moved to another room. They bumped us up to the penthouse suite. I never wanted to leave. Here are photos of our SWEET set up.

Notice the nice computer area on the left. We were able to dock our ipod to the sound system and customize volume for each room and area.

You can't see it in this photo but when sitting in this two person tub you can either watch t.v. or look out at the city of Chicago.

Opening night of Richard's show, Opening Pink.

Installation add on

2009-02-19T12:04:00.000-08:00

Here are two more pictures that show the installation progress.

chicago show

2009-02-19T11:55:00.000-08:00

I have tried to blog about our trip to Chicago for quite a while now but everything has been on fast forward since our trip started and this is the first real moment I have had to attempt an update.

The easy version of Chicago at a glance is that is was really fabulous. I love Chicago and the people who live there. I was able to help Richard and his team with the installation of his show at Phaiz gallery and that was really fun! This was the first time we were really able to work together and it was great. What follows are photographs of different stages of the install. I am also following up with a post about the city and more installation right after this one.

Richard and his friend James Marshall working on the first day.

The walls after the painters finished priming everything.

Rich unpacking some of his pre-painted tiles.

Rich starting the install.

KC helping out with the install.

The sections are almost all up

End of the first day

Robin, the owner of Phaiz looking at the installation at the end of day one.

Off to Chicago

2009-02-15T15:15:00.000-08:00

Back on the 24th. I will try to do a few posts before then. Have a great weekend!

Casa Kelsey

2009-02-07T15:36:00.000-08:00

Eric

I drove down to Los Angeles a few weeks ago to scout for fabric. I stayed with my good friend Kelsey, his boyfriend Juan and their little guy Eric. They have decorated their apartment so beautifully I just had to take photos. What follows are just a few of the great little details in their apartment.

One of the best portrait collections ever. They have invented a story to go along with each portrait.

Thanks for looking! Have a great weekend!

up to date

2009-02-06T10:35:00.000-08:00

Persimmon tree at my Aunt Bernice's Ranch

After a long hiatus I am back to my blog. It has been a very event filled few months. Basically I worked at a super stressful job for way too long and it made me physically sick. In November that all changed and since then I have devoted much of my time focusing on my health. Thanks to a series of cleansing programs and Chinese herbs I am feeling a million times better.

My first step in getting back on track is picking up my blog. I owe Anna, at Door Sixteen a big thank you for checking in with me and nudging me to get back at it. Thanks Anna! The house looks great by the way. I also need to thank Richard. The past 2 weeks Richard has pushed me to sit down and get started. Thanks Rich.

So much has happened that I don't know where to begin so I will just devote this post to an at a glance photo journal of what went on.

Halloween was super fun. We went to see a Led Zeppelin cover band. I was dressed as a Chewsquatch, Richard was a Yeti and our friend Heidi was a Bumble Bee.

I went back to Fresno for a night to attend a book signing for my friend Tony's new book entitled "Frezno"

My friend Carter came into town from NY to attend the San Francisco Premier of Milk at the Castro Theater. He took me along and we had a blast.

The organizers held the after party at city hall. It was very nice to see everyone all dressed up.
Of course we voted.
And then we celebrated with the entire city.
Richard worked really hard to get ready for a show that was held at White Walls, here in the city.
And then we celebrated at the opening.

We went to see the new California Academy of Science building.
The albino alligator was really creepy.

We bought a Christmas tree. I can't believe that I forgot to take a photograph of the finished tree. It looked so pretty.
We helped my parents pick out their tree.
Richard made the most beautiful plates and platter for me. We were suppose to keep our gifts to something that we made or something that was under $20. He went way above and beyond. I LOVE them. I still can't believe he did it. I love them so much I can't even use them.

We decorated cookies with friends.We celebrated New Years with friends. I had pink eye and I was worried about giving pink eye to everyone. I was going to stay home so Richard bought an eye patch for me.

We brought home a few new items to add to the collection.
The photo above is the collapsed version of the benches below.
We have them set up as book shelves in our hallway
Great little chair.Old radio shell that will be speakers in our kitchen once I have a chance to work on them.

SO that brings us up to date. I left a lot out but it has been a long while. Tomorrow I will show photos of the latest on the building project that I have been working on and a new glass container that I found last weekend at the flea market. I am going to be turning it into a terrarium.

Thanks for looking! Have a great day!

2008-10-16T00:32:00.000-07:00

two more building photos that show before and in progress shots of the hallway area. we are still deciding on new flooring and carpet for the building so disregard the yucky blue carpet.

i am going away for work until wednesday of next week. i will post more when i get back.

before and after projects in my building part 1

2008-10-12T22:40:00.000-07:00

In addition to working far too many hours at my job I decided to take on a project to freshen up the building. My landlord asked me to help with colors of paint and detail work and it has been a fun project. There is a lot left to do but I am posting a little peek at the stairway to the roof. It is starting to look pretty good. I will try to take better photos of it this week once I have finished standing and priming the stairs.

Night for now.

Pua

2008-10-10T07:17:00.000-07:00

Really busy the last few days and nights. I only have time to post a photograph of our friend Pua. Here she is helping Richard draw.

nyc tree

2008-10-05T20:27:00.000-07:00

the first photograph was taken in may of this year. the second was taken a few weeks ago. it is a great tree that i always seem to pass when i am in nyc.

numbers from Copenhagen

2008-10-04T22:21:00.000-07:00

Here are images from our trip to Copenhagen this past April. I meant to do a post back then but better late than never. I took these photographs on our walks around the city. I find that when I travel different patterns emerge again and again. During this trip I was impressed with numbers on buildings. Here are a few of those.

2008-10-02T22:22:00.000-07:00

big meeting tomorrow that will probably go a little something like this photograph. need sleep.
good night.

showcase

2008-10-01T08:43:00.000-07:00

This is photograph of our new friend. Richard gave this beautiful taxidermy fawn to me in May as a birthday present. I spent a few months looking for the right case for her and then, with my friend Brody's help I found a case at a place called Urban Ore in Berkeley. The case came from a museum of some kind. There were actually three cases in all but I only had space for one or I would have brought them all home. Brody has another and as soon as she figures out what to do with it I will post a photograph of it here.

At any rate I recovered the base with a great mohair type fabric similar to the one we used on our bedroom wall. I then found the right size burlwood slice from a place right across the street from Urban Ore called Artisan Burlwood.
They were SO NICE. I also picked up both faux and real foliage from the flower mart to keep it looking like a natural history museum display and then added the finishing touch, the rocks. Brody has been working on casting porcelain rocks for the past 6 months or so. They are so beautiful! Some are glazed others are raw and together in a group they are totally perfect. The gems shown here were another birthday present and the addition of these to the diorama really pulled it together. Thanks Brody!

We love the way it turned out. I think our fawn likes it too.

Proper Ready Made article thank you!

2008-10-01T07:40:00.000-07:00

I just wanted to use this post to thank Anh-Minh Le for making us sound cool in this months Ready Made Small Spaces issue. We are big fans of her blog and were really excited to learn that she would be the one writing about us. We also want to thank Alex Farnum for taking such great photos that made our little house seem huge. Alex is an amazing photographer and a really awesome guy.

I also want to thank Ready Made for liking us enough to do a story about our space. I have been a fan of the magazine for a long time. It was really nice to be included with such a great group. I would also like to mention that none of this would have been possible without Victoria at sfgirlbybay for posting a story about us last year. Poppy Talk did a little something after that, which I can't seem to find now and then Apartment Therapy asked us to do a House Tour. We are thrilled to be recognized by such cool folks.

I also want to thank everyone who helped me get through the remodel this time last year with all of your kind comments. It really helped me to keep going when I was exhausted and crying as I sanded the ceiling.

There is more to write and so much to catch up on but for now I have two photos from the day Alex was here photographing our place.

Thanks to all!

Sept 30

2008-09-30T22:44:00.000-07:00

This was Richard's present to me this year for my birthday back in May. This and an i phone.

Today was Richard's birthday and this was my present to him. That and an i phone.

Happy birthday Ricardo!

Ready Made and longing for blogging

2008-09-29T23:01:00.000-07:00

I don't know where to begin.

It has been many months since my last post and I feel so sad about it. I have way too much on my plate with work and traveling for work that I have had very little free time to even clean our apartment much less blog. On the other hand I need to figure out a way to make more time because I miss it. (a lot)

So I am posting now. It will be a short post but I will post more tomorrow. Even if it is 2 words or just a photograph I am going to post every day.

Now....WE ARE IN READY MADE THIS MONTH!!!!!!!!!!! I am so excited! Above is the first picture from the article. Apartment Therapy was kind enough to post about us today and I snagged the photo above from their post. THANKS!

I have so much more to say about all of this exciting stuff but it is going to have to wait. I just got home from work and it is 11:14pm. I have to be back at it at 7 so it will have to wait until tomorrow.

All I can say is thank you to everyone who has emailed or posted that they missed my posts. It really means a lot. I promise to find the time and do better.

good night !

major recap

2008-05-18T20:20:00.001-07:00

It has been such a long time since my last post. So much has happened. I started a very demanding job which keeps me from doing a lot of things that I like to do. I sort of hit the ground running with the new work schedule. I have been going in very early to get up to speed on everything. It is only now that I am about to start an interior project with a friend of mine that I am making time to start blogging again. I am working on inspiration boards for the project and will post those once I have something to post but in the mean time I thought I would do a short recap of the past 2 months.

I scored a big box of jars back in March for my sand collection. I have been looking for the right shapes and sizes with very little luck. I finally got lucky and found a whole box of them at the flea market. Here is the stack before they had baths. I can't tell you how relieved I am to have homes for all of the sand I have been accumulating. My friend carter sent a whole box of sand to me from our trip that we took to St. Barth's last year and it has made me sad on many occasions to see those sad little zip lock bags full of gorgeous St. Barth's sand. Anyway now they have homes

I also found 2 new friends shown at the top of page. One of them came with his own little table.

I will update the blog with sand in jar photos as soon as possible.

There has been quite a bit of travel in the past few months and without boring you with details I will just post a few photos of the places we've been.

Above is a photograph I took in Chicago

photographs from Richard's show in Copenhagen at V1

The photo above is a chandelier that was hanging in the Copenhagen train station

These are shoes that my friend Jenni Jet was wearing when I saw her during this trip to Copenhagen. I became obsessed and tried to find them in my size. No luck. I am still a little sad.

cool tree we saw while we were in NYC

This is a photo from the beach house we rented for my big birthday celebration at the beginning of May

In the past 3 months there have been many additions to our collections and I will posting updates with photos of some of the new additions just as soon as I can.

Stay tuned!

hurricane project part 2

2008-03-02T08:54:00.001-08:00

So now its March 2nd and I have no idea where the time goes. The hurricane project was finished on the evening of the 23rd and I am only now posting the finished product. I really need to overhaul the blog and get back to a better schedule. At any rate you will see a view of the completed cabinet above and photographs of all of the stage that led up to it. I have to say it fits in like it has always been here. The size is perfect the toys are happy and we have 4 boxes that are now gone. We still have one really big box that needs to be dealt with. I wish we could have fit more in the case but for now we are both really pleased with the outcome. I can start looking for the next display case in a month or so.

I first started with a great drawing that I found of the patent that Houdini submitted for a diving suit. I took it down to kinkos and enlarged it as big as it would go. I then cut the image down to fit the back of the cabinet and then attached it with a few well place staples. If I had it to do over again I might have tried to enlarge it to fit inside the case perfectly as losing any of the image is a little unfortunate. The image is great and even though you won't really see it the back of the cabinet much it still sort of bugs me. I may have to redo it.

After attaching the image I installed the shelves and then Richard and I opened the boxes of 'dudes'. I took the top shelf he took the bottom two shelves and within an hour we were done. I think it turned out great. I am so glad that he gets to see his boys and I had an excuse to buy a great piece of furniture. Below I am posting some detailed photos of the boys...and a few of the girls.

Thanks for looking!

hurricane project

2008-02-23T15:59:00.001-08:00

After a very long search for the perfect curio cabinet I found one on Craigslist. It is converted gun case so it isn't too decorative or fancy which is perfect! It is also the exact width for the space we had set aside for it which is amazing! So anyway with a huge storm just about to hit our city I decided to drive out, 45 minutes away to pick up our new addition. I made it back just before the winds and rain started and now I am planning on dressing it up a little bit and then filling it with as many of Richard's collections I can. One of the last remaining parts of our renovation and move in was figuring out what to do with his toy collection. I am so relieved and excited to start this project and I couldn't have a better day to do it. I am about to make some hot chocolate and start unpacking boxes. I will post and after shot once I get it all finished. Happy Saturday!

sunny

2008-02-21T16:04:00.000-08:00

We just came back from our trip to Fresno. We didn't have enough time to treasure hunt but we did manage to bring back a lot of amazing oranges and kumquats from my parents tree. I think we are going to use them in a champagne punch for the oscar party we are attending this weekend.

Anyway...it is raining and awful here today but this amazing group of oranges makes spring and sun seem close...

Happy Thursday!

fresno

2008-02-16T12:37:00.000-08:00

Well, today we are driving down to Fresno to see some family. We are leaving a little early to take advantage of checking out some of the best thrift stores in the world. See ya next week...have a great weeknend!

valentimes

2008-02-15T13:33:00.001-08:00

Valentines Day was very mellow and happy in these parts. Pizza and a movie. Bliss. I hope yours was happy too!

2008-02-11T13:36:00.001-08:00

Sunday in the city was so gorgeous! We headed over to the flea market and found a few items. nothing major but as always it was just fun to look around and hunt for gems.

We came back home in the afternoon and I worked on cleaning our back porch. I transplanted a a couple of plants into pots that I found at the flea market and just tried to enjoy the sun before it went down.

I am including a photograph of our Elkhorn Fern that my friend Charlie gave to us as a house warming present. It really loves its home on the porch and it just looked so happy today I thought I should include it.

That's it for now. Have a fabulous Monday!

apartment therapy post no. 3

2008-02-11T13:28:00.000-08:00

Our third and final post is up at Apartment Therapy. ATSF asked us to be a part of their House Tour series and we were more than happy to say YES! It just went up on Friday so please have a look and if you like what you see feel free to leave a comment.

Thanks!

apartment therapy blog post no. 2

2008-02-06T09:55:00.001-08:00

I have another post up on Apartment Therapy. I wrote a little blurb about a great show I went to see in Berkely a while back. The show is up at the Traywick Contemporary Gallery. Above you will see a still of one of Kelsey Nicholson's pieces. If you want to see more please check out the post on ATSF and leave a comment. Thanks for looking!

living room windows

2008-02-06T09:06:00.000-08:00

We have been in this apartment since September and as of last night we finally have living room curtains. For this project I didn't go all that crazy with making curtains I just found a few panels at Ikea that look subtle and up they went. I had such a hard time finding hardware and curtain rods for the bedroom project that I decided to use a very simple curtain rod that would be perfect to use...for now. I am sure the more I look at it the more I will want to change it but not until the spring.

Since we live on the top floor we don't really need curtains and I really like how open it feels without them. Lately, however we have had some really cold weather and our radiator just isn't doing the trick. As soon as I put up our curtains they started to make a difference. It was toasty in minutes!

My fear is that they look too romantic or conventional for our apartment. For the remainder of the season I will just think of them as practical and hope that by the spring I can come up with something that I feel a little bit more comfortable with.

I am posting before and after shots of the living room. It is really hard to believe that just a few months ago our ceiling was orange....

Thanks for looking!

bits of sun and a few more friends

2008-02-03T21:54:00.000-08:00

The weather forecast said rain but we had just enough sun on our Sunday to make it out to the flea market and find some new friends. The two little gems above were $1. each. I love the owl pot. I have a collection of owls and this little buddy will fit right in. I also found something I have been wanting to find for a while. Below you will see my new water tower. Welcome to the family!

Happy Monday!

apartment therapy blog post

2008-02-01T16:06:00.000-08:00

I am thrilled to be able to announce some exciting news. I am a finalist in the Apartment Therapy blogger search and my first post just went up today! I wrote a post about a fantastic store/gallery space called Mollusk. I had a look at the Thomas Campbell show, which was amazing. I also took some photos of their store and talked a little bit about how great the space is. The photo above is one of the interior shots of the shop. If you haven't been out there yet you should really try to make it a destination. They are such great people and the store is filled with gems. The Thomas Campbell show is awesome and will only be up for a few more days so try to get on out there!

We were also asked to be a part of their House Tour series and are waiting for the moment when they put our little apartment up on their site. I will post another entry here once it is up and running. In the mean time please check out the post I contributed for the blogger search and if you like it say something nice. (please)

Have a great weekend!

playing catch up

2008-01-30T17:02:00.000-08:00

It has been a while since I have had a chance to update my blog. Things have been busy and updates to the house haven't been as often as I would like but we still manage to bring stuff in.

Here are photos of the latest gems that we brought back from our Sunday favorite...the flea market.

Above is a photograph of our new taxidermy deer. We think its German. The eyes are hand blown glass and the mount is carved wood. The photograph doesn't really do our new friend justice. He is such a sweetie.

Next we have a metal....dustable of honest Abe Lincoln. Abe's head wasn't attached but once we put it on the bench sandwiched between him and his hat it seemed like it was meant to be.

And finally a new office chair. We have had such a hard time finding something small and comfortable that would fit inside our small office area. We found this little gem for $20. not bad for the perfect chair.

curtains at last

2008-01-16T16:20:00.001-08:00

We started our apartment renovation in September and we really went at it full force for at least 3 months. I was so happy to have the time and energy to be able to make our place feel like a home. It has been a real challenge lately as the real world of job searches and obligations have been sneaking in and spoiling the fun. I would love to figure out a way to do this full time and make money at it. (if anyone has any ideas on how this might be possible please let me know) At any rate I have been focusing more on details that have been left undone to sort of finish things up. I say sort of because it will never be finished. You bring things in you take things out. You rearrange or you get tired of a color what have you. Anyway for those of you that have followed us from the beginning you know that we have been needing curtains for months. With all of the cold weather we have had combined with my unwillingness to look at the fabric that had been stapled up in lieu of curtains for even one more day I was finally motivated to stop everything else and make the damn curtains already.

Staying within our general theme of faded Cuban glamour as our bedroom inspiration I bought fabric a while back that had the best old world striped pattern. I also went on an ebay mission to find curtain hardware that I liked. This took a good month to round all of the hardware up. I ended up choosing the finials, brackets and curtain hooks that you see below. I really looked for things that I liked and it turns out that all of the hardware is from the Victorian era. The curtain rod holes are small so we were able to buy a dowling rod to use as a curtain rod. Richard stained the rod to match the color of the brackets and we were able to screw the finials into the ends of the rod. I don't really like big bulky curtain rods and hardware so the dimensions worked out well for me. Richard likes it too.

What follows are photos of the finished product. I am including a few 'before' and 'in progress' photographs so you can see where we started.

This last photo is a close up of the tie backs. Its funny because I usually like things less decorative but something about wanting this bedroom to be a little decadent inspired me to use these hilarious tie backs. Now I can finally stop waking up cursing the tacked up fabric over the windows. I have another set of curtains to do over the doorway that leads from our bedroom to the living room but I lost one of the brackets. I am thinking about casting a set from the one that I do have in ceramic or metal. I might even make enough to sell as they are such an easy solution and no one makes that type of bracket anymore. Anyway on to the living room curtains and all of the other unfinished details that make me crazy daily.

Thanks for looking!

sunday was the best

2008-01-14T12:07:00.001-08:00

Sunday was the best. We have been having a lot of rain here for the past two weeks and Sunday was nothing but sun. Richard and I decided to do our favorite thing and go to the flea market. It was so nice to just walk around in the sunny day. We found a few little gems which I have posted above. I try to buy one new ornament every year for Christmas and we found a good mercury glass one on our trip. I also found a great glass dome and pedestal for a pocket watch. We will probably end up putting something like a small bird in it but for now we have a Santa that we also found on our Sunday. I bought a jar to house some Cape Cod shells I picked up on our trip to the East Coast for the holidays. Finally, we have a mini birdhouse/calendar/thermometer plaque? I love SUNDAY!

Happy Monday!

holiday wrap up

2008-01-10T15:48:00.000-08:00

Well, we have had a very busy holiday this year. This is the first year in a very long time that I didn't fully particpate in the holiday shopping experience. I baked a lot of cookies, made a lot of meals and did a whole lot of the crafts instead.

On Thanksgiving day we watched the movie Elf and it really inspired me to want to create a similar atmosphere this season.Because of our East Coast trip we really didn't have much time to really go whole hog into decorating the house but for New Years eve I got a second chance. Some friends of ours asked me to co-host a party. I really wanted to transform the main room of the party so I invited my friend Heidi over for an evening of snowflake cutting and champagne drinking and below are a few photos of us in action. I have to thank Wikihow and Highhopes for having such easy to follow instructions for making the whole project work.

After about 5 hours we had enough snowflakes and garland made to really make an impact at the party. I allowed myself a budget of $20. to add some shiny store bought garland and snowflakes to complement the handmade gems that we already had. I found boxes and boxes of garland and what have you at Walgreens the day before new years eve and get this....everything was .25 a piece! What I am saying is I was able to buy a ridiculous amount of garland and assorted holiday action for pennies. (love it!)

The day of the event my friend Stephanie and I showed up 8 hours early to start setting up all the lights and holiday items and after about 7 hours we were done. Here are the after shots of the decorating marathon.

I think it turned out really great! I have to give a big shout out to Bob here for letting me put a million staple holes into his ceiling. I will get over there this week to patch all of that. (i promise)

After the party I brought home a few cute snowflakes and some fancy garland so that Richard and I had a festive house for our post holiday Christmas. We exchanged presents and ate too much and had a great time. Richard surprised me with a Gocco printer for Christmas...the cool one from Japan. I can't wait to start using it. Look for awesome Gocco printed tote bags in the next few days. (thanks Rich! you are the best!)

Happy new year everybody!

holiday hospitality and outings

2008-01-05T16:08:00.000-08:00

While we were in NYC we stayed with our friend Carter. He was a super gracious host who showed us a great time. We took a lot of pictures above and below ground. We packed a lot into our outings. On one afternoon Carter was lucky enough to touch the leg of a Rockette.I think if you touch the leg of a Rockette good luck has to follow. Those ladies are magic!

Carter and Johnathan threw a great holiday party for us and we had the best time. We ate pizza and had cupcakes for dessert. Here is a picture of Johnathan wondering which cupcake he should choose.

We took a little trip out to Long Island City to see Carter's new studio. We had a great time eating cheese, taking Polaroids, making movies and looking at all of Carter's new work. His new paintings are amazing. (super secret so no photos of any of them but amazing) If you are in Geneva in March you have to make a point to see his work. For more info on Carter and the show in Geneva click here.

One of our destinations while visiting the city was The New Museum. Our friend Josh met up with us and showed us the way. I have to say....not all that impressed. It looks cool from the outside but it felt claustrophobic inside. I wanted to love it but...it didn't really live up to the hype. I mean the the building....not Josh.

The best part of the museum was the elevator. (is that awful?)

We planned on driving up to Cape Cod for the holiday in a rental car so we picked our rental up and decided to have a little field trip around Queens. I just remember always wanting to stop at the World's Fair relics and never doing it the whole time I lived in New York. Anyway we stopped and what follows are a few photographs from our impromptu outing.

The next morning we picked up Richard's brother and sister and headed up to their parents house on Cape Cod. From the moment we arrived everyone was so warm and fun to be with. We had a great visit!

The view from our room was pretty breathtaking.

In between eating binges we took walks on the beach and tried to make room for more food.

We tried to play as much Koosh ball and table tennis as possible. I think that if we hadn't we would be faced with a lot more "holiday weight" than we ended up with. (either way it isn't pretty but it could be worse)

Richard's nieces and nephew were so jazzed on Santa and Christmas it was hard to get a word in edge wise but they were a hoot. They are pictured below working on cookies for Santa. Could they be any cuter?

After a fabulous holiday on the Cape it was back to NYC for one final lap. I now leave you with a movie that we took on our last morning in Harlem with Carter. We were on our way back from breakfast at Kitchenette when we spotted a wild turkey in Morningside Park. It was pretty weird to see a turkey at 116th street but we rolled with it. Well...we chased it.

Thanks to everyone who helped to make our trip amazing. We had a great time!

holiday windows in the city at a glance

2008-01-04T19:17:00.001-08:00

One of the best things about being on the East Coast for the holidays is the way that the city dresses up.

As soon as we could we went to 5th avenue for the best of all the holiday window installations....Bergdorf Goodman. Bergdorf's overall theme was the elements (earth, air, fire, water, light); the displays pay homage to famous designer Tony Duquette who passed away at the end of the nineties. David Hoey is the amazing designer that leads the team over there and seeing what they do for the holidays is never anything short of amazing. It is impossible to show in these photos how over the top the windows were. All of the layers of resin and gold and glass and shells was gorgeous and unbelievably opulent. There is a great short film that you can watch about the making of the windows which I am posting here.

Even the side windows like the ones shown above and below were like a peek into a special world that you just wish you could jump into. I am going to post detail shots of the windows on flickr just in case you want a little more.

I am such a sucker for deer...especially if they are wearing diamond encrusted crowns. The two pictures above are from somewhere further down on 5th Avenue. I think they were in the windows at Tiffany and Co. but I am not totally sure. If you know please leave a comment for me.

We finished up with a peek at the Barney's windows and they were pretty cool. Their theme was recycling.

I was like a little kid. So was everyone else. People were standing in front of the windows with their mouths open. It got a little nuts out there so we only lasted for a little while but it was awesome. We finished up with a hot knish and called it a night.

Noreaster

2007-12-19T07:54:00.000-08:00

I had hoped to update my blog before the holidays with before and after photos as well as updates on the crafty christmas we have been having over here but time has run out and we are off to visit Richard's people on Cape Cod. We will be in NYC for a few days first and I am going to take a lot of photographs of all the super gorgeous window installations. I am hoping I have a little time to post some of the best of these photographs while we are in NYC but if not tune in for the big update when we get back. HAPPY HOLIDAYS!

2007-12-13T22:22:00.001-08:00

Well, after more than a week of slowly trimming the tree we finally finished it. I don't think it has ever taken that long to trim a tree in the history of tree trimming but we think it turned out great. Here are a few shots of our little tree and of course our holiday friends. I am uploading a lot of other detail shots on flickr if you want to see more.

The photo above is of one of my childhood holiday deer. I love this little guy. He still looks hot.

For the past few years this has been the star for our tree. I have no idea who made it or where it's from but I love it. My two favorite parts are the look on the top elf's face and all of the green glittery elf arms.

Working on finishing curtains tomorrow. (if my sewing machine decides to work with me)

That's all for now!

teapot part two

2007-12-06T16:31:00.001-08:00

Here are more realistic candidates courtesy of ebay.

teapots

2007-12-06T15:24:00.001-08:00

In an effort to waste more time today I decided to obsess on teapots. I guess it has been an ongoing obsession but today I am having a hard time concentrating on work so I decided to devote extra time to searching for teapots. Above you will see my current tea set up. It is really quite sad. I have been half heartedly looking for a cute teapot to replace my current situation but it hasn't been easy. I have always thought that teapots should be a little bit crazier or decorative or sillier than other items that you might bring to a table so it makes the search harder. Today I found a few on this Russian website and I thought I would share them. I feel like I might be on the right track but I could also be grasping at garish teapots because I am having trouble concentrating on work. I'm not totally convinced. So far the one at the top is my favorite. Maybe the second one....

tree prep and trimming

2007-12-06T15:14:00.001-08:00

Here is the first look at the tree we chose for the holiday's. As you can see this photo was taken in the shower. I don't think I've ever washed a tree before but it seemed like the thing to do so we did it.

It took a few days to start the tree trimming process and we weren't able to finish before Richard left for Miami Basel so I have to wait for his return to finish the tree or to post pictures of said tree with even partial trimming. I promised. This is is a tough promise to keep because it looks so cute! But he gets back on Sunday so I should be able to start the week with a fully trimmed tree.

The apartment is looking so cute right now! I will upload some pictures when we have nice enough light to take some. Everything is overcast and rainy today. I am so glad that I have hot chocolate with marshmallows to keep me going.

holiday spirit

2007-12-05T21:02:00.000-08:00

we are busy getting into the holiday spirit over here. new posts to follow.

between thanksgiving and christmas

2007-11-29T11:55:00.000-08:00

I think that November was the fastest month ever. With just a few more days til December I am trying to figure out how I can squeeze more hours into a day. I might have to start getting up at 5:30 just to stay on top of things. Anyway...Thanksgiving was great. My parents drove up from the central valley and I had a few friends who joined us as well. I am sad to say that I wasn't able to get great photos of the table because I was too busy overcooking the turkey.

I am posting up to date photos of the apartment. We just picked up our tree so we will start the holiday decorating in a few more days but here is a little in between holiday progress. We have hung a lot more art and finally dug our way out of almost all of the boxes. You can't see them in these photos but they are totally there.

If you want to see some before photos you can check them out here in the archives. We still need curtains and a million other things but for now we have a space where we can sit and work on things or just relax. It feels like it is really coming together. I have a lot of detail shots that I uploaded on flickr if anyone wants to see close-ups of our stuff.

We are also fine tuning the office and I am posting a couple of those photos.

more later....have a great Thursday!

catch up

2007-11-27T08:03:00.000-08:00

I have been trying to catch up on everything from my blog to my after thanksgiving apartment and it hasn't been easy. I wanted to post something so I am leaving you with a few new friends we found at the flea market on Sunday and decided we couldn't live without. I am also posting a few random scenes from the flea that I liked enough to photograph. I will do a proper apartment post once I have better pictures. It has been nearly impossible to find time!

this almost looks like a painting but it is made like a quilt

a marble fawn

cute little girl

I am working on a more thorough post for later in the day. I can't believe the month is over and I am this far behind....crazy.

happy thanksgiving!

2007-11-22T23:19:00.001-08:00

monday

2007-11-19T08:31:00.000-08:00

The last few days have been really busy. I have been trying to make time for a good post but I think it is going to have to wait a little longer. We have agreed to have Thanksgiving here for my parents and the apartment isn't quite ready so I have been up early and doing all sorts of organizing, hanging more art, cleaning, sewing curtains etc. I took progress photographs yesterday but it was overcast and none of the pictures have enough light. I am going to try to re-shoot them today. In the mean time here is picture of Richard's studio chair from L.A.. We've decided to keep it here with us but it needed a bath first.

Have a great Monday!