flora

tiny ranunculi + huge peonies/nasturtium from our garden/hachiya persimmon

apples + grapes/rose hips/chocolate cosmos + dahlias

backyard jasmine/poppies/ranunculi + daffodils

These are my favorites, all photographed in the north light of our kitchen, all seen here before.

Happy Monday!

stool samples

There are just a few things I collect to excess: Fire-King glassware, Heath Ceramics, our friend Mike Merritt's pottery and art, and stools. I love stools! I have a stool fetish. David likes them, too. We are ALWAYS looking for great stools, but in the past few years have had to pass on picking up any more, because there are only so many corners in a 900 square foot apartment where you can tuck one. I even had to return two beautiful ones David bought me for Christmas two years ago because there was no more room.

We have doubles (and in one case, triples) of some of these. Almost all are vintage, or at least second hand. Many are holdovers from the days when I was obsessed with red and orange furniture. We entertain primarily around our kitchen peninsula so they are handy when our friends want to take a load off. They are end tables for lamps, bedside tables for books, and ladders for the kids. They are everywhere!

There is a great flea market nearby every August where I've found a few, and an incredible Mid-Century furniture and housewares shop a half a block from our place where my mother and I picked up three or four for our collection. The funny thing about stools is that they are rarely labeled by the manufacturer, so I don't know who made most of them.

The back row.

The one in the middle with the pressboard top is my eatin' stool.

The middle row.

On the left, the stool I do ALL of my craft/three-dimensional work on. In the center, an awesome little red number way ahead of its time with its dip-dyed legs. On the right, my old office chair/stool, which I will use the next time I have a desk until my hemorrhoids scream for mercy! It's a beauty. It's so sturdy and heavy, just like the stools we had in school. It's labeled Hallowell, and has a solid wooden top which is hard to come by these days in the world of art stools.

The shorties from the front row.

Finally the shorties. The one on the right is actually a gorgeous laminated and lathed three-legged side table from Ikea, the PS Karljohan. It's treacherous to sit on, with the three legs and all, but we bought three of them to go around our low dinner/coffee table as stools and use them frequently. Someone always gets hurt.  

And there you have it, a sample of my stools. 

Have a wonderful weekend, everyone! xoxo

corners: temporary insanity

This past Monday was Stella's first day of school. Instead of hanging out in the cafeteria for coffee or on the yard after dropping her off, I felt compelled to race home. I felt weird, and definitely not ready. Instead of reconnecting with the parents from last year and meeting the new ones, I went home and ripped apart our apartment. I bought a giant latte on the way and got straight to work. I dismantled the entire contents of our 5 x 5 IKEA Expedit bookcase. I have over a continuous decade of Harper's Bazaar and Vogue magazines in there (1993-2003 and beyond). I've got magazines that aren't in print anymore, like my favorite architecture publication, Architecture. We've got The Surfer's Journal, Artforum, Adbusters, years and years of Dwell and Martha Stewart Living. And of course there's a shit ton of David's vinyl.

And I just decided to pull it all down. And then drag the bookcase twenty feet across our carpeted floor. And then drag our Baldwin Spinet piano twenty feet across our carpeted floor, to where the bookcase was. And then I cleaned everything. And then I put everything back on the shelves, exactly like it had been a few hours before.

It was so subconsciously driven, I'm sure. A spatial purge, a new start for the new school year. A way to tame a lot of pent up anxiety about the new school year. It was quite mental, possibly not in a good way.

After having walked a few miles at a good clip taking Stella to school and picking her up afterwards, Monday left me rendered useless. Unable to wrangle Oliver into his pajamas or cook dinner. David made me a fried egg and Spam with some leftover curried quinoa and a glass of wine. And I was done. I got into bed at 9:00 and crept on some friends' websites, because I was mentally still alert, but my body was utterly spent.

I got to that point on the first day where there was no progress, just spinning of wheels. Always best to try another day when you feel like that. It took me another day to finish up the last details of this little shakeup. Oliver was a champ for the most part, which was great. I'm happy with the change of scenery, and I know the piano will get played more, closer to the natural light (like you suggested, David!).

I don't know if you've ever had one of these cathartic moments. A spontaneous and massive spurt of work. This happened to me about six months ago when I did some work to our kitchen. Just like this time, it was unplanned and disruptive and fruitful. It's sort of nice to take on a big task that you don't spend time anticipating first. If I had put what I did this week on a to-do list I would've spent weeks or months dreading it before I actually got to it. So funny how that works.

Tell me you know what I mean. I'm not a nut, am I?

Oh, don't forget to enter the donut pan giveaway. It closes at noon on Sunday. Have a great weekend! xoxo

To see more "corners" of our place, click here.

corners: small changes

I finally procured the banner I've been dying to get my hands on (see my banner collection here) from the recently closed Conservatory of Flowers Playland exhibit right before we took off for vacation. As soon as I got all of our bags unpacked (most tedious chore ever) I hung this baby.

It's so rad. Did you know they sell these, and banners from each exhibit after it closes, at the Conservatory of Flowers in their gift shop, and they don't cost much at all.

I displaced all the artwork (which was mostly my own) that had hung in this niche when I hung the banner. David was sad to see that the stencil cutouts we had pinned up of the four of our initials in that area were gone. It made me sad to see him sad, so I used my precious nanny time yesterday to surprise him by stenciling our initials on another wall, permanently.

Our precious nanny took this photo during precious nanny time.

I came back from our vacation inspired by airy spaces and wonderful weather, and was compelled to bring a little more of that into our place. Happens every time we go away for a stretch. I haven't moved in so, SO long, so every once in a while mixing it up feels really good.

corners: air plants

I wanted to show you a little something else before the weekend. Air plants! Our recent "kitchen renovation" needed a little greenery. I stopped at Paxton Gate the other day and found some really great air plants. I tacked one to the wall, and hung the other larger plant in front of the kitchen window from the ceiling. These are plants I may not kill, which would be great. My green thumb is highly selective. 

These photos don't really do it justice (our kitchen has only a north-facing window and is so dim), but they have warmed up the space nicely. We were used to a giant vine hovering over us for so many years, it's nice to have a little tiny bit of green back up there.


We also replaced the old, cooking grease covered strings of lights with new, white, soon-to-be cooking grease covered strings of lights. It's a nice change. It lifts the ceiling a little bit.


Have a great weekend, everyone!

corners: beautiful objects

Some things from around our home that I really love. Living around the corner from a jam packed mid-century furniture and housewares shop has it's advantages (and disadvantages). The toys were found on the cheapy-cheap on Etsy, and I have plans for them once I can pry them from Oliver's hands. They may find their way back to Etsy in their new incarnations.


We scored some lovely items at Stella's school auction last weekend as well. A gorgeous Heath bowl and a wonderful piece of art. 

 Catherineholm orange lotus enamelware plate design by Grete Prytz Kittelsen.

Move over Fire King, this is my new dishware obsession, and it's earthquake-proof.
I scored it at The Other Shop.

+++

Heath. Enough said.

+++

Russel Wright for Conant Ball side chair. Gorgeous.

Nice and wide, too. Also dragged home from The Other Shop.

 +++

 I've never seen an old toy like this before. So many working parts. Oliver has

taken it over as his "computer". It's charming.

 +++

 How beautiful is this FP carousel? Is it just me? I'm going

to dismantle it soon and put another "spin" on it.

 +++

"Red", by Derek Lynch. Temporarily obscured by desk lamps and burlesque props until we can

properly frame and hang it. Derek is a parent from Stella's school, and does some beautiful

and very interesting work.

corners: hearts

Hearts are much harder to find around here than, say, elephants. I found way fewer than I thought I would when I started poking around for them yesterday. The heart is not as ubiquitous as one might think!

A Teuscher crepe paper chocolate box my mother bought me

in downtown San Francisco years ago.

Heart shape cake pans I've had forever.

Beautiful Dutch Door Press tea towels.

Cookie cutters and some Play-Doh hearts Stella and I made so

long ago that they are growing some kind of freaky Play-Doh mold.

Stella helped me sweep the house for hearts and found

this card from our Eames House of Cards set.

This sweet letterpress card I keep meaning to give to David, by Carissa Potter. I love the radiator, it reminds me of being back east. You don't see too many clanky cast iron radiators out here in these parts. I really miss them! This one is electric, but still. By the way, this artist is kind of wonderful.

A dress it is possible I may never wear again, inspired by my
years and years of studying flamenco. Size eight. If you're
dying for it, let me know. I'm hopeful, but realistic.

And another gorgeous Dutch Door Press design. This is my valentine to my mother, who left yesterday and I am missing a lot already. She already saw it while she was here. Doubtful it'll get in the mail in time for Valentine's Day. Love you, Mom!

corners: repurposing

I am not the first genius to use a crate as a bookshelf, and most of the repurposing in our place is due to us running out of room. But I do love seeing the "creative reuse" of everyday things when they are used for purposes other than they were intended. One of my favorites in our place is reusing the old architectural beam detail samples from a project I worked on in Sausalito that are now bookends in Stella's room (you've seen the tour by now). But this one is the most practical:

Behold Oliver's changing table. A used hollow core interior door, cut down to my specifications and trimmed by my favorite contractor, Andrew, and set on top of a pair of stacked Utrecht flat files. I haven't had a home office set up for a couple of years now, so this was a great compromise (selling them being the other option). It's the perfect height, with lots of room for other things like diapers, wipes, blankets, a light, a fan, semi-clean clothes I don't want to put back in Oliver's dresser, etc. We changed Stella on top of an Ikea 2 x 4 Expedit bookshelf, after we gave away our traditional changing table to make room for the bookshelf. Just goes to show, you don't really need half the stuff you think you'll need when you have a baby.

If I ever get this guy potty trained, I wonder what to do with it next. It's so deep, and it's not easy to sit at. Not the greatest proportions for most uses, but it's a damn good changing table!

corners: the elephants in the room

I wanted to finish this post I've been thinking about lately before we start the downhill slide into the Christmas crazies. That's a super-collective we, by the way. 

What is it about the elephant? I love the elephant because it is peaceful to look at and easily iconic. When I was in India, another lifetime ago, I had the pleasure of watching a trained elephant in a Hindu temple realize he needed to relieve himself, back up ten feet to the gutter, and take the biggest pee I've ever seen. I have a photo I took of that moment somewhere, I'll have to find it.

I know people who have even more elephants in their houses than we do, which is amazing. Once you spot one, there's always another. People with kids usually have at least three times as many elephants, but almost everyone has at least a few.

Here are the ones I found just on a cursory run around the house this morning. Beat that!

 I made this little guy. He used to have a lot of friends.

 Key to the "chokeables" cabinet.

 One of many, many elephant toys (not to mention books).

 Older Fisher Price.

 Elephants on blankets, more where these came from.

One of the first gifts I bought for Stella. Windy had the same idea.

Horton.

The mobile I made for Stella out of five beautiful stuffed elephants. I treasure it and will hand it down to her, if I can ever find it again.