A few months ago we bought a dusty, spider-webby, and neglected bench at a garage sale. R put in a lot of work and today we enjoy this lovely almost 10-foot long bench. He used Tung oil on the undersides to bring out the beauty of the wood and painted the top.

It's just so simple... and it's perfect. It almost looks like it belongs at the cabin. And speaking of the cabin, the louvered wood slats on the patio are one my favorite parts. Not only are they graphically striking, but they filter the light so beautifully. Given that this house was built in the '40's and hasn't been that well maintained, it's wonderful to see these original details still functioning.

If this past month's American Craft Magazine cover doesn't reel you in, their website with unpublished photos will.

left: cardigans, part of FLOCK by Christien Meindertsma (on the cover)
right: tools Sam Maloof uses for his woodworking (on the website)

{images from American Craft, April/May 2008, Vol. 68, No. 2}

I like these two images together. They kind of represent the hard and soft aspects of my interests... wool and wood. Part of me wants to be surrounded by wool and other natural fibers and delving into textiles. The other part of me wants to be covered in saw dust all day, working wood and making furniture. Even though I am someone who spends almost every waking minute on a computer, it's really working with my my hands that I prefer.

I'm bidding a fond farewell to some beasts! They left for England today and will be part of a launch for a new little shop {I'll post a link when it's up and running}.

Good bye, you little guys.... write to me!

Oh, their names are, left to right:
Albrecht, Owen, Colin, Marion, Margot
Fritz, Algernon, Lindy, Roscoe and Borys

This is what I see if I look to the left from where I am sitting. I like the shadows and colors on my wall tonight. A reminder of some things I want to do...

As I write this I know it sounds ridiculous, but it feels like I am just too busy to be inspired. I am sure there is a more eloquent way to phrase the predicament I am in, but that is what it boils down to. It's like I am wearing blinders... I cannot see anything but these upcoming deadlines. Luckily, I am working right now at place with a lot of yummy magazines in the design office. So while I wait for things to print or save or what have you, I am able to quickly flip through some wonderful eye-candy magazines whose subscriptions I cannot afford and I get to indulge in some true visual bliss, fleeting as it is. Because I can't let myself get completely distracted by the beautiful things I see I am holding them in my mind for a later date.

This one comes from Azure, July/August 2007. Interconnected red rings by Patricia Urquiola for the De Padova showroom.

I recently stopped by The Outdoor Room. Although their pots and furniture are SO out of my price range, I fell in love with a few things, like the white pot above. I couldn't walk away empty-handed so I picked up a few cacti for R's place. Hopefully my next purchase will be this white pot.... after I win the lottery :)

Realization: I need a sizeable outdoor space so I can play out my fabulous urban garden fantasies.

I am doing some work for our local museum of antiquities, so I've got statues, busts and exquisite display spaces on my mind.

I think designing a display space, one that holds back without overtaking the art but that which also commands it's own audience, is a very delicate task. One of my favorite architects, Carlo Scarpa has done that quite well. Above is his Canova plaster cast gallery. A breath of fresh air.

{images from the book Carlo Scarpa: Intervening with History; photos by Guido Guidi}

Above is Gerald Allsorts. An true experiment. He's totally wonky and weird, but I like the looks of him and think he needs the company of some other weird fellows. I just need to make it through some deadlines, and then I can make Gerald some friends.

And, wouldn't you know it? The fire flared up again early this morning. Right across the road from R's house. The firefighters came right way, so it's hopefully all taken care of now, but it gives me the willies.

Two of my favorite photos... from Marie Claire's Restaurer, Renover, Patiner: En 30 Recettes.

So serene.

I just died and went to cute website heaven: Apolline à Paris {via le train fantôme}

The "what do to you grab in a fire?" question is clearly haunting me.

Now that we are in the aftermath phase, Shawn from Island Sweet said it perfectly on a recent comment: "you must be looking at everything in your home with different eyes..."

And I am... now I am obsessed with every object I own... muttering to myself all day... do I need this? Is that really neccessary? Can I live without this item? Why am I such a pack rat? Since the fire, I have been surveying my apartment wondering if I really need all these bits and pieces.

So today I started to organize my buttons (which I realize is not really part of the exercise of getting rid of the unnecessary) but I cannot live without buttons, so I thought maybe I could at least organize them into a more manageable, usable way?... and this was as far as I got. Typical me, I got carried away with how pretty they looked and put them on the scanner instead of actually organizing the buttons. They're now back in the big glass jar, same as always :)

And this morning while I was washing dishes, I was looking at some wonderful little pieces I have. They really are nothing... nothing expensive or rare; they're not even attached to any extraordinary or wonderful memory, I just have them... and they are beautiful... and I love them. While they may not be part of the things I would automatically grab in a fire, if I lost them I would be heart-broken.

So... enough of the fire! I said I was moving on. I had better get to it :)

Some good news: Bencke has a shop on MadeIt... go and check it out. I've mentioned Gillian before, and just to reiterate, I love her work. She recently moved from Newcastle to Fremantle and so far it seems like a good fit ... and for all you lucky Australians, she'll be exhibiting at the Footpath Gallery in Fremantle in June/July as well as in Wangaratta, Vic. Also, find the latest musings on her blog.

House is safe, shoes are safe :) Thank you everyone! All your sweet and thoughtful comments are so much appreciated. It is so comforting to know that you are all out there.

Now that we can see the burn line and understand exactly how close the fire came to the house, it's very humbling. The firefighters did an incredible job. I swear, the night we left and from where we watching the fire after we were evacuated, the glow in the sky right where the house is seemed was so intense; I had resigned myself to the fact that house was going to go. I just couldn't imagine that it wouldn't.

But here we are, safe and sound... and happily moving on :)

With that in mind, I received an email the other day from Our Children's Gorilla. I am in love love love with their products! Their mobiles are fantastic; above are the Ladies, and the wood chap is Gary. Actually everything (including the photography) is great... I'm liable to put a link up to all of their products :) Instead, you can just go to their shop here.

... anyway... just want to say thanks again for all the nice comments and well wishes.

I was going to post some more fire images, but decided to post one I took of our shoes left neatly outside the cabin. Late last night we were finally evacuated. We almost didn't think they wre going to. But after a day of a what looked like a pretty well contained fire, the wind picked up and without the helicopters it jumped to the ridge right behind the house. It was incredible to see, but frightening.

We weren't exactly running around like chickens with their heads cut off trying to load up the cars in order to evacuate, but we weren't exactly prepared either :) It's rather surreal trying to decide what to leave behind.

The fire is still going and will do so for a few more days. Luckily no structures have been burned, and when we are allowed to go back up to the house, I expect our shoes to be sitting outside the door right where we left them.

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In other news, Anna over at sub-studio invited me for a little interview. Thanks!

We had a long sleepless night yesterday. A huge wild fire broke out in the afternoon and continued through the night one canyon east of R's cabin. Luckily we have the wind (or lack thereof) in our favor and it's very slow moving. Hundreds of houses close to us were evacuated, but we have been lucky.

The helicopters and planes that drop the water don't fly after dusk, so the night is always a different story. Yesterday afternoon it did not look so bad, and then in the night it flared up and now half of the mountain was charred and the fire has jumped the canyon. The helicopters started up again at dawn and this was the sunrise. Full of smoke and dark.

The fire is still not out, but it looks very well contained from where we are. Fingers crossed the wind stays down tonight again.

I knew I wasn't crazy for loving my sprouted, neglected vegetables! I was hunting for a different image in my my huge scrap book of images snipped out of magazines and newspapers but instead I found this lovely photo of sweet potatoes. And given my recent foray in sprouting my own veggies, I had to post the image.

Don't quote me on this, but I'm fairly sure I got this newspaper clipping from the New York Times, a few years back. I remember it was included in a spread about some great NY apartment/loft.... the kind of space that makes me yearn for a bright and airy, industrial but warm space. These sweet potatoes remind me of that... a little soft space within a hard space.

Beauty from things just taking their course.

So far my onion is doing really well :) and I am just going to let it grow.... why not, right?

Oh, how I wish I was a fabulous garland.

{via Black Eiffel}

Feeling much better lately... less grumpy for sure :) finding some good inspirational work always helps... like this installation by Carlos Amorales.... I would love to be in that space. I pretty much love anything en masse... it's alway so powerful.

{via Halcyon Days, a lovely blog that is new to me.}

I am feeling so grumpy today... not sure why. And when the grump in me rears its ugly head, I have to make sure I take a moment to look at the things I like the most, to help lift the spirits a little. Eduardo Chillida's work is just one of those things.

Quiet and monumental.

This is El Peine del viento, Wind Combs. If I were in San Sebastian, Spain, this is where I would be right now... just sitting there enjoying the sea spray and the rust.

{images from the Museum Chillida-Leku and Wikipedia}

Introducing the newest beasts:

Jerome :: Rodrigo :: Birgit

Birgit is beast no. 100... so it's a special day for me :) I like knowing that there is such a large family of beasts out there... and more to come!

It seems I am cultivating two indoor gardens: one in my kitchen (a result of neglect... but with beautiful consequences), and one in the studio.

It is no secret that I am looking for a new workspace, and natural light will be an essential ingredient in the search. However, I will miss this raking light in the late afternoons

All day I couldn't stop thinking about all the little houses. So after braving traffic and barely making it home in time to catch the last rays of light that stream into my apartment before the sun sets, I quickly carved some little houses out of soap. I love how the light moves through the them; they look like little jewels sitting on my kitchen table.

I quite like the result... and now I want to make some more, but without the rushing part :)

I know I should want to be more organized with my studio and try to tame the mass of materials that lie about my own workspace... but when I see images like these of Donna Wilson's London studio, it just doesn't seem that important. Beautiful chaos!

{from I.D. Magazine, The I.D. 40 Creative Workspaces, Jan/Feb 2008)

There have been wonderful little houses floating around the blogging world lately. I am in love with this sweet little installation by Kim Hiorthøy (via dear ada). And of course there are the little block houses by Chigo (via Hoping for happy Accidents and Oh Happy Day.) And Irene of Bloesem also found some lovelies (again via dear ada) by Ludovik Boden.

The 'house' seems to translate well into other forms too... take a look at the wooden plates at Tas-ka.

All of these are all so simple and lovely... they make me want to try to make a set for myself... stay tuned!

A lovely photo by my friend Hisako and her husband Bo who are traveling in South America. It's from a gentlemen's clothing store's back courtyard somewhere in Argentina.

Also, check out Hisako's other blog... Dimple Pimple ... a delightful catalog of those little things we neglect to notice when we walk in urban areas. A nice reminder to look down.

"A left-over hole in the ground is named 'Dimple Pimple' to imply and acknowledge the organic growth and decay of city surface. Identified holes are numbered and sold along with it's photograph, location map, seed of native plants, soil and water bottle."

. . ..... . . .. . . .... . . . . . . . . . . .... . . .. . . ... . . .
And on another note ... Marguerite.

I am nearing my 100th beast. I can't believe it!

My newest little fellow... Algernon. I have a real soft spot for the hammer-head beasts. I don't know... he just looks like he knows more than he's letting on :)

This morning when I did a walk-through of the house that I am working on I was blown away by the light. Now that most of the house has been drywalled, everything is so clean looking and the everything is absolutely luminous. The drywall dust is still settling, making the light even more intense.

And the tub, like a marooned ship, is one of my favorite moments in the house right now. I love seeing the process of things evolve, the under belly, the not-so-pretty and the unfinished. Sometimes I love these more that the completed work.

I've been paging through some past issues of Communication Arts and arrived at this spread of trees in a bag. Done for the World Wildlife Federation, this ad campaign by Meridian Communications of Bangalore, India is meant to "inspire people to plant as many trees as possible to heal the environment. This is part of a campaign of 30 messages, each of which conveyed one benefit of planting trees."

While I think some of the messages are a little charged, I still like and appreciate the simple and strong graphic sensibility of the project. And besides, I am all for planting trees, so despite whatever message appeals to you the most, the bottom line is: trees are good ... plant one :)

Three things I Love:

1. being up high in the rocky outcrops of Joshua Tree
2. my Blundstones
3. campfires

We're back from the desert and in the thick of it again after three days of quiet. So wonderful to be out there with the crazy rocks and trees, the streaking clouds and airplane trails, and the bright bright stars and pure blackness. It's still amazing to me that all this is only two hours away from Los Angeles.

So, it's nose back to the grindstone... until the next time we can go out there or the quiet.

I am itching to have a dinner party. Like this one... as seen from above.

{once again, image source unknown, but very much loved and appreciated!}

I'm heading out the desert again. See you in a few days... I'm actually feeling rather homesick, and I haven't even left yet. Just being traveling a lot lately. But I can't really complain, can I?

As for tomorrow, Happy April Fool's Day to you all...may many jokes and pranks make you laugh!

I justed added one of my favorite cards to my Etsy store ... I should have sent one to myself this past weekend! I just about lost my own marbles over the last few days when the entire contents of my studio lived on the floor while I literally watched the paint dry on the tables I decided to paint at the last minute. I picked the worst time to eliminate my work surfaces and I was about to pull my hair out.

But now ... finally ... and with all my marbles still thankfully in place, the paint is dry, the desks are in place, things are where they should be and my studio no longer looks like a bomb went off in it.

Some Etsy updates:

Albrecht looks a little grumpy and the twins don't have a care in the world.

Be rest assured, my desk will never look this away again... unfortunately. I bit the bullet and finally cleaned everything off and finished my first coat of paint on my desks today. Oh and don't be fooled, I really did paint half of one desk with everything just shoved to one side before I came to my senses. I am that lazy. Tomorrow I'll do the second coat and hopefully Sunday I can apply a sealer.

Painting these doors (lovingly referred to as desks) has been something I've been meaning to do forever. Even since architecture school I've been working on doors from Home Depot and simple saw horses and I can't image anything better... easy to move, cheap, and a huge amount of space if you don't clutter it all up like I do.

It's not like the images show even a hint of the color, but I chose a very lovely green-grey called Whale from Pratt & Lambert. At some point I'll also use Tung oil on the wooden saw horses to bring them to life a little. Fingers crossed that I get to that while the desks are cleared off... knowing me, I'll try to apply the oil in place and make a right mess.