{ high & low designs }

sale!

2009-07-09T18:34:00.000-07:00

originally priced at $59.50 - scored today for $17. what a brilliant sale ... they're practically giving it away at j.crew. and mine is a khaki color ... not white.

coolhaus

2009-07-09T18:25:00.000-07:00

i've seen these guys on abbot kinney but hadn't sampled till caboom a few weekends ago. delish! now they're coming to tour da arts at smmoa on august 22, so excited. i'm hungry.

tepee

2009-07-09T17:47:00.000-07:00

i wouldn't mind a vast grassy lawn (wild grasses only) with a fun gravel pathway to a HUGE tepee. inside i would throw down some dhurries, pillows, laterns, and keep a constant tray set for tea with ginger scones. this tepee from dwr is pretty cool.

no, thank YOU

2009-07-09T09:19:00.001-07:00

ummm .... best photo / courtyard / fantasy location ever. apparently merci is a floral shop in paris (are they trying to kill me???) and i found it on coco & kelly this morning. merci pour le tip!

french food in aspen, co

2009-07-08T09:34:00.001-07:00

went to brexi brasserie for dinner last week. quite a cozy spot and they made a mean drink with champagne and vodka and raspberries and some secret liqueur which made for quite a doozy ...

fierce grace

2009-07-08T09:20:00.001-07:00

just watched this last night. diggg.

park studio

2009-07-07T10:40:00.000-07:00

our website is up! www.parkstudio.org

jeni's home improvements 1.2

2009-07-07T10:29:00.000-07:00

love this piece ... but as i said to jen ... it's nice to not have a deadline for furniture because it's so delicious when you come across the right piece, at the right price. it makes you feel like a genius.

object d'art

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

i don't want to cage a bird or be around a caged bird, but i do adore these antique bird cages. they might be lovely as an alternative to a chandelier over a dining room table ... ?

current read

2009-07-06T15:39:00.000-07:00

just picked up "the brief wondrous life of oscar wao" by junot diaz. quite a quick read ... and much more enlightening about the social and political history of the dominican republic than i was expecting. i feel like i'm getting a little education on the complicated, vibrant, and violent past of one of the two nations on the island of hispaniola. there's also a bunch of spanish peppered throughout ... which again reminds me how much i want and need to learn the language.

roddick after wimbledon

2009-07-06T15:31:00.001-07:00

poor guy. federer is such a badass ... i was pulling for both guys but felt like roddick should have taken it purely based on the fact that roger's won so many times already. let's share the wealth!

baby shower

2009-07-06T15:23:00.000-07:00

just starting to think about christina's baby shower. looking through tiny prints, i came across a few invitations that i thought were sweet.

flower etiquette

2009-07-06T14:57:00.000-07:00

is it ok to take flower clippings from a neighbor? i just jacked these from the lush bouganvilla sitting on the cross-alley neighbor's wall. i'm sure they won't notice these little cuts missing ... but it poses an ethical question about taking from other people's property vs. the entirely public nature of nature. with non-profits like fallen fruit who define public fruit as "all fruit which on or overhanging public spaces such as sidewalks, streets or parking lots" it seems that the rules of propriety are shifting ... and if you're taking these flowers and fruits from what might be considered public spaces and enjoying the hell out of them, there's nothing wrong with it. wonder what my next door neighbor would think about me making some bouquets out of her pink english roses ...

jeni's home improvements 1.1

2009-07-06T14:55:00.000-07:00

digging this photo that jeni's scoring for her pad.

new addition!

2009-06-25T13:31:00.000-07:00

welcome to the family you beautiful photograph you! and thank you to karen halverson ...

calligraphy

2009-06-25T12:37:00.001-07:00

i'm determined to learn this art form ... i've even found an instructor ... now i just have to take the next step ...

or if i happen to bail out on that, i might just gather some supplies and attempt to teach myself through some youtube clips.

gonzo

2009-06-25T11:42:00.000-07:00

just watched the 2008 documentary on hunter s. thompson. quite good actually. i never knew that "raoul duke" ran for sheriff of aspen, co. what a difference THAT would have made on main street!

going to be in aspen for the 4th of july and want to explore the thompson memorial in woody creek ...

pesto

2009-06-25T10:07:00.001-07:00

finally made my own pesto from the happy basil that's been thriving in a pot of mine. just threw in some leaves, pine nuts, parm, garlic, olive oil, and love. for dinner, i tossed it with israeli couscous, tomatoes, and burrata...

style

2009-06-25T09:45:00.000-07:00

i do like perusing through whowhatwear.com - but i don't always connect with everything they do. this recent post, however, got me! love supergas, love gwyn, love the mediterranean, love ...

j.b. blunk

2009-06-25T09:32:00.000-07:00

love woodworking ... reminds me of my dad tinkering away in the barn, the dining room table, bench, and armoire that he built ...

first read about blunk in c magazine. (why do i find so many great articles in that silly magazine?? ... all these photos are from the article) anyway, i grabbed this description of the artist from the j.b. blunk website:

"Back in the 1960s and 1970s if you were a woodworker in Northern California, you would probably have know the name of J.B. Blunk. At the time, Blunk was crafting furniture and installations out of redwood, which were unprecedented in their size and degree of abstraction.

It is hard to know where to place Blunk as a craftsman. Though he has achieved his primary success as a woodworker, he has also created an extensive body of work in clay, carved stone and cast bronze and has even made jewelry and weavings. Furthermore, he tends to blur the categories of furniture and non-functional sculpture as if they weren’t there. For Blunk, the issue of art status does not come up; he works without a conception of such a fixed category. His attitude towards such issues is reminiscent of the Japanese indifference towards distinction between art and craft.

In 1949, he graduated from UCLA, where he had studied ceramics with Laura Andreson, and was almost immediately drafted into the Korean War. After two years of Army service, he managed to get himself discharged into Japan instead of returning to the United States. There he searched for the Japanese pottery he had seen while in Andreson’s classes. He was rewarded with a chance encounter at a mingei (folk craft) shop with Isamu Noguchi, the prominent sculptor. On hearing of his interests, Noguchi introduced him to the famed potter Rosanjin Kitaoji, who took on Blunk as an apprentice for several months. From there, he went on to work for eighteen months in the ceramic studio of another master, Toyo Kaneshige, in Bizen. By the time he returned to California in 1954, he was thoroughly steeped in the Japanese stoneware tradition."

— Glenn Adamson, Reprinted from Woodwork Magazine, October 1999 Edited by Suzanne Royce Silk for the show California Spirit, Bolinas Musuem, January 8 – March 5, 2000

thornwillow

2009-06-19T13:06:00.000-07:00

i read about thornwillow press - a limited-edition publishing company and boutique stationery outfit in the current issue of vanity fair. immediately the write-up conjured up the image of a turn-of-the-century printing press in an old farmhouse in upstate New York - i'm just in love with that vision. how romantic ...

here are some images of their motifs and books ...

bundt

2009-06-19T12:48:00.000-07:00

finally used my bundt pan! i made ina garten's lemon cake recipe which was adapted by smitten kitchen. it looks divine - but i fear that it might be a bit on the sugar overload side of things ... eating it tonight, so we'll just have to wait and see ...

the photo is almost the best part of this ... if you notice, amalie is playing in the background.

datebook

2009-05-31T21:12:00.000-07:00

i just bought this online. so excited to get it in the mail and start writing in all of my appointments ... in black pen.

pin-up

2009-05-31T20:45:00.000-07:00

i love the simplicity of tacking up photos, postcards, .. in this way. very chic. i took these images at pali house ...

more of northern california

2009-05-31T20:42:00.000-07:00

cavallo point was divine.