couldn't be any better, all as it should be

bell'occhio

10 brady street

san francisco

6 maple honey caramels [one winter in the city]

san francisco

richard picasso picasso peter david bethany: permanent light

you have been here sometime

at

LAMA

photo:

bethany nauert

richard dorso:

the collection

of

brilliant.

congratulations

on a job

well

done,

mr. john:

gorgeous. all.

3 ways to make yourself happy

Even better than chocolate, and lasts longer:

help out

a magnificent group of people

who are swimming to

make

a difference...

Abilities United

is in the San Francisco Bay area-

it's

a non-profit agency

that provides education, training and

support so that

people

can

live

more independently. HERE.

(the other 2 ways? earl grey & rose otto, at miette in the ferry building)

grasshopper & friends

grasshopper chair & friends

from

Tod Donobedian

in

San Francisco

just when i was trying to be a monk

things i think i need,

part one

i'd live at the desk.

spin my entire front room

around the cloth (for some

reason, the color gold- in

textiles- looks new and fresh

and beyond magnificent to me

these days. who knows why?).

and the display case. i would

open a store just to use that

display case. honestly. happily.

all:

brilliant

michael donaldson antiques

san francisco (of course)

love letters

claudia schwartz's

artistry never ceases

to amaze me.

her bell'occhio

has so clearly

influenced the art of our time-

it's really something perfectly

extraordinary. from the moment so

many of us first laid eyes on the shop,

sitting- still- on the small corner in the

city that seems- because bell'occhio is

there- suffused with magic, claudia's

amazing vision and brilliant artistry

has influenced our lives. it seems

to me that she is truly one of the

masters of our age, and i'd put

forth that the whole endeavor

and- most especially- it's

proprietress ought to be

considered one of our

national treasures.

brava, bell'occhio!

all images: bell'occhio

wake

heath

(& thank you, beth)

marine layer

good fog

dear blue bottle,

yes

four pm today at the ferry building

(...to love #9) ART OF THIS CENTURY

It was a lovely sunny day in the city.

Fort Mason was beautiful; the colors

of the sky and the water and the bridge

were not to be equaled. It was pretty much

like heaven (in that sweet San Francisco way).

After excellent lunch + book visiting + art

shopping, zoomed over to the SFMOMA &

found the Anniversary Show in full swing

& it's a doozy. You ought to stop by, if

you already haven't. Did you know that

(in days gone by) you could sometimes

arrange to purchase art as it was being

exhibited in museums? The sketches

above are from papers that Calder sent

with an installation of his art...it's magnificent

to see his directions for setting up the work, but

the truly critical bits of information, as I see it,

are the numbers (prices!) scrawled below the

diagrams for each piece.

$300 for a Calder, anyone?

(long ago and far away)

The other correspondence (all snapped with

my trusty old iPhone, which seems to always

be there when I need it, unlike my trusty

camera) is between Peggy Guggenheim

and the founding director of the museum,

Dr. Grace Morley. The pics aren't great,

but you can click on them and sort of

get the gist. What really got me was

Peggy's fabulous business stationery.

And the price of the Pollock.

Art of this Century (and forevermore).

sweets for the sweet on mother's day

happy mother's day

with great love

sweets courtesy miette, hayes valley

so much to love 8: lotus bleu

lotus bleu

hayes street

so much to love about san francisco 7: cake and coffee

get thee upstairs!

bluebottle coffee

& rooftop garden

cakery at the

sfmoma

(happy birthday)

public

bikes

so much to love about san francisco 6: birch

the

incomparable

birch

5: chinatown

so much to love about san francisco 4: The Haight

this is from a

to-die-for shop

on the haight; i

have the card in

my (again, voluminous)

files. when it turns up

i promise to post the

name. please go there.

mail early in the day (more to love in sf)

i adore the huntington hotel

it is charming and warm and

somewhat quite grand, which you

really can't tell from these photos

because i have a habit of taking

pictures of rather odd things but

somewhere in my voluminous

photo bank (too voluminous,

must sort soon) there are better

pics of this sweet hideaway and if

you go there don't forget to have

dinner at The Big 4 downstairs or

you will miss half the fun. yep.

(plus there is a heavenly spa)