this work is simply amazing. A brilliant artist.
8.11.08
The San Francisco Flower Mart
Went the other day with good friend Gayle and these made me want to do a wedding, with flowers like this, and a brilliant and charming bride and groom...
There were seas of hydrangeas. Continents of color. It was heady and somewhat overwhelming and deliciously glorious. And it smelled good, too, like the old days when the florist opened his glass-fronted case and the cool sweet perfumed air rushed out and wrapped you up in it...
Above, the recipe for a perfect thanksgiving table. Just add turkey. And cranberries, on the side.
In green and white, Gayle's impeccable picks...she has wonderful taste...the orange flower stuck it's head in, but only for the picture.
I sort of wanted to just take everything home and start events-r-us.
Strawberry Blonde
This morning, found myself staring at the art of Carl Larsson and thinking that his rendering of linens, bedclothes, garments, and thus and such was magnificent, as well as timely and--that old chestnut--classic. (The above version doesn't do justice to the color. Will hunt for better.)Wouldn't you love to have the stripey curtains tucked behind those Swedish beds, or draped in that domino-esque way on the ceiling? Those little red wool tufts hanging at perfect intervals above it all? Is this not magic?
And, below, there's a strawberry blonde on a sled that makes me miss my sister...but not those long northern nights that we knew in Germany.
Do you remember the smell of melted ice on wool, mittens with a slight crust of snow from the lunky snowman we tried to roll together in the yard? Pinecones worked pretty well for eyes, and there was always a sprig of cedar for a lame little arm or two. Carrots for noses were not so easy, so a rock often sufficed. And, since they were there again, more pinecones for the smile. By the time we got to putting him all together, it was sort of done already...wasn't there a cup of hot chocolate waiting for us, maybe? Shouldn't we just plop his head on, stick those pinecones well in, and go somewhere warm?
I love the pale sun working it's way through the frostridden sky. And I miss that strawberry blonde, and her parents.
Love to all in Virginia, New York, Germany and elsewhere.
6.11.08
Happy Day! Our Table is Featured in California Home+Design
a little snapshot from the table
created for
Holidays on a High Note
2.11.08
Russian Children, 1909 and The Color of Truth
It's so out-of-context to see- in shades that are true-
color photographs that are 100 years old.
We're used to the old black and white;
often gorgeous yet utterly drained of hue.
A bit of a shock to look at these and remember
that what we're accustomed to seeing
was just part of the story. The part without color.
And what might be more important than real color
for telling a true story?
Young Russian peasant women
near the small town of Kirillov.
Photographer to the Tsar:
The photographs of
Sergei Mikhailovich Prokudin-Gorskii
(1863-1944) offer a vivid portrait of
a lost world -- the Russian Empire
on the eve of World War I
and the coming Revolution.
Children sit near White Lakein the north of European Russia.
"Born in Murom, Vladimir Province, Russia, in 1863 and educated as a chemist, Prokudin-Gorskii devoted his career to the advancement of photography. He studied with renowned scientists in St. Petersburg, Berlin, and Paris. His own original research yielded patents for producing color film slides and for projecting color motion pictures. Around 1907 Prokudin-Gorskii envisioned and formulated a plan to use the emerging technological advancements that had been made in color photography to systematically document the Russian Empire. Through such an ambitious project, his ultimate goal was to educate the schoolchildren of Russia with his "optical color projections" of the vast and diverse history, culture, and modernization of the empire. Outfitted with a specially equipped railroad car darkroom provided by Tsar Nicholas II, and in possession of two permits that granted him access to restricted areas and cooperation from the empire's bureaucracy, Prokudin-Gorskii documented the Russian Empire around 1907 through 1915. He conducted many illustrated lectures of his work. Prokudin-Gorskii left Russia in 1918, after the Russian Revolution, and eventually settled in Paris, where he died in 1944."
Thanks to Mena Trott's wonderful Dollar Short:
Turn of the Century Autochromes for inspiration.
1.11.08
Tree Huts: Madison Square Garden
From:
"Tree huts in particular are an emerging focus of Kawamata’s work; a crystallization of Kawamata’s interest in the architecture of shelter and of the insertion of private objects into public spaces as a method of renegotiating the meaning of both."
See:
Thanks to the ever-inspiring Shedworking
for the heads-up...
it's been fun to watch this become a reality.
Tree houses of dreams, yes?
31.10.08
28.10.08
27.10.08
"...a Stunning Thanksgiving Table"
Kim Boatman, Rick Martin, and I teamed up several times to present holiday tables (and other bits of decoration, for other bits of holidays) for the Mercury News. It was a wonderful undertaking, and involved a bit of hard work and preparation...
All fun, because it was a most excellent team. I believe we enjoyed working together and came up with some pretty good stuff. The Merc liked us. We were asked to cover a number of holidays after another.
I was the designer/stylist/prop master, Rick the photographer, Kim the writer. They are both magnificent. It was a great lark; and, now, when October rolls around, I grow somewhat nostalgic for the tables. As luck would have it, a few still seem to exist on the web.
26.10.08
The Insomniacs Kitchen, a New Delight from Artist Emily Lister
I absolutely love a wonderful new blog called "The Insomniacs Kitchen."
It's charming and spritely and cheerful and it makes me want to learn Yiddish and cook things in my dutch oven (it's about time...that dutch oven was getting lonely in the cupboard) and try to make Raisin Bran Muffin Cake and only eat whole grains. Why? Because Emily says so, and because she makes it all sound so deliciously fun.
Come to find out, Emily doesn't just write wonderful bits about blackstrap molasses gingerbread and Laurie Colwin and the Old Sturbridge Village Cookbook. (I still have a little straw broom from Sturbridge Village, acquired at the ripe old age of seven. It is, for me, a great prize...it brings me a bit of handmade bliss...)
Well, back to wondrous Emily...she is also the incredibly talented illustrator of over a dozen books, and an extraordinarily gifted painter. Please do drop by and visit her new digs!
Above: a snapshot from the
Wouldn't it be fun (and just a little swanky)
to have a bit of tea and gingerbread at this table,
after cooking up yummy goodies from
I think so.
23.10.08
Gifted. It's a Wrap.
Another little bit from our table for
"Holidays on a High Note."
The purple ribbons are tied around a
cheery jangle of bracelets with tiny bells,
sure enough to please any recipient...
wouldn't it be fun if the box
contained a pair of chic vintage gloves?
Happy hands!
22.10.08
Happy Places III
Another quick triparound the heavenly cottage[see happy places one]:these are just snapshots, &taken spur of the moment;simple & by the lake, the cottage is amost wondrous space, the creation ofan exceedingly talented designer. Formore of his magnificent work,go to red|bar.
Happy Places I
I hope that our incredibly talented
man in the hamptons
doesn't mind that I've posted these...
it's just that, as we cruise into fall,
and summer fades to a glimmer on the far horizon...
well, I wanted to take one more look.
You can see why.
This heavenly place: isn't it amazing?
Don't you want one?
If it looks like the cottage of your dreams,
I can verify that it most certainly is...
Cheers to a very gifted KB
(another strange coincidence--see below--all the marvelous KB's in our lives...I'm even married to one. Two of the others are in these photos, as are the birthday girls from St. Barbara's day, and St. Barbara + one).
Next happy place?
Surely, we will visit Hawaii, again, on the blog.
With Mom and Dad.
Magical.
Just like them.
21.10.08
Six Degrees of St. Barbara
Of course, you know that St. Barbara is
the patron saint of the Artillery (go Dad!).
But did you know that her feast day is on
December 4th?
Imagine.
A lovely day it is, as is the day after.
These are the dates, respectively,
of my daughter's and my sister's birthdays.
It often amazes me that St. Barbara
shares her name (and date)
with many of the dearest friends and family in my life.
Happy Birthday, a few days late, to
Barbara Catherine.
This coincidence of Barbaras has often caused me to wonder
if there are, really, any coincidences.
And, I promise, there will be more pictures of flowers soon.
It's just that, tonight, I am floral-ed out,
having been madly arranging for days now.
Exhausting, exhilarating, enlightening--
I adore flowers, working with them, looking at them...and,
golly,
I surely would love to cultivate
a sweet little quarter-acre of some...
the gardener in me,
perhaps she is just
a
late
bloomer?
19.10.08
Dear Eloise! "Oh my Lord I am absolutely so busy I don't know how I can possibly get everything done"
Like Eloise, I am scampering around this weekend preparing a table design for the luscious "Holidays on a High Note" event in Atherton at the venerable Circus Club. So, please be patient and wait for further postings...some of which are sure to include, happily, the finished table: "A Birthday at the Little House."
There will be egg cups.
And, as you know,
Leaving you with
a lovely pic of Clara Bow,
who looks...well,
not that busy.
But awfully stylish.
16.10.08
Tales of the Twentieth Century: Mr. Dole, Mr. Vickers, and Mr. Everen Save the Subways From Gloom
Herbert Dole, Squire Joseph Vickers, and Jay Van Everen,
"all classmates at Cornell University's College of Architecture,
designed most of the plaques and tile work on the N/R line,
and in subway stations above Grand Central Terminal
on the East Side and below
Times Square on the West Side."
From
When I snapped the above photo this summer
(I'd fallen in love
with the mosiacs in the subways, particularly one
that was the most charming little house...we seem to run past it
at the speed of light, surely late to something),
little did I know that
I'd be meeting--a few months later--an
absolutely marvelous woman who knows first-hand of
the magnificent architect behind the art...
life is full of wonderful little miracles, isn't it?
15.10.08
12.10.08
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)