tatami decor progress

When you've stored as many things as we have anticipating to decorate a living room one day, it's nice to finally see that day! This is the progress we've made in the tatami space. My parent's old capiz chandelier is hanging in the corner, an old yukata from my mother-in-law by the window. On top of the fireplace, a vintage gold obi to replace a mantle, our Carlee Fernandez antelope fanny pack piece, Shanghai street photo by Doug Kim, and a vase and silver Tangle toy from Jon. Table cloth is 2 yards of fabric I bought a lo-o-o-ng time ago because it spoke to me. The only things we bought recently were the kotazu (a japanese table with a heater inside), the cushioned tatami chairs, Mexican rock pebbles not visible on the hearth, and the two fabulous J.A. wool pillow covers to bring back the feeling of the Parker. Oh ya, and Mr. Buddah in the corner who keeps us company when we eat dinner on the tatami.

printed grocery sacks

Being eco friendly is getting easier by the minute! Now we have collapsible grocery sacks in prints! Via It's (K)not Wood, via Shelterific.

fly away

Groovy helmet in the Isolee window display.

yellow door

I was always taking photos of doors for some reason. This was a nighttime shot that I couldn't resist.

Puerta America Hotel

In continuing with the documentation of my Spain trip, I want to share my wild experience in a Zaha Hadid room at the Puerta America Hotel in Madrid. It was wild in the sense that it was so surreal - all white, no straight edges or plains, a little blinding at times, kinda like living in an underground ice cavern with no sense of time, begining, or end. The entire room is molded out of a soft and supple white semi matte plastic material with industrial quality strength. Hidden lights can be set to daytime, evening or nighttime mode making it feel like you are in Superman's cave when set for night. The texture of a light cool grey carpet is the only thing that attempts to ground you and the 'do not disturb' sign as well as your room number is a magical glow from a seemingly invisible door. Each floor of the hotel has it's own equally wild theme created by the most reknown of the international designers. It's a 25 minute metro ride from the center of town, but totally worth a stay if you want to experience a Disneyland for adults. Above: Floor 4 Eva Castro Iraola and Holger Kehne's faceted steel walkway, Floor 3 David Chipperfield 's poppy luxe lounge, Floor 6 Marc Newson's cohesive clash of red laquer and white marble, and Floor 12 Jean Nouvel's neon Asia. Wild.

Kenzo S/S'07

Spring/Summer '07 ad for Kenzo. I love the svelte deconstruction.

courtyard

the things people do... fascinating isn't it.

There's a Buddah in my kitchen!

Photographing Buddah in the chaos of the kitchen.

metalwork around spain

Organizing vacation photos has been taking an eternity, especially since I took hundreds of digital photos. Worth it in the end though. I'm trying to group together similar themes I found all over Spain. These are shots of functional and fine metalwork. Wish we had these here!

owl billboard

you can imagine my excitement when i spotted this in the distance during our long walk to sagrada familia.

barcelona patterns

images from our trip to barcelona, spain. such a wonderful place! spotting patterns everywhere ...
fruit trees from the airplane, flats in plac del santa maria, the number 5, fireplace at upstairs at vincon, tiles.

colors of spring

Found an old stack of tear sheets from my beloved Bazaar magazines from the 90's when it was the vision of Liz Tilberis, Patrick Demarchelier, and Fabien Baron. I remember being so mesmerized by how modern and fresh it felt, like nothing I had ever seen before. Does this date? Documented as fall colors, but feels like spring to me.

fabulously green

fabulouslygreen.blogspot.com is a great green blog my friend maria is editing for!

25 Ways to Go Green Without Going Insane

via ATLA from Los Angeles Magazine, the "25 Ways to Go Green Without Going Insane" list. Nice.

a user's guide to the 21st century

world changing, a user's guide to the 21st century is a really great reference book i purchased at reform school. it answers to a lot of the questions about the all the environmental issues facing us and ideas in how to approach them. i am reading about consumption, why china wins, healing polluted land, building a green home and even about the hidden vitality of slums. i like that these are specific examples. hard to see from the photo, but it's as big as a textbook or large bible. everyone should read this.

japanese sweets

admiring the packaging on japanese sweets, then the flavor - the first was dried persimmon with white bean and the second, yuzu citrus truffle style dessert, all on the new tatami! thanks yuka!

eric kent wines

last night, we stopped by our local watering hole, colorado wine company, for no corkage wednesdays and picked up this lovely bottle of eric kent rose. i discovered eric kent wines last year when i was attracted to their wine label. i'm guilty of buying labels, i'll admit. they are a small vinyard up north who dedicate the entire front label to artists and leave the necessary verbage to the back side. this front is by painter sharon eisly.

freestyling the living room

check out dave's happy living room. the room always had the great colors, but with the couch originally on the left wall, the drawers on the right wall, the room felt too narrow and crowded. With 45 minutes of freestyling , minus a coffee table, a side table and a loveseat, replaced by the two chairs, a marble top nightstand and the straw ikea stacked pillows, we have success with this cozy retreat!

turning japanese

two good friends came by the other day to see the tatami we just had built. they said we are turning japanese :o here is a progress shot at the end of each the day contractor came. the best part... hidden storage on the sides, in the back left corner, and under the tatami mats. we are turning japanese!

passing me by

it rained most of the day yesterday and now i can't stop staring at the clear blue sky and the soft clouds that, one by one, keep passing me by...

year of the golden pig

not only is it the year of the pig, but it is the year of the golden pig which, i think, if i heard on npr correctly, only happens every 60 years. this means everyone in china is trying to get pregnant because babies born in this year are supposedly highly intelligent, but also lazy i might add. my piggy is part of a beautiful hand embroidered wall hanging i got at the airport in hong kong. happy (belated) chinese new year!

rudolph schindler

Last night we went to a lecture by Kimberli Meyer, director of the MAK Center, at the Gamble House on the life and architecture of Rudolph Schindler. We love Schindler not only because we love modernist architecture, but because there is so much of it in our neighborhood here in Los Angeles. Here are 11 new things I learned about Schindler.

1. He wrote his own manifesto in 1911 at the age of 24. How many of use can do that?!
2. It was in a tent camping in yosemite that he realized the necessity of a sense of outdoors indoors.
3. He married a very leftist, eclectic woman named Pauline who made their home a place for artists, musicians, intellectuals and the like to convene.
4. He never turned down any job even despite the budget. WIsh he was still alive.
5. The difference between he and Neutra - he always built with the land in mind whereas Neutra followed the international style meaning, like a machine, his sort of building could be built anywhere. Still love Neutra too.

6. His middle name was Michael, is that Viennese?
7. Besides architecture, he also got an art degree and was also a good writer. That's ambition!
8. He loved to optimize space by adding custom shelves and lighting in nooks that would've otherwise been overlooked. This also always made things seem bigger than they really were.
9. He prefered not to use white on the walls, but the colors found in the immediate outdoors.
10. A guidebook containing all the buildings he built in Los Angeles exists so we can do a Sunday drive. Definitely my idea of fun*

11. Lastly, we have the same birthday!

Frankenshirt Day

If you did not already know, I am finally learning to sew beyond a straight line. I bought my very first sewing machine to make my norens and thanks to sewing lessons from Joann's sewing natzis, who I love because I learn more, everything finally makes sense (Kevin take the class!). I learned from my grandmas, who I also loved dearly, but they were informal and always just maybe ended up doing it for me rather than with me.
These are shots from the workshop I signed up for at the MOCA in affiliation with the Skin + Bones exhibit (hurry! it ends in 2 weeks!) led by Honey Jernquist and Lucy Karanfilian (San Francisco–based designers) this past Saturday. It was a 6 hour day of walking the show; lunch; getting quick lesson about insertions (top image), various pleats (second image), darts and pattern making; and then deconstructing two exhisting striped or plaid (because they are also used as a grid) shirts and morphing them into very own Frankenshirts!
The key was NOT to be pretty, but experimental like many of the designers in the show. My Frankenshirt is below. Remember, not pretty... I added insertions on the sleeves and then tacked them together to create this poufy pleat thing. Also did some weird stuff to the collar. I loved that in addition to sewing machines, we could use tacky glue and staplers to save time and just create in a free form Frank Ghery crumpled paper sort of way.

yellow obi

I found this vintage obi in the sale bin at the big Marukai in Gardena yesterday for $5.00! It's gorgeous. It's hand painted in the silvery gray with the yellow, orange and red. The design and color combos are such an inspiration. My friend Dre and I were addicted to vintage ones for a while and used to hoard them at Texuba events. Those were the days when we had space!

nylon grocery bag

A few years ago I bought this mini bag (left) at Muji in japan. I just thought it was the most brilliant thing. It was a nylon bag in the shape of a typical plastic grocery bag stuffed into a little 2"x4" pouch. Of course, I gave Muji all the credit, because, hello, they're Muji, the brilliant no name brand. Nothing against canvas bags, but these are so much easier. They're so so small, kind of like the plastic raincoats that used to given out for shwag. If i can commit to fitting it in my fanny pack, it must be good! Well, I finally found them stateside (right pouch) at ReusableBags.com and plan to disperse a few throughout my car, my purses and my family as holiday gifts. The main difference are the pouches, Muji's is separate from the bag and R.B,'s is attached on the inside. I prefer the latter. Here they are expanded.