the sea and the bear

Enrique Martinez Celaya: The Sea and the Bear, 2009, 66 x 72 inches,
Private Collection, Miami

 

a blank wall

Looking for a little design inspiration this past weekend, we picked up a copy of Undecorate by Christiane Lemieux, the founder of DwellStudio. While we didn't find the exact inspiration we were looking for, we enjoyed poring over pictures of the 20 featured homes in the book. I appreciated the eclectic mix of interior spaces and the personalities that created them.

The inspiration we were looking for is wall-related. We're thinking about changing the look of our living room a little. 

Maybe a dark wall? (I LOVE a dark wall).

On Vixxxen Blog; via Erin P; Photo by Anita Calero & Jonny Valiant of Anita Calero’s West Chelsea loft

On Letters of Vintage, via Melissa Guedes

Domino Mag page on The Happy Home, via Leigh Steele

Maybe wallpaper? I'm loving a white/gold color palette right now...

Oh Joy! Lovely Leaves Wallpaper

Oh Joy! Petal Pusher Wallpaper

Oh Joy! A Stone's Throw Away Wallpaper

Ferm Living: Wilderness Wallpaper

What do you think? Painted wall or wallpaper?

wayfare

I love to travel but will admit that it is getting harder and harder with Stells. I used to actually look forward to long plane rides (movies! magazines! reading time!) but now they seem like a particular kind of cramped torture. Which means that reading about distant locales and looking at pictures of far off cities takes on a new kind of appeal. Wayfare, the newly-launched digital magazine "celebrating the art of the journey," is just the thing to transport me with its gorgeous images and focus on design.

Wayfare design director and editor, Anne of Prêt à Voyager, recently wrote about how the magazine came into being. Read about it and take a look inside...

For the moment, today, I am happy to sit in my sun-filled living room grazing through the Sunday New York Times and scrolling through the Wayfare blog with a cup of tea while Stella naps, soundly and completely spread out, upstairs.

[cover image by Peggy Wong]

portland and back

Hello again,

It has been a busy week. 

We spent the weekend in rainy Portland, eating good food (The Big Egg food cart, Podnah's Pit BBQ, Oven & Shaker, Mextiza, Irving Street Kitchen, Pine State Biscuits), drinking good coffee (Stumptown, Barista), meeting chickens, and visiting good, dear friends.

And now one of my best friends, Aralena, is visiting from France with her husband and son. What a treat!

Be back soon... xoxo

one line a day revisited

Remember my New Years resolution from last year? It went something like:  "record this first year of Stella's life so that some day she can look back and read about what we did, where we went, and who we saw." I was going to do it in this awesome One Line a Day Journal we got as a gift when Stella was born.

I have to admit that I didn't totally succeed. Days go by, hell, weeks go by without me updating it. And then I sit on the couch like I did tonight and try to fill it in from memory based on key dates in my calendar. 

The thing is, I think about writing in it a lot. It just happens that when I think about it I'm giving Stella a bath (not a good time to leave to make a note to remember forever) or putting Stella to bed (again, leaving to fill in this journal not really an option). 

But as I sat and read through some of the entries tonight, I kicked myself for not doing it more. All those days I didn't fill in are lost to my memory. The days I recorded seem more significant somehow, even if I wrote about the most mundane.

I thought I'd share just a few:

January 3 2011

Today your Dad officially went back to work. I miss his company in the house, so I made him eggless banana muffins. The sun is shining and we just got back from a walk.

January 6 2011

I'm glad you slept though my one-month post-labor doctor appointment. My stitches are healing beautifully. You enjoyed your first lunch at Slanted Door with Kambui and Anna.

February 10 2011

Your first day in Brooklyn. Your first trip to Blue Bottle to see your Auntie Sarah. Your first real icy cold. Your first snow.

April 11 2011

We went to a baby massage class in Berkeley. You got totally naked with 30 other babies and I rubbed you with almond oil. You seemed to like it.

April 30 2011

We took you to a wine bar in West Palm Beach. Your Dad let a nice lady take you to her table because she thought you were so cute. You spent about 10 minutes with her and her friends and then were returned. We missed you.

July 15 2011

A sad day. We got the news that our good friend Katie died. The news made me want to hold you tight and never let you go.

August 1 2011

You wave at everything. You wave at strangers, at cars, at your reflection in the mirror. It's a close-fisted wave, and we love and encourage it.

September 13 2011

You are unstoppable. You taught yourself how to climb up the first step of our stairs to try and reach (eat) some shoes.

November 20 2011

You have three molars coming in and slept horribly.

December 24 2011

We slept in (how could we not?) then drove to La Pedrera, a couple hours north of Montevideo. We went to an outdoor roast and watched Christmas fireworks at midnight. Another late night for our girl.

So I resolve (again) to record our days in this journal. It's only with a little distance that I see what a truly wonderful gift it is for our Stells...

my valentines

 [thanks to our friend Jess for taking this at the farmers market this weekend]

is it sandal season yet?

J. Crew Malta

the patterns! the colors!

We've been searching for a few throw pillows for our couch for awhile now. I discovered these gorgeous Leah Duncan pillows yesterday and we both ooohhhed and aaahhhed over them. The patterns! The colors! We're in love!

I'm also coveting these Leah Duncan beauties:

 

seasons print set

set of 3 dishtowels

pajaro alto print

loving this look

Steven Allen, Fall 2012

[via Stephanie Duncan]

the sense of an ending

"In those days, we imagined ourselves as being kept in some kind of holding pen, waiting to be released into our lives. And when that moment came, our lives--and time itself--would speed up. How were we to know that our lives had in any case begun, that some advantage had already been gained, some damage already inflicted? Also, that our release would only be into a larger holding pen, whose boundaries would be at first undiscernible."

I finished Julian Barnes' The Sense of an Ending at the end of last week. What a poignant elegy to youth and regret, and the fault lines that run cracks through memories. I am lingering, still, over Barnes' elegant treatment of personal/public history and memory, the idea of memory as this unsteady thing. That as we age a memory of an event or series of events grows hazy and hole-pocked and that further complicating matters is our understanding of the events at the time and how our understanding--be it right or nearly right or all together wrong--colors the memory itself.  Excellent read...

stella at 14 months

Stella on her bee. "Cuz that's how Stells rolls!" -Anners

Stells is officially a toddler. She's a walking, talking fool. Well, that's not totally true. She's a walking, babbling fool. Her verbal vocabulary is limited (bye = byez, eye = eyez, Mamamamamama = yours truely, Dada = her Dad, woof = dog, noynoynoynoynoy = a very emphatic no) but she's understanding more and more. When I ask her to pick out a book to read she goes over to her book box or the book shelf and makes a selection. When asked to locate the moon she looks up at the sky (or the ceiling which has to be confusing, right?). If we ask her to find Tiger (her favorite stuffed animal) she looks hard until she finds him. Kisses and hugs are then bestowed upon Tiger.

Her favorite thing to eat is still breastmilk, though white wine coq au vin is a hit. She's also a fan of greek olives, grilled salmon, quesadillas with avocado, orzo with feta and roasted bell peppers, toast, guacamole and refried black beans, and steel cut oatmeal with blueberries, apricot, and prunes. Her appetite for food is not as robust as it could be considering how often she still nurses, but her palate is eclectic.

Stella's current nicknames include Stells, The Bug, Buggy, Buggy Lee, Buggles, Monkey, and Stellabells.

A few of Stella's other favorite things: going to the park everyday with her friends, going down the slide, bath time, storytime at the library, The Wheels on the Bus, animal noises, being tickled under her chin, stomping her feet, climbing the stairs, waving at people, saying bye (byez), looking for birds and squirrels, being outside, and dancing to anything with a beat. Oh yes, and walking everywhere.

the alameda flea

On the first Sunday of every month folks all around the Bay descend on the Alameda Flea. I met my friends Andie and Darcy at the entrance at 7:30 yesterday morning. We came with ideas of what we were each looking for, but Andie was the only one who crossed an item off her list. She scored a lovely mid-century side table. Shoes were not on my list. But it was hard to pass up these old beauties ($20!).

Here are some more shots from our outing:

beautiful bookstores

We had the good fortune to visit El Ateneo, one of "the most beautiful bookstores in the world," when we were in Buenos Aires last month. We try to frequent bookstores wherever we are, regardless of their setting, nonetheless I was excited to read through the list of The 20 Most Beautiful Bookstores in the World on Flavorwire. I've only been to a few on the list, including Shakespeare & Company in Paris, El Pendulo in Mexico City, and now El Ateneo. How about you? Any that you would add to the list?