Maybe because I have a fever, but I feel like little pieces all stitched together…
Monthly Archives: February 2009
Patchwork
2
Filed under Friday Collage
More From 2nd April Galerie
Filed under Digging Others' Digs, Look What I Found!
This morning my sister called me, not because I am sick and she is worried about me, but because she remembered that she wants me to go to First Friday with her when we visit during Spring Break.
My sister lives in my hometown of Canton, Ohio. Canton is your typical mid-western small city, struggling for decades to transition to a service economy. It is my impression that people in Canton really TRY. They work hard. Even at The Grotesque.
Brennis is a case in point. A childhood friend, Brennis owns 2nd April Galerie & Studios. He works diligently feeding and nurturing Canton’s art scene. He and his partner, Todd, throw a bash on the First Friday and encourage all their downtown neighbors to participate in a Gallery Hop. Coincidentally to my sister’s phone call, today Brennis posted pictures from a recent event on his Facebook page. I stole them and am reposting them here. (Thanks, Brennie!!)
They sell First Friday gear. Maybe my sis will buy me something.
Wood-turned bowl by Marty Chapman
Wood Sculptor Todd Migge
From left to right: Clare Murray Adams, photography by Bob Baker, (top) Kevin Maxwell (bottom), Chris Triner
From left to right: Ted Lawson, Kevin Maxwell, Bev Stafford and BZTAT
On the wall from left to right: Ted Lawson, Bob Davis, Joe Martino, Gail Wetherall-Sack, Linda Hutchinson and Greg Kandis
Glass by KC Glass, X3 Latex Enamel on Paper by Patricia Zinsmeister Parker, Sculpture by Marcy Axelband and Joseph Close
A First Friday. Must be summer because people are in shorts.
I spy a Christmas Tree, so this one must be more recent. (I told you, I stole the pics!)
Kindle
Filed under Look What I Found!
Today is normally the day that I post internet super deals. Today’s deal is expensive, no doubt about it. 359 dollars worth of expensive.
But I have NEVER EVER EVER been so excited about a product in all my days. Not in my entire life. Not even when I just had to have that yellow banana seat bike. Or that little sheltie pup. Not ever.
I was catching up on local blogs when I saw this post. Now I can’t seem to catch my breath. Remember how much I love books? How much I love to touch them, smell them, collect them? Never in my wildest dreams would I have imagined there could be a device to rival my passion.
Enter the Kindle 2.
Thinner than a pencil
Lighter than a paperback
Viewable in bright sunlight
Electronic ink is easy on eyes, unlike a phone or laptop
2G-holds 1500 books!
60 second downloads anywhere, anytime without computers or special service
$9.99 Bestsellers
Daily uploads of the NY Times and Washington Post for $10 each a month
250,000 titles with more daily
Stays charged for days and uses a standard USB.
Turn wireless off and read without recharging for TWO WEEKS
Built in dictionary
Access to all of Wikipedia
Search function!!
Reads out loud to you
You can download your mp3s and listen while you read
Books purchased are backed up online
And the best part: sturdy enough to withstand dropping!!
“Three years ago when we started to create the Kindle our goal was to improve upon the book…Something that has resisted change in 500 years is not going to be easily improved.” Jeff Bezos
I can’t come up with a single reason why I wouldn’t love it. A Kindle will not, however, replace my huge collection of decorating books. Not yet anyway. Today electronic ink is only available in black and white. I don’t know who will be the first to invent the color version, but can you imagine? I would be able come to a consultation with my entire library, bookmarked, annotated and highlighted!
Christopher Lowell at Smith+Noble
Filed under Design Principles, Look What I Found!, They Made Their Mark, Windows
Christopher Lowell has created four “lifestyles” for Smith+Noble. From the website:
America’s leading resource for window treatments teams with America’s most trusted designer to bring you an exhilarating new way to decorate your home. With easy, beautiful, premier quality window coverings and décor accents personally selected by Christopher Lowell. Achieve top-notch designer results in any room with materials pre-coordinated to harmonize beautifully with four universally appealing lifestyles: TOWN, COUNTRY, CITY & SHORE Each lifestyle covers a world of design influences from global destinations visited by Christopher Lowell.
I have two of Christopher Lowell’s books. I was introduced to him by a friend about 10 years ago who had checked out of the library Seven Layers of Design and used his advice to paint her family room. EXACTLY as he listed in the book. At that very moment, I knew I needed to write a business plan.
(I purchased that very book the day I registered my business license. If ministers and nuns have a higher calling, than this was mine. All those lost souls using a color palette out of a book…when millions exist in nature…)
I spent a little time perusing the site and thus far the lifestyles consist of exactly the same products. Perhaps the release came before the website was ready??
Order now for free standard shipping. Just don’t expect pre-coodinated universally appealing lifestyles.
Celebration Preparation
Filed under Accessorizing, Current Projects, Design Principles
I felt like I was participating in an episode of America’s Top Decorator Design Idol Top Design. I confess I’m not a big reality show watcher. But to the point, I spent my weekend on a tight schedule helping my friends prepare for the huge gathering they were having in their home to celebrate their registering a civil union.
The painters were leaving as I arrived on Friday. The Living Room walls were now clean and glowing in the palest pink (Benjamin Moore Wild Aster 1240). The first and immediate task was positioning the furniture to accommodate guests and heaping trays of food.
You may recall my series on this gorgeous home. The owners have upset the cosmic balance of talent by remaining together for 18 years; Kirk is an artist and Arijit is an architect. They have piles of art. Literally. Piles in baskets and stacked on the floor. It was my job to display it.
Here are some photos.
Hugs & Kisses
Filed under Friday Collage
McMillian Screen from Jonathan Adler, X-bench in Adler Platinum from Jonathan Adler, Jacq Diagonal and Cloud Dot Tile from Ann Sacks, Round Table with Cutout Legs from West Elm, FK82 X Chair from Suite NY, Fever Fever O and Fever X Rug from inmod
SwapitShop vs Bookins
Filed under Look What I Found!
Have you heard of SwapitShop? I hadn’t until yesterday. It’s kinda like eBay, only without money. You advertize something you want to get rid of and wait for someone to bid on it with Swapit points. Once you have a winner, you send the item to SwapitShop, along with extra postage so that they, in turn, can send it off to the person with the highest bid. After the transaction is completed, points are awarded so now you can bid on stuff. If you are negligent in any way, points are deduced. And I saw quite a few sellers with negative points.
Does this sound good to you? It seems clumsy to me. The website even LOOKS clumsy. But I could be biased. As my sister knows, I hate to go to the post office to mail a package. I have never sold anything on eBay for that very reason (even though I have a nice pile of American Girl crap). But I love bidding. Especially on books. And I love receiving even more. So for me, Swapit has a fatal flaw. If I can’t sell, how do I buy?
Some of the items listed are ridiculous. Notice in the screenshot-someone is selling a card that looks like something my 11 year old would have made. Three years ago. Now don’t hate: I love homemade cards. But unless the card is made by an artist, I want to actually KNOW the person who made it. It’s just creepy otherwise.
In all fairness there are other ways to get points.
Coincidentally, or not-lightening fast memes fly through cyberspace these days-my local paper highlighted another similar site. Bookins has a cleaner, more grownup looking layout and with this site there’s no bidding. Here you must pay shipping $4.49 for everything you receive. Postage for items sent is free, you simply print postage labels right from the website.
When posting an item on Bookins, you must give the ISBN. They take care of creating the listing. Which is why it is much easier to find what you want on this site, as opposed to the often garbled listings in Swapit.
Sadly, there are no decorating books on either site.
Not Completely Graphic
Filed under The Rear Endcap
From WestElm comes our Steal of the Week. The Walton Headboard in the White Queen is just $149.99 from $429. Don’t let the white scare you. We can do a lot with it.
Add a pair of Ming Chow Nightstands from Pier 1, now $69.98 from $169. The painted wood with its brown and blue tones look wonderful next to the pure white of the headboard.
The Trinket Rug combines the colors in the Asia side table with the graphic element of the bed. Home Decorators Collection lists this in their outlet for $119 from $399 for the perfect-for-a-bedroom 5 X 8.
The Chocolate Brown Border Duvet Set From Dwell Studio for Target is on clearance for $59.99. Notice the price doesn’t end in .04, which means while it remains in stock, it will be reduced weekly.
Try Grege Avenue 991 from the Classic Colors Collection from Benjamin Moore. Before paint, we spent under $400. Those $1,000 television shows got nothin’ on me!
The Road More Decorated
Filed under Uncategorized
I realize the photo is grainy. Twenty-five years have passed since it came out of a camper’s plastic strapped 110 camera and on to Facebook.
This is a photo from my youth. Of my little personal space in a cabin at the camp I attended for many joy-filled years.
It was taken by a young girl, who at the time was thinking—who keeps their stuff like this? The situation was odd enough to warrant her sparing one of the precious 25 she got to a roll. This photo evokes a memory very long forgotten by me due to its apparent insignificance. Who remembers the air they breathe?
I remember dumping the provided wire hangers for the at-the-time-new -and-novel plastic ones, and how important it was for me to match hanger color to item of clothing color. I remember bringing to camp a collection of books and arranging them in two neat stacks. I remember my preoccupation with anything Muppet.
Fast forward. My closet today holds only high quality wooden hangers. The clothing is now separated first by type, then color. I am sitting next to two neat stacks of books. They could have been taken right out of that picture and placed at right here at my bedside. As for my current obsession? Kermit has been replaced by a stack of Danish beads.
Facebook is a crazy phenomenon. I am becoming reacquainted with dozens of friends from the past. They come from many installations of my history: from my childhood neighborhood, from my youth group and summer camp, from high school and college and sorority and summer jobs. I look at this photo and I am utterly amazed by the fact that so many of these people are surprised to hear what I do for a living.
Just look at this photo. Wasn’t it destiny?
Romance
Filed under Friday Collage
