Sunny Day Blues

jena ardell

It's a gorgeous day here, friends, but I can't help feeling a little blue. There are a whole host of reasons why, but well, in the words of Robert Plant in one of my favorite songs, "Upon us all a little rain must fall." So I'm going to buck up, get some work done, and then cook and bake to my heart's content. Here's to a "rainy" day.

Calypso

Calypso, oh how you get me every single time. My only question is when will you open a store in San Francisco? (Oh and these picture totally have me resolved to continue growing out my hair.)

In the next few weeks...

I'll be working on a new book project about two things I do constantly: daydreaming and wanderlust. It's going to be cool! Here's a sneak peak.

New Bike Company

Public Bikes, from San Francisco.

Notes on Milk

image

Last night I caught a beautiful short film, Notes on Milk. It's a kind of experimental documentary on the diary industry. It's seriously gorgeous, and is only 20 minutes long. You can watch it here.

Some Things

Bright yellows that are catching my eye. Shoes from Camper. Purse from Toast.

You Know It's Spring When...

You are suddenly surrounded by beautiful, beautiful flowers. Happy weekend, everyone!

I Like Science!

And here's why: dome jellyfish at the Academy of Sciences. I seriously adore that museum.

Kathryn Ireland

Was browsing through the Kathryn Ireland's last night and couldn't help but wanting to share these images. I love how comfortable everything looks. All images from Kathryn Ireland's website.

Some really lovely things from the new to me online only store, L'Aviva Home. I love, love, love the white Moroccan Wedding blankets and the Indigo throws. What a gorgeous collection of things--perfect for birthday or wedding presents.

Final Pictures

These are two of my very favorite pictures from Peru. They were taken in the old Inca village of Ollantaytambo. We had a beautiful few days here, staying at a little hotel right on a river, and fell asleep to a roaring Urubamba River every night.

Bespoke Blues

Love these faded bespoke blue benches. They are from the shop Terrain, and being custom made, are well beyond most people's price range. Still beautiful, though.

Uruguay

I was born with a kind of wanderlust that no matter how hard I try gosh darn it, will not be talked into submission. My latest obsession is coastline of Uruguay. And setting up a hotel/boutique. And then I remembered these pictures from The World of Interiors a few years back (Feb 09, I think). This is the residence of the celebrated Argentine chef, Francis Mallman, in Garzon, Uruguay. Pretty much perfect, don't you think?

Now that it is getting nicer out, I'm day-dreaming about ramping up our backyard garden. Things I fantasize about including:

vertical garden panel from Flora Grubb

bistro set in turquoise blue or verbena green

lights from Restoration Hardware to string up along the fence and trees

fire pit from Toast for the toasty San Francisco nights

our meyer lemon tree! (photo by Liz Kuball from 20x200)

Box It Up

I've been working on this box, "Paradise Found/Paradise Lost," for my book arts class for a while. It's a memorial box (kind of like a hardcover book but with a box inside of its cover) to a time and place that I can't go back to. I made the collage of mountains, then built a box around it, framed it with sanded down plexiglass, and then built a case for it. I use the metaphor of finding and losing "Shangri-La" to illustrate the concept of finding and then losing Paradise. It's been fun to work on, and I'm super happy with the result, but man, oh man am I happy to be d-o-n-e! (sorry for the crummy pictures--it's hard for me to take pictures of my artwork for some reason--but you can click on the photo to zoom in and read!)

More Peru!

The Incas were a truly remarkable civilization whose influence is very much alive in the modern day Peru, especially around Cusco. Their work with stones, in particular, is incredible! They built massive structures that have withstood a few hundreds of years of earthquakes--all by fitting the stones exactly to each other without any kind of mortar. The stones are pretty amazing to see, not to mention run your hands over!

Have a wonderful weekend everybody! And a good Easter if you celebrate it. A few more pictures to share next week. xo