it's all my mother's fault

i blame it all on my mother... that is the fact that i long for exotic places, interesting people and romantic yet creaky old interiors.


it all started the day that she gave me a copy of the secret garden. up to this point, i was still reading winnie the pooh and madeleine. which were very fine books indeed but once my eyes fell on the secret garden, i was ready for more grown up books. books that maybe everything didn't always turn out perfect and that sometimes people died and maybe not all children had a mother and father. those kinds of books.

after the secret garden, i would lock myself in my room reading books from page to page and longing for an attic bedroom and my own secret garden. which was a big dream because i lived in arizona and we didn't have english gardens there. to this day, i still dream of my secret garden and attic room. and i'm getting closer now because i have a yard and a house with more than one story after many, many years of apartment dwelling.


then there was the house in paris. oh what would it have been like travel alone by train to paris to stay with a spinster and her mother? to wonder what secrets they were hiding up those narrow stairs. and to meet a boy who had no mother and to learn at a young age the complicated dynamics of a girl and boy.


last year i read sophie dahl's, playing with the grown ups and it took me back to these stories that i read as a young girl.

oh if only my family had been a little more bohemian like hers and if my grand father had written the greatest children's story of all time. and what if i traveled to london and was discovered by a vogue stylist who loved the fact that i ate what i wanted and wore high heels at too young an age. oh what a life that would have been!


so today i just made my first summer reading purchase of sophie's first book, the man with the dancing eyes. i long for summer days sitting in the grass and reading frivolous things. this one will be perfect with it's naturalized illustrations. i have a feeling it may have it's own secret garden, too.

so yes mom, thank you. thank you for turning me into a hopeless romantic. and for showing me that even if we didn't have an old victorian house with my own attic bedroom i could one day live in a city with beautiful old houses and one day even have one of my own if i wanted.

well, i guess it's not so bad after all.

more bomo...

one of my new readers kirsten m. asked me to feature a few photos from the book bohemian modern that i talked about a few months ago. i absolutely love this book and still can't wait to make a trip down to silver lake. i found this book in a great little, now defunt shop in portland but i'm sure you could find it on amazon or powell's if you are having a hard time finding it.

here are just a few photos that i found on-line and when i get home, i will scan some from the book.

and a big hello to kirsten! thank you so much for stopping by.




wouldn't a back yard like this be amazing? i would love to hang out here on nice evenings.


in the book, this first home was absolutely stripped to the bones and re-built. i really like the creative way of locating the windows. what a nice porch on the second home.


the book features art by the author and it is so cute. this is my favorite type of drawing. it reminds me of the velvet posters we would get as kids that we could color in with magic markers.

i'm on vacation for the next few days so i'll try get get more pics up soon. i'm taking a little staycation and i hope to get some more work done on our house. i have managed to get the entry painted and next are the stairs and bathroom so hopefully i'll get some of that accomplished.

happy spring! i just wish someone would let mother nature know that we are still waiting for it in portland!

images found on sb garden design and captain kk

i remember you well at the chelsea hotel

i have long since been fascinated by the chelsea hotel. i don't remember why, exactly, except that all of the artists i love seem to have a chelsea connection.

it must have started with leonard cohen and from there joni mitchell, janis joplin, and jimi hendrix. although, i really don't know who came first. but the chelsea has always been on my mind.

several years ago, i was in new york for work and as i was going to finish my job with a few days left over. i thought i would extend my stay and get a room in the historical hotel. my good friend was going to join me in the city so this would be the perfect opportunity to check it out...i don't think i would have ever had the nerve to stay there on my own.

well, needless to say, it was eerie, very eerie. other than the tenant on the other side of the wall who seemed to be on a coke binge, the hotel was uncomfortably quiet. in a city of honking horns, sirens and screams, the chelsea seemed to reside in it's own little universe.

i had my friend snap a few photos of me outside of the hotel but as it was one of the coldest nights of my life, they did not turn out well. there was a blur of me in front of a blur of a lit up neon sign that frankly could have been anyplace. i'm ok with that, though. i've always wanted to stay there and now i have and it was an experience that i will never forget. unfortunately, i haven't been able to go back to get some better shots.


so, my whole point of this rambling post is that i was given for my birthday the new patti smith book, just kids, that documents her life with the photographer robert mapplethorpe, much of which took place at this famous residence of the weary artist.

reading this book took me to so many places that, although i have never seen them on my own, they are very real to me...as if i have read about them so many times, that i may have actually been there.


patti's recollection of their years together was such an honest, heartfelt memoir that i found myself in tears, even though i was reading it in an airplane, a restaurant or a hotel lobby much of the time. it took me to a different time and place entirely. one that i wish i could have been a part of, had i not been born a few years too late on the opposite side of the country.

and not that this time was entirely romantic, we can't forget the incredible people we lost in the 80's due to a tragic misunderstood disease. however, would we have given these artists the respect they so deserved if they were still walking among the living? i really don't know. but for now, there is still the memory of the chelsea hotel...

so bomo

happy sunday! it's a perfect portland sunday morning...i've got my cartalk in the background, little lulu on my lap and lorenzo working on the computer next to me. oh yeah, and it's absolutely pouring outside.


i was thinking this morning that for an interior designer, my blog seems to have been in fashion mode lately, and not home fashion mode. i think that's because i am avoiding all of the work i need to be doing on the house and it is so much more fun to look at pretty clothes.

but getting back to interiors, i wanted to recommend one of my favorit design books to you, bohemian modern. if you haven't come across this book yet, check it out. it's all about the funky designs of homes and businesses in silver lake, california.


since discovering this book, i've become fascinated with silver lake and absolutely must go there. unfortunately, one place my work never takes me is la, so i will have to make this work on my own. i'm starting to feel a girls weekend coming on.

any suggestions for my visit to silver lake? any great places to stay? i'd love to hear from any of you who have been.

and have a great fall sunday.

design your life

at my desk, i have written a quote that i must have found somewhere on a design blog. it goes like this, "your life is your biggest design project. get off the couch and start designing your life exactly how you want it."

sometimes i sit here and ponder this quote. most of the time, i have a pretty clear idea as to how i want my life to be but from time to time, my mind wanders and i think what if it could be so completely different than it is now?

today i'm thinking about things like this.


lorenzo and i would somewhat resemble margot and richie tanenbaum and coordinate our outfits accordingly.


except that i would look more french like diane birch here. not to mention looking fab in a big floppy hat like this one, i just can't carry off a hat like this!


we'd live in a beautiful falling down old brownstone, a la holly golightly.


and drive a great big black vintage mercedes station wagon.


we'd have wonderful friends like harold and maude.


i'd spend my afternoons watching french films like the 400 blows with the crushy jean pierre leaud.


in the evenings i'd sit with coffee and cigarettes and ponder.


and late into the evening i'd write dark novels like the bell jar, making a terrific salary in which i could support this lifestyle.

what would your life be like if you could do whatever you want? let's start designing it that way.

happy birthday hem

since i've been MIA from bloglandia the past few weeks, i've missed out on some very important events...like hemingway's birthday on july 21st.

hemingway is my all time favorite author. i could read a moveable feast over and over and i usually find myself reading it in the summer. but there are so many others like his notorious book the sun also rises which upset all of his friends because he discussed their bad behavior while in spain for the bullfights.

i really hope to go visit his homes in key west, ketchum and cuba one day. i hear his house in key west is over run by feral kitties that he insisted be allowed to remain at the house. how cool and grey gardens of him.

happy belated birthday hem!

live forever

i don't think i've ever mentioned to you that if i could go back and do it all over again, i would study art history and travel the world, buying and selling fabulous artwork and amazing antiques. all the while, documenting my adventures a la indiana jones. however, i don't necessarily have an eye or penchant for fine art.

i do however, like what i see.

several months ago, i wanted to mention one of my favorite artists, elizabeth peyton. i tried to put together a post on her but it just wasn't coming together and i just wasn't finding the best images of hers to show. i just filed it away for a later post.

well, yesterday, i was doing my usual quick walk-through of anthropologie and found a book about her and her artwork called live forever. it was a really cool book. i didn't purchase it yet because, to be honest, it was pretty pricy and i'm trying to behave myself right now but i cannot wait to get it. her illustrations are just so rich and amazing. i really feel that she paints my colors, whatever that means.


i just love this one from the book called "elizabeth and liam"


and this is the first piece of hers that i ever saw and fell in love with. i just love poppies.

so while it may not be fine art, it just fine by me!

noooo reservations

a few years back, when i was still single and no longer working my crazy multiple job restaurant/retail schedule that i had done for so many years, i was at a bit of a loss as to how to occupy my time on the weekends. most of my friends either lived out of town, still worked nights so weren't up for early morning brunches, or were spending their weekends shuffling the family around.

during this time, i developed the habit of getting up early sunday mornings, making a pot of coffee and settling in to watch rick steves travel the world. i guess if i wasn't going anywhere exotic, at least he could transport me there.

this little routine served me well until i found a box set of no reservations at the video store and holed myself up in my apartment for one solid weekend watching every episode. sadly, rick steves was elementary school compared to the college aged debauchery of anthony bourdain.


oh watching the adventures of rick gallivant through austria yodeling up a storm was a far cry from the adventures anthony would take us on--drinking absinthe in paris and having hallucinations of oscar wilde--this was more my kind of trip.


i mean look at the way he opens a bottle. that is exactly the same way i do. kindred spirits? i think so!


and i'm so excited to be going to see him read from his latest book medium raw, tonight at the bagdad theater here in portland. beer and bourdain, you can't beat it.

p.s. i do still love rick, just in a different way.

summer reads

so i've been compiling my summer reading list and thanks to tina over at the english muse, i have two great books to look forward to. she suggested reading a time in rome by bloomsbury writer elizabeth bowen. when i got on line to order the book, i found the house in paris which sounds just perfect as well.


it's now been five years since my trip to italy and france so it's fitting that i should celebrate my time there by re-immersing myself in the way i felt when i returned home from that trip. it was such a wonderful accomplishment for me to take a trip like that on my own, one that i will never forget.


most of this summer i will be at home in still rainy portland getting situated in my new home but i can't wait for lazy weekends outside with a cool drink and one of these reads.

reading frenzy

as most of you know from previous posts, i love books and book cases. so why can't i find a good book to read?


it seems that lately every book i pick up, i read a little and toss it aside. nothing has really caught my attention in quite some time and it's driving me nuts.

what are you all reading these days?

i generally like biographies, historical stories, anything based in exotic foreign locals. one summer, i read everything i could find on picasso and another time i read all of hemingway's novels one after the other.

help!

i'm reading...

the glass castle by jeannette walls

we began reading this book outloud in the car while we were on our recent roadtrip in the southwest. eerily, much of this story mirrored the places we were driving through or heading to as well as many of my own life experiences growing up in the southwest with somewhat non-traditional, eccentric parents. and while the heroine's experiences were a little more outlandish than my own, it made me laugh and appreciate all of the things i learned in life...it also made me realize that my life wasn't so bad after all!

i highly recommend this book for it's humor and insight. it is a very quick read and one that you will find hard to put down.