SFMOMA

My momma was in town last week and we spent the afternoon at SFMOMA. The Luc Tuymans show was good but the Anniversary show was fantastic. My favorite pieces:

This was a group of drawings by kids between the ages of 6-13 (I think...) from Rhodesia (today known as Zimbabwe), depicting daily life in their villages.

 Of course, I lost the piece of paper where I wrote down all of the information but I believe these were created through an art program led by an artist (whom I can't remember) and then exhibited at the museum.

Two other favorites:

Theophilus Brown, The Referee

Clyfford Still, Untitled (previously Self-Portrait)

Oh, and the little room of Paul Klee's work left me fairly awe-struck. It's been a while since I've felt so invigorated and inspired by an exhibit. It's good to feel excited about art again.

Imaginary Living Room, 1

Inspired by Stephanie of even*cleveland and her imaginary outfits; an imaginary living room. Click on the image for more details.

Magnificent Obsession

Douglas Sirk is one of our favorite directors. His films are perfectly old-school Hollywood with lovely colors and insane melodrama; the subject matters are bold for their time but hold true today.

All that Heaven Allows (later beautifully remade as Far from Heaven with Julianne Moore) and Imitation of Life are both excellent. We watched Magnificent Obsession a few nights back and it was not my favorite (a little too hokey) but look at those windows!

I think these windows are quite nice. Wouldn't you like to have a wall of windows (and Rock Hudson asleep on the couch!)?

String Garden

This project is so incredibly beautiful. I would like to have a glass greenhouse filled with my own string garden.

Go here to see more here.

(via AT-SWIM-TO-BIRDS)

Olson Kundig Cabins

I'm fairly certain that these have made more than a few rounds out there in blogland but they're new to me. When a friend sent them over last week, my jaw dropped. Then I sent them to C and his jaw dropped. And then he started planning.While that little studio that I keep talking about is still a long while away from becoming a reality, the scheming and collecting is in full force. We've now collected all of the windows we'll need and we're moving on to scouring for doors. Sketches are being thrown around and when I say, "Wallspace! I need wallspace!", C's brain goes into overload and figures out how to give me more wallspace.Our studio will obviously be simpler and more amateur rustic than these beauties but one of the best parts of planning is gathering the inspiration.***all images from Olson Kundig Architects***

Small Projects List

image (a guess): Elle Decoration, France

Another goodie from the older inspiration files. Yes, I will post my inspiration board as soon as it's back and gussied up a bit. Currently it's in flux and looking rather pathetic.

The image above makes me want to finally hang some art, find some lovely floor pillows and maybe move to France. Only kidding about that last one. Sort of.

My small project list:

+ build (or have C build) frames for the posters we've had rolled up for the last 2 years
+ design a wall box that C will build to house all of the little trinkets (ie. seashells, stones, mini tractors built from machine parts) that we've collected while traveling
+ frame the Gee's Bend stamps that I stashed away a while back
+ sew some cushions to keep our lone couch pillow company
+ recover my bedside lamp shade that is has a large coffee stain on the side (how it got there, I do not know)
+ convince C that we need to repaint the bathroom

image: Elle Decoration (maybe UK?)

I've had this image tacked up on my inspiration wall for about 2 years. It's one of the few images that hasn't been taken down and filed. I should have remembered it when we struggled to figure out house paint colors last spring.

Somehow the cabinhouse just doesn't take well to bold exterior colors. It's small, square and old. White suits its simplistic nature.

The front of our house is now white. This year we'll paint the sides and back to match. (This image reminds me of the scene in the Anne of Green Gables miniseries when Anne walks across the roof and falls off. Maybe that's why I love it so much. I loved that movie.).

image: maybe elle decor, france? i can't remember...

One of the larger projects we have on our list for the (nearish) future is a small art studio space/guest house where I can spread out my paints again and where we can stash our out-of-town guests. We'll be reusing a lot of materials that we've salvaged from previous projects but we always have our eyes out for good deals on wood, windows, doors, cabinets...pretty much anything we can find. (which reminds me: if anyone bay area local has materials that fall in that category, by all means please contact us!)

I love the above photo. We're not planning on building the studio as a log cabin but wouldn't it be fun?! It's so rustic and casual without being funky. We plan on including an outdoor shower and a lovely platform with enough room for me to draw or hang out and read.

Oh boy. I feel some changes coming on. Not huge ones, just some nice solid changes that have a been a long-time coming and are fed by the last few days that I spent in design heaven. I just got back from the Altitude Design Summit in Salt Lake City where I sat in on some inspiring talks and met gobs and gobs of amazing people. I haven't felt this inspired or driven in a good long time and I'm excited to see where this new-found fire leads.

The most immediate reaction I'm having to the last 3 days of design immersion is that with only 800 sq. feet of actual home and minimal storage, we have way too much stuff. I'm in purge mode. If it's not deeply loved or used then it goes and everything should have a place. No more paintbrushes in the utensils pot and no more vitamins stashed behind mixing bowls....yikes.I'm more than a little embarrassed to show off our too-crowded kitchen and top of the fridge but I'm hoping that in doing so, I will be shamed into proving that "I'm not messy" (ha). First purge and reorganization is well under-way. Updates to come as they occur; wish me luck.While we've really maintained this blog as a space for sharing the work on our little cabinhouse, I've been missing parts of my first and now long-neglected blog. This space will continue to focus on our home, but I'd like to start sharing some random bits of inspiration and finds over here now.

For starters, some links to my newest friends and co-conspirators: Design For Mankind, Mackin Ink, Simple Lovely, Design Crush, Greedy Girl, SF Girl by Bay, You Grow Girl, Design Milk, Oh Joy!, Mint Design and Okay Great. There are many more people and sites to list...I'm overwhelmed by the creativity out there in the world...thanks guys!

image: elle decoration uk, november 2008

another swipe from my inspiration file. not really sure what specifically draws me to this photo; it's just so pretty and casual.

this would be perfect for the empty space in our living room (we moved a bookshelf and have yet to figure out what to do there) but we don't get much light.

anyone have great suggestions for house plants that don't need much light?

for some reason when we went through the hell of slapping gallons of paint all over our wood-paneled kitchen, we missed the back door. not sure how it happened, maybe we were so focused on getting the paint snuggled in each and every damn crack...
in any case, we're fast approaching our 2 year anniversary of becoming homeowners and the door is in dire need of a face-lift (see above). we're just having a little problem picking out the paint color.

i was leaning towards a slatey grey but C has requested that it be bright and cheerful.

yellow seems like the natural choice, but I'm kind of on the fence.....though I do love this photo:

image: australian vogue living, june 2007

i also really like this blue color:

image: domino mag, march 2009

thoughts? suggestions?

this makes me so happy.
doing it right...

if you remember, last year we (C and Mr. L) built these amazing stairs that lead from our concrete patio to the nature trail.
we've planted a few things around the edges (a picture of one ridiculous plant as soon as the photos are back in order) including a meyer lemon tree and a pear tree.

it's nice to find out what will grow in our backyard (with minimal water), but that area has been a bit of a "testing zone". i'm ready for it to fill-in nicely...

here's my current favorite inspiration photo for how i'd like the stairs to look (minus the mini ivy, not a fan):

image: Martha Stewart Living, March 2009

we already know that lavender grows beautifully in our backyard, as do the grassy plants in the photo. i love the kangaroo paws and the euphorbia (both of which we have).

in the sidebar from the original magazine article, it talks about the plants showing off different textures and fragrant herbs. i love that idea. i might try to replace the ivy with trailing rosemary...

iphoto isn't playing nice these days.
having some computer issues and won't be able to upload my own photos for a while...

on a different note, i like these kitchens.
i found the top two images here and can't remember where i snagged the other two...

we have open shelving in our kitchen but somehow it looks a bit messier. i think one of the biggest problems is that we don't have a lot of other storage, so much of our food-stuffs ends up sitting in open view. must figure out good (cheap!) glass canisters.

trying to purge our small house of excess. whittled the plates down from 16 to 6...16 people wouldn't even fit in our home! no need to keep a matching set of white plates for our guests that can't come in...

getting prepared:so that one day, all of this (thank you craigslist!):will be this:and then we can spend more time doing this: