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It's no secret that I don't really cook or bake much. But one of the few things I like making in the kitchen is granola — specifically, Alton Brown's granola. (I have Kim-Anh to thank for bringing this recipe to my attention.) I usually omit the coconuts and substitute the raisins with dried cranberries. Delicious.
P.S. That's the Heath "Coupe" dessert bowl in Persimmon/French Grey. It's the perfect size for snacks, as well as desserts.
Today's H&G section of the SF Chronicle includes my article on the owners of Heath Ceramics, Catherine Bailey and Robin Petravic. Their home is just as fantastic as their pottery and tiles, and they have one of the coolest kitchens I've ever stepped foot in:
New at the MoMA store: "Average Day at the Museum is a schematic illustration from 1940 depicting the everyday activity within The Museum of Modern Art's newly opened building on Fifty-third Street."
I think the packing tape is cute, too, but don't have much use for it.
I was at the car wash the other day and was immediately drawn to these two books (yes, my local car wash has a shop with lots of cool books!):
Flea Market Style was published a few years ago, and I actually wasn't sure if I already owned a copy. (I didn't, but will soon enough!) And Bazaar Style is photographed by the same person, Debi Treloar, and was just released this month. You can check out several shots from Bazaar Style in author Selina Lake's Flickr set, and below are a couple more images from Flea Market Style:
I convinced myself that I need a green handbag and picked up this Gryson for Target tote this weekend:
You can view the entire collection right here.
I've been meaning to paint the guest room nightstands for a while now, but the winter rains and various vacations left me with just a handful of weekends to work on the project this year. (Yes, this has been in the works since January.)
I think the white is much better in the room than the natural wood, but I feel like there's still plenty more to do in this space!
Other items seen in this photo:
Have you heard of this new line at Target? It's already available online and is supposed to hit stores this weekend. (Just search for "Whim" on the website.)
I like our kitchen a lot — I mean, as much as someone who doesn't enjoy cooking can — but it's always felt a little staid. Since we didn't want to add curtains to the window (I prefer leaving it fairly uncluttered), we decided to give the Strossel Design window films a try:
I think it's nice that the greenery is still in view; the films block part of the fence between our house and the neighbors' (who wants to see that anyway?). And, in case you're wondering, they are super easy to apply.
I'm in the middle of one of my quarterly magazine purges. Every time I go through my stack of publications, there's an issue in particular that I can't resist flipping through over and over: Sunset, April 2007. It includes features on:
And I also really liked the story about a Palo Alto Eichler. So much good stuff in one little issue!
How cute is this little guy? Brand-new at Jonathan Adler, the $110 price tag is a bit steep for a ring box that I probably wouldn't use much. But adorable nonetheless. He may be my favorite of the Adler menagerie.
Pssst ... If you are planning to check out this year's Decorator Showcase in San Francisco, do NOT miss the rooftop terrace. Here's just a snippet of the sweeping views of the Bay:
The month-long Showcase officially opens to the public on Saturday (unfortunately, I can't post more pics from my press visit). There are so many rooms in the 16,000-square-foot mansion — yes, SIXTEEN THOUSAND — that you are bound to find good design inspiration in at least a dozen of them. Just be sure to wear comfortable shoes.
Saturday: I came across a vintage trolley at Anthropologie that would be the perfect replacement for an old Pier One bookcase in our dining area. But there were two problems: It was $1800. And it was already sold. (The sales associate said she could track one down from another location, but that didn't take care of Problem #1.)
Sunday: I found something similar in style to the Anthropologie trolley at Nest. The size was even better for the spot I had in mind! AND it was much, much cheaper! But there was one problem: I couldn't fit it in my car.
Tuesday: Jon had an appointment in San Francisco, so he stopped by to pick up the shelving unit. The most perfect thing about it? It's a shoe rack from the 1930s. A shoe rack! Given my deep love for shoes, I feel like it was so meant to be mine. I mean, ours. (Apparently, the store owners brought it back from one of their trips to France.)
Most of the shelves consist of dowels (not flat surfaces), so I went to Tap Plastics and had some sheets of Plexi cut to size.
The rosebushes are blooming!
My parents planted several rosebushes for us last year and they are going crazy this spring. I love that they are pretty much the first thing I see when I pull into the driveway every day.
Um. How is it that I've never heard of this site until today? (via Nestled In) RE-Found Objects is amazing! I'm not sure how much it cost to ship to the U.S., but I'm happy just browsing.
During our recent trip to London, I stepped foot in Liberty for the first time. While I was wandering around the home accessories floor, I kept wondering how/why I failed to visit this store on previous vacations. In addition to lots of other pretty things, they have an amazing selection of goods made with Josef Frank fabrics. Unfortunately, with the U.S. dollar being what it is now, they were a bit pricey. So I opted for only a couple of small items, including a placemat.
Singular? Just one placemat, you ask? Yes. Because I had a plan to turn that placemat into a pillow. And that's exactly what I did this weekend. Behold:
It's been about a year since I was first introduced to the awesomeness that is designer Ivana Helsinki's work. (Eden&Eden, a fantastic store in SF, is one of the few shops in the country to carry this label.) Recently, I was doing a search to see if I could score some IH goods online and I came across Huset — which specializes in items from Scandinavian. In addition to IH dresses that I love, there's a lot of cool housewares. Such as:
Huset is definitely getting bookmarked.
Two more reasons to love living in the Peninsula:
I gave up on the whole personal trainer thing. But with Sprinkles opening soon, I may have to get back on that.
I was recently lamenting to Elizabeth that the living room in my house seemed sort of blah. Sure, we have red accents and some patterns, but maybe what we needed was a new rug to liven things up a bit. So we decided to layer a colorful rug on top of the neutral, larger sisal that's already in place. This is the chosen rug (Pottery Barn's Moorish Tile in clementine orange):
Me like!
Pssst ... Even though the PB website says the rug is a catalog/Internet-only product, my local store actually has them available in the orange (brown and yellow are special order). If only I had known! Because you know I hate paying for shipping. That's what I get for believing what I read online.
Monday's aren't all bad.
* Speaking of salted caramel ice-cream: While we were in Paris, my sister could not get enough of this flavor from Berthillon. I love that they have those cones that allow for side-by-side scoops (rather than one on top of another).
I love (LOVE!) my new Orla Kiely bag, picked up at the flagship store in Covent Garden last week:
It is the perfect size for magazines and notebooks. Plus, it has a good number of compartments, which are a requirement for me. It also has a removable shoulder strap — ideal for when I get tired of holding on to the bag.
How I spent my Wednesday evening: Sorting through two week's worth of mail. Jon went to collect our mail yesterday from the post office and, since there was quite a large stack, they let him take it all home in one of those lovely translucent white bins. (We didn't pick up our mail right away because we figured the post office would be crazy in the days leading up to Tax Day.)
One of the things in our pile o' mail was the latest Home magazine. There were quite a few good spreads, but this was my favorite photo in the issue:
Over at decor8, I've written a post highlighting some of the houseware stores I visited in London. Below is the Barcelona chaise given the Tricia Guild treatment (with her fantastic textiles).
Contrary to what its name implies, Leeds Castle is actually not in the city of Leeds in northern England.* Rather, it is in Kent — near a tiny village called Leeds — and it is an easy drive from London. Since my nephews, ages 5 and 6, really really really wanted to see a castle during our European vacation, we took a day-trip there.
When we arrived in Kent, there wasn't much snow to be seen. But just around lunchtime, it really started coming down. Of course, we had to take photos since we didn't think anyone would take our word for it that it was snowing:
Inside the castle — where it was nice and warm — I totally loved this bedroom:
There's so much color, texture and pattern in this room, yet it all works somehow.
* Thanks, Ian, for the clarification!
I pulled together a new house tour for AT:SF today, and it's really really good. So please go have a look. I promise, you'll be glad you did. Jennifer did an amazing job with her small apartment. (I think she should've entered AT's Small Cool contest.)
This post comes with a little story about a girl (me) and a boy (Jon) who, once upon a time, took a Memorial Day weekend road trip down/up Highway 1. Our ultimate destination was Hearst Castle, but along the way, we spent a night in Big Sur. This excursion took place years ago — and I'll be straight with you, I'm not even sure if I had a savings account at that point in time. So we weren't staying anywhere fancy like Ventana or Post Ranch Inn (which is definitely on my list of places to stay someday). No, we were holed up at some roadside motel that had a giant meat cooker rotisserie thing in the parking lot, and was adjacent to a very loud dive bar that seemed to attract a lot of bikers.
The room itself had no TV. And we decided that getting an origami box from the gift shop at Nepenthe — where we had dinner — was a great idea. I still have some of those origami creations that Jon folded together that night.
I guess what I'm getting at here is: Origami is a sentimental favorite in our household. So I couldn't help but smile when I opened up a package yesterday from Chronicle Books and found this:
Creatures & Critters Origami Craft Pad is a kit that includes lots of really cute sheets of paper and instructions for 25 projects. I hear this upcoming weekend is going to be a bit chilly, so I'm looking forward to sitting on the couch with a big pot of tea and doing some folding. (And I'm not just talking about laundry.)
Maybe I'll turn my handiwork into a mobile, like the one Lauren and Derek made for last week's D*S DIY column ...
While we were traveling, I was on the hunt for a few specific items — including a tea cosy and a table runner. I didn't have any luck with the latter. But then yesterday, I made a quick stop at Ikea on the way home and came across the Petronella fabric series. They are just 18" wide and already hemmed on the sides. Which makes them perfect for table runners.
This blog has been a bit dormant lately because we just got back from ten days in London and Paris! What a difference a few days and a few hundred kilometers made:
Poppies in bloom: Paris' Jardin des Plantes on Thursday, April 10
More on the trip later ...
I'm a little late posting about this, but ... April's design in the JHill calendar is just too sweet not to share. (I have one of these hanging in my cubicle.)
This past weekend, I was lucky enough to get a tour of the Heath Ceramics factory with owners Catherine Bailey and Robin Petravic. Check out the post about my visit on AT:SF.
If you're in the Bay Area, you can join the Cardboard Institute of Technology in celebrating the opening of this exhibit tonight at the Cell Space Gallery. Very cool.
I just realized that furniture company Maine Cottage also carries fabric by the yard. Here are some of my favorites:
Oh, and check this out: Is it just me, or does Hotty Dotty look a lot like Hable Construction's bead and checkered patterns? And two of the Maine Cottage versions, in shrimp/teaberry and moss/white, are on sale right now for only $15/yard!
Although these are actually wastebaskets, I think they're attractive enough to use for general storage of knitting supplies, kids' toys, etc.
$18 each.
