Pic me up

I love these aerial pics by Giles Price of the construction leading up to the London Olympics. I also randomly love the name Giles. Not sure why I like the name since the only Giles I'm familiar with was a contestant on Project Catwalk, the British cousin to Project Runway that I used to watch in college on youtube in five minute increments. 

Dressed Down

A great mix of formal and casual from Dries Van Noten.

Spaced Out

I love this painting by Nathalie Guinamard. A very cool play on interior domestic space.

Someone get me a macaroon stat!

Last night I watched the documentary Kings of Pastry about the French MOF pastry competition. It was the perfect tired end of the day viewing, complete with nice French cafe music and people making incredible looking deserts only to throw them in the garbage and proclaim that the sugar wasn't quite right. Cameron came home right when I started to become teary about a poor chef who shattered his sugar sculpture and began sobbing in the kitchen. What can I say, it had been a long day.

Dressed Up

This dress from Theory is odd but I like its strange proportions. 

 Also I have to give a shout out to this other look from the collection which reminds me of my morning uniform of sweatpants, robe, dirty hair and of course black high heels. 

mother, mother, mother

If you're a mother like me who loves my kids more than anything but is exhausted about 90% of the time and am constantly beating myself up about not enjoying the time I have with my kids and instead find myself wishing I lived in France so I would have access to free high quality child care then this article is a must read.

Details details

My step mom Marcela has been so wonderful to us since we arrived in Houston, helping out with the kiddos and arriving with dinner for us on her birthday when the boys ended up being sick for the hundredth time since we've arrived. I decided that I needed to find a nice gift to express our appreciation and decided on a book of photographs of Carlo Scarpa's architecture. I have a small book about his work that I purchased during my semester abroad and I treasure it. My book is in black and white and when the new book arrived for Marcela I was amazed at how much color added to the interest and detail in his work. I love the seemingly simple geometry's he utilized and how thoughtfully and minutely executed they are, every small crevice in his designs are artistically considered.

Starting Off

New York fashion week starts today and here is my favorite look so far. This skirt from Creatures of the Wind is so full of humor and I love the pairing with an Amish looking button up. I always feel a little silly wearing girly skirts and this skirt embraces that silliness with pink butterflies and jeweled appliques to boot.

Homebody

I love this shot from Tom Archer's 'Nothing New' series.

Bigger is Better

I'm not sure this post counts as something that inspires me, it's more of an observation, but here goes. I was driving the boys over to a park in the neighborhood next to ours (we live in a predominantly Hispanic area just outside of Bellaire which is a neighborhood predominantly landscaped by Hispanics) and I couldn't believe just how big every house was in relation to the lot size. It looked like the houses were made of that expanding foam stuff and just ballooned up to fill the entire space. I guess it makes sense to have a lot of indoor space since the summer weather is so inhospitable. I'm sure I'll get used to it after a while but at the moment I continue to be amazed at these houses that look like they're on steroids. 

Best.Burger.Ever.

Not the actual burger I ate, I had mine with street corn which was also awesome.

I'm still dreaming about a hamburger I ate four weeks ago so I figure it deserves a blog post. My lovely  amiga Suzanne took me to the Black Sheep Cafe in good ol'Provo during my visit to Utah and my life was changed in a very deep and profound way from that day forward. I'm usually not one to go on about hamburgers. We went through a phase where Red Robin was the only restaurant loud enough for us to bring all the kids without drawing attention to ourselves and I can honestly say if I never eat another one of their hamburgers again I can die a happy woman. However the "Goat Burger" at the Black Sheep deserves to be it's own food group. I recommend anyone within a 50 mile radius of Provo high tail it over there and keep that place in business until I can make it back up north.

Loafing Around

I love these loafers that are on sale at Opening Ceremony. A classic in primary colors is a nice twist.

Painting away

My quest to find ideas online for interior paint colors has been a bit of a bust aside from discovering this great image of a child's play house. I love the grey, acid yellow and dark wood look to the point that I began imagining how to use these colors on the exterior of my imaginary dream house.

Eclectic Kids design by New York Architect Incorporated

A New Face

I love the new SANNA designed building for the New Museum in NYC. Full disclosure I am not familiar with the old new museum, but I love the lightness of the new building and the haphazard stacked up boxes look of is form. Here's a glowing review from the NYTimes.

A Trip

This hotel encompasses everything I dream about in a vacation. The beautiful Italian countryside, gorgeous historical architecture with modern amenities (ie towels which don't have to be hung out to dry), and incredibly delicious Italian food. Ah! I must get off the Goop email list so I stop dreaming about vacations for people who have academy awards and are married to rock stars.
Back in the land of reality, Cameron and I just spent a whopping zero dollars for our anniversary accommodations as we decided to camp out up near Sandpoint, ID. Though there were no Michelin stared chef's present, the trip was great in it's own way. We managed not to burn our foil dinner in the fire (a small miracle) and I don't seem to have contracted the west nile virus (a huge miracle considering I forgot the bug spray and was practically eaten alive).

Ah Paris

I'm a sucker for any film that takes place in Paris and Broken English was no exception. Cameron went to bed within minutes of watching an intro scene where two women practice yoga and talk about their feelings, so perhaps it's not the best film to watch with the men folk but it is definitely a winner in my book.

Bro and Sis

the Astaires in London, 1923 Photograph: Fox Photos/Hulton Archive

I love this photo of Fred and Adele Astaire.

Couture du jour

Here are two of my favorite looks from Raf Simons first collection for Dior. Makeup usually doesn't show up much on my radar but I love the neon pink lips with the subdued black suit and pink shoes with the black dress.

The Shard

My senior year at Wellesley I took a course on the history of the skyscraper. The last building that we discussed was Renzo Piano's proposed (at the time) skyscraper in London. In the interim I haven't really kept up on the goings on of skyscraper development so it was cool to read this article about the finished product. My favorite quote from the interview:
"It is not difficult to make a new shape," he says. "Even children can do that. What is difficult is to make new shape that makes sense."

Suits Me

At some point (maybe by the time I'm 40?) I need to leave the daily uniform of jeans and t-shirts behind. When that day arrives here's hoping I've got the dough to spend on these suits from Narciso Rodriguez's 2013 Resort Collection. I love that his clothes have a simplicity to them yet they draw my eye in and I want to know more about the details and construction.

Screwed up Shoe

On the off chance that an exec at Yves Saint Laurant is a big fan of my blog, I'm going to share my love for these shoes. A great juxtaposition of hard edge with the big flash of metal and understated style with a simple black penny loafer with a stacked heal. And the piece de resistance, the blink and you'll miss it gold screw and bolt, amazing.

Cannes Cannes

Everything sounds better with a French accent.

Ask First

30 days at Rikers and a mental evaluation for not asking before installing public art in a New York City tree, crazy. I discovered the furniture maker Takeshi Miyakawa through this article about his trouble with the police following his first foray into public art. Legal troubles aside his furniture is really incredible. I love the coffee table he designed to aid victims of the Japanese earthquake. He is giving 90% of the proceeds away which is so generous considering he makes each piece by hand.

Barlow Show

Librado Romero/The New York Times

As a continuation of my never ending series of posts about things I would love to see if I lived in NYC or LA, the exhibition of Phyllida Barlow's work at the New Museum in lower Manhattan looks like a great show. I feel an affinity with the way her sculptures and installations interact with the architecture, plus I love the way her materials seem to be an both objects of construction and decay simultaneously.

Burden's Metropolis

I just discovered this great slideshow of Chris Burden's new installation at the LACMA. Seeing this work has me thinking my next project should be a thomas the tank engine installation since I have all the materials and free labor (Mac and Hamilton spend at least a third of their day putting together train tracks) at my disposal.

Modern Palazzo

Andrea Wyner for The New York Times

I love this slideshow of a renovated palazzo in Florence. The combination of mid century modernist furniture and renaissance architecture works so well together. I never would have thought the two styles would compliment one another but the result is a perfectly livable space takes the best from both worlds.

Garcons

Photo by Thomas Iannaccone

I love this slideshow of people wearing Comme des Garcons, it's a good reminder to have fun with clothes. My dad gave me a bottle of the Comme des Garcons perfume Drawings when I was in high school. At the time I thought it smelled like an old forest (no match for the fruitier and way classier Roxy perfume on my counter) though I still treasure the cool hand drawn paper covered bottle that it came in to this day.

The Ostrich or The Egg

I love the random items for sale at the Cooper-Hewitt's new online store. Highlights include this Ostrich Egg door stop.

amen

"It is something to be able to paint a particular picture, or to carve a statue, or so to make a few objects beautiful; but it is far more glorious to carve and paint the very atmosphere through which we look - to affect the quality of the day. That is the highest of the arts." --Henry David Thoreau

'Architecture, here and elsewhere, acts as part of a larger social and economic ecology, or else it elects to be a luxury, meaningless except to itself.'

Great quote from this article on the architecture of Medellin, Colombia. 

Happy B-Day Ms. Fey

Working Vertically

I just read an interesting article about Anish Kapoor's new tower in East London. The article raises interesting questions about the finances involved in the creation of public art. Also based on the photographs of the tower I agree with Douglas Murphy's assessment that it lacks the magic of Kapoor's best work, which is a shame considering what an enormous and costly thing it is.

Artsy Anne

The lovely Anne Wright, my amiga from Wellesley (we spent a memorable thanksgiving dinner together in the dining hall followed by a dorm room viewing of the Ewok Adventure), has started this great contemporary arts org in SLC. I so wish we had something like this in good ol'Spokane.

Janet Reno dances for no man!

The Daily Show with Jon Stewart	Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c
Indecision 2004 - Dance Party
www.thedailyshow.com
Daily Show Full Episodes Political Humor & Satire Blog The Daily Show on Facebook

With the upcoming presidential campaign all over the news, I've enjoyed watching completely non relevant political satrire from 2004. Watching the Indecision 2004 DVD never gets old. Highlights include Steven Colbert interviews at the conventions before anyone knew who he was and Rob Cordry's hometown tour of Boston.

Take Note

Since giving up designing couture in Paris, Christian Lacroix is apparently moving into the world of notebook design. This is great news for those of us who love his design but only have the budget for $12 purchases rather than $12,000.

Ronchamp Redux

 Renzo Piano's convent for the Poor Clares. Photo by Michel Denance    

La Chapelle de Notre Dame du Haut Ronchamp by Le Corbusier. Photograph: Alamy

An interesting read about the addition of a convent and visitors center to the hill where Le Corbusier's famous chapel sits in Ronchamp.

His and Hers

Trevor Tondro for The New York Times

I love this slideshow of two brightly painted cottages. It makes me long for a nice warm summer day.

Don't hold your breath

The Weather Project at the Tate Modern (Photo by Slynnal)

Sad to discover that the London Olympic organizing committee has rejected the proposal by Olafur Eliasson. The summer before my second year of grad school Cameron and I drove up to San Francisco to see a retrospective of his work at the SFMOMA. The show was amazing and it sounds cheesy but it got me excited about making art again after the lazy days of the summer.

Homespun religion

House at Sutton Coldfield by Ernest Newton. Before 1899

"Belief in the sacredness of home-life is still left to us, and is itself a religion, pure and easy to believe. It requires no elaborate creeds, its worship is the simplest, its discipline the gentlest and its rewards are peace and contentment."
-Ernest Newton, 1891

I found this quote while reading FLW's biography and it gave me pause. While I agree with the sentiment, ideally home life should be one of peace and contentment, it was most certainly written by a man who has never done laundry or scrubbed a floor in his life, hence his belief that this peace comes about simply and gently.

Words of Wisdom

Reading the quote from Nan Goldin in my previous post reminded me of some interesting advice Jeffrey Vallance gave to me and my fellow UCSB MFA students during class one day. Someone asked him a question along the lines of "How do you make it as an artist financially?" He replied in all thoughtful seriousness that we would simply have to get a lot of credit cards and max them out. I remember sitting there stunned to be hearing such a suggestion. Anywho one google search later and I discover that Jeffery was on Letterman and also hosted a show on MTV in the 80's, bizzaro.

Thanks Nan

Nan Goldin's 'Top Tip' for aspiring photographers:

Don't do it. There are way too many photographers. Try to draw or get politically involved in something that matters. And unless you need to make art to stay alive, you shouldn't be making art.

Mr. Conductor

Everyone's favorite vice president of programming and microwave oven technology at the sheinhardt wig company has a side gig as a radio talk show host, who knew? I just listened to his interview with Lorne Michaels which was pretty interesting. All I knew of Lorne were from his brief appearances on SNL as the stern boss in various sketches, so it was interesting to see how unbosslike he seemed in the interview.

It means business

Here's a post to shake things up a bit. I tend to blog about my love of architecture, art, food, clothes, etc. however I've also developed into a huge fan of Bloomberg Businessweek, bizarre no? Cameron started getting the magazine about a year ago for free with some extra airline miles and I was always really impressed with the cover art each month and eventually I cracked one open and had a read. I know basically nothing about business but I found the articles really engaging, concise and also fairly balanced in their analysis (a nice contrast to the Atlantic which always seems like it has a major ax to grind).