too hot... must be lazy

It is too hot for me today. I struggled to get through a deadline this afternoon and just barely made it, thanks to the little air conditioning unit in the bedroom. Thank goodness for my laptop because that was the only room I could work in. It was so hot and I became so lazy I even had to take a nap at one point.

The image above is a piece that my parents were considering buying for their new home (I'll have to find out who the artist is)... that foot hanging off the edge illustrates exactly how I feel: it's too hot to do anything except just lie there.

update :: the artist above is Sherri Belassen, whose work my mother found in Santa Barbara, CA. I also love her Blue Hammock piece.

view from above

Yesterday, while making salsa verde, I had to take a few pictures of the beautiful tomatillos. A good fresh salsa is perfect for this hot weather... another heat wave in Los Angeles has arrived.

On smosch today there is a wonderful image of vegetables for what looks to be a delicious autumn soup... this makes me slightly envious of the onset of cooler weather and all the soup consumption that will be going on soon in other parts of the world-- you see... I adore soup. I am officially on the hunt for a good tomatillo gazpacho recipe.

Yellow Shoes

I clearly am enjoying yellow right now. I recently saw these lovely little yellow shoes on Liivian talossa... and they inspired me to get my own yellow shoes. I've been living in my flat sandals all summer so I'm adding some height and moving on to wedges. When I saw these on Liivia's blog, it reminded me that I did indeed need some new shoes especially since my own shoe making fantasies have come to a grinding halt while I deal with some real deadlines. Although I can't understand a word she writes, I love her photographs... right now they evoke summer's end beautifully.

Tara Donovan

I have a folder on my computer called 'Images I Like" which does me no good because I just collect images that attract me but I can no longer remember from which websites they originate. I am practically drowning in all my bookmarks and favorites and thought if I just saved images instead of whole sites that would help. I was so very wrong.

I did however come across the above image in said folder that was well enough archived so that I could trace it back. The artist is Tara Donovan who exhibited at the ACE gallery in 2005. The image of this installation is hauntingly beautiful I think... who knew styrofoam cups could be so pretty?

Now that I've started this blog I visit my "Images I Like" folder often and kick myself... who are all these wonderful people whose work I love?

I couldn't wait

I totally caved and purchased a set of Xavier Pauchard chairs... I wanted to hold out for rusty, old, well loved chairs, but I couldn't wait. I almost bought a few on ebay but I waited too long and lost out. Anyhow, I love my new red ones, but now I'm addicted and would like to get more in other colors. Currently I'm obsessing over white ones.. this is my fantasy:



can't remember where I got the image from, but this is one I drool over.
.

Etsy Poster Contest

Recently my blossom cards were on the front page of etsy which was awesome! The treasury page was designed by Nea and submitted as a poster for Etsy's poster contest. I'm a little late to the game, but I just took a look and the poster was one of the winning entries! I really do like the poster's overall theme and colors and I wish I could get my hands on one.

I'll be posting some new blossom tags soon, which because I literally cannot throw anything away, are made from the off-cuts from the blosson cards.... recycle recycle recycle!

Desert - hot enough for you?

I'm back from having spent a few days in the desert ... Los Angeles just wasn't quiet hot enough for us. We packed up on Thursday morning and headed into 110ºF, arriving in the town of 29 Palms only to wonder why the hell we had decided to go the desert in the height of summer. However, the heat is completely bearable once you enter Joshua Tree National Park, one of my favorite places in America. It is literally 15º cooler because of the change in elevation and the landscape is absolutely breath-taking, like nothing else. Thankfully, the park was practically empty because most sane people decide to visit during every season but summer, so it felt like we had the place to ourselves.

Instead of camping, we decided to stay at the 29 Palms Inn, another favorite of mine. These are images of the little private courtyard of the room we stayed in.



I also did some antique shopping in Yucca Valley (how could I not?) and came home with this little red beauty for all my tid-bit storage needs! Weekend well spent indeed.

Tagged

I've been tagged by Su Ling from laissezfaire, one of my daily reads. Eight random facts about me in exchange for finding out more about fellow lovely bloggers... delicious! While I'm in love with so many blog authors, I tag these 8:

3 day weekend
happy silly
m. patrizio (for introducing me to shoe school!)
wool & water
optimist
skinny laminx
homebug
little doodles

and I would have tagged onegirl if she hadn't just been tagged.. so this is plug for her blog and work!

so here goes, 8 random facts about me:

1. I can't sit still and need to be doing sometime all the time - knitting is a good outlet for me
2. I'm scared of water, the dark and things that live in the water and the dark
3. I prefer camembert over brie
4. If I didn't live in Los Angeles, I wouldn't own a car...ever
5. I love the color fuschia
6. Currently, I work on a construction site and am helping to build a house
7. I have lived in Johannesburg, Vancouver, Seattle, Paris, Melbourne, and now Los Angeles
8. If I could eat one dessert right now, it would be this: raspberry and lime custard tart

Postcard from Bernard

Bernard wrote me a postcard! It's my first beast postcard that I've received... I love Bernard... his little serious face really cracked me up. I miss the little guy, but happy to hear he's doing well in Oregon. {thanks to wendy for sending that in}

Back to Knitting

Sigh of relief... I can finally knit again! I've completed a few non-knitting deadlines and am rewarding myself with a little knitted pat on the back from the newest beast from the ocean depths, Zelda the Squid. Now that other work is out of the way, I can pick up my knitting needles again and work on the few half-completed beasts I have lurking around my apartment.

Dream House

This is quite possibly my dream house.... by fnp architeken in Stuttgart. (via 2 or 3 things i know)

It makes me want to move to the countryside and insert myself into some beautifully decayed shell to live out my days.

I am always sad when some beautiful old, albeit decrepit, building is demolished and I am usually put-off by how some old buildings get 'restored' by wiping away it's history ... I think is this a fantastic alternative!

The Warm Summer Evening

The temperature yesterday evening was lovely... Eating outdoors on an old reclaimed wood table in a beautiful brick courtyard surrounded by cacti with a good friend and good food ... that's hard to beat.

The Warm Summer Evening is probably one of my favorite things.

Road Find - Rubbish Vortex

I found this in the road today below this huge tree outside my apartment building. I don't know what type of tree it is, and can only say that tiny thin red 'tentacles' come out of the little cones, making the entire tree burst with what looks like teensy red fireworks. Or pompoms.

I can't believe it hadn't been run over by a car.... rest assured it is now safe and sound, happily part of my collection of things I find in the road. My road scavenges go way back: I remember when my sister and I were little and visiting our grandparents in Cape Town, we would walk around the block picking up tiny bits of broken glass we'd find in the road and stash them away in our little match boxes, like little diamonds.

This particular 'road find' reminded me of a recent post on Gooseflesh, a blog by Helle Jorgensen.



Helle makes the most amazing crochet sea creatures as well as collects the stuff that washes up on the shore and will be exhibiting a crochet coral reef in Los Angeles next year, as part of collaborative project between herself and the Institute for Figuring, called The Rubbish Vortex. Everything about it sounds fascinating... I can't wait to see her work in person.

Dry Times

I am looking after Richard's little cactus garden while he is out of town. How could I not take photos? My favorite is the Euphorbia Obesa, hailing from South Africa, as so many of my favorite plants do.

Los Angeles has been (no surprise here) suffering from the effects of extremely low rainfall over the past three years, and in these very dry times I have to wonder why I don't see more gardens with these little drought-tolerant gems? .... but I digress.


... I want this bicyle.