Dear Blog,
Thanks for being patient with me this week.... it's been a busy one. I think about you everyday.

I am taking scuba diving lessons and have been spending a lot of time underwater lately. I am getting ready for this trip at the end of the month, and learning to dive is just one of those things I have to do. Don't feel neglected or abandoned.

I did see some interesting things since I last saw you. Here they are:

campsite
kai
bathroom at the V&A

Love you lots,
Debi

{images from: Ed Linn and somer}

The ink calendar by Oscar Diaz is beautiful and smart.
Love the simplicity... wonder if it really works. Curious how or if the rate of absorption changes as the days/calendar become more saturated.
Still... it's stunning.

{via dezeen}

There's just something about expired film.

{from @Marco's Diana+ on flickr}

I bought this little pig ceramic dish earlier this spring.
He sits on my desk and makes me smile. A big wide smile.
Sometimes I half -expect to see him give me a little wink.

Think I got this great site, Vintage Plant, from fine little day.

Even though the site hasn't been updated in a while, I still love reading about the plants and their lives.

I've been working on this model for days and days now... and still working; presentation is next week.

I like these people, scale figures for the model. These are 1:24 scale. Larger than usual. And therefore creepier.

I know I'm working on a museum exhibit, but I sort of feel like I'm working on a doll house.

I was on the bus today, lazily looking out the window, and almost fell out of my seat. Because .... (drum roll, please)...... there are goats trimming the grass in downtown Los Angeles. Let me repeat that: goats trimming the grass in downtown Los Angeles.

They were fenced in on Bunker Hill, the very steep site of the Angels Flight. I'm sure this is an exaggeration, but it seems like there were 100s of them.

When I got back to the studio I looked this up, and apparently I am very slow to realize this and also to have seen it, but this has been going on for almost a year. Nevertheless, I was brimming with pride for this city and happy that this place is quite literally crazy.

I think all my friends can back me up on this, but probably for the past eight years I have been saying that I dislike LA, that I can't wait to leave, that I need to move and it's only a matter of time. Blah blah blah. Though, to my own credit, the last two years Los Angeles has slowly become a different place for me: somewhere I want to be. I don't say that stuff anymore.

Just like when I saw the chickens up the road from the studio, seeing the goats made me just love this crazy city. I never would have thought that we'd be so progressive. But maybe I've also had my head buried in the sand? This place is just so facetted: I'm not sure if one can truely know only one Los Angeles; there is no such place. It's so many places at once.

Read about it here at the LA times blog, also where the images came from.

..... . .. . ... . ... . . . . . . ........ . . . . . ..

On another exciting note: my wee beasts were featured in The Architect's Newspaper and Curbed LA (someone had a very good comment... good for architects to think about)

Thanks Marissa!

Dear Blog,

Today you are two years old. Last year I was excited that we made it through one year together; this year I am proud. I like how you are growing up.

You are the longest diary I have ever kept. As well as being the only visual diary I have dared to keep.

Thanks for sticking with me through all the computer failures, the deadlines and the caffeine.
I owe you.

Love,
Debi

{image: Florian Maier-Aichen ....here and here.... , scanned from Dwell Magazine, Feb 2007}

The aftermath of one of the best meals we've made in the tagine alongside the barbeque.
Also, one of the hottest weekends yet.
Cooking outside is the only thing to do.

Also, really enjoying Fresh Milk Delivered Daily.

I like these very much. Got to love wolves, right?

Living together stacking glasses by d-bros.

{available here; image from here}

In 1926 dancer Milca Mayerova created a pose for each of letter of the alphabet, with the intention to choreograph a twenty-four poem sequence called Abeceda by Czech writer Viteslav Nezval. Composed into a book by Karel Teige.

Can't quite get over it.

Watch a video for close-ups of the letter forms; the image above doesn't quite do it justice.

{images via ABZ; more alpahbets and other signs}

I'm loving the brothers Bouroullec Clouds.... reminds me a little of the origami wall in our studio, but these are fabric. I feel like Ronen and Erwan Bouroullec have been hiding in my peripheral vision for a few years, though lately I've started to notice them more and more... as if I wasn't ready to love their designs just yet, but I was keeping tabs. Now, it's a different story. After having read about the four years it took to design their Vegetal Chair and having gained a little insight on their process (as always, I'm a sucker for process) I'm starting to pay more attention.

{designed for Danish textile company kvadrat, cloud images from here. And you can read the vegetal article here.}

My friend Julia will debut her candy business, Kryptonite Candy this weekend. She and I worked sometime ago on her company's identity and packaging system, and now finally the roll-out of the logo I designed.

If you're going to be on Vashon Island (short ferry ride from Seattle) this coming weekend look for her candy at the Lavendar Farm Tour, July 11-12.... you won't be able to fight the candy temptation.

Find out more event info here.

Can we talk a little about Peter Gabriel? And about how much I just rocked out in my car listening to his music. The older stuff. And perhaps how I might have looked completely crazy to people driving by me? I mean, car-dancing to "Shock the Monkey" isn't exactly going to be pretty.

It's of no consequence.... I'm just happy to be reacquainted with this music-love that I put aside for a few years, without even really knowing it. Do you do that? No matter how much you love something, you just need a break? It took hearing his music on the radio to remember and say to myself, "hey, wait a minute, that's MY Peter Gabriel you're playing!"

{images via here and here}

I'm a little late with this, but Tim Walker's balcony pics are a delight and surprise.
These are two of three little tricks for Hermes magazine, Spring 2009.