Los Angeles freeways

I moan a lot about the traffic in Los Angeles... but some of the infrastructure is pretty amazing. As for the smog, why does it have to produce such lovely sunsets?

I took these polaroids a while ago, but rediscovered them recently while moving into my new apartment.

Yellow Day

I love yellow. And last night I stopped at the grocery store on the way home from a very long drive home from San Francisco and spotted these gorgeous tomatoes and promptly placed them in the basket. There were also red and orange ones, but I always go for yellow. I got home from work today and and immediately ate a few... I'm sure they will be gone by the morning. The photo is evidence that they did indeed exist.



I didn't realize I was having a yellow day until I started taking photographs of my new beast, a yellow giraffe. His name hasn't come to me yet and he needs a little more work, but he's close to being done. Having downloaded the photos, I noticed yellow as a theme: I am also wearing a bright lemon yellow dress which I threw on as soon as I got home because the heat was melting my jeans onto my legs.

And speaking of yellow, I have been doing some freelance work for the Getty Conservation Institute where I recently learned about India Yellow pigment - I was amazed when I learned about it's production. Outlawed in 1908 because of cruelty to animals, India Yellow has been replaced with other synthetic pigments, but the story is interesting. {Sometimes I am blown away by how things get discovered or invented, or what have you...}.

At any rate, I am having a yellow day, which is just fine with me.
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marvelous :: merveilleux

I just discovered these blogs today... Seriously... who are the these people? And how do I get to meet them? I have a thing for foreign blogs that I can't read. It's the images that I love anyhow.

merveilles (above image)

vintage living

virkverket

In other news, I consoled myself with olives and cheese this afternoon after sitting in traffic for almost 2 hours. Los Angeles is a true test of my patience. I love the city, but I have a hard time with the sheer number of cars, mine included.

At any rate, I sprinkled a few red chili pepper flakes on the olives which were delicious and more than made up for the fact that the State of California is populated by more people than entire country of Australia.

Doll Parts

I bought these arms and legs at the flea market in Pasadena over a year ago, not really having a plan for them. I'm thinking about making another kind of 'beast' with these prosthetics...they're just so beautifully eerie. After finding them at the flea market I scoured Ebay for similar items and I've bought a few gems (lovely porcelain legs with gold high heels) and now have a budding collection.

But now the question is: what to do with them?

While the pressure is off knitting for the time being, I really want to make something else that's a little less 'comfortable', if that makes sense. Ever since my architectural thesis I've been very interested in the notion of the 'prosthetic' and the concept of making additions to suddenly incomplete objects.

So we'll see... I have an idea that is brewing, but I'm not ready yet, so I'm letting it sit for a bit.

In the meantime I think I'm going to try to make a pair of shoes (again)!
{those who are familiar with my shoe-making escapades will find this task exasperating, but I ask them to lovingly bear with me}

BallMart Beasts

Yesterday was a huge success for les petites bêtes sauvages.... Richard's tree was a serious hit with the crowds, as were the my little guys. I sold quite a few and the experience was a huge boost - people loved their little stories and names so there were a lot of laughs and beastly cuddles and it was great fun to watch people interact with them.

These are images from earlier in the day, during setup, hence the garbage cans and tarps in the background. As my camera ran out of batteries, I'm going to see what I can gather up as far as 'night shots' from friends.

At any rate, Superball 8 - A One Night's World Fair was a great mix of people for a great cause and proceeds from the beasts will be going to the Down Syndrome community. There were a ton of J. Paul Getty Museum people (my former co-workers), artists, designers and a lot of people in the tv/film industry. And also a little fashion show by Hannah Kopacz. A super fun night with lots of star sightings (it never gets old for me); the comedy-duo The Flight of the Concords sighting was pretty exciting since we just saw them perform last week. All in all a great night!

A different route

As it turns out the previous signage idea just isn't going to fly, so instead I'm soldering some type. Yes, I know I'm crazy. Not only am I a sucker for soldering, but I'm also a sucker for doing everything from scratch. I have a problem.

I'm setting up shop tomorrow at 11am and it just might take me until then to make this, but regardless of the time commitment, I am sticking to this one out because the sheer delight of making my own signage outweighs any other convenient solution I can come up with.

Soldering is a rather satisfying activity I have to say... joining metal to metal is awesome. I'd like to upgrade to welding.

les petites bêtes sauvages

I'm working on a little signage project for the event on Saturday but as you can see I'm missing a few letters and an accent circonflexe. Looks like I'll be making those, out of what I'm not sure. I want to hang the letters from the tree along with beasts, a little like foliage... we'll see how that looks. Could be terrible, or maybe not.

In other news, it's my step-dad's birthday! Nothing like a little Ferrari love to brighten your day!

Beasts to Be

Along with other deadlines, I'm rushing to meet one for this weekend where I'll be selling 'les petites bêtes sauvages' at a charity fund raiser for children with Downs Syndrome. Of course I don't have as many beasts ready as I had wanted, but I'm working on a few as well as having a fair number... as evidenced by the wall line-up. Richard has built me a tree for them to live in (I'll post an image of the tree soon) and it will 'debut' at the event this Saturday. I can't wait for the tree to then be in my living room so the beasts don't have to live on shelves or on the couch. I also can't wait to reclaim my living room floor from the yarn and buttons.

Continuing to dress the apartment

I would like these A-Chairs by designer Xavier Pauchard. Design Within Reach is now selling them, as is Sundance Catalog, but I'm holding out for the real deal: chipped paint, dents and all. Throw in a little rust, even better!

Happy Bastille Day!



Didn't have time this year to throw a party for the French holiday, but instead I perused La Tartine Gourmande, a gorgeous food blog by French food stylist Béa. That counts, right? I love her photography, like the one above of the simple brioche... her lighting and compositions are really beautiful. An inspiration.

It's about time

I am starting off this blogging expedition with a post of my new clock. In fact, it's my first clock of what could prove to be many clocks. I've been coveting this thing from Anthropologie for what seems like maybe a year, and it finally went on sale last week. Et voila. Now's it's on my wall and I couldn't be happier. The little bird makes the most pleasant non-annoying cuckoo chirp ever and it even claims to have a light sensor, sending the birdie to bed at night so it won't wake me on the stroke of midnight. I am giddy with excitement over this clock. It's from an Italian company Progetti; they have some pretty interesting clocks, but this is by far my favorite.

update: I'm not used to the bird yet; I practically have a heart attack every hour on the hour when he comes out and frightens me with is "pleasant non-annoying cuckoo chirp." That said, I still love the clock, despite the accelerated heart beat.