Everywhere I click there’s a First Day of School photo showing a beaming child about to start a new school year (just like me here on my first day of first grade). It’s been a few years since I had any of my own children around for a First Day photo, but this morning as my daughter and her new husband stood in front of their car about to head off to grad school I couldn’t resist capturing the moment. Read More
Back-to-School Photos
Many Happy Returns
Hello world! We survived the move and are settling nicely into our little cabin in the woods.
After a month of waking up to the sound of wild turkeys and tending to a garden swarming with friendly buzzing creatures, I’ve decided we’ve moved into a house fit for a hobbit. Tucked into the hillside, with a creek out front and a wood burning stove to keep us toasty-warm on these cold, foggy Bay Area summer days, this house makes me want to enjoy a 2nd breakfast and snuggle into a morning nap.
But wedding bells are ringing and sending me out the door in search of the perfect dress, invitations, cake and party decorations. Not to mention a pair of dress shoes that I can dance in all night. Daughter # 2 is just over 2 weeks away from marrying her red-bearded scientist. Daughter #1 just got engaged to her funnyman adman. Such jubiliation all around!
Though very little blogging. Time for that later, but the bride-to-be just returned home to our new house. And she needs a pair of wedding shoes she can dance in all night. So out the door we go to wrap up the final details. Catch you on the other side of the wedding aisle!
Moving On
And so we moved. Out. Away. Somewhere else.
It was a stormy departure as moves mostly are. Packing up all your earthly possessions—even to move them just a few miles away—whips up gale force winds of change.
In addition, we agreed to let our buyers do some exterior work the last week we were in the house. But the scope of the project was either vastly misunderstood or seriously misrepresented and we spent our final days packing in a construction site. Funny how the sound of workers yielding pickaxes and backhoes all around you makes you feel anxious and unsettled. Read More
Curating Collections
Hello again. After posting about the lovely San Francisco Decorator Showcase I flew off to New Orleans to take in a little jazz and indulge in a beignet or two. More on that soon. But for now, I’m busy sifting and sorting in order to move. Curating stuff is tricky business.
Unless you’re a talented interior designer. Like San Francisco’s Jonathan Rachman, who put together a dazzling display of objets d’art for his soot-black Collector’s Library at the SF Showcase. In case you haven’t seen it yet, here are a few shots of his complex, compelling design. Read More
Sneak Peek: San Francisco Decorator Showcase 2012
I spent the morning at the press preview for the San Francisco Decorator Showcase and, let me tell you, it was a visual feast! As usual, the designs ranged from the outlandish to the oh-so-tasteful. Many of the rooms were inspired by the current Cult of Beauty exhibit at the Legion of Honor, so fine craftsmanship and local artists were heavily featured. Look for a more detailed report to follow, but here are a few early shots, (including this one of the Roof Terrace designed by Frank Holbrook) to whet your aesthetic appetite. Read More
Posted in Shelter
Tagged architecture, interior design, San Francisco, Showcase Homes
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Minding the Garden Gap
When we moved into this house thirteen years ago, the trellised back deck was devoid of plant life. Even the hardy Iceburg roses in the built-in galvanized steel planter boxes were leafless due to a malfunctioning irrigation system.
The main garden was a flight below. It appeared that if I wanted to find green space I would need to walk down into the garden past the leafless rose twigs branches.
A visiting gardener friend despaired. “Maybe we can create some vast mounds in the back to lift the garden closer to the main living space,” she suggested.
I didn’t really want a backyard mountain, so I resigned myself to a destination garden and set out to fix the irrigation in the deck planter boxes. Read More
House-hunting Hussy
I am such a house-hunting hussy. Just last month I was bemoaning the buyers who left us at the altar and now that our house has sold to someone else I’m flirting with every possible dwelling that comes my way.
Actually, not every possibility. Some of the options have been so bad I’d be afraid to introduce them to my hairdresser, let alone my mother or my children. In the two months we’ve been selling our home (sold! twice!!) I’ve looked at 30 + options and some of them were real stinkers. Read More
Silent Night
Under siege by prospective homebuyers, we escaped once again to the movies. The 1927 silent film Napoleon was being staged in downtown Oakland at the glorious Paramount Theater. The East Bay Symphony would play the never-before-heard-in-America score by British composer Carl Davis and Davis himself would be conducting. The entire production would take 8.5 hours starting at 1:30 p.m. and ending just before 10:00 p.m.
“I barely made it through The Artist,” my husband said when I proposed this open house diversion to him.
“It’s a once in a lifetime event,” I countered. “And there will be a BIG dinner break.” Read More
Spending Time
All I ever wanted since I arrived here on Earth were the things that turned out to be within reach, the same things I needed as a baby—to go from cold to warm, lonely to held, the vessel to the giver, empty to full. –Anne Lamott
On Wednesday I spent the afternoon with my friend Athanasia, keeping her company as her life winds down. She’s been battling cancer for several years now but her doctors have told her that the fight is over and it’s time to get as comfortable as she can and see the people she loves.
In her toasty warm apartment, we talked about her past adventures, my future plans, and our shared friends. We sipped some Sprite and when the pain got too bad, Athanasia took some medication. When her eyelids got heavy, I offered to read to her. Read More
Perfume Aisle Paradise
On the heels of Bouquets to Art and the San Francisco Garden Show comes the annual Macy’s Flower Show. This is the show’s 66th year and the Union Square flagship store is one of five Macy’s participating nationwide. The theme is Brasil, Gardens in Paradise which explains why I’m analyzing a giant toucan’s plumage near the Carolee pearls.
I look a little skeptical, right? But I was actually having a good time at the preview event figuring out how they’d constructed this Technicolor topiary. The toucan was sculpted by the artists at the Macy’s Parade Studio and then covered with 400 Star Anise and 7000 hand-dipped Brazilian Button Flowers. Its plumage is made from magnolia leaves that look surprisingly feathery from a distance.
The rest of the street level floor features overhead displays including a rainforest straight out of Romancing The Stone and some Carnivale-costumed mannequins. Along with their sequined siblings in the Stockton and O’Farrell store windows, these elevated showgirls made me wonder if the cast of Dancing With The Stars would come calling for their wardrobe at any moment.
Posted in Style
Tagged Brasil, floral demonstrations, Macy's Flower Show, Union Square San Francisco
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