Because two friends I walk with in the early morning have been out of town for the past few weeks—summer travel has begun!—I’ve switched up my morning exercise routine by taking more yoga classes at the swim club down the road. Not entirely awake I stumble over to the sound of bird-song and the rhythmic splash of swimmers doing their laps.   In the winter a fog-shrouded sun rises in the east behind the yoga instructor, but now we turn our mats south to avoid being blinded by the fully exposed orb.  Post-namaste I spend time in the garden dead-heading daisies and supplementing the irrigation with a little hand-watering now that the drought restrictions have been (temporarily) lifted.  The lizards scatter and the hummingbirds come in for a sip. Such a lovely way to start my day. Has your daily routine changed much now that summer is here?

 Here are some other things I’ve enjoyed of late.

 A wonderful Career Code profile of our daughter Claire over at WhoWhatWear.

Dress codes for travel (while you’re there, check out the travel uniforms videos at the bottom of the article).

The corrective lenses of travel. 

Maybe you have more time than you think.

To write software, read novels.

Despite all the naysayers, life has never been better.

Elizabeth Gilbert on letting our light shine.

A pretty bar cookie featuring rhubarb. 

Jumping Jetsons! A revolving planter that levitates! 

A new album from The Monkees – “Good Times.”

“I was so full of music I had to play.”—Grandma Lo-Fi

Grandma Lo-fi: The Basement Tapes of Sigrídur Níelsdóttir from Republik Film Productions on Vimeo.

Happy Weekend All!

They say this will be the last super hot weekend around here for awhile.  Which makes sense, since we’re having air conditioning installed on Monday.

Until it—and the fog—arrive, we’ll be hydrating like crazy. And thus, today’s Friday Things topic: Plastic Tumblers.

We own a range of nice drinking glasses—everything from the now vintage olive green goblets we got as wedding gifts in 1980 to sleek, contemporary (and easily replaceable) old-fashioneds from Crate & Barrel.  But none of them really hold the amount of ice water/lemonade/Diet Coke that a tall, plastic tumbler can.

For years we had kid-friendly Tupperware tumblers in bright colors.  But it seemed like it was time to class up the everyday glassware  a bit.  I spotted some elegant straight sided clear tumblers on the end-of-summer sale table at Pottery Barn and snapped them up only to find that they couldn’t survive the dishwasher (ahem, not disclosed when I purchased them).  They ended up streaked and cracked and basically useless after a few washings. (See above left.)

I took my search more seriously and finally settled on the Valencia Tall Tumblers from Williams-Sonoma.  So far they’re holding up just fine.  They’re sturdy, the rim is nicely rounded so they’re comfortable to drink from, and they look like running water—a cooling visual effect. Also, like something my Grandma Loosli would have owned.  I’ll let you know how they perform on this last big weekend of icy beverage consumption. In the meantime, here are a few other things I test-drove this week:

Commiseration for those, like my daughter Sydney, who aren’t so happy about fall. (Not me, I can’t wait for it to cool off around here!)

A spooky fun October/Halloween decoration project.

A peek into this SF cookbook author’s kitchen–love the washi tape labeling idea.

The fuss about how women speak.

One person’s meditation about finding his faith (which happens to be my faith.)

This waving Solar-Powered Pope Francis.

My sister Michelle LOVES and heartily endorses the soundtrack to the Broadway production of Hamilton. Can’t wait to give it a listen.

In the meantime, I’ve been listening to Irish singer songwriter Glen Hansard’s new album “Didn’t He Ramble” all week and enjoying it very much.

Happy Weekend All!  Stay cool.

When I was a kid the biggest event of the summer happened one town down the line on July 24th. Known as “Pioneer Day” or, more pragmatically, “The 24^th,” this county-wide celebration commemorated the day that Brigham Young entered the Salt Lake Valley after leading his people across the plains. On that fateful July 24 in 1847 Young rose up from his sickbed to announce that the pioneers had finally found a home. His “this is the place” pronouncement launched a flotilla of crepe paper floats in small town parades across the Intermountain West for decades to come.

When I was a teenager I marched in the county parade in a short pinstriped jumper and white Keds with my high school drill team and later rode on the front hood of a sports car in a pale blue Gunny Sax dress (see above) waving my best beauty queen wave.

As a child I was most often a bystander hoping to catch the salt water taffy thrown from the flatbed floats carrying displays of our proud history.  But one summer a friend’s dad arranged for us to ride our bikes in the parade and we spent the night before weaving red and yellow crepe paper through the spokes of our bike wheels and making tassles to dangle off the handlebars.  We dressed up as clowns and threw our own candy stash out of our bike baskets as we rode beside the floats depicting busted handcarts and giant beehives.  Makes me hanker for some salt water taffy just thinking about that giddy ride.

Here are a few other things I’m thinking about on this Pioneer Day.

The inspiration behind Sea Ranch.

Cross-stitched furniture.

This image of a girl with her head in the (cotton-candy) clouds.

Shoes made from ocean waste.

Almonds and chilies in a summer melon salad. 

Letting kids figure things out on their own.

Some thoughts on Bill Cosby.

Penn Jillette on Donald Trump.

James Corden, Rod Stewart & A$AP carpooling.

Happy Pioneer Day All!

This was a busier than usual holiday season with all the kids and spouses (and a new fiance!) home.  So I’m just now taking a few moments to ponder some favorite things from 2014.  Perhaps you too are finding this Friday more about retrospection than resolutions.  If so, you might also be thinking about some of your favorite things in 2014. With the help of Goodreads, Spotify and my Calendar 5 app here are my top three 2014 things in a range of design and entertainment categories.

Best International Design Things

This was a year of extraordinary travel for me. It’s hard to pick just three highlights, so I fudged a little here.

Macchu Pichu and other wonders of the Andes  - Peru

Swiss Open-Air Museum – Ballenberg, Switzerland

Porsche Museum + Weissenhof Estate – Stuttgart, Germany

Best Domestic Design Things

Matisse: The Cut-Outs (particularly the “Swimming Pool” dining room installation) – MoMA, NYC

Surf Craft – MinGei Museum, San Diego, CA

San Francisco Decorator Showcase 2014

Best Books

Goodreads tells me that I read or listened to 26 books last year.  Looking over the list I could tell you a few things l liked–and some things I didn’t–about every one of them.  But here are the three books published in 2014 that will stay me.

Frog Music - Emma Donoghue

Levels of Life – Julian Barnes

Station Eleven – Emily St. John Mandel

Best  Cookbooks

Looking back, I primarily cooked from old favorite cookbooks and blogs. However, three new welcome additions include:

Barefoot Contessa: Make It Ahead - Ina Garten

My Paris Kitchen - David Leibovitz

Plenty - Yotam Ottolenghi

Best Movies

Travel and our mid-year move cut down some of our first run movie watching this year, but three films I expect to recall include:

Beyond the Lights

Boyhood

Noah

Best TV

So little time to watch TV, really, though this is the year I figured out what all the buzz about Scandal and The Americans was about. Otherwise, I sat still long enough to watch these new shows/seasons:

Blackish

Hell on Wheels: Season 4

Jane the Virgin

Best Theater

We saw a number of terrific plays last year including a hilarious/creepy/touching community theater production of Side-Show starring one of M.J.’s work colleagues. Here’s the best of the rest.

The House That Will Not Stand – Berkeley Rep

Tribes – Berkeley Rep

Pygmalion – Cal Shakes

Best Music

According to Spotify’s Year in Music feature, a third of what I listened to last year was folk-pop and I mostly listened to it on Tuesday.  Go figure.  Right now I’m writing this post to a new playlist of unknowns that Spotify has produced for me based on my 2014 history.  Lots of folksy pop tunes—pleasant, not-too-demanding stuff to evoke a mood while I think about other things.  Here are three artists and songs that stood out from the lyrical hushed emotions that were apparently the soundtrack of my 2014:

Mary Lambert – Jessie’s Girl

Noah Gundersen – Poor Man’s Son

James Vincent Morrow – Cavalier

Best Live Music (including Musical Theater)

Though I heard lots of good performances in my church community we didn’t attend too many other concerts or musicals (with the exception of the VERY BAD Idina Menzel vehicle “If/Then” on Broadway) this year.  These three were terrific, nevertheless:

Glen Hansard – Fox Theater, Oakland

Into the Woods – San Francisco Playhouse

The California Revels “An American Journey” – Scottish Rites Theater, Oakland

Looking forward to discovering some new favorite things with you in 2015.

On this first Friday in November I’m thinking about gratitude.  Throughout the year I try to count my blessings—sometimes in a daily “gratitude journal”  but more often than not by documenting the (mostly) good and interesting things in my life on Instagram. (Thank you, Insta!)

In case you haven’t tracked this yet, Thanksgiving comes late this year–November 27– which means there are plenty of days left to start or up your gratitude practice.

For me, I’ve decided to do more than just recognize gratitude this month, I’m trying to put my grateful feelings into action by saying Thank You to the people who bring the good and interesting into my life.  I’m doing it through short email messages, hand written notes and by saying Thank You (with gusto!)  at least once every day in November to the people who make my life better. That includes you, dear readers.   Thank you for reading and for letting me know you’re reading. I’m lucky to have you in my life.

Some other (mostly practical) things I’m grateful for this week:

Arguments for retiring Daylight Savings Time.

Looking ahead to Thanksgiving, a simple table setting featuring random candles and wrinkled linens.  (What, you think the pilgrims had no-wrinkle options?)

How to make a killer grilled cheese sandwich.

Everyday objects as art subjects.

Six stretches to do at your desk.

What your zip code says about you–well, really, your neighbors.

Grammar tips worth repeating.

And now for something a little more glam. . .the Divine Miss M. covers TLC’s Waterfalls.

When I was a little girl we sang a children’s hymn about “little purple pansies touched with yellow gold.” The message wasn’t particularly religious, just an admonition to “try, try, try” to gladden whatever corner we found ourselves in–whether dark or sunny, warm or cold.  This Easter season I’m grateful for the people and beliefs that have gladdened my dark corners.  Wishing you all some bright spots of hope wherever you find yourself today.

Happy Easter!

Yes, beauty is often fleeting.  So best to catch it while you can.

Some other things worth chasing this week:

Rainbows mean rain. Here in California that’s cause for a Happy (Rain) Dance.

Thinking I’d like to add rain chains to my next house.

Bravo to Nars and Marc Jacobs for their stance on Age + Beauty.

This serene art installation really floats my boat

Cool Olympic photos from Sochi make me miss the games.

Golden Rules for writing well could be applied to any creative project.

And finally, exquisite animation makes The Wind Rises 2014′s first Must See film.

 Happy Weekend!

Ever since I finished a ten-years-in-the-making quilt top on Tuesday, I’ve been happily plucking clipped loose threads off my furniture, clothing—even my hair brush. Now the top (and back) are off to be professionally quilted and I’m savoring the delicious pause between completed and new projects.

I’m also taking a little break from fiction writing because I finished the first draft of my first novel (!) on Monday.  Kind of a milestone week, I’d say.

“Now what?”  friends ask when they hear I actually typed the words THE END.  I tell them I’ll write it all over again–starting in a few weeks.  But right now I’m going to take a deep breath and marvel at how all those loose threads of characters and plot points and historical details that have been scattered around my brain for years got gathered into a big, messy ball of a story.

Ta da! And TA DA!

***

After I stopped making up stories and sewing small squares of fabric together this week, I discovered:

Marble madness is everywhere.

Fun facts about color.

Aidlin Darling Design–one of my favorite Bay Area design firms–received a National Design Award from the Smithsonian’s Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum.

Some lovely ballads as well as sea shanties in Sting’s The Last Ship.

How novelist Claire Messud celebrated Thanksgiving abroad.

Performance artist Marina Abramovic–perhaps best known for her silent encounters at MOMA in 2010–actually has a lot to say.

Looking ahead—if you’re in the San Francisco area, check out the treasures and top-notch presenters starting Thursday at the San Francisco Fall Antiques Show.  You can read more about it in my BANG story here. Should be a fun, fabulous event!

Happy Weekend All!

For Father’s Day I wrote a story about “man caves” for the Bay Area News Group. Did your father have a man cave?  Does the man in your house?

My dad had a small home office carved out of the back porch that was lined with book shelves filled with scriptures, Reader’s Digest Book-of-the-Month picks, and plaques he’d been awarded from various agricultural organizations or the Idaho State Legislature where he served several terms. Against the half wall that opened onto the family room sat a desk piled high with newspapers, bull sale catalogs, and a massive Rolodex filled with seed potato clients.  The smallish windows were set high on the wall, but if he stood up from his desk chair and turned around, Dad could get a glimpse of the Grand Tetons in the distance.

He had another office at the family grain elevator in town and a tool shop down the road, but I think my dad’s man cave was really the Snake River Valley.  If he needed to retreat and get away from it all, he’d say he was off to “check on the cattle” and then he’d hop in his white pickup truck and drive around surveying the potato fields and cattle pastures.  Occasionally, he’d revisit his childhood fishing holes and catch some trout for dinner.

A few years before he died he bought an old army jeep like the ones he’d driven as a young National Guard officer and started offroading through the pastures. With the help of my farmer brother Brian he dammed up a small stream enough to create his own fish pond that he stocked with live trout. As his health failed and it became impossible to ford the Snake or traverse the lush potato fields, he would drive out to the pond and watch the rainbow trout flash in the air as they leapt to catch the stale bread crumbs he threw their way.

What I wouldn’t give to drive out to the fish pond with my dad now. Happy Father’s Day, dad.

Miss you.

***

In other Father’s Day news–

1. Check out this Bon Appetit feature set just outside my hometown in one of the places my dad loved to fish.

2.  Looking for a last minute printable Father’s Day card?

3.  Or a DIY cardboard tool box for a Father’s Day gift?

4. Speaking of tools, I love this poem – “My Father’s Hammer” by Jana Rains.

5. Father’s Day sountrack – ten father-centric songs from the Bay Area’s own KFOG:

     My Father’s Eyes – Eric Clapton

     Father And Son – Cat Stevens 

     My Hometown – Bruce Springsteen

     I Am A Child – Buffalo Springfield

     Silver Thunderbird – Marc Cohn

     Your Dad Did – John Hiatt

     Beautiful Boy – John Lennon

     Oh Daddy – Adrian Belew

     Daughters – John Mayer

     Daughter – Loudon Wainwright III

Oh, and one more little ditty.  From the (as of this week) Tony award winning musical “Kinky Boots”– Not My Father’s Son.

 Happy Father’s Day!

Thanks to Michelle Cobabe Loosli for the photos of dad on the farm