St. Augustine - It's all in the Details

During my trip to St. Augustine last year, I became a little obsessed with the details...

Step off the tourist path and walk around the historic neighborhoods. It's much more rewarding.

Kitty Cube

If they made one of these a little bigger than this size, my pup Molly would love it. She's a den doggie.

Cat House - Atomic Stool

Although I don't collect vintage Paint-by-Numbers paintings, I have a huge appreciation for them. Especially these nautical and seaside paintings en masse.

Cottage Living via Please sir

This pic seemed fitting - I'm headed to the shore as you read this :) Forgive my infrequent posting next week, I'll make it up to you with some pics of sunny Florida when I return. Have a great week!

I heart Korres

It's not often that I'm so impressed with a product that I run to the blog and proclaim "buy this now!" I'm saying this about Korres. The products are natural, and the scents are so fresh and clean. Thanks so much to Kerry - who works for Korres and also runs the fabulous etsy shop Vintage Revolution - for turning me on to this amazing product line. My skin looks better than it ever has, and I even look forward to my nightly skincare routine.
What I'm using daily: White Tea Facial Cleanser, Quercitin & Oak Antiageing Antiwrinkle Day Cream (or Wild Rose Cream), Quercitin & Oak Antiwrinkle Night Cream, Evening Primrose Eye Cream. I really like the make-up as well. If I had to pick just one beauty product to use for the rest of my life, it would surely be the Quercitin & Oak Night Cream.

And... Korres also has great special offers. From now through June 16, they are running a "friends and family" promo that gives you 25% off your order and free shipping with a $35 or more purchase. Plus, they have special offers on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays. Click on their special offers tab for details.

House Crush

I have a major house crush on the mountain modern Park Model RV.

via Tiny House Blog

On a related (small home) note, my jaw dropped when my husband showed me this Craigslist ad for a 1969 Airstream Overlander. Priced at a reasonable $4600, but what made me think that fate was calling was that the Airstream is in Cedar Key, the tiny island where we got married, and where we will be next week. Alas she's not meant to be ours because we have no plot of land and no truck with a V8 engine to tow her, and presently no money with which to acquire any of these things. But I can still daydream...

Petek Designs

I'm digging these posters by Tel-Aviv artist Efrat Elie aka Petek Designs. The posters are available in two sizes, and she can even print them in different colors if you like. Text is available printed in Hebrew or in English (I like the Hebrew). $29-$59.

I Am The Fly on the Wall Poster

Ready, Set, Bike Poster

Laurie's Hungarian Tanya

I was delighted to meet Laurie a few months ago (through Etsy), who told mentioned her "small peasant kitchen" in the cottage her family was restoring in Hungary. She sent me a link to her website, which included several posts about the farm/homestead that her husband's family owns, and the adjacent land that Laurie and her husband Lali purchased last summer.
"One of our favorite places to be in Hungary is the Tanya in Szatymaz - near Szeged (the city where Lali's parents and sisters live). A Tanya is a small Hungarian farm/homestead, which Lali's family has always called this little weekend home in a tongue in cheek way. Many Hungarians have a small house with land in the country, in addition to an apartment they may rent in the town where they work. They can relax on the weekends and get away from it all, and grow veggies and fruit for the table. The Tanya is also close to the train and bus stop, so you don't even really need a car to get to/from the city. The beautiful plants are all a testament to the hard work Lali's parents! We gorged on red and black currants, raspberries, blackberries, peaches, nectarines, sour and sweet cherries, fresh tomatoes and peppers, broccoli, zucchini, carrots...I can go on - I love this place so much."
Laurie and her husband purchased the land adjacent to the family Tanya. Laurie writes "I think we can start a commune with all the small buildings!... The main house should be restored by... summer [2010], and will be our home base when in Hungary. The walls are mud brick with stucco over it and a tile roof which is conspicuously missing at present."

One of the old outbuildings on Laurie and Lali's property was turned into a Kemence house - an old style mud plaster wood burning oven that is also sometimes used to warm a house. Their Kemence was built by an elderly artisan, who had learned the trade from his father.
"The first room has the opening to the oven - you first let the wood burn down to coals, and then push them to the back and put your bread in. There is a heavy metal door that fits tightly over the smaller hole inside the oven to seal the heat while you're baking. There is a ledge that will be covered with wood all around the side of the oven, where one can sit and warm up on a cool day. This room also has a small table and chairs. The oven gives off a nice, warm, radiant heat."

A local kitty adopted Laurie's family while they were there last summer.
This sounds like a wonderful way to live - family, friends, history, and the beautiful bounty that mother nature has to offer, if only we are willing to nurture it a little.
For more pics and history of the Tanya, visit Laurie's blog Tulipan Farm ("tulipan is 'tulip' in Hungarian, a symbol of love, friendship, and Hungary itself"). I can't wait to see pictures of the finished home later this summer. Thanks so much to Laurie for letting me share the story of her special place!

The Lovely Clusters Catalog

Have you seen the new Lovely Clusters Catalog yet?



For those of you not familiar with Lovely Clusters, blogger/designer Rachel Follett has put together beautiful handmade and vintage product collections by color. In addition to the catalog, you can view the complete collection by color or category. And the Lovely Clusters blog is total eye candy. Did I mention that Rachel lives in Hawaii?

Weekend Links

I'm a day late posting this, but happy weekend! Despite my craving lately to get "back to nature", I haven't had a chance to venture into the wild in the past couple of weeks. I'm trying to be patient and remind myself of our upcoming vacation (part of which will be spent camping in Florida), but when I come across images like this one, it makes my heart ache to be in the woods.

every little thing

As I've mentioned before, I love to cook, but I'm not much of a baker. After a successful attempt at my first strawberry pie a few weeks ago, and happening upon the season's first peaches and blueberries at my neighborhood farm stand, I decided to attempt a cobbler.
The cobbler was super tasty, and so easy! The raw fruit was more photogenic than the cobbler, so you'll have to use your imagination. It was not too pretty, but oh-so-good. I used this recipe, but instead of using like 5 kinds of fruit, I just used a pint of blueberries and a pint of peaches. I think next time I'll sprinkle a little coarse sugar on top before baking (for texture), and mix a dash of cinnamon into the fruit. But overall, it was a good quick EASY dessert recipe for baking novices like me.

And now for your viewing pleasure:

Newspaper Blackout poetry.

Maine (near the shore) in bloom.

Pet Memorial Embroidery (via Colorgirl)

Cool dinnerware.

Swing.

Gigantor Origami.

I want to camp here.

Wishing you all a wonderful weekend!

Dennis Hopper: Artist & Collector

When the world lost the inimitable Dennis Hopper last week, we lost more than just a brilliant actor. Lesser known for his second passion, Hopper was a serious photographer, painter, and art collector (he purchased Andy Warhol's first Soup Can Painting for $75).
After a conflict with a well-known director in the late 1950's, Hopper had trouble finding film work in Hollywood for many years, and was reduced to 1 or 2 - episode appearances in many tv shows for almost 10 years. During this time, he studied film direction and became an avid photographer. His subject matter included political figures and the civil rights movement, as well as shooting for Vogue and Harper's Bazaar, and taking artists' and actors' portraits. (Self-portrait above, Roy Lichtenstein below).

Jane Fonda

Bill Cosby

Paul Newman

At $1,000 Taschen's Dennis Hopper: Photographs 1961-1967 is a bit out of reach for most of us (although it is a limited edition of 1500, each copy signed by Hopper himself). Hopefully a more affordable edition will be released at some point.
Per Art Forum, Hopper’s art will be the subject of an exhibition planned to open in July at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles. I envy those of you who live close enough to see this exhibit!

Andy Warhol - painted from Hopper's photograph.

It was actor Vincent Price who introduced Hopper to modern art when Hopper was only in his late teens. His collection over the years has included works by Warhol, Lichtenstein, Jasper Johns, Julian Schnabel, Basquiat, Robert Rauschenberg, and Frank Stella. Several of these artists were also close personal friends. Hopper was the first owner of one of my personal favorite paintings, Ruscha's "Standard Station". Married 5 times, Hopper lost a large number of his paintings in his first divorce, and later sold others to finance a subsequent divorce.
Hopper's home in the Venice Beach area began life as an artist's studio designed by Frank Gehry, and has been featured in numerous architectural magazines. An austere exterior has earned it the description of a "floodlit fortress", although the interior of the home is sunny and bright. This fantastic video, filmed in 2007, gives us a glimpse at Hopper's extensive collection and the inside of his beautiful home.



Sources: Ace Gallery, The Guardian, CBS Sunday Morning, The Telegraph, Cigar Aficianado

Crafty...

How cute are these earrings? They're made from recycled printer paper! Genius.

Rainy Day Cute

Thanks to a busy weekend in the shop and plans for an upcoming vacation (yippee!), yesterday was a work day for me, but it still "felt" like a holiday. Although we didn't have any grand plans and lots of rain fell, we managed to cram a lot of summer fun into the weekend: miles and miles of walking around downtown and the North Shore, pints and a philly sandwich on the patio here, watching movies from the couch and in the theater, and grilled portobellos (which my husband has mastered). All of this rain reminded me of a couple of cute rainy day photos I had tucked away in a folder. Wish I had a rainy day outfit this cute. Source: lookbook via pretty.little.world.
Ah, if only they made a doggie umbrella big enough for my 65 pound boy Dodge. Apparently he's too delicate to get rained on (yet strangely, he's really good in the bath). Photo source: Geek Gaz
My apologies for the shorty posts these past few days. Hope to make up for it this week...