:::

pulling together a collage of images as we finalize our bedroom - and feeling a bit lazy this morning - i did a quick internet search for our dresser only to discover this second-hand store find was indeed a good investment.


image via 1stdibs

d and i purchased this almost 13 years ago - when we first bought the house - at a little shop on abbot kinney, before abbot kinney was hip. it seemed like a huge outlay of money at the time, but the quality of materials, construction and the unique design, sold me. and now seeing it sell for over twenty times what we paid for it, reenforces our decision to put our money into items that will last and to think carefully about what we bring into the house. (and learning more about the man who designed it and the company that made it was fun too!)

in a house full of heirlooms, hand-built items and carefully considered purchases I feel good about where our money goes, and in the knowledge that these items will last for future generations to enjoy.

closet case

our bedroom closet is the last in the house to be customized by d. as part of our bedroom redo, and moving e to her own room, it moved to the top of the queue. it is almost finished and i couldn't resist sharing this shot. i wish i had a before of the chaos that was. needless to say, i'm not in a huge rush for him to finish and hang the new doors. (the original sliders are worn and limit access. d is replacing them with two sets of beautiful double-hung doors that will allow up both to get to our stuff at the same time.) here's our inspiration. (as much as i love pinterest, i am still a victim of paper and files full of inspiration shots that i've been carrying around for years. its lovely to see that pile dwindle as projects get checked off the list!)



thanks for the wallpaper input. of course, i thought i knew what i wanted but you've made me reconsider. final decision this weekend! (and in cleaning up around here, found this old post with original choices. glad to see we haven't wavered much!)

a bigger picture

with the opportunity to take in david hockney's "a bigger exhibition" at san francisco's de young sunday, we made a quick decision and headed north. of course the opportunity to visit dear friends only made the weekend sweeter.

i love to tell e stories of her visits with hockney. lunch at his house, and an amazing afternoon at his studio. of course she was a wee baby, and remembers none of it. but it is fun to recall none-the-less. he was so friendly and welcoming and excited about what he was doing. that exuberance is so evident in his work. e was drawn to the giant iPad drawings and video, and k went around searching out details in the paintings. it was the charcoal drawings though that had me lingering the longest.

visiting friends like these is, well, always a highlight. it is easy - the way it should be. we are blessed to have them in our lives. no matter where they, or we, roam. these big picture friends mean the world to us.

and we had a day to explore a little piece of golden gate park with them. these family outings are only beginning to get grumbles from the big sister. i hold onto them tightly.

so, the show was fantastic. the company the best. so good to have a little get-away.

(and oh those sf bay sunsets.)

weekend to do

it is a long one... but we aren't being too ambitious as we are going to include a roadtrip to this. (so excited!)

i do hope to:

sign up for this!

around the house
finish moving books an wall unit out of office (e's new room!)
prune back shrubs

and that's about it!

thanks for the wallpaper feedback. more next week.

happy friday!

off the wall

as i mentioned, we are looking at wallpaper. it will hang in our master bedroom, where we have lived with this above our bed for the last 12 years.



it is, of course, older than that. and when we bought the house, was hidden behind another layer of even less lovable paper. we actually get a lot of compliments on this floral - and of course it is in keeping with our house and its mcm vibe. i however, am so very done with it. and i look forward to our bedroom remodel as the opportunity to change it up. (more on what's happening in our bedroom - on the decorating front! - soon...)

so here is the short-list. and it has been a long time coming. in the end, we decided we wanted something that kept the spirit of the old paper, but that made the room feel fresh. we also wanted it to match-up with walnut furniture and the quilt we have, and relate to the adjoining bathroom color-scheme. the samples are all from MissPrint out of the UK. (we looked at a lot of options, and i was sorry we couldn't find something more local. lots of great stuff out there - but either the design, or the color way, just weren't quite right.)


garden city :: glacier


dandelion mobile :: french grey and white


dandelion mobile :: porcelain with powder blue


poppy :: thunder

i know which one is my favorite - but am curious, which is yours?

walk this way...

we had a million things to do yesterday. and so, when a friend called to go on a hike, i grabbed the girls, and off we went. i do this often. especially if the opportunity is to get outdoors, and it is still (fairly) early in the day. i'm a firm believer that the fresh air and brisk walk will help clear all our heads and make focusing on our to-do lists on our return that much easier.

the invitation was to, i think, my favorite local hike. at least that we've discovered thus far. and the day was perfect. (i am afraid a little too so for january. and frighteningly dry.) while it was overcast at home, as soon as we rounded the first hill the blue sky appeared.











we returned home. and things were checked off the list.

i was not disappointed in any of it.

happy monday!

weekend to do

breakfast with friends
chauffeur for project study-group
take a hike

around the house
bake cookies
paint interior and install closet shelving
select wallpaper (more on that shortly!)
keep on moving stuff out! (etsy, craigslist, goodwill...)

i'm also taking part in The January Cure over at apartment therapy. i did this last year too - on the down low - and enjoyed it. some seems a little redundant this year - but it is a good exercise, and reminded me how much i benefit from the "outbox" theory, and how much i like having fresh flowers around the house.

that's it for winter break. monday is back to school. the weather is more like spring. and the girls are antsy - but well rested. this break feels like it was just the right amount of time.

happy weekend.

looking back...

october

we walked

november

oh hanukkah

december

and back again

2013 was a year full of growth and challenges. my wish for 2014 is to build on that and take time to revel in our accomplishments a little bit more. as for resolutions, only to be a better listener made the list. i hope this goal can be met in the broadest, and most specific of ways. to listen to myself, and those around me, as well as to the world, and all it has to tell.

happy new year friends.

looking back...

july
>
another island summer

august

socal beach days

september

12

looking back...

april

thought more about living local

may

to chichester

june

9


and 50!

looking back...

as has become my tradition, on our return from galiano, i'm going to take the next few days to settle back in to our routine and post remembrances of the year that has just passed (so very quickly!). as always, i wish you a very happy new year - and all the best in the year ahead.

january

a resolution

february

a trip to the museum

march

an island adventure

lots of nothing

we really unplugged these last two weeks. so very good.







we played the ukulele. cribbage. and went through a series of suduko puzzles like nobody's business. we walked favorite roads and paths and played outside and got a lot of yard work done. we read by the fire.

i read:
chasing aphrodite (so good in the museum gossip dept. if you have been part of that world - and more specifically the getty part of that world)
the daylight gate (pretty graphic and disturbing at points. but i have a longstanding fascination with dr. dee and alchemy and this fit in nicely. plus winterson's prose never disappoints.)
the paris wife (i loved this book. with my love for hemingway and historical fiction, a friend recommended it to me a while back - and i'm so glad i finally got to it.)
the goldfinch (i had a plan to buy this on island, at my favorite bookshop, only to find out they were sold out. thankfully lindsay gave me her copy to read. i'm only half way through but am having a lot of trouble putting it down. always a good sign. makes me want to reread a secret history.)

you'll have to ask the others about the specifics of their reading lists but...

d read:
the golden spruce
telegraph avenue

e read:
allegiant
an abundance of katherines
eleanor & park
the probability of miracles
the book thief
fangirl
after iris

k read:
fortunately, the milk
flora & ulysses
dork diaries: tales from a not-so-graceful ice princess
dork diaries: tales from a not-so-happy heartbreaker
and a stack of betty & veronica double digests

"our beach"

this is the other constant on our winter beach rotation...





a short walk from the cottage. i try to visit every day.

burn baby burn

d has spent most of his holiday working around our 5 acres. clearing brush and debris with my mom & k. and building some beautiful burn piles.







at night we trek down when the embers are getting nice and hot with marshmallows and chunks of dark chocolate (leaving behind the graham crackers) and bask in the glow.

beach walk

during our island summers we rotate through beaches - those for swimming, those for sunning, those for exploring tide pools...

in the winter we tend to be drawn to two in particular.

shell beach, at montague provincial park, is a constant.













facing westerly, it promises beautiful light late in the afternoon, under any conditions.

i realize i now have hundreds of photos of this spot. of those girls wading and skipping stones. and while they are the same, they are also each very different, the light, the clarity of the water, the vegetation, and these girls, growing before my eyes.

island christmas

we made the annual trek to "our island cottage" again this christmas. it felt so good after heading off in a different direction last year. arriving on christmas eve, our first task, to find the perfect tree. a perfect cedar growing just below our meadow fit the bill.

progressive dinner 2013 :: making merry

{home from our holidays and playing catch-up}

our annual progressive dinner this year happened with new to the neighborhood hosts and an ever-growing guest list.



my dear friend - who has been part of this tradition from the beginning - found me the most beautiful caroling bell. (part of our tradition is ringing a bell between courses to get people moving on to the next house.) the tag on it read: "Our caroling bell is a symbol of holiday nostalgia when family, friends and neighbors would gather to make merry and sing Christmas hymns in chorus from home to home. Filling the streets and sidewalks with joyful song..." so perfectly fitting. our streets really to fill with joy as we trek from one host home to the next.



most visible to me - how our kids are now the "big kids" and how there is a whole new generation of littles and their parents. love.

Happy Holidays!

from us all. see you in 2014!

(card by tinyprints)