Inspirations |

Our Nursery: Teaser

Now that my nesting bug finally kicked in, I have been getting things in order in the babies room. If you just started following or don’t know much about our house, its itty bitty. It’s an old beach cottage that is somewhere under 600 sq ft (aprox 520 sq ft). It’s technically a two bedroom but you can imagine with 520 sq. ft. those bedrooms are pretty small, especially the second bedroom. Also, because the cottage is from the early 1900′s closet space is nearly non existent, therefor we built Mama’s closet into the second bedroom.

You may find yourself asking: why aren’t they moving?

Well, because our house is pretty adorable. And we love living in Santa Monica (a place with sky high rents we somehow have sort of avoided). Because we love being able to walk to the beach. Because we love our massive yard and vegetable garden (we didn’t even have a fire escape in SF). Because we love that we have a little mini house, instead of an apartment. And because we love that having a small house forces us to edit and keep things as simple as possible. And because, tiny as it may be it seems like a great place for our family.

But that doesn’t mean it doesn’t have its challenges.

When we first found out we were pregnant we did briefly consider the idea of whether or not we should move. If we moved, it would be one more thing on our plate and we decided to rule it out early on. We are crafty and organized and figured we could make it work. Even if John sometimes feels like the walls are moving in on him (I imagine our house feels even smaller when you are 6’2″).

So I started doing some research. Looking at Manhattan moms for ideas. Women who managed to have babies while living in 300 sq. ft. apartments. And deciding what we would actually need and what we wouldn’t. Because if you ask me, Americans tend to buy waaay more than they need, especialllllly when it comes to babies. Those families that have “playrooms” full of plastic crap toys in what used to be their living room make me cringe. And I started to feel like it was definitely possible and I kind of liked the challenge.

Since I am finally getting things in order in there and I’m hoping I can wrap it up shortly and photograph it before the baby arrives, I thought it would be fun to share a little teaser in the meantime. So here is a little style board that will give you an idea of what we are cooking up!

I re-used some things from elsewhere in the house or from our storage unit and added in a few other things on the cheap.

We knew we wanted the Bloom Alma Mini Crib because of its size. When a co-worker of John’s told us she had one and would sell it to us for $100 (including the organic mattress and sheets) we jumped at the chance. Initially I had wanted the white one because I thought it would feel calm and minimal in a tiny space. I wasn’t sure how I felt about the orange color at first. But at that price, I figured I would make it work. In the end I actually ended up loving it and I think it set the tone for the whole room!

My mother gifted me her original Knoll butterfly chair and a new leather sling seat for it. I knew I loved the chair but I had no idea where I was going to use it in our small house. It felt like a shame to put it outside, although, there literally was nowhere else to put it. Initially I thought if the nursery was going to have a chair it needed to be a rocker. But one day John sat me down in the Butterfly chair and put the headphones on me (playing Yo Yo Ma) trying to get his pregnant wife to just relax for a bit and I actually fell asleep in the chair! I figured if I could manage to fall asleep in it then I could nurse in it.

I love the mix of textures in the babies room and I love that its just the right balance of soft enough for baby but sophisticated enough that it blends with the rest of the house. Can’t wait to finish it up and share the real deal with you!!!

Hair Envy

Just came across this picture from The Marcy Stop and this color is killing me! Love it. My ombre color used to be more blonde but I axed it in the fall thinking I wanted darker hair for the season change. Doh! Now I really want this!

“Who you hang out with determines what you dream about and what you collide with.
And the collisions and the dreams lead to your changes.
And the changes are what you become.
Change the outcome by changing your circle.”

- Seth Godin (via SwissMiss)

Swiss Miss SXSW Talk

Wanted to interrupt my usual fashion posts with something I found inspirational and enjoyable this morning.
It’s a long talk (about an hour) but it’s easy to have going in the background if you are busy.

Even if you are not a designer I think she has some great ideas included in her 11 rules/values to live by that can apply to and inspire us all.

Video streaming by Ustream

Tina’s site Swiss Miss

European Vacation: Part 2 – Paris

Okay, bear with me here, this will be a long post with many many pictures. Paris was probably my favorite part of the trip. At the beginning of the trip I was really intimidated. Before we left for our trip John burned me some cd’s to listen to in the car to learn French and Italian. The only other language I partially know is Spanish. I found the Italian fairly familiar but the French was very foreign. Not to mention that the French lesson was by a different company than the Italian and it wasn’t very good. I hate looking like an American tourist when traveling and like to do what I can to blend in. Knowing a tiny bit of French would have made this easier. As it turns out, I have a really good ear for language. I can hear and repeat things with pretty good pronunciation. The problem with that is that people assume I know what I’m talking about and start speaking to me in French, Italian, Hebrew, Spanish etc. I also have a face that easily blends in any culture. So of course John wanted me to do all the talking, but then I would panic when I didn’t understand. On the upside, most people speak English and I feel like everyone was appreciative of my efforts. Another bonus that we noticed was that other Americans were often greeted and spoken to in English but people usually started with us in French, always flattering when traveling, one old woman even stopped and tried to ask me for directions!

We stayed in Paris for one week. In a studio apartment we found via LivinParis, which is similar to Air BnB but specific only to Paris. The apartment was literally about a block away from the Louvre and cost about 700 Euro for an entire week. You can’t beat that!

We spent a lot of time strolling through the Louvre gardens, picnicing and exploring. It was basically our backyard after all.

For the most part, we kind of avoided things that were super touristy. We usually like to just kinda do what the locals do. Take the subway into a neighborhood, wander around, shop, hang out in cafes etc. We like to slow down, and relax, rather than stress out about schedules and stand in lines.

This was the day a Parisian girl told me “I love your style!”. It was a pretty proud moment, I must admit.

Speaking of café (which by the way, is café un creme not café au lait, a common American give-away). I guess France is not really known to have good coffee. But Telescope coffee knows what they are doing! Definitely worth a visit if you find yourself looking for a good cup of joe in Paris.

There were still some sites we didn’t want to miss. First on list? Come on. We had to see the Eiffel Tower!

Nerding out.

Soaking it all in at the River Seine (right next to the tower).

One of my all time favorite Paris memories was spent at the Louvre gardens taking in the tower at dusk. We took a picnic to the park then sat by the fountain and watched the most beautiful sunset ever. I was under the impression that as soon as the sun went down the tower would light up and twinkle for the first 10 minutes of every hour. The most beautiful twinkling lights you can imagine. Apparently I heard wrong because the sun went down fairly early but the lights didn’t go off until at least nine. But we waited in the park, because it was absolutely beautiful that evening, and I was determined to see the lights twinkle!

Paris is often refered to as La Ville-Lumiére (The City of Light) and I really can’t explain to you just how breathtaking it all was. The glow and the light was…engulfing…and unlike anything I have ever seen.

“Nailed it!” I had to show Instagram how awesome it all was.

We got goofy while waiting around and started a new travel tradition of jumping in front of sites. Why? Well, why not? Mostly because we are weirdos, but also because, why not jump for joy?!

Paris’ other nickname? Well….maybe not a nickname…but they say “Paris is for Lovers”. We totally got that memo. How could you not fall in love all over again in such a romantic and beautiful place, awash with twinkling lights and gorgeous architecture? Not to mention that we were just a few weeks away from celebrating 2 years of marriage and 11 and a half years together! How handsome does my husband look here!?

What were some of the other tourist sites we saw, you ask?
We stopped by the Arc de Triomphe

I’m still not really sure why that soldier guy is nekid.

Visited the Sacre Coeur (which I still can’t pronounce) in Montmartre. It sits at the highest point in the city and therefore has some pretty amazing views. Tons of tourists who want to hang out there all day. Because of this, there are also a lot of local scam artists. (Like the guys who try to tie a friendship bracelet onto you, they just want to distract your boy so they can steal his wallet, wave them off. And also the girls who want you to sign petitions of some sort. They are also known to pick pocket, but I just witnessed a lot of tourists, just handing over money!)

It was overcast that day, but awesome, none the less.

Being vegetarian, our food experience in Paris was a bit different than what you might expect. Since much of the French diet is centered around meat, we opted instead for “simple foods”. We looked up “the best baguettes in paris” and found that #7 on the list was right down our street. We didn’t get to try #1, but let me tell you, #7 was out of this world and cost about 1euro. Also on our street was a small produce stand where we could get vine ripe tomatoes and a fancy fromagerie where we could get fresh cheese of our liking and olives. This is essentially what we ate, day in and day out, without complaint.

We did a lot of walking and shopping.

Some random guy walking and shopping in front of a cool wall.

Vintage French photo souvenirs.

The Paris Opera House. I desperately hoped to see the ballet while we were there. But sadly, just missed it.

There was however, more football (soccer).

A Paris St.Germain game, which was pretty “spirited” and really a fun experience. Lots of chanting, lots of yelling and lots of fun.

Some fun light posts in the neighborhood of the stadium. Looks like Disneyland right? ha.

Shopping at Merci. An amazing concept store filled with great stuff. All of the proceeds go to charities. We bought some rad blankets that say Merci on them, as well as some enameled espresso sets and some other odds and ends.

And lastly the other big touristy thing we did was visit Notre Dame.

We went fairly early on a day when the weather wasn’t at its best, this also meant there weren’t as many tourists. Although, dont get me wrong, there were still a ton. But the upside was that the long line to climb the famous bell tower, wasn’t as long as usual. We waited for probably about an hour. But it’s definitely worth the wait. It is by far the best view of Paris and you can see every inch of it! The tower itself is a long way up a tiny tiny winding staircase. Its dizzying and tiring, but once you arrive at the top you are given plenty of time to enjoy the views.

Looking down over a gargoyle rain spout onto a sea of visitors.

Isn’t it amazing?!

Do I win some kind of award for world’s most ridiculously long blog post?
Reaaaallllly long story short: Paris was unbelievable. I feel so fortunate to have visited it and I hope to visit it again. When the week ended we really felt like we hadn’t had enough time. Which always leaves more for next time!

All illustrations by me.

Keys to the City

The work of Invisible Creature is always fun and inspiring but I especially love this new GIGANTIC mural piece they did.

Quoted from Invisible Creature:

“This past summer, our good friends at Vulcan Real Estate commissioned us to create one of the biggest jobs we’ve worked on to date – literally: A 100′ x 30′ mural that faces one of their new Amazon.com buildings in the ever-growing ‘city-within-a-city’, South Lake Union. Home to Amazon HQ, fine dining, upscale living & shopping, South Lake Union is full of life, culture and color. Our job was to reflect that with a vibrant and whimsical take on what ‘building a city’ could look like.

This project presented a fun challenge: Taking digital art, scaling it way up and painting it traditionally without compromising quality and its original style/intent. Finding the perfect partner to bridge the gap was important to us. To do that, we teamed up with artist (and mural pro) Don Rockwell and Foley Sign Company, which has served the Pacific Northwest sign industry for over 85 years. A huge thanks to Don, Mark Metcalf and the team at Foley for bringing our creation to life.”

Enjoy and Happy Friday!

Esquire Magazine 1958

I just came across this amazing magazine cover for Esquire magazine and I had to share? I can’t seem to find out who designed it, but it feels very much like Alexander Girard’s work (Who I love). Paper Crafts have made a come back recently (can’t you imagine it on the cover of Anthology magazine?) which makes this piece feel timeless. I also love that it’s about San Francisco.

Want to see more awesome cover designs? Esquire has a pretty cool archive of their old covers here.

Look I Love: How to Wear It: Leather

Leather has been touted as being a big thing this fall/winter. But you might find yourself intimidated by it and you aren’t sure how to wear it. I love a little bit of ‘rock and roll’ so I have been embracing it. While we were in Europe I bought several pieces that were leather (or pleather). And since I’m really loving the look right now I thought it might be fun to share a few inspirations to help you pull the look off yourself!

I think leather is best done when its mixed with neutrals. It makes a nice buttery texture that mixes well and can make basic items look all the more sexy/exciting. It looks great paired with creams and you cant go wrong with black on black. Wanna kick it up a notch? Going out for the evening? Add a red lip.

My Friends Are Talented: Moments (Nate Skinner)

We just finished another new film in our My Friends Are Talented series. I’m pretty excited about it and wanted to share

“All photographs are memento mori. To take a photograph is to participate in another person’s (or thing’s) mortality, vulnerability, mutability. Precisely by slicing out this moment and freezing it, all photographs testify to time’s relentless melt.” -Susan Sontag

This is Nate Skinner. He spends 8 hours a day in a lab as a bio-chemist. He fills every other available moment of his life exploring, framing and photographing the world around him.

Watching this film, we can’t help but get a little bit choked up because we know how dedicated and talented Nate is at his craft – and at this point we want it as badly as he does. His passion is inspiring and contagious. His photographs are many. His longing for something more is relate-able and his urge to become the best possible version of himself is something all of us should strive for.

Look for more of Nate Skinners work and follow him at:
flickr.com/photos/stegoskinner/

“Change will not come if we wait for some other person, or if we wait for some other time. We are the ones we’ve been waiting for. We are the change that we seek.” -Barack Obama

WhatWeDoFilms

European Vacation: Part 1 – London

I think it’s about time I share some photos and highlights from our European adventure. It will be terribly difficult to try to narrow them all down into something digestible but I’m hoping that if I break it down into sections and locations it will help. We of course brought like 4 different cameras on the trip, which means we took like 4000 photos. So you can imagine that its hard to choose favorites and decide what is worth sharing. Especially since all of it was so cool!

Our vacation started and ended in London. Turns out that its cheaper to fly in and out of London than other European cities, but we were happy to spend a few days there.
This first leg was pretty much just us flying into London, having a whirl-winded 2 days and then packing up and heading to Paris. We didn’t have much time, but we wanted to make the most of it. For us that meant friends-football-and shopping.

We left a 75+ degree Los Angeles to arrive in a fridged fall like London. The rest of the world actually has seasons! Who knew!? Okay, I kid, obviously I knew that. But it was kind of refreshing and cozy to get into the fall spirit. Gray skies, sprinkles and the smell of fireplaces.

We rented a flat in the Primrose Hill neighborhood which is pretty posh. It has at times been home to celebrities like Gwen Stefani, Kate Moss, Agnes Deyn as well as normal well to do family folks. Its a nice quiet neighborhood full of buggies and puppies. Not all that unlike the Noe Valley of San Francisco. It is also quite close to the Camden Street Market which is a bit like Telegraph ave in Berkeley haha.

These are pictures of us in front of the flat after a very long flight, waiting to be let in.

When we arrived, John was chatting with the owner about how he really wanted to see an Arsenal game and how he was disappointed to be missing one. (That’s a football team, or as we say in America soccer team for those of you who don’t know) The man informed him that although there was not an Arsenal game, there was an England game at Wembley that night. Needless to say, a few hours later we found ourselves on a train to Wembley stadium, jet lag be damned!

We were close enough you could smell the grass. John could not have been happier.

The next morning we bundled up and headed out on the town.

We started with a hearty breakfast and of course tea. John got eggs on toast and I chose a traditional (all be it-vegetarian) English breakfast, complete with fake sausage but no beans at a spot called Cafe Seventy Nine.

Then we met up with our friend Annie to do a bit of shopping at some of our favorite UK shops like Fred Perry, Topshop, Merc etc. (John is also a big fan of Lyle & Scott as well as Carhartt- which is ENTIRELY different in Europe)