fall at the river

i haven't been up to the cabin in a long time, it feels like two months, but it might be less than that. the light is gorgeous up there now, and the weather was really great this weekend. i didn't work on my paper as i had planned, but there's always tomorrow. i actually relaxed and enjoyed it. i made this bouquet out of our winter yard, complete with figs and mushrooms.




we finally went wine tasting for the first time and found two great wineries; lambert bridge and hop kiln, then stumbled onto the dry creek general store. got some great photos down on mother's beach.





i'm planning our next trip, post holidays and school, when i have absolutely nothing to do but read, drink wine, and walk around the woods.

home stretch

holga

i'm almost done. three more weeks of school and just two more papers to go along with the regular stuff. i'm tired of writing, i'm tired of metadata schemas, and i'm tired of not reading for fun. just 2 or so more years! i'm finding small escapes every now and then. last week i read about camera bag on leigh's blog and used it at flora grubb over the weekend. take a photo, apply a filter, and your shot is transformed.

lolo

instant

this break brought to you by my fried brain.

recent acqusitions

no harm in talking like a librarian already. i need a break from all the information retrieval speak.


we found some amazing stuff at estate sales, some a month ago, i just never posted. i love this painting found up in santa rosa at a great sale. i think the gentleman was an art professor, his home was filled with books, paintings, sculptures, ceramics and i wanted to move in. al doesn't like this painting and said it can't hang in the bedroom. i absolutely love it and the rough wooden frame that houses it.


bernardo gave us a painting for the cabin, but i don't know if we can bare to take it up there and leave it alone all week. we were so touched. yes, that's wood veneer and a bad set of photos trying to capture the colors.


and finally a needlepoint pillow, another estate sale find.


back to the books!

stable

there is a great article on dwell.com about stable cafe. i haven't been there in a while, but it's so good and i love the space. i knew there were some other businesses using the kitchen inside this historic building, but now i know it's actually an incubator for other food folks. they've added the patio since i've been so i really need to get over there with a textbook and hang out in the sun. i love knowing a little more about how stable was born.
photo dwell magazine

very sad

thing to wake up to this morning.

hittin the green

i'm really excited for green11 to open here in n.v. i just can't deal with rainbow any more and this will give me a great excuse to take a walk. if all goes as planned it will be open next week!
photo courtesy of Green 11

modernism

this week i wrote a post based on a ted talk for for my information & society class. it's funny to say i wrote a post, but we write lots of posts to discussion boards in all three of my classes because we never meet in person. joshua prince-ramus' talk on the design of seattle's central library is about 10 minutes of this talk and really fascinating, check it out if you have a spare 1o min. i love design, i love modern, and i love architecture, but most of all i love the library. the library is a really social place for me even though i usually don't talk to anyone when i'm in one. prince-ramus really speaks to that in this talk. another classmate, alana, pointed us to a blog post comparing the seattle central library with our main library here in san francisco. most of us who have been to the main SFPL have complained about entrances that get you nowhere and just the overall bad layout. what i didn't know is there wasn't enough room for all the books when the library was built and the director had many of them tossed!

i'm heading to the main library for a behind the scenes tour today and at least two of my classmates will be there as well. i'm really looking forward to meeting them in person and getting into some of the rooms i've never seen.

image from http://kanhom.com/author/enagler/

yum

after this week all i can say is thank god for whisky. now if only i could sleep.

Photograph by Romulo Yanes, Gourmet Magazine, 1940s Favorite cocktails.

labourious

i'm living vicariously through leigh right now as she visits every single cafe, market, and amzazing shoppe in london. last week she went to liberty and i asked her to get me something. we nixed that idea when the only thing i wanted was this A.P.C. dress that cost £140.00. the first week she was gone i read about a few of london's not to be missed in the september issue of gourmet. one store i could live in is labour and wait. when leigh told me it was already on her list to visit i wanted to teleport myself over. she said she would pick something up for me there and asked i might like. i gave her a long list, i couldn't decide. i can't wait to see what she thinks i would have chosen. really, a pencil would make me happy at this point. i'm stuck at my desk.

left to right, clockwise: pink enamel milk pot, blue enamel lidded mug, white enamel ladel set, white enamel measuring jug.

left to right, clockwise: natural horn egg spoons, enamel soap dish, small enamel container with plastic lid, porcelain measuring spoons.

redd zinn

it's been very gray and cold in sf the last few days. 56 degrees here right now, i wonder if it's warmer where leigh is. the npr morning weather forecast threatens sun, but it never comes out. i've been busy at home, but a few times a day i walk to the front porch to gaze upon my freshly planted containers full of zinnias. then i smile and go back to work. i need to get out more.

neglect

oh little blog i've ignored you for too long. it seems between work, volunteering, and my first class i just haven't been motivated to post anything. school starts full time next week and this month i've been working through the class which introduces me to all the tools and technology. so far it's going well, i've gotten an A on all the projects, and have just three (out of ten) left to do. i'll have to complete them by thursday as i head back up to the cabin friday mid-day to enjoy my last summer weekend. last weekend at the cabin, yetti really made us his step-parents. he just hung around for 2 days, mostly dozing on the porch or walking through the yard with us as we were working on projects. he's so sweet and really loves to be with people. i gave him a little rug to sleep on and some water, but being true to his owner's wishes i haven't fed him. well.... i did give him one anchovy soaked crouton from my salad, but he just licked it and went back to the rug.


the tile job is officially complete and all cleaned up. and we took the craigslist canoe up, but didn't try it out yet.

pacific blues

last week at the cabin it really felt like all we did was tile. the area was a total of 32" x 92" and took 4 of our 5 days. various factors for this session of torture include:

1. never tiling anything before

2. tiling an area behind a non-movable object

3. using hand-made heath tiles that are not square or flat

4. never tiling anything before

we never imagined this would take us so long, but for the most part it's done. we just need to remove the tape around the edges when we go back (the grout really needed to dry) and wash off the grout haze. i'll be doing that next weekend when i head back up without al. it really looks gorgeous and adds a nice bit of color and texture to the living room.


we did get to spend a lot of time at mother's beach, which is basically across the street. we packed up one of my new baskets with towels and books, packed a cooler with snacks and booze, and hauled over a lounge chair, umbrella and inner-tube for a few hours of lounging and cooling off in the 90 degree sun. we only saw one beer induced fight.

next projects include harvesting from the garden bed (me) and finishing the workroom downstairs (al).

beat

we're back and we're beat. five days at the cabin, much of it spent tiling behind the wood stove. i also picked our first ripe fig, gathered a ton of blackberries, and sat on the beach. it was good. more later, i have a lot of work to catch up on.

lamplighter

we found a new lamp for the cabin and it was just hand delivered in all it's teal and green beauty. mcmf has a few things listed on craigslist, which is where al found this. they'll deliver for free unless the item is real heavy, then they charge $40. carlos was super nice and we're excited to see this lamp in action tonight when we get to the cabin.

framed

the cable car is ready for it's new home in a frame and matte from cheap pete's. it looks quite respectable now i do think. art $1, frame $17, matte $20. that seems backwards or something.

floors

we've already purchased so many things for the cabin, but our list is long. i'm on the lookout for rugs so when apartment therapy featured some "good, cheap summer floor covers" i went looking. dash & albert has a lot of choices i like, i'll have to see what albert says. also found a cute option on ll bean, but it's more expensive. i think al would vote for the black and white.

photography

i was chatting to my dad today and we talked a bit about some of my recent blog posts. he casually mentioned i might want to consider changing my profile photo because he doesn't think it's flattering. i love this photo, and it reminds me of graham's birthday party where we all took photos in his studio's photo booth. for now the photo will stay for now, but i was touched at his comment and one day i'm sure i'll decide to change it.

cut it out

i'm always on the lookout for art at estate sales, but given that art is such a personal preference we rarely find any we like (or can agree on). al found this piece over the weekend as we were walking out of one sale. it was in a crappy plastic box frame that has yellowed with time and was scratched and cracked. i took it out of it's frame today and was shocked at how vibrant and gorgeous this piece is. i was also surprised to find out it's actually a black paper cut-out placed on top of a background painted in teal, aqua, orange and a gorgeous salmon color. there's even a little rub down "o" for the light on front of the cable car. it measures just 5 1/4" x 7 1/4" and will be lovely framed.

greening

we had a great weekend at the cabin and a lot of green things passed through our fingers. money, herbs, plants, pots, wine bottles..... we found some estate sales and ended up with a few odds and ends. we even lot a lamp (a very tiny one) for $4. we need more light in the kitchen, specifically under the cabinets, so this little lamps works fine for that. albert really wants to get a ceiling fixture and shade from schoolhouse electric to replace the fluorescent box light that we can't stand. i just hate overhead lighting in general, so my goal is lamps lamps and more lamps. we still haven't gotten to the tiling job. we need to lay out the tiles to decide on the pattern and borrow a tile saw. we got home late last night and i was up way past my normal bed time. i dreamt of someone stealing out water from the cabin hose (our first water bill for the cabin was very high) and woke up feeling fuzzy. then i sat down at my computer to read my cell phone bill was $440.43! i got that straightened out and my blood pressure is back to normal now. my day is off from waking up an hour later than usual. i just finished 2nd breakfast.

we need lamps

on the morning of our departures to the cabin, i begin stacking up things on the kitchen table so i don't forget them. so far today i've got two avocados, one orange and one yellow pyrex bowl, my cabin key set, and this blue bird. i went to an estate sale this morning hoping to find a lamp, we are desperate for lamps. there was so much stuff from multiple families, but i only walked out with these two bowls and the blue bird. i'm very happy with these purchases, but we need lamps. i'm still sad about the loss of this one to some other lucky craigslister.