dellwood

September 11, 2018 in art, living room, residential interior, sofa

the challenge of this large, rectangular living room was bringing intimacy and continuity to the expansive space. we started with a grand, persian carpet generous enough to unite the room and also to serve as artwork on the floor. we added spacious sectional sofas at opposite corners that mirror each other, defining and clarifying the space. the sofas were joined by rounded, organic-shaped, low tables and accessory seating in the form of the undulating wooden wave bench and the deep teal ottomans.

soccer mom

September 04, 2018 in family

“soccer mom” is a term i never wanted applied to me… museum mom or high tea mom or movie mom or banana split mom or snuggle all afternoon on the sofa mom are all ones i can embrace (even though they haven’t really made it into the vernacular.) but the other weekend i found myself schlepping three twelve year old boys and my daughter and my puppy across the state to a tournament to kick off the boys’ fall soccer season. i don’t really know where we were… i just obediently listened to the google maps lady and followed all of her turns… but i do know that we were way past ikea, which is about as far away as i ever drive. and we didn’t even stop there for my customary hotdog and ice cream cone, which was a little disappointing.

what if... quilts by ann rhode

August 28, 2018 in family, quilts, photography, art

my mother, ann rhode, is the rare artist who primarily approaches her creativity with logic, rather than emotion. she is a problem solver who revels in puzzles and mazes and geometric explorations. she frequently alters traditional or established quilt blocks to construct new patterns and pathways for the eye to follow. she creates movement and depth in her quilts by varying color value or combining unexpected prints and hues. her pieces are both mathematical challenges and painterly in her color use.

popeye

August 23, 2018 in family

my twelve year old son has a bit of a sailor mouth. he is not entirely to blame because his father and i are both pretty salty… and try as i might i can’t seem to reign it in too much, especially when i injure myself, which happens with shocking frequency. i am always covered in bruises from walking into corners or moving furniture around or misjudging whether my hip will hit the counter… last fall i even shut the trunk down on my OWN head and gave myself both a concussion and a contusion - my doctor was duly impressed. so most of the time i don’t get too flapped by his swearing, unless we are around grandparents or other people’s better behaved children. but we were around the grandparents A LOT this summer and i came up with a GENIUS rule (normally i would never give parenting advice, as i think the whole process is so hard and unpredictable and none of us will even know if we did a good job for decades, at which point it will be too late anyway, but this is a good little nugget i think…)

criss cross apple sauce

August 21, 2018 in garden

BOULDERS - just a reminder to PLEASE come pick some apples from my tree! they are falling and smashing like crazy…. it’s dangerous for me to be out there as i am sure i will get bonked on the head by one and i cannot afford to have another concussion… i have enough trouble remembering stuff.

we have moved on to apple sauce as we cannot eat anymore apple crisp…

repost: cuckoo clocks

August 20, 2018 in residential interior

i wanted to repost this story on cuckoo clocks because i got the nicest note from a fellow blogger, koen van der list, who also wrote a piece about modern cuckoos that i'd like to share: cuckooclockonline.com

mr. van der list sourced many other charming clocks you should know about. he is from the netherlands.. a country that has wonderful, whimsical home design and holds a special place in my heart. ENJOY!

climb up my apple tree

August 14, 2018 in family, hank, garden

"say, say, oh playmate,

come out and play with me

and bring your dollies three

climb up my apple tree

slide down my rain barrel

into my cellar door

and we'll be jolly friends

forever more, 1-2-3-4"

when i was little, i was desperate for an apple tree like the one in my favorite hand clapping song. i also wanted a rain barrel, although i wasn’t really sure what that was. forty years later, i do have a great, big, sweeping apple tree in my backyard. my tree has a beautiful, twisted, architectural trunk with a hole the perfect size for hiding easter eggs, it makes lots of shade (crucial for a fair-skinned mama living in a town that bumps up against the sun,) in the winter, the way the snow lands on the branches is right out of fairy tale, it’s covered in lacy, white blossoms in the spring, and every other year or so, my tree grows apples in the late summer.

magpie

August 07, 2018 in family, hank

noun

either of two corvine birds, Pica pica (black-billed magpie), of Eurasia and North America, or P. nuttalli (yellow-billed magpie), of California, having long, graduated tails, black-and-white plumage, and noisy, mischievous habits.
a person who collects or hoards things, especially indiscriminately.

(from dictionary.com)

hank can be pretty cheeky… he gets away with it because he is outrageously cute, but sometimes i am astounded by how forgiving i am of his behavior. if my kids did any one of the naughty or disgusting things he does, i think i would sell them on ebay. somehow, when i discover one of hank’s bad acts, i just end up giving him kisses. (my children HAVE started to notice the inequity in how i discipline - or don’t, rather - hank vs. the time outs and revoked desserts and phones and TV time that they suffer. i figure i am providing them with important material to discuss with their therapists in their forties.)

summer cleaning

August 02, 2018 in residential interior, travel, family

returning to boulder after a month in berkeley is challenging every summer. i get so immersed in my california life that i’m a bit discombobulated when i get back to colorado. i forget my regular routes to places, i mix people up and can’t remember how i know them and generally feel a bit muddled for a while… a sort of travel dementia. this year was tougher than usual because everything was broken when i left and unfortunately, everything was still broken when i returned. my garage remains bent outward from when i bashed it while backing out the day before my trip. the grass in my backyard is all dried up - i DID call the sprinkler guy before leaving and he just didn’t come. (he showed up yesterday and said that a BEAR had chewed a portion of the piping for my sprinklers. i thought maybe it was actually hank, but then i saw a GIANT poop next to the fence. it looks like paul bunyan squatted down in my lilacs - sometimes there is just too much nature in boulder.) the AC in my house is still spotty, despite the AC man “fixing” it before my departure and to top it off, my car wouldn’t start AGAIN! i realize that these are all minor, fixable problems in the grand scheme of things, but it’s taken me longer than usual to get myself sorted and functioning properly.

marigold

July 27, 2018

marigolds were first cultivated and appreciated by the aztecs… they were recorded in the de la cruz-badiano aztec herbal manuscript (a document describing the medicinal properties of various plants) in 1552. these “herbs of the sun” were believed to have both healing and magical qualities and were used to cure hiccups, treat getting struck by lightening and employed as love charms. they are symbols of passion and creativity and have been incorporated into spiritual ceremonies across the continents… and now they serve as the namesake for san francisco’s loveliest floral shop.

fentons

July 18, 2018 in family, travel

i am not a camper. there is just about nothing in the scope of that activity that i enjoy… i like to be clean, i like proper toilets, i like hot showers, i like cozy beds, i like to be indoors and i like to be safe. so camping is not something i would ever do, even with my children. i’m happy to do camping-like things (s’mores by a fire pit, blanket forts in the living room, picnics in a park, looking at the stars from the backyard, daytime walks in the nature, what i call “car hiking” and scary stories) but i like to sleep in an indoor bed. when we first moved to boulder, i was picking my son up from school and there was a discussion on the radio about a boy scout who got his face eaten off by a mountain lion in OUR colorado mountains. the story was so horrifying that i forgot i had my children in the car until theo piped up and said, “wait… WHAT happened mama?” “a little boy got eaten up by a mountain lion when he was sleeping in the nature - that’s why we don’t camp!” i replied. and i hoped it would put him off camping forever.

south side

July 12, 2018 in hank, family, pet, travel

i grew up on the north side of berkeley, right near the little tunnel that runs under the marin circle and off a shopping street full of restaurants and quirky boutiques called solano. my friends all lived very close by… mostly because i got lost so easily and could only have friends whose houses i could find. this was in the days before mothers drove you all around the world for playdates. i can still distinctly picture the map my friend cynthia’s mother drew for me so i could get to their house. at the time we were in a rental behind the library and i had to walk three long blocks past the firehouse (she made a perfect circle that i marveled at, to indicate the station, as berkeley’s no. 4 is cyclindrical - designed in 1960 by ratcliff architecture) and turn right on los angeles for half a block. i carried that map with me for months (yes - i am a SLOW geographic learner) when i was going to her house.

jelly bean

July 05, 2018 in hank, travel, family, pet

the first time it happened, the kids had taken hank over to their father’s house. i got an excited phone call AND photos. i had really hoped that we would never have to deal with this because hank is so mellow, but there it was, a glossy, hot pink protrusion coming out of hank’s nether regions. i have to say, if you didn’t think about what it was, it was really quite pretty… so shiny and my favorite hue of pink. it is rumored that someone touched it (before really understanding what it was) but that has not been confirmed.

uncomfortable

June 27, 2018 in residential interior

i do not like to be physically uncomfortable. when i have a headache, i take an advil. when i am having a baby, i get an epidural (this was no small feat in the netherlands where both of my children were born and 30% of women give birth at home.) i don’t understand people who run marathons or bike a million miles, despite blisters or cramps or just being tired. i only run when my children are headed into traffic or if someone is chasing me with an ax. actually, in my early 20’s, i did run the bay to breakers (san francisco’s 10k) once. between all the bands and the cheering and the popsicles and the costumes and the fact that it was so crowded you couldn’t go very fast, i had a great time. and on the way home, my roommate and i bumped into jerry brown, who was running for president at the time - but was not accompanied by any entourage or body guards - and he invited us back up to his converted victorian firehouse home that was a few blocks from our apartment for a chat. i ended up volunteering for his campaign and it sparked my interest in politics. overall, it was a pretty amazing day and i thought i had discovered a hidden running talent in myself. two days later, i tried to go running again… but without the entire city cheering me on and handing me treats, i realized that i actually do not like to run at all. i do exercise a bit because i am vain. i take classes at the bar method a couple of times a week - it is air conditioned in there and the teachers are funny and i have a range of strategies for getting through class: i only use the 2 pound weights (perhaps this is why i still have “dinner lady arms” where the bits between your elbow and armpit flap too readily when you wave,) i almost never do the challenges, i go to the bathroom if there is more than ten minutes left for the tummies (if i go earlier, i just really had to go,) i only accidentally take the level 2 classes and i count stuff: boob jobs, filled lips, tattoos and pig tails - you’d be surprised at how many women in their forties still tie their hair up like school girls.)

a life well traveled...

June 20, 2018 in art, family, residential interior, sofa, travel, living room, dining room

i love learning about the histories and adventures of my clients. my goal, as a designer, is to help them create a home that provides a platform for the artifacts, photographs, books and unique objects that represent their experiences in an integrated, personal manner.

i love you higher than the sky is high and deeper than the ocean is deep

June 17, 2018 in family, holiday

for as long as i can remember, my father has said this to me… when he was putting me to bed, when he was saying good-bye, or sometimes just because he was passing by. i always imagined a vast, navy blue sky sparkling with stars reaching down to a deep purple ocean filled with colorful, friendly fish. (somehow even after i saw jaws WAY too young, that imagery never penetrated this phrase.) the enormity of all of that love surrounding me and protecting me made feel so safe, like i moved through the world in my own special cocoon. so on the tougher days like when i wasn’t invited to the sleepover or i got a really bad hair cut (fall of 8th grade and again in 10th) or some boy didn’t like me back or we didn’t win the spirit cup senior year like EVERY other class or i didn’t get into the college i wanted (my father actually called some schools and asked for my hand printed applications back) or i didn’t get the job i interviewed for (i am colossally poor in job interviews) or the boyfriend whose eyes are too close together cheated on me (i should have known when my father pointed out his flawed eye configuration) or i forgot to put the parking brake on and my big, two-ton sedan rolled down a hill right into the side of another car whose owner was at the same party i was going to or i got laid off or i couldn’t get pregnant or i had to move from amsterdam to a hot, dusty mountain town or my marriage fell apart or i missed my children so much i remained paralyzed on the sofa binge watching "girlfriend’s guide to divorce” and eating pirate booty until the roof of my mouth was shredded or even last week when i couldn’t remember where i parked after a lunch date and looked for my car (with my date) for FORTY-FIVE minutes in unbelievable heat only to find it right in front of the restaurant (i know - it’s amazing - i did NOT hear from him again!) … on all of those days, and every other, i knew my father loved me. that’s no small thing.

eddie's jackets

June 12, 2018 in family, residential interior, sofa, living room

with the approach of father's day, i wanted to repost this piece i wrote about my father-in-law....

my father-in-law was gone too soon. by the time i met him, he had been suffering from parkinson’s for nearly thirty years. there was still a twinkle in his eye that confirmed all of the stories i had heard about him when he was younger, but i missed knowing him when he looked like ricki ricardo and was celebrated for his violin playing, spontaneous fun, witty humor and dapper dressing. i did, however, get to see the beautifully tailored cashmere coats and suits he left behind. while none of them fit his son quite right, they were too fine and too sentimental to give away. we packed them away carefully and they moved with us to three different apartments and two houses. recently, i found them when i was doing a major post-lice cleaning. i know you don’t have to go through EVERYTHING in your house when your children infect it with lice, but once i get going on the cleaning i tend to get carried away. they were in the back of my sewing closet in an unmarked box. i am no longer married to my father-in-law’s son, so clearly i needed to give the jackets back. but i decided to take the cashmere herringbone coat apart and have it made into two sofa pillows because the fabric was so soft and appealing. after getting the deconstructed jacket cleaned, i had the pieces sewn together into two squares. one square has a pocket showing and the other has the jacket buttons going down the middle. my daughter and i picked out a neutral plaid that has a 60’s era feel and we used that as the backing on these pillows. my one-time husband had forgotten about the jackets and was delighted to have them repurposed and added to his living room…a cozy reminder of his dashing father.

strawberry shortcake

June 05, 2018 in family, pet

every summer when i was growing up, there would be one night where we had strawberry shortcake for dinner. no broccoli or pork chops or mac n’ cheese… just a heaping plateful of home-made(ish) strawberry shortcake. (i say “ish” because my mother always made the shortcake recipe right off the bisquick box… which is DELICIOUS, by the way.) there was nothing more exciting for me than having dessert for dinner. it literally felt like christmas in july.

waterworks

May 29, 2018 in family, commercial interior, travel

i am one quarter german and three quarters mish mosh northern european. to my knowledge, (although i’ve never used ancestry.com) i do not have a speck of french blood in me. this has always seemed grossly unfair as i spent all four and a half years of college studying french… even spending one semester in paris at the sorbonne in an intensive grammar program and a couple of summers working for french-speaking families as an au-pair. to top it off, i never even had a french boyfriend.

milestones

May 22, 2018 in family, pet, commercial interior

recently, hank had to get his THIRD collar. his neck just keeps getting bigger and bigger. i certainly didn’t expect him to have a swan neck like audrey hepburn… he IS a bulldog after all, but i have been surprised by his rapid growth. he also now weighs in at TWENTY-SEVEN pounds… more than half the weight of my daughter. i think his bones must be made of steel. while i am grateful for his sturdiness and good health (except when he eats chapsticks) his many milestones in such a short period have left me reeling. only two months ago, i was working at the kitchen counter with hank at my feet and all of a sudden he was just GONE. i looked all around the room and was wondering if he’d somehow left when i heard pattering overhead. somehow he’d managed to go up the stairs all by himself. until that point, we’d been carrying him up and down. it reminded me of when my son was about four months old and i left him in the middle of the room on a blanket and went to the bathroom. he was also gone when i came back. i finally found him in a corner and realized that he had learned to roll over… and over and over. unfortunately, he could only go in one direction so he was a bit stuck.