yellow and tan yarns

One of the most exciting parts of weaving is choosing your yarns. Ahh, yellow, tan and silver... I'll be making a scarf with a basic shadow weave where one color will mimic/shadow the other. It's so easy to fall in love with color combos. Can never get enough of one pop color balanced out by neutrals.

another herringbone floor

A picture of the soft colored floor pattern from a book about Morocco....

I'm just dying to make herringbone work on the kitchen floor. I know they are meant for grand areas or long hallways... in Morocco.... sigh, we'll just have to wait and see, I guess.

Raymer St and trucks

Also visited some tile places in North Hollywood on Raymer St. where I parked by this line of fabulous red and white trucks. I guess this is the street to go to for tiles and stone counter tops without the mark-ups. Saw some good stuff, but most are from overseas which means it's hard to know what conditions they were made in. This is when you have to decide which shade of green you want to be. Still trying to figure out in which area of the remodel I want to give myself some leeway.

Heath Ceramics

Now that we have our very own L.A. Heath Ceramics on Beverly Blvd., it was a must visit. Heart every color. We toured their factory up north in Sausalito not too long ago. This company was sustainable from the start - from recycling their water, using local materials, and with their factory built using passive sunlight. The way factories are run and how the workers are treated are a big part of a sustainable culture. Still need to visit the Edith Heath exhibit that just opened at PMCA.

blue Intelligentsia tile

Before leaving Mission West tile, I spotted this tile... sooo we had to make an afternoon stop at Intelligentsia in Silverlake to see the full effect, again! Barbara Bestor, who is responsible for this madness, is a genius! She also masterminded Lou's Wine Bar which is also filled with all sorts of prints and patterns.

moroccan tiles

I've been obsessively researching tile lately, for the kitchen... Just gushing over the Moroccan geometric tiles from the Mosaic House which are way beyond my budget... The color combinations are unlike anything you see here in the U.S. I can compare it to looking at fashion. Most of these tiles are hand-painted or actually hand-chiseled then grouted into tile pieces. Crazy. I usually ask where the particular tile is made, so when I did, they did not say Nicaragua or Thailand, but Morocco. Pretty good imitations out there, but really neat to see the real thing. These are phone snapshots of the full color catalog at Mission West Tile.

hexagon and raspberry collage

what a wonderful window collage by patricia urquiola for max mara... i especially enjoy the nubby raspberry and the hexagons in the background. via nytimes blog the moment.

green and white herringbone floor tile inspiration

Tile inspiration via Katie Did and Morocco Modern by Herbert Ypma.

Structo Artcraft loom

Can you tell I'm all about weaving lately? I just picked up this Structo Artcraft loom I recently won on eBay. It is a small 4 harness table loom for weaving no wider than 20". Everything works perfectly, I just need to get all the rust off and change the heddles - my weekend project. Hmm, so how do you get rust off??? May take longer to restore than expected. Regardless, I'm excited! Structo was the toy company who made these looms in the 1920's. It reminds me of the Gocco.

paper weaving

i love this concept... weaving patterns together to form more patterns from here. paper was used in this example.

bedside table

I love the idea of this bedside table from House Beautiful Via Apartment Therapy.

weaving: finished scarf

Quick pic of my finished scarf....

weaving: grey shawl

Setting up the loom for my next weaving project - a muted purple/grey shawl with a peachy flesh tone (very calvin klein), and a pop of white, black and green mixed yarn. Will also be adding silver and darker grey after deciding to do a shadow weave. That's a 120" warp for a nice long 80" shawl. Love the colors, but we will see....

city at night

I love this view from a friend's front porch.

lemons

I made a big 3 gallon jug of lemonade with lemons from our Meyer lemon tree last Sunday for Mother's Day. It was SOOO good and refreshing! Today I picked this last harvest of the year for a co-weaver who will make lemonade for her daughter's graduation party.

TOGO

After 3 months, our pearl grey TOGO has finally arrived. Hooray! Phenomenal couch - iconic, comfortable, and most importantly, made sustainably. Ligne Roset is in rural France so they have no choice but to be efficient in their production process. The natural foam inside contains no CFC's and the wood panels inside contain lower levels of formaldehyde than the norm. Thought I would need to let it off gas it outdoors this afternoon, but there is hardly any "new couch" smell at all. Glues for the assembly of the frame and foam are water-based meaning no solvents are being released into the atmosphere.The Alcantara upholstery is cleaned using baby wipes per the sales lady and is backed by several certifications.

This is just the beginning of some long awaited remodeling and redecorating we will be doing this year. I have been holding off for many reasons, but mostly to research the sustainable route. Worth the wait!

black tile

This soft matte black tile with cream grout is just lovely.... Is it from Inside Out magazine?? Jon??

Owl Drug Company

Walking through Old Town Pasadena last night and spotted this great relic at the front door of JCrew. Wish I would've been around for The Owl Drug Company :)

bamboo iphone cover

Ooo, I might have to green my iphone with this recycled bamboo cover. It's made from 40% reclaimed bamboo from scaffolding and chopsticks :) Comes in several colors. This one is called mushroom.

japanese headbands

This might need to be my next work look - japanese headbands called hachimaki. Usually decorated with a logo or slogan, Japanese people used to wear them to ward off evil spirits. Students wear them when they study to get them in reved up for an exam and pregnant women in labor for birth! I took these pics within a week of each other so I think it's a sign. The first shot is from Shin Sen Gumi - the best yakitori. The second is from the unique and delicious Beverly Hills imagawayaki bakery called Fulfilled.

photo shoot

I was an art director in a previous life and always anticipated the excitement of a photo shoot - grueling but fun, lots of preparation and production for one packed day. I helped a friend document hers on video these last two days. These are all assistants on the first morning at the studio setting up. (The car is not part of the shoot!! So strange that it was there.)

Room Loom

This is Julia Sherman's second installation of the Room Loom. I missed the first one, but I was able to contribute to this one. I added the pretty light aqua blue color. The material was scrap fabric screen printed with black and white test prints. I love how the black and white got scrunched (or beat down in weaving terms) as the weft. The grey furry material to the right is dog hair. Julia's friend has 2 sheep dogs that just got shaved for the summer. She tried spinning it, but in the end, decided to just weave them in whole. The yellow and orange bunches, so brilliantly open up two sheds that we could weave into.
The installation is at at a great space called Workspace 2601 in Lincoln Heights.

Nasturtium Flower

omg! a flower grew from nasturtium seedling! everyone else is also progressing nicely...

carved wood necklace

vintage carved wood necklace with school days dangle charms from oxford jewel!

Weaving a Pattern

So this is my very first time following a weaving pattern from a book. I've always been intimidated (or lazy) to even try because it looks like math! But it's really not that bad. I've been weaving at a studio in Highland Park called Pets with Fez. Baba, the instructor is a wealth of knowledge, not to mention entertaining! I wove the red pattern with a tabby in the last class...

and experimented with a few other patterns and techniques today. This will end up being a soft, cozy, long scarf. I know it's been in the 90's these past few days, but I can't wait to see what it looks like on, hopefully not too crazy looking. The stripe on one of my favorite skirts is the color inspiration. Ooo, I probably could've gone more yellow looking at it now.

Today, I also was reminded that weaving is truly one of those age old processes that takes time and lots of patience. It's quite the opposite of the instant gratification we get from our life with computers so I am grateful that with each project, I am gradually re-learning how to slow down.