Walking the Bridge

We're in San Francisco and took the opportunity to take a long, leisurely walk across the entire length of the Golden Gate Bridge (a true suspension bridge I've been told) in perfect 70 degree weather today. I'd always wanted to do that.

cozy woodfire oven

Snapped a quick photo of the woodfire oven at Spanish tapas restaurant Cobras and Matadors on Third St. Had one of my most memorable dinners at the back table right next to the warm oven years ago. They are now open for lunch. We were here for a late lunch so it was nice and quiet, just the way I like it!

Mmm, the end of lots of buttery goodness...

plant hanger

Love this plant hanger by Katy Chan.
photo: Contemporary Textile Studio Co-op

Recycled Paper and Wood Necklace

Love this recycled paper and wood necklace at Undesigned. I've made these paper beads before from old magazines, but have never seen it executed so well.
photo: Undesigned

5 minutes of prettiness

Yesterday, I had one of those moments where I felt surrounded by just that - a great moment. It was on Holly Street, the warm late afternoon light beamed from behind me and I found my shadow and my brown sandals walking on the gray concrete into a scattering of fallen pink flowers. It would be 5 minutes of prettiness that I knew would quickly disappear so I enjoyed it for a second and then tried to preserved the feeling.

Lunch Money

Got the Lunch Money cd in the mail yesterday and just loved how they opted for a great combo of stamps with a fun placement - fun for a kid to receive in the mail. Lunch Money is kid's music with a refreshing indie rock sound. I remember loving the kid's records my mom used to get for us when we were young. It always made for a happy afternoon. Lots of kids in my family so this should be a perfect gift for the next bday.

blue sweater

Another quick revival this time of an old cyan colored sweater from my mother-in-law when she was young. I love the color so much that I still wore the sweater even though it had 4 missing buttons! Now we're complete. I wanted to use the red buttons, but they were too big. I used the shell ones and mixed them in with the pearly buttons that were still in tact.

I love the brand's inside label - yoko.

Buttons

Hand carved buttons from Earth Hues in Seattle. I think they're from India made from nuts, wood, shell, and even bone. I revived an old coat with three bone buttons last night...

shower timer

My new shower timer -- been doing good with 4 minutes.
A four minute shower uses about 20 - 40 gallons of water.

Tomory Dodge

So lucky we were able to catch the Tomory Dodge show at ACME before it closed on Saturday. So wonderfully patterned and ephemeral, but also like someone's somewhat voided, but clear viewpoint of a floating landscape. In scale, up close, in a gallery setting took it to a whole different level. Can't forget the glossy and blended strokes, random, but not really. This is a shot of my favorite piece, Debris Field. Also loved the title of another which summed up the show for me - After Forever.

Egg Carton Flowers

Some egg carton flowers I've been playing around with... I love the matte grey of egg cartons especially without the branding! The original project used a string of lights to make a holiday garland.

other random moments

lovely random moments from our trip via camera phone...

Art in Seattle

The amazing Alexander Calder sculpture at the Olympic Scupture Garden; an insane installation of maybe a dozen supended Ford Tauruses in the lobby of the Seattle Art Museum; and again, the Geoff McFetridge "In the Mind" installation at the Paccar Pavilion.

Theo Chocolate

You can't go wrong with a visit to Theo Chocolate in the Freemont area of Seattle. They are the only "organic, fair trade, bean-to-bar chocolate in the U.S." This is our second time here, but our first time taking their tour. The first image shows the the football size fruit of a gorgeous cacao plant; the second is the most important piece of machinery - the very cool, Willy Wonka looking vintage roasting machine where an employee must taste test every 30 minutes to ensure that the nibs produced are just right; love the chocolate buddahs which are made from chocolate used to clean the machines - water/humidity makes the cacao mold at any phase of production which means machines can only be cleaned with chocolate.

The thought they left us with at the end of the tour - Read your food labels, support fair trade, most importantly, life is too short not to eat good chocolate! A bar only needs to be made of 12% chocolate to be called chocolate, so when Theo's premium chocolate is 91% cacao, you know it's good!

Bainbridge Island

It's cold (!!) but it's nice to be out of urban LA and in nature. These are some views of Bainbridge Island.

Vancouver more

installation of hanging rice paper at the Vancouver Art Gallery; sweater dyed using natural dyes at Maiwa Supply; a tree trunk with origami birds in the middle of Social sandwich shop in Gastown; and a Japadog!