what it all adds up to

I didn't care that it was blustery and a bit on the cold side today. The sun was hitting the hills behind my house making them glow against the stormy clouds settling in and I had to get up there. Ever get that way? Just can't be inside one more minute. I have this favorite rock up the trail the perfect distance between close and far away. It's flat and white with the perfect vantage point. I've done a lot of thinking on that rock.

I love that it is almost spring. Almost a new season in so many ways for me.

There are a lot of 'almosts' in my life right now and I can't get enough of the feeling of almost. Its a fantastic twist to being incomplete. We always are in some way or another. It isn't a nagging or empty thing, there is an energy to it and it makes me feel like life will always have something waiting just out of view.


Happy new month and week to you.

"she gave him the world.."

"..ok, so it was a globe w/a lamp in it. But for the romantic that he was, it might have well been the world." {name this movie}

It is sunny here today. And warm. I spent the afternoon in the sunshine unpacking a shipment of globes. Poking at them at random to see what places would come up.

I've always liked the idea of having a map hanging around somewhere with pushpins in it to check off the places I've seen. Maybe a different color pushpin in places I'd like to go someday? {I like this idea a lot actually.}

I also like this room divider. Moco had this map made of their neighborhood and use it to catalog favorite places like shops and restaurants.

When I was a kid we had a giant map wall. It was really cool. I liked having a map around back then too. The rest of the images are of kids rooms I thought were fun. I'd like to do a kids room right now. {Just throwing that out there, maybe the universe will hear me and send me a kid client?}

It is not down in any map; true places never are. ~Herman Melville

A good traveler has no fixed plans, and is not intent on arriving. ~Lao Tzu

I travel not to go anywhere, but to go. I travel for travel's sake. The great affair is to move. ~Robert Louis Stevenson

Half the fun of the travel is the aesthetic of lostness. ~Ray Bradbury {could not agree more!}

{My sources: Click and find lots and lots of globes and maps. here and here too.}

I dislike feeling at home when I am abroad. ~George Bernard Shaw

if you give a girl a spice rack

If you give a girl a spice rack, she'll probably want to bake something yummy. {matching glass spice bottles definitely on my wish list}

If she bakes something yummy, she'll probably want to do so in a super awesome kitchen. {can you believe this container home?!}

If she bakes up a storm in a super awesome kitchen she'll want to take it easy and read a book in a pretty library in a square of sunlight like a cat.

And if she could read any book it would be one that would teach her how to run without hurting her knees because she's a crazy girl and has agreed to run a race.

inspired by: the federal style

Have you noticed the chairs where the Olympians sit as they chat with the never aging Bob Costas? They look like they are made from velvet and very comfy. I'm distracted by their beauty. The only interview that has held my complete attention was when Evan Lycacheck graciously talked about his gold medal win. {GO USA!! - and the topic of Costas never aging is fodder for another entry some other day.}

The point is, I'll take inspiration wherever I can, and today on George Washington's birthday, I have honed in on the Federal Style. I'm still reading the series of books written about the Revolutionary war and the author has included a lot of great details about the interiors of their homes {how did he know I'd enjoy that so much?}
The fact that the Federal Style came to be as our great country began the struggle to get out from under England's power makes it seem noble and practical to me. It emerged as a less detailed Georgian inspired style and had influences from the discovery of Pompeii.

Isn't it so cool how history & design are so intertwined?

the mix of delft, federal style chairs and bright blue in the room is divine.

Thomas Jefferson built Monticello during this time but chose to do it in the Neoclassical style. {He traveled a lot and was inspired by architects in Europe.} When I visited his home, the North Octagonal Rm was my favorite because of the pretty green wallpaper and the bed tucked into the wall like the one he designed for his room that allowed access into his bedroom and office depending on what side of the bed he got out on.


I love any space in a home that looks like a great place to loaf around and read a good book. {think: sit Lofey, sit}

and then there was change

the good news: I was asked to go back to Haiti after graduation.

the bad news: Not going to happen anymore. The project was called off.

I'm disappointed, but definitely not discouraged. When I was asked to go I was ecstatic. I could barely contain myself as I mentally started packing my bags. It was the best case scenario. Graduate, then take a month to figure out my next move while throwing myself into some good hard work.

I'm torn in so many directions it is hard to fathom ever getting everything to blend together into a cohesive plan. All I know is somehow there has to be a way for me to combine design/humanitarian aid bc I love both equally.


The video is from the World Report, fall 2009.

The picture above is from April 2009 when Carter was given the Person of the Day award for his dedication to helping his people succeed. Carter is my friend I mentioned before who is living on the streets in Haiti with his wife and two sons. He is in trouble because the 'bad guy thugs' know he has friends in America and have targeted him as someone to kidnap and ransom because of his connections. I second President Monson as he asks for our prayers for the peace and well being of the people in Haiti.

I can't even imagine Carter's reality right now. And my giants are CAD and waking up early for my business class. I think I need a reality check.

less lodge, more earthy-modern

 

meet the newest project: A family friendly space with a need for comfortable seating and some warm colors. Our clients got a steal of deal on this place. Twice as big as anything else in their budget, they jumped on it knowing it'd take a lot of work to make it home. Great layout, great light. Great great great! The only minus? Not exactly the style they are after.

The 'lodge' aesthetic is hard to ignore with all the cut logs everywhere but they don't want to do the expected woodsy thing. It would be very expensive to replace them and a mistake to ignore them hoping they'll fade in somehow. Personally, I think they add character, I like anything that makes a home different from the next. We'll take the emphasis off of them a bit with the right colors, accessories and furniture.
It will be fun to play up this couples laid back style. Our meeting to discuss fabric selections was unlike anything I've experienced as a designer. They didn't change one fabric anywhere. {And they've already painted the rooms the colors I selected with out hesitation} I'm feeling spoiled.

The great room will have a more formal seating area at the front of the home using their existing furniture. We are designing the family room at the rear of the home, adjacent to the kitchen. Seating is important with 6 kids and lots of entertaining.

And then there is the artwork. The hardest part for me is picking someones artwork for them. I want them to do it. I don't want to pick something that just has the right colors for the room. I want it to mean something. It really, really should.

expect the unexpected

I spent the weekend in Driggs, ID of all places. I didn't know anything about the place but '20 minutes from Jackson Hole' was mentioned and I started envisioning a snowy paradise. My daydreams were almost as good as the real deal.
The photo above is the view from the cabin. To see more, check out this site that shows off pictures taken every 15 minutes by a web cam on the back porch. I'd have one set up too if my backyard looked out on the Tetons.

Saturday afternoon we wandered around Jackson enjoying the sunshine, galleries and the each others company. Now might be the appropriate time to slip in the fact that Lorri and I were w/strangers and they turned out to be delightful. This wasn't the original plan, the person who invited us ended up bailing out but told us we were more than welcome to still go. Why not. As with most things in life, the unexpected usually turns out to be even better than the best laid plans.



lorri and I went snowshoeing and after awhile she decided to head back to the car. I continued on for a bit more wanting to see what was 'just up around there' {my usual sentiments while exploring}. I was just about to turn around after taking this picture when I caught movement in the trees. Two moose were right there watching me!

As always, I was addicted to collecting images of color. I loved all the white on white and more white on top of that. Beautiful.

1 more wk down..9 to go

until graduation!! Then what?!?

I'm working on my CAD final and was wandering the wide wide web of inspiration for ideas on a cafe included in my floor plan. Luved the exterior of this one, but the inside made me a little claustrophobic. {better in real life I'm sure}

I even found one in a container! My love for containers grows the more I learn about them.

We are meeting w/our new clients today to go over our fabric/paint selections. As I was going through the pics I took at their house & was surprised to find my eyeballs mixed in with their master bath photos. {I picked a really great muted green to play up those tiles and take out some of the pink.}

For a class at school we broke off into teams to visit residential/commercial construction sites. Our team did both this week and I was pleasantly surprised by the bonus tour at Zions Bank headquarters where their monster computers live. Part of my CAD final includes a server room and I was blocking it out w/little knowledge of what needed to go in there. I was especially syked when the Zions guy said he'd show us the behind the scenes stuff. Very helpful and a bonus to my week cutting down on guess work.

times 3 +plus+ a giveaway

I met 3 new challenges today, each so very different from the next. I love that about design - no two projects are ever the same.

The first was a quick request: an invisible way to hang plates from the wall to achieve a more contemporary look in her kitchen. A quick google search and we had the solution. After she left I did another quick search to appease my mind's eye, there is this manic need I feed to see the finished product. Like so many other quick solutions, I never get to see the end result. I give my two cents and they are off to make it their own.

{take a picture and come back and see me, I say this all the time. I don't know if they know how much I mean it. I promise, I'm not just being polite.}
A few of my favorites:




{thank you to this site, and this one too, for the borrowed images}

a huge, very exciting PS: Follow this link to sign up for a fun giveaway from one of my favorite blogs I stalk {6th Street Design School}. So stinkn cute!!

cupid's fallout

cupid must be working overtime bc I'm already in the mood for red, pink and all things hearts. I pulled out all my scrap paper and went to town.

Peppermints and polka dots. My other candy dish is loaded up with Aussie style black licorice - my new fav. {but it wasn't as pretty}

I can't think of anything nicer to wake up to than fresh flowers. {well, maybe breakfast in bed or a blank day to fill as I please...} but tulips while it snows outside? I love it!

I've been looking for art for a client for awhile now. It has to speak to her, as all art should. She hasn't seen this beauty by James Christensen and I like it so much I am half hoping she isn't feeling it. I've hung it in my room and it is a gem. It isn't even my usual style, I don't normally like things so ornate. I was surprised by how strongly I felt about it tho. I found it in a great little consignment shop {Home Again} and couldn't put it down.