Time in Between

 This quarter Wednesdays are long days for me. I have two classes, Survey of Decorative Arts from 1:00-4:00 and Project Management from 7:00-10:00. After my first week of class I realized that I would have to pay a flat rate of $8.00 for parking by school and I would hit rush hour traffic after 4:00. This realization led to my conclusion that leaving in between classes made little sense. Meaning, I would be gone from 12:00pm -10:30pm and have three hours to kill in between. Now, you must know that I am one who enjoys schedules and list, and three hours of free time in between classes was embarrassingly enough, daunting. I had to find something to do.

The first week I walked to a near by movie theater and saw a film. The following week I got my nails done and window-shopped, and another week I studied in a café while consuming a chai tea and toasted cranberry baguette. I was able to do all of the things that I rarely indulge in during the middle of the day, yet are so relaxing and restorative. While I write this I sit at a wonderful little coffee shop in Westwood, Espresso Profeta, which is the perfect place to spend moments in between. I actually read pages in a book today that I have been reading for over a year, just because I never take the time to find the time to pick it up. Sitting here reminds me of the times I sat in cafes in Florence while studying abroad. I would wonder the streets until I came upon a charming little café that would engulf me in quite Italian chatter as I wrote or read. There is something about cozy shared spaces and a warm drink that enables one to delve inward and reflect. I found that I do this a lot more when I travel, because there are often times in between the next activity, but doing it in my own town is new to me. I hope that reading this inspires some of you to take time in between your everyday hustle and bustle to read, write, walk around, paint, play an instrument, sit at a café, or just sit and see where your mind takes you. I know I will try my hardest to sneak 3 hours of me time in every now and then even after my Wednesday built in break is gone.

Rooms I Like

After continually finding  images of rooms that I like and want to keep track of, I made a folder on my computer called "Rooms I like". This image was one of my first images placed in that folder. It is warm and cozy yet a bit funky and historic. I love the day bed piled with pillow and the industrial light fixture. The curtains behind the day bed, help make it feel extra special. I would be perfectly happy picking up a book from the table and lounging for a few hours dozing in and out of sleep.

Looking at an object in many different ways

In one of my earlier classes in the design program we were assigned to take an everyday object and recreate it in four different artistic styles. Of all things, I chose to use a beat (one of my least favorite vegetables). I was attracted to it because I thought the plant had great character, almost like a human face. The heart of the vegetable had lines and indentations like wrinkles on a face, and the foliage had volume, creases and layers like hair. It's fun to come across these old assignments and see how I went about tackling them.

Valentines Day Dinner

Valentines Day can be a very weird holiday. There are pressures to be romantic under the most unromantic circumstance (America telling you to). A few Valentines ago my boyfriend and I went to “one of the most romantic restaurants in Los Angeles” to find that there was a 45 minute wait for a table even though we had reservations and that we would have to eat outside in 40 degree weather (and I was wearing a skimpy dress) crammed between two couples. Needless to say the food was horrible and the valet thrashed the bottom of my car in front of our eyes on a dip in the road.  We look back on that night and laugh, saying never again! Never again will we eat out on Valentines Day and spend a fortune on a prefix meal that tastes like bad wedding food.

This Valentines Day I left the planning of the night up to my boyfriend, hoping he would find a good alternative to eating bad expensive food. Boy did he succeed!  He took me to a restaurant just a few blocks from our place that I have wanted to try forever, Rustic Canyon. Rustic Canyon is a restaurant in Santa Monica known for its seasonal fresh food. The atmosphere is pretty casual. The tables are all wood and the lighting is very warm and dim. The restaurant was busy, but there wasn’t a feeling of overcrowding (we had a four person table to ourselves).

The prefix menu was meant for sharing and you could choose eight items total. We ended up choosing goat cheese filled squash blossoms, cauliflower covered in capers, garlic and bread crumb, grilled squid, Santa Barbara uni spaghetti, pork belly with grilled prawns, lamb meatballs with yogurt sauce, vanilla passion fruit cake and olive oil cake with strawberries. Everything was simple, fresh, and aaaaamazing. I love my meat and sweets, but surprisingly my favorites were the cauliflower and squash blossoms. The wine menu was extensive, and everything we had was delish. My boyfriend was very excited they had a beer that he only could find up north and every song that came on we looked at each other and said, "who sings this, I love this song?" We arrived back home with smiles on our faces and bellies stuffed with food.

That night I realized that sometimes it is nice to have your country tell you "show this person you care," because it makes us set aside time for each other. There is nothing quite like sharing a good meal and good conversation with the person you love.

Prints

 Here are pictures of the prints I got at the last flea market. This time I ended up getting some vintage earrings for a formal event I have later this month. I will post pictures of those soon.

Pasadena Flea Market

Tomorrow I am heading to Pasadena Flea Market, hoping to score so finds. Last time I was there I got these amazing prints from the 1800s. I mounted them on linen and framed them in black. I think they add some culture to my dinning room.

The Brothers of Industry are one of my favorite dealers. They make tables and mirrors out of reclaimed wood and create wonderful industrial inspired light fixtures. I hope to find them there!

Surface Materials

In my Surface Materials class we had to draw a material out of a hat and clad a whole kitchen only in that material. I drew wood (I was a lucky one, some of the other materials were rubber and fabric for example). As a designer I often like to mix materials and textures, so it was a bit of a push to go all out on one material. I ended up doing a kitchen with a country feel.