happy friday!

major eye candy - peonies

You say Peony, I say Paeony - either way - the Greek myth goes down like this:
Asclepius was the god of healing and medicine. Peaon was his wingman. Peaon got so talented that Asclepius got all jealous. To save Peaon from Asclepius’ wrath, Zeus turned him into a flower; the Peony. Asclepius later got caught raising folks from the dead in exchange for gold. Zeus struck him down with a lightning bolt. I’m not sure who was left to do the healing after that.

Anyway now is the season for these showstoppers. We can get peonies year-round - flown in from New Zealand and Holland - but they’re not the same. Not as full, not as fragrant.

Two weeks ago the really good peonies starting showing. Varieties? Bowl of Cream, Big Ben, Crinkled Linens, Charles Burgess…shall I go on? Festiva Maxima, Felix Krause, Paula Fey, Pillow Talk. The price deflates this time of year from upwards of $15 a stem down to $6 or 7. You don’t need a lot. One or two. Unless you’re trying to appeal to an angry girlfriend (10 full-blown stems packs a wallop and makes a huge bouquet worth drooling over). 

But you’re not the type for drama like that, and probably just want something pretty for your table. Put some sprite or sugar in the water to feed the cut stems.

bamboozling ourselves - part 2

Art history or psychology?

NY Times :: part 2 here

bamboozling ourselves - part 1

"Supper at Emmaus" by Hans Van Meegeren

NY Times :: another series by Errol Morris. This time he writes a seven-part series about Nazi-era Vermeer forgeries. Part 1 today.

more IKEA shopping

I love IKEA napkins. I seem to have a little problem hoarding them, probably because they're so cheap. These you can actually buy now. Click here.

shopping at IKEA

This is their new PS Collection. It was recently on display at the ICFF. Although the link is to IKEA UK, they say the collection will be available in select US stores (New York, San Francisco, Chicago, LA) sometime in August.

The textiles are designed by Kazuyo Nomura.

The furniture is designed by Nike Karlsson.

life in topanga

                                                

Yesterday was the Topanga Memorial Day Parade, part of the greater Topanga Days Country Fair that lasts the entire 3-day weekend. It began with this quirky band, followed by the usual suspects you find in this little liberal community.

/Users/linneamielcarek/Desktop/TopangaDays.mov

The trophies - in the true spirit of recycle, reuse - unfortunately.

There has to be horses!

and lots of kids,

and of course, this is Topanga, after all!

the other side of things

Cards of Change is a site where recently laid off are encouraged to alter their old business cards to reflect the positive changes that are coming for them and also connect them with opportunities from potential employers and business partners. Take a look around the image gallery for a brighter side of life!

inspired travel

Chanel No 5 :: soooo romantic

ICFF stand-out

There's been a lot of posting of items exhibited at the ICFF in NYC - which I'm grateful for since I couldn't afford to attend and didn't really have a good reason to go anyway. This table by uhuru is the hit as far as I'm concerned. It's a contemporary homage to George Nakashima. 

See more from the ICFF here and here

vintage on-line update

TINI open for business :: thisisnotikea.com

Their blog is here

life in topanga

Wild life :: our young buck arrived in the PM and returned in the AM

A cat's life :: need I say more?

in praise of the farmers market

LA Times :: A celebration of Southern California farmers markets.

more photos here

a map here

in season

p e o n i e s  !

amazing house

Outpost House - Central Idaho (USA). Olson Sundberg Kundig Allen Architects (photos: Tim Bies)

wine tip

If you're invited to someone's house for dinner at the last minute and have no chilled wine to bring - don't worry!

When you get there, wrap a wet paper towel around your warm bottle of wine and stick in the freezer.

Ten minutes later - perfectly chilled.

Be happy!

life in topanga

Romneya

"White Cloud" Matilija Poppy

clumping evergreen perennial,

compact growth, extra large

flower

a California native

architect without limits

NY Times :: Frank Lloyd died half a century ago, but people are still fighting over him. A new show "Frank Lloyd Wright: From Within Outward" opens Friday at the Guggenheim.

for sale

LA Times :: What began as a communal living experiment in postwar California would become a model for low-cost urban housing and the innovative use of small spaces. 

Gregory Ain's historic Avenel Coop project in Silver Lake has a corner unit for sale for $695,000 (original price $11,000!)

more photos here

a sample sale - every day

NY Times :: Susan Feldman and Alison Gelb Pincus have started an online home furnishings sample sale called One Kings Lane. Check it out! onekingslane.com

wow!

I'd almost kill (almost!) for a gate like this. In Melbourne, Australia. The rest of the house is pretty great as well. See it here.

what makes us happy :: a fascinating study

David Brooks in the NY Times writes :: In the late 1930s, a group of 268 promising young men entered Harvard College. By any normal measure, they had it made. They tended to be bright, polished, affluent and ambitious. They had the benefit of the world’s most prestigious university. They had been selected even from among Harvard students as the most well adjusted.

And yet the categories of journalism and the stereotypes of normal conversation are paltry when it comes to predicting a life course. Their lives played out in ways that would defy any imagination save Dostoyevsky’s. A third of the men would suffer at least one bout of mental illness. Alcoholism would be a running plague. The most mundane personalities often produced the most solid success. One man couldn’t admit to himself that he was gay until he was in his late 70s.

The men were the subject of one of the century’s most fascinating longitudinal studies.

The results from the study, known as the Grant Study, have surfaced periodically in the years since. But they’ve never been so brilliantly captured as they are in an essay called “What Makes Us Happy?” by Joshua Wolf Shenk in the forthcoming issue of The Atlantic.

really clever

An endearing moving announcement from designer Brian Roeker that is both unique and expected. One that manages to involve the recipient in a task that upon mastering the x-acto knife and taking advantage of the scoring created by letterpressing, leaves more than an address update on the desk. A toy. A smile. A moment in time.