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.

vintage on-line

SOON - but not yet because I checked - ThisIsNotIkea.com or TINI (to keep the Swedish retailer's lawyers at bay) will have thousands of moderately priced antique and mid-century modern furnishings available on-line. No musty smell to have to endure! Read the article in the LA Times here.

curated for discovery

The Museum of Online Museums is the best discovery yet! I could spend hours perusing through links to museums of every kind. With galleries like the International Collection of Vintage Soap Labels, the Gallery of Vintage Poison Labels, the Museum of Notebooks and the Virtual Typewriter Museum I may have to tear myself away from the computer to visit a local museum!

from the Museum of Worldwide Postal History

from the International Collection of Vintage Soap Labels

life in topanga

I saw these this morning on the neighbor's property. I had tried so hard to plant some poppies in the winter but had a string of bad luck. First the Santa Ana's came. Then we had to dig up our foundation because of a leak in John's studio and workers trampled the seedlings. So I'm not sure if these blew from where I planted some or maybe someone else is responsible. There's several plants so I'm going to watch them like a hawk and hopefully I'll be able to collect the seed pods for next year.

don't send flowers

This Mother's Day, don't send flowers. Send a gift to support the lives of mothers around the globe. Sponsored by Human Rights Watch, you can send a donation on your mother's behalf so that they can work to ensure that the rights of mothers, and all women and girls are protected. Please click here for more information.

I wish I lived in NYC

Former staffers of Domino are having a tag sale on Saturday, May 9, 10 AM to 5 PM, at West Ninth St (Fifth Ave). Read more in the NY Times here.

another clever idea

Why wait till after a few glasses to uncork your honesty. You can buy these here.

life in topanga

Where's Mezzo? It's so hot, he's hiding under the ottoman to stay out of the sun. I almost stepped on him!!

clever idea

Searching for Value in Ludicrous Ideas

Automobile snack conveyor

Allison Arieff :: NY Times

Especially today, the whimsical inventions of Steven M. Johnson offer something beyond amusement. Many of his musings are simply whimsical, existing primarily as a source of inspiration or delight. Others tackle very real issues, from environmentalism to alternative transportation to homelessness.

An incredibly delightful article. Read it all here.

mine :: my magazine. my way

With magazines folding left & right, I think Time Magazine & Lexus may be on to something with their new venture, Mine.

You pick 5 magazines (from eight & in my opinion, too few choices), answer a few random questions about you, your likes, dislikes, etc, and a custom magazine is put together just for you!

A fellow blogger ordered his "subscription" (keep in my it's still, at this point, completely free!) - and received the first of 5 issues this week. I think it turned out pretty good, but, as you'll see, "as-is, I wouldn't pay for it" . . . 

Read the full post & see more pics of the inside of the magazine here.

the lost tribes of new york city

The Lost Tribes of New York City from Carolyn London on Vimeo.

subprime

subprime from beeple on Vimeo.

parallelostory

Parallelostory from impactist on Vimeo.

made me laugh

a trip to Baltimore

On Saturday we walked over to Patterson Park to watch the end of the Baltimore Kinetic Sculpture Race sponsored by the American Visionary Art Museum. The entrants construct amphibious, human powered "vehicles" that have to go through water, sand & mud. The Platypus was my favorite. But Fifi the poodle was pretty good too! I've never seen so many nerdy engineer-types!

You can see some of the results here. And more of the entrants - they're all pretty darn wacky!

A visit to the Baltimore Museum of Art with permanent collections of Matisse & Rodin being the highlights. And it's FREE!

The last signs of spring: tulips & azaleas.