new soap, old bottle

This company sells brand name soaps repackaged in old plastic bottles. The only negative is that they use antibacterial soaps. I guess no one has clued them in about how bad that is, causing hormonal issues with water life.  Oh well.  Click here for more info & to shop online.  

Update 4.19.09 :: Among the most worrisome of the new contaminants are "endocrine disruptors," chemical compounds found in common household products that mimic hormones in the human body and cause freakish mutations in frogs and amphibians.

Happy Easter!

LIFE IN TOPANGA

Our neighbor Ted brought these over yesterday. They are fertile, organically raised eggs from his chickens. They are so beautiful. We're going to have to make something really special with them.

LIFE

Hope is the Thing with Feathers

by Emily Dickinson

Hope is the thing with feathers

That perches in the soul,

And sings the tune without the words,

And never stops at all,

And sweetest in the gale is heard;

And sore must be the storm

That could abash the little bird

That kept so many warm

I've heard in the chillest land,

And on the strangest sea;

Yet, never, in extremity,

It asked a crumb of me.

This poem is part of a much larger poem called, Life.

the Incredibles mid-century ideal

The home of Bob & Helen Parr in "The Incredibles" is one of the finest examples of mid-century modernism in all animated cinema.

- read more at "the mid-century modernist"

Le Corbusier at the Barbicon - London

NY Times :: an exhibition devoted to the work of the modernist architect Le Coerbusier has drawn crowds to the gallery at the Barbicon Center in London, itself a large part of a larger development designed in a Brutalist vein that Le Corbusier inspired. Slide show here.

fantasies of Frank Lloyd Wright

Ever dreamed about living in a Frank Lloyd Wright house? Well, this one's for sale near Los Banos, California, midway between Monterey and Yosemite. Interested parties (or architecture voyeurs) can tour Wright's Fawcett Ranch House (completed in 1961) at an open house this Sunday, April 5th. The catch? This gorgeous retreat will cost you a cool $2.7 million.

something to do - a reminder

more info at venicegardentour.org

i'm so lucky

Yesterday was my birthday and since we had been gone all weekend, John never had time to plan anything. But he surprised me with a candle in a brownie! What a guy!

Oh - and Louise called me 3 times!

a civil war mystery

NY Times :: Errol Morris searches for the story behind a photo found on the dead body of Amos Huntington, a Union soldier at Gettysburg in 1863 - in five parts - fascinating! 

part one here 

part two here

part three here

part four here

part five here

this looks REALLY good

also available here

desert wildflowers

We were in Anza-Borrego Desert State Park, east of San Diego, over the weekend. The wildflowers were beautiful although we missed the peak by about two weeks.

we're more alike than we realize

variations on the golden rule ::

hurt not others in ways that you yourself would find hurtful  - Buddhism

do unto others as you would have them do unto you  - Christianity

never do to others what you would not like them to do to you  - Confuscianism

this is the sum of all duty: do nothing to others which, if it were done to you, would cause you pain  - Hinduism

none of you is a believer until you love for your neighbor what you love for yourself  - Islam

what is hateful to you, do not do to others  - Judaism

regard your neighbor's gain as your own gain, and your neighbor's loss as your own loss  - Taoism

good to know

from Vicki -

PIN NUMBER REVERSAL 

If you should ever be forced by a robber to withdraw money from an ATM machine, you can notify the police by entering your Pin # in reverse. 

For example if your pin number is 1234 then you would put in 4321. 
The ATM recognizes that your pin number is backwards from the ATM card you placed in the machine. 
The machine will still give you the money you requested, but unknown to the robber, the police will be immediately dispatched to help you. 
This information was recently broadcast on CTV and it states that it is seldom used because people don't know it exists. 
Vicki checked with her bank to see if this was correct and staff said yes this information is correct. 

Target does it again

Environmentally conscious Mio has teamed up with Target to produce a collection of outdoor products, including garden tools, solar garden lights, portable hammock, watering can, herbs and a composter.

via notcot

points south

On a recent trip to San Diego I stopped on the way at the Cedros Design District in Solana Beach which has two of my favorire stores.

SOLO is a collective of different shops but the highlights are their architectural books and greeting  cards.
Inside SOLO is a shop called Jennifer Price Studio that specializes in vintage furniture and oddities, refinished and refurbished - some really great stuff.


A little ways further south is Cedros Gardens, a nursery that carries many beautiful and hard-to-find plants.

happy spring !

something to do

more info here

Christian the lion - 2 yrs later

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

This is footage of Christian the lion after two years in the wild & the second, & last visit by Anthony Burke & John Rendall. It appeared on the Today Show this morning along with the two men. I find this entire story amazing because of how wonderfully it turned out when it could have easily turned out differently. Christian's two owners didn't end up in Las Vegas with him nor did he get sold to a circus. Instead he was allowed to go back to Kenya & live out a normal life. Note, the film clip has no sound.

Irish Landscapes

I’ve always been partial to black and white photography. Somehow, landscapes look more dramatic. Being St Patrick’s Day, your thoughts might wander to Ireland’s countryside, which photographer Martin Hughes captures perfectly, in his photographs of County Kildare and Connemara. Happy St. Patrick’s Day!

kitty contest winners

another one . . . . .

actor Ron Silver died yesterday at age 62 after a 2-year battle with esophageal cancer

Ann Richards, governor of Texas - died Sept 2006

Tom Lantos, US Representative from N. California - died Feb 2008

. . . . . there but for the grace of God go I

ghost town

Chernobyl . . . .  spooky!

Yves Bayard in Saint-Paul de Vence

The late architect Yves Bayard, who designed the Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art in Nice, reconstructed a 16th-century sheep barn with his wife, designer Jacqueline Morabito, in the town of Saint-Paul de Vence (home to the Fondation Maeght).  See more photos here.

to save a house

NY Times :: the Lieb House, a beach cottage designed by the architect Robert Venturi, began an interstate journey on Fri crossing Upper New York Bay on a barge