Rustic & Refined Dinnerware

// petrified wood // handmade ceramics //

Would you combine these two sets on one table? I totally would. I love the various shades of chocolate brown. And that little chunk of cheese on the wooden platter makes me hungry. I can almost smell the spicy string of marigolds on the right.

Incongruity is mysteriously charming. Both of these sets consist of finely crafted pieces (or so the websites claim), but each gives a distinct aesthetic impression. Cabin couture versus tea party trappings. When the two are paired together, what do they mean? What story do they tell about the person who laid the table?

That's the crux of home decor. It's a way to display identity--not only to display it, but to form it. If I use organic bamboo cutlery, then I can think of myself as an Earth-loving minimalist. It isn't necessarily false--consumer habits are easily influenced by political positions. Overall, I think that's a good thing.

Candy Pink Fence

Forgive the atrocious photo-quality, but I can't refrain from posting a pastel fence.

Pastels are the colors we associate with nurseries--they don't call it "baby blue" for nothing! Whereas a fence is a harsh legal structure that separates sovereign territories. It tickles my fancy to see this boundary-marker made out of bubblegum pink boards.

The house it belongs to has been a neighborhood "eyesore" for years. The entire exterior was painted bright orange. Seriously, bright orange. And this was prior to Orange is the New Black, so a vermilion house wasn't fashionable in the least. Eventually the place changed hands, and the new owners made it look normal--but I guess they have yet to address the fence. I hope pastel-obliteration is far down on their to-do list...

I hate neighborhoods where every house is beige, even if there's some off-white trim to jazz things up. ("Get jazzy on me!") I love suburbia, but only when each block features some variation, the houses differing from one another as much as the families inside. My own 'hood displays a decent spread of styles, but the Bay Area has plenty of cookie-cutter developments.

Therefore, I celebrate pastel fences when I see 'em.

Squishy Spiky Plants

Cacti and such--in a bathtub! The only improvement I can imagine is gnarly clawed feet (or me taking a better photo). Also spotted recently:



I didn't know that this sort of succulent bloomed, so I was delighted to see several cheery patches on my walk.

I have insane caffeine jitters right now--"Super Irish Breakfast" always does this to me but I never learn. I'll take a shower and head out for a run with the neighbor's dog and hope that bounding after Button will burn off my shakiness.

Housecat Duties

Look on the left. The cat hardly seems real, right? But he is. Beebee the scrappy Siamese enjoys taking basket-naps in the afternoon sun. I can't blame him, since at the moment it's 2:30 and if I were nestled somewhere comfy and warm, I would definitely fall asleep.



According to Smithsonian, "Cats were first domesticated in the Near East, and some [researchers] speculate that the process began up to 12,000 years ago." Archaeologists have induced that cats came in with agriculture. Stores of surplus grain necessitated rodent control, at which felines were adept. Humans got tired of rats eating their millet and such, so they encouraged kitties to live nearby. Over the course of time, wildcats became the smaller, slightly more sweet-tempered creatures that reside in houses across the world. Read more on The Atlantic.

Blue As Can Be

White house, teal trim, and bluuue sky. It was windy as hell. I was walking the dog and trying to listen to an audiobook of The Wild Olive that I got from LibraVox. It's funny to hear an American story read by a British voice. Not that I heard much--the stupid wind drowned out the narrator. But I still enjoyed walking around the neighborhood, looking at people's paint jobs and garden decor. I wish I had taken more pictures!

Tea Stuff

My tea fixings before the water was boiled and poured. It's fun to drink "The Portland Blend" from a Portland-themed mug. The tea's flavor is very chocolatey, and would go well with Portland's infamous gloomy weather. But I think it's just as tasty in clear-skied California.



The other day I noticed that my neighbor has a great "capsule collection" of ceramic mugs:



Okay, that's all. I simply wanted to share some recent sights that I enjoyed.

Behind The Yellow Door

I see a lot of cute houses while walking Button, my neighbor's dog. This blue one with white trim and a yellow door takes the cake, despite not being a birthday building. The quiet Americana vibe just gets to me, you know? Cookies are perpetually baking in there. It wouldn't be allowed for the rooms behind such a cheery yellow door not to be constantly filled with the delicious aroma of brown sugar.

I like houses because I'm a romantic. I can easily construct an ideal scene when the shutters are down and I don't know what's actually inside. Surely the inhabitants of this place are completely regular, with clutter and a TV. But in my mind they read poetry out loud to each other and munch on homey treats and are very happy.

I stayed over at my boyfriend's apartment last night. We went to bed after listening to Lana Del Rey's new album (lackluster) and "Seven Year Ache" (my old favorite). Sad love songs to fall asleep to. I woke up slowly, coming out of a dream, and it was wonderful to have the heat of him at my back. I don't know if we'll ever live together, but it would be nice to not feel uneasy on the set of someone else's movie. I mean that I wish leaving in the morning didn't feel urgent and correct.

Trader Joe's Lavender Salt Scrub Review

A couple of months ago my mom bought me Trader Joe's Lavender Salt Scrub as a treat, because she is a sweetheart. Immediately I thought, "Yay, I can post a review!" This is your brain on blogging. I waited until now so I could get to know the product.

20-ounce tubs are available for $14.69 on Amazon (shipping included) but apparently they cost roughly $5 in a Trader Joe's store. (My mom didn't remember the price; I had to trust random online sources.) You can also find the scrub on eBay, which seems weird to me but whatever. If you would prefer a more hippie-friendly option, consider $24 "Double Love Body Scrub with Himalayan Salt & Organic Lavender Essential Oils", which I have been wanting to try since last summer. I mean, come on, it's pink! But back to the Trader Joe's version...

Terrible packaging. No matter how hard you press, the plastic lid will not click shut. Although it stays down most of the time, moisture is never sealed out. Definitely a flaw for a product that sits next to the bathtub. Luckily, the scrub itself is pretty awesome! It smells lovely and has many uses. The salt is too rough to use on your face, but just right for body exfoliation, assuming that you want to moisturize and exfoliate at the same time, because the oil makes that happen. This is a very oily product in general (ingredients list here), and the tub will get slick, so be careful! I like to use the scrub on my feet, which are very rough and need more TLC than I give them. (I bet you're glad to know that about my feet.) I also enjoy dropping a scoop or two into a hot bath--the scent experience is luxurious, and my skin feels uber-soft when I get out.

Okay, that's all I have to say. You are now informed.

Turn-Of-The-Century Surprise Chairs

My mom sent our little armchairs away to be reupholstered. The stitches were popping out and the seats sagged. Recently the chairs returned, much plumper and firmer than they've been at any point in my memory. The guy who did the work, a nice older man with a soft Irish accent, told us that our chairs are special. They're more than a hundred years old and stuffed with horsehair, a material that became valuable while I wasn't looking. My parents got them as hand-me-downs from miscellaneous family members (they were vague on that point).

We've always loved these armchairs because they're smaller than what you typically see in furniture stores, and absolutely perfect for curling up with a book and a mug of tea (one of my favorite pastimes). Apparently they also bestow some dubious historical significance on our living room! Even your own possessions can surprise you.

[Collage background via Cornell University Library on Flickr.]

Mostly Pastel Ice-Cream Living Room

Purely frivolous escapism, inspired by this yummy throw pillow! The rest of the product details can be viewed on Polyvore. Now I'm going to engage in a much less glamorous home-related activity: unloading the dishwasher.

Wonderfully Bulbous

Dwarf evergreen daylily bulbs, which I assume someone is going to bury in the fertile earth. (Want your own? Apparently you can buy 'em on Amazon and some are even edible! "Ornamental Survival Food" is a weird phrase.)

Bulbs exemplify the oft-lauded "miracle of life". They start out as gnarly lumps, dirty onion-like knots of hidden potential. Then a smooth green shoot emerges. Just a few months later, you will see flowers!

// Day-Glo Daylily for $69 //

According to Garden Guides, "A bulb is an underground root structure that holds the complete life cycle of a plant." The definition gets more technical than that. But here's the coolest part: "Next to the main shoot on the inside of the bulb are lateral buds--also called offsets. They are basically separate plants growing to the side of the main shoot. These lateral buds will form their own bulbs and new plants. At first, they use the nutrients from the main bulb, but in just a couple of seasons, they will have their own roots, fleshy scales (covered with a tunic) and foliage to feed themselves."

Plants are impressive. Further reading: International Bulb Society & Cornell's Home Gardening.

Picket Fence Yearnings

Words to follow beneath these pictures...



What an idyllic house! Maybe it doesn't look charmed to everyone, but I grew up listening to "Adelaide's Lament" and now I'm on the tail end of a Lana Del Rey phase, so the '50s-housewife garden that blooms behind a white picket fence is almost morbidly appealing.



Thanks, Urban Dictionary! Ironically I feel some perfectionist twinges about this graphic, but as Kanye West says (in a completely different context), "Fuck it, c'est la vie." Kbye.

Enigmatic Iron Garage Ornamentation

It's interesting to observe how people choose to decorate their homes. The way someone adorns the street-facing exterior of their house telegraphs a message to the rest of the world, about who the inhabitants are. That communication may be unconscious on the part of the homeowners, but it still takes place. Therefore, the question is...



Does anyone else see the word "ink"? Is this ornament completely abstract, or a strange clock? I'm stymied.

Out Of Season

// Trevor Leyenhorst //

This house has been abandoned to increasing disrepair. When a well-built structure is properly maintained, it can last for decades, or in some cases for centuries. But a house with no inhabitants to care about the rotting walls and sagging roof will eventually collapse.

This can be viewed as disheartening or encouraging. On the one hand, we have the conclusion of "Ozymandias", chastising human hubris:

'My name is Ozymandias, king of kings:
Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!'
Nothing beside remains. Round the decay
Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare
The lone and level sands stretch far away.

Nothing beside remains. Even the grandest and most glorious of cities will crumble as the hourglass turns. On the other hand, there's the perspective of ecofriendly entropy: Earth will destroy everything we do; our species' influence is transient; "This too shall pass."

I first encountered the story of "this too shall pass" in Uncle John's Bathroom Reader, of all places. Here's the version I remember: A king asked his advisors to come up with a statement that would always be relevant, or he would execute the lot of them. For many days and many nights, the wise men pondered this question. (I assume they would have kept pondering indefinitely, eager to keep their heads, if they hadn't come up with something.) Finally, the advisors went to the king and offered up the phrase, "This too shall pass." The king was pleased and the wise men lived.

So that's what I think about abandoned houses!