My Random Life

How far do you think I drove before I realized The Guy had draped the eco-friendly shopping bag over the wing mirror? The shopping bag I had spent 10 minutes looking for inside the car before I gave up? Let's just say the car is black, the bag is black and the I didn't generate enough speed to make it fly until I'd left the Incorporated Village.
Message to The Guy: Honey, how much extra effort could it take to open the car door and throw the bag inside? It's not like we lock the Beach Car anyway. Grrrr.

Vintage and Modern's Video Inspiration

Bill Indursky from Vintage and Modern shares his design inspiration, some new items from V & M and a story about Achille Castiglioni's favorite design - a pair of sunglasses made from 35mm film.
My favorite piece on V&M, if you asking, or better yet, buying, is a 1970s carpet by Edward Fields that will go perfectly in the great room. Thanks.

Snowy View Update

"Blanketed" is the term we usually employ to describe a snowy landscape. But that implies a soft layer of snow, lightly laid upon the ground. What we have here is 14" (36 cm) of heavy white stuff that is still falling. I'm calling it MATTRESSED!

Snowy Views

I was sceptical about the amount of snow we would get last night. When I went to bed around midnight we had barely a covering on the ground.


But this is what greeted me this morning and, as you can see, it's still snowing


That's about a foot of snow (30cm) on the table


It's very pretty but the snowplow hasn't been yet so it'll be challenging to get out there. I'm calling a Snow Day and making french toast.

Outdoor Shower: Anthropomorphic Design

Designers have a sense of humour, that much is evident. But an outdoor shower that begs you to call out "Please Don't Pee in My Pool" takes it to a whole new level. The Aqua Adagio outdoor shower by Jaclo.
via Trendir

Tweet, Blog, Tweet, Blog, Tweeeeet

The observant amongst the blog readership will have noticed the Twitter link that has appeared on the upper right side of the blog page. I resisted this for a really long time, partly because my pre-iphone cell was not made for frivolous texting, but mainly because I asked myself how interesting could it possibly be to tell the ethernets that I just fed the cats? Or the damn owl will not shut up and it's only 3 PM? Or I was planning on early cocktail hour?* Of course, back then I was at the first stage of grief twitter acceptance. I progressed pretty quicky through stages two through four and now I'm happily ensconced in Stage Five - microblogging.
The issue for me is that I need everything in my world to be interconnected but for each part to keep its essential integrity. So while I love that my blog posts are fed immediately to my twitter page, I'm less thrilled that they also bounce back to the right sidebar of my blog. Are you with me so far? When I publish this post it will be the first tweet under the Twitters header. Tautology, do you see? Copycat posting. Overload.
Of course there's a way to solve this problem. I simply have to tweet three more times and the offending blog post is confined to the trash can of twitterlife. Fine, but some days it means I'm reduced to twittering about what I fed my cats, the damn owl and cocktails. Speaking of which.....

*yes, all true tweets, sadly enough

Saari I couldn't be there

I waited a long time for this photo of the Gateway Arch that was designed by Eero Saarinen and built between 1963 and 1968. Of course I really wanted to see it for myself but I entrusted The Guy to use his iphone to capture the definitive architectural statement. What can I say? Archn't you disappointed I didn't take the trip to St Louis too?

Unnatural Disasters

The Guardian has a feature on Edgar Müller, Master of 3d Pavement Art, today and I was fascinated by the Lava Burst in a German street and this crevasse in Ireland. I couldn't get my head around how it was done. Luckily Mr Müller posted this video on youtube... just to satisfy my curiosity, and yours. Enjoy!

It's a long way to Stamford

Connecticut. That's the faint strip on the horizon way over the other side of Long Island Sound. And that's where the taxi will be coming from if I book it with the Taxi! app I have on the iphone. That's the problem with living in the Incorporated Village - our wireless signals are clearest right across the water. The best radio signal is Connecticut's Kool 96.7 FM, so we know which Chevy dealer to use should we find ourselves in need of a bargain car; if you dial 911 you're likely to get an operator in the Nutmeg State who has no clue where to send the emergency services, and using our GPS location the taxi will have to make a 60 mile trip to pick me up. Technology, still not perfect, then.

Citrus Polenta Cake

Because it's the weekend. Because it's raining. Because I needed to bake a cake. Just because.

Lemon Polenta Cake
Preheat the oven to 350F. Butter and flour a 9" cake pan.
1 stick of unsalted butter
2 tablespoons Italian olive oil
1.5 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup polenta
4 eggs
3/4 cup sugar
zest 1 1/2 lemons

Melt butter. In a separate bowl whisk eggs and sugar until light in color and doubled in volume. Sift flour, polenta, baking powder and salt. Add butter and olive oil to eggs and fold in dry ingredients. Spoon into cake pan and bake 35 to 40 minutes. Remove from oven and let cool for 10 minutes in the pan.

Citrus Syrup
Heat 1/2 cup of water and 1/3 cup sugar with three or four strips of candied orange peel until sugar has dissolved. Add the zest of half a lemon and an optional tablespoon of Cointreau. Bring to a boil, and reduce until slightly thickened. Add the juice of one lemon. Pour over the polenta cake.
Serve the cake with whipped cream and fruit compote.

SIlver Score

Huge and heavy candlesticks. They look more like chrome than silver but they were in the clearout section at Marshall's when I went to buy sheets and so cheap I had to bring them home.

My Life with Cats

With two dogs and four cats it's a constant battle here to keep the animal fur at lower than ankle level. But occasionally, after the surfaces have been dusted, the floors swept or vacuumed and the beds changed, just for a little while it looks like a normal clean house. Yesterday was one of those days, fresh duvet on the bed, flowers in a vase, it looked pretty good. That lasted a few hours until I noticed that a cat (difficult to pin down just which one, but it wasn't Mr Cassis) had thrown up on the bedcover. I sighed, stripped off the cover, threw it in the machine and climbed into bed.
It wasn't until I got up this morning that I realised that the cat had also thrown up on the sheet. The one I'd been wrapped in all night. Luckily, it seemed pretty much contained on The Guy's side and he was away. But still. Yuk, yuk , bloody cats, yuk!

Jefke's Water Fixation

or why the sink is never clean...

The Last Days of the Empire

Hey. how's this for an ironic design statement. As the glory days of the American Empire are waning (more cars were sold in China last month than in the USA for the first time; this will be a marker in the history classes of future generations) Williams-Sonoma is offering a selection of home decorating items in the British Colonial style. Think Caribbean colonial rather than the Raj, with the exception of this elephant table, pineapples and botanical prints, breezy lemon and palm tree greens. I'm not sure if the white ceramic animal trend is over yet, it's here, there and everywhere at the moment, but I have kind of a hankering for a grape-bearing elephant.

President's Day

A little mnemonic sing-a-long to celebrate Washington's birthday


Jonathan Coulton Washy Ad Jeffy

Kohler Save Water America

Do you know how many gallons of water you use every time you flush the toilet? Take the quick quiz on the Kohler website and they will donate $1 in water-saving products to Habitat for Humanity for every household that enters. Save water, build America.

February Fourteenth Fence Fixing and Feasting

Other girls get chocolates and roses on Valentine's Day. I received a roll of poultry fencing and a handful of L brackets*. Well, the fence needed securing, at least until we can re-fence in Spring and I'm not terribly romantically inclined. I'm not too upset.
We're not taking any bets on how long this temporary fix will last but I'm hoping for the end of April. We ended up not using the poultry fencing as The Guy was able to secure the panels to the existing uprights with the L brackets, but we'll keep it just in case.


The newly braced fence. Cat approved.
I am, however, making a French inspired Valentine's supper à quatre tonight:


Salad frisee and Bouillabaisse with Rouille


and Pots de Creme.
Sounds so much more romantic than poached egg salad, fish soup and custard, doesn't it?


Our Valentine's Bears and Chocolate - gifts from the Loyal Blog Reader and Awesome Designer
Happy Valentine's Day to all those who celebrate.
*The Guy would like me to point out that the fence-securing supplies were not my Valentine's present, they were for the dogs. MY gift was the tank of fuel he put in my car this morning. Glad we cleared that up!
UPDATE: Tulips arrived but The Guy insists he bought them for himself.

Things Could Be Worse

OK Homeowners, here's a quick poll for you. What is the worst time to re-roof your house?
a) When it is on the market
b) When it is 15F
c) During the snowiest winter for several years
d) During a "dangerous winds" advisory

If your answer is all of the above, you must be our poor neighbor whose house has been in the process of being re-roofed since last year and still isn't done. Feel better about your renovations now?

Sunny Valentine

Guess what else I'm missing this month? The Valentine's Day coinciding Modernism Week in Palm Springs. We tried to go last year, and the year before. We promised ourselves we'd make it this year. As usual we left it too late. (Oh shut up moaning woman, you have a great life!). Yes but this year the architect William Krisel will be getting his star on the Palm Springs Walk of Stars. Quatch. We will go one day. Until then there's always youtube

Blowin' It All Away

The fence that is. I wondered how long it would last and now I know. Despite valiant efforts by The Guy, and later by me, to shore it up, it proved no match for the blustery winds. Polly is wearing the "leash of shame" so she doesn't escape again. We'll have to make do until Saturday when fortress building will recommence.
Anyway, I shot this photo at sunset just to show the internets how beautifully menacing the clouds are. Enjoy.