Summer Goals

Summer

I’ve seen a few of my fellow blogger friends do this and it seems like a great idea. I’m one of those people that like to list things out so that I can check them off. That and the fact that I often forget the things I wanted to do. With today being the first day of summer, I thought this would be the perfect time to plan some fun events that I always talk about doing and never seem to get to..

The street view walking to our car from Disneyland

• go on the architectural tour when we go to Chicago
• take a funny face picture of the nieces when we go to Michigan
• take a full family photo when we go to Michigan
• dance at a summer wedding
• go to the dog beach (maybe a few times)
• go to Disneyland just for the fireworks
• go to the animation class at California Adventure 5 times
• save for a kayak
• tweet up with Chicago Twitter friends
• walk around the Queen Mary, possibly take a tour (beautiful Art Deco interiors)
• host at least 2 game nights
• bike ride to Huntington Beach
• ride the AquaBus and walk around Shoreline Village
• ride a water bike
• go through our closet and find clothes and other items to donate
• go to the Belmont Brewery
• start refurbishing the alley chair
• girls day at the spa
• have a sunset picnic at the beach
• make a summer mixed drink
• try at least 5 of the gazillion recipes I haven’t tried
• walk around downtown Fullerton
• tour the Gamble House by Greene & Greene in Pasadena (Arts & Crafts)
• walk up Signal Hill and back down it
• walk to the local farmers market

A lot of these things are local activities. So often we don’t get to experience the great things that are right in our backyards. Living in Southern California, we’ve been blessed with some pretty amazing weather. I want to take advantage of these blessings.

Do you have a similar list or any fun summer plans?

Wedding Memories 9.8.07

How fun is this blog hop? I love reading about other's weddings. It's such a joyful day in someones life. I love it. I could read about wedding for hours! I read about my twitter friends wedding and she told me about this blog hop. I loved the idea and here we are. Not exactly interior design related but possibly could be used for inspirations?

9.8.07

Our wedding was at 12:00 in the afternoon on a beautiful September day. My husband and I really enjoy cooler climates and a hot summer was not one of our desire so we went for September. We both love the beach and ocean and decided to have our wedding (with 100 of our closest friends and family) aboard a private yacht that went through the Newport Harbor. Some photos are from our photographer, some are from friends, and some are from the disposable cameras we had on all the tables for guests to take pictures from their view.

One of my favorite parts about having a wedding on a yacht....we didn't have to hire outside vendors or coordinate that stuff. We need with the yacht coordinator and just told her what we wanted within the vendors that they already partnered with. These vendors were great I might add. We met our DJ and photographer for the first time AT our wedding. Kinda crazy but it went so well, we loved them!

Cake - Cinderella Cake (who we now use for special events) www.cinderellacakes.com

Instead of freezing the top of our cake they gave us a brand new little wedding cake top for our anniversary just like the one we had :)

White roses, white calla lilies, and lavender calla lilies.

One of my amazing bridesmaids worked at a florist and did my bouquets and got me a great discount. How awesome is she?

We were married by a great guy, the pastor of Mike's old church that has been a mentor for Mike. His name is also Mike and did an awesome job. We're at a different church these days but still keep in contact with this guy and his great family :)

dress by Alfred Angelo

Mike felt like the Brad Paisley song "She's Everything" was written about me and I just happened to find this awesome pair of yellow running shoes and wore those during our first dance. If you don't understand the connection, go look up the lyrics.

I loved our photographer, he took these great shots of Mike and I love!

Photographer - Kip Roof www.kiproof.com

Sealed with a Kiss! A wonderful start to living life with my best friend who makes me laugh every single day through lifes ups and downs, I'm so happy to experience it all with him. I truely feel so blessed.

Diamond in the Rough

I love chairs.

There is something about chairs that I find so interesting. They are practical pieces of art. Lately I’ve been taking notice to wire chairs.

Currently catching my eye: Bertoia Wire Diamond Chair

It was designed by Italian furniture designer, Harry Bertoia in the 1950s and manufactured by Knoll.

While Bertoia created a few amazing wire chairs, this one draws my attention the most. It’s strong wire frame delicately folds down and reminds me of great structural architecture. It’s made of bent and welded steel rods of chrome with an upholstery seat.

I love the chairs that aren’t just chairs, chairs that take the form of art or in this case sculptures. This one definitely fits into what I love about chairs.

“If you look at these chairs, they are mainly made of air, like sculpture. Space passes right through them." – Bertoia

You can also find this chair completely covered in upholstery for a much softer look however you miss out on the unique wire structure. Both would be great pieces to add to a mid-century modern style.

If you’re interested in learning a bit about these great iconic chairs, check out http://hivemodern.com. They have a great selection and give a brief history on the chair and designer. I could and do spend hours on this site.

The apartment is clean again and there is more to come!

It official. I finished. How can you tell? Walk in my apartment. It's so nice to have our floor and dining table back and not covered by drafting boards, mat boards, and fabrics.

I had two final projects and presentations that I recently finished up.

They were a lot of fun to do, quite time consuming, and probably my favorite boards that I've done. I will be posting them soon :)

While looking back at some old projects that I posted, I noticed the pictures aren't that great so I am going to try and get some better photos of my past boards to post on here.

With the time that's freed up I've found that I can now catch up with friends, read some of of my favorite blogs, and organize my photos. For example, here's a picture of a flower I took at the Getty back in April. I love that it's so soft and delicate with a majestic metal structure for the background. I've had some requests that I blog more often so I think I'll try that out. I just looked through a bunch of my photos of fun Interior Design finds and experiences that I look forward to sharing over the next week months. So please check back :)

Rocking Chair Revival?

Let me start off by saying I love chairs.

Lately, I’ve been thinking about rocking chairs. It could be a great marketing push by Crate and Barrel, the lovely California weather, or maybe just the thought of relaxing. I think it’s a combination.

I used to think of rocking chairs as always traditional, bulky, usually done in wood (example: Windsor or Adirondack styles) and mainly used in nurseries.

Lately, they seem to be popping up in all kinds of materials like stainless steel, wicker, and more. The use of line in the design is also more exciting and simple.

In particular, I love these two rocking chairs that found their way to my email inbox.

CB2 – Julep Rocker www.cb2.com

Crate & Barrel - Summerlin Rocking Chair www.crateandbarrel.com

I stumbled across this one and thought it was noteworthy since it uses stainless steal, leather, and it’s tufted. I love this rocking chair. Posted by ArchUpdate.com from ModernLineFurniture http://archupdate.com/modern-rocking-chair-2

Apartment Contentment

I'm one of those people that move the furniture, change out the accent pillows and accessories with different color pillows and accessories every couple months. I'm never really content with my decor.

We moved in to our little apartment about 2 months ago. At first I didn't like it at all. It was a bit of a sudden move but it is right by the water so it did have that going for it regardless of it's size. It's pretty small but already had character from the moment we moved in. The kitchen counters are tiled in yellow and black and the bathroom shower is also tiled in yellow. It was pretty clear that we should embrace the yellow already given to us.

I really love how accented neutrals look in a room so I used yellow as my accent with gray,black, white, and cream. I added a floral fabrics over the side tables and then framed the same fabric on the wall. Since the apartment is so small we kept the furniture against the walls and used furniture with legs to show more floor space. Lastly, we added a large scale mirror above the sofa to add depth to the room.

Overall, I don't think I've ever been happier with the living room space of any of our apartments. This is our smallest apartment so far and it almost feels like our largest one.

We are content with our living space and I can now put the other color accent pillows and accessories in storage......at least for now ;)

and yes, that's my husband's surfboard in the corner, it had to go somewhere :)

Color Theory Final Project: Savonnerie

I have a lot of pride in this particular project. It has a lot of little aspects that do not appear to the common eye.

Our project was to choose a city in France, other than Paris, that we would be designing a Hotel Check-in/Lobby area for. The hotel was to be an old chateau that is now a boutique hotel. I choose the beautiful city of Grenoble. We were to research the city and find out as much about it as we could....agriculture, political history, landscape, architecture.

We were also told to choose a time period, Baroque, Rococo, or Neoclassical. We were suppose to find furniture and motifs that would be associated with the time period of choice. Along with that includes colors and textiles, from patterns and textures.

With all of this information gathered, we were suppose to design a French Savonnerie rug and also design a wall elevation cordinating with the rug. We choose time period appropriate antique furniture.

Grenoble is world known for it's export of Walnuts, has the amazing French Alps, and great architectural features found all around. The cathedral, the bridge, the Lion Fountain....just to name a few. There are so many great aspects of the city and some of these are displayed on my rug. If you were traveling to this boutique hotel in a gorgeous ch extensive ateau you would fall in love with the Neoclassical paneled walls, furniture with marble tops, a rug with a story, drapery, and rich textiles including velvets, silks, damasks, and toile. This city may look small on a map but is overflowing with intrigue and history making it an absolute treasure to anyone lucky enough to visit.

There are a tons of hours/days invested into the project so I hope you enjoy it. Check it out and tell me what you think!

Just a little update... I received a perfect score!