Who is Lonny, by the way?

In the corner of the blogsphere known as Homedesignland there was a party yesterday.  It was a coming out party for a new on-line magazine called Lonny.  Its been a tough year for print media and an especially tough one in the world of “shelter” magazines.  So the launch of Lonny by several Domino alums had been anxiously anticipated by many.  Design blogs were all a twitter, literally, ewing and awing at every vignette and hyperventilating at the fact you could click on a product and immediately go to the e-commerce website for that item and buy it.  I wasn’t so impressed.  Some of my thoughts:

• I still find reading a design magazine on-line difficult.  I either need a bigger screen or they need to use a different size and proportion for their pages.  Its difficult to read the print without zooming and then you cant see what you are reading about.  I think this will always be a issue when you are digitally reading something that depends on a visual like design mags do.  And besides, I want to get into bed with these types of magazines and have the tactile experience of paging through the magazine with my head on my pillow.
• If you loved the late Domino (as they referred to it several times in the copy) you will love this new mag, its almost exactly the same visually.  It is not a problem, I was just expecting maybe a new spin.  But after Domino folded people were despondent over its end and I guess there are a lot of happy campers now.
• I would suggest they stay away from fashion.  It seemed like an afterthought and the clothes and the model were boring/bored.
• The photography was good, but you know I see great photography on home related blogs from self taught people every single day…good photography has become a commodity
• I am not sure how I feel about the click to buy feature.  I think of interior design mags as inspiration and not as a design by numbers tool.  I understanding its helpful to see sourcing info but again, I think it takes the creative process out of creating a home if you are slapping someone else’s template on your home.
• This is the thing the bugs me the most and I see it on blogs and I saw it yesterday in Lonny; styling rooms within a inch of their lives.  I bet if you looked at design mags from 10 years ago you would see more real spaces with furniture and paintings and objects that actually have meaning and belong to the people who inhabit the space.    Examples: Vintage bowling ball bag under nightstand in bedroom, tall pile of books on the floor (not good for bindings FYI), a frosty drink glass on an end table,  colored juice glasses lined up in the dish dryer on the counter waiting to be put away (the stylist couldn’t do that?)

I asked friend, who is a real life designer why this compulsion to set design for these pictorials? her answer:

… To be a stylist now is to offer your services pro bono and have absolutely no other way to fill out your day. Also–if you are a designer, photographer, or ex hooker sleeping with an ex hedgie, or if you have ever shopped don’t you think you could style your shoot?? It’s like hiring a specialist to bring flavored mouth washes to the dentist…

I am aware this is not a Lonny image but it epitomizes what I am saying, is this an art installation or someone's home?

With all that having been said, if I could get my hands on a glossy version of Lonny, I would gladly climb in bed with it.

New Spring Pots in time for Santa Rosa de Lima

Today was hot..unseasonably hot.  However, tomorrow that is all suppose to change and we will be getting the annual visit from the Tormenta de Santa Rosa.  Tormenta is the Spanish word for storm and there seems to always a big storm of rain, wind and snow in the mountains for 5 days before and after August 31st.   Despite this expected change in the weather,  I couldn’t help myself from investing in some happy spring flowers for the pots at the front door.  Until today there were some pretty tired cyclamen, primroses and a very sad looking chrysanthemums sitting in pots on the  front doorstep.  Today they were relocated to a shady bed that houses previously potted perennials.

Here is the work bench in the garage where I am swapping flowers.  Notice the ever present laptop.  I am streaming the Yankees game of course.  My favorite background noise when I am doing a project. Also below is the in between shot, after the tired pots and before the happy new ones.

Below is Georgie helping dig holes for the cyclamen  in a nice shady spot were they can rest this spring and summer.  Heavy makeup (she had just been to a birthday party) and white jeans are all the rage here when doing chores outside.

And the after…hopefully the passion flower vine will take off, its looking a bit wee here.  And I thought the other photo was kind of cool, it has two different depth of fields, Kooky huh?

Mi Casa

This is going to be a  more than usual self-indulgent post.  While my posts are generally personal,  I hope that sometimes, they are observations or stories that touch on something relevant to the reader.   This post might not.  Its about me and my house project.  Now that we have closed the store, and Barbara has left, I have all sorts of time on my hands.  So I have been spurned on by some very organized and design oriented life style blogs.  One of my favorites is Chez Larsson.  Very simple clean and efficient aesthetic.  I also like her very practical ideas for organizing all the stuff in your life.

So I am ready to get my house in shape.  Fortunately, I don’t have to do tons to the house to live comfortably.  But I do want to make it our home.  So that means painting, some decorating, and throwing out a lot of crap, and organizing what is left.  We live in a 1922 Spanish Colonial Revival.  The house has 18 inch walls, terracotta tiled roof and lots of original iron work.  It has great bones.  Lucky for me.  I get to do the fun stuff.

Here are some photos of my first organizing project.  A coatroom.  I don’t have a before. Original to the space is the large Brazilian armoire, and the stainless steel hat rack/coat hook apparatus.(see last photo)  I hated it when we first moved in and wanted to replace with floor to ceiling built in coat closets with shelf storage above and below.  But the hooks work so well for the kids.  They are able to have three or four coats available, see them, and the best part, they can hang them up all by themselves.  Yeah!

I had the shoe bench made that runs the length of the left wall.  There are four dividers so it doesn’t become a shoe fest and evolve into a unmanageable pile of shoes.  On the right side I had two shelving units made.  One is a cubby box, so that each kid has a place for their backpack, swim bag and shoe bag (for futbol).  The other is a two shelf unit where we store smaller sports equipment in metal boxes (without the tops).

There is a box for balls, baseball gloves, and futbol shin guards and gloves.  There is a metal basket for knit caps that rarely get worn, a picnic blanket and etc…  In the big armoire there are tennis rackets, baseball  bats and misc other stuff. It does a pretty good job of keeping it all contained.  Of course the challenge is getting the kids (and GM, who is the worst!) to put their backpacks away, shoes under the bench and coats hung.  I say we do well 75% of the time.

There are a few things I would like to do to finish off the space.  It will be painted soon, a sort of adobe red, or pepper color.(SW 7589 Habanero Red)  I would like to hang three pendant lights like these in this long narrow space (its 12 feet long) and I am going to try to do a project I saw somewhere with colorful striped 2×3 rag rugs.  You you darn several of them together with a fun colored yarn to make a runner, cheap.  So there is my little story of domestic activity for today.  I know it might not look like much (the photos dont help) but I am pleased with it.