I really bought it as a gift

When we were in Astoria there was this precious little baby consignment store across from the pub and I just had to go in and have a look. We were planning on visiting a couple we met last year while working at the hostel who just had a baby girl 3 weeks ago. This provided the perfect excuse for me to indulge myself in this shop while P snapped photos around the block. I came out with this adorable pink outfit for $4. All organic cotton and so snuggly.

Unfortunately, it did not work out for us to swing by their place while in Portland, so guess what? This one came home with me. Really, its so unfortunate. And I am so sad...Given that I am completely obsessed with having a yummy baby girl of my own someday.

Thats going to be one ashamed little boy if the stars don't have pink in line for me cause this things going on one of my Trummerites no matter what.

simple shelving

I like the simplicity of this room from Cookie magazine online. I especially like the two little rows of shelving holding the nic nacks.

olivers, etc.

Before our trip I finished this book:
This was a light, fun read--obviously not Faulkner by any means but I enjoyed it. Jools Oliver (wife to the famous chef, Jamie) detailed in journal style her back to back pregnancies and family life (her girls were born only a year apart!).

After finishing it, I now have my eye on Jamie's latest:
This is a gigantic guide full of interesting recipes and colorful pages. I've always liked the way his cookbooks are put together. The paper he's chosen in recent books has been thick & lovely with matte finish (of which I'm a sucker for). This one will be put on the Labor Day/birthday/Halloween/Thanksgiving/Christmas list for sure.

goonies never say die

Astoria was briefly mentioned on my previous posts but I feel it really does deserve its own posting because its such a wonderful place.

Die hard Goonies fans who are big enough dorks as us may know that Astoria, Oregon is where most of the scenes were shot from the classic 1980's kids movie. Philipp and I were all too giddy to get there and hunt down all these places. There must be enough geeks like us in the world, because the Chamber of Commerce actually had a print out of where different scenes were shot and could be located.

Here's Philipp in front of the Goonies house.


If having the freaking Goonies house in your town were not enough to catapult you into coolness, the town on its own is just so unique. Its one of those towns thats managed to restore and upkeep their historic downtown without it feeling pretentious or theme park-y. Another plus for them is there are hardly any posers or 20 year old wannabe hippies begging quarters when they could be working at any number of the shops down the street (Sound bitter? Sorry, we just went thru Santa Cruz, Eureka & Arcata on this trip as well--go there. You'll catch my drift).

We spent nearly two days just exploring the downtown region. The place is not that big at all and very walkable, which says a lot about how many interesting things there are to do there. There's a handful of really good shops; used/new bookstores, cafes, second hand shops, comic bookstores, 2 micro breweries, antique malls, etc.

One place caught my eye in particular, Lunar Boy Gallery. I'm not really a gallery sort of gal at all because I have really picky tastes in art and most stuff does not appeal to me. Plus, I am too rude to nod my head and appreciate it if I don't like it so I generally avoid them. That being said, this place caught my eye as I walked by. They're currently featuring the work of this lady:


Some more of her work is on their website here.

The absolute best breakfast I have ever eaten was from this place:
All organic ingredients, local produce--the real deal. I had their challah bread french toast and it was absolutely to die for. There was cut up fresh apple and apricot on top with the perfect amount of maple syrup and powdered sugar sprinkled on top. I really wish I'd taken a picture. The bakery just happens to be located next to the one of the best brew pubs on our trips. The building was the old fur trade location when Astoria was first settled.
I have tremendous respect for businesses doing things with integrity and sustainability. My breakfast was eaten with lovely cloth napkins which the devil in me wanted to steal. The angel in me won out, however.

In the evening, we watched this movie at an old cinema that now shows smaller movies for $4 and features balcony seating where you can drink local beer and order a pizza while watching the show from couches with little tables.

Set in pre-WW2 times in England, and watching it in a theatre from the early 20th century, this movie was just right. The whole time while in Astoria, I felt nostalgic for earlier times, fanciful & romantic.

beer crash & burn tour 2008 Part 2

Another seaside town.

After a nap in the sunshine in the back of our car (read: hotel room).

I found this really funny. We saw lots of elk and this one found its steel twin.

Happy Phippy in Astoria, Oregon.

Ratty, ole cafe storefront in Astoria. Yay! They make good money and have been operating for 30 years! I just always have to weasel these facts out of store owners because I value small shops like these so much!

A very typical Oregon coastline (and day)!

beer crash & burn tour 2008 Part 1

As promised, I'll now highlight the 10 day long trip Philipp and I just returned from.

Who: The husband & I
What: A sleep in/stink up your car along the coast journey from SoCal to Washington, primarily plotted around the locations of micro breweries
When: May 18-28
Where: Cambria, Marin Headlands, Point Reyes, Cannon Beach, Astoria, Portland, Wine Country, Santa Rosa, Ashland, Eureka, San Francisco & all places in between
How: In our toaster car (Scion xB) accompanied by lots of pillows and a futon mattress with generous unknowing motel parking lots, state beaches & unsuspecting residential areas
Why: Cause you only get one life and its meant to be lived. Not to mention it was 103 F when we left
*****
Zebras amongst cattle in San Simeon (this must be really confusing to people who don't know about the historic George Hurst's castle up there on the hill and how he was an odd rich man who favored luxury and owned a menagerie--who's ancestors are the afore mentioned).

Philipp darting out to conquer that rock (I could not stop him if I tried).
Breakfast on the side of the road. This day it was a hunk of dark bread with a Babybell, followed by a papaya with yogurt I'm sure.
One of the many magnificent Redwoods which never fail to let you know where you rank in the scheme of things (um, a vapor in time, anyone?).

Lets all go swimming.

Amazing everglade-like scenery near Point Reyes.

A lonely ship off the coast in Point Reyes.

Grasping how amazingly windy that was up there is impossible. I still have not found Philipp.

kitchen

And a very cool kitchen indeed.

garden party

Just a really beautiful image from this post over on design mom.

the awesomeness that is a public library

First, let me just say that public libraries deserve accolades. I have always been a person who preferred to borrow books rather than own them. This is mainly due to the fact that I will never be able to read a novel twice, no matter how much I enjoyed it and I really don't like clutter or having more than what I need or really, really love.

That being said, I picked up two books yesterday that I have been waiting patiently for. They're spanking new releases and I really wanted to get the chance to read them before moving on.

I'm baaaack.

Well, we made it home alright last night after entering the cluster f*** that is LA. Every time we travel up the coast there's simply no way around it. Thank goodness the weather was wonderful all day yesterday. I'll post highlights of our trip. We made it all the way up the coast as far as the Washington border. So many cool things to do and see in this country before we leave it. But for now, some highlights of the internet world of design since I've been gone. I always feel like I am going to have a heart attack trying to catch back up with all the blogs and websites I love.
O.C.D to the max, man. Ahem, okay. Here goes it:

Loving this sink and how deep it is. It reminds me of my great grandmother's sink and how every one of my cousins spent time in it bathing. The wood counter top vies for my affections as well.



These magnetic black bread bags are really chic. Plastic sucks and paper turns bread stale too quickly. You can serve bread in these as a bowl, then stand it upright and let the magnets close to make a seal, keeping your baguette all the fresher.
These tissue paper dahlia-esque birthday hats make me want October to roll around sooner. My mother insured all of our birthdays were magical growing up and I can only hope to do the same for my little ones. I'm bookmarking these hats cause they're so special.

I want a giant one of these Japanese inspired foldable playpens for Philipp to carry to the park for me to nap in! These look so comfy and great and come in cool designs.
This amazing home tour with so many elements I like. Sitting in my nearly bare apartment now that we sold all our newly acquired furniture on craigslist makes me excited to create an all new space (more on that later).

These super cute and functional stackable lunch boxes from bento.
This great use for chicken wire; an inspiration board. I have loved the idea of these for quite some time: a place to keep all the little clippings or collections of design to refer back to. For the time being, mine is virtual.

ooooh. bicycles.

Look at this gorgeous bike basket from plastica.com!

And this dreamy image from this bicycle retailer.

subliminal messages from the schwiegermutter

So, Philipp and I got a lovely little package in the mail earlier this week from his mother, Eveline. Inside contained some delicious chocolate covered almonds, some baking flour, and most importantly 3 hunks of creamy, rahm tilsiter cheese all the way from the land of milk (chocolate) and honey, Switzerland.

All wonderful indeed and his devoted mother did not forget to include several additions of one of P's favorite Swiss magazines, "Das Magazin" (real clever title, I know). We could not help but notice, however, the 1st magazine on top with the title " Mama is very young"...all about the pros of younger motherhood. This is for you, Eveline:

Thats me, saying "oooh, sneaky sneaky". And yes, Philipp took this picture. And yes, thats me with a pillow stuffed under my shirt. And yes, you are very sneaky.

cute little dessert stand

This cute & kitschy little dessert stand comes courtesy of who else, Martha Stewart? I remember seeing a similar thought in one of her Autumn magazines, but it used pumkins and dishes to create the stand. So clever!

yum.

For as much as I love and enjoy cooking, you'd think I'd have already tried my hand at making risotto. But I haven't. My mother in law (super schwiegermutter #1) and I recently discussed risotto on the phone leaving me to wonder why not... Maybe its because when I mention it to Philipp he always conjures up childhood memories of having to pick mushrooms and onions (which he hates) from his risotto at dinnertime and gives me a pitiful face saying, "yuck". Nonetheless, this recipe from Apartment Therapy looks delicious. Onions & mushrooms not included.

blurb

I'm excited to finally be able to bust my secret now that Mother's Day has passed and its been gifted.

After hearing about the merits of blurb.com from several design websites, I decided it was finally time to sort thru all those wedding pictures and create my own coffee table book. The software is super easy to navigate and the actual product turned out lovely. You can choose various sizes and include as many pages as you need. As far as binding goes, there's paperback, hardback with sleeves, leather and now you can print directly on to the hardback instead of just a sleeve. I find price-wise its about equal to having to print all your pictures and buy a storage album because you can format many pictures to print on one page.
Here is the cover:















I also created one from all the bridal pictures that I had yet to get off my hard drive. This is the cover from that one:

oldies

The two of us last year. Very sweaty all the time in wonderful Honolulu.

major jonesing.

I have got a major hankering for returning to Hawaii. Anytime it gets unbearably hot here in SoCal & I cool off with a Wailua Wheat brew, I get it bad. And I miss my buddy, Tobi. : (

stone brewery & gardens.

Philipp took me out last night (he still does not get the term "date", and it is kind of stupid--April 17th is a date, we are just going somewhere...) to the fabulous and gorgeous Stone Brewery in Escondido. If you're ever passing through on your way to San Diego, you must!must! stop in.

I did go so far as to pack the camera in the car, yet by the time I remembered it the sun had gone down and I don't roll with flash lighting so I will yank some pictures from the web.

Anyhow, on to the brewery-- the design of the place is wonderful! Its very modern, uber bauhaus style--heavy on glass and metals and slanted form. The ceilings are super high and airy. The doors in the ladies' room are these enormously heavy steel dungeon style slam doors and the sinks are these modern steel above counter basins. Yes, I got excited about the bathrooms.

Outside is the best part, though. They have an outdoor bar & patio which is huge--there's a fire pit in the center and meandering gardens and lounge areas past that. The garden is full of trees and pathways with little pond areas full of frogs and crickets.
I should clear up that anyone who says Americans don't make good beer is an idiot. Some of the best beer I have ever tasted has come from the West Coast by these little microbreweries who take pride in their craftsmanship and quality.

The food was heavenly (the price tag brought us down to earth, though). I had their mixed green salad and tofu stir fry. Philipp had beer soup with some spiced chicken dish. Their serving dishes are nice, clean lined white modern shaped heavy feel beauties (see above, not what we had though). The tables in the place toyed with my wood obsession, as they are all heavy, raw hunks of wooden planks on top of sturdy frames.

The coolest thing is the brewery has free movie nights where the film is screened in the garden area below. The holiest of holies, "The Big Lebowski" was playing last night and yes, we came just for that, although we have it on dvd of course and watch it at least once a week. The atmosphere was laid back, with everyone bringing in lawn chairs or blankets and sipping on beer and wine. Philipp had a 3rd beer (the lush!) and I had a kiddie bowl of vanilla bean ice cream.

A perfect evening!

yellow in the bedroom

As I may or may not have posted on before, I am obsessing over all things yellow at the moment and especially love bringing this color into the bedroom. I like this reverse comforter from this simple bedroom (not too crazy about the painted on headboard above).

more wood fun.

First, let me say that I absolutely hate carpet. I hate looking at it, I hate smelling it, I hate cleaning it, and I hate laying on it. That being said, I am loving these bare, raw wood floors from a home tour on AT. The rest is here.

I'm not crazy over the rest of the sterile atmosphere of the home, but many elements are wonderful. And its pleasingly funny to note that all the home tours that catch my eye are 9 times out of 10 European. This ones from France, I believe.

i like wood.

Obviously, I know what elements I like... I clicked around Apartment Therapy and saw this picture. Then went here to check more of it out, and its from a home tour I already admired, only this particular shot of the wooden table was not in it. Brilliant!

the luckiest.

My mama above, his mama below.

We hit the jackpot.

Happy Mother's Day to two beautiful women; inside & out.

life.

In general, I'm very pro "learn from others' lives, mistakes, experiences, etc." and I am also in general, a big planner. That being said, I found this at the library and read it in a day or so:
Aside from having really lame cover art, this book was pretty discouraging. It tried to end on a sort of encouraging, "but it really IS all worth it" kind of note, but I did not feel that excited upon closing its covers and the general message I got from the book was "you're relationship with your partner is never going to be the same" and "prepare for all sorts of tension & disagreements after your 1st child". It did give some basic relationship & communication pointers, but I was still left wondering, "Do all couples really have this hard of a time at it?" and " Is my relationship with my husband really going to automatically be that strained after having a baby?"

Philipp and I are blessed with a really great, open & loving relationship where we communicate exceptionally well (as far as generic male/female standards go). We try really hard to not let small things creep into our relationship by dealing with conflicts immediately and with lots of ridiculous humor, we are able to keep things light in spite of whatever circumstances we're in. We've weathered a fair amount of hardships in our time together, and its only welded us more strongly to each other. (F.Y.I. Go with an international relationship if you want to crank the stress factor up a notch or two! :)

Anyhow, after reading this wonderful (yeah.) book, I'm interested in getting feedback from other mothers/couples who've crossed that threshold of becoming a parent and the affects it had on your relationship: the good, bad & neutral! Is it what you expected? Better or worse than people told (or warned!)? Any advice you'd give a couple like us, slowly moving (ie. thinking about moving!!) towards babyville?

thursday peonies

Delightful peonies via Apartment Therapy (who else?). I'm decidedly not a rose girl, but I do have a soft spot for peonies and dahlias.

quote

“Have nothing in your house that you do not know to be useful, or believe to be beautiful."

William Morris

gone, baby gone

Yeah, so that mouse that I wrote about a couple posts back, make that mice. We officially have two...okay, as I write this---three mice! Here's the scoop:
My dear husband whom I love in many ways, decided that he could not kill the nuisance so he bought one of those humane traps and we caught two this morning, lured by peanut butter, and set them out further down the road to be on their merry ways. As I am typing this, we now have four mice total! Okay, we are officially infested! This madness has.got.to.stop! Screw humane measures!

bag

This bag from Anthropologie is asking to be mine...if it would only lose $50 bucks off the price tag.

a few snapshots

These are two interesting rooms from Apartment Therapy. I especially like the chalkboard wall (we have a similar version on our closet doors, only much smaller) and the natural wood elements of the table and shelving. I remain a sucker for anything white as well.

Click here for the complete tour.

gorgeously green

I'm reading this fun book at the moment:

I posted the website on my links to the right.

cupcake fetish

I want to bake and eat a full pan of cupcakes right now.

Although these felt ones from crafter Betz White might be a bit healthier.


Or I could be a real good girl and go with these:

rubba dub dub

A lovely bathroom from designer Kathryn Ireland.

inspired summer drinks

Thinking of panache & browsing Pottery Barn:

ultimate summer drink

...one more point for Basel vs. Lake Elsinore:

Equal parts beer & carbonated lemonade. Mmmm.

Ratatouille

Oh! We have a mouse!

I'm not excited about it.
His offenses are many.
These include (yet are not limited to):

*crawling across my arm at night in deep sleep (we'll not talk about how these things always & only happen to me)
*crapping on numerous personal objects, including my small but beloved cookbook collection
*running under our feet while sitting at the computer
*being a general nuisance

Its time for Ralph to bite the dust. We're over it.

The Business of Being Born

I just watched the most emotional, awe inspiring, encouraging, discouraging, angering, passionate, informative, scary & joyful documentary I have ever seen. I'm talking about the eye opening documentary by Ricki Lake and Abby Epstein, The Business of Being Born. People are calling it "The Inconvenient Truth" for birthing in the USA.

I had been meaning to get this documentary on DVD ever since I read about it in Mothering Magazine one afternoon at the bookstore. It was only released by Netflix.com at the time, but through Jenny's blog I found a free way to view it online. You can catch it here, although I am not sure how long it will be up on that particular website.

I asked Philipp to watch it with me and at the film's conclusion we both agreed: the way obstetrics is going down in this country is WRONG. We've had such feelings about the American model of health care for some time now. Watching Michael Moore's (whom at times, does go over the top) "Sicko" and just living here; having to contemplate on whether we should cross the border to Mexico (Mexico? HELLO. We live in one of the richest countries in the world) for dental care or shuck out the hundreds of dollars here to fix some basic dental problems, not being able to afford health insurance, etc. etc. has left a bad taste in our mouths and doesn't give much initiative to stay here as we start a family. The list goes on and on.

Unfortunately, living in a society where big business rules and everyone is capable of suing your asses off, doesn't leave a lot of room for alternative birth solutions for those women who would prefer it. I believe American women should have the options that other industrialized, first world countries have. Consider these facts:

-- In America, midwives attend less than 8% of all births and less than 1% of those that occur outside a hospital. At the same time, the US has the second worst newborn death rate in the developed world. Lake and Epstein ask, "Why do less than 8% of Americans take advantage of the benefits of midwifery, which is statistically safer and cheaper than physician-attended birth?"

-- The five countries with the lowest infant mortality rates in the March of Dimes report -- Japan, Singapore, Sweden, Finland and Norway -- midwives were used as their main source of care for 70 percent of the birthing mothers.

-- C-section is the most commonly performed surgery in the US, at a cost of $14 billion per year. Cesarean-delivery rates are now at an all time high in the United States, standing at 1.2 million, or 29.1 percent of live births in 2004. The increase represents a 40 percent increase in the past 10 years.

-- In one 1999 survey, 82% of physicians said they performed a C-section to avoid a negligence claim.

dang my hair was long

waaah hhaaaa. I.miss.my.long.hair. I'm incapable of sticking with my rash decisions. And I can't stay anywhere longer than 6 months. Hair should grow out of one's head like Play Doh did when I was a kid and had the barber shop set. Gimme back my hair!

*sheesh...what a whiner she is. she's healthy and alive...but still knows we have some vanity in us all.

a new hobby that does not involve deutsch

I'm so excited that I just found this book super cheap on ebay. The cover doesn't look promising (and I totally always judge a book by its cover--if you cannot muster up creativity on at least that, come on...) but while flipping through it at Barnes & Noble, it is really good. All the photos are modern and stylistic with a lot of focus on photojournalism. Being published in 2008 helps I think. And its written in a "workshop" style with each chapter giving you projects and assignments to work on such as mood, shadows, lighting, etc. I am really excited. I am such a lover of photos and memory keeping and Philipp got a professional camera for his birthday a couple years back that neither one of us has mastered yet. I have a good eye for things but am technically clueless. Whenever we start a family I want to be able to document our lives and keep the memories organized. I must've got this from my Mama, whom through my childhood was blocked by her camera lens at all family functions. But, all of her gazillions of pictures are stored away in an enormous trunk (this being the pre-digital era, of course). Since P & I are just starting out, I want it all organized from the get go. I'll post pics as I learn.

unearthed

I don't know why I like this picture so much, maybe because I didn't know it was being taken at the time. I just retrieved it from the photographer since it was corrupted in the original batch of pictures. Such a lovely night.

the mess we got into.

Over the weekend before our good family friend Munz left for the Carolinas, we three hopped in our car to drive to LA to begin the first leg of our Manson family tour. We drove nearly 300 miles scouting out all the places the Manson family terrorized in 1969.

Yes, we have problems.

It was so fascinating. I mean this is 40 year old history but it was still very, very creepy and relevant. Most everyone knows about this cult of teenagers and young people who devotedly followed their leader, Charles Manson (of whom my beloved husband shares a birthday with --enter creepy twilight zone soundtrack--). These lunatics killed off several people randomly in the name of social/political reform before finally being caught and prosecuted. They squatted all over the LA region and in Death Valley and were even hanging out at one of the Beach Boys' places before ticking him off and moving to the desert.

Along with Google Earth and the book, "Helter Skelter", we found the two residences where the main murders took place. Hello? How in the hell could you place these in a real estate market, much less buy and live in one of them! Seriously, my imagination is so out of whack that I would not even get out of the car on the street these places were on. It was totally like a psycho treasure hunt because many of the street numbers had been changed and we had to rely on old photographs and street markers to locate them.

Oh. And last year when Philipp's mom & her husband came to visit us in CA, we went to Death Valley and had a really great breakfast at this place called "The Crowbar Cafe", of which P & I just found out the Manson family frequented trying to sell/score dope and buy supplies while hiding out in the dessert. Dude!

History is so fascinating. Just let's not talk about it before my bedtime. Philipp and I agreed that I need to invest in some children's picture books and limit that to my before bedtime reading. I'm still very much afraid of the dark. Everyone knows it.

**On a side note, we also found this weird missile site from the 1950's off Mulholland Drive. It was installed in the height of the Cold War to protect us from the Soviets. Its so embarrassing to look at now. We were walking around freely in this deserted, once top secret and heavily guarded defense system that now holds bike paths, walking trails, etc.

I also should mention and give props to Munz's creatively inspired magic marker tour shirt posted above. You can't read it, but trust that it is hilarious. Also, the Mormon part of the title refers to the tour we will be doing to locate sites of Mormon extremists from the early 19th century as covered in the book, "Under the Banner of Heaven".

floating desk

This is a cool idea from Apartment Therapy (who else?). Its a floating desk. It looks dead easy to make and is a wonderful space saver. I'm all about small spaces. I don't think I would want an enormous house even if that were a possibility. There is just something to be said about remaining in close proximity to those you live with. On that note, I'm also not fond of tv. Philipp and I don't have one and we never feel as if we're missing out. Dvds are another story altogether. But, since we just invested in a brand new desktop computer with a decently sized screen, we have that covered. We love movies. And LOST can always be watched from a computer. Problem-free.

oooh.

Oooh. Yummy husband all over the place.

Novo

Lately, I've been daydreaming about returning to this perfect place in San Luis Obispo. Novo restaurant has the most delicious food and atmosphere. Philipp and I have eaten there several times when living in Cambria and while traveling along the Central Coast. The patio overlooks the creek walk and at night its just divine.

photo by. semillerimages

May Day

Happy May Day!

I love holidays and festivals. I have never been to a May Day festival growing up, though. Maybe its too pagan for us Southerners, I wouldn't know. Amazing all the pagan roots our traditions spring from. I think traditions are important. Not the silly ones, just the ones involving lots of food and people you love. Any excuse to throw a party is good by me. Oh. And I would definately pay my savings to put Philipp in some of these:

He repeatedly keeps telling me that this uniform is German not Swiss, but I don't care. The two are close enough to allow me my fun.