Salami, salami, Bologna

Italy...here I come!

I booked my flight...I'm going to Italy May 9th!

I've been researching flights since I came home from San Francisco. The closest international airport is Portland, a 3 hour drive from our house.  The first flight I checked from Portland to Florence was $1400.  Ouch.  Then I started researching how much it would cost to fly out of Seattle (Sue) and San Francisco (Teresa).  $587.  Yep. Quite a difference.  My next step was trying to coordinate a 3 hour drive to the Portland airport to catch a flight to either San Francisco or Seattle to take advantage of the cheaper airfare.  Lots of schedules to coordinate. Yesterday, on a whim, I typed in the code for our little podunk airport in Central Oregon and found the cheapest flight yet. Crazy. Technically, I'm flying into the Bologna airport instead of Florence.  

Google maps

But we wanted to see a bit of the Italian countryside....

I'm dubbing my friends Sue & Teresa my traveling buddies. 

In the last two years, we've been on a cruise to Mexico, and a trip to San Francisco together...and now I'm meeting them in Italy. Their sister is the Consul General in Florence and is welcoming us to her home for our stay. 

I am so lucky!

Sue & Teresa have traveled all over the world...and Teresa speaks fluent Italian.  I couldn't ask for better travel companions (for my very first trip abroad), or better friends.

White House re-do, update

The Obamas hired Micheal S. Smith to design their White House Living quarters. See original posts here and here.

photo credit

Incoming presidents are allocated $100,000.00 to remodel the private quarters.  The Obamas, rather than using public funds, are paying for the remodel themselves. Read NY Magazine article here.

Leading by example. Bravo.

Dreaming of Tuscany

I might be going to Florence (Italy) with my friends Sue & Teresa in May. Still working out details....but I have been perusing websites, drinking in all of Tuscany's glorious countryside.

If we didn't have a place already lined up, I'd like to stay in a farmhouse...perhaps one like Bianchi....

We could dine outside...under the disco ball !

According to the website: 

Charming farmhouse in Tuscany, a villa restored in the Tuscan style situated amidst the hills surrounding the lovely medieval town of Cortona. The property is in very quiet location and offers charming extensive views over the Chiana valley, in Tuscany. The villa is simply and comfortably furnished in a typical Tuscany country style.

Yep...that would work for me.

Dancing

"And those who were seen dancing were thought to be insane by those who could not hear the music."

~ Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche

Tea & Honey Bread's Shutter Click & Chat

This week's theme is Dancing

I attended the San Francisco Ballet this year on my birthday. Front row seats. Truly an amazing experience. The show was a mixed repertory; my favorite piece being Jerome Robbins' The Concert (Or, The Perils of Everybody).

*San Francisco Ballet

Click here to watch YouTube video

It was funny. Very funny. Quite a surprise to me after watching the first two serious, classical ballets. I thoroughly enjoyed it.

Shadows

Hey Harriet's Shadow Shots

Over 60 bloggers participated last weekend

Check out other shadows here

Mountains and juniper trees...shadows from our property

"In any case life is but a procession of shadows, and God knows why it is that we embrace them so eagerly, and see them depart with such anguish, being shadows."

~ Virginia Woolf

Vote Earth

Tonight at 8:30 pm is Earth Hour.

Vote for Earth by switching off your lights for one hour....

Agreed

*Available here

"...For while knowledge defines all we currently know and understand, imagination points to all we might yet discover and create."

~ Albert Einstein

Contest

Make it beautiful and useful. 

Ample Sample carpet remnant design contest. A clever way to keep carpet samples out of the landfill.

"Design isn’t always about clients and deadlines. Take a break from the grind and answer our call for something useful and beautiful with upcycled materials; specifically, carpet samples. Ample Sample is again challenging designers to rethink and repurpose carpet samples after their usefulness to a design project, to make a design product. The best ideas will be showcased at NeoCon 2009 and featured on the website, complete with blueprints and instructions for their designs."

My favorite past entries

The Green Screen uses 150 carpet samples and makes a fantastic room divider

The pendant lamp is made is made from 8 carpet samples, wooden dowel rods, leather straps and glue making it inexpensive and easy to construct.

This chair is made from covering different size rugs one on the top of the other...and held together very simply, with two ropes.

Past winners offer downloadable how to instructions here

There are thousands and thousands of carpet samples thrown away each year....time to show off your eco-design savvy.  Enter to win. 

Trends/revival

I'm not much into following the latest trends, (mid-century items are certainly hot right now) but I do admire good design and craftmanship, both of which Jerome and Evelyn Ackerman produced over their 50 year career.

Masters of Mid-Century California Modernism

 This exhibit opens March 29th at the Mingei International Museum, 

San Diego, California

Some of my favorites from the collection

Mosaic table top

Ceramic vessels

Door pulls with brass & vermillion agate inlays

photos-Steve Oliver

See the rest of the collection here

photo-Anne Cusack

and more photos from their amazing home here

Anything catch your eye?

Firenze Musei

Firenze Musei is a network of thirteen state museums in Florence, Italy

 

The museums own and display approximately three hundred thousand works of art and exhibits...just imagine...

I have the opportunity to go to Italy....

Never ending quest

Hair....need I say more?

Latest cut/style

I'm growing it out, but I still like messy/flippy.

Spring

Spring is here....officially anyway. It actually snowed here this weekend. But that doesn't keep me from perusing garden blogs and dreaming. I've added some garden inspiration to my blog roll....

This year we're focusing on the back patio and ramada, but I found this picture from landscape architect Laurel Rock's site 

(via Studio G...thanks!)

and the shape (of the path & beds) looks so much like our front area....or rather what our front could look like if the deer (and rabbits) didn't eat everything.  (No, I'm not thinking of planting these particular plants in the desert.  I do however, want the native, drought tolerant plants I do select to fill in and not get eaten.) 

We're going to add some big rocks near the path to take up some of the space.

Last May when we originally landscaped

I'm also going to add a rock border between the flower beds and the gravel driveway.  I didn't want a hard edge, but we're finding we need the demarcation line now that we have a dog. We're hoping it will keep the gravel where it belongs....

The drive

Last Monday on the drive home from San Francisco...

shots from the car:

Starting out....the deluge

Lake Shasta

Somewhere just south of the Oregon border along Highway 97

"We wander for distraction, but we travel for fulfillment."  

~ Hilaire Belloc

A living ceiling

Have you ever seen one of Dale Chihuly's glass ceilings?

This one is in the Bellagio Hotel in Las Vegas....magical

When I saw this vertical garden in the April issue of Sunset magazine, I immediately thought of Chihuly's ceilings...and wondered if tillandsia would lend themselves to being suspended upside down in the desert as a living ceiling for my soon-to-be ramada.

So far my research is not promising.  These air plants don't like temperatures above 90 or below freezing.  Anyone know of a particular species that would tolerate high desert living?

Ladies Night Out

When I lived in Silverton, I volunteered to be on the newly formed Ladies Night Out committee. This event became the top fund raiser for the Silverton Chamber of Commerce! 

This year's theme is designed to let women escape....

if only for one night. 

(click to enlarge)

Save the date ~ Thursday, April 9th

For more information, click here

Due (Two)

Tea & Honey Bread's Shutter Click & Chat 

This week's theme is two
Two cows on the green hills

Due mucche sulle verdi colline (I'm practicing Italian) 

Rather bucolic looking considering this shot was taken along Interstate 5 in Northern California

"The mere brute pleasure of reading - the sort of pleasure a cow must have in grazing."

~ Lord Chesterfield

A bit of color

Hey Harriet's Shadow Shots

I finally found my first colored shadow...

Light pole at Lake Merritt, Oakland, California

(See March 17th post for non-shadow shot of light pole)

“In our life there is a single color, as on an artist's palette, which provides the meaning of life and art. It is the color of love.”

~ Marc Chagall

Gathering

Trux peers through the colored branches along the Deschutes River

We gathered branches for the pots purchased at Living in the Garden

Hoping the deer won't eat cut branches like they do plants...

I was surprised to find pussy willow buds...I've never seen pussy willows with such vibrantly colored branches

We decided to stick some of the branches in the yard...

instant shrubs that just may take root.

San Francisco, continued

Saturday began with a walk down the hill to Oakland's Saturday Market for fresh fruit and flowers.

An early afternoon ride on BART to downtown San Francisco to see the mixed repertory ballet (program notes here), followed by an excellent dinner & drinks at Soi Four.

Sunday consisted of more eating!  Brunch at The Claremont Resort followed by a nap. Then off to Teresa's friend Elizabeth's for a sister only dinner.

Lovely home & view

11 sisters gathered to meet 

Homemade pottery pendant necklaces

Charming placecards

Yummy food

Delicious (and abundant) red wine

Things began to get blurry

Such a fun evening!

Good Veggies Gone Bad

This week's theme is Vegetable

veg·e·ta·ble

noun
A plant cultivated for an edible part.

Just back from California, the United States' home for innovative green thinking. The city of Oakland promotes food waste scrap recycling by offering small pails to be used in the kitchen to collect food scraps which are then dumped into the larger recycle bin for weekly pick up.

According to their website: Home composting diverts 543 pounds, per household, per year from the landfill. That's 2.7 tons over 10 years.

Now that's impressive.

What are you doing with your vegetable scraps?

“Shall I not have intelligence with the earth? Am I not partly leaves and vegetable mould myself.”

~ Henry David Thoreau

The City

Friday I spent the day with Mark's cousin Cindy and her son, Eric. Cindy picked me up and took me into the City...my first trip to San Francisco.

The car shot: crossing the bridge from Oakland to San Francisco....my first view of the City by the Bay.

We played tourist and walked from Fisherman's Wharf to Ghiradelli Square.  Gorgeous, sunny California day.  (I came home to snow...)

most of my shots seem to be water...hmmm...

Cindy & Eric

yep...more water shots...

We saw lots of cable cars (but I forgot to take any pictures of those!), drove to the financial district and had lunch at a Thai restaurant, then did a little shopping with me forgetting to take any more photos that afternoon!  Lots of fun.  (I have great in-laws.)

Back to Teresa's for cocktails on the patio and a dinner party with Sue & Teresa's Uncle Ralph and a neighbor...mmmm...lots of wine...