I Love Lamp: Wood Stove

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While Waldo is still a bit perturbed that we brought fire inside, Steven and I are SO HAPPY to have finally gotten our wood stove installed! The previous owners took theirs with them which left a rather obvious hole in the hearth of the living room. One that I tried, unsuccessfully, to fill with tables and books and christmas trees--

(Don't mind our matching vintage sweaters-- xmas gifts from my Mom...!)

And since it's winter it's wood stove season, so the place where we got it couldn't install it for nearly two, very cold months! To make matters more complicated we had to built a second internal chimney because our oil heat was connected to the brick chimney so we weren't legally allowed to just plug the wood stove into that chimney too.

Oh, home ownership.

It took the guys ALL day, measuring, sawing, crawling through the attic, clambering on the roof. And let me add that it as a -10 degrees day. Total champions!

Steven lit the first fire that night:

We really wanted to have a huge, raging one to heat up the place but they had specifically told us that you're supposed to have a few small ones first to temper the paint. They also warned us that a slightly black smoke will come off the stove during the first big burn and that that is normal. I FREAKED OUT anyway when our whole first floor filled with smoke and a terrible, acrid smell. To calm me down, Steven called them to triple check that what we were experiencing was normal. They swore up and down it was.

And now we're cooking. Literally! Last night we roasted sweet potatoes in foil in the grill portion of the stove and they were sooooo yummy. They reminded me of the ones that we used to get in the streets of Beijing after school.

And now I've got to runoff to the barn to build a wood storage contraption of sorts with Steven!

(What is I Love Lamp? This is I Love Lamp.)

National Handwriting Day: Round 2!

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It's National Handwriting Day again! Last year I made a version of my real handwriting with Your Fonts. This year I used their coupon to create what I WISH my handwriting looked like:

It's inspired by all the old fishing and hunting maps I've started collecting from around here. I also like it with a tighter kerning:

Have you ever made a font before? I LOVE it. While I enjoy hand lettering projects from time to time, there's something incredibly satisfying about typing in your original font. Here are a few others I've made over the past few years:

Check out YourFonts.com. It's usually about $15 per font but if you get on their mailing list they send out deals on the regular.

And, Happy National Handwriting Day!

I Love Lamp: Dog Bed Dilemma

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You didn't think I was gonna get a dog and not obsess over what dog bed to get him, did you? I mean, I've got to look at the thing Every. Dang. Day. Not to mention Waldo has to sleep on it.

The first night we got him we set him up with some European size pillows and two picnic blankets. A week later these seems to be doing him just fine.

But "just fine" ain't good enough in this house, so I've been on the hunt for something cozy and nice looking which is surprisingly hard to find. Guys, there is some SERIOUSLY UGLY dog stuff out there.

My current favorite is this Buffalo Plaid one I've seen in a couple spots (including Waggo):

But that might be because I got a Buffalo plaid jacket this year that I love:

And perhaps it's not the best idea to match the dog bed. Maybe something a bit more subdued like this one would do:

Until I buy myself some Engineer striped overalls, then I'm screwed all over again.

(What is I Love Lamp? This is I Love Lamp.)

Where's Waldo? Here's Waldo!

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This will surprise absolutely NOBODY: We moved the country and... adopted a dog! Meet Waldo, our 3 year old hound mix from the local SPCA!

Needless to say WE LOVE HIM. And yes, Steven and I think it's pretty damn hilarious to ask each other "Where's Waldo?" on the regular.

He's cuddly and laid back and doing a good job of learning the drill around here. I've been rather obsessively reading books by Cesar Millan aka the Dog Whisperer and The Monks of New Skete, probably driving Steven a little nuts by starting every other sentence with, "Cesar says" and "The monks say". But I'm very, VERY adamant about Waldo being well trained because he is inevitably going to be a face of Spruceton Inn.

Maybe one day I can even teach him how to check people in. Hounds are good with computers, right?

Anyway. I never, ever identified as a dog person before this. But if this past year has taught me anything it's that people change. Or more precisely, that I change! Though perhaps "change" is  not the right word for it-- it's more like just because you think you're something it doesn't mean you necessarily are.

I mean, I've always thought of myself as a "city person" and here I am. I'm not saying I've turned in my MetroCard forever and ain't looking back, but I will say that I am even happier out here in the country than I ever dared imagine.

It makes you wonder what you'll discover next about yourself.

I Love Lamp: International Klein Blue

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Such a bright blue sky makes it easy to forget it's supposed to feel like minus 21 today.

UNTIL YOU STEP OUTSIDE.

And while it's not exactly the right blue, it still reminds me of Yves Klein and his faaaabulous blue: International Klein Blue.

I LOVE that blue. I love how strong it is, how flat it is, the performance art behind it.

And it reminds me of so many other things and places and people. Like the Tuaregs I've met in the Sahara on the Malian and Moroccan sides--

(Yes, that second guy is Steven.)

Or this hotel we stayed at in Crete last summer.

Or Chefchouen, the wonderfully sleepy Moroccan mountain town that's entirely covered in varying shades of blue.

Even all our dishes are Fiestaware's version of International Klein Blue!

More blue from today: despite the SERIOUSLY CRAZY cold I dared to go out to the fully winterized (aka unheated) motel strip with some blue tape. You see, arranging furniture and determining outlet placements just wasn't happening on paper. I had to see that shit life sized.

SO much better. Totally worth the brush with frostbite.

It's a shame blue gets such a bad rap being the symbolic color of sadness and all. I find it makes me feel quite the opposite.

(What is I Love Lamp? This is I Love Lamp.)

(Yves Klein photo courtesy of Yves Klein Archives, all other photos mine.)

I Love Lamp: Barn Wood Table

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Our buddies Erik and Solana came up last weekend for some country time and we put them to work. No, seriously. We didn't care that they had their one year old daughter with them or anything. We're cruel like that.

Steven and I had been talking a big game about taking some of our old barn wood and building a dining room table with it. We believed that by combining our general brain power with this book and sheer will we could do it. And while that might have turned out to be true, I'm sure it turned out much better that we had Erik and his carpentry skills to guide us.

And by "guide" I mean, "come up with a table design out of thin air without ever drawing or writing anything down then building it with us in a single afternoon using a handsaw and a drill".

Photo evidence:

I swear I didn't just take pictures and dance to the Black Keys the whole time. See:

Ok well that doesn't really prove anything other than maybe I spent a lot of time squatting and staring at people through my need-to-be-trimmed bangs, but I swear. There was plenty of measuring and drilling and filing on my part.

Later that night we christened the table with some delicious (Solana made) pork ribs, brussel sprouts fried in bacon grease, mashed potatoes, and good times.

I love the table because it's beautiful and functional, but I love it even more because we made it and I will think of that afternoon and these great friends every time I sit down at it. Those are exactly the kinds of things I want to fill this place with-- lovely and useful objects, meaningful friendships, hard work, wonderful memories.

(What is I Love Lamp? This is I Love Lamp.)

I Love Lamp: Before and After, My Office

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There's nothing like two coats of white paint. BEFORE:

AFTER:

Steven's and my studio in Brooklyn was all white-- even the floors-- and I loved that. So the first thing on my To Paint List up here was my office.

We've shared a workspace for the past five years, so having our own rooms is quite the change. On the surface of things, while I love having my books around and easily maintaining the cleanest of desks, the place feels shockingly feminine to me without all of Steven's stuff mixed in.

I find that in retrospect, new places always look stark, unfinished, and proportioned wrong. I'm sure I'll wind up moving things around. It takes time to settle in. In the mean time, there are more rooms to cross off my To Paint List!

(What is I Love Lamp? This is I Love Lamp.)

I Love Lamp: Malm Fireplaces

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Steven and I are in the market for a wood stove and/or fireplace. I've been drawn to these hilarious Malm ones for a while now:

Made in California since the 60's they're a real retro treasure. Aside from perhaps being a little too Darth Vader meets The Jestsons, I think we'll wind up going with a more traditional stove shape so as to get the most heat out of it possible. Because yeah, baby it's COLD OUTSIDE:

(What is I Love Lamp? This is I Love Lamp.)

(Fireplace photos via Malm, 5 Day Forcast via weather.com)

Local Inspiration

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One of the reasons I was really excited to move was the potential to be inspired by totally new surroundings. Already I find myself so influenced by things like-- Winter sunlight.

Steam.

Subtle differences in shades of green.

Old local maps.

The crazy ways that ice can form.

To say that the move has been refreshing is my understatement of the year. I think it's going to be extraordinary to really live the different seasons in a way that we couldn't in "the city". Sure, countryside winter can be... difficult in some boring ways (frozen pipes, scraping ice off windshields etc) but right now I'm surprising myself by just how much I'm embracing it in everything from my daily routines to my graphic design.

 

The Spruceton Inn: A Catskills Bed & Bar

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Once upon a time Steven and I bought the old Schwarzenegger's Sunshine Valley House hotel with grand plans to reopen it as The Spruceton Inn: A Catskills Bed & Bar.

By "once upon a time" I mean, this past Monday. Our signed closing papers are somewhere on this lawyer's desk:

It's 8 acres of meadow and woods with a creek (the West Kill), a farm house (where we live), a 10 room motel strip, and a barn.

It's all tucked in to an east-west valley hugged by Hunter Mountain and lots and lots of protected, State owned land. The road, Spruceton Road, dead ends at a trailhead that leads to waterfalls, epic valley views, and other outdoor goodness.

Yes, those are bear prints. Yes, it's just a little different from Brooklyn up here. Steven and I have taken to wandering the property every morning with coffee in hand, making big plans and just marveling at the beauty of the countryside.

I am SO EXCITED about this and cannot WAIT to have every last one of you up! I'll be updating our progress here on the blog (and you'd better believe there will be a lot of I Love Lamp posts along the way). The Inn has its own website as well, SprucetonInn.com, where one day we will be taking reservations.

Now I must be off to prep for the first big snow dump of the year that's on its way!

P.S. Yup, the same Schwarzenegger. Arnold and Karl are cousins. He apparently used to come by, hence the bar being named Conan's Corner. You better believe we aren't changing that name.

Traveling with NOTHING

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These two went on the most insane or romantic OKCupid date ever, depending on how you feel about travel and clean underwear.

I've gotta say... I'm kind of tempted by the idea. Though three whole weeks might be a bit much for me through all those cities. (A beach? No prob. Give me one bathing suit, one dress, one towel and I'm DONE.) And I'm already sad at the hypothetical prospect of no hypothetical souvenirs!

I Love Lamp: Cultural Appropriation In Design

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When I saw that dream catchers were being featured on Design*Sponge today I cringed because I'm frankly really sick of seeing the shallow appropriation all things "ethnic" and/or "native" in design. Variations of different Native American imagery seem to be taking lots of abuse right now, Navajo patterns in particular, and stuff like children's teepess just make me a little uncomfortable.

So I was really happy that see that Amy of Design*Sponge included this in her post as well:

Note: I do think it’s always important to consider cultural appropriation when looking at objects that originate from other cultures. Jezebel had a great article on cultural appropriation here that explains why dream catchers are not very problematic but describe what items are. It’s an interesting read.

An interesting read indeed. I remember coming across this when it was first posted in the wake of lots of high profile fashion folks making heinously cringe worthy decisions like putting their mostly naked models in traditionally sacred headdresses.

And while I don't think this article fully explains exactly when it's ok, that's because there's not just one answer to this question. The line between celebrating/admiring and plain old appropriating is an inherently blurry one. I keep thinking about the whole "I know it when I see it approach" and how that kind of applies here but is unfortunately just as unhelpful in defining offensive cultural appropriation as it was in defining obscenity.

This all makes me think about how chock full my house is of stuff that I've picked up around the globe and I have to ask myself, is any of it appropriation? All that Malian fabric I've made pillows and dresses and other things out of, is that ok because it's not sacred in any way?

What about the Moroccan rugs that can be used as prayer rugs but are just used as decor? Is that ok because they're not by definition religious objects?

That would mean I can never display this Tibetan prayer wheel I picked up in western China at a point in my life when I was very seriously considering Buddhism since it is most definitely sacred and I don't use it as such, right?

Funnily enough I haven't had that out in years exactly because it makes me uncomfortable. However I never cringe when I go to my atheist parents' house and pass by their beautiful, creepy, and perhaps totally inappropriate Stations of the Cross paintings. Is that because Christianity doesn't feel so much like "the other"?

Something else I admire aesthetically but have felt hesitant displaying is Steven's and my collection of Chinese comics that depict how to paint Communist propaganda. Cool, but just not cool if you know what I mean.

This all makes me think about the Egyptian craze of the 1920s. People went absolutely bonkers for "Egyptian" fashion/art/style after King Tut's tomb was excavated. Would that fly today? Part of me thinks no, people would definitely NOT be cool with digging up that guy's grave then appropriating the hell out of his religious imagery, symbols, and objects. Then the other part of me thinks it would be all together reasonable to imagine that people's Pinterest boards would be blowing up with "Nile River" this and "Scarab" that. Would it matter? To whom?

(What is I Love Lamp? This is I Love Lamp.)

 

 

I Love Lamp: A Lamp Just For You

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My friend Craig just got himself this killer 1940's-movie-studio-esque floor lamp. Being that he's in the movie world and all I think it's PERFECT for him.

Not that everyone should go all theme-y with their lighting. I really hope Steven never gets a paint brush lamp or something. Or wait. Maybe I do. Oooooh, maybe now I really kind of do.

(What is I Love Lamp? This is I Love Lamp.)

Izabela Katreniok Nudes with Your Coffee

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Steven told me there was a show at Cafe Grumpy in Park Slope that I would like and he was SO RIGHT. Izabela Katreniok's nude paintings are the shit:

At $340 a pop (framed nicely in black with a cream colored matte) they're not outrageous either. I want I want I want I neeeeeeed those top two ones.

That said, I DO have a killer naked lady painting collection already courtesy of Steven. Here's the latest addition that sits on my desk:

Don't you want to live in the future?!