March 2013 - Page 2 of 2

Palm Springs Modernism Week Bus Tour

March 14, 2013 By Paola 5 Comments

Though they were officially sold out, I was lucky enough to squeak my way onto one of the famous Modernist Week bus tours. Apparently if you show up on the day of the tour there’s a good chance of getting on one thanks to no-shows.

I can’t recommend a tour highly enough if you happen to be in Palm Springs for Modernism Week. They’re a great way of getting a real sense of the unique architectural history of Palm Springs and spying on some truly FABULOUS houses.

Come and join me for a trip.

The iconic now Chase bank designed by E.Stewart Williams (who also designed the Edris House) in 1960.

The Bank of America building with its famous blue mosaic wall built in 1959 by Victor Gruen Architects.

The Del Marcos Hotel, one of the earliest examples of Palm Springs modernism, built in 1947 by William F Cody.

This is as close as I got to the world-famous Frey House II, perched in the mountains and designed by Albert Frey in 1963 to blend into its surroundings. Would have loved to have visited this one.

This rather ugly sprawling monstrosity apparently belongs to Barbra Streisand. She didn’t wave.

This gorgeous house was built for Dinah Shore by Donald Wexler in 1963. I’ve found some fun photos of the interior that I will share soon.

Dubbed the “House of the Future’ and designed by William Krisel in the early 1960s, this is the hideaway where Elvis and Priscilla Presley spent their honeymoon. The fabulous Alix Tyler of Modern Kiddo (and previously Strawberry Lemonade) wrote a great post about the interiors and the Elvis connection a couple of years back.

We also saw some groovy private houses built in Modernist style. The great thing about Palm Springs is that the style is not just restricted to a few iconic houses but covers whole neighbourhoods.

These houses with steeply-pitched roofs are called ‘Swiss Misses’.

Here is world famous Kaufman House built by Richard Neutra in 1946. Must find my way in there one day.

And this repurposed gas station is the Palm Springs Visitor Center.

Here is our lovely tour guide. He knew everything about everything to do with Palm Springs.

A very bad picture of a zigzag roof. It’s in there somewhere.

Frank Sinatra’s house, Twin Palms, designed in 1947 also by E. Stewart Williams. Apparently he had to be persuaded hard to get a house in the Modernist style. Now it is impossible to imagine him in anything else.

The beautiful Catholic church of St Theresa (where the funeral of former Palm Springs mayor Sonny Bono was held, with a eulogy by Cher).

A former 1960s hotel has been refurbished as the splendidly-colourful Saguaro. We took a peek inside one day and it looks fabulous.

We again stayed at the Ace which was repurposed from a old Howard Johnson motel (as immortalised in the most recent season of Mad Men).

More private homes.

Nice clerestory windows.

Nice butterfly roof.

FABULOUS orange front door.

Bettered only by the pink front door on the former home of Telly Savalas. Bet you never thought of Kojak with a pink front door.

I think I’d better stop now. I have literally hundreds of photos from this tour, but I suspect my blog is about to explode.

Things I Am Loving: Nicole Porter Hardwood Bowls

March 12, 2013 By Paola Leave a Comment

Yet more things I don’t have either the money or room for. They’re absolutely stunning though.

Buy these unique handpainted wooden bowls, plates and servers at www.nicoleporter.com or on her Etsy shop and then send them to me.

Project 52: Food Glorious Food

March 11, 2013 By Paola 4 Comments

I’ve been having fun with my Project 52 assignments recently. The last two assignments have been to take hone in on the type of commercial photography we want to focus on and to take a picture of the raw ingredients for a simple recipe.

So I got to shoot food and more food.

First up I decided to shoot a graphic shot of doughnuts. I was feeling lazy and baking is tricky at the moment without a proper kitchen, so I picked up some Krispy Kreme doughnuts and then mixed up a pink glaze to get some interesting drips and splodges.

For the raw ingredients challenge, I tried to get a bit arty and was inspired by the idea of an artist’s palette.

Beetroot, Orange and Pistachio Salad

Roast some beets whole in their skins in a little olive oil, salt and herbs (some thyme branches are good) until soft.

Peel the beets and make a salad with some perky watercress or rocket/arugula, some peeled orange segments, some pistachios or pecans and some chunks of goat cheese.

Dress with sea salt, extra virgin oil and some good syrupy balsamic vinegar.

Slowly and painfully I feel that I am groping towards a style – I’m not there yet, but it definitely involves interesting colour stories, graphic elements, shapes and repetition and lots of mess.

WTF Friday: Alexander McQueen Fall 2012

March 8, 2013 By Paola Leave a Comment

Though in this case the W stands for ‘Wow!’

Yeah, I know these aren’t exactly wearable, unless you’re Lady Gaga, but the workmanship in these clothes is utterly breathtaking, and I suppose the half-finger gloves would be perfect if you bite your nails.

If you see me walking down the street wearing a jewelled head cage and pearly fishnets you know who to blame.

Enjoy the fabulous crazy.

Meyer Lemon and Rosemary Posset

March 7, 2013 By Paola 2 Comments

Last year we planted a little Meyer lemon tree at the south side of our house by a sheltered wall.

There had been a citrus bush there when we moved to the house, so we knew one could grow outside, but it hadn’t survived the recent snowy winters. This winter on the other hand has been extraordinarily mild, so we were rewarded with a bumper crop of lemons from our new baby.

Sssssh all of you folks in California, stop laughing. Words cannot explain how proud we were of the little Meyer Lemon Tree That Could. This is the frozen North after all.

For those of you in the UK, Meyer lemons are an intriguing fruit, which I had never come across before moving here. Thought to be a cross between a traditional lemon and a mandarin, they are softer, sweeter, less acidic and a slightly deeper yellow than a traditional lemon, and therefore highly prized for dessert making within their short season. Meyer lemons can be replaced by traditional lemons whenever you see them in a recipe.

Anyway, I wanted a recipe where my one tiny lemon would be the feature ingredient rather than being an afterthought and was given a simple and but glorious one by a lovely Facebook friend.

This is deceptively simple but utterly delicious. Your next dinner party is crying out for this dessert.

A posset is a traditional English dessert where cream is heated and then slightly curdled by the application of an acid, such as lemon juice or wine, so that it sets. The infusion of rosemary adds an intriguing savoury undertone that marries perfectly with the lemon.

Ingredients

Serves 4

2 cups (approx 500 ml)) heavy/double cream

2/3 cup (90g) organic sugar

1 sprig fresh rosemary

5 tablespoons Meyer lemon juice or any fresh organic lemon juice

Method

Bring the cream and sugar to boiling point in a small saucepan, stirring to dissolve the sugar. Add the rosemary. Remember that the boiling point of cream is much lower than that of water, so take care that it doesn’t boil over.

Remove the saucepan from the heat, add the lemon juice and stir and allow the mixture to cool for 15 minutes. Remove and discard rosemary. Pour into 4 ramekins or glasses.

Chill until set, about 4 hours.

Things I Am Loving: Journals and Notebooks

March 6, 2013 By Paola 3 Comments

Turns out I have a little bit of a notebook problem.

They’re just too pretty to resist and cheap enough for lots of impulse purchases on my travels round the web. Here are a few that have recently er, caught my eye, I have bought .

1) I won a Julia Kostreva journal at the Blogshop workshop last year and love the colours and graphic simplicity of her covers. Nice quality paper inside too. Really liking the colours and style of her new ‘Mon Petit Notebook’ range.

2) I’ve been following Greek graphic designer Tomy K on Instagram for a long time and ended up buying some of his small graphic notebooks. They come in complementary sets of three and are therefore very useful for bribing small similarly notebook-addicted daughters and including in cheesy Instagram vignettes of one’s desk ( though I rarely do this as it’s not often my desk is tidy enough for human consumption).

3) I recently bought a few Moleskine-alike Ecosystem notebooks. Beautifully made in the US from 100% post-consumer recycled paper, you get to choose your size, cover colour (from six juicy hues) and inside style (blank, lined or grid). Like Moleskines they have silk bookmarks, elastic closures and an inside back pocket and the paper itself is of beautiful quality. But unlike Moleskines they have perforated pages. This is a great organisational feature for me, as I’m always scribbling crap in the wrong notebook.

4) No notebook roundup would be complete without a selection from Rifle Paper Co. I have a couple of Anna Bond’s old pocket notebooks, but her new Botanical journals are the prettiest yet. I might have to do a little shopping.

Are you a notebook addict? Or have you moved over completely to tablets and such like? And if you are, seen any pretty ones recently? For research purposes only of course.

Go Love Your Room: The Edris House

March 5, 2013 By Paola 1 Comment

By great good fortune it was Modernism Week when we were in Palm Springs. Of course I wasn’t organised enough to book many of the house tours before they sold out, but I did manage to wangle a place on the tour of the Edris House, built for Marjorie and William Edris in 1954 by the renowned Palm Springs architect E. Stewart Williams.

It’s not a particularly large or grand house, but is a quite magnificent specimen of mid-century modern desert architecture with all the interior fixtures and fittings still intact and the most breathtaking views. We were lucky enough to go there on an absolutely perfect blue sky day and here’s what greeted us.

Come and have a peek inside.

The charming owner J.R. Roberts has kept all the original fixtures and incorporated his own furniture and art, all bought with the house in mind.

I found the kitchen, with its original cooktop and ovens particularly fascinating. I suspect the previous owners of our house were going for a similar effect in our monstrous kitchen (because of course that makes total sense in a 1912 Craftsman house).

The ceilings almost made me rethink my aversion to the wood panelling in our kitchen and bathroom. Almost. (I think it probably helps if you have amazing floor to ceiling windows with incredible views).

And here’s the lovely owner JR, who considers himself to be more of a custodian than an owner of the house. Mind you, you would be happy and charming if you had a huge walk-in bar at your disposal.

I found this fabulous video of him talking about the house.

Tour of the Edris House from Marilyn Chung on Vimeo.

Photoshop Week at CreativeLIVE absolutely kicked my butt literally, since we were sitting on the most uncomfortable chairs known to man and I was terrified of my piriformis syndrome returning, and figuratively. Who knew that Photoshop and Lightroom could be so riveting? If you are any sort of photographer it is probably worth you downloading at least a few of the courses. All the teachers were without exception fabulous – patient, thorough and clear, with an incredible breadth and depth of knowledge. It was a quite mindblowing experience for me and I know my photography will never be the same again. I can’t recommend it highly enough (and can’t believe how lucky we are to have CreativeLIVE here in Seattle).

< previous page

Related posts

Related posts

Related posts

Related posts

Related posts

Related posts

Related posts