artnerd's Profile

Are you guys in Ballard? Pretty sure I know exactly which former church you're talking about. I've always wanted to see the inside!

The last "luncheon" I attended was in my final year of high school at an all girls' catholic school, as part of "Etiquette Day". (No joke.) This was the last vestige of pre-feminist traditions at the school, from an era where it was a finishing school for young women rather than an educational institution for the next generation of leaders...

I'm in Seattle, and lucked out with an apartment (that's not even on the top floor) where I can see all of Ballard, Magnolia, and Fremont, and then see out to Puget Sound and the Olympic mountains. Even in Seattle, there aren't too many people who can claim that they can see glaciers from their bed.

My rent is very reasonable, and though the apartment is a little small, I've stayed for four years because of the view.

In Seattle, we got over/got bored by Chihuly a loooooong time ago. Funny that for most of us here, his works suggest dull corporate art rather than the avant garde.

Frank Lloyd Wright built one of his first private commissions for my great grandfather, who was one of the owners of the Winslow Brothers Iron Works. Elevator screens created by the Winslow Brothers are in the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Anyway. They sold the house some 60 years ago, and much of the furniture that FLW designed for the space has been sold over the years. My grandparents still have some of the objects from the house -- a pair of FLW armchairs, a gorgeous fire screen with wrought iron dragons, and lots and lots of japanese woodblock prints.

I think I'm the only person in the family who still thinks this was a real loss. My grandparents are like, "do you know how much of a pain in the ass it would be to have to live in a dark, heavy, 'historic' home?" They love the history associated with the objects they have, but there isn't much regret that the house was sold so long ago.

The floral fabric on the chair is from Ikea. It's great stuff -- I've made several things with it, including a couple of bolster pillows and a little makeup bag. It's even better in person.

My undergraduate college -- University College at the University of Toronto -- had afternoon tea every afternoon for the undergrads. It was pretty low-key: you'd show up, grab a mug of tea and a couple cookies, and hang out on the balcony catching up with people. It was a really great way to take a light study break mid-afternoon, and give you enough calories to make it through to dinner.

Man, life would be better if there were an institutionalized tea break every afternoon.

I've made the ones from Gourmet magazine twice now, and they were a hit with all of the dogs (and people) who tried them. Definitely great, and a fantastic, easy, cheap Christmas gift!

Colette is so, so lovely. I read The Ripening Seed a couple years ago, and found it to be a masterful, sensuous French novel. It's basically a non-creepy Lolita in reverse (the sexual awakening of a young man at the hands of a much older woman), but set on the French seaside. Not only is the writing superb, but the book is filled with wonderful descriptions of vivid texture and scent in a visually muted seaside landscape. So fantastic.

This home is really lovely -- it looks very comfortable and cozy. I think if my mom had a better sense of what she wanted in terms of interior decoration, this would be close to her ideal.