on white

for anyone who has been wondering where on earth i have been ... i have been here:

www.patrickprinty.com.

and here: sfgirlbybay.

pat's interior design as seen on california home + design

you see, i want to paint my whole interior white. my insides get all flipfloppy (in a good way) when i see photos of white interiors. LOVE! but there is so much natural wood here ... to paint or not to paint, that is my question.

well, serendipity is upon me. late one night i found the work of interior designer pat printy. he's not afraid AT ALL to paint natural wood white. and he had time to come over for a consult. i am such a lucky girl.

when he came to my house, he said ... paint it all white except for the lodge (my living/dining used to be a hunting lodge) ceiling. that was IT! the answer i'd been looking for. he's totally right. 

anyway, i'm back at it this week. remodeling, that is. just wanted you to know i have not fallen off the edge of the planet. i'm here. working away. pulling my hair out. not remaining calm at all. is there such a thing as zen-remodeling?

but i miss you! and promise, i'll be back as soon as i can. 

mwah!

h

into the light

 ... dear robbie went to the light this week ...

 

 

what a great loss for us all, for the planet! 

in her presence, i felt seen and loved just as i am. she never tried to change me or fix me, but guided me gently with heart, compassion and wisdom -- the greatest of gifts anyone could ever bestow. she showed up in my life when my mom died and provide me with "mom-energy" which i needed and cherished so much. and she was HI-LAR-I-OUS, such fun to be with. we typically shared chinese food and closed many a restaurant down, lingering with our tea, fortunes and laughter. robbie, thank you for being my friend. 

her husband of forever wrote this letter to friends and family, and he said i could share it with you here. how lucky were they to have found each other and lived so many years, so well-matched? and how hard that must be to lose one's match?

my heart goes out to robbie's family and friends, to her husband and children. may peace be with you.

 

Dear Family and Friends,

Just after my mother died, an ancient rabbi told me that the good die young: God wants all the good people close to him. I was 15, not much of a believer, and those words passed over my head. They came back to me today.

Robbie died yesterday. She was brave, concerned always with helping and supporting others, and relentlessly optimistic. More than 60 people visited her bedside in the last four days of her life. But she couldn't prevail against a massive hospital-derived infection on top of her aggressive uterine cancer and, with the best care possible -- the UCSF intensive care unit and full life support -- she was unable to fight the infection. Jesse, Noel, Danielle and I, and our friend Gordon, surrounded her singing Amazing Grace. She left us during one of the five stanzas.

I told her more than once that meeting her and being her life partner was the best thing that ever happened to me. She is the most caring person I've ever known. We traveled the world together, co-parented two great children, entetained many friends, created a home together in Inverness (and less permanent homes in Stanford, Berkeley, Fairfax, The Plains, VA, Washington DC, London, College Park, Bologna, Istanbul, Adelaide, Bali, India and the SS Universe Explorer), made love a lot -- not much different from other well-matched people, but special for us.

She was one of a kind and irreplaceable. I regret not growing old together and not having grandchildren.  She'd have been an amazing grandmother.

Love,  Armin

photoflow: handmade thank yous

i like to think i'm quite organized (in spite of my thanksgiving story). but my friend laura (not smize laura, another equally beautiful laura) is super duper organized. she works, moms, loves, runs, and makes it all look easy. up at her house one evening for dinner, i complimented her on her little dish in which she places her salt and pepper shakers. what a great idea! no pesky grains of salt and pepper left on the kitchen counter like at my house. "here," she said, reaching into a cupboard, pulling out an identical little italian plate and placing it in my hands. "i have several, and never use them." wow, gosh, gee, thanks laura!
 
as a thank you, i photographed my shakers on my little italian plate on my kitchen counter. and made it into a thank you card.
and lo and behold ... i found the absolute bestest way to thank someone for something! make a special photo, make it into a card, write "thank you" on it and send. YES!
 
i have since made many thank you cards with my own photos on the front. here's my latest thank you card from thanksgiving ... (which was kind of a snafu but wasn't really.)
people absolutely love a handmade thank you. from a specially made photograph. of the thing they gave you. or of a moment you shared together. or of a specific thing you discussed while together. it's the thought that counts. and the handmade gesture. and effort it took to actually sit down and make something. with these hands. and these eyes.
You don't take a photograph.  You ask, quietly, to borrow it. 
~Author Unknown

photoflow: handmade holiday table placecards

as per the last day's instructions in my picture fall class, i made these photo placecards for thanksgiving. 15 of 'em. and then promptly proceeded NOT to go to that thanksgiving (come back thursday to find out why ... ). so i fedexed all 15 of 'em to their rightful table. and made a few more for the thanksgiving table where i ended up. 

it's so much fun to share photography in our actual, real-time, analog lives (i can't believe i just wrote that. as in, analog life vs digital life? we live in very strange times ... ). so often in this digital age, our photos remain only on our computer screens, or buried in digital folders and drives, deep inside our machines. why not bring out those photos and share them? 

for the end of my picture summer class, i made a photo garland which is still hanging from my living room rafters. 

here are some great ideas for bringing your photos out into the light of day. and this is a great book for more of the same. and here is a photo garland you can drape on your tree! 

how do you share your photos in your life?

I think a photography class should be a requirement in all educational programs because it makes you see the world rather than just look at it. 

~Author Unknown

 


today i fall into time ...

fall back. yes. i gleefully turned back my clocks today.

many bemoan the early darkness of the time change. me? i don't care about tomorrow. i don't even care about later.

because the day we turn the clocks back, whether in october or november, is one of the best days of the year.

why? 

because i have an extra hour TODAY! 

this is the day when time feels completely different. having one extra hour feels like eons. the day expands. time slows. there is time for e-v-e-r-y-t-h-i-n-g today. 

meditation. yoga. skip to the store for gluten-free waffle mix. throw in some berries and bananas, and a feast is had. with sunday paper. walk the dog between rain showers. back to the store for firewood. make a fire, snuggle under the throw, make a few calls. make tea, and sit. reading. savoring the last of my book (i always save the end of a good book for the perfect time and place, knowing this is the last time i will be with these people in their world). 

the day goes on and on ... i absolutely love today. i savor the space of time, lapping it up, breathing it out, relishing its flavor, its generosity, its gift. mmmmmmmmmmm ...

ps - what are you doing with your extra hour today?