Sunday, February 15, 2015

Magnificent Obsession - Encaustic Tiles, Too Many Could Never Be Enough


I just love them.  I've loved them in Belgian-style beer houses


Spanish-style French houses.  


Spanish houses (that I've only seen in pictures).


L.A. coffee houses.


Moroccan tchotchke shops.

(photo: Mickey Hassevall)

Decorating magazine spreads.


I want.  I want.  I want.


I don't know how to take care of them.  I'm afraid they must be terribly heavy for the flimsy houses


we make in America.  They're already getting too expensive.


But I just adore them.  Timeless, elegant, subtle, endlessly fascinating, lively,


vivid.  So much "sabor" in these tiles!  I am desperate in my obsession.  How will I get over it?  When will something else come along that makes me just as happy?  So that I can just move on?  

Is there something wrong with me that I love them so much?  Please someone, save me from myself!






Friday, February 13, 2015

Blue Skies, via Hula Seventy



Hope you find some this weekend!  Have A good ONE!


(oh, and happy valentine's day too!)







Tuesday, February 10, 2015

Carouge, Nearly Geneva - Part Two


I posted here before about going to Carouge.  Our only adventure in Switzerland.  (If you are not counting speeding tickets and batons kirsch which all happened on our return drive to the Zurich airport.)


Carouge is nearly Geneva but not quite Geneva.  I can't really tell you what Geneva is like.


And the guidebooks we consulted did not seem interested to either.  So we googled:  "best things to do in Geneva or..............",  "best neighborhoods in Geneva" or...."chocolatiers in Geneva"........


We found the chocolates.  (See my first Carouge post.)  And a miniature version of the (Golden Pass) train we (sadly, boohoo) did not ride.  The Swiss cows we did not get to know.......


(Did I mention that it has a fabled Saturday flea market?)  It was a happy find, Carouge.  Because I like places with arty little shops.  Colorful buildings.


Friendly intimate weddings.


Quiet uncrowded restaurants on tranquil corners serving interesting food.


But not so much the eye-bleeding prices.  No we did not enjoy a meal in Carouge.  Good thing for you (if you're going to Switzerland, or anyone else who might be), that the Swiss Franc has been de-valued since the New Year.)


I did take about a million pictures of this place.  And managed to snap it's proprietor.  (Methinks.)


Because these are the kind of places I especially like to come upon and look at.  Because of their casual insouciance about what "a proper shop" should look like.  Because I like people who keep such sorts of shops.  Because I think they are performing a service.


Because I'm convinced that there are treasures lurking in this casual sort of jumble.


Like that coffeepot, that I fancied quite a lot.  Whose surroundingss, which the sun being against me at that hour, made very difficult for me to capture.  But it was not just about jumbles and strays, and treasures....and casualness.


But about a serious kind of work.  That not EVERYbody can do.  See what I mean about providing a service?  It's a place that every town needs.  Don't you think?  ("Restoration of Old Furniture".)


I like to imagine the old furniture came out of a house such as this.


And spent some of its life sitting under a painting such as this.


And might, further to restoration, end up in a place like this.


Where it can spend the rest of its days serenely.


Surrounded by sounds no more disturbing than those of bees in an olive tree.


While it's cousins languish wonderingly on city sidewalks: futures uncertains.


We Paradis had to have little drink to savor those thoughts.


Because we are all too aware that the world of furniture is changing.  As is all else around us.


Have I done o.k. making a silly story about a simple walk about a lovely little town?

Will that do?







Sunday, February 8, 2015

Today, I'm Going Into Deep Color



Which


version of "Deep"


most


suits
 
(via Mieke Willems)

you?


What's your


favorite


deep


color?


Can you tell I'm very much going


for the blues


and greens


at the moment?


Not that a deep purple is never not right.


There is nothing at all "Blah" about it.  Going deep.  How was the weekend?

(pics from various places around the web)










Saturday, February 7, 2015

Something for the Weekend Plus Link to Walking Tour of Matisse Cutouts!


Stay warm this weekend everybody!


Hope you get a chance to get out and actually enjoy your winter a little bit.


But be careful who you talk to on the subway!!!!!

If you're tired of living in a wintry monochromatic February world click here for a colorful Matisse Cutouts-in-NYC stroll.

(All pics via the Guardian, here)











Wednesday, February 4, 2015

Megeve, Haute Savoie, France - More Pics from Last September


A little Italianate (once upon a time, even more so) alpine hamlet


transformed into a rather glam ski resort after a certain Rothschild lady,


horrified by having to share her


Swiss winter holidays


with Nazi generals in, I think it was, St. Moritz.


Megeve seems now well on it's way to being Vail-i-fied, sadly.  In that overstuffed impossibly tasteful greige way that is very much the "bon gout" of moment.  (Which I don't hate, but you can have too much of a good thing?)

These pictures probably don't do it justice.  Megeve is situated in a broad, spreading gentle valley well up in the mountains.


It retains

(not my picture - not sure where from)

some of it's


 old-world rustic


charms.  If you are in the neighborhood......


the detour is kind of unavoidable.

There is good food in Megeve - that's why we went, on the way back from Mont Blanc.  Anyone going skiing anytime soon?  Isn't it time for the school holidays soon?  Have you been to Megeve?