The last few months of 2015 were a blur for me, in large part due to my participation in the Where Hope Has a Home project at the Ronald McDonald House Stanford. Although it may seem like it’s just furniture in a room, it took a year of space planning, soliciting sponsorship, raising funds for purchases, shipment delays, architectural changes, electrical changes, paint selections, lighting installations, designing custom-made pieces, construction delays, multiple deliveries, and more nights spent in a 35 degree building with no electricity and no heat than I’d like to think about. In short, the project was/is HUGE, and I can finally see the light at the end of the tunnel. We’re in the punch-list phase!
It’s been a whirlwind couple of months! Yesterday my daughter and I got to tour the build site for the new wing of the Ronald McDonald House at Stanford and see the room that I’m designing as part of the Where Hope Has a Home project! It was awesome to see that the room has ample amounts of natural light and an unexpected 13 foot-high light well!
Each time I sit to down to write a post I am overwhelmed by all of the things that have happened since I last updated my blog. It’s apparent that I need to devote as much love to the blog as I do to my projects because it’s an awesome creative outlet that helps me connect with you in a way that my Facebook and Instagram posts cannot.
Having been chosen as a designer for the Where Hope Has a Home Project at the Ronald McDonald House Stanford, has been such a humbling and challenging experience. I am continually in awe of the design talent that has come together to make this very special building a beautiful, safe and comforting place for children and their families.
So I’ve been doing some soul-searching and I’ve decided I’m finally ready to tackle a TOTAL renovation of my blog. It’s been sitting here sadly waiting for quite some time and I feel like I know where I want to go with this. Writing two weekly columns for Houzz has been amazing and I’ve met so many fantastic people through my involvement with the site but I have to admit, I’ve let my own little blog kind of languish. I’m sorry for that. I regularly post missives on our shop Facebook page so you can always keep up to date with our day-to-day there, and I’m probably far too active on Instagram where I post the things that inspire me. All of this is happening, and yet, I go to sleep each night filled with stuff I want to write about and share with you. So I’m getting re-focused and will be reworking the blog over the next couple of months.
#Designcat isn’t really helping.
Since I somehow got myself on the WordPress.org platform instead of normal-people WordPress, I’ve found that I am unable to apply any new template or format. The theory is that I should be intelligent enough to code my own template on WordPress.org which is never gonna happen so…Wish me luck with this while I work on the new blog in parallel to trying to keep y’all updated on this blog. You know there will be a lot of coffee and swearing happening up in here as currently it’s is all me and I am many things but graphic designer/tech brillianaire is not one of them.
Our last meal at Kohler happened here.
Many of you know I was recently invited by Kohler to visit their phenomenal resort, The American Club spend time in their design centre, drool over their gorgeous offices (The Beacon), and tour the factory. I promise I’ll expand on that visit in my next post because really, it was incredible and I want to go back. The most important thing I took away with me from that visit was getting to meet and connect with several really fantastic, intelligent and creative women in design and photography.
If you haven’t checked out Sketch42 or La Dolce Vita, hurry UP! There is so much to see and experience on both sites and the women behind them are awesome human beings. You know me, it takes me a while to warm up to folks and being the always-wary girl I am, I wear my trust issues on my sleeve. These girls are the real deal and I’m blessed to have crossed paths with them.
Gilded bean pods
As usual I’ve been in the shop creating because that’s how my mind works. When I’m stressed, excited, happy, sad, or breathing (which is always thankfully), I’m creating. Sometimes I get stuck in my own head and it’s hard to come back to reality. I’ve been making loads of curious things with what nature has provided me and I can’t wait for you to stop in the shop and see what’s been going on.
Semi-precious stones hung on a piece of dried kelp.
Be patient with me while I revamp this little sugar-shack of a blog I have and hopefully I’ll do you all proud. In the meantime, go forth and get creative, it’s good for your soul. 🙂
Marlene and Robert were married in Pleasanton in May, 2012, at the gorgeous Palm Event Center. We are so fortunate to have had the day, (and our floral designs), captured in the stunning images provided by Duy Ho Photography.
We are so happy to have been featured in Bridal Musings for the wedding of Erin-Joy and James last year in Livermore. It was one of the most difficult events we’ve pulled off due to the distance, extreme heat (103 degrees!), and general on-site, behind-the-scenes, drama. In the end, it was also one of the most unique and beautiful receptions we’ve ever designed.
Hidden away on a residential street, next to an ethnic market, and two doors down from a barbershop, our store is not exactly easy to see or find if you’ve never been here. However, a year ago we experienced a happy “accidental finding.” San Francisco-based interior designer Jonathan Rachman found us when he was going to get food nearby. That visit was our intro to Jonathan and his amazing aesthetic.
Autumn has become my most favorite time of year. The weather isn’t yet unbearably cold, Halloween is on its way, evening hot cocoa outside seems right, and the Flower Mart is brimming with amazing gourds, branches, and gorgeous Fall blooms. When it comes to flower selection, it doesn’t get any better in my opinion. Brides who choose Fall for their wedding have so many magical options.
When it comes to fantasies, one of my biggest is to own anything at all by Solange Azagury-Partridge. Her designs are so singular and lush that I have been tearing out ads and images for as long as she’s been making gorgeous things to wear. Edgy, odd, dark, and completely playful, she’s my kind of gal! Why would I write about jewelry in my home design blog you may ask? Well if it’s cool and beautiful, I want it.
Like anyone in a service related industry, I don’t often do for myself what I do for others – as in, the shoemaker’s children have no shoes. In fact, my own home and garden are more like aesthetic laboratories than bastions of great design. I’m fascinated by magazine articles featuring designer’s homes if for no other reason than I can’t believe they actually finished their homes.
