The name of this blog is actually an homage to my favorite bakery in the whole world, Sweet Inspiration, in SF. There is nothing that a slice of their poppy seed cream cheese cake can’t solve – broken hearts, back taxes, lack of lovin’ – whatever it may be, they have a slice of cake for that! So on the subject of having something for everyone’s everything, I just came off of a full-throttle month of creativity that saw me making and buying new jewelry, painting furniture, sewing pillows, drawing garden plans and re-arranging the store. I would say that right now, more than ever before, there is more of me in the shop. For a long while I’ve worn my vintage Vodka alcohol tag necklace and had gotten so many comments on it that I decided to cave in and make others like it for like-minded folks. As with everything here, there is a very limited quantity and they are of course one-of-a-kind.
Right now I’m also obsessed with the idea of industrial design, but not in the grand industrial sense. I’m more interested in exploring smaller pieces of man-made ephemera such as the re-purposed charms on this line of jewelery:
I’m also loving the antique lock plates I found and turned into sweet little nichos.
I have stuffed a lot of love into each tiny frame and have used only words that are very important to me.
Even in my regular curating for the shop I’ve changed the way I am looking at objects. I find that I’m less impressed than ever by new items and even more fascinated with those that have some kind of history. I just brought in this hand-carved antique Javanese panel and can see it mounted horizontally as a headboard or on a long wall dividing two windows. It’s an amazing piece that invites closer study and definitely inspires conversation.
To round out my frenetic month, I’ve been working on furniture that has not yet made it to the shop. Sitting on the cement in the garden, hand-sanding an antique Chinese stool, I realized that the dust I was covered in was cedar. I have never come across a piece of cedar furniture before. What an awesome, and great-smelling surprise! I don’t think the stool will have a chance to live in the shop though as it’s sort of pre-destined for my friend Alicia’s house. I suppose the upside of having a friend that is a designer is that I am always on the look-out for things that belong in other people’s spaces – a sort of personal curator.
I hope you are having a wonderful summer and finding the time to do things close to your heart that bring you some joy.
Melisa
