lounge lizards live on

over the last several weeks we've traveled all over oregon and down the coast through california to san francisco. we've had many wonderful celebrations {birthdays, weddings, & many dinner parties just because}; and we've also gone through some unfortunate situations {long traffic jams, and a baby peach falling & getting a bruise on her sweet head}. so now that we're back in the calm days of summer in the willamette valley, it's time to catch-up on blogging.

i've been dying to share this fantastic find with you:

lounge lizard on south east hawthrone street in portland oregon.

if you like vintage furnishings, cool sales people and a treasure trove of unique housey items, you absolutely must check out this shop.

looking up, the ceilings are full of glowing treasures the walls are covered in art and artifacts, like a crazy quilt in 3-d:

what a fabulous place to find the time

all this vintage eye-candy can make a lady swoon of course the shop's new favorite model is pint-sized

i imagined purchasing dozens of things, but left without a one. but believe you me, as soon as i get my new place to call home i'll be driving a big van over to lounge lizard & loading it up!

more photos of a few of my favorite items can be seen on my flickr set.

oh, to live in a barn

if you've been a studio wellspring reader for a while you'll know i have this thing for barns turned in to homes. whenever i see one i get weak in the knees. it's a long time dream of mine {we're talking i've been drawing up floor plans on graph paper since 6th grade} to use modern interior design in a vintage barn. so it's always incredibly inspiring to see what others have done with similar dreams ~ to see how ingenius their concept is, or to imagine how i'd do things differently. lately i've stumbled across several great resources for aquiring & moving barns, renovating barns & decorating in barn-house style.

first off, the barn pages ~ it lists more than 200 barns for sale, which are priced according to condition. most of the barns need to be moved from the land they're on ~ which is just fine, since often barns are located in an out-of-the-way place without easy access to utilities & such. so you can buy a barn and have it disassembled and shipped to a more desired location, where it can be put back together again. or you can just use the barn timber to build something new. it's a fantastic recycling concept, isn't it?

for help with the restoration and reassembly of barns, check out the barn people in vermont, berkshire barns in massachusetts, and the new jersey barn company. they've all been dismantling, restoring and reassembling vintage barns for over twenty-five years. even if your favorite barn isn't in the north east, they would still be great resources for any project location.

for lots of lovely barn related decor items & furnishings, the barn house blog is a lovely place to visit.

and to take part in a blogger's project of turning a barn into a modern home, check out bare hill barn ~ it's fascinating.
lastly, some eye candy from the barn pages:

feeling lucky on 080808

this is an auspicious day for anyone who believes in lucky numbers. so i thought this was a good time to add to my consumer wish list.

{that mermaid lamp & painted twisted wood side table ~ yes please, without delay! they were found in a ghislaine vinas brilliantly designed bedroom, but not sure where she found them. hmmm. . . . .}

{the baby le cornue ~ not that i have a kitchen to put it in at this moment but if i somehow acquired this by a fortunate turning of events i'd find a way to utilize it until i have the place to have it properly installed. and it would become a family heirloom for ever more!}

{this armoire for my little girl's things ~it would be the perfect place to display & store, and i really could use this right about now. i've been saving this from my martha stewart inspiration projects folder}

{a carry over from yesterday's post ~ i am ready to spend a week's retreat here, asap. or maybe make this my full-time home even? first off, i adore the ocean ~ i grew up there and always long to return when i'm away. secondly, i love swings and almost any style of swing chair. thirdly, porches that have places to relax with friends are always a part of my "necessities for houses" list. lastly, that view ~ 'nough said.}

{ok, so this is way over the top, but this is a lucky day so i'm just putting it out there for fun. . . . . a 1956 drophead coupe convertible in mint condition. oh my i would die just to be able to sit in it much less drive it. and i swoon just imagining what it would be like to own this beauty. i'd sell everything i own, including my soul, to the devils for that one.}

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and what, pray tell, is on your wish list dear ones?

i hope many wishes are granted for you today and throughout the weekend!

paper relics & octavine illustrations

i'd like to introduce you to a very talented oregonian who paints art deco & art nouveau illustrations: octavine illustration. her work is sold on her etsy shop, and she has a very nice blog of the same name.

and along similar lines, i discovered an online shop where you can purchase lovely vintage cards, tags & ephemera: paper relics

to covet cameos

sorry for the delay in posting. i hope this visual splendor and luscious research i've done will make-up for my absence.
i have always had a fondness for shells {probably due to being raised on the oregon coast}, and ever since the first time i saw my grandma wearing a cameo necklace and earrings set to church i've been attracted to that style of jewelry.

i am now the proud owner of that set and take it out of its velvet pouch to wear whenever i feel like some nostalgic beauty. after learning as a teenager that the sea shells i so adore are somewhat connected to the cameo jewelry i covet, it became a full-blown infatuation for both of them from then on.

now at all flea markets & estate jewelry shops i swoon over any cameo sets i see. and also as an adult i've had a growing fondness for cameo vessels as well. although these vases are most often made of glass, the concept for how they're produced is very similar and i really appreciate their soft elegance. maybe someday i'll be lucky enough to own one or two?
there are three main materials for cameo carving: shells or agate (called a hardstone cameo), and glass. cameos can be created by one of two processes: by setting a carved relief, such as a portrait, onto a background of a contrasting color, called an assembled cameo. alternately, a cameo can be carved directly out of a material with integral layers or banding, such as (banded) agate or layered glass, where different layers have different colors. Sometimes dyes are used to enhance these colors but most often the natural hues are plenty.

stone cameos of great artistry were made in greece dating back as far as the 6th century bc. they were very popular in ancient rome, and the technique has since enjoyed periodic revivals, notably in the early renaissance, and again in the 17th & 18th centuries. the renaissance cameos are typically white on a grayish background and were carved from the shell of a mussel or cowrie.
in the mid 18th century, explorations revealed new shell varieties ~ helmet shells from the west indies and queen conch shells from the bahamas arrived in europe. this sparked a big increase in the number of cameos carved from shells. modern sources for the best quality conch shell are madagascar and south africa.
today's world center for cameo carving in shell is torre del greco, italy. the shells are first marked with a series of ovals in a process called signing, then cut into oval blanks for the cameo carver. the actual cameo is mainly cut with a metal scraping tool, called a bulino {an invention of jewish artisan antonio cimeniello}. a number of metal gravers are used and when the details are completed, the shell is then soaked in olive oil, cleaned with soap and water and selectively polished with a hand brush.

{sources: wikipedia and flickr}

jefferson's contributions

in 1962, president john f. kennedy hosted a white house dinner for 49 nobel prize recipients at which he famously said, "i think this is the most extraordinary collection of talent and of human knowledge that has ever been gathered together at the white house ~ with the possible exception of when thomas jefferson dined alone."
born on april 13 in 1743 and died on july 4 in 1808, thomas jefferson helped shape the new american nation and also shaped some of the country's most distinguished buildings.
jefferson thought classical architecture was the perfect model for democratic architecture and the american republic. it was jefferson's idea to model america's famous capitol building after the roman pantheon with a circular domed rotunda.

jefferson modeled his own home, monticello, after villa capra rotunda by the italian renaissance architect, palladio.

his design for the virginia statehouse was based on a roman temple in nîmes, a building he was thrilled to see when he was our ambassador to france.

his design for the university of virginia was based on classical pavilions which used different classical orders as models for the students at virginia.
jefferson thought that classicism promoted virtue. hopefully virtue will soon be restored to the white house with the changes in november. but for today i'll just focus on being grateful for the contributions of thomas jefferson to so many aspects of our nation's development.

information and photos from:

http://en.structurae.de/index.cfm
http://www.greatbuildings.com/
http://www.monticello.org/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Page

fairmont perspective

in honor of bygone eras, i'd like to share with you a then-and-now perspective on one of san francisco's most famous hotels. the fairmont hotel, atop nob hill, was designed by julia morgan (who also designed hearst castle for william randolph hearst, one of many important commissions for this innovative architect in her career). it opened prior to the 1906 san francisco earthquake, but was completely refurbished soon thereafter. after world war II, high style decorator, dorothy draper, redesigned the lobby and interior spaces in her formidable style, in venetian glamour. the hotel was restored in 1999 and 2000, returning the public spaces to the original julia morgan design. here we have photos of the dorothy draper interiors in 1950 on the left, with the 2008 {julai morgan-esque} interiors on the right.

and tonight i'll be getting happy hour with friends here before heading to arkansas for the services with my family. i wish we could get drinks in the cirque room, but unfortunately it no longer exists. still, we can imagine what it must have been like, can't we?{the cirque room, which was the first bar to open in san francisco following prohibition. it was decorated by architect tim pflueger in a beautiful art deco style with an incredible bar, and murals by the celebrated bruton sisters. before the venetian room was opened, the cirque was the place to go for entertainment in the city}



all photos & info from srk1941, alameda info, and the fairmont hotel website