Blogger Meetup

Hello everyone! My name is Micaela and I'll be a sporadic guest blogger, popping in every now and then while Tina is away. I run an inspiration blog, The Drifter and the Gypsy, where I write about photography, art, interior design, and anything else that inspire me.

A couple of weeks ago, I had the privilege of meeting Tina in person. It was such fun. Tina really is one of the sweetest people you could ever meet. We went to brunch, then hit up these amazing boutiques in South Pasadena that were so visually inspiring.


The first boutique we went to was Marz run by a lovely lady named Marcia. She has such a great eye for pretty stuff! The store was so beautifully decorated with flea market finds.

The boutique next door was Camille. Unfortunately, the owner, Camille was away so I didn't get to meet her. She has this awesome wallpaper of faces in her fitting room. All the clothes there were so pretty and feminine.

Blogging is a funny thing. You don't get it unless you're part of it. Which is why it was such an amazing experience to meet up with a fellow blogger-we pretty much talked about blogging the whole time, blogging nerds we are! There's a certain buzz, a certain excitement that only comes when meeting other creative people. And I felt it that day. Days like these should be cherished.

Forever is Today

Hello all, Liss here.... I've been spending my morning checking emails and looking through the archives on this blog I came across, Forever is Today - written by Hilda Grahnat, a graphic design student from Sweden.

Hilda posts pictures of her flea market finds as well as interior shots from her lovely home.



Plus I really love the name of her blog! I remember having this realisation after turning 25 about how life is now and how I spent to much time thinking about what I want to do "one day". That was a big year of change for me.

Any blogs you've come across lately that you've been really enjoying?

Jane Campion's Scrapbook

I've had this in my bookmarks for a long time and had forgotten all about it. It's the inspiration and scrapbook of film maker Jane Campion whilst she was working on the film Bright Star. There was a website too where she had all the work laid out like a big inspiration wall, but it has since been taken down.

I love seeing stills and the process that goes into creating the final work. I went to a photo shoot last week where I took some Polaroids of behind the scenes. I'm thinking Id like to make them into a scrapbook of some sort.

Hope you all had a great weekend!! x Liss

src: find more images from the scrapbook.....here and here.

Something funny...

Hello dear friends, I wanted to share this picture with you! It made me laugh. Here are our cats looking out the bedroom window, like Laurel and Hardy. I would have loved to have seen them from the other side, with their funny cat faces. Even during adversity, life serves up some serendipitous joy!

I'm off to spend the day with my father. Thank you for your well wishes. If it's ok, I'll stop in here once and again with a post while Liss has the reins over the next few weeks. We're also lining up an amazing array of guest bloggers, including Michael Heilemann, the famed creator of WordPress' legendary Kubrick theme!

I hope you enjoy the posts in the coming weeks! Tina

cosmos✦travel

Hello readers, It's Liss here from Daydream Lily and I'll be posting here every few days while Tina takes a much needed break. I'll be sharing beautiful things and words that inspire me, similar I guess to what I blog about on Daydream Lily.

So first I want to share a pretty little shop Dear Oly - its full of treasures and flea market finds from Oly's travels. I've posted about this shop on my own blog before but Oly has updated it with some more beautiful things!! I also love what she writes about travel....

the point is re-discovering yourself and the world, of all those that are subtle and common,
everyday and not everyday, living and traveling, breathing slowly,
observing and also understanding, cherishing every single second when you wanna take a picture,
a spark of light, and then, go back home safely :)

♥

A request....

It's raining tonight in Los Angeles and I'm trying to keep my spirits up. I snapped a few pictures of my latest decor finds: A 1950s ashtray, a colorful vintage Balinese screen, a black and white poster of a grandfather clock (with an actual clock that runs on a AA battery), more books to stuff into my giant pine armoire.

Decorating our new apartment has become my respite. Maybe it's because it's the one area of my life that I can control. I know this is going to sound very dreary, but I'm feeling a bit overwhelmed by uncertainty and sorrow. Not exactly good fodder for an inspiration blog, that's for sure.

Last summer, my dad was diagnosed as having a serious bone marrow disease. (I took some time off work to take care of him. Even though I now believe it made me an easy layoff target, I would not trade the time I spent with him for the world.)

This week doctors confirmed what we've feared for several weeks: my father now has leukemia and the prognosis is not good. He is skin and bones.

One of my well-meaning blogger friends sent me a long email this week lecturing me about my low morale. Yes, my morale is bad. This is my year of loss, I guess.

So I have a request: Does anyone out there want to guest blog here for a few weeks while I sort things out? Email me if you do :) Posts with photos of funky flea market finds are always welcome here...

UPDATE: My friend Liss at the gorgeous blog Daydream Lily has generously offered to keep things running here at the English Muse. Liss (who has been nominated for a 2010 Cosmo Woman of the Year award!) will be posting, with occasional cameos from other talented bloggers. Thank you so much for helping me out during this very difficult time! I love you. Tina

Volcanic Sunset

Hello everyone! I've been enjoying this evening looking at the flickr photos coming out of Europe on the volcano eruption in Iceland. This one, taken by mark1alpha on Chesil Beach in Portland, UK, is one of my favorites, with the ash turning the sunset red. Flickr has a blog post of other gorgeous volcanic sunset photos here. Lovely how the sun seems especially jumbo sized.

I took my friend Elaine to LAX last night for her flight back to Paris, where she lives half of the year. I was so happy to learn this morning that she safely made it home before they shutdown the airports.

An important PS:
Thank you all for your thoughtful, touching comments on my Isabella post earlier this week! Bella was so heartened to read them. They gave her a boost of confidence like you wouldn't believe. I wish I could reach through the computer and give you all virtual hugs. Thank you, thank you!

Wisteria

I was so happy today to discover this young vine growing next to our new flat!

Chairs with personality

I have a crush on a chair. I spotted it yesterday in the Anthropologie store at The Grove in LA. It's colorful -- orange and white -- and way too expensive, like those silkscreened Prada shoes a few seasons back.



Upholstered chairs seem to me like the ultimate decor investment. They become characters in a room. The more tattered they are, the better -- like an Hermes bag with a life well lived. I have a friend who believes that every kitchen should include an upholstered chair, a place to curl up in with a cup of coffee and the New York Times. Her chair is a well-worn, cream-colored Club on wheels. It's draped with an old paisley throw.

The best chairs, of course, are found in thrift stores. But, as usual, I'm in love with all the ones on the Anthropologie site. A sampling:




I can live without the Prada heels these days, but furniture has become my favorite luxury item!

Monday morning...

Here are a few snapshots at our flat on this rainy morning:


White linens, a tattered paisley-covered club chair, books inside a Chinese chest, a large jewelry box (with a reflection of our cat Kali in one of the mirrors), a stool covered with an old suzani.


I'm listening to the rain on the roof. It's pouring here! It's a nice day to stay in. I'm in decorating mode and re-reading all my old Dominos. BTW, I heard a rumor last week that the former editor of Domino is in discussions with one of the Huffington Post financiers to start a Dominoesque website. Wouldn't that be divine?


PS: UPDATE on my dog training efforts
I've discovered that pounding two escargot pans together helps stop the barking. I couldn't bring myself to throw around the Calphalon.

Little dog love

I know this little dog looks very innocent in this picture, but she's a fierce beast. How long does it take to housebreak a Pomeranian (never?). And what about the ankle biting?

Any advice would be much appreciated!

The cats are out...

Our two cats emerged this week from under the couch...
They immediately took up residence on the windowsills. They seem to be recovering from our move. I am too.

There's only one way to fight these house blues: Decorate. I'm putting most of my rustic pine furniture from the old house on consignment. Tomorrow I'm starting my quest for new things for our new abode!

Some good news, finally

We learned today from our real estate agent that we have ten offers on our house! Almost all of them are above our asking price. The offers arrived with the loveliest, heartfelt letters. There were so many kind comments about the garden from the sweetest people imaginable.

I spent most of the weekend on the couch with a box of tissues feeling such a profound sense of loss. I was semi-prepared for my layoff. After so many of my dear colleagues had lost their jobs before me, I had vowed to only keep at my desk what could be packed in five minutes. Nothing, however, could have prepared me for the realization that we could no longer keep the house.

I am heartened tonight knowing that the house will soon be owned by a family who loves it as much as we do.

Loss & Life

Dominique Browning, the former editor of House & Garden, wrote so beautifully in today's New York Times Magazine about her struggle to rebuild her life after Conde Nast closed the magazine in 2007. I've read a lot of layoff stories since I lost my job at the Los Angeles Times in October, but Browning's captures the pain and devastation most eloquently.

She writes: "Just because something failed doesn't mean you're a failure. Just because something has ended doesn't mean it was all a mistake. Just because you've been rejected doesn't mean you're worthless and unlovable."

I know I've been talking a lot these days about my layoff. It's weighting especially heavy on my mind because -- like Browning -- we're selling our house to start anew. This is how it goes: first you lose the job and then you lose the life.

I'm not exactly sure how my new life is going to shake out. It will be different -- and maybe even better.

Ode to a house

It's official: our little Tudor style house is on the market.
If anyone out there is looking for a very cute place in Pasadena, maybe this is the house for you.

I would like to write a missive here about my layoff....I'm just going to say this: We spent nearly 12 happy years in this house. I'll miss the roses and the clawfoot tub.

Life goes on...

Giant Treasure Box

I have this large Chinese chest that serves as the catch-all for a variety of trinkets, knickknacks and curious junk. Every six months or so I open it to add new things or take things out. (It's very similar to opening the ornament box at Xmas.) After this move, I was searching for colorful things to display on my bookcase. The Chinese hat with the pink pompoms is once again my favorite. This is how it looks now:


Do you have a box like this?

Decor Dilemma

My dear decor experts, I'm having a small decorating dilemma. We have a very mod brick fireplace in our new flat. It poses a challenge because it's off-center, stands about a foot off the floor and has no mantel. Should I just leave the top portion plain or try to hang a painting?

I definitely would love to find a fantastic Eames-era screen like this:

I also think this fireplace is lovely:

Any thoughts!?

It isn't really home...

...until the books are on the shelves:




This is my favorite part of unpacking: arranging the shelves. I always start out with the intent to keep things minimal, even monotoned. But I am a magpie at heart. So there's more color to come!

PS: A few of you asked about the screensaver on my computer in my last post. It's a Japanese noren called "The Great Wave," by Hokusai. It came with my Mac, but I've now uploaded it onto flickr, if you want to use it as a screensaver too. Just click the picture below:



Hope you're having a lovely Sunday...

A room with a view...

Hello everyone! It's so nice to be back here blogging! I wanted to show you some pictures of our new home....

This is the view from the terrace. We have five huge windows that look out into the garden:


Here's Lola on the couch. Our angry cats have been hiding underneath it for a week now. Occasionally we hear the couch growl.


Here's the view from my desk (it's where I'm now doing this post!)


Here's a rare sighting of Kali, walking fast past our white brick fireplace...


I have lots of unpacking still to do. Thank you for all your warm wishes and emails. I hope to get caught up by this weekend! xo

Still at it...

Sorry I've been absent...I'm still packing like mad! Hopefully by the end of the week I'll be able to come up for air.

Re: My grand book giveaway.
Thank for your emails! I've shipped 80 packages. Sending more this week!

xoxo

PS: Don't forget to enter to win the art table! Will announce the winner later tonight!

Fantastic Friday Giveaway: Hand Painted Table

I'm very pleased to announce the giveaway of this gorgeous little table, created
by Los Angeles artist Susan Spinks.

The colorful piece is called "The Dance Recital." (I especially love the crown on the elephant.)


Susan specializes in transforming 1950's era tables and trays into works of art...


She says: "I paint my images on vintage trays and tables to tell a fragment of a story and let imagination fill in the rest.  All trays and tables are functional art and can be used for serving as well as decor."

Susan has many more beautiful pieces for sale in her Etsy store.

This little table is 17 inches tall and 14 inches square. (It's also a $100 value!) To qualify to win, please leave a comment here and visit Susan's Etsy store. The winner will be announced on Tuesday.

Good luck lovies!

UPDATE! The winner is Michelle Carter!

Mid-Century Love

Hello everyone...Here are a few Polaroids of our beautiful 1960s-era apartment building...For some reason my scanner made the photos black and white:



I'm especially in love with the lobby, with its funky hanging lamps:



and the exterior awning...



and, of course, our apartment:



I can't wait to move in!

Drowning in a sea of paper...

Over the past two days I've been trying to clear out our garage. There's so much paper: old bills, newspapers, xmas cards, photographs, letters. Stacks and stacks of books and magazines...
It's stressing me out!

Maybe there's something to living a paper-free life.

What do you keep and what do you toss? And what about books? Do you keep them forever or give them away after you read them? I have a friend who leaves boxes at the backdoor of her favorite used bookstore late at night. She calls it stealth dumping!


(Photo found on the Internet, somewhere.)