Russel Wright Exhibit SFO

I guess Apartment Therapy already beat me to it but just in case you didn't know  . . . there is a great Russel Wright exhibit in the SFO United terminal(SFO website with exhibit pictures). Here are some pictures that I took while passing through several weeks ago. I gotta say thanks to the SFO art in the airport curator. They are doing a great job. In the past I blogged about another mid-century toy installment they did - all were on the subject of space, space travel, nuclear science - it was all very atomic. Click here for that post. Back to the Wright exhibit - I'm not sure I need a guide to easier living but I think I'd love to come across this book some day. I leave you with one of my favorite quotes the exhibit has on display. "The new hostess is one is one who can stay within the limits of her home budget, hours, and energy and still give her guests a good time." Cheers.

Little Pleasures: 1960's Flatware Ecko Eterna

Oh Happy Day! Mr. Monkey and I had been noticing that none of our spoons and forks and knives matched. We would have guests over and do our best to find the "nicest" spoons without rough edges and oddly bent handles. After years of living together in college and then through grad school with a variety of roommates it's safe to say we had a mismatched set. Now sometimes mismatched sets can be quite nice. In our case the effect was not a positive quirky one - it was just kinda dumpy.

After subscribing to Sunset for a short while I had glimpses of what I wanted. In a few food pictures flatware with wooden handles and silver tops were off to the side and never ever was there a photo caption to say where this flatware came from. These two pictures are from Sunset and offer examples of what I would see and covet. I went around to several stores in town everything from Target to Modern but I had yet to venture over the my favorite Oak Street Vintage. We were having a potluck on Saturday and I just thought I can't keep having people eat with our crappy silverware. I didn't have a bunch of time so I thought I'll just give it a try and head over to Oak St. I did my first loop of the store heading straight back to the kitchen room and found a sweet little serving set - 4 pieces that I picked up right away for $14 bucks I thought these were perfect. They were labeled as "Bamboo Lane" Wooden Handled Hostess Set. But sadly there was no silverware in sight. I did my second loop (there's so much to see - it's like a good book, you always see something new) and was about to check out when I told one of the owners what I was looking for. Cora said, "oh the drawer must have been closed" and she walked me back to the kitchen room again opened a little drawer and sure enough there it was. Imagine the white light shining from the drawer and the angels singing in harmony "AHHHHHH". What was even better was the price! $35.oo dollars for 10 place settings and 2 extra spoons. Perfection! After a bit of internet sleuthing I've learned that the flatware is indeed from the 1960's made by the Ecko company. The pieces are light in your hand and apparently made of teak.  The point is that I love eating with these pieces. They bring joy to my every meal. A so sometimes it's life's little things - good design bringing function and beauty together. Mr. Monkey doesn't like not putting them in the dishwasher but I love them so much that I've been stepping up to the plate, or the sink as it were and washing more dishes so Mr. Monkey doesn't feel burdened by my need for pretty things about. Small price to pay. 

Modern Fences III

Mr. Monkey and I have been once again thinking about fences and of course not just any fence but a modern fence. What's that saying about good fences and good neighbors? Mr. Monkey spoke to our neighbor who can't contribute funds but has offered to help out with the construction. This is not so good. But on the other hand she says she really doesn't care what it looks like. This is great news for us. Our neighbor's main concern is the protection of her elderly cat in her yard from other cats (including ours apparently - which is funny because our monkey cat is always getting beat up by a fluffy fur ball named Squeaky!). This means that she wants the fence to reach all the way to the ground, no spaces down below for kitties to sneak through. And although cats can often scale and jump over fences we will make this fence as tall as we can without a permit. My. Monkey thinks this is 6ft. Here are some pictures I've come across in my search and here's a link to a nice slideshow of modern fences. Here's a link to a real estate site in northern california that specializes in Eichlers and they've posted some ideas for Eichler owners. Here's a link to an Apartment Therapy post on Modern Fences in Austin, Texas. As for the pictures above. I found one in Photo Bucket and the other on the Modern Phoenix site. Finally last but not least I've blogged about fences in the past. You can go to Part 1 and Part 2 when you click on each link. If you have any good pictures of modern fences please send the link via comments. Cheers!

Good, Simple, Functional = Modern

I was scanning my pictures for things I've been wanting to post but have gotten looked over for no good reason. I found this little picture which exemplifies all that should be considered positive about modern design. It might be hard to tell why this picture is special you have to look in the cup. Go ahead, look at the cup, see what's inside? A straw, right. But not just any straw - it's what the straw is made out of . . . you guessed it, that's right! GLASS! I love these straws at the sweetest little cafe in Eugene. It's called Park St. Cafe and they are the only restaurant that I know of that has glass straws for tasty cold drinks like Hibiscus Cooler - and iced herb tea of sorts.  I love these straws because they exemplify all that is good in modern design. They are simple, but they are recyclable and re-useable. Like they say in the wine bizz - they have a good mouth feel and they're nice to look at too. Like I said good design. Now sure I wouldn't hand one over to a child who likes to bite their straws but for most of the population we can use them and reuse them again and again. I hope this is a design tip that spreads fast! Enjoy. Does anyone else know of any glass straws or glass straw makers? I haven't had a chance to research them yet. But I'm thinking we need a set here at the Monkey Pad. Cheers!

Front Yard Update

This first picture is just the tease. Mr. Monkey worked hard on the flagstone patio out front. It's laid in concrete and is nice and solid and flat and level. I love it. Read and see below for more of a play by play of how the new and improved front yard evolved.

Well it's not completed but you can get a sense of the work that Mr. Monkey, my hubby, has done. Wowza! We are getting lots of positive comments from the neighbors and friends that have stopped by. Click to see what it looked like when we bought the place. Look below for even more pics of the evolution of our front yard. You can see that Mr. Monkey took out that not so modern fencing. When he did - we called it "The Great Liberation". Our yard looked so much better once that yuckerific fence was gone. 

And the 3 basalt columns are really a show stopper. One of the 3 is a fountain and quite nice for a little burbling but without the mosquito eggs that tend to gather in slow moving fountains. The water just drains through the rock bed to a container down below and filters back up. Amazing as far as I'm concerned.  We have few more more plant and flower additions that are in the ground sine this last picture was taken so stay tuned for more front yard goodness. 

When in Tucson: Copper Country

Believe it or not there is mid-century modern furniture in this building!

There wasn't quite enough sun here in Eugene so I thought I'd pop over to Tucson for some fun in the sun. Mostly I spent my time with dear dear friends who just had twins. You can imagine life with twins was pretty busy but not too busy for a quick visit to one of my friend's favorite antique shop. Even when life is so hectic and you're sleep deprived it's good to squeeze in a few minutes of diversion and inspiration.  For my friend and I this would include looking at great design and funky signs. This store - Copper Country has both! Check out this picture. It's hard to see but there is in fact a huge buffalo on the roof with wings AND the winged buffalo is on top of the boat. It's hard to date them but I'm thinking they're not from the 50's. You have to go inside for those goodies.This is a rosewood K. Kristiansen chair that they were charging $150.00. Below the silver tortoise shell is actually a lamp. It was labeled as "Arthur Court" and cost $1200.   I loved the tortoise shell lamp but of course it's too big for our wee house and way out of our price range for a lamp. Oh well.  If you happen to be in Tucson stop by this fun store. There are lots of other treasures that have nothing to do with being fabulously modern but are equally fun to sort through. Enjoy!

Oak St. Vintage, Eugene, Oregon

You couldn't find a nicer little vintage shop in a house in a medium sized town than Oak St. Vintage. The owners Cora and Carl are super nice and love to talk about all things mid century mod. If I'm having a grouchy day I just like to stop by and be around the B-U-tiful items they've added to the store.  Here's some pics from my most recent fly-by. 

I was thinking about this lamp (there's two in the picture) as a bed side reading lamp but it just had too big of a foot print. And I was thinking about this wee table (below) as a nightstand for my side of the bed but I found one on craigslist that was in a bit better condition. This one was super affordable at $40, it was on consignment, but it did have a water stain on the top shelf. The white portion slid back to reveal a secret compartment to store all of your bedside goodies. I had to pass on these items but I'll be back soon and I hope some of you local folks will stop by soon to visit Cora and Carl and all their super stylin' mid-century accoutrements.