Next Year We'll Fireproof the Centerpiece...

I'm feeling lazy, but also that it is justified to feel so.  So here is my Thanksgiving:

Awaiting My Food Coma

Turkey day is a here, and I can call it that now that I no longer indulge in tofurkey on the big day.  My big thing is setting the table.  I get a real kick out of it.  Previous years in California I experimented with various napkin folding styles, stemware styles, etc.  Our first Thanksgiving out east (two years ago) was a DIY miracle.  Table made from scraps of plywood, tealights on upturned PBR cans, tablecloth some old fabric from India disgarded from a nearby studio (washed of course).  We kept all our beverages tied to a rope hung out from the window because our fridge was too small!
This year, we've really stepped it up a notch.  Pics to come, but my sister whipped up the centerpiece.  Consisting of a large piece of driftwood found at the petite beach in Red Hook, she drilled holes into it and stuck seven white candles down the center.  It's beautiful! 
I just picked up some extra silverware, and I'm contemplating name cards.  To-do: rearrange living room furniture, assemble table for 17, set table, clean/tidy, and make my dish.
This year I'm reviving one that my brother and I tried last year: Coconut-Marshmallow Spiced Sweet Potatoes.  I've got the sweet potatoes on the stove right now!  I might nix the marshmallows though.  Maybe honey instead?  I'd stay my cooking style is pretty organic... so we'll see how it comes out.
This year I'm thankful for the opportunity to live in this wonderful city with all its design inspiration, for my loft, for having creative people around me, and mostly, for my family.
Here are some fun Thanksgiving ideas to get you in the mood.  Happy day!

Dwell Studio

jmoranmoya's photostream

Martha Stewart.  (Don't you want your table to make your guests to do a squirrel-related double-take?)

Podcast City

I love a good podcast.  It has to be interesting and/or funny.  It's like a free lesson in something, however much you want. Every night I listen to one, or when on the train.  Here are my favorites:

- Design Guide:  Great little video articles about art and design openings around the world.  Lately most of the ones I've seen are about Scandanavian design. 

- Cool Hunting Video: Anything and everything hip, from fashion to art to architecture.

- You Look Nice Today.  This one brings on the laughs.  Witty, sarcastic, and sometimes irreverently dry humor on everyday things.

- Gourmet's Diary of a Foodie: Wow, this one I was obsessed with for a solid two months.  On location reports from foodies around the world, gathering ingredients from the source, making, and eating amazing meals. 

- NYC History: The Bowery Boys: "Hey, it's the Bowery Boys." "Heeey."  A great history lesson on New York.  I love knowing all these random facts about the city, and casually inserting them into everyday conversations. 


Honorable Mentions:
- Threadbanger: From projects to fashion to one segment called Decor it Yourself... great, quick step-by-step ideas.
- Essential Mix: Really unique house/electronic sets from international DJs from BBC1 radio. 
- Who What Wear TV: Some casual style advice in a friendly way.
- UK Wine Show / Beer School: Effort to learn more.  Beer School more entertaining, UK Wine Show sometimes discusses interesting issues related to the logistical aspects of wine.

I'm always open to new ones; they're so easy.  What are your faves?

Fun @ Moss

I decided to check out this gallery, Moss, in SoHo.  One of my professors in London used to have some stuff there a few years ago, and that was credibility enough.  (Okay also Tom Dixon and Marcel Wanders have had work there).  It's an art and design gallery, with a lot of actually functional pieces.  I love seeing that, cause it reminds me of the V&A.  That museum was started to bridge the gap between artists/designers and the average person- by means of showing thoughtful things that people could actually use.  Moss is like a contemporary version of that. 
A cool thing that's going on right now is an exhibition of Maarten Baas, who was just named Designer of the year by Design Miami (by the way I wish I could go... it's next month). He has a wide range of things there, from furniture to electronics.  My favorite was the Clay Furniture line, which made me double take at first.  They have metal frames that Baas designed, and are then completely covered by hand in clay.  Seamlessly.  One one piece, the clay was textured like leather.  It was unreal!  (Literally).  Take a looksee here to see it all.. They're almost animated, like a sketch come to life.

There's also a wild adjacent furniture showroom that you access through a hobbit door.  Wild because of enormous swooping couches and scribbled painting on the walls.  Quite dramatic, I'd say, in addition to some theatrical lighting.  Maybe a little overwhelming.  But they had a whole Maharam library, including the Folklore fabric, one of my personal favorites. This pic is the brighter version, but there's also a more brown/coral one that is really beautiful.

I'm definitely gonna keep up with this place.  Lucky it's neighbors with Topshop...

And this is some work of my old design professor, Eelko Moorer (yes that's rubber)-

EM

The Air's Better Up Here

A free Tuesday found me at High Line park this week. I entered at 14th, in the heart of the Meatpacking District. The last time I was in that area was August 2008, fresh from backpacking and studying abroad, freshly two months behind on my thesis research. It's hard to believe that was only a year ago.

I found out about the High Line only in May, from a Cool Hunting podcast. I weaved through the construction on the cobblestone street and took a glass elevator up to the old elevated tracks. Once up there, I got a vague hint of the L in Philly but oh what an improvement!!
The park was designed to integrate with the existing tracks. Why waste a perfectly good view? The plants are all ones that were originally native to the area.  Back when New York City was known as Manhatta.  Thanks, Bowery Boys.

What I love love loved! about the park was the materials, especially the flooring. Concrete with a fairly large aggregate gave it an industrial feel, but it was poured to create slats, that not only echoed the linear quality of the park, but mimicked hardwood planks. Then, wonder of wonders, they curve up and mesh with wood an steel to become benches. (might I just say reminicent of my pool deck-becomes-jungle-canopy idea that I had in London?), it was both captivating and lovely to see the change in function and material. 

And I just about died at the beauty of the stair materials- aged metal, the turquoise-painted original structure (harking back to the original Gansevoort neighborhood, where facades are historically protected), steel, and lots of glass. Being a young designer, one of the things I focus on is trying to identify and nail down my aesthetic, and I realized I respond well to simple, true materials.. that is, not a lot of fuss and finishes.



I was also able to see my thesis building- the flagship store, design headquarters, and penthouse of Diane von Furstenberg- from the top. And straddling the entire width of the park like a giant concrete transformer is the new Standard Hotel, which last summer was still in construction phase.  [Left: August 2008.  I guess you can't see from the photo but not all the glazing on the other side was installed at the time.  Right: November 2009]

Dreamy William!

I thought it was time to share my love for the one and only William Morris- prominent architect, writer, and textile designer of the Arts & Crafts movement.  Normally I am drawn to contemporary designs, but for some inexplicable reason, his designs have always put me into a dreamlike state.  Maybe his patterns are actually capable of hypnosis.  One of the allures to me is the careful balance, like in the negative space.  The time and meticulous effort put into each design is one of the hallmarks of the movement.  When studying in Florence I was able to see some pietra dura, inlaid marble, that inspired his distinctive acanthus pattern.  Being in that spot was more incredible than I can say. So I'll let his work speak for itself.  

. 

The man himself.

I am unsure how I feel about Flavor Paper's recent interpretation.  Let's play I-Spy, what is different besides the color?:

Flavor Paper

[I am into a lot of their other stuff, however.  I am all for a strategic wallpaper revolution.]

Fall Backwards

Wow, laggy laggy.  What a week!
Things are picking up at both works and I did a little freelancing on the side.  I had my aunt staying with me, as well as my dear friend, who was in town with her exhibition promoting health care reform.  I lent a wee hand in the beginning stages of design a few months ago, but the ball quickly started rolling, and it turned out wonderful.  You can follow her journey here.  
I built what can be considered my home office, after realizing that the hunchback (gobbo) situation of my previous workstation did not behoove productivity in any way.  I inherited a lovely old drafting desk that has its charm. Though I wish I was doing some hand drafting these days, just a little.  I regret tossing my t-square.  Anyways, a pic soon to come.  
A friend and I joined the NY chapter of Architecture for Humanity.  So far in the beginning stages of getting involved, but hopefully will jump in on a project soon.  It's a really great concept- a way to give back using project-specific talents.  I like the idea that I can give a service that also challenges me to think.  I don't want to count my chickens yet, so for now here's the link to their website.  
Now that the time changed, suddenly I feel like a night owl just walking home from work.  Since we're all busting out lamps lately, here's a neat one:

The Tribe by Ingo Maurer


...And my top favorite Halloween costumes that I saw:
1. Large man dressed as Julia Child (curly wig, rolling pin, voice suddenly booming "Hello dear!")
2. Double Dare contestant (tshirt, helmet with cup attached, determined expression)
3. Data from the Goonies (punching bag coming out of chest, dangling clippy teeth, weaving through crowd like an awkward sneak)