"Simple Flowers" by Constance Spry

While cleaning the hallway I found the umbrella stand. I bought some lilac stems this morning and snipped some things from the yard and now I have my very own arrangement a la "Simple Flowers". I love the photos in this book and the simple advice. The chapter on containers is good too.

Desk by the window

Vanessa Bell's "Interior with Housemaid" painted in 1939 inspires me to push all the tables and desks to the windows - and where there's no sense of privacy, place large painted screens.

Style Inspiration

This photo sums up all the elements I want to pour into our home: bookshelves, plants, and workspace. This room was photographed by Jason Schmidt for the New York Times Magazine, April 11, 1999. The caption explains the room belongs to George and Effie Soter and was used in the movie "You've Got Mail" as Jean Stapleton's apartment. I've added my inspiration pictures to a flickr set here.

Apartment Therapy's Spring Cure

Apartment Therapy's Spring Cure begins today and I am signed on! This is the diningroom "before" picture and there's my yarn stash in the foreground - not much left really. I'm knitting another Audrey sweater between bouts of mopping and sorting.

Golden Gate Gardening

This year I am embracing the cool fogginess of my backyard. I just got my copy of Pam Peirce's Golden Gate Gardening. We're lucky to have some fruit trees and some herbs that have gone native in back; I keep a pot of mint on the front porch. But this Spring I would like to put in a few more things. I want to grow some viney things.

Planting time

I am starting some seeds from last summer's farmers' market - French cantaloupe, a bright yellow melon, and some sweet peppers on the windowsill. I moved my yarn armoire into the kitchen to be a pantry. This has left my stash sitting around the diningroom suddenly homeless and vulnerable.