Monthly Archives: February 2011
Inspired Life…Wish Calendar
| February 28, 2011 | Posted by Linsi Brownson under Body, inspired life series, See and Do |
David emerged from the office the other day, plunked down on the couch and said “You know what would be a good idea for your inspired life thingy? Write about making a wish calendar.”
Me: “Fun!…Wait, what’s that?”
Him: “It’s like a wishlist of all the things you want to do (and I do love me some list-making) but instead it’s a calendar that shows when you’ll do it. Like how we always say we’re definitely going to go to the Improv. But then we forget. Put a bunch of stuff that’s actually coming up on your calendar. And then we’ll go.”
I’m all over this. I’ve already got the birthday calendar, the blog calendar and the daily workload in full swing. I’ve also scheduled dinner parties and other social events to keep on top of Goal #3. So what else is on my wishlist calendar?
Well…we have a Great Park that has a balloon that will fly you up to 400 feet, where you can see literally all over Orange County. Yeah, awesome. It’s free and it’s open all the time, which is part of the problem…we could go whenever, but we never have. So now it’s on the calendar for a random Saturday in the next couple weeks. I’ll get a reminder via email that morning and we can decide if we want to go do it. If not then I just move it to another day.
I’ve also been wanting to shop more frequently at the farmer’s markets instead of grocery stores. It’s pretty easy to do considering we have one every Thursday a block away at the fairgrounds. There’s also one every Saturday at SOCO Collection just down the street. No excuses when it’s on the calendar.
All the local OC and LA Flea Markets
I’m also part of a few Meetup groups, get great deals from Groupon, and just joined a Facebook group called Costa Mesa Neighborhood Network and 365 Things to do in Costa Mesa so I get plenty of invites for events and fun things to do. I’d like to join an email list for local museums too. If it looks interesting I’m penciling it in.
What’s on your Wish Calendar?
Nice Things to look at on a Friday
| February 25, 2011 | Posted by Linsi Brownson under accessories, architecture, Inspiration, interiors |
Design Love
| February 21, 2011 | Posted by Linsi Brownson under Design, dining room, furniture, Inspiration, interiors, lighting, living room, redefine home |
Here’s some inspiration from my latest residential project. Ohhhh, love…
Black table with white chairs and a fancy chandelier? Yes please.
Doesn’t this room make you happy?
This too…
Vibrant, girly, modern, luxe and I’m dying to source that floor lamp.
Images from: House Beautiful, unknown, Elle Decor
Man-Bath Update
| February 18, 2011 | Posted by Linsi Brownson under accessories, bathroom, interiors, my house, Projects |
In my recent post Interior Obsession…the Man Bath, I was inspired to make some changes to David’s blah bathroom. The inspiration came from West Elm’s new bath line and that was just the beginning…
So I thought you’d enjoy an update because I followed through on my little redux and surprised him for V-Day with a clean and refreshed bath when he got home from work (He, however, was far from clean…and was afraid to wreck the place just by setting foot in it. But it is a bathroom, after all).
I went up to West Elm in Santa Monica to check the stuff out in person and was pretty impressed with it. Unfortunately they didn’t have the bath towels in stock yet so I still had to order those online, but I did get a couple other pieces and had enough inspiration to shop around for the rest.
The elements:
Hand and Bath Towels and Rug from West Elm = Total $90 with towel shipping
Wood Block bath mat from Target = $20
I bought a handmade batik stamp from the flea market and will be using it to create some simple art for the walls (stay tuned) =$20
Rush Baskets that I relocated from another room = $0
My total cost for the project was $130, not bad ‘eh?
It’s a pretty handsome space, despite being impossible to photograph…Now lovingly referred to as his man-cave. Cute.
Sustainable by Design: An Igloo Primer
| February 17, 2011 | Posted by Lauren Moss under architecture, Guest Bloggers, Sustainable Living |
Greetings Readers! For my first guest post of 2011, I thought I’d try something a little different with a building typology case study- one that is seasonally relevant and inherently sustainable… the Igloo.
www.old-photos.blogspot.com
Having never lived through a ‘true’ winter, I am probably not the best candidate to evaluate or comment on what it’s like to coexist with this phenomenon in the modern world, but as a curious information-seeker and observer of the built environment, I’ll try my best to figure out a bit more on the Igloo, or ‘house’, as translated from Inuit.
So, starting with form… The basic shape of the dome is historically one of the most structurally sound forms used in architecture, with similar properties of an arch- in particular, high compressive strength and resistance to stress.
First built by the Inuit, or Eskimos, hundreds of years ago throughout Siberia, Greenland, Alaska and Canada, igloos were used as both temporary and semi-permanent shelters and ranged in size to accommodate a single traveling hunter to multi-room dwellings. In such regions, building materials are scarce, to say the least- unless one utilizes snow, which performs fairly well when used in the appropriate applications.
Unfortunately, the soft, fluffy, cloud-like snow of this Californian’s romanticized winter landscape is not an appropriate building material for these applications.
Compacted, wind-driven snow is (apparently) fairly easy to cut into blocks and stack, and it insulates surprisingly well, too.
www.primitiveways.com
The basic structure of an igloo requires preliminary excavation below grade, with the structural blocks cut from the compacted snow and stacked in a spiral pattern. Look here or here for further information regarding the details of constructing an ice house- it’s still being done today!
Though typically temporary dwellings, igloos are strong and perform well structurally and thermally. Occupants increase the insulation capacity of the structure with trapped body heat, and this alone can increase the temperature inside by 40 degrees. Structurally, the igloo increases in rigidity and strength after a few days, as solar and body heat cause the snow to melt slightly and re-freeze into solid ice.
Like most buildings, igloos require ventilation, usually in the form of openings near or at the top of the structure. In this circumstance, ventilation is essential to ensure that carbon dioxide escapes, though the fundamental concept remains a key sustainable design issue today, as circulation and air changes are important factors in providing for high indoor air quality. We see this in many passively-cooled spaces, in the form of operable skylights or clerestory windows that provide for thermal comfort, as well as for a means of promoting air circulation without mechanical equipment.
In spite of the growing and increasingly advanced building technologies that enable us to live more efficiently inside our homes, exploring the means by which early dwellings responded to site conditions, in terms of form, materiality, and method, can be of great value.
Additionally, such forms can inspire alternative creative endeavors, such as this cardboard dome, Packed Pavilion, featured at the 2010 Shanghai Expo.
For more on this very high-tech iteration, check out its blog and learn how digital design was used to address logistics and fabrication issues in a modern, global context.
Cheers, and thanks for reading!
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