[ink in my moleskine]

The Harbinger Co. by Yvonne Hung of San Francisco uses eco-friendly materials in unique ways to make amazing products. The bulk of their jewelry line consists of a series of earrings and pendants made from laser-cut bamboo, in both artistic and mathematically beautiful designs. I bought the Large Honeycomb Pendant today; really excited to get it.

Thursday we watched the Perseid meteor shower from the huge yard of a Schwenk family property 20 miles out of town – despite the bugs, it was pretty great. The date Dustin and I chose for our anniversary was the night we first watched the Leonids together, so meteor showers are special for us beyond their inherent coolness.

In other news, I’m starting the game Bioshock on the PS3 tonight too to see how my taste for FPSs has evolved, and I can count on Dustin to devour it regardless if I run out of steam. This is a hanging-around sort of weekend, because next weekend is the Gold Coast Art Fair, and the weekend after that is the Illinois Renaissance Festival.
Later edit: A few pictures from these events are on Flickr.

[More photos from the trip]
[My new CrossProcess set with additional LA pictures]

The trip was great — everything went well and we got to see tons of interesting things. I think the highlight for us was visiting the Eames House. It was surreal to see it after having looked at so many photos and trying to visualize it. It was a beautiful day, we were the only ones there, and it was really peaceful and fun (if hard to find). They basically gave us the run of the grounds for as long as we wanted, we just couldn’t go inside.
We also saw Jim Gaffigan do a live show, and visited a few gastropubs and other incredible restaurants. We snorkeled on Catalina Island in 65 degree water which was a pretty crazy experience. Finally, we left Dustin’s camera (Lumix LX3) in the glove box of the rental car. I called them hurriedly from the plane as soon as we realized we’d left it, and they actually found it and offered to mail it to me – whew.

Meet my new Orla Kiely bag that just arrived today — its maiden voyage is tomorrow when we start our summer vacation.

I’m finally visiting my brother in LA. This will be my second trip there and Dustin’s first; I went once in 2005 during the Christmas season when things can actually get rainy and dreary.
We’re really excited, it’s been a while since we’ve traveled. We’ll be seeing Jim Gaffigan live and otherwise seeing and eating and touring everything we can, including the grounds of the Eames House (of course).

Here’s Dustin holding my first Catherine Holm piece today. We found this in the back of our local mid-century furniture/object store — which we also recently found out is moving out of town. Gah! At least we found this first.

(This was taken with my iPhone and post-processed by my new CrossProcess app, which I am loving so far.)

A little update for the in-between time… sorting things out.
Late-night trivia tomorrow night — I hope it’s fun. It’s at our favorite local restaurant and we are pretty good (though I personally don’t offer much).

It occurred to me during some passive rambling thinking recently that English uses the same root word for two types of rooms, studios and studies. It’s the Latin word “studium”:

studium -i n. [zeal , eagerness, application, enthusiasm; devotion to, goodwill towards a person or cause; application to learning, study].

The two words are pretty different in definition/intention, however; a study is quiet, a place of cloistering, of absorbing knowledge and thinking — it fits the “application to learning” and “study” part of the definition.

study: [noun] a room used or designed for reading, writing, or academic work.

A studio, on the other hand, indicates a more creative and active space, probably drawing from the “zeal, eagerness, application” part of the definition.

studio: [noun] a room where an artist, photographer, sculptor, etc., works.

The interesting dichotomy that then jumped out at me is that a study is where you absorb and learn, and a studio is where you emanate and practice. But both are places where you interact with your brain and engage in the very human pursuits of knowledge and expression.

These are spaces that some people never care to seek or make for themselves, that some people want and put together one or the other of them depending on their hobbies and personality, and that still others create and make use of both. So some combine them, some make a corner of a room a makeshift study or studio, and some keep spaces outside of their homes for this purpose. I would personally love a combined version, which I’m sort of working on right now in a small and simple way for my small and simple current house; we just bought some furniture for a reading nook in the “office” room of our place. Pictures of this coming soon…

For now, enjoy a view of Jay Walker’s incredible library, the most spectacular private library and personal museum I’ve ever seen.

Some rain, then record-setting heat. Yesterday we had a fruitful trip to Ikea and dinner at P.F. Chang’s. I am loving my new camera.
I badly want to travel and expand my experiences. We both want to move to a larger city, maybe/hopefully/eventually near the ocean…

My parents left for a trip to Hawaii on Thursday. The three of us siblings are watching the house, dog, bird and fish while they are gone. Before they left though we had a nice early-summer evening outside with berries, beer and bugs.