These are things

not made for trend or profit or notoriety or self-promotion. How often is that the case anymore?



Purely creation for the sake of it. And for the pleasure, maybe. The challenge? Yes, most likely that too.



Dalton Ghetti spends months, sometimes years, on each piece. And he refuses to sell a single one.



An extraordinarily evil thought struck me while reading this article. Say he has a wife. And say one morning without thinking she grabs a pencil to jot down her grocery list.

Later, he walks into the kitchen to find half a year's work lying broken atop a sticky note that reads milk, bread, eggs, pencils.










You can read more about him here.

Opera Lessons

Friday night some friends and I dropped a wad of cash to see the opera Turandot.

Here is a review of everything but the music.

1. David Hockney can design the poop out of a stage.

2. In San Diego "I'm going to the opera" is synonymous with "I'm going to Disneyland" and "I'm a Midwesterner going to the beach".

Apparently it's ok to wear a Hawaiian beach cover up with a Harry Potter sweater scarf and flipflops.

And if you're old and have bad taste, you're really in luck! You can wear orthopedic sandals with socks and shorts, so no, you are not the Greatest Generation that wore hats and ties and made everything all classy-seeming...you are a Schleppy McShlepper like Hawaiian Harry Potter lady and you should know better. Shame!

3. You can be the hottest (youngest, freshest-smelling, least wrinkled, lowest blood pressured, least likely to be part bionic) girl in the room, if you go to the opera.

4. You shouldn't panic if your friend shows up overdressed in a coat made of Chewbacca fur.

Sure, initially you will walk several feet away, and it will continuously startle your internal "bear alert" mechanism.

But later it will prove to be a good place to lay your head when the opera is still going at 10:45pm. You will dream that you are in Dr. Zhivago sleeping on a pile of Russian bear furs.

5. The real entertainment begins at 11pm, when 8,000 senior citizens are simultaneously released to wander the vast parking structure, like a mutant race of old people zombies, looking for their cars...with one policeman trying to assist them all. I hope they've all made their way home by now. I really do.

So, support The Arts. You can pay hundreds to watch an old guy play a young man singing about China in Italian. Through binoculars.

I'd totally do it again.

Mid Century Leather Safari Chairs and Monumental Danish Teak Cabinet/Dresser

Fresh cuts in the store now!
Don't even get me started on how this piece can save your marriage with its sexy storage:




or how much these want to hang out on a sheepskin flanking your fireplace...they do. Really bad.





Anyone being fantastic and glamorous this weekend?

I'm going to the opera and then for late night champagne cocktails and croque monsieur at a French restaurant downtown. No bigs.

Oh don't worry, no men were injured in the planning of this evening. Ladeez nite! Maybe I will meet a 100-year old philanthropist geezer that likes redheads. Fingers crossed! Dreams really do come true.

Make Your Own Industrial, Danish, or Antique Furniture

So, how often do you have a specific furniture design in mind that you can't find ANYWHERE? Or the pieces you DO fall in love with all seem to be in the four-digit range?

Maybe you spend hours on Craigslist or Ebay waiting for just the right piece to come up, and it never does.

Think about making your own. Not from scratch--this isn't the "This Old House" blog. But you can source the basic components of the furniture you want, and assemble the coolest custom pieces.

And believe me, if you can put together that IKEA Billy bookcase, then you can most certainly do this.

If you love industrial chic--things that look like they're from old factories, schoolhouses, and science labs, this is a great site for inspiration. And sticker shock.




Figure out what the basic components are and then source them at Home Depot and Ebay:

These huge, uber-industrial casters are only $30 for a set of four on Ebay!



Add them to some steel shelving, $53 at Home Depot or Amazon. BONUS: it can be assembled horizontally as a workbench. Attach metal casters for an industrial bar cart, desk, or moveable kitchen island.



Or to these pine IKEA shelves that most people use for garage storage (this would look a lot like the first picture, don't you think?)



Or search Ebay or Craigslist for old wooden crates and attach the casters for a rad rolling toy chest, laundry cart, or storage bench seat!



Like the organic-modern vibe? Shockingly cheap to make.

Search "wood slabs" or "burl slabs" on Ebay. Both these pieces were only around $35.



Search "hairpin legs" for the bases. Screw them in.

Depending on the size of your slabs and hairpin legs, you can make anything from a huge dining table, to a long bench, to a pair of little side tables (total projected cost around $70).



Or attach them to a generic dresser for a George Nelson look:



These are the tapered wooden legs I bought to make my son's "Danish" bed. I attached them to the bottom of a captain's bed and painted the whole unit black. Voila-Danish storage bed.

These come in tons of sizes and you can attach them to the bottom of an ottoman, stool, bench, wood slab, or remnant of marble or quartz from a local countertop place.



Search Ebay for old wooden tripod bases, and with around $8 in electrical parts you'll have the most amazing industrial/salvaged/antique floor lamp.



For $2250 less than this one on 1st Dibs!



Want to Anthropolgie-ize an armchair or ottoman, or construct something completely custom?



You just can't fake the patina of real antique legs. These were available (very cheaply, I might add) on Ebay under "wood furniture legs":



Add $8/yard linen from Premier Prints:



And here's some others I loved:






Are your creative juices flowing? What would you consider making?


SOURCES FORTHCOMING!

A San Diego weekend....with teens

After a Saturday morning of volunteering and trying to avoid jail time by finally getting to my 2009 taxes, I was ready.

Ready to find out what everyone means when they say they can't wait for the weekend.

The radness of having older kids is that "doing family stuff" no longer involves petting zoos that you have to pretend to be all into, or brainless cartoon movies about smart babies and dumb parents. Yay!

What does it involve? A visit to Pablo at Soul Grind to talk about "downhill decks" and "flexing trucks" (if you're new to skate lingo, this is a mother's worst nightmare...it's Tokyo Drift on a skateboard).

This visit should be followed up by a tour of the Children's Hospital "He Wasn't Wearing a Helmet and Now He Has No Face" Unit.

Here's Pablo. If you feel the urge to spill your brains or lose half your skin surface on San Diego pavement, he's your man. The nicest guy ever, and the hero of the Groms.



What next? A lady-like salad for mom? Nope. Epic burritos featured on Man v. Food, from Lucha Libre.



Shrimp, carne asada, avocado, french fries, chipotle sauce. You can call ahead to reserve the gold "winner's" booth! Don't be fooled by the picture-it was jam-packed and you had to pull some Lucha moves to get to the salsa table.



Hat shopping. "You look stupid in that hat." "I'm going to pull down your pants and spank you right here if you talk like that again."

They even gave me 15 minutes in Anthropologie. "Mommmmmmm, are you done yet are you done yet are you done yet?"

Sunday morning an angel brought me the Los Angeles Times and bottomless coffee in bed. And banned children and dogs from the room.

Then everyone got new shoes.

And we took them to the wet beach to break them in.






We checked out some of Dad's super-secret surf spots, which all seem to be named Dead Man's something or other. Why is that?











And in between, I accidentally-on-purpose (I wasn't supposed to be working but it's not work if I'm having fun!)stumbled across some major cool finds...TBA!






Lucha interior by San Diego Daily Photo

DANISH Teak Desk/Wall Unit/Credenza/Dresser/Vanity

Great Danish designs always remind me of Swiss Army knives, the way they unfold to handle multiple functions.



This gorgeous piece wants to be everything to you. And although such a relationship is never advised between people, with furniture such a thing is possible.



Three large drawers for clothes or office storage, a pull-out desk for writing and laptopping, letter slots for bill-ignoring, and even the sweetest little drop-down mirror to tranform itself into a sexy little dressing table (or for a quick "is there lettuce in my teeth" check).



And it's got great legs to boot. It just might be the best relationship you've ever had.



Available in the shop tonight.

PAIR Monumental chrome sputnik table lamps

Just a little teaser-one of several beautiful pieces slated to be available in the store this Thursday evening (approximately 7:30 pm PST).