Long I have pined for the perfect gray duvet and by some strange bi-coastal internet twitter miracle, this enduring quest seems to have come to an end.

It’s really all thanks to Daniel, wonderful (and similarly duvet obsessed) splendid man about town Daniel, who twittered with Anna from Door Sixteen and I about our initial hopes in finding the perfect gray duvet and then our ultimate disappointment when the CB2 Coast Bed Linens ended up being a bust.

But…because they are in New York, where shops besides JC Penny exist, Anna and Daniel just popped into Muji and stumbled on this great warm gray linen duvet…that is unfortunately nowhere to be found on Muji’s website.

I got a flurry of texts and pictures of what looked like a fantastic (and affordable!) duvet and proceeded to beg for them to purchase and ship one of these lovelies to the west coast to live in my house.

By the way, we don’t have Muji in Hemet. Shocker.

Then Daniel, even though he’s in college and working like crazy on projects and busier than a rabid squirrel, was kind enough to grab me one of the last duvets and mail it out to me like a goddamn sweetheart. Like a completely perfect and lovely human being.

That gray duvet longing runs painfully deep. Daniel gets it. Oh yeah, he gets it real good.

Apparently though, I took my sweet time posting about this, since it all went down in what? August? What happened? Is this not summer still?

Anyhow.

Besides the greatest duvet ever, there are a few new things around the guest bedroom that I’ve been meaning to post about.

Like these sort of brutalist studio pottery things. Someone got all crazy with that ceramic knife. So angsty.

Feel that powerfully emotional thrift store ceramic turmoil.

You knew that some kilim pillow style action would leak into the rest of the house. Say what? There are some actual colors in here besides black, brown, gray or white. Crazy.

I don’t believe I’ve mentioned this fine Craigslist procured vintage safari chair.

Awwww yeah. Awwww boy.

Sling that thing all up in here.

Hold on, I got distracted by that devilish safari minx. I cannot forget to mention that after months of use, I really dig the new duvet. It gets better with every wash and sort of shifts color in different light; sometimes the color feels warm and sort of taupe and then shifts to cool and silvery gray. It’s like a magical creature that transforms day to day.

I love it and can’t thank Daniel enough.

Possibly worth noting, this thing above? This is about as ornate, flowery and “fem” as I can get.

That’s just a detail shot of the vintage brass Moroccan lamp that I can never photograph properly in the guest bedroom, which – surprise surprise – I still really love and don’t want to get rid of. Unlike everything else I own. I’m possibly going through some weird, “WHY NOT START FROM SCRATCH” phase that is really unproductive. Stupid dark wintertime.

And these bright things down below…

…these are luxurious flowery yellow billy balls. The only flowers I’ll own.

Wait, are these flowery? I don’t know and apparently am too lazy to google, but these last forever and thrive on neglect.

Just like my grudges.

Come on, I just can’t resist you. Work it you hot thang. I’m liking what I see and the way you move? Regal. Confident. Sexy. Frugal. I love safari and I don’t care who knows!

Oh, wait. Oh, craphole.

Now that I’m thinking about it, I probably should have bought two Muji duvets. Since…I never want to give you up. I never want to let you go.

Yup.

This happened.

Is that an early production Saarinen oval marble coffee table? All up in Knoll town?

Oh yes.

I know I’m a dirty, no-good furniture dealer, but because I’m never ever selling it. Because this is my dream coffee table. Because it would have to pried from my cold dead hands. Because I am bursting that this happened. BECAUSE I CAN’T SHUT UP.

One.

Hundred.

Dollars.

Yeah. $100.

I hate me too.

Although, you gotta trust that this was a crazy unexpected fluke of chance and lucky timing.

Of course, I was browsing the Craigslist (come on, no way I found this in thrift store) and saw a posting for a vintage hutch that was super cheap but of course no freaking picture. Why people post furniture for sale on CL without a picture, I’ll never grasp, but the ad said to email for a picture and I randomly decided to just contact them and see what was the whats. When the pictures popped in (again, why not just upload them?) the hutch was pretty, pretty, pretty terrible, but something else looked mighty interesting in the far corner of the frame. Which leads to me asking if they had anything else for sale and apparently they were getting rid of everything in the whole house and they sent lots and lots and lots of pictures.

In the far distance, out of focus and sitting casually in front of a shredded up sofa was this tulip beauty. Just sitting there. Like no big deal. Whatevers. I’m just your favorite thing. Big whoop.

I got my ass down there and pulled out my big bag of negotiating tricks and walked away with some STUFF.

On a side note, apologies if I have to negotiate with you in the future or have negotiated with you in the past. I KNOW how I am. I’m an awful stubborn terrible monster.

It’s not in perfect condition.

There is some staining on the marble and I’ve been researching around about how to lighten it up. WHATEVER. Stains? On my 60 year old marble Knoll? I don’t care. I’ll never care!

Good news is that there are no chips and no cracks, just vintage goodness.

This table does weight about a thousand pounds. The tulip base is cast iron and the marble is chunk-y – like 36″ wide by 54″ long.

I really loved my old coffee table.

REALLY loved.

But there can be only one!

(It’s the Highlander. Lightning. Swords. Coffee table and such.)

Not that I’m one to get all frothy over Target collabos, but perhaps the Missoni for Target stuff turned out to be kind of a meh? It seemed to be a lot of plastic and polyester and poor construction, but the black and white stuff was the best? Fo’ sho.

Giant shocker, Hemet isn’t a bustling hub of fashionistas and design fans. I know?! How is that possible with such a large retirement population and two super WalMarts? So, when I stopped by Target at a leisurely 2pm on launch day to pick up food for the dogs and garbage bags, ’cause shizz be glamorous around here, I took a gander at the Missoni pieces.

Pretty much ended up with a case of the underwhelmed mehs.

I did like this blanket thing – even though it was only sold online and sold out immediately – and did end up grabbing a few of the small black and white travel bags, since my luggage arsenal desperately needs actual bags to hold all the many fancy lady creams and powders I require.

The end.

Otherwise, on launch day the UPS guy wandered into the backyard to drop off a vintage Minolta Maxxum 35-70mm macro lens I recently won on the ebay for $30. Such a crazy day! TWO things happening? How do I keep it all together? Really. It’s a miracle.

So, these are some meh pics wrought from quickly testing the new lens out. I think I’m feeling a bit of an underwhelmed meh over this lens as well.

My middle name is meh.

I don’t feel so meh about a couple recent Craigslist acquisitions. In fact, I’m feeling pretty YEAH.

Headed out to Palm Springs in the late afternoon to pick up a few vintage bits off the ‘ol CL and took advantage of the twilight lighting to push this new/old lens through a few more hoops.

And yup. Still meh.

But did I hear someone say Russel Wright for Conant Ball dining set? Mmmm-hmmmm. Grrrrrrl.

From the few pics shot around our dusty as all neglect house, I found that the macro function wasn’t thrilling me. Also, the low light capabilities at F4 weren’t fulfilling all those wild fantasies and unreasonable expectations I had built up inside my heart. Over this $30 lens? That would change my life? Madness.

It’s a fine lens – not mind blowing – but maybe I need to put this thing through it’s paces. Or maybe I’ll keep buying more and more and more vintage lenses until that deep black hole inside of me is filled up with glittering glass.

I bet the CL guy – who I got the Wright dining set from – didn’t think I was a creepy insane person when I pulled out the giant SLR and wandered around the street to shoot pictures of the darkening sky…you know…instead of pulling out of his driveway and going home.

Because it’s never terrifying when a stranger from CL wanders around in front of your house with a big camera snapping a bunch of pictures after that always awkward transaction had supposedly ended.

No one would be freaked out by that. Come on.

Oh. I’m a creep.

Great.

I picked up this large sculptural wood bench ages ago off Craigslist with the intent of sticking it somewhere outside in our sparse and minimal desert landscape. Seeing as the landscape hasn’t gotten past the weeds and dirt stage of the overall grand scheme, this little bench has just been chillaxing by the fire pit and gathering spider webs – like most of the projects around here.

Maybe one day it will go on the porch? Or by the pool? Or maybe in the front yard? I don’t know. For now it’s just going to sit outside and gather dust. I like to imagine it inside a large open all white industrial loft space as a place to put your shoes on and gather your things in a mega sparse entryway. That would be amazing – but inside my house it just feels a tad overwhelming.

Been busy working on various things and still suffering a case of house burn out. Trying to get motivated to care deeply again, but really, all I want to do is swim and read and travel and play with the dogs. Hope you guys are doing the same.

Somehow between new jobs, new endeavors, busy schedules, rain, blazing heat, more rain, hotter blazing heat, low funds and neighbors breaking the lawnmower…we neglected the side yard. Now it is a beautiful field of knee high sun-bleached weeds.

So embarrassing.

With summer here and outdoor activities gearing up, I wanted to whip the side yard into shape for entertaining + swimming. Besides the weeds, a major obstacle of having folks over for outdoor shenanigans is the lack of a decently sized dining table. Guests tend to sort of wander around with their plates and sadly huddle around the beat down Ikea Docksta table. I’ve casually looked around for a big ‘ol rectangular dining table, but hadn’t found anything that was quite right or quite cheap enough. Of course, I then imagined it’d be a fantastic idea to build a DIY outdoor dining table that looked something like THIS ONE used for planning out the design of the side yard.

As with many of my other “imagined” projects, I put it off and suddenly realized it was already ‘effing June. Of all the months, this is the month for outdoor parties. After June it gets waaaayyy too hot to even live here, let alone make company hang out outside.

So. Quick table solution? Craigslist? Yes?

Sorry for the bad images, but these were the CL ad pictures that piqued my interest. I saw this “dining table” listed at an insanely low price and thought it looked uncannily similar to my reference table. Located only four miles from the house, it was kind of a given to go see it.

Well, we went Friday night and tried to see the table (in the dark) while it was sitting on a virtually inaccessible trailer and blocked by a big ugly credenza. Ultimately we couldn’t get a good look, but for $25 it seemed like no big deal to just buy it and throw it in the truck. It was for outside, I mean, why really worry all hard?

The next day (in the daylight) I got my first real look at the thing.

While in rough shape, it was MUCH more awesome than I had initially thought. It had a great simple design and the construction was so very nice…although, there was some kookiness…

For instance, the entire table top was shifted to one side. So, one side had an overhang of six inches while the other was almost flush with the base. Which was so WEIRD. Even the trestle support was centered with the top and not the base. Which was so much WEIRDER. I suppose it might originally have been a desk? Or work area type thing? It definitely wasn’t a dining table.

Unfortunately, the top and legs had a considerable amount of damage. Lots of deep scratches, water damage, weird stains. Pretty much the trifecta of crappy damages you don’t want to see.

But it was teak!

And fantastic!

It seemed a simple fix to take the top off and center it on the base to create a more dining style table. As for the off-center trestle support? I hoped it wouldn’t be a big deal once there were chairs, plus who really notices trestles anyways?

No one who wants to eat dinner. That’s for sure.

I flipped the table over to remove and remount the base and…

BOOM.

Hidden on an interior support was a stamp and a tag. This thing was Danish and made by H.P. Hansen and vintage and uh oh.

CRAPFINGERS.

Suddenly I wasn’t so confident about screwing around with the design and using this as an outside table. This table had survived for decades before I considered finagling around with it. It’s solid teak and has provenance and is an unusual design – but it is also so very awkward as well.

Is it a desk? A table? It’s not a classic or rare or highly desirable piece.

Ultimately, this thing was just so very fucked up.

The damage was such that I knew I couldn’t fix it completely; I could make things better, but the rough spots would never truly disappear. Choice-wise, I could either sell this surprise but damaged discovery (since I couldn’t use it for anything besides an outdoor table) or I could keep it, fix it up as much as possible and then own a really nice outdoor teak table that gets it’s own special weather resistant cover.

Frankly, in the end, I didn’t feel comfortable selling something that was in such bad shape. It didn’t seem worth the shipping and time and possibility of a buyer getting really upset over condition issues.

So. Nice outdoor teak table? Yes?

Once decided, I removed the top and centered the base. The trestle support is still off-center, but it didn’t seem worth removing to only have weird patched holes and will mostly be blocked by chairs AND SHALL BE IGNORED.

After adjusting the base and tightening up all the bolts, the table got my full restorative treatment. There are still scratches, deep gouges, major color inconsistencies and stains from what I imagine were markers – like a kid used to sit and draw here and the ink leaked through.

BEFORE

AFTER

Not so bad. Not bad at all.

For $25, some hours of labor and a slight flesh wound, it looks like a much nicer table than I should have sitting outside.

I have always planned on pairing the exterior table with my set of Bertoia chairs. Now these roughed up wire suckers are looking super janky next to the shiny restored table.

The set of Bertoias need full on restoration (the white coating around the wire has chipped and come off in big hunks). Powder coating is the more expensive and better option, but maybe a good exterior spray paint will get them through awhile longer and protect the metal until we can afford to fully restore.

Now to just get the side yard to be a little more inhabitable. That’s going to be some filthy, hot, backbreaking work. Better get the pool plumbing installed for sweet watery relief…but that will also be filthy, hot, backbreaking work. Clearly this is why the side yard was so casually ignored and fell into ruin.

Must not be a lazy jerkhole. Must get side yard fixed up.

Slowly the house is getting put back together and rearranged to reflect the much less hoarded out state we had been living in for the past few months. I can’t even show pictures, it was just too horrifying. You will just have to imagine stacked piles of furniture and odd bric-a-brac overwhelmingly overflowing through the entire living and dining room.

It was so bad that we had to create a single hoarder style path to the front door. So, so incredibly bad that delivery people gave us funny looks when the front door wouldn’t open all the way and kept asking if we were in the process of moving.

Now we are blissfully decluttered and I’ve been rearranging all the leftovers into some sort of coherent floor plan as well as getting excited about acquiring a few new pieces.

During the big sale, I deaccessioned a large part of my studio pottery collection. While there is still a ton of ceramics sprinkled here and there, it feels good to be able to go a little more minimal in vignette town. Now to somehow resist the urge to scoop up peoples old high school ceramic projects…

Here’s a peak at a recent Craigslist acquisition. It’s a Danish rosewood credenza which is currently being repurposed as a media unit in the den.

We still need to mount the TV on the wall, but this thing is so much better than the dresser we were using before. This puppy hides away all the cables and ugly boxes and frees up so much visual and physical space that my heart is all aflutter. I can’t wait to have everything fully installed and looking banging…but I just do the furniture thing. I’m leaving it up to Jeremy to figure out the boring electronic stuff.

Even though we just had a ginormous sale to move out all the crazy furniture accumulation (which happened “somehow” through no fault of my own – how dare you think that) I might have picked up a few new pieces recently.

Maybe. Probably. Assuredly.

It’s a sickness? Or an incredible talent? Let’s not put labels on it.

So, in a round about way of getting to the point – I found another coffee table for the den. This one makes number three million of the den coffee table options or something. It’s round, it’s from Craigslist, it’s Italian, it’s travertine and it adds just a touch more brown and taupe to my colorless den. Glass coffee table tops? They just don’t seem to last in this high traffic, high mess area.

Chihuahua for scale.

Beautiful flawless travertine top, which weighs eight thousand pounds give or take.

I spent all Sunday caressing, sanding, oiling, buffing and restoring the walnut base to it’s original glory. Cleaned up pretty nice, if I do say so. Very nice.

The cowhide still won’t relax  (it needs a steam). No painting, no reupholstering, no replacement for the shelving unit, no lighting and no art installation has happened. Obviously. Chesterfield? Looks like it’s staying for the long haul. Haven’t had a single urge to replace it – which is unbelievable – but that thing is a good comfy beast.

Everything is of course all brown and dreary and waiting patiently for the rest of the room to be addressed. One day brown town will be conquered. But, like everyone else in the entire world, we’ve been super busy with less than blogworthy boring stuff eating up our time and meager resources. Trying to slowly get motivated to work on the house and restore it back to it’s presale condition, even though everything has turned to anarchy and weeds and madness. Better to live in a little bit of denial and take a small breather, methinks.

Step one of updating the crap out of the den was painting I guess? Oops. I got a cowhide instead.

I don’t control what my lady love Craigslist offers up on any given day, so this big ‘ol light cowhide popped up and BAM, forget painting. Painting sucks anyways.

Mr. cow needs to relax and flatten out after being folded up and stored away. RELAX DAMMIT.

Otherwise, I’ve been slammed with getting stuff ready for the big sale and the house looks like a hoarding bomb went off and I dare not show the madness overtaking our homestead. It is abysmal living in what feels like a storage shed. Updates and previews soon? I hope? Yes?

Maybe it’s been made obvious over these past few years, but I have a lil’ bit of a sofa problem. Just a wee little problem. You know, just a small, minuscule, tiny, insignificant issue with obtaining sofas. No big thang. No real worries. No extremism. Nothing to call a specialist about. No deep rooted psychological pathologies.

Shut up.

I’m blaming The Boy…kind of. He and his less than design enthused friends have complained over and over that the sofas I buy are too low or too hard or too uncomfortable or too mid century or too whatever. In the comfy television watching den this debate has raged on and on while they sipped crappy beers and watched Nascar. Yes – NASCAR. In my home. The nerve.

Sharing my long unrequited love for chesterfields – Summer found the perfect little petite sofa and begrudgingly emailed it to me. I thought nothing could be more Boy pleasing than a deeply comfy and broken-in vintage chesterfield to sit on while watching manly things on the tube. He has yet to really wax lovingly about my thoughtful gift, but has taken the time to remark, “No more goddamn sofas. Aren’t you tired of moving sofas?”. NEVER.

The den is shifting into all brown town and getting a bit more masculine than I’d like. Now I just need some new art and new pillows and a new shelving unit and a new light and a new chair. Just a whole new room, no biggie.

Bowie likes it a whole bunch and he’s adorable, so therefore by the bylaws of adorable transference the sofa is now legally adorable. I called Iggy into the room to take some photos and add to the adorableness quotient, but once he rounded the corner and saw the camera and Bowie, he briefly sized up the situation and then turned heel and hopped back into bed to continue his nap. Iggy ain’t having none of our crap anymore. I don’t know how any of them put up with me.

Craigslist is a fickle beast of a monster.

Seemingly, I search CL nonstop for deals on furniture…even though space is becoming slightly tight around these parts. It’s been awhile since I picked something up off CL, wait, hold the phone, what was the last thing I grabbed? This coffee table? OK, maybe it hasn’t been that long.

Well, I stumbled on a post about an African leather ottoman and hearing that siren call of vintage goodies, headed out to the boonies of Sage in search of the miraculous. Sage is kind of like Hemet, but very much not. It’s this weird/beautiful valley full of ranches and horses and windy mountain roads. I met up with an older couple that built a nutty newfangled adobe (horribly pictured above) overlooking this crazy beautiful view of a horse type farm.

Boom. Vintage leather pouf. With just that perfect amount of beat-up wear and tear on the hardiest leather in the land.

The Eames lounger has been needing an ottoman, but the search has been difficult since: A: hard to find an Eames ottoman by itself & B: the den is really really narrow. If you put a real Eames ottoman with the chair it blocks the traffic through the den and into the kitchen and to the sofa.

This leather baby is kind of the perfect in-between size. Put your feet up and relax without losing a lot of space. Plus I like mixing up the Eames with something less traditional.

Bowie approves. This has been his new perch for monitoring and harassing Iggy (obviously since Iggy is MIA – its working).

Ah man. I should have gotten a shot of the bottom – its woven together with a big leather thread. Like a corset or something. Just take a moment and try to imagine it. It’s cool, right?