Alma Allen

February 14th, 2011

Alma Allen is a sculptor living and working in Joshua Tree, CA in an amazing home and studio he and his wife Nancy built over the past few years while living in a small trailer on their property. I’m amazed at the foresight and dedication a project like this requires seeing as Joshua Tree is like the wild west of construction with few skilled laborers, strangely divided parcels, bizarre coding and extreme weather.

I’ve long been a fan of his work, but hadn’t realized the couple kept a small blog of their adventures in custom home building + making incredible objects. Many thanks to Lily for mentioning it.

Their adorable sculptor in training Frieda and the desert pups Fritz and Poncho.

Alma, Roman from Commune and TK Smith (in the back) at The Ace Hotel. Three guys who are constantly inspiring most everything we do around here – you can even check out more of TK and Jill’s home HERE.

TK was the one who was kind enough to teach us how to weld (which I still haven’t paid him back for since he is a busy dude and super in demand). We are putting those skills to good use in our upcoming landscape projects and can’t thank him enough for being so generous.

A few things Alma’s made –

It’s no wonder why Alma’s work is in crazy demand. That coffee table makes my heart go all aflutter.

I love these DIY copper kitchen counter tops. All these possibilities of metal wrapped wood are getting the old brain wheels turning.

I’d love to see more of what this couple has accomplished in such a remotely difficult but beautiful slab of land in the high desert. The little snippets into their projects and home are incredibly intriguing and have refreshed my recently waning design gusto.

Bits and Pieces

February 11th, 2011

Just some random bits and pieces of design & consulting projects that have been in the works. I haven’t quite figured out how to share things I’ve been working on recently since they’re all in different stages of completion or conception. This wonky collage probably just raises more questions than it solves, but this is kind of where my brain has been.

I’ve been a busy little maniac recently – running around and grabbing up things and sorting out others. Super excited about a jam packed weekend of LA trekking coming up. Can I hear a Rose Bowl?!?!


Perfect. Another wonky & weird collage. Roaming this week hasn’t been too exciting geography wise, just a lot of traveling here and there, puppy petting, meeting new folks, ch-ch-ch-changes and bringing home some tasty vintage treats.

Enjoy your weekend. Pet a puppy, snuggle a grumpy person, get your hair done, maybe go ahead and form a dance crew and then battle on the streets of Hemet. You know, whatevs.

I’m assuming that this is how Bowie plans on spending his weekend with his scary friend Mrs. Cluckerbutt. Iggy does not care for the terrifying chicken so much. Go figure.

Thrifty!

February 9th, 2011

Thrifting has been a tad sparse around here which always puts me in a grumptastic mood. It get’s fairly depressing to make the effort to go out looking through tons of rubbish and then come home empty handed. That’s the thrifting dealio, not everyday can be like THIS.

A few recent small finds included this awesomely large ‘Lambert Conformal Conic Projection’ map of California. I guess all that jargon just means mountains.

It’s installed in the kitchen for now, right by the crazy bright window. That’s why my terrariums are enjoying hanging out there – that area gets tons of direct light those suckers slurp up.

I also grabbed this big ol’ ceramic studio pottery lamp. It’s one of those types of lamps I keep dragging home (even though I am lamp overloaded) because they’re amazing. Maybe I’m just in love with ceramic shizz.