Kristen Loves Design

Images courtesy of Amazon.

I think I’ve mentioned Ewan McGregor before. I love him. Who doesn’t, right?! But here’s the thing, it isn’t because of his movies. Sure, I’ve seen Shallow Grave (in a cool indie theater in Boston in 1994), Trainspotting, Little Voice (in a cool indie theater in CA in 1998), Cassandra’s Dream, and many others. The reason I love him so much is because of a show he did with Charley Boorman called Long Way Round. It’s a documentary they shot for the BBC in 2004 that documented their 19,000 mile journey on motorcycles from London to New York. Actually my Carl introduced me to the series (they also shot Long Way Down in 2007 when they traveled also on motorcycles through 18 countries). We got the DVDs from the library and watched them several times. Even if you aren’t into motorcycles (or motorbikes), I promise when you are done you will love Ewan and Charley. Sure, they are famous (Charley’s dad is John Boorman, although Charley is famous in his own right too) and it is Ewan McGregor afterall, but this documentary shows us who they really are. And they are guys traveling a ridiculously long way on 2 wheels by themselves, missing their families, and going through all kinds of trials and tribulations. But throughout all the many hours in both shows, they are both happy for the challenge. And that’s nice to see, regardless if they are movie stars or not.

Image courtesy of Wikipedia.

In any case, we finally saw Beginners. And I loved it. I should note, though. Almost every review I read made such a big deal about the “talking” dog. Yes, there is a talking dog. For a few lines, in a few scenes. Seriously, the dog didn’t steal the show anymore than the dog in As Good As It Gets. But oh this movie, directed by Mike Mills (who is married to this lady), is just so good. Kind of hard to watch, I think. And I certainly wouldn’t call it an uplifting movie. But for me it had one really great theme. Even though most of us have no idea what we are really doing in life (I mean, it’s not like we all follow a script or something) it’s never to late to become who you are. Which of course is also a famous quote by the English novelist George Eliot, “It’s never too late to be who you might have been.” Well said.

So as I mentioned here, I wanted to post a new picture every day. But instead I’ll be posting several days together each time!

The weekend laundry aftermath.

Aren’t we all super tired on Mondays?! Of course it wouldn’t have occurred to me to take a nap up high while sitting up, but that’s just me.

I love how these animals hanging out in a corner of our guest room look like they are in love.

Waiting for me to get ready to go out to dinner was just a perfect time for my Carl to tune his guitar and play a little.

The lighting in this picture is just terrible (black cat + dark gray wall color+ low light = yuck) plus Pixie looks a whole lot fuzzier than he really is (he’s a short hair cat, I swear). But, I love the look on his face. This was taken at about 1am and I think he had enough of us sitting in the office making noise already (he’s sitting on my Carl’s chair).

All images by Kristen for Kristen Loves Design.

The perfect weekend, more of Season 3 of Homicide and Season 5 of the X-Files (which yes, we own).

So do you ever have a dream that is so vivid, you feel like you are still in it? That happened to me yesterday, actually. So weird. I don’t remember any details of the dream, but all day I had a strange feeling like the characters were still with me, somehow.

Anyway, this feeling reminded me of one of the best contemporary cartoons out there (well it’s no longer on Cartoon Network, but it is on DVD). I don’t know about you, but I’ve watched a million cartoons that I couldn’t stand (Ed, Edd, n Eddy, I’m looking at you) because the kids loved, loved, loved them. Of course we’ve all been in this situation at one point or another, so I always get excited when they love something that we love too (Drake and Josh and iCarly were surprisingly good, not cartoons, though).

Image courtesy of Amazon.

Foster’s Home for Imaginary Friends is based on the incredibly brilliant idea that every kid has an imaginary friend. But someday, the kid grows up and doesn’t need or want their imaginary friend anymore. So where do they all go? Foster’s, that’s where! Here you can read a more detailed description of the show and each character (my favorite are Eduardo and Coco, interestingly, both of them are impossible to understand when they “talk”), but all this makes me think of something else when it comes to life design.

Maybe we all carry emotions with us as (kind of like the memory of imaginary “friends”)…we can’t really get rid of them since they are part of us, good and bad. Now if only there is a home where we can leave them temporarily. That’s really why I think the show is so great. Where do imaginary friends (or emotions) really go when we no longer need them?

As mentioned here, every Friday night I am writing my seemingly random answers to seemingly random diary pages (even if today happens to be Saturday):

1. My day was “on a silver plate” because we woke up early, took our youngest out to breakfast and then bought him super fancy new basketball shoes. Then we picked up his older sister at home and drove to his away basketball game where he proceeded to get a double-double. We were all super excited! Then we dropped her off at the mall to meet friends (after we all had lunch and coffee together) and then went back to meet the team bus. We are now all relaxing at  home, him with two other friends, and my Carl and I in the office!
2. “No”, I did not mysteriously survive a critical situation.
3. “No”, I have not scared adults with firecrackers.
4. A hero meets these two criteria: “brave” and “kind”.
5. Interesting couples “last”.
6. “Yes”, there is one guardian angel per person.

So as I mentioned here, I wanted to post a new picture every day. But instead I’ll be posting several days together each time!

The view out of my window at work. The creepy view, apparently. Look at all the birds just watching, waiting!

The beautiful winter sky on the way home from work (by a garden nursery).

An amazing winter sunset casting the last rays of sunshine on a white horse fence by my house.

The fact that the coffee shop still has red and green Christmas decorations up notwithstanding, look at the wreath over the fireplace. Made with their coffee cups, so clever!

We won again!

So, a million points to anyone who knows what the title of this blog post means (my Carl, you can’t play)! Any guesses? Does this help?

Image courtesy of Amazon.

Okay, so probably not. Well, it’s an amazing detective show that ran from 1967 until 1975. You can read all about here, and let’s just say that I didn’t quite see it on television initially, but I love it so, so much now. We ordered it from Netflix quite a while ago, and for some reason, it is serious comfort-television for me! Do you know what I mean? For me it’s a show that I can put on and feel like everything is okay with the world. Of course watching it now it’s still a pretty great show (some older shows are now so un-watchable for so many reasons) with great characters and the very big added bonus for me to see LA in the 1960s with the sets and the fashions! Half of the time I am looking at what the characters are wearing and a fantastic piece of furniture in the background instead of paying attention to the story line. To be fair, I’m also looking at the details of how the rooms are decorated and whatever else I can see in each scene – there’s so much to see! Like all great television shows, in the beginning of the episode there is a problem, and by the end, it’s all solved. All that comfort (and great design) in less than 1 hour. I’ll take it!

What about you? Do you have an comfort-television shows?

As I mentioned here, my Carl will be giving me a word of the day every Tuesday to write about.

So today’s word is grouse. Mostly because my Carl used it in a sentence yesterday, as in, “I’m not going to grouse about it anymore…” Of course I then laughed and laughed. Seriously, who uses the word “grouse” in an every day sentence?! My Carl, that’s who!

But anyway, I’ve been meaning to write something about a grouse anyway, so it was perfect timing. Clearly, we’re one of the weirdest couples ever.

So yes, let’s talk about a grouse! And Wallender! Seriously, though. It is so, so, so good. We saw it on Masterpiece Mystery months ago and I am still in awe of how good it was. Oh and Sweden, how I love you! Although interestingly some of the darkest stories we’ve ever watched (the Swedish version of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, etc. for one) are set in a country that makes me think of IKEA, painted white floors, and simple, elegant wood furniture designs. Hmmm. So in Wallender, his father is dying. He is a painter and he pants basically the same wild life scene over and over and over. Wallender comments that people often think these types of pictures (found in hotels and the like) are just mass-produced, but in fact his father paints each one by hand. And sometimes he adds in a grouse.

When his father ultimately dies, Wallender hangs one of his paintings in his house. One with a grouse. I think just that simple act speaks volumes about what Wallender thinks of his dad and what the grouse represented to both of them. Interesting stuff!