Wanderlust

There are times when I see pictures that my husband takes while he’s away on a job and I get a renewed sense of wanderlust. This is one of those times.

Oh well…off to the office I go this morning.

For the love of Deyrolle

About 5 years ago I had the joy of visiting Paris.  On that very brief visit, I was told that I MUST stop in to see Deyrolle while I was there.  For those of you that have never visited, it’s a natural science “Cabinet of Curiosities” shop started in 1831 that is filled to the brim with taxidermy, etymological specimens, shells and coral, beautiful instructional charts, classrooms, etc…and all displayed with a nod to whimsy.  (This is evident from the first moment you look in the window and see an antelope dressed in gardening clothes.)  Unfortunately, I had other appointments to attend to while I was there, but I literally could have stayed in Deyrolle for the entire day.  It left me feeling sad to leave because I wanted to explore every nook and cranny of this incredible place, and felt as if I’d only scratched the surface.

Fast forward a few years, and I heard that Deyrolle had experienced a terrible fire and most of it had burned.  Thankfully the owners and volunteers were able to save a great number of specimens…and today the shop has been rebuilt.

In 2009 Assouline Publishing released a book of photographs by Laurent Bochet called 1000 degrees Celsius that captured the remains of what happened after the fire.  It’s a captivating book that I would recommend to anyone who loves animals and the spirit of survival.  The portraits section at the end is my favorite part for it’s vitality against the blackened walls of the shop.  It features volunteers posing with specimens that survived the fire from Deyrolle.  My favorite quote from that section is, “Amid all this carbon, they [the specimens] had never looked as much like survivors.  We gathered them together so that they could rub each other, nuzzle each other – a kiss.”

See more photos from Laurent Bochet’s 1000 degrees Celsius after the jump.

A room with so many possibilities…

I was clicking through my bloglines subscriptions just now and this post by Sweet Juniper jumped out at me.  Partially because I love photos of abandoned places, but also because one of them stuck out as being so nice…and because I saw it as being filled with so many possibilities.

When you look at this room, what do you see?  And what would you do with it?  I’d love to make it my “study.”  I don’t need a study…but wouldn’t this make a great one?

Head over to his blog to see the other three rooms…

In the throes of wedding planning

I’m in the midst of major wedding planning which includes but is not limited to lots of DIY projects, saving money wherever I can, and pretending that I’m trying to also get in shape for the big day (next June).  Anyways…my whole thoughts at the moment seemed to be consumed by caterers, photographers, and drooling over Once Wed.  Seeing as how I don’t have much to say regarding my house, I figured I’d at least show you the place where we are planning on getting married – my fiancee’s family’s farm outside Philadelphia.

Our wedding is at the family farm

near the barn

under the sycamore tree

…and beside the pond.

It’s going to be pretty.  I just hope it doesn’t rain.  Cross your fingers.  🙂

Trip to the junk store + dining room pics

Yesterday while being out enjoying Fall, we happened along a little junk store that had a treasure trove of goodness.   We got 8 paint-by-numbers, a new 50’s side chair and two mounted plush animal heads (not shown).   Since we hung the artwork up in the dining room, I thought it would be worth showing pics of the dining room since I’ve not posted anything on it before.  (Oh, and did I mention that we got everything for the low price of $55 total!  Man, I love shopping at thrift stores!)

The new art above the dining room buffet is the “Four Seasons” paint by number series.

The new art is horses, landscape, and collie.  Plus our new chair!!  Love it!  (It’s got a cotton-webbed seat that matches the walls!)  Also, this is the finished corner cabinet that we got at a salvage store and installed into the corner.  (See the original post and pictures about it HERE.)

Update: Apartment Therapy re-posted my dining room pics!  Several people asked what color I used on the walls.  It’s Williamsburg brand paint.  The darker green is CW505 and the lighter green is CW508.  Also, some other people asked about the dining room set.  It was manufactured by Bramin of Denmark in 1965 and designed by H.W. Klein (and yes…it was also purchased at a thrift store too).

Snippets of the Fall Weekend…

This weekend we had so much fun exploring Montgomery County, PA…and enjoying the Fall season.

Max Wanger, why don’t you live in Philly so that you can photograph my wedding?

You see Max, I adore your work!  There are so many of your pictures in my “inspiration file” just for photography styling alone that it pains me that you live so far away.  However, flying you in from Los Angeles is probably out of the question…so I thought I’d pen this lament in hopes that at least everyone on the west coast could see your brilliant work and hopefully fill your dance card with lots more work.

But just in case you happen to be in the Philadelphia area next June and would like to take a little visit to a farm and photograph a lovely couple, then okay fine.  Far be it from me to tell you no.  I mean…it only makes sense that it be you since I would just be comparing everyone else’s photos to yours and they’d never measure up.  *sigh*

Okay…well in case anyone else out there isn’t as unfortunate as me to live so far away from the talented Max Wanger, then stop over and peruse his lovely images.  Of course, you could also drop him a note telling him to move to Philadelphia as well.  I mean…I wouldn’t mind.

Motel Room Voyeur

Nick has been working on a series of motel rooms.  I am of course always interested to see interiors of any kind, and for some reason we both share a love of weird motels.  These are a few of my favorites of his recent shots.

The Pineapple Motel

The Arns Motel

The Bill White Motel

The Welsh Motel

The Little Big Horn Motel

Now if only he could find a motel that had themed rooms…like “The Prince of Egypt room” or “The Taj Mahal Room.”  That is what my voyeuristic soul is hoping for next.  All photos by Nick Steever.

Nigel’s professional debut

Nigel, my brown Boston Terrier, was asked to pose in a photo shoot last week!  Here’s one of the outtakes in his “professional debut.”  He was really working that camera.  Haha!

Update:  One additional outtake.  I couldn’t resist.  The little critter is such a natural ham.

Stormy Sunday afternoon

Today has provided us with a huge rainstorm, and hail the size of acorns.  At least the clouds and light were spectacular.