Modern house, minimalist landscape: Complete
November 5, 2009 at 12:51 am | In gardening, modernism | Leave a CommentTags: barberry, juniper, landscape, landscape design, minimalist, modern house, mugo, Weeping White Spruce
The front yard landscaping is complete! I am really happy with the turnout. Daryle thinks it is too sparse, but I love the “white space” (mulch) that separates each plant. Slowly, all of the plants will sprawl out while remaining low to the ground. Instead of using lava rock as decoration interspersed with the plants; we used large pieces of quartz that were in the backyard. The flat pebbles that line the bottom of the hill above the side-walk were also from the backyard. It’s nice to use items from our house and not have to buy more of things.
The yard will be relatively low-maintenance. I do have to water it twice a week and fertilize it twice a year. The juniper and spruce will need pruning, but that won’t need to happen for more than a year. I think the hardest maintenance will be keeping the ivy from the neighbor’s yard out of ours. Alas, it is done. Now to the backyard!
The Beatles – Hey Jude lyrics – Flow Chart
November 3, 2009 at 6:39 pm | In design, music | Leave a CommentTags: flow chart, hey jude, Hey Jude lyrics, The Beatles
Happy Halloween!
October 31, 2009 at 12:23 pm | In design | Leave a CommentTags: batman, catwoman, michelle pfeiffer
What are you doing for Halloween this year? I am going on a pub crawl around H Street tonight. Costume: a dead 1950s house wife. Have fun and be safe!
Halloween Party Mix (This is good.)
October 29, 2009 at 5:39 pm | In music | 1 CommentTags: budos band, dj, dj d-mac, dj set, halloween, house party music, mix, music, nick cave and the bad seeds, the cramps
Getting in the spooky-spirit of Halloween, for the second year in a row, Daryle (A.K.A. DJ D-Mac) mixed a terrifying selection of music from the vinyl he’s collected for years. A Grip of Terror is scary fun. I’m loving The Budos Band’s blaring baritone sax with laughing goblins, and dissonant piano riffs in the background. The Cramps singing “i cut your head off and put it in my tv set,” with music-box sounds is creepy. But wait, then comes some deep dark early nineties dub electronica. You can even hear the genuine crackle of the record going pop-pop-pop. The swirling chaos of funk and vocal chants, and jammy congas and bass-lines are killah. The pinnacle is a little housey club moment from i’m not telling with a theramin in the background then ending with the haunting Tocata in D Minor by Bach.
Download here.
The mix got picked up on Soul Strut, so it must be mad good. Happy Halloween!
Photo credit: Katie Mathy
Typographic posters: Mustache Madness (This is totally cool.)
October 27, 2009 at 8:28 pm | In design, typography | Leave a CommentTags: Freddie Mercury, Fu Manchu, handlebar, Hulk Hogan, moustache, mustache, Tom Selleck, typographic, typographic posters, walrus
Can you name the musician, actor and wrestler that rocks the above mustache style?
Ryan Davis, of the UK designed these totally cool posters when he saw the correlation between brackets and mustaches. The result, three ’stache legends’ so far: Freddie Mercury, Tom Selleck and Hulk Hogan. Ooh, that’s good!
(via: Ace Jet 170, CR)
P.S. While I’m on the subject, I just Googled mustache vs. moustache and both spellings seem to be correct. Maybe one is more regional to the US? Does anyone know? WordPress’s spellcheck says mustache is correct, but Wikipedia lists moustache as the primary entry. At least now I know that there is an organization called American Mustache Institute (otherwise known as AMI). Their primary role is “protecting the rights of, and fighting discrimination against, mustached Americans by promoting the growth, care, and culture of the mustache.” Dude, that’s awesome.
Modern house: Japanese inspired garden
October 26, 2009 at 11:28 pm | In architecture, gardening | 2 CommentsTags: Japanese garden, Juniper Hetzi Columnaris, modern row house, ornamental grasses, Pine Austrian Topiary, Weeping White Spruce, white muhly grass
The gray house in the center is ours.
View from the sidewalk.
A very rough landscape plan.
I thought it would be fun to post before-and-after photos of my yard. Last week, Daryle and I finalized the landscape plan. In order to keep the neighbors happy, we thought it best to begin with the front yard, since it currently consists of spotty grass full of weeds, and an over-sized yew tree. We met with a botanist to help choose the best plants that would grow. I’m not a big fan of flowers, I’d rather have sculptural looking plants that stay green all year. I also really wanted a garden that’s low maintenance. I prefer to spend my energy on the vegetables in the backyard. We thought a Japanese inspired garden would match the aesthetic of the house and neighborhood.
Most of the plants that we chose are evergreens. They are hardy, lush, and each have a distinct personality. I’m really excited for the two ornamental grasses. One grass will go at the top of the stairs that comes up from the sidewalk and the other will separate our house from the neighbor’s. On either side of the stairs, Barberry bushes will be interspersed with sprawling juniper and Pine Mugo Dwarf on the hill that also comes up from the sidewalk. A Pine Austrian Topiary will be the main sculptural statement, it will stand near the entrance to the house. A Weeping White Spruce will go in the center of the front yard, while the Juniper Hetzi Columnaris will separate our house from the other neighbor.
The front yard should be finished by the end of the week. I will report more later!
Education and Empowerment for Women in Africa
October 20, 2009 at 8:22 pm | In design, life | Leave a CommentTags: africa, black sheep heap, design, education, graphic t-shirt, green design, women
Black Sheep Heap recently partnered with the not-for-profit organization CAMFED (Campaign for Female Education) to design and print a t-shirt (design above) to raise awareness and funds for their efforts to educate and empower girls and eradicate poverty in Africa.
This year, a team of twenty-five runners will run as TEAM CAMFED in the New York City Marathon to raise money for the cause. If you make a donation of $50 or more to sponsor any of the Team members, you’ll receive a t-shirt. There is more info about the team and the free t-shirt on the “Why We Run” blog.
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It’s nice to see great design partner with such a noble cause.
I love Martha Stewart.
October 19, 2009 at 8:41 pm | In classic, homeownership | Leave a CommentTags: living, magazine, martha stewart, organization, organizational skills, thanksgiving
A brief intro why.
This Thanksgiving my parents and Daryle’s parents will meet for the first time after nearly five years of us being together. We are both very excited and have been rushing to ready our house: finish the kitchen, finish the master bathroom (so that we will have two W.C.s), finish the electrical fiber-optic lines that are still sticking out of the wall (still, after two years living with it), refinish the front door, nail down the toe kick throughout the house, landscape the front yard, install a banister on both staircases…(Why am I even writing this? I have so much to do!)…and many other things.
That said, in preparation for the Thanksgiving event, I bought Gourmet’s (R.I.P) and Living’s Thanksgiving issues. For the first time, I read Martha Stewart’s entire calendar that is at the front of her magazine for November. Now that I am old enough and (semi) responsible enough; it makes a lot of sense. I have a house, a yard, pets, the need to exercise more, the interest in entertaining, etc. I am greatly inspired by her calendar because I want to be more organized while most of the time, I don’t know where to begin. I will use her calendar as a guide for my life. I like how she has her exercise scheduled far in advance. She-will-be-there. I love how she has her winterized garden planned (not to forget winterizing the bee hives!). These organizational tips will help me maintain a level of sanity. What a concept: Finalize menu by this date. Buy the rest of supplies for menu by this date. Wala!
So Martha, here’s to you…and a new me!
New contemporary sans serif font by pprwrk studio
October 19, 2009 at 8:10 pm | In design, typography | Leave a CommentTags: font, font shop, mark caneso, pprwrk studio, ps Ratio, sans serif
Mark Caneso of pprwrk studio gave me the heads up that the strikingly bold but clean font Quatro has finally been released via his digital type lab. Mark was kind enough to send me a comp copy a few months back which my Sunshine+Design header is designed with. My gracious thanks to Mark.
The latest font by pprwrk studio is ps Ratio, a contemporary sans serif font available in 6 weights ranging from Thin to Heavy all with matching italics. I like!
Vegetable Garden: lessons I’ve learned
October 17, 2009 at 11:00 pm | In gardening | 4 CommentsTags: bell peppers, green beans, raised garden bed, resolutions, vegetable garden
As we progress farther into fall, my garden is slowing down. I thought I had picked all of the green beans a couple weeks ago but much to my suprise, I discovered a honkin’ big bean! I had to take a picture of it in my hand to show scale. He’s a big guy.
And yes, even after the garden thieves ransacked my bell peppers, I now have a ton growing. I’ve left the green ones on as long as possible and now some are turning red! My purple bell peppers are coming along too! In DC, the temperature has dipped so I have a feeling the garden’s days are numbered.
I made a list of some things that I have learned, things that I still don’t know, and plans for next year’s garden. I want this to be a learning experience and a resolutions for future gardens.
Things I’ve learned:
1. Water at the roots instead of all over the plant. This prevents disease from spreading.
2. Starting from seed, plant tomatoes and green beans in intervals so that the harvest doesn’t come all at one time.
3. Onions like a lot of sun.
4. Place cages around tomatoes early on—if you wait to late you will snap branches putting them on. (live and learn!)
Questions that I still have:
1. How is pesto made? I know it’s basil and olive oil?? I need to look that up.
2. Should I cover my raised garden bed over the winter?
3. Should I plant the vegetables in different areas for proper crop rotation?
4. What can I do differently to help melon, zucchini and pumpkin plant grow healthily?
Plans for next year:
1. Move the raised bed to a sunnier location. (It’s currently under a big tree that shields it from direct sun)
2. Plant a medicinal garden that I read about on DailyCandy.
3. Grow new veggies like: beets, carrots, heirloom tomatoes, pees.
4. Crop bundling (there is a more technical term I’m sure). Beets and carrots like to be near tomatoes. Study which vegetables like one another.
I’ll probably think of more lessons and questions later! Feel free to drop me a line if you have any suggestions for me. I would really appreciate it.
Sunshine+Design- Modern house, minimalist landscape: Complete November 5, 2009The front yard landscaping is complete! I am really happy with the turnout. Daryle thinks it is too sparse, but I love the “white space” (mulch) that separates each plant. Slowly, all of the plants will sprawl out while remaining low to the ground. Instead of using lava rock as decoration interspersed with the plants; [...]Sunshine+Design
- Modern house, minimalist landscape: Complete November 5, 2009
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