PURE

If you have ever ridden for a lengthy amount of time then you know the pure euphoria that comes with pushing the limits. If you are passionate about something then push the limit and see how good it feels afterwards.

Try it....

Rapha Continental – The Movie from RAPHA on Vimeo.

Inspiration...

I have lots of projects going on right now, be patient and once I get pics that I actually like I will start posting the new stuff. Have a good weekend and enjoy a little life inspiration.

Paper Fortress: 2009 - 2011 Reflection from Paper Fortress on Vimeo.

Suns Out, So Are Bikes

This gets me fired up for a ride.

State Bicycle Co. - Valley of the Sun from State Bicycle Co. on Vimeo.

6 Bucks!!??? I Got 6 Bucks!!

Well, well, well. Here we are again, at Restore, with a fistful of dollars and a shopping list. We were visiting family this past weekend and after our Saturday morning breakfast outing decided to hit the Restore just so I could rest easy that same night about at least making an attempt to go and not worry about what I may have missed out on.

You see lately I have missed out some incredible furniture finds because in my little obscure working mind, I feel I am the only one looking for what I am looking for....Does that make sense. Let me explain. Say I was looking at a dresser to refinish and use as a media cabinet with storage and I find the perfect one. Well my brain says " Dude, don't worry, come back tomorrow after you have thought about it all night and day and pick it up." So my brain wins, I have multiple hours to mull this over and design the most awesomest media cabinet ever. There is excitement as I drive to pick it up. I am almost shaking thinking about how flipping fabulous my ideas are and how I should have my own show. As I walk through the doors I laugh quietly at the people that have no clue at how awesome I am and as I turn the corner I ..........wait, wait, oh they must have just moved it. I make my way around to the other isle feeling a teensy bit of anxiety......where the hell is it. I start quietly freaking out and frantically walk around the whole store until I run into a sales clerk and grab him by the collar and yell "WHERE IN THE HELL IS THAT DRESSER THAT WAS HERE YESTERDAY AFTERNOON!" "SOLD!!" "WHAT DO YOU MEAN SOLD, NO ONE WOULD PAY FOR THAT PIECE OF"........Ok it didn't quite go like that, but what I am trying to say is that it's depressing and a huge let down to miss a great deal on a great piece because of procrastination. Apparently I am not the only design star out there with great ideas or tastes, weird huh.

Well Saturday morning it didn't get the best of me. For you see I had some cash, I had a mission, and now I have an unbelievable chair for 6 bucks! It will get cleaned up and reupholstered and it will be loved by the many eyes that see it. give me a few weeks and it will be new again, be patient until then.

Here is Ki enjoying his donut in my new chair, funny thing is out of all those chairs this is the one he picked to enjoy a nice glazed donut in. I'm either brainwashing him or the kid has taste.

And a few more before pics.

FALAH-DA

We decided on a whim to take a small trip to Clearwater Beach and use some free airline and hotel points before summer got here and we got to busy to go anywhere or do anything (that was a long sentence). I didn't have any expectations or any ideas of what Florida was like. The only time I've been there is on a layover to another destination. In the back of my mind I thought Florida would be mad at me for using her for convenience rather than pleasure. Mostly running through her airports to catch other flights, not even paying attention to the sun and sand and landscape and climate that she had to offer. Falah-da - I do apologize.

The weather was beautiful, the sand was white and fluffy, the hotel was big pimpin', the ocean breeze was so clean, and the ice cream in a waffle cone was just the thing to completely destroy any chance of trying to eat healthy on any given day.....but so worth it.

I could probably go on and on about how cool and different it was. Watching Ki in the ocean, braving the waves and quickly overcoming the fear of what might be in the water was cool. I asked him if he liked big city vacationing or beach vacationing better and he said that he liked them both the same. Man if he keeps that attitude up our vacations should be pretty easy from here on out.

This is how it started



   


















A lot of this



          


















None of this

And this is how each day ended

Restore Finds

It's no secret that I have an addiction to our local Habitat Restore. And lately they have not been letting me down. Here are few pics of the coolness that I have been finding.

This chair is 10 bucks and it is actually a rocker/glider dealio. A fresh new stain or paint and modded out fabric would make this rocker rock.

This table can get huge if you let it. My idea is chop the legs down, clean it up, and it would make an awesome coffee table. Oh and its 30 bucks. It's also got these x shaped ivory like inlays that are right above the legs from the top view. Awesome

As I was leaving I walked past a box that said furniture legs, I opened it up and HOLY CRAP......look at these legs. 8 bucks. Now the idea is to salvage the legs from the table and use a set of these instead. Genius?....yeah I know.

My "Console"ation Prize

Remember a while back when I saw that console, record player, stereo cabinet thing with the louvered sides. Well I ended up buying it for $20 bucks. Killer right? Right! I Got it home and instantly got to work on it. Mainly just cleaning it up, but I also sanded down the top to get some of the real deep scratches out of it and then gave it a mix of espresso and walnut stain all over to bring back it back to life. I am extremely happy with it and love the way it has helped me change my design ways to a more collective approach, rather than a matchy matchy box store vibe.

Here is the before, I think it felt kind of like the new kid in school that everybody talked about because it didn't quite fit in.

And here it is all cleaned up, looking so fresh and so clean clean (outkast). Check out those legs, so choice.

     

It has already made so many new friends including a new sectional, some RUSH and Willie Nelson vinyl, some family pics, a new lamp ( dope lamp right?), and an Ipod which took some getting used to. It couldn't figure out how all those songs could fit on a little black and silver gizmo and be played by hooking it up to two dusty inputs on the back. Welcome to the future my friend, you're going to love it here. 

More to come.........