Those Mixed Metals

20 MINUTES IS NEVER QUITE ENOUGH TIME to spend at home on a Sunday afternoon, the only real time you see the house washed in daylight and hence, the only real time you actually see what the place looks like outside of the bedroom.

Two very long weeks gone by and I had neither done anything special for my blog's 2nd anniversary nor caught up with friends online and off. I did, however, catch up with Jaime, eating way too much food and spending way too much money on way too much shopping. A bit wasteful but what the heck else are weekends for?

Yes, Kitty finds it just as strange that my new replacement pumps -finally!!!- are on the console.

Kitty Bang Bang, Zara pumps and random items at home. Photos by Lady San Pedro.

That Fanfare

WARM WEATHER DAYS LIKE THESE remind me of childhood, spending afternoons at home watching soaps with my grandma and the helper. The air would always smell of banana leaves toasted from lubricating the flat iron and the room was always noisy with the rackety sound of an old metal desk fan.

They eventually got replaced, those fans. We started having those plastic ones everyone had in the 90's, in white, with either baby blue, pink or green blades.

Thank god the vintage styles have resurfaced!

Portable fans by Arcadian Lighting, www.arcadianlighting.com

That Where I Must Spend My 7th Birthday

LIKE A DOLLHOUSE but sleek. Cold, like a scene out of Suspiria, with the gloss of a fashion magazine.

And where I must celebrate my 7th birthday on Leap Day next year.

La Terraza del Casino de Madrid interiors by Jaime Hayon, www.hayonstudio.com

Those Murs Végétaux

HOW DOES YOUR GARDEN GROW? For over fifteen years, gardener extraordinaire Patrick Blanc has been artistically planting and pruning walls and walls of gardens in almost every continent on the globe.

Created with equal parts creative skill and scientific knowledge, the Vertical Gardens or Murs Végétaux are soil-less vegetation growing on a lightweight construct consisting of three components: a metal frame, a layer of PVC and a layer of felt. The metal frame serves as an air layer to the structure while the PVC keeps it rigid and waterproof. The felt, on the other hand, is rot-proof and works in place of soil for holding the roots.

Blanc's Vertical Gardens provide aesthetic appeal to various interior and exterior surfaces while also aiding to decompose pollutants. The structures also aid in conserving energy by providing insulation to buildings in the winter, and keeping them cool in the summer.

Museums, shops, hotels, banks, restaurants, parks, commercial centers, even private residences and of course, Blanc's own home, serve as living spaces for his work.

Looking out the window, our garden has never looked so lame.

Has gardening ever been this fascinating?

Vertical Gardens by Patrick Blanc, images from www.verticalgardenpatrickblanc.com

That Destination

WHERE TO GO IN 2011? Expect Tablet to get you believing that you can live out any childhood fantasy with destinations that seem to have popped out of an epic tale.

Inside of me is an Indian princess waiting to be released.

Take me to the Taj Lake Palaaaace!!!

Taj Lake Palace, Udaipur, India, www.tajhotels.com Book at Tablet Hotels, www.tablethotels.com

That Folio of Delights

AFTER A 3-DAY WEEKEND OF ALMOST FULL DOMESTICITY, we emerge with a new tall boy, a new upholsterer and a prospective king-sized poster bed!

I guess this marks the beginning of another home-improvement phase that will -hopefully- result in what the house should fully and finally be. For good!

An addition to our inspiration list is Trowbridge's Folio Collection which gives a gentle nudge for me to have our art prints framed, make my own artworks to have framed and borrow some paintings from Daddy to put up on bare walls.

Excitement!

Trowbridge Folio Collection, www.trowbridgegallery.com