My Grandparent's house

My grandma lives in a very large house on a mountain in Arizona.   Their house is always a crazy mess full of fabulous eclectic objects and a lot of great furniture, and of course, that Arizona light everywhere.  My grandmother graduated college with a degree in landscape architecture and has always had an eye for design.  They were always going to auctions and buying office furniture and fixtures. I distinctly remember office chairs 'decorating' our living room on multiple occasions.  Paintings, desks--definitely rolling chairs, we even have cubicle walls in one room in the house. They all came from offices or auctions. Growing up, I never realized that this wasn't common.

These were definitely bought at an auction.  I like them.

I love that the painting is sitting on the floor. Next to an Eames eiffel chair.

That dish set.  Those salt and pepper shakers.

They have another similar table in the kitchen.  I love that everything is haphazard and there are piles of clutter everywhere. Amazing, fabulous, old, clutter.  Throwing things away is totally overrated.

Tea Time

The book is called Best American Humorous Short Stories.  The foreword is very interesting.

Greasey likes the milk and has no qualms about drinking it right in front of me.  If I shoo her away, she'll come right back.  She will drink anything I leave out if she can reach the liquid, and sometimes if she can't.  I caught her once drinking orange juice by reaching her paw into the glass, dipping it into the juice, and then licking it off.  She also likes to knock things over: sometimes she gets angry that the water level is too low, and she'll push the glass of water off of the table.  I keep telling her "that's why we can't have nice things," but I don't know that she listens.

teapot collection

Yesterday we went to the MOMA and saw the bauhaus show. It gave a much better insight on the purpose and goal of the Bauhaus than anything I learned in art history classes. But what I loved were the metalwork pieces by Marianne Brandt. She became head of the metals workshop at the Bauhaus in 1929 and her work is fabulous:

She creates beautiful forms out of a very few shapes:

Oh. . . and the teapot. The shapes are all so simple. Circles and right angles--but look what they do when they come together.

And then we got to see this set by Nikolai Suetin:

He was a Russian Suprematist, which is part of that early twentieth century avant garde rebellion against any form of decorative flourish. This set is upstairs with the German expressionists. (I don't know why).

But I do love this teacup:

And the teapot:

This plate--and look at the other teacup in the corner.

And, while I'm on the subject of fabulous tea sets:

I. Want. This.

It's from Paint Chip Diaries' etsy shop and it's fabulous.