Congratulations to Cami Ratliff, the winner of the drawing for Martin Wood's biography, Laura Ashley!
Martin Wood will speak at the Richmond Academy of Medicine Alliance Foundation's 48th Benefit Antiques & Fine Arts Show today, Feb. 5, at noon at the Commonwealth Club.
If you'd like to know more about the event itself, visit ramaf.org.
He didn't either.
Bless is just going to have to stop telling people about his amazing pre-fab retreat, Luminhaus (not to be confused with Lumenhaus — which, granted, is really confusing). He and his wife, Jennifer Watson, along with family and friends, constructed a modernist cabin from one of the first of Rocio Romero’s LV Kit homes. Floor-to-ceiling windows maximize the Blue Ridge Mountain site and its view of the forest that surrounds it. Out back is a Japanese-lantern-like shed
A lot of bartering went on while building the house, and I have to say, although I have no skills whatsoever, I would have volunteered my husband in a heartbeat in exchange for a weekend at Luminhaus. Serious comfort and a spectacular kitchen make this my — and the Bless/Watson family's — perfect getaway. To read more, pick up a copy of this month's Family Circle or check out the Luminhaus Web site.
Congratulations to R•Home pal Eddie Ross! He smoked the competion in the Bloomingdale's Big Window Challenge.
All the windows, though, really are beautiful, and it was difficult, I think, to choose among them. Take a look here if you'd like to see more!
And if you'd like to congratulate Eddie himself, come and see him at the MAC Events Home Show featuring the Maymont Flower and Garden Show, from Feb 18 to 21. We'll let you know the exact time and day when it hits the schedule!
“There are two kinds of adventurers: those who go truly hoping to find adventure and those who go secretly hoping they won't.”
—William Least-Heat Moon (author of Blue Highways)
If you're going to take on a project, I say, do it big. Bite off a chunk each day, choke on it, despair, swallow and then pick out what's left in your teeth and start over the next day.
2010 Pollak Award winner and native Richmonder Gordon Stettinius (aka Eye Caramba) decided this past summer to travel Route 1 and, with his trusty dozen or so cameras slung around his neck, document the entire length of it from Canada to Key West.
"Impossible!" you might say. And to that, Gordo might reply, "Maybe."
Actually, what he really says (on his blog, Gordo Is Dead) is: "And so the road is part scenic and part sobering reality really and the idea of doing a photo survey seems to me a bit over-reaching. I feel as though I have gone to the ocean and having been impressed I irrationally decided to try to bring it back to the studio."
Tomorrow night (Jan. 20 from 5:30 to 8:30 p.m.), "Notes From US Route 1" opens at the Robin Rice Gallery in New York City. The images have an eerie, dreamy feel of existing somehow just out of the reach of history. Many look like they could have been taken 50 years ago, and some are clearly from the present (a nuclear power plant in the background of one is a tip-off).
Nonetheless, despite the otherworldly atmosphere — a little bit like looking through a View-Master that only reads 19th-century 2-D images — created by Stettinius's toy cameras (he primarily uses plastic Holga and Diana cameras), the images document both real relics that still crumble away in the present and the people who live amongst them.
An exhibition is planned at the Page Bond Gallery (date to be determined) but until then, check out Stettinius's site if you'd like to take a look at a sample of his photos.
I've always thought the Roomba would make my life better and in fact, even make me a better person. No longer would dog-fur tumbleweeds lurk in the corners! No more would the little hole-punched circles and tiny triangles of paper from art projects litter the floor! Maybe I could even put a dent in the never-ending Polly Pocket detritus I was always stepping on. "Oh, Roomba," I said to myself, "please come and save my family from a life of everlasting sloth!"
I was so naive, so inexperienced. I had yet to meet Mint (via UnBeige).The Roomba is great for rugs, but this little robot is infinitely better for the rest of the floors in my house. Smaller, sleeker and with the capability of using Swiffer and Pledge cleaning cloths in dry and mop mode, this is the automatic floor cleaner I've always fantasized about. Slap in a wet Swiffer cloth and bid farewell to mud and smashed pasta mixed with orange juice concentrate (no pulp), all while you pour yourself another glass of wine.
Mint was designed by Yves Behar and fuseproject (his industrial design and branding company) for Evolution Robotics, and it's expertly guided by a NorthStar beacon — I'm not exactly 100 percent sure what that is or how it works, but because it sounds a lot like those GPS systems they used to put in BMWs, it makes me feel pretty confident about Mint's ability to find its way out from underneath the kitchen table. Popular Mechanics even gave it their Editor's Choice Award at this year's Consumer Electronics Show.
However, I'm going to have to exercise my ability to delay gratification since the company hasn't actually released it yet (just this mesmerizing video). And of course, they aren't talking about price (maybe $250?) either. In fact, I think so far we can classify the whole project as housekeeping porn — alluring, tantalizing but ultimately fictitious, despite its resemblance to reality.
Sigh. As is often the case.
