Inspiration in the Simple Things

When most people travel, there are lots of pictures of themselves and their friends/family standing in front of something. My travel photos are full of things that catch my eye, make me laugh or that I think may inspire my work in the future. Take a look at some of these photos that I have taken over the last year or two.

This is the brick work on the sidewalks of Palm Springs. I love tile and working tile into patterns so this immediately caught my eye. Plus it is a detail that seems to be lacking from so many of our metropolitan areas.

This photo comes from a walk to the beach in Carmel. I took pictures of the house on the way down to the beach because as a composition, I loved it. On the way back to town, I stopped at the house again and marveled at the details. I didn't realize that it was the same house until my husband laughingly pointed it out to me.

I loved the iron leaves that serve as brackets for the pierced wood panels. Since Houston has several sources of wood panels this one really appealed to me.

One of my favorite photos was from a visit to NYC a couple of years ago during New Years. I loved this pavilion just at dusk. There is just a calmness to this scene to me. There are still rhythm and repetition, but it is simple and it calls to me.

A Design Case Study: Windfarms & Palm Springs

As part of our short drive from Ontario Airport in LA to Palm Springs last month, we had the pleasure of driving through San Gorgonio Mountain Pass. This stretch of mountains is the third highest in California and the pass is a natural wind tunnel, with strong winds most of the year. This windfarm makes enough power to supply Palm Springs and the surrounding areas.

I was FASCINATED! As a resident of Texas, with family in Dallas, we often see semitrailers loaded with wind turbine parts. They are huge. But I had not seen a wind farm until we reached Palm Springs. This most amazing fact is that the tallest wind turbines are 150 feet tall, with the blades at 1/2 of a football field. When you are driving through, you sense they are big, but not that big.

The designer in me took great notice in how the use of three colors; white, black and grey, affected the landscape. See what you think -

The largest and all white ones are up on the ridge. The lower ones (medium) have a black "A" Frame structure - see how the bases disappear in the landscape?

These are my favorite color, grey. You can still see them, but they are more subtle in the landscape versus the white. I'm not sure why the color difference, but for this terrain, I know which one I'd vote for. How about you?

Palm Spring Restaurants

Ok, so restaurants may not be directly related to Interior Design - but the ones in Palms Springs have it going on in spades. We went to several during our stay and it is interesting that they all are so different. I must say, I came back well feed and well wined, that and in need of losing a few pounds. In a time when amazing service in restaurants can be lacking. We had AMAZING service at all of the restaurants we went to. So cheers to the waiters and waitress that set out to make our evenings enjoyable.

If you find yourself in Palm Springs, I highly recommend the following restaurants.

http://www.vineyardtuscangrille.com/

The host and I presume owner was terribly gracious and very entertaining. We kept trying to figure out who he was. Our party felt sure that he was an Hollywood Actor, retired to the Palm Spring area. By the way, the entry chandelier is fabulous and hung a little low, really creating an intimate entrance.

http://www.johannes-restaurant.com/ - Johannes Restaurant was equally as good, if not surprising in its menu which included among other things Kangaroo Loin. I had the butternut squash and appetizer quartet (since I could not decide). We had a fairly large table of ten for dinner and the restaurant and waitress did an excellent job of servicing our table.

Probably the most outstanding service we received was from Matchbox http://www.matchboxpalmsprings.com/. We arrived early for dinner, sublime calamari with jalapeno jelly and a fabulous pizza along with great wine and a great view. Always makes me happy.

The restaurant we went to the last evening Palm Springs Chop House (http://www.palmspringschophouse.com/) , I am convinced put four pounds on me alone. We dined on escargot, spinach salad, rib eye, wonderful sourdough bread (it almost made your mouth pucker) and a molten chocolate cake for dessert. Now granted, my husband and I split everything - but it still was a lot of food. Interestingly, their interior was part Egyptian, part Spanish all at a chop house.