Modern Fences III

From Modern Phoenix link below

Mr. Monkey and I have been once again thinking about fences and of course not just any fence but a modern fence. What's that saying about good fences and good neighbors? Mr. Monkey spoke to our neighbor who can't contribute funds but has offered to help out with the construction. This is not so good. But on the other hand she says she really doesn't care what it looks like. This is great news for us. Our neighbor's main concern is the protection of her elderly cat in her yard from other cats (including ours apparently - which is funny because our monkey cat is always getting beat up by a fluffy fur ball named Squeaky!). This means that she wants the fence to reach all the way to the ground, no spaces down below for kitties to sneak through. And although cats can often scale and jump over fences we will make this fence as tall as we can without a permit. My. Monkey thinks this is 6ft. Here are some pictures I've come across in my search and here's a Dwell link to a nice slideshow of modern fences. Here's a link to a real estate site in northern california that specializes in Eichlers and they've posted some ideas for Eichler owners. Here's a link to an Apartment Therapy post on Modern Fences in Austin, Texas. As for the pictures above. I found one in Photo Bucket and the other on the Modern Phoenix site. Finally last but not least I've blogged about fences in the past. You can go to Part 1 and Part 2 when you click on each link. If you have any good pictures of modern fences please send the link via comments. Cheers!

Good, Simple, Functional = Modern

I was scanning my pictures for things I've been wanting to post but have gotten looked over for no good reason. I found this little picture which exemplifies all that should be considered positive about modern design. It might be hard to tell why this picture is special you have to look in the cup. Go ahead, look at the cup, see what's inside? A straw, right. But not just any straw - it's what the straw is made out of . . . you guessed it, that's right! GLASS! I love these straws at the sweetest little cafe in Eugene. It's called Park St. Cafe and they are the only restaurant that I know of that has glass straws for tasty cold drinks like Hibiscus Cooler - and iced herb tea of sorts.  I love these straws because they exemplify all that is good in modern design. They are simple, but they are recyclable and re-useable. Like they say in the wine bizz - they have a good mouth feel and they're nice to look at too. Like I said good design. Now sure I wouldn't hand one over to a child who likes to bite their straws but for most of the population we can use them and reuse them again and again. I hope this is a design tip that spreads fast! Enjoy. Does anyone else know of any glass straws or glass straw makers? I haven't had a chance to research them yet. But I'm thinking we need a set here at the Monkey Pad. Cheers!

Front Yard Update

This first picture is just the tease. Mr. Monkey worked hard on the flagstone patio out front. It's laid in concrete and is nice and solid and flat and level. I love it. Read and see below for more of a play by play of how the new and improved front yard evolved.

Well it's not completed but you can get a sense of the work that Mr. Monkey, my hubby, has done. Wowza! We are getting lots of positive comments from the neighbors and friends that have stopped by. Click to see what it looked like when we bought the place. Look below for even more pics of the evolution of our front yard. You can see that Mr. Monkey took out that not so modern fencing. When he did - we called it "The Great Liberation". Our yard looked so much better once that yuckerific fence was gone. 

And the 3 basalt columns are really a show stopper. One of the 3 is a fountain and quite nice for a little burbling but without the mosquito eggs that tend to gather in slow moving fountains. The water just drains through the rock bed to a container down below and filters back up. Amazing as far as I'm concerned.  We have few more more plant and flower additions that are in the ground sine this last picture was taken so stay tuned for more front yard goodness. 

When in Tucson: Copper Country

Believe it or not there is mid-century modern furniture in this building!

There wasn't quite enough sun here in Eugene so I thought I'd pop over to Tucson for some fun in the sun. Mostly I spent my time with dear dear friends who just had twins. You can imagine life with twins was pretty busy but not too busy for a quick visit to one of my friend's favorite antique shop. Even when life is so hectic and you're sleep deprived it's good to squeeze in a few minutes of diversion and inspiration.  For my friend and I this would include looking at great design and funky signs. This store - Copper Country has both! Check out this picture. It's hard to see but there is in fact a huge buffalo on the roof with wings AND the winged buffalo is on top of the boat. It's hard to date them but I'm thinking they're not from the 50's. You have to go inside for those goodies.This is a rosewood K. Kristiansen chair that they were charging $150.00. Below the silver tortoise shell is actually a lamp. It was labeled as "Arthur Court" and cost $1200.   I loved the tortoise shell lamp but of course it's too big for our wee house and way out of our price range for a lamp. Oh well.  If you happen to be in Tucson stop by this fun store. There are lots of other treasures that have nothing to do with being fabulously modern but are equally fun to sort through. Enjoy!

Oak St. Vintage, Eugene, Oregon

You couldn't find a nicer little vintage shop in a house in a medium sized town than Oak St. Vintage. The owners Cora and Carl are super nice and love to talk about all things mid century mod. If I'm having a grouchy day I just like to stop by and be around the B-U-tiful items they've added to the store.  Here's some pics from my most recent fly-by. 

I was thinking about this lamp (there's two in the picture) as a bed side reading lamp but it just had too big of a foot print. And I was thinking about this wee table (below) as a nightstand for my side of the bed but I found one on craigslist that was in a bit better condition. This one was super affordable at $40, it was on consignment, but it did have a water stain on the top shelf. The white portion slid back to reveal a secret compartment to store all of your bedside goodies. I had to pass on these items but I'll be back soon and I hope some of you local folks will stop by soon to visit Cora and Carl and all their super stylin' mid-century accoutrements.

Decision Time: Flor Tiles as Runner

Okay peeps - I've had it with our runners - that's right we have 2 to be annoyed with. We've had them for 3 years now. We got them a target when we just had moved back to Oregon after life in Phoenix. We didn't have a bunch of money but Mr. Monkey moved us into this little dump of a place that hard horrendous carpet - complete with stains even after 2 stints of professional carpet "cleaning" - oh yeah they were gross. The best we could do was cover them up. I proceeded to buy a rug and these two runners. They've done their job. It's time to move on. 

I've been admiring Flor for awhile now - through the catalog, online, and in Modern, a nice home furnishings store here in Eugene. The cool thing about going to Modern and not online is that I can actually touch and feel the tiles and check them out from the store. So I went on Saturday to check out a few of the tiles and here they are. We narrowed it down to 4 first. Pictured to the right. And then narrowed it down even more.

 It's funny though the one I'm leaning towards the most is the very first one I picked in the store - I guess I just knew. At first though when I showed them Mr. Monkey - the one I first thought was right he first thought was wrong. Uh oh. Once he saw them laid down on the floor he was fine with the final two. So that's them at the top of the post - the final two. Feel free to express an opinion. Even if you're opinion is "paint those ugly walls." Here's a link to a picture of the living room and the office to get an idea of the color scheme of the house and how it will all fit together. Cheers!

Seattle Times: Hip Items of Note

Here are just a few more images we captured from our Seattle weekend that I thought other modern monkeys might enjoy! First up Super sweet vinyl chairs in the Experience Music Project (EMP) cafe. I love the the tan and black together. Next up - a spinning elephant! The sign and the car wash appear to be functioning. 
Then we have a sweet store front off of Denny or was it Bellevue in the Capitol Hill Area. Anyway it's called the Pretty Parlor and isn't it, though? I like their vision of retro pink. Check out their website & tag line "Where Audrey Hepburn meets Judy Jetson."

While we were walking around downtown looking for a lunch spot we came across this tape measure! We were in a rush so I didn't stop to notice what the building was and if the oversized tape measure was related in anyway to the function of the building or if it was just there for fun and not function. 

And then there was this crazy kinda subversive "fun house" mascot. He was a little freaky looking - you can understand how it caught my eye. We also thought it was cool how prominently they were advertising for their RollerGirls. We have several RollerGirls teams as well that are pretty amazing! But nowhere in Eugene can I think of a big sign like this other than at the RollerGirl Store - Emerald City Skates. I love Eugene because we do contribute a lot of crazy for a little city but it's always refreshing and stimulating to head to the big Emerald City.