auctions are the greatest

I have only been to two auctions in my adult life and I intend to go to many, many more as often as I can. They are so much fun, and you can find the greatest treasures!

This weekend I went to an auction in this beautiful building below. It is the Highlands in Fort Washington. It is quite a spectacular place. I had previously explored the grounds and gardens, but this time I finally got to see the inside. And it just so happened to be filled to the brim with amazing treasures of paintings, sculptures, jewelry, and lots of rugs. It was as close to heaven that I can get in Fort Washington 

This is a light fixture in the building. 

The gardens are spectacular and were bursting with colors of fall. 

Mirror Art Wall

I am a fan of using random art work and items to fill a wall space. If you went to the Barnes they would call it an "ensemble." We are trying to finish the dining room on the smallest budget possible so we used what we had lying around. Admittedly I have more just "lying around" than most, but it's due to lots of hard work and picking through flea markets, yard sales and thrift stores.  ;-)

a wooden bench

so it started out that we needed a piece of furniture for a little nook off of the kitchen. we decided on a bench and i had been trying to find one for months. luckily in early october i saw a sign on the side of the road about the highland craft show and decided to check it out. that is where met john from JC Sterling and he had a table and bench set that was just what i wanted. he made one just for our nook and delivered it this weekend. look at this thing! it's so beautiful i don't even want to sit on it. 

and it turns out the original nook we had planned it for just didn't work. it seemed too hidden away. dave had the bright idea to switch places with the credenza in the living room and it works out perfectly. 

 i never thought a bench could be sexy, but just look at it.

now we are on a mission to find some cool lights to hang over it and i need to paint the radiator cover behind it the same as the wall color. 

below is the credenza in the space at thanksgiving. 

and here it is in it's new spot off the kitchen.

and here is the view from where you would be sitting on the bench if you actually sat on it. i prefer to look at it. 

and just because. here is a pic from fall, with the sun setting behind the japanese maple, which turned orange. it was gorgeous. 

the barnes

will only be in in the space where it was meant to spend it's eternity for another week, so get there if you can!! i finally went on tuesday and the place is magical. it's right outside of philly and is housed in a gorgeous building, built by albert barnes for his collection. if you've seen the art of the steal of have been following this mess, you know that the barnes foundation is moving the collection, which is in direct opposition to the will of albert barnes. there are a lot of details involved, but the bottom line is go see it while you can in the place the art was meant to be viewed! inside photography is not allowed, but here are some shots of the museum and gardens surrounding it.






the collection includes 181 Renoirs, 69 Cézannes, 60 Matisses, 44 Picassos, and 14 Modiglianis, among other paintings by Van Gogh, Degas and countless others. it's a wonderful place and will certainly not be the same once it's in that modern monstrosity on the parkway.

barnes foundation website here where you can see the collection and make reservations (if there are any left) to see it in person.

this was our favorite. the postman by van gogh

art

last year dave and i went to a first friday and saw an artist (gregory prestegord ) that we both REALLY liked. we had been wanting to buy something, but never got around to it. i went to first friday in april and stopped at F.A.N. art gallery. as luck would have it, he was having another show, so we bought one of his amazing paintings. his paintings really capture philly, with all it's imperfections and grit and grime.

covet

i love this chair from designedbyfrancis on etsy. it also happens to be called db chair, which i'm sure means dave and brandi. if that means i can talk dave into getting it, i'll lie.

kanthas at the philadelphia art museum

you've got a few days left to go to the kantha exhibit at the philadelphia museum of art, it ends sunday. i finally got a chance to go last weekend and it was great. the level of detail on the embroidered quilts is crazy. i can't even hand quilt one quilt and every square inch of these are embroidered with intricate designs. not only is the design embroidered, but the entire background is stitched, which gives them depth.

from the museum website,

"Stitching kanthas was an art practiced by women across Bengal, a region today comprising the nation of Bangladesh and the state of West Bengal, India. Lovingly created from the remnants of worn garments, kanthas are embroidered with motifs and tales drawn from a rich local repertoire and used especially in the celebration of births, weddings, and other family occasions. "


i snuck some pictures and didn't get caught this time, unlike last time. the pictures are not great, but you can see everything on this website.

this one was my favorite, i loved the geometric design.


ps. the exhibit is in the perelman building, so you can just pay $8 for that building.

yard sale booty

literally. i found something that even dave loves. 50's pinup art! it's a calendar from the 50's, the macpherson's sketch book cutouts for grown-ups. i can just imagine creeps in the 50's hiding in the basement, cutting this apart and dressing and undressing the girls. haha. now this is worth about $130, according to ebay, but i'm keeping it.


the poetry is hilarious.

UPLIFTING
An uplift effect
'Neath an off-shoulder blouse
Is chic and correct
And will bring the house down

fun times

thursday we went to see nada surf, who we love and they were great.

friday we went to first friday. the (first) friday of every month all of the art galleries in philadelphia stay open late. the weather was perfect so we took the train and walked around the city for a bit. i acted like a tourist and took some pics.


the chemical heritage foundation museum was even open late, so we stopped in for a few minutes. we weren't exactly in a science-museum mood, but we took a peak to see what it was like. we will definitely have to go back when we have more time. they had a display on plastic's history and bakelite!!

we also found an artist that we really love, gregory prestegord at the F.A.N. gallery. i am in love with this painting and want to buy it. either this one or one he had of a view looking over the city. i love landscapes, especially of philadelphia. if i was a real artist this is exactly what i would paint. his paintings really capture the grit of the city that is part of it's charm.

we also went to one gallery that had a huge collection of george nakashima furniture. his work is out of this world amazing. i loved this hanging cabinet, it was really long and awesome, but let's just say that is cost more than our house! actually let's not just say that, because it blows my mind. it was $250,000... his workshop is still open in new hope, which is not too far from us in beautiful bucks county. i really need to get out there and take a tour.

if you haven't been here (or even if you have) you should take a trip to philly. it's such a great city and a fun place to spend a few days.

'twas a perfect day for a castle visit

sunday was a dreary day, which was perfect weather to visit a castle. so we took a drive up to the fonthill castle, which is a castle built by henry mercer, who was a tile maker, among other things. it was built from 1908-1912 by a crew of 10 men and one horse. it's all made of concrete and was hand mixed and poured, amazing! they built the molds for the columns from wood and filled them with concrete. when it dried it left the impression of the wood grain and mercer kept it that way because he liked it. he was very resourceful and re-used wood from covered bridges that were being torn down and repurposed doors as paneling in one of the rooms. the castle has 44 rooms, 18 fireplaces, 32 stairwells and more than 200 windows. one of the stairwells even has his dog rollo's paw prints in it and is named after the dog, rollo's stairs. the place is like a maze and seriously is one of the coolest man made things i've ever seen.


they wouldn't let you take pictures inside (sad), so here are some links which includes pictures of the interior. the place is magical and completely filled with tiles, prints, books and art from around the world. mercer was a leader in the arts and crafts movement and the place oozes hand-crafted character. if you live anywhere near the area, you need to visit this place!

prints
textiles
pottery
needlework

on the property there was a cool camouflage tree.

and a smaller tiny building, but i'm not sure what it is.


and another building on the property, not sure what this was either.

droog

a couple of weekends ago we went to nyc and i finally got a chance to go to droog. i've been to amsterdam thrice, but for no good reason never went to droog before. we just so happened to walk by it while wandering around and freezing our asses off. it was amazing. an amazing space filled with awesome furniture, or art, or whatever you want to call it. it was gorgeous and if i had lots o' money i would have bought a few things, starting with this. it was my favorite. it combined two of my favorite things, blown glass and a giant wooden table. the glass was blown then left to have it's way with the table. that sounded really dirty. haha.

and another amazing table.


and yet another table, this one with a bit more purpose. you could push books or objects into it. it reminded me of jenga.


and this awesome set of drawers. i had seen it on blogs before, but it was even more spectacular in person.