Another beautiful Southern California day. A little girl and her corgi drawn carriage.
Life’s a Beach…
Or so they sayUntold LA on KickStarter
The amazing homes and stories of the West Adams DistrictThis Los Angeles Life, Neighborhood
Untold LA is a project seeking funding on KickStarter. Jett Loe is proposing to create a Photo iBook and website showcasing the amazing homes and stories of the West Adams District of Los Angeles.
As Loe said on KickStarter:
“Many people think they know LA, but there is one extraordinary district that seems forgotten to all but a few: West Adams.
Home to the greatest architectural treasure West of the Mississippi of Victorian, Queen Anne, Beaux Arts, Egyptian Revival, Mission and Craftsman homes, the stories of West Adams are just as wild as the houses.
Which is why I need to do Untold LA.”
Click over to KickStarter to see the beautiful homes, all located in West Adams, featured in Loe’s video.
After the recent tragedy and negative stories in the news about South LA, I am happy to see someone focusing on the positive aspects of our neighborhood.
Decorative Ceiling Idea
This ceiling is a WOW!Inspiration, Paint, Wall Treatments, Color
Last fall I had the pleasure of visiting the Ruthmere House in Elkhart, IN. I couldn’t get past the gorgeous ceiling in the foyer. I snapped the photo you see with my cell phone, but in person the ceiling is absolutely stunning. The colors and design are historically accurate to 1910.
Detail of a painted ceiling design. The colors are gorgeous!
I would love to paint something like this on our dining room ceiling.
Detail of the ceiling stencil.
The Ruthmere website has an online reproduction of the 1910 Souvenir Booklet featuring photos of the house when first opened to the public upon completion. It is fascinating to see how the home was furnished.
See photos of stained glass windows, wall murals, floor tile and more.
Update
If you enjoy touring homes, Copshaholm is located in near-by South Bend, IN. Have lunch or dinner at Tippecanoe Place. There are also two Frank Lloyd Wright homes in South Bend, although I don’t think they are open to the public. Both South Bend and Elkhart have many older, beautiful homes.
Wall of Inspiration
Soft, Faded TextInspiration, Paint, Wall Treatments
We were recently at a restaurant and I fell in love with this wall! I love the color, texture and large faded text.
The vintage industrial lights are perfect with the wall.
I can’t quite see this look in my bungalow…but the wall color and industrial lights are amazing.
Traditional Arts & Crafts Decorative Design
Historical examples of wall treatments and decorative schemes Wallpaper patterns and borders from 1911
Sherwin Williams paint and design services advertisement from around 1910
The above Sherwin Williams advertisement was accompanied by the following text:
“This dining-room illustration demonstrates that very dignified and attractive effects can be obtained without over-decoration. Even with its attractive wall effects, beamed ceiling and fine furniture, the general effect is simple.”
Decorative schemes for a dining room or den.
Wallpapered dining room. The adjoining room is also wallpapered.
Wallpapered living room.
Dining room stencil ideas.
Children’s play room. Oversized wallpaper panels are repeated for great effect.
Art Nouveau wallpaper patterns. Aren’t these great?
Ever wonder how to clean your walls?
Maid vacuuming the walls of an upper class home, early 1900s.
Tales From The Hood
This Los Angeles Life, Getting Personal, Neighborhood
On a warm summer afternoon David and I were doing the typically mundane task of unloading groceries from our car. A little black hatchback car erratically pulled up to the stop sign at the intersection catty corner to our house. I didn’t really pay much attention at first but soon heard a commotion coming from inside the vehicle. Suddenly, a fairly average looking man jumped out of the car and roughly pulled a woman out behind him. This instantly caught my attention. I was halted dead in my tracks by the words the man was yelling.
“I’m the pimp! You’re the ho! Give me my money bitch or I’m going to hurt you.”
The fight continued along these lines for several more minutes. Then there was something that I didn’t quite understand about being from East Los Angeles verses West Los Angeles. This man, the pimp, was apparently from West Los Angeles and because of this fact the woman was lucky. If he had been from East LA she would be dead, but, because he is from West LA, he is more compassionate. The woman did not appear to be intimidated by this information. On the contrary, she seemed angry and defiant. She mentioned seeking employment opportunities with a pimp who “hadn’t lost his mother (insert the mother of all expletives here)-ing mind.”
A neighbor’s sprinkler was watering his lawn, I could hear the sound of children’s voices playing in a yard up the street and in the distance I faintly heard an ice cream truck rattling it’s bell and playing “Pop Goes The Weasel.” In the middle of our tranquil summer setting was this absurd exchange straight out of a really bad made-for-tv movie. I stood in the yard, transfixed, mouth agape.
The pimp saw me standing in the middle of my yard staring at them. He pushed the woman back into the car, drove around the corner, parked and pulled the woman back out of the car to yell at her again. By this time David walked up to me and asked what was going on. After I told him he ran inside and dialed 911.
David waited on hold for 10 minutes before he reached an operator. The 911 operator said they couldn’t do anything since we didn’t have the car’s license plate number. She instructed us to get a license plate number the next time this occurred. David requested that a squad car be sent to our location anyway. By the time David hung up the phone with the police the pimp and ho had resolved their dispute and driven away. They were long gone by the time the police drove through our area 45 minutes later.