Sunday flights of fancy

As I was combing around the Internet yesterday, I came upon a blog called Fifi Flowers Design Decor. Fifi Flowers is the product of California-based artist and designer Fifi, and her site's filled with her paintings and photos of her work. It's a whimsical romp through the mind of a true free spirit.

Anyhow, one of Fifi's readers sent her some photos of a recent trip to the Amalfi Coast and Capri and it got me pining for a return to that part of the world. It's cold in Florida today. Trust me, when you move to a tropical climate, 60 degrees might as well be 20 below. Ugh! I can't stand cold snaps. Mercifully, they only happen a couple of times a year.

So today's a day that's perfect for daydreaming and fantasizing about warmer times. To help set the mood, here are a couple of shots from my trip to the Amalfi Coast in May of '08. All of these were taken by me in the charming-beyond-words town of Ravello. Some day, I'll post some shots of Positano, the town where I left my heart. But in the meantime, here's Ravello.

This is the view from a balcony in the Villa Ruffalo. That's the town of Maiori in the distance.

This is the restaurant balcony of the Villa Ruffalo.

Looking down at the terraced farms that cover this part of the world.

This is the front entrance to the Villa Cimbrone in Ravello.

The gardens of the Villa Cimbrone.

Me inspecting a statue of a young Apollo. Inspecting for artistic merit, of course.

A bust of one my heroes, Augustus Caesar.

One of myriad passages and entryways that cover this small hill town.

My friends and I stumbled upon a couple of young ballerinas from the High School in Ravello. It's a curious thing to think about people actually living and raising families in a place so enchanted as this.

Stay warm today gang. Send me some photos of trips to warmer places and I'll publish them in some kind of a warm up for the collective unconscious.

St. Pete slideshow

I love where I live and I'm fortunate to have an experience of Florida that's not the typical sprawl of suburbia most people see when they live in this part of the world. St. Petersburg is unique among Florida cities in that it's a city of neighborhoods and these neighborhoods came to be over the last 120 years and were already platted out and developed by the time the car came along. This makes for a walkable place, a city of front porches and wide sidewalks.

There's a real sense of community here in my neighborhood and I think it's due in a large part to the fact that our homes are set close to one another and such garages as there are, are located in the back where they belong. This makes it difficult to isolate and it forces us to interact with each other. Neighbors don't say strangers for very long when you see them every day.

Anyhow, I took a leisurely walk on Sunday afternoon and I took my camera, something I've been promising myself to do forever. This neighborhood is so filled with interesting nooks and crannies it's impossible to take anything BUT a leisurely walk. Anyhow, here's a slide show of my walk around the 'hood.

Bienvenue Cote de Texas!

I added a new design blog to my blogroll this week, Joni Webb's brilliant Cote de Texas. Her tag line reads: French design on the Texas coast. Yes, it does exist! She has tremendous energy and spirit and her writing style is comfortable and approachable. Her sense of humor is evident from the name of her blog all through her every woman's approach to interior design. She certainly loves nice things, but manages to keep her wits about her and she still manages to have a couple of laughs along the way. Bravo!

Her blog's name, Cote de Texas, has had me thinking about the Côtes du Rhône all week. The Côtes du Rhône is the region of France that runs the length of the Rhône river, from Vienne to Avignon. It's not exactly the first thing that pops into my head when I think of coastal Texas, and I love the fact that Ms. Webb is crashing together these seemingly discordant worlds. It reminds me of my friend Kevin's insistence that my beloved St. Pete is the Monaco of the Gulf Coast, the Florence of Florida. Why not?

Cote de Texas features some fantastic dissections of well-designed rooms as well as a fair number of Joni's successful projects, including her own home. If you're looking for some great ideas and some crisp writing, head over there today and say bonjour. If my recommendation's not good enough, know this: Cote de Texas was named one of the top ten blogs of 2008 by none other than the Washington Post. We keep some good company around here, I'll say that.

What font are you?

Here's a quiz that's pretty amusing. It asks ten questions and based on your answers, it matches your personality type with a font. Hmmm. Are you a Helvetica, a Goudy Old Style, a Baskerville or a Lucida Sans?

Take this quiz from PBS.

I'm Times New Roman just in case you're wondering. Some call you timeless --others call you a snob. I'd say they hit the nail on the head with that one.

I love new art

The signed Matte Stephens I won on Tula Jeng's delightful blog Whorange came back from the framer yesterday. Big love to both the artist and the middle woman on this one --I'm shouting with glee!