by christina britt lewis cole turned 16 yesterday. we celebrate birthdays with BIG family dinners that require a trip to costco. as i considered the carbs in a sample of spinach ravioli, i looked up and saw this... and then this... AND THEN THIS... i have loved that rocker and rocking bed ever since pinterest became a thing. i pinned the rocker for a client last week. more as inspiration than anything else because i couldn't find it for less than a ton of moolah. i get that though, this is more than a rocker. this is art. beautiful, comfortable, functional, fun, forever art. so are these... so i asked the guy who seemed to be in charge how this modern, eco-friendly, sexy, clever furniture was at my costco for a fraction of the prices i had seen online? was this a designerly daydream? i mean, the light fixtures are under $100! ...only to find out that the guy who seemed to be in charge was JOE MANUS himself, founder and creator of shiner international. the man behind the killer design. to me, this is like meeting marcus mumford. so of course, i invited him to the birthday party. he totally came. and gave cole a gift for our teenage cave.
joe is a kindred spirit and the kind of person that tim and i hope cole and camden grow up to be. the boys will remember meeting joe forever. he captivated us all with his story which i won't retell here 'cause you can go ask him yourself. he is here until sunday. at costco in charlotte. you can order the chairs and bed in different finishes and sizes. go buy art. BEFORE it's at MOMA. joe manus is the charles and ray eames of our time. and he is at our costco. so go. peace be with you, xo... christina and tim by christina britt lewis and timothy dean lewis we post this every year. to remember and remind ourselves. two things have changed. george. and they don't run home from the bus stop anymore. this year, camden very deliberately walked. cole didn't even take the bus. he got a ride with friends. and they all came over for warm banana chocolate chip bread and to hang out in the garage. this is what they looked like... this is what they felt like... jumping in. the adventure of it all. we are a dichotomy, we lewi. we love adventure as much as we love doing nothing at all. we love the first day of school as much as we love the first day of summer. so after a long summer filled with a whole lot of lovely nothingness, we all feel like jumping in.
the sensation of flying. the icy cold shock that makes you come alive. the feet first plunge to the depths of the unknown. the determined and instinctual swim to the surface. the deep gratitude for the air you breathe. the satisfaction that comes from a leap well leapt. they run from the bus stop and burst in the front door full of stories. with mouths full of homemade banana chocolate chip bread, they talk to us. new teachers. new classes. new people. new books. new ideas…most of it will be great. some of it will suck. all of it will make them who they are made to be. they don’t know they can jump and fly unless we teach them. we teach them how, not by holding their hands, not by pushing, not by convincing, not by insisting, not by threatening, not by protecting, not by instructing, not by indoctrinating, not by coercing, not by rewarding, not by bribing, not by overpowering, not by controlling, not even by loving… we teach them to fly by jumping in ourselves. they see as we soar or they see as we sink. they see as we throw ourselves into what makes us come alive or they see as we fear. they see as we embrace the truth of uncertainty or they see as we pretend we have all of the answers. they see as we follow our Given instincts or they see as we follow others. they see as we live all up and in moments or they see as we waste our minds, bodies, money, time… they see as we love and are loved or they see as we are selfish. they see as we give or they see as we take. you can’t fake fly. they know. they know us better than anyone. they see everything. remember? we teach them to fly by jumping in ourselves. for the adventure of it all. we live in a little house with a detached garage. we sold our big house with the bonus room on purpose ten years ago so we could afford to start over and do what we love for a living. a choice we never regret, but we make BIG boys and they have BIG friends. they needed more space. so we redesigned our garage... we painted the framing white and the floor gray... and then we used mostly what we have plus a ping pong table we bartered for to make this... cole and camden have had these twin beds since they outgrew their cribs. after getting them queen beds that fit their teenageriness better, we repurposed these as sofas for the garage. they are perfect for when all of their friends sleep over. the homegoods rug makes garage camp outs really comfortable...i think. now that tim and i have the house to ourselves all the time, we don't really intend to find out. hehehe... trail maps from a family trip to vail the set list from a mumford and sons concert an avett brothers poster from the safe alliance benefit concert we got to go to our old nh license plate with the state motto "live free or die" ...these are a few of our favorite things framed in ikea frames. the bronze deer head was a homegoods find. my dad thinks it's ridiculous... but where else would we hang our mumford and sons lights? i mean, seriously. west elm pillow. it's a moth, right? not a butterfly. ahem... wicked cool yellow light fixture is from west elm too. who knew they had this picture of CHARLOTTE at ikea? not me! i've been to ikea a million times, but tim spotted this during his one visit. i did know they had those ping pong paddle and ball holders. you will find them in the kitchen utensil department. weird. ...'cause everybody always asks where we keep our "stuff", here it is. in a "closet" that uncle bill built. 2 walls on screws that just unscrew if we sell the house to live in a redesigned airstream on the side of the ocean. we are a big believers in keeping only what we know to be useful or beautiful. if we don't use it or we don't love it, we don't keep it. we put off finishing the garage because we didn't have a stand or a mount for the tv that we bartered for. those things are expensive! we finally just decided to hang it with a piece of rope i had leftover from a project. who knew you could do that? oh and that is a tiny little refrigerator! it holds 12 cans, that's it. and that's enough. when the good people at chapman's dachshund rescue told us that george would probably never be adopted because he was a mix, we knew he was coming home with us. and yeah, ok...george totally did love coming home...but it is also true that we love coming home more now too. now where to park the jeep... xo... christina for all it was lovely before... but then... we found these beautiful and meaningful things stored behind the closed doors in this very cabinet... all the beauty that's been lost before wants to find us again... XO.. CBL |