Floral furnishings, art practice, magic moments and glitter cocktail

Some magic moments this week:

1. Coming home to flowers.

On Tuesday I came home and found these gorgeous purple flowers on top of my boyfriend's bike. It was a nice surprise and later this week my and Jeremy went to Da Hing flower shop and got some plants to decorate our new apartment. 

Plants at Da Hing Flower Shop

2. Leon Golub at the Met Breuer.

Met up for a meeting at the Met Breuer and got to spend time seeing amazing work by Leon Golub. 

3. Art practice time. 

I started an embroidery class this week at the Textile Arts Center.  I also started a writing prompt exercise with my boyfriend. 

Bruno Smith

4. Art gallery wandering in the Lower East Side.

5. Pasta in Little Italy. No photo because we ate it too fast. 

6. The surprise glitter cocktail from Nitecap.

7. Looking up under the bridge in DUMBO.

8. Walking and talking with two ladies I met at the Grand station when the F was not running back to Manhattan. 

etxe...

A house. A dwelling. A place. A time. An identity. A home. Etxe means 'house' in Basque, but it means so many other things to me. It is the first part of my last name; evidence that I am just a part of a long line of others before me who have lived in various lands. I have spent a year living in the Basque country and I fell in love with the idea of being in another place. I learned about myself through my own displacement, and I grew fond of that feeling. I now live in San Francisco, but I am always thinking 'etxe'.

This site is an effort to share the tales of my own 'etxe' experience, and eventually of other people who have found a similar comfort in being in other (new, foreign, or forgotten) places and creating their own 'house' in that place. And soon it will also be a place to find products inspired by these themes. Whether you are temporarily living away from home or have permanently moved on, you're probably in the process of making your current house feel more like a home.

The second part of my last name is 'beste', which means other in Basque. I guess it's deeply ingrained in me to always seek an 'other home'; wherever I am, whoever I meet.