"the best day of the year (part two): my creation"
Saturday, December 22, 2007 Filed in: my life
so, after the
excitement that was an early Christmas, i really
didn't think that Thursday, December 13th could have
gotten any better. oh how wrong could i be?
for anyone who isn't aware, back in September, i moved into a condo in the safest city in the US... Irvine. and i love it. i mean, i really love it. the condo is great. the location is great. i'm five minutes from ROCKHARBOR, three minutes from Fashion Island, five minutes from South Coast Plaza, three minutes from The District (and awesome new center down here with everything from Costco, to Best Buy, Target, a great movie theater, great restaurants and more), two minutes from John Wayne Airport and about 10 minutes from the beach... it's wonderful. so, over the past months, i've been slowly decorating my place in my own style. (it came partially furnished and i've kept most of what was here. but it needed some more things that weren't here and there were a few things that needed replacing.) one of the biggest problems with my place was that there was no lighting near the dining table. so, if you wanted to eat at night, you either ate at the table in the dark, or ate on the couch. (you can guess where i've been having my meals for the past two months.) this needed to be remedied.
in October, i was down at South Coast Plaza and i walked by the Jon Varvatos store and saw the coolest light display.
basically, they
had hung these wooden racks from the ceiling and just
had about a thousand light bulbs hanging from them.
(it's very cool. check it out if you're down there.)
so, i was talking to my designer friend, Diane, and
told her what i'd seen. obviously, their design
wouldn't work for me, but i liked the basic look of
the bulbs hanging from the ceiling on cords. so, i
came up with an idea. my dining table has these
wooden beams that run through it (like a cross). what
if we got two beams to match, hung them from the
ceiling directly above the table and dropped light
bulbs from there? Diane was intrigued.
now, i'll stop quickly to say that i'm no designer. i was seriously just dreaming out loud and had no idea that any of this was even a possibility. but Diane, being a designer, started pondering. she said she knew a guy who did scenic design for Disneyland who could create faux beams out of Styrofoam. and she knew an electrician who was good at this kind of random stuff. so, she set to work on the design.
over the next few
weeks we met with the Disney guy and the electrician
and it seemed like this might actually happen. and,
on Wednesday, December 12th, the Disney guy showed up
at my place with the beams. (they looked
fantastically real!) the next morning, at 9.00am
(just a 1/2 hour before early Christmas began) Diane,
our friend Jon (who's a carpenter) and the
electricians showed up to install the thing. by the
time we came back from Balboa from our Segway tour,
the light was almost done. within an hour, the
realization of my initial daydreamings was complete
and it is amazing. (we even threw a few red bulbs in
for the Christmas season.)
there's just something about the creative process that is so exciting and satisfying. to have an idea and to see that idea come to life over time is really cool. anyway, that is the second reason why Thursday, December 13 was the best day of the year. i dreamed it up... Diane designed it... and there it is! and now, i can eat at my table fully lit.
part three... coming soon!
matt
for anyone who isn't aware, back in September, i moved into a condo in the safest city in the US... Irvine. and i love it. i mean, i really love it. the condo is great. the location is great. i'm five minutes from ROCKHARBOR, three minutes from Fashion Island, five minutes from South Coast Plaza, three minutes from The District (and awesome new center down here with everything from Costco, to Best Buy, Target, a great movie theater, great restaurants and more), two minutes from John Wayne Airport and about 10 minutes from the beach... it's wonderful. so, over the past months, i've been slowly decorating my place in my own style. (it came partially furnished and i've kept most of what was here. but it needed some more things that weren't here and there were a few things that needed replacing.) one of the biggest problems with my place was that there was no lighting near the dining table. so, if you wanted to eat at night, you either ate at the table in the dark, or ate on the couch. (you can guess where i've been having my meals for the past two months.) this needed to be remedied.
in October, i was down at South Coast Plaza and i walked by the Jon Varvatos store and saw the coolest light display.
now, i'll stop quickly to say that i'm no designer. i was seriously just dreaming out loud and had no idea that any of this was even a possibility. but Diane, being a designer, started pondering. she said she knew a guy who did scenic design for Disneyland who could create faux beams out of Styrofoam. and she knew an electrician who was good at this kind of random stuff. so, she set to work on the design.
there's just something about the creative process that is so exciting and satisfying. to have an idea and to see that idea come to life over time is really cool. anyway, that is the second reason why Thursday, December 13 was the best day of the year. i dreamed it up... Diane designed it... and there it is! and now, i can eat at my table fully lit.
part three... coming soon!
matt