So, I’m a little crazy about stair design. It runs in the family – my parents have an open wooden spiral staircase in their house in lieu of oh, saftey. Good design trumps all, and the staircases that give me a little thrill of, “where is the handrail?” are the ones that I can’t help but post.

From Loft House.

I loooove this one. From HSH Architects.

This one is supposed to be from Hotel Gray in Milano, but I can’t find the link.

This one gives me the shivers. It was designed as part of a gorgeous house on Andros Island (anyone?) by the firm RCtech. Their site is well worth exploring – there are some GORGEOUS places these people have designed. It’s a flash site, but it has an English version if you don’t happen to know the cyrillic alphabet.

This last set of stairs totally kills me. It makes me claustrophobic and nervous at the same time, but I totally love how original this is. It was designed by Blencowe-Levine Associates for a house in Battersea, England. Very cool, guys.

Until next time, keep on climbing.

I’m back from Orlando, Florida, where I attended the Craft and Hobby Associations (CHA) Summer show. And just to clarify, it’s nothing like ComiCon or most other conventions, and no I didn’t dress up, nor did anyone else – which is, frankly, tragic.  I went for work, as I have for the last three or four years. The turnout was smaller than usual, since most of the industry has suffered a lot with the economy being all turdy. But it was kind of nice to have a laid back show.

I’m a graphic designer for a scrapbooking company, and I spend my days designing product, mostly printed paper. I get to go to CHA because it helps me to get a feel for what the industry is doing – plus it’s lots of fun! I took a ton of boring pictures of product and people that you don’t know, but I did take a picture of the pool at our hotel. Isn’t it TRAGIC that I left my swimsuit at home? I thought so.

Also, I’m happy to report that I flew there and back with no horrible travel experiences – no weeping tattoo artists, or kleptomaniacal Danes. It was great.

In other news, I’m going back on the South Beach diet soon, and I’m kind of excited, since I’ve been feeling a little toxic lately. Also, I’m still not sure about my header – I’m afraid it looks like a still from an opening sequence for the Hills. I’m in plans to redecorate my bedroom, and I’ll post before and afters on that. So I’ve got lots coming down the line.

Oh, and one more thing. I, Tai Anderson, do solemnly vow to blog more.

I’m sitting in the Salt Lake City airport, waiting to board a flight to Orlando, Florida, where thousands of people are gathering for a scrapbooking convention. It’s CHA 2009, and it’s not the first scrapbooking trade show I’ve been to. In fact, it’s not even the first time I’ve dressed up. This year i’m going as Heidi Swapp – arguably the Princes Leia of scrapbooking.

I’m joking. It’s not that kind of convention, although, like any event with this many people attending there’s definitely a hint of madness to it all. I’m excited to see all the new stuff out though. It should be a great time. I’ve promised to keep people updated as the trip progresses so we’ll see. So far, the only snag is that Rafel (the other designer travelling with me) forgot her credit card, and I brought a finite amount of cash, so we’re probably going to be trolling the halls of our hotel looking for room service leftovers.

Totally joking. Totally.

More later.

I’m sitting in church, and I should not be blogging. But if I don’t distract myself from the glacial pace of this hymn I’m going to throw my hymnbook at the chorister, who surely doesn’t need that in her day.

If the pioneers sang “Come, Come Ye Saints” this slowly, they never would have made it out of Missouri.

So, I was in Salt Lake City, looking for PF Chang’s, and went to the Gateway – which doesn’t have PF Chang’s. So I went to Anthropologie instead. If you know me, this makes perfect sense. I love Anthropologie – I never buy their clothes, because I have a budget to stick to. But they have great bits and bobs. I needed my parking validated, which in my mind validated this on-a-whim purchase. It’s a solid perfume from Melissa Flagg – in the fragrance Mily. The scent is Hawaiian Plumeria – and is described as plumeria blooms blended with pikake and ginger, inspired by the island of Kauai.  I love it! It’s feminine and almost soapy – and manages to be fresh and modern, while reminding me of something someone might have worn in Paris in the 20s. I cannot stop smelling my wrists. I dabbed it behind my ears and on my neck, and if I could smell there, I’d be sniffing there too. I have no idea how well this stuff lasts, because I’ve only had it on for about an hour. But since it’s a solid perfume I can throw it in my purse and cart it around with me without worrying about the bottle shattering all over everything.

I might be in love with a solid perfume.

Melissa Flagg Solid Perfume in Mily. $16 from Anthropologie