I HEART Phillip Spaeth!

I'm a sucker for great photos. I love the works of David La Chapelle and Pierre et Gilles. I'm always up for a photo shoot- Especially if it's retro and themed and I get to play dress-up. Our go to man is our friend Phillip. He's been taking our family photos now since I was 8 weeks pregnant and we've done a total of 4 different shoots with him. We plan our shoots like this: I play the part of the art director/ makeup artist- I tell him the location, I plan the outfits The Hubby thinks up the poses we all share our vision and we have at it. Phillip is going back to NYC so this was our last photo shoot with him until he comes back for some one's vacation or until I'm pregnant again ( he promised that he'd be back to take our photos again when that happens)I will miss him terribly especially when inspiration comes to me in an outfit or perfect location. Here's some of his best stuff with my family.

This picture was the announcement that we were expecting our baby. We added a little surprise in the blank part of the sign that read, "Baby in JUNE".
In the same shoot he added this photoshop effect that makes the picture look totally vintage. I loved it so much that I had this blown up poster size and it hangs in my living room.

Two weeks before I gave birth I wanted to take some baby body pics but of course they couldn't be just the normal black and white look at my belly pics- We did these and I love that I finally could wear this particular outfit. ( I won it on Ebay and had it in my closet in hopes to get my six pack back-) I think this turned out way better.
. I'm so glad we took these pictures when we did because we were pushing the time to do it further and further. She arrived at 38 weeks!

We can't forget the pictures to remind us when the girls were our only babies and when they were still allowed on the bed :(


I think my only regret was not taking any photos of Ainslie when she was a newborn. I mean, how retro looking could I make a newborn?
When we moved to San Francisco I wanted to do a photo shoot that was not so typical (like standing in front of the Golden Gate Bridge) so we went to see the famous Painted Ladies. Can you hear the beginning of the "Full House" theme starting?


We didn't go totally retro but I did manage to keep my Mod Diva-ness to it by sporting the retro earrings and my Mod shades. Ainslie pays tribute to Mary Quant.


On Thursday we took our last shoot with Uncle Philly. I think it catches the essence of our family. Fun, a little funky and most definitely, one of a kind. I fell in love with the location months before we did the shoot.The place is an old record store. The outfit was another score from Ebay. A vintage Velvet Illusion of London dress I won for 29 bucks. Daddy is sporting a vintage Mod/ Ska look and Ainslie- well, she's rocking out to what she thinks is "retro"- an 80's throw back to Cyndi Lauper.

This was such a fun shoot. Too bad Ainslie was not in the mood for any of it. I wish we had all the girls in the family pic too but a baby and 4 pugs would be a little much- doncha think?


We had so much fun with Phillip and were so happy that he was there to capture some of the best moments of our lives as a new family. We wish him nothing but the best in his move back to NYC. If you're out in NYC and need someone FABU to take your shots. Give this boy a holla because he's the pooh- Oh did I mention... quite the HOTTIE as well!

We will miss you so very much Phillip. I'm sure you'll be working it out on the Great White Way as soon as you land there! Come back soon! We love you!

Black and White inspiration

Lately I've really been into black and white. There's just something so simple and striking about a black pattern on a stark white canvas. The other day I found this picture in my folder of "inspiration" on my computer. I didn't know who the artist was but I felt that the work was so striking behind that red wall I just had to take a crack at it and make one myself.


I mean, how hard could it be?? Um, it was REALLY hard- Not the actual making of the painting part but having to chase a 15 month old toddler around the house while painting... Yeah, it took me longer than I expected.

I made this for the blank wall space in the kitchen. Looks pretty awesome in there too I might say :)

Funny, the other day I was watching " House Husbands of Hollywood" and I noticed that this couple had a similar triptych in their living room I totally dig it too. I swear, black on white. BIG impact. Bonus was I got the canvas for 9 bucks and it's pretty huge. Can't beat that and Bye, bye bare wall!
Cheers!

It's all about the numbers

It's been awhile and I am so due for an update. The renovation of the SF PAP house is going slow but steady. We managed to clear out the garage of my hoarder uncle's junk so we can finally park in there and not have to search for parking 2 blocks away from our house, the kitchen is in working condition and the outside... well, lets just say that it's the little things that make a big difference. A couple of weeks ago I decided to paint the garage door in Disney by Behr paint in Alien Green. I guess since this house had looked like no one had given it any kind of love in YEARS, I got a lot of stares from the neighbors when I went out one Saturday morning and decided to paint. One neighbor asked my husband.. " Why LIME green?' His reply- " Why NOT?" I think it makes a HUGE difference.


I also went ahead and bought some new house numbers for the place. I know house numbers are just a little thing but I like to compare them to "earrings" on a house. I got these at OSH for $7.00 a number. You can change the entire look of the front with a good looking house number. We used a piece of peg board and painted that for the background. I think it turned out super dope.



The front gate used to be silver and I spray painted that white to make the design pop out more. I think you can see the 60's influence with the gate and the bright green front door in the background. I totally dig the pattern of the gate.

I have a light fixture for the front as well but I think there's something wrong with the wiring of the front entrance so we're gonna have to fix that first before we put the new fixture in.

Like I said, even after being in San Francisco for a whole 7 months, getting things done is a whole other ball game with a toddler running around and calling for YOU and only YOU. If I didn't have a baby... this place would already be to Mod Diva standards and you'd see what the rest of the house looked like( but I wouldn't have it any other way)- Oh well, I guess for now I'll be happy with getting at least one project down-

Cheers,
Mod Diva

The Mod baby turns ONE!

This week our daughter, Ainslie Turned ONE.. the time went by so fast. In celebration we wanted to have her birthday themed after her favorite cartoon character, Ni Hao Kai Lan. For those of you without kids, Kai Lan is a cartoon on Noggin based on a Chinese little girl. ( Added bonus because she's basically the Chinese version of Dora the Explorer- and since we're Asian, she's finally got a cartoon to identify with.) For some reason here in SF, there was a shortage of party supplies with the Kai Lan theme. So when push came to shove, we had to make our own. The Hubby and I hooked Ainslie's Birthday cake up with these handmade cake toppers made of FIMO. My only complaint was I HATED the writing.. I mean HELLO, if you work at a bakery, aren't you supposed to have better penmanship? I could have done a better job!

And for another Kai Lan decoration, we also made this for her party table.

Sadly, as she was celebrating her First year of life- 2 iconic people from my childhood passed. Farrah Fawcett and the legendary, Michael Jackson. Kind of a bummer after such a great day at Pixieland with all of our friends. I guess that just cements that fact.. that we are all getting old :(
Our girl had a great time with all of her friends- the first Birthday was a success!
Here's a pic of the punk rock birthday girl in all her glory!

It's DONE! The SF kitchen reveal...

It's been a long time coming but it's finally done! The SF kitchen is ready for it's reveal!

Despite the set backs... ( taking a longer time to put the floor, the back splash and the a snafu with the electrics) It finally was ready to use! I had to make a special order for some white penny tile for the top of the range hood from modwalls.com and they arrived on Wednesday. We loved the result

It's just a little detail but every little detail counts! Here's a closer look at the top of the range hood. We had to add this piece of backer board and tile because the cabinets were a little short. It seemed to work out just fine!

Here's more of the kitchen:

Like I said, It's the little details that count- You may recognize this little detail from my house in LA. It's Skylar's food container- It's made a little home now here in our SF pad now too.


The red microwave and orange coffee maker- by Cooks from JC Penney catalogue!

Ainslie is ready now for Mommy's cooking in the new kitchen- It's been a long 5 months without a usable kitchen but now I'm finally ready to put it to use and get cooking!

As you can see, there's no table in the kitchen anymore- we made it a galley kitchen but behind the door is the entrance to the dining/living room where we have a dining room table!

It's a shame that this kitchen is not in my house in LA but the Hubby said it's a nice rough draft of what our kitchen in LA could look like. I think the only thing I'd change is that I would love to have terrazzo flooring instead of vinyl and I'd love to have those high gloss white cabinets from IKEA. Other than that.. we're pretty happy with the results.

I mean seriously, compared to what the before was... this was a pretty ah-mazing transformation!
Cheers!

San Francisco.. We're in the process of making it pretty

Hello Mates,
Sorry I haven't updated in a LONG time but life has been crazy since I moved into the PAP house of San Francisco and have been trying my hardest to put the Mod Diva touch on it. Where to start? Well, we've been doing everything we could just to make this place liveable but the biggest overhaul so far has been the kitchen! We've been living here now for the past 5 months and have been eating every meal out and have not been able to make a home made meal, let alone go inside the kitchen! Let's recap... The last time you visited ( the blog that is) we had a major problem with a really OLD ,really outdated and really FILTHY kitchen. If you remember, this was my grandma's house ( before she passed in '04) and even when she was still with us, the house didn't have a good cleaning.. uh, in like... FOREVER. That being said, the kitchen floors were just sticky from all the years of frying Filipino food and all kinds of whatelse grossness that fell on the floor and was never cleaned up, the kitchen cabinets that were made of particle board were sticky, crumbling and had expanded from all that condensation, the walls were sticky from not having a working vent in the kitchen ( and not opening any windows when they cooked) let's just sum it up folks.. that kitchen was so DISGUSTING I wouldn't even let my dogs walk in there. I made everyone wear my orange garden Crocs in there because I refused any one to walk in that place without any "protection". All that being said.. On June 3,2009 we said goodbye to the nastiness and started our new kitchen. Here's how went down. First of all, let's show you the grossness we started with

Yeah.. can you smell that FUNK???? Let it be known that most of the cabinets were filled to the hilt with mismatched cups, plates and glasses and CRAP that hadn't been used in a couple of decades-

Did you notice all the hella old appliances? That stove was so covered in grease from 1987 that I'm not surprised that it didn't catch a grease fire from itself!

Another huge problem was that there weren't enough cabinets for your actual food- I mean there was this gross ass table that hadn't been cleaned off since the early 90's - and this gross rack with a bunch of JUNK in it!
So, with some research and some digging down deep into my pocket of knowledge, we looked and looked for the best deal in San Francisco for cabinets.
We started the actual demo on June 3 and they finished the demo, cabinet installation and countertop in 2 days!

Believe it or not, these cabinets are Maple and were actually CHEAPER than IKEA! We also decided to extend the cabinets all the way to the wall thus eliminating the table, awesome seatless and backless chairs,that lovely rack full of crap and gaining cabinet space for actual food. Our dining room table is located right outside the door.

The best part of this remodel is actully finding the "right" mix of flooring, countertop and backspash. This is what we chose for the backsplash. The tile is called Kosmos from an Italian line called Azuvi. When I found it at Colortile it was love at first sight. It comes in other color combos as well.


The quartz for the countertop is white and we got it the same place as the cabinets ( looks like Terazzo) and the flooring we got at Floorcraft as a remnant( industrial vinyl with white, black and grey specks)
We are still in the process of putting the finishing touches on- The kitchen should be done by Monday... (at the latest)- Just thought you'd enjoy a teaser of what the Mod Diva's been up to. Stay tuned.. Cheers!

Phase 2 the PAP House cleanout

So this week we made our way back up north to the "PAP house". This time, for the big stuff clean out. All the big furniture needed to be taken away by the Salvation Army so when Wednesday came around, the house would be all clear to put the new carpet in. All went pretty well but we hit a snafu when I realized that the piano I was trying to get rid of was virtually a huge piece of junk that couldn't even be given away and needed to be hauled away and junked. The same thing happened to the dresser. Since we had a time crunch, I had to hire a Craigslist junk guy to take the two huge things away. We weren't anticipating having to pay someone $200 to take 2 pieces of junk away but it had to be done. What I really wanted to do was hire a giant to actually pick up the entire house and shake everything out of it.
My dad was hell bent on keeping these sewing tables that we found out (after the junk guy was long gone) was JUNK too. It's maddening to try and get things out of that house when the person you're directly dealing with won't get rid of stuff too. The next day, the carpet guy finally came in to take away the nastiness ( an hour late and with zero help). It turns out that underneath all that nasty carpet was the old padding that they used to use in the 70's.. good old toxic, foam rubber. Most of it has long disintegrated into this wonderful dust that's probably hazardous to our health.
Underneath all that nasty carpet and rubber was an old , stained parkay wood floor and wood floors throughout the entire house. Sadly, the floors are in crappy condition (why is that NOT a surprise to me?) The carpet man finally finished up at 9:30pm and we finally were out of there and on the road back to LA.

Here's a before and after of the hallway.. as you can see.. a HUGE difference!


We chose a grey/white carpet throughout the house. Lucky for the house, these new tenants are planning to take care of this carpet. The amazing thing is that as soon as the carpet man was done.. I had to remind my oblivious uncle that this was a brand new WHITE carpet, I have a 7 month old that's starting to crawl on the floor and I plan to keep it clean so TAKE OFF YOUR DAMN SHOES! I swear, some people are such pigs!
This week we are back in LA, packing up my house for the big move to Frisco at the begining of February. But first.. A couple of days in Vegas for one last hurrah and some much deserved pampering at the WYNN!

Last day at the Pasadena Rose Bowl

Last weekend, after driving back from a LONG three days in San Francisco, I decided to take my new little shopping partner ( My daughter, Ainslie) to the very last Pasadena Rose Bowl Junks ( Flea Market) We all came back from Frisco the night before and we were so tired. That Sunday, I woke up pretty early and decided to make that last pilgrimage to my favorite place one last time . So with Ainslie in tow , we headed out to Pasadena and spent about and hour and a half there. Now that I have a baby, things are a little different when I go to the Junks. Before she was born, I used to bring one of those laundry carts around just in case I bought something so spectacular that I couldn't carry it and I had to cart it around. Now that she's with me and she's older- I leave the stroller behind and put her in her BIJORN.I have a baby in the front and I have a huge backpack for my treasures fastenedon my back. That day, we really weren't looking for anything particular but when I found my latest treasure.. I had to have it. So I carried it on my head ! Lucky for us they were light and I found them right before I got over heated and I was right about to go home. The vendor even said, " So, you're starting your little one early with an appreciation for Mid- Century Modern?" You bet! She is no doubt the Mod Diva's offspring :) Check out Ainslie's new treasures I got for $30.00 for the pair!
Yeah, you're jealous! My daughter's gonna have some real kick ass MCM tea parties or with my luck.. she'll like Shabby Chic :(

Mod Diva is MOVING!

Hey Kids,
It's been awhile but I'm back. Life in LA has been AH-Mazing but it's time to make a move again.. Before you get all nuts. NO, I'm NOT selling my little MCM in the Valley- We're just relocating to Frisco for a few years.The Hubby's gig has moved and so must we..So, here's the new project-
We are moving to my grandmother's old home in San Francisco! A little background on the house- It's HELLA old! and pretty DANK if you ask me. I likes to refer to it as the "P-A-P" House a/k/a the Port-A-Potty House. I call it this because it's basically a dumping ground for CRAP. It's pretty smelly, and junky and GROSS. We are living there thanks to my Dad rent free and with a baby, 4 pugs and high rents in the city- Were else would you get a better deal than FREE 99? So that being said..We are making the move to the PAP house. My grandma lived there for about 33 years in which she pretty much kept every piece of clothing she had in her 93 years of life. She passed away in 2004 and her house has pretty much been untouched since then. Hello.. it's 2009 and here I come into the picture. This is a 2 bedroom 1 bath house. But so far we only have access to one bedroom.. My uncle ( who's a bonafide hoarder.. No REALLY) Has put a deadbolt on the second bedroom so we don't have access to it ( yet). ( Snarkily.. ( is that a word?) I love FAMILY! (You can't make stuff like this up!)
There's gonna be a whole lot of work that's going to be done in the next couple of weeks and a bunch of before and after pics. We've already started clearing out all her personal things and the new carpet is going into the house next week. Salvation Army has been called and hopefully, before I go crazy, the demo will get done in the kitchen, new paint or wallpaper in the bathroom will go up and it will be MOD- Divafied! Here's a sample of what we're looking at..

And yes.. what you see is correct.. There's NOT just ONE but TWO bedpans in the middle of the living room.. I told ya.. DISGUSTING!
(Oh, yeah and this is an AFTER pic.. we got rid of a ton of boxes and about 40 garbage bags filled with her clothes!)
This rug used to be shag yellow and as you can tell it's so caked on with grime and stickiness that it's turned a lovely shade of baby food puke green!.. by mid next week.. it's gonna be GONE! Do you feel the itchiness and can you smell the funk?

Here's my Eh HEMM.. "FAVORITE" part of the house.. The Kitchen! OMG.. How nasty is this? I'm almost embarrassed to put a pic of this place up but I can't wait to show the before and after pics when I'm done with this place.
It's crazy to think someone actually can live like this but for many years it's been this way. I guess there's a lot of people in this world who really don't care.. Well NOT me. Truth be told, I had a mini anxiety attack when I saw all the work we're going to have to do to this house but I guess now it's pretty exciting to take on a new project and when it's finally done, it'll all be worth it. It's just different now that I have a baby and life has to be a bit more on a schedule. Gone are the days that I can get lost in doing a project. Sometimes you've gotta heed to the call of a hungry baby! Salvation Army is on the way to pick up all the crap and so is Sunset Scavenger. The new carpet will be put in on Wednesday and It's gonna be a crazy ride so stay tuned for the 2009 transformation of the Frisco PAP House!