Chronicle Books Archives - Page 5 of 5

Chronicle Books | San Francisco

You know how sometimes you feel like you’ve just found “your people?” People who also care about beautiful photographs and gorgeous content, people who value the unusual and the unique, people who have a slightly quirky sense of humor, people for whom beautiful paper and flat-edge bindings are a love language? Well, I found just such people on my recent trip to San Francisco when I stumbled upon Chronicle Books, and I am delighted to share them with you today.

Image via Chronicle Books

An indie publisher with three retail locations in the city, Chronicle Books is truly “by creatives for creatives.” An hour spent perusing their shelves led to laughing out loud, smiling huge smiles, gasping with delight, a desire to create, and a really huge wish list of books! Thankfully they ship to Canada!

Here are a few of my favourites that I think you’ll want to check out:

This beautiful, cloth-bound, hardcover book is brimming with inspiration and detail. Taking well-traveled design to a whole new level, Sibella Court captures the essence of exotic locations in the details, colour palettes, textures and artisinal crafts featured within stunning interior spaces. Showing readers how to carefully curate a look that has been “collected over time,” NOMAD is the kind of book that can help you find your interior “voice” in a whole new way. Incidentally, Sibella Court is a celebrated designer who works with Anthropologie. She also owns her own shop in Australia called The Society Inc.

If you have a weakness for the vintage charm of Polaroid photography, then INSTANT LOVE will instantly be added to your wish list {as it has been to mine}.

This charming book trailer has me hunting for a Polaroid camera to add to my creative arsenal ASAP!

If, like me, you are addicted to paper products and love their possibilities, then you will love both the process and the product of this next book, BROTHER SUN, SISTER MOON. First, watch the video that captures how the illustrations were created:

And here is the delightful cover:

Even as my son grows older, I will still collect beautiful children’s books when they are this inspiring!

Now, for a seriously good laugh, check out their National Bestseller, F IN EXAMS. Celebrating the creative side of failure, this book has some exam answers I wish I’d given in university! Hilarious!

Remember how I said I came away with a huge wish list of books? This is just the start. I promise to share more from Chronicle Books in upcoming posts {and I will dedicate an entire post JUST to their delicious array of cookbooks}.

Which books are on your wish list? Tell me how Chronicle Books has inspired you and which ones catch your eye!

xo
s.

Tartine | Part 2 | San Francisco

If you’re like me, my guess is you were rather intoxicated by yesterday’s Video on Tartine and their beautiful process. At moments I’m pretty sure you could smell the sweet steam rising off of the piping-hot, freshly baked bread. I know I could. And there’s nothing like the smell of freshly baked bread to stimulate the appetite! So today I thought I’d share photos of our delightfully rustic and delicious mother-son lunch.

I have a {rather ironic} confession to make. I am currently not eating bread. In fact, no gluten of any kind. One might think it a cruel joke to go to a world-class bakery whilst unable to partake in the golden-crusted goodness. The truth is, I found so much joy in living vicariously through my son’s gastronimic glory that my sweet little baby gem salad tasted just as incredible to me.

OK, so remember the gorgeous country loaf that Chad makes? This golden orb of perfection is sliced not across the short side as is typically done, but rather lengthwise, essentially trimming the top and bottom crust off the loaf.

What’s left is the most indulgently portioned slices of bread to make their hot pressed sandwiches. This is of course what my sweet son ordered, deftly selecting the prosciutto and provolone with dressed arugula. Truly a classic {I have no idea how he has such great taste at such a young age!}.

We sat down at the charmingly simple harvest table {joined by the most fascinating chef and his family…but that is another story} and awaited our plate fate. We were not disappointed.

Cut into 3 delicious chunks of hot pressed sandwich heaven, my son’s eyes fairly popped out of his head when he caught sight of this mid-day meal’s perfection. I just love the way it was plated.

My favourite touch was the carrot {complete with a bit of green top}. Scrubbed but not peeled to maintain the “freshly pulled from the garden” look and feel, these quiet and unassuming carrots are quite a surprise. No longer “chompy-crunchy,” they are more of an “al dente crunchy” as they have been pickled in some kind of zesty, spicy, surprise-when-you-least-expect-it kind of pickling juice that I can only describe as magical.

Isn’t the salad just gorgeous? The olive oil and lemon based dressing definitely had it’s own kind of spicy magic happening. The team at Tartine are certainly full of tasty little secrets at every turn.

If all of this baked beauty has you inspired to turn your hand at bread making at home, then Chad’s cookbook is a MUST. You can get it here.