A snow white pillow for my big fat head...

I've been a big supporter for natural sleep products for a little while now, so it's no surprise I looked for something natural when it came time to find a new pillow. I'd been buying feather or synthetic fill pillows from places like Target for a while, and they've felt almost disposable--the synthetic ones clump up, and the feather/down pillows leak, poking me in the face while I sleep. It was time to step up my game and invest in something better.

I was hanging out with my friend and fellow designer on New Year's Day and we popped into HD Buttercup's new bedding/mattress shop in Hayes Valley. I saw they had a collection of great all-natural latex mattresses and also a collection of wool, latex, and cotton-filled pillows. I went back on my own to try out all the pillows and ended up buying a shredded latex and wool pillow.

 

 

 

I've been sleeping on it over the past week and it's amazing--the shredded latex (naturally tapped from sustainable rubber trees) feels so light and springy, but all together it has heft and gives a lot of support. Contained in natural wool cover, my head never gets too hot or cold during the night. Best of all, I could customize the feel by taking out some of the latex stuffing. I took out about four handfuls of the stuff, which is light as air but looks like curds or cottage cheese.

 

 

It's the most I've ever spent on a pillow, but it's definitely worth it!

Do what's right and you just might win a battle you never fought...

 

 

I realized something in designing my website on Wix recently--the experience was like a lot of my Retrograde projects. A friend asked why I didn't take advantage of my web savvy/designer friends to help me create the website of my dreams. I told him I could help him get the sofa of his dreams for $25,000, but was it worth it for him? (He said no.)

See what I'm saying?

At Retrograde I introduce people to a lot of West Elm, Room & Board, and other reasonably priced, well-designed vendors that aren't terribly exclusive or pricey. At a place like Room & Board, you can choose from dozens of sofas and have them upholstered in close to 300 different fabrics and leathers. That's a lot of choices for most people!

When it came time to finally do my website during my holiday break, I decided to follow a similar route. Wix has a lot of templates (possibly hundreds) in both HTML5 and Flash that can be modified and customized really easily. I know I tried other templates and programs and always got frustrated and tired. (Remember that TWO YEARS ago I promised I was working on it?) It's kind of like why people contact me for help on their homes--because they feel the same frustration and inertia when they're shopping for their homes. Yes, at Ye Olde Dayjobbe I work in a world of customized luxury and design. But we get hung up over perfection at Ye Olde Dayjobbe--for example, the website there has been "under construction" for over four years.

Like our homes, at some point you just have to do it. Bite the bullet. Take the shot. So yeah, I could have pulled some strings, traded services, or flat-out paid a professional web designer to build the site I envisioned two years ago. But instead I decided to do something that worked with my time, budget, schedule, and current lifestyle. Kind of like what I recommend with Retrograde ;-)