It got me thinking about my favorite vernacular architecture in the USA – our barns. As small farmers become scarcer and scarcer, these beautiful structures that dot the rural landscape are falling into ruin as well. If you are interested in helping to preserve America’s barns, check out The National Trust for Historic Preservation’s Barn Again! effort.

photograph by flickr member im pastor rick

I just found this charming blog, Postcards from Colorado through a reader comment today. It is such a refreshing blog. Liza, the author, admits she “just discovered blogs” in 2008. I love that! Kim mixes in arists she admires, photographs that inspire her, favorite design shots and her own photography, which is my favorite part. Here’s a little teaser from her recent trip to a friend’s ranch:

all images from Postcards from Colorado

I spend a lot of time today looking back through my flickr faves, as some have been pushed back without being appreciated for awhile. Thus was the case with this shot from sarahrae2:

How did she manage to give such a mundane and depressing scene so much vibrant energy? I find this photograph brilliant, and I’d love to blow it up to a huge size and hang it on my wall.

The funniest thing I read all week, well at first it was a guy saying he had ten cigarettes and coffee before this dance class, but then even funnier and so perfectly put was Douglas Coupland (you know, the artist who wrote Generation X) calling the current tear down house replacements in his neighborhood “Carmela Soprano meets Arts and Crafts.” That describes almost every new house in my historic neighborhood to a T.

Check out the full slideshow of Coupland’s home: The man has got an eye for primary colors and shapes like none I have ever seen. The pictures are much more clear and there are a few bonus ones online that were not in the print edition.

To learn more about spandex Sweaty Sunday dance class, click here.

To see great photos of Coupland’s interiors, click here.

photos by Martin Tessler for The New York Times.

I’ve been keeping up with Design Milk on twitter, got sucked into the main Design Milk site, and then came across a fantastic blog by architect and designer Nenad Katic. I have been spending so much less time online lately as I was a bit burned out, and this blog and the author  ‘s work perked me right back up. Wow! Three favorite posts are these:

1) His Own Private Fight Club (oddly, that’s the second fight club reference I’ve heard in as many hours, the other was in an op-ed piece in the Times today). Re-thinking goods and the value of empty open space in interior design. This guy really gets composition, flow, and white space so these conclusions make a lot of sense coming from him. I also realize the irony in a retail site condoning this attitude. Thanks to Design Milk for linking me to this post!

2) A Successful Failure. A client takes rough plans and runs with them, and the building winds up taking on a life of its own:

3) Monte Negro Monte Verde

Holy Cross Breeze! I want to go to there…

To follow Design Milk on twitter, click here. To follow Nedadk, click here.

All photos via Nenadk.com © 2009 Nenad Katic, All Rights Reserved