Luxury hotels these days out-do themselves to out-“design” one another with decidedly mixed results. While many are impressive, few are inspiring in terms of ideas you might deploy in your own perhaps more modest domestic context. A hotel we visited in Aspen last week made me want to, well, get a room. Ladies and gentlemen,… Continue reading Design Notes From Aspen’s “New” Hotel Jerome
News & Notes
Treat Everyone Like Their Heart Is Breaking
We never know what someone else is going through, or living with, or coming from. A smile can mean the world, just as a snide remark can be crushing. This is not to say be a doormat. It is just to say to be kind–to the waiter, to the shop clerk, to the girl on the phone in Mumbai, to the hotel maid.
A Spring Green Table
How pretty is this table?! So fresh and green with spring and bright with color, how could you not have a perfectly grand time sitting ’round it? Well we sure did.
Quince and Lace Curtains
I love flowering quince. One of the earliest blooming shrubs, usually right behind forsythia, or “for Cynthia” as I used to call it, quince is one of those things you can just stick in a vase and it’s beautiful. Going through seven million photos the other day I ran across this one taken few years ago… Continue reading Quince and Lace Curtains
Girls Just Wanna have Funghi
The post title refers of course to the famous Cyndi Lauper song “Girls Just Wanna Have Funghi,” but it later changed to “Fun,” which may be the version you are more familiar with. And do you remember this one… It ne-e-ver rains in California/But girl, don’t they warn ya/It pours/Man, it pours… It’s kind of an… Continue reading Girls Just Wanna have Funghi
A Quick Fix for Loose Ends
A quick and ingenious fix for loose computer cords when they’re not attached – saving you from fishing them off the floor, behind your desk, etc.
Art of the Heirloom – Original Designs for Seed Packets
Do you ever wonder who actually sits down and designs things like seed packets? How did they get the job? What a charming assignment it would be, and clearly is to those who do it.
Happy Birthday, Mama
I’ve spent most of this day trying not to write about my mama, but it didn’t work. Today was her birthday, would have been her 83rd. I’m not sure she would have liked being 83 unless she could still look and act like she was, say 63.
It’s Snuggle Season – 10 Ways to Love Your Bed!
House Beautiful has a column every month called “I Love My Bed.” It’s a hoot to peek under other people’s covers, isn’t it? Maybe you shouldn’t answer that. Anyway I wrote the one in November about designer Bunny Williams, which you can read here. I did not actually get in bed with her, but we did… Continue reading It’s Snuggle Season – 10 Ways to Love Your Bed!
Cultural Outing Ends in Stocking Feet–“With Elegant Cuban Heel and Seam”
A slightly silly stream-of-consciousness Saturday that begins as a museum visit and ends on Madison Avenue with a pair of racy stockings.
In the Wake of Westminster – Going to the (Paintings of) Dogs
Is anybody still giggling over the Affenpinscher Banana Joe winning the Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show? Is anybody still wondering what the heck an Affenpinscher is and why this little black monkey dog was named Banana Joe? I reckon it is because monkeys like bananas, but the dog’s home is in Holland. Why didn’t they name… Continue reading In the Wake of Westminster – Going to the (Paintings of) Dogs
How Lucky Is the Soul That Mends the Heart
Something about Valentine’s Day brings out the poet in me. Or rather inspires me to read poetry by those who write it, which I don’t. Okay maybe the occasional naughty limerick, but we are not going there. Instead I offer you a verse by Hafiz, the 14th century Persian mystic and poet, in praise of the heart–even when–especially when–it may be broken.