Snowy Week!
It snowed over a foot here last weekend. More is predicted! I watched it come down, and a creative thought bubbled to the surface: collaging. Back in the day, before scrapbooking made such a splash, collages were the southerner’s method of preserving the past. More artistic and organic than its modern day rival, putting together a collage is a very personal and visual and creative extension of memory.
Instead of buying those pre-fab stickers and cutsey cut-outs at the local craft store, you can develop your own method of artistry with objects found around your home. I am working on a collage now that began with a map of Burma from the late 40s. My father was an air force pilot and he flew the “hump” from China to Burma to India. The map is the basis, and I have old letters and newspaper clippings that I am gluing together along with including my own free-hand pen and ink drawings.
There are two books out from Wathson-Guptill that are inspiring no matter your experience level. “Collage Journey” explores color and images and gathering. The result is stunning, and the reader is given exercises to help her/him achieve a personal and satisfactory result.
The second book is “Collage, Assemblage, and Altered Art.” The author emphasizes the artistic value to creating your own materials with a careful eye toward the color wheel. She goes beyond the concept of a flat surface to show how collage in three-D can be effective. On example given is the life of a baseball which has a visual and narrative story arc.
Looks like the snow will linger for a while. Great. I have lots of creating to accomplish.
Thanks to Meredith for the great books! They are a real source guide, and have sparked my imagination.
‘Til next…
There’s Sassy Living up North, Too!
Happy 12th Day of Christmas! The advent season is over, the new year has begun, and the twelve days of Christmas are winding down!
How about some after-holiday reading? There’s a charming tell-all from a former Miller & Rhoads Department Store Snow Queen. Author Donna Deekens combines humor and great story-telling to illustrate the behind- the- scenes machinations of a department store Christmas. Not even the elves are spared!
Our grand old Southern department stores are gone, but they still reign up north. Let’s start with Macy’s (from the parade-fame) in Herald Square.
The Store re-worked the “letter to Santa” concept for the computer age! Here you see swirling old-fashioned notes.
Anxious children of all ages submit their computer letters to Santa…The North Pole must have the WWW!
Now, Fifth Avenue to LORD & TAYLOR! While Macy’s is about the future, Lord & Taylor reflects on a Victorian Christmas.
The window’s tiny figurines twist and turn for the crowds!
The detail is amazing…
The American Christmas really began during the Victorian era and it is easy to see why…exquisite trees with the real, lit candles.
Happy new year every one! It is going be good one…
‘Til next…
Lulu!
My friend, Marcus, calls me Lulu since he knows how much I LOVE everything Lulu DK! As a fangirl of her fresh and whimsical style, this book (aptly titled, Lulu) is a feast. The cover (pictured below) resembles her new wallpaper collection, with the geometric shapes and bold, full-bodied color.
lulu book cover
Also, I am really awestruck by Lulu De Kwiatkowski’s power of observation regarding the world around her. In “lulu,” she interprets her life experiences with a spirited text and a host of detailed collages. I keep returning to them, and each visit yields a new discovery. Even a cursory glance at the writing (which is done free hand) lets you know that she has led an interesting life, full of the necessary colorful relatives, associations and locales. You feel like a voyeur to her creative process. As a novelist myself, I am moved by her sense of storytelling. The spare prose is evocative; each word complements the graphic images.
Collages use to be big in the South as a past-time; they also served as a creative record of our social and cultural history. This book makes me want to start my own collage, since this beautiful collection is not just about images and objects, but the memories and experiences they represent. Exquisite.
Thanks to my friends at AMMO books.
“til next (from New York City’s 5th Avenue!)
Full-page collage from the book, lulu
Lulu leaves space so the reader can breathe and appreciate the myriad of images.
Even the section dividers are carefully illustrated!
Happy Cyber Monday!
Hello!
This is Cyber Monday which is something new in the shopper’s lexicon. I have been decorating all weekend with old family ornaments, my own needle point treasures, nutcrackers from years of gift giving and FRESH greens. This is my front door wreath, which brightens this gray Virginia day. To make one yourself, all you have to do is buy an inexpensive Fraser fir frame (Kmart has them for $5.99) and embellish it. I snipped greens from neighbors’ yards and then made a bow from a 99 cents spool of red flocked ribbon . Now, my door says WELCOME!
The one thing Southerners have always been fanatical about is holiday store windows. Sadly, our beautiful and regal old department stores are long gone, but I will bring a full report next week from New York’s famed windows…Barney’s and Lord and Taylor and Saks!
‘Til next.
Set a Vintage Table this Thanksgiving!
A Well-Appointed Table is the Backdrop for the Entire Meal!
Can it really be time for Thanksgiving? Seems so. This has always been my favorite holiday. It has all the right ingredients—food, family and togetherness. And, the anticipation of Christmas! My mother was an amazing cook, and part of the delight of her dinner parties was in the table scape she put together. She would set the dining room table at least a week in advance (china, crystal, linens, silver, candle sticks and individual place cards) and with the same care as a State Dinner at The White House.
The book, The Vintage Table: Personal Treasures and Standout Settings, has many of the principles she employed and practical advice for mixing the old and new. The text is lively, and the book is divided into three easy sections. I especially love the advice on choosing the individual pieces for your setting as this represents an important step in your personal history. The pictures are expressive and instructive, and they will give your mind a visual jump-start for planning your holiday entertaining. Thanks to Clarkson Potter Publishers for this great guide to using what we have. Who knew that recycling our memories and treasures and history could be beautiful and GREEN?
This year I will spend Thanksgiving with the Tombes and Snyder families in Providence Forge, Virginia. I am confident all the essential ingredients of a good Thanksgiving will be in order! I am grateful. Enjoy…
‘Til next…
Stitching with Style This Winter!
The fall leaves are disappearing (except from my front yard), and with the cooler temperatures I am thinking about my hand work. One of the economies I’ve made during the recession is to abandon television. Not only have I saved money, but I’ve gotten back to stitching. This is a family trait. With gas rationing during WWII, my grandmother would often take the trolley from her large Barton Heights home to Thalhimer’s Department Store on Broad Street. It was a short ride up and down the steep hills of North Avenue. The store was a cultural and commercial touchstone for the City of Richmond along with the adjacent Miller & Rhoads Department Store. At a round table on the sixth floor next to the cloth and notions area, she would knit with other “war” mothers. No doubt this provided her with a community to share stories and memories and concerns.
It is now hip to knit, and thanks to my friends at Potter Craft/Watson-Guptill, here’s a preview of their cool new fall titles.
The cover alone would sell me on this book. Look at those beautiful yarn colors! Love the “Chicks with Sticks” reference in the title. If you are looking for a great basic knitting book with patterns that don’t look at all basic, but have verve to them, this is it. My favorite pattern title is: Boyfriend Basket Weave Scarf!
The Yarn girls are at it again! This book’s title suggests that it goes beyond the knitting basics, and it does, but new knitters will be able to find plenty to get them started, as well. There are lots of great patterns such as “The Subway Cable” and “Toasty Ears.” The titles hint at the creativity on the pages. A good stocking stuffer for your favorite knitter who is a little bored with the same old pattern selection.
You know what I like about this book? All of these wonderful stitches are the way to make a simple scarf or hat look amazing. Besides, it would be fun to make something different with each pattern or a combination of stitches. For serious knitters, this is a must have, as you will refer back to it again and again for inspiration and guidance.
I am in Virginia, and we are really feeling the remnants of Hurricane Ida. A good day to stay indoors and catch up on my knitting!
‘Til Next…
MIles Redd Brings Southern Sensibility to the Style Recession!
Miles Redd is the toast of NY design circles, but he hails from the South (Georgia, I believe), and he has a sensibility that matches all budgets and situations.
This photo of a girl’s lavender bedroom originally appeared in DOMINO Magazine along with Miles’ recession proof decorating tips. He suggested revamping what you have (maybe the tall chest in this photo was a Goodwill store find that he painted?), raid your local art supply store and make a frame to hang a solid yard of fabric over (chic, cheap art), paint all your doors to give a room verve (my bedroom doors are shiny patent leather black!), and use costly fabric in small doses (throw pillows and valences).
Below the Mason-Dixon Line, we know how to live and thrive despite the dismal effects of this recession!
‘Til next…
The Well-Dressed Home: Fashionable Design Inspired by Your Personal Style
I love the premise of this book: find your authentic self and style and build your decor around them. Annette Tatum resists the urge to preach about style with missives on furniture placement and rug selection. She is more inventive and intuitive, and so is this book. Ms. Tatum makes clear, both with her lively copy and beautiful photographs, that the key to understanding modern style is viewing both fashion and interior design as art. Her carefully arranged pictures are filled with interesting artifacts which could stand on their own. For easy access, the book is divided by “style sections” such as bohemian, resort, casual, etc. You can almost imagine yourself in one of these genres, but if none quite fit, all the better. Ms. Tatum’s genius is showing the reader that you can have a style that combines all of these into “your” look. The storyboards which open each chapter are fun, especially the miniature furniture and fabric swatches and photos squished together. They remind me of mini-collages (an art form that has come back in vogue, incidentally). There are plenty tips to be gleaned, with the most important being: you can take your style from the runway to a room.
Thanks to my friends from Clarkson Potter Publishers for providing me with this stunning tome.
‘Til next…
This Fall: Be Chic and Be Green
The pre-holiday cocktail season is upon us! Whiskey sours were always the drink of choice at my parents’ parties. Daddy was an engineer, so he mixed the “sours” with the same precision he used for calculating the width of a property line. Mother made beautiful silver trays in the 50s, and she used them for serving drinks. I can remember seeing those tiny, clear glasses clinking together with cherries bobbing on top of the foamy liquid. Mother always used beautiful linen or cotton cocktail napkins. Always. What was de rigueur fifty years ago is now fashionable for an entirely different reason: the environment. I am thinking about this because yesterday my NY friend, Courtney, sent me a lovely care package (being unemployed does have its benefits, especially when you have good friends). She knows her Southern girl because she included my favorite mags, candy corn AND these amazing cotton cocktail napkins.
The napkins have a stitched fall design, but they could be used year-round. The colors give a certain gaiety to even a mundane event such as my morning coffee! So, instead of filling the local landfill with paper napkins, pull out your grandmother’s linen and cotton napkins. Use them every day. If you don’t have any, treat yourself to some like those above. I know what you’re thinking: what about the ironing? Forget it, toss them in the washing machine, and use them as is. Chic is chic, my friends, wrinkled or not.
‘Til next.
Saddle-Up for An Exquisite Book on Equestrian Style!
Horses! Every Southern girl dreams of having one. Almost every Southerner claims to have them “in the family.” When I was five, my father took me to see his Uncle George and Aunt Lelia ride their horses around a ring in the front of their Hanover County, VA. home. They rode daily until they were well into their 90s. Amazing. Aunt Lelia wore a big brimmed straw hat, slightly cocked to the side. Practically speaking, it kept the sun off her face. But, even as a youngster, I knew style when I saw it.
Vicky Moon has the style gene in spades. Her book, Equestrian Style: Home Design, Couture, and Collections from the Eclectic to the Elegant will look striking on your coffee table, and the featured interiors will serve as inspiration for infusing your home and persona with the expressive and unique verve associated with the horsey set. The best part is that the decorating looks effortless, not overdone, like you could lounge on the sofa in jophurs or a silk halter dress. The jacket cover’s handsome horse knocker beckons the reader to explore the rails and barns and tracks from Middleburg, VA to Ocala, Fla. Rider up!
Ms. Moon’s writing is so expressive that it really brings you close to the subject. In 2007, I was living in New York when the Novograd family moved Claremont Riding Academy from the City, and closed its stables on West Eighty-Ninth Street. In Equestrian Style, she writes movingly about Claremont, which was established in 1892, and how it survived the depression and thrived as a horse (fully-tacked) delivery service to Jacqueline Kennedy (and other horse obsessed New Yorkers) for rides through Central Park only to have its stalls shuttered in the present day. In addition, Ms. Moon seems to thrive on writing about the eclectic equine fashion (scarves and hats and tulle), but she can also effectively shift gears and profile a special pony, such as “Petie,” who visits hospital-bound children in Akron, Ohio, as part of the Victory Gallop Group.
Equestrian Style provides a glimpse of today’s horse industry at its most personal, coupled with being a tribute to the culturally significant lifestyle of our vanishing agrarian society. Ms. Moon is obviously in love with the book’s four-legged premise. This book is equal to her enthusiasm, and the reader is provided easy access to the themes such as Hollywood Horses, Equine Artists, ‘N Everglades, Ladies Night, Restored Carriage Houses (and carriages), and much more.
The above photo (from my digital camera) doesn’t do justice to the quality photos within, but I had to give you a glimpse of the book’s pages. These plates are included in a two-page layout on the wide-variety of hunt china. I especially love all the hounds since I grew up with a beagle. My dog, General, was never featured on a plate, tho.
I suggest alerting Santa early that while reindeer can fly, horses (and horse people) have more style. It’s never too early to ask, so please include this enchanting tome on your Christmas list. A special thanks to my friends at Clarkson Potter Publishers for providing me with Equestrian Style to review.
‘Til next…
