Category Chez moi
Things I love: Discovering how two things go together in a way I’d never thought of before
When I was in Morocco last summer, I bought several large ornamental plates. One of them, with its rich yellow and red pattern and silver latticework overlay, is a lovely piece but very different from the other blue and white ceramics I brought home. I didn’t know what to do with it. There was no obvious place on the […]
Things I love: Coming up with an idea before I see it in the magazines (and then seeing it in the magazines)
Last December I bought a giant blue Peruvian butterfly that caught my eye in an ecclectic Colorado shop. Now it hangs above a shelf in my bathroom. I love the richness of color and elegance of form that it brings to the space. Now, here we are six months later, and guess what shows up […]
Things I love: Trying out what I see in the magazines and having it work
If you read design magazines, you’ve probably noticed that nearly every photograph of a room will include fresh-cut flowers — more often than not, they’re peonies. The heavily petaled blossoms offer such rich color and texture that they bring life and interest to any room. I’ve been keeping fresh flowers in my bathroom for quite a while now, […]
Butterflies
My decorating has gotten more adventurous and ecclectic over the years. I think it’s the cumulative influence of the myriad colors, textures and forms that I’ve encountered through international travel, in art museums and design magazines, and in the personal styles of friends and family. For example, butterflies. They’re my latest obsession. I’d never thought to decorate with them before — the idea of having […]
Back to the wild
After two days with temperatures in the mid-sixties, the ice block on my balcony finally melted. Time for the goldfish to move out of my refrigerator! First step was to place the vase inside the pond to allow the fridge water to equalize with the pond water temperature. Once the water temperature had equalized, I tipped them out […]
Bouquet
There’s nothing like fresh-cut flowers to make getting ready in the morning a joy. My favorites are star-gazer lilies — it’s basically impossible to have too many! With star-gazers in the bathroom, my whole apartmentsmells like a florist’s shop.
Wedding blankets
While we’re in the wedding mood, I thought I’d post some photos of the handira — a.k.a. traditional wedding blankets — that I bought while I was in Morocco this past July. My understanding is that a bride would make this sort of blanket to include as part of her wedding trousseau, thereby demonstrating both her skill in weaving […]
Life in the margins (plus, a shower curtain)
Oh man. It’s been one of those months. Way too much work, unrealistic deadlines, unpleasant clients — all of my time is still not enough. Even if I’d been willing to pull all-nighters, the clients and partners would still have wanted more. So, of course, my personal life has been pushed yet again to the margins. Family, […]
Container Gardens, Year 2: Pink and Green, with Fish
You may recall that the upshot of last year’s apartment flood was my moving into a new apartment with a balcony, which I promptly filled with an array of potted plants. Having thus broken my many-year hiatus from gardening, I intended to expand my gardens this year in some ambitious ways; namely, I wanted more color, flowering vines, and . . . drum […]
Masks in the bedroom
You know how, when you’re decorating a bedroom, and you’re 98% done, but you just can’t find the right thing to fill that odd-shaped gap over the table between your bed and the wall and you’re reluctant to just put up whatever because you’re in love with the paint color and would regret poking holes in it for […]
A More Gentlemanlike Manner 