I've been skiing nearly my whole life and have never felt comfortable in the bumps. Once I took a fancy class on how to ski moguls from a French guy named Claude. He asked me what I wanted to learn. I said I want to look like Lindsey Vonn. He told me to plant my poles, point my boobs downhill, suck in my stomach, and keep my weight forward. I said, "Don't you mean boots? Point my boots downhill?" "No Madame," he said, making hand gestures to explain, "your boobs. Eez not what you Americans say? Or teats?"
Read moreHappy for Sadness
This weekend marks one year since Finder Not Keeper opened for business. I thought about an image of a birthday cake or a champagne bottle, but if I am being completely honest, the real impetus to open a shop came from watching my children leave home. Thus, the image above.
Today's Post is About Loneliness
When my oldest child left for college, I really struggled. I cried without warning, and had trouble sleeping. It felt like the loss of my identity as a mother. I'm quite ashamed to admit this even now, because it was such a first-world problem, to be sad about the natural progression that everyone wants for their children. How shallow and selfish.
Read moreThe Goldfinch
I am on vacation this week and rereading my favorite book of 2014: Donna Tartt's The Goldfinch. Please, for the love of all things good, promise me you'll read it someday soon.
It is the story of kid named Theo who goes to a museum with his mother to see her favorite painting, The Goldfinch. There is a bombing, his mother is killed, and somehow, he emerges from the wreckage with the painting. A nutty premise but consider the photo below of a terrorist bombing of the Islamic Art Center in Cairo, Egypt one year ago. Nothing in this book is a stretch.
Read moreIs This Ugly?
I think it's ugly. Is it the Pepto-Bismol wall color, or the hideous burnt umber tones in the wood? Either way, this composition did not start out ugly. Under the studio lights, it looked really pretty. The rods and cones of my retina told my brain that the colors complemented each other. I believed my brain and patted myself on the back for assembling a visual lovefest of vivid pastels.
But a camera lens is not an eyeball and through my photographer's camera lens, the pink wall went from a soft blush to something more like salmon. The antique tea table, which is a rich brown, turned burnt orange. And through the camera lens, I saw that the sleek decanter and cordial glasses didn't suit the polychrome plates.
Read moreLetter to My Online Sisterhood
Have you heard of the new twist on Valentine's Day? It's called Galentine's Day, where women get together with their besties for a no-pressure night of female bonding on or around February 14th. Leslie Snope started the trend a few seasons back on "Parks and Recreation," and it is gaining traction. Did you hear that, Hallmark? We love an opportunity to acknowledge the value of our gal pals and we especially love doing it on the day that society says is for romance.
Galentine's Day may usurp my love of Halloween, as holidays go. Since launching Finder Not Keeper, I have found an enormous wellspring of support from other women. It seems to happen very naturally. Which I did not expect. A mistake on my part to underestimate the power of women who share.
Read moreDr. Van de Velde's Valentine
"This book will state many things which would otherwise remain unsaid."
How's that for a hint at what scandalous ideas lie within the pages of this remarkable book? Its author, Dr. Th. H. Van de Velde, a Dutch physician and gynecologist, was not exaggerating.
"I show you here the way to Ideal Marriage. You know the honeymoon of rapture. It is all too short, and soon you decline into that morass of disillusion and depression, which is all you know of marriage. But the Bridal Honeymoon should blossom in the perfect flower of ideal marriage. May this book help you to attain such happiness."
Read moreJunk with Spunk
This is a boring business-y post, so if you find marketing discussions to be dull, skip down to the part about going to hell (second-to-last paragraph). Marketing can suck, so I'm right there with you. It is so uncomfortable to "pitch"Finder Not Keeper to anyone who is not my mother or who hasn't shown me ample amounts of social media love BECAUSE I NEVER KNOW WHAT THE HELL TO SAY.
First off, who am I? An antique dealer? Sort of. An artist? Not really. A decorator? I don't think so.
The only thing I know for sure is that I am a shopkeeper. Who sells antiques, art, and decor. This makes no sense.
Read moreFlowers Follow Fire: Carolyne Roehm's Bloom After Disaster
When I was in college dreaming of New York and a job in fashion, I followed the career of a young woman who seemed to burst onto the couture stage like a fleet-footed ibex. This was the 1980s of banking deregulation, Arnold Scaasi's red dresses for Nancy Reagan, Ivan Boesky, Malcolm Forbes 70th birthday party in Morocco, Leona Helmsley, The Bonfire of the Vanities, and more cocaine than Jonah Hill ever imagined. The particular young woman I admired, Carolyne Roehm, came from Kirksville, Missouri, and in the fashion pages, her face looked midwestern fresh. She worked for years for Oscar de la Renta, and both were purported to have beautiful manners.
Read moreThe Doctor's Dedicatory Bowl
The woman in line ahead of me asked the woman in line behind me a question: "Who owned this place?" I stepped aside so the answer could be conveyed: "A physician by the name of Emmett or Bennett or Barnett," came the response. The first woman exclaimed, "Oh! Well if it's Dr. Emmett, I'll be darned because he was my doctor!"
Inside the condo, I saw that Dr. Emmett/Bennett/Barnett had a penchant for travel to exotic locales. He collected wonderful artifacts from the South Seas, the Orient, Africa, and Australia. I grabbed a couple of inlaid mosaic tables that looked like they came from Morocco.
Read moreHeavenly Bogotá for the Holidays
Instead of packages under the tree, this year we decided to take our children along with their grandfather to visit Colombia, their grandfather's homeland. It was a dream vacation. The kids met the South American branch of the family and they embraced us with enthusiasm and warmth. At our first event, great aunts and uncles literally pulled us into conga lines of dancing. From then on, it was one big bouncy lovefest. We are all glowing.
Our first day, we joined pilgrims and tourists making the steep trek up to Monserrate (10,341 ft.) where Christmas Day services were held in the lovely open air Catholic church. Many Colombians wept as they ascended towards the peak.
Read moreMessy Year Means New Goals
What a tumultuous year. I launched a blog and opened a shop. One of the initial decisions I had to make was whether to work out of my home or occupy a space. I realized our house -- not large but with interesting architectural detail -- is a great photographic backdrop. And the rent can't be beat.
More importantly, when I live with these objects and mix them into everyday life, I often see them in a new light. They show themselves capable of evolving in a modern way. It is much easier to form collections with items I've gotten to know and love on a personal level. When it comes time to shoot them, they are content in this space, and it shows through in the photographs. Weird, huh?
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