I live in a saltbox colonial. When you come to my door, you will look for the doorbell. It isn't there. The man who built our house loved early American architecture. He incorporated many period-correct elements, like multiple fireplaces, wide-plank floors, and mullioned windows. But no overhead lights and no doorbells. I've always wanted to ask him why he stooped to include flushing toilets.
Read moreLaura Ingalls Wilder's Illegitimate Irish Lovechild
This week's post is about my friend Peg. As way of introduction, let's play "Five Truths and a Lie". In this game, you have to guess which statement about Peg is a lie. Ready? Here we go.
- In 1975, Peg boarded a Greyhound bus by herself to spend the weekend at her brother's fraternity house at the University of Wisconsin. She was five.
Temporary Wall Decals and a Smart Alecky Son
Many of you know that I shoot the photos for Finder Not Keeper in my home. As a result, the walls are painted a rainbow of colors. I also use wall decals. They help me achieve a different look out of the same color of paint. (Yes, yes, I know my husband deserves an award. My mother points it out regularly.)
Read moreSpace for a Free Spirit
In today's post, you'll read about a special person and see the images of a room I decorated for her and her mother. You'll also get a few design maxims that I applied to this space. They are guidelines that I borrowed from my closet and maybe you can use them in your own house.
So there is this young woman. She is a kind of wild thing. A bohemian. She is also a very good,
Read moreA Vote of Confidence from UPPERCASE Magazine
Last spring, in the "trough of sorrow", when I doubted absolutely everything I was doing, I got an email from Janine Vangool, editor of UPPERCASE Magazine. She was including my collections in her new Compendium of Craft and Creativity.
Janine's email stated that The UPPERCASE Compendium of Craft & Creativity would collect the most inspiring work of the past few years into a beautiful print publication. Rich with stories of the makers, it would include interviews, studio tours and delve into the creative process. She
Read moreTen Silly Decor Ideas from a Skeptic in Wisconsin
Good design begins by breaking rules. It challenges the suppositions that society places on an object's use and look.
This set of built-in bunks (above) is a fine example of good design. The designers, Tim Barber Ltd., take a kid's furniture staple, the old rickety bunk bed, and beef it up by enclosing it, painting it an interesting non-kid color, and basically turning it into an architectural element in its own right.
Read moreA Game with a Prize!
Hello and Happy Friday! This image appeared in Lonny Magazine last month, and it has me in a tizzy. I'll explain in a moment. First I'd like to invite you to pour yourself a cup of coffee and join me in a game of "I Spy With My Little Eye". You could win a prize. I joke not.
Please study the photo for a moment and tell me what you see. Are you thinking it's a bunch of random stuff? If so, maybe you need to stroke your chin hairs and arch an eyebrow.
Read moreJonathan Adler, That Cheeky Monkey
When I decorate a room, I ask myself, "WWJD?" The man who mentally helps me in a pinch is Jonathan Adler, the lovable goofball design genius from New Jersey whose louche rooms (above) make me want to be a gypsy queen.
You know what he would do? He'd shine up a space with metallic finishes, toss in chunks of tropicana orange, and stick a face in a strategic spot for a bit of fun.
Read moreWeekend Listicle // Elephants and Gilt
I listed this trio of pen and ink and arrows in the shop today. There's something about a line drawing surrounded by an ornate frame that is irresistible.
Also irresistible? Elephants. Did you know that their wrinkly skin keeps them cool in high savannah heat? Moisture trapped within the creases does not quickly evaporate. Not sure why that principle doesn't work for wrinkly fifty-year-olds with hot flashes but it doesn't.
Read moreWeekend Listicle // Quilts and Culture
My American grandmother was a quilter but diabetes stole her sight. She gave me an unfinished box of quilt squares because I had purchased a sewing machine to piece a couple of small quilts. Those quilt squares sat in my cupboard for years. I felt so guilty about them. Eventually I thrust them upon my unsuspecting sister when she got a sewing machine. "A great summer project for your girls!" I enthused.
We all know that starting a project is much easier than finishing. Which could explain how the Missouri Star Quilt Company became so successful. This business offers to finish where many quilters leave off: machine stitching your finished quilt squares into a completed top. The company founders, siblings Alan Doan and Sarah Galbraith Doan, started the company in 2008 to help their parents recover retirement savings lost in the crash. (Remember that year?) They now employ 180 people in their small town of Hamilton, Missouri. This year, they were named Small Business of the Year.
Their recognition coincides with quilting's popularity as a craft. It is hot these days. Modern quilters are reinventing the method using new technologies and refreshing the patterns with a graphic post-modern aesthetic. I love it!
Do you have a quilt made by someone who cared for you? Have you ever stitched a quilt? Are you a fan of textiles? Here are some links that might interest you:
Tomorrow, Maya Angelou's formidable art collection is being auctioned off. Included in the sale is this quilt by Faith Ringgold, commissioned by Oprah Winfrey in 1989 as a 60th birthday gift to Ms. Angelou. The quilt is titled "Maya's Quilt of Life." (I don't understand how Ms. Angelou's family can part with this. I wonder if anyone at the auction house took aside her son and said, "Look, just keep it, okay?")
These two women started a quilt business in Minneapolis and they are now finalists in Martha Stewart's annual American Made contest. I'm considering a purchase for my kitchen wall as their prices seem quite reasonable. And the way they hang quilts is super cool too. Check them out here.
The quilt in the photo above is new in the shop. Click here for info. I love it because the pattern contains Star Wars jets.
If you ever thought about printing your own fabric for a quilt (or for anything), I strongly recommend Spoonflower. Their work is fabulous.
Here is Jasper Conran's nod to hexagon quilting!
See you on Friday!
Photo of quilt by Renn Kuhnen.
A Room for Read's Reading
To my loyal readers who prefer to click on a post with photographs of humans, let me urge you to stay a moment, and look again. Because indeed a human is hidden in the image above. He is there amongst the stacks of titles. Those are his books, you see, and his daughter, my friend Alice, has turned her dining room table into a living library in his memory.
I remember the day I glanced at Alice's dining room and came to the easy conclusion that the space is stunning: the antique carved Spanish furniture, the gorgeously colored wallpaper, the wrought iron Rococo chandelier, the sunny window seat -- a favored perch of Alice's trio of dogs who keeps watch over the comings and goings of her large family.
Read moreTwo Artists You Must Know: Amy Sheppard Morose and Stephanie Barenz
I remember the first time I purchased a piece of art. I was walking home through the park where an art fair was taking place. The booth of a watercolorist caught my eye. He painted animals in a fairytale way. I asked how much for the one of the lions marching off to war with their teddybears. When he told me the price, I hurried home, counted out the necessary sum, and raced back to the fair to buy the watercolor. I was ten.
Buying art should always be that instinctive and straightforward. But mixing art and business is like asking a horse to dance. It is possible but it takes discipline, training and finesse.
Read moreText Message on a Plate?
I love text as art and so do a lot of people these days. Mottos as fashion statements or design elements are everywhere -- on pillows, t-shirts, phone cases, as tattoos, in wall collages, on babies' onesies. Maybe these cheeky catchphrases resonate because we regularly condense our communication. We put a lot of heart and soul into tweets, texts, snaps, etc. Does this mean that we glorify the shallowness of slogans? Probably. So, to celebrate the glorification of throwaway sentiments, I'm here to show you how to make your own creed to adorn any pretty little thing. It's fun and easy and yes, it peels right off. It's temporary, which I suppose means that it is shallow.
Read moreQueen of Halloween!
It is that time of the year when my skin gets goose pimply just thinking about new and creative ways to make small children cry. The possibilities are endless! Just call me the Witch of Blackbird Pond.
Today I am sharing some of the photos Renn and I shot for Finder Not Keeper. We had a hoot setting the table for our favorite skeleton named Stewie. (He's got no meat on his bones. Get it?) (Don't worry. He doesn't mind the jokes. Nothing really gets under his skin.)
Read moreLeland Gal
Photo of Maggie Revel Mielczarek by John A. Gessner.
I would like to introduce you to Maggie Revel Mielczarek. She lives across the lake from me, in Michigan, and our paths crossed in Utah at Alt Summit. Maggie is the founder of Leland Gal, a line of textiles, wallpapers, and accessories. When I saw her design work, my heart skipped a beat.
Read moreA Parisian Cowgirl's Dream Kitchen
This is Jane Moore's kitchen, photographed by Peter Vitale for Veranda Magazine. I have been smitten with this kitchen for the past couple of years -- the raw wood, the industrial stools, the European artifacts. In fact, I buy things for Finder Not Keeper that I think will look good in this kitchen or a kitchen like it.
Read moreElizabeth Gilbert Lets Go of a Dream House
Sam Oberter/The New York Times/Redux
Elizabeth Gilbert, author of "Eat, Pray, Love", is once again, walking away from what seems to be a really good thing. In her blockbuster hit of a memoir, she describes leaving a marriage, a house in the country, and a near perfect job. This time, she is leaving her dream house, which she and her husband Jose Nunes, aka Philipe, spent six years making their own.
When you see the inside of the house, you'll know why I had to post about this.
Read moreCassandra Smith, Warrior Artist
You know when you get a crush on someone on the internet, and it is all abstract and detached until you find out that OMG! she lives in your backyard and then you can't help but inbox her? Luckily, because your backyard is Milwaukee where everyone is decent and well-mannered, your crush actually inboxes back and agrees to talk with you.
(That really is how it works in Wisconsin. Really, the only drawback is on the highway, where people don't wish to hurt the feelings of other drivers by passing them.)
My crush is on Cassandra Smith.
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