This collection is called Prairie Textures and it comes with two interesting stories. The first is about the unframed canvas. It is a watercolor study of a calf and I think it is wonderful. Unsigned but wonderful. Such thick cottony paper. Such expertly mixed colors. I admire the confident brush strokes. And the economy of brush strokes as well.
I bought it from the estate of a gentleman who had sold the family's dairy farm to move to the Big City, meaning Milwaukee. He lived in a loft apartment down in Bayview and his place was kitted out like a 1960s bachelor pad. Swanky barware, Danish teak furniture, a stunning collection of Blenko blown glass, stacks and stacks of vinyl, very expensive audio equipment, and really good lighting. Not at all what I expected from a former dairyman.
Costuming the Family is Fun!
I have a treat for you today, a rich buffet of Halloween goodness. My sister and her family dress up together, as a fivesome, every Halloween. Anyone who has conceived of, organized, and executed a group costume knows the difficulty involved. Committing to this endeavor, year after year, even as her children grow into obstinate teens, even when her inner voice begs for a break to just sit out a year for land's sake, and watch that other modern family celebrate Halloween on TV, shows a strength of mind that I am proud to see in my little sis. I must publicly say how much I admire her achievement. And now you can too!
Read moreBest Trick or Treat Prank
Anyone in a clown mask can frighten a small child. In my family, little kids are what we call low-hanging fruit. Today's prank is the equivalent of a ladder to the top branches of the apple tree where the teens hang out. Teens make the best Halloween victims because they hate to show fear in front of adults -- it is a sign of weakness, an acknowledgment that we still have influence on them.
Read moreMy Birkin Bag Smells Like Weed
Did you hear about the Birkin bag snafu? According to recent customers who paid $20,000 for the privilege of carrying the iconic Hermès design, the newly purchased handbags emit a strong scent of marijuana, especially when exposed to heat. (Imagine that.) The smell, transmitted through badly-tanned leather, then infects other items in close proximity. Outbreaks are spreading and it's a real scary situation.
Read moreMrs. Matthiessen is Right
This week my camera, video camera, and laptop all went haywire and torpedoed my plans to post about a Halloween prank. Boo. Hiss. And to make matters worse, by openly sharing my technology woes, I just broke a cardinal rule of blogging. Which is this. Never make excuses to your readers. Don't apologize. Just shut up and write good stuff.
Because no one cares if your hard drive is shattered or B&H didn't deliver your light meter. It is boring. Unprofessional. Annoying too.
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 moreFun on French Streets
Readers of The Bubble Joy know that my recent journey to France was far from a pleasure trip. My husband and I spent much of our time in a hospital room. (More on that here.) However, French hospitals enforce strict visiting hours, so most mornings and late evenings, we found ourselves sometimes wandering the streets of Dijon, relishing the little differences and chuckling at the similarities.
Read moreAmerican Fish and French Coconut
I have been quiet for a few weeks following an emergency trip my husband and I took to France. Our son, studying abroad, suffered a terrible accident. We are all home now and he is recovering beautifully, which means I can breathe again and string words together again and most importantly, express my thankfulness. So, here is my Facebook-style gratitude list:
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 moreMatchmaking Then and Now
By far my most favorite aspect of this business venture has been creating the scenes for Finder Not Keeper's landing page. These lifestyle shots are important -- they set the tone and grab the attention of the visitor -- the equivalent of a brick and mortar window display. A good photograph will entice the web surfer to open the door.
For these images, I recruited a sleepy son for a model and an amiable husband to help move furniture and hang fabric panels along the patio. Then I raided the shop (my basement) for the cool Middle Eastern stuff that always attracts me.
Read moreThe Nose Knows Where Mildred Kept Her Weed
One of the necessary tools in this trade is a well-developed sense of smell. Almost everything I buy must pass the sniff test because certain scents can be neither eradicated nor disguised. Who wants a pillow reeking of mothballs or cat.
I honed my sniffer skills on the front line of a war with stinky boys. Call me Inspector Javert but no one gets away with anonymous passing-of-gas around here. If someone in my kitchen or worse, in my car, cuts the cheese, my nose is attuned to certain nuances that allow me to identify the culprit. It is to the point now where my sons are like Jack Donaghy who informs Liz Lemon, "I only pass gas once a year. For an hour. Atop a mountain. In Switzerland."
Read moreMe and Melanie Griffith, Writing a Bio
Outstanding in the Field
The food caravan is coming to town, folks. Step right up for your tickets to a dinner worthy of anyone's bucket list. A few upcoming events in the Midwest still have seats available. But not for long. (The Bailey's Harbor, WI dinner sold out just a minute ago.)
I'm talking about Outstanding in the Field, the organization that stages farm-to-table dinners in idyllic outdoor settings often connected to the meal. They travel the country, collaborating with local chefs and farmers to create an evening that is like a red wine reduction sauce -- a sensory experience made richer by what is taken out, not what is put in. They remove the barriers between farmer, grocer, restaurateur, chef, and diner. And by the end of this season, they will have set the table in all fifty states and many countries as well.
Read moreExpectant Motherhood, My Eye
I came across this tome of wisdom recently and couldn't resist purchasing it. Written by Nicholson J. Eastman, M.D., in 1940, this fourth edition was published in 1963, the year after I was born. So I wanted to know what kind of advice my mother received from the medical community. Lousy advice, that's what she received. Poor woman!
Read moreCount Time by Heart Throbs
This Sunday, I say good-bye to a dear friend whose too-short life is being celebrated at a memorial service. She lived up the street from me and though our children attended different schools, we became instant friends in our exercise class. I loved her sense of humor, her quiet but unshakeable convictions, and her grit, which was evident in our workouts but grew to gargantuan levels in her short but intense fight with that evil of all evils, cancer.
When I launched my shop, my first order came from her. She placed it from her hospital bed. Not just because she loved the plates I was selling, but because she loved me. She believed in my idea. And for that, there are no words.
Read moreIt is Okay to Be a Beginner: Lessons Learned at Alt Summit
Me, rushing to learn. Photo by Justin Hackworth.
This post is about Alt Summit and I'm filing it under 'Mistakes' because I made another big one. I am not comfortable in the role of beginner and before launching my shop, I believed that with enough preparation and education, I could skip beginner status altogether.
However, I'm three months in and there is minimal traffic to the store, my Google page rank is zero, Photoshop kicks my butt no matter how many tutorials I do, and each day ends with a longer list of things I need to learn. I cannot skip to the next grade.
Read moreThe Flowers at Alt Summit
Photo of Martha Stewart by Justin Hackworth.
I just returned from Alt Summit, a business conference for pioneering and rookie bloggers held last week in Salt Lake City. It was unlike any conference I've attended and I look forward to sharing some of the good stuff in my next post. But for now, indulge me for a moment to gush about one aspect of this conference that really stood out. The flowers! They were everywhere, used to creative effect in unexpected places and generally lending a dreamy and luscious quality to the whole event. All of the young lovelies in attendance adorned themselves with flowers and I felt like I was at a midsummer festival in Scandinavia. It was girly and wonderful.
Read moreSugar Cookies for Baba
This Father's Day, I baked a batch of rollout cookies for my dad. I cut them into the shape of letters that spelled B-A-B-A, which is Persian for 'dad'. Not only do his children call him 'Baba' but so do his grandkids, and even some friends and in-laws. I wonder how long it took before he stopped hearing 'dad' and starting hearing 'Baba' as a name of its own.
My dad prefers sweets made with honey and pistachios, but in the fashion that he has followed since emigrating to this country nearly fifty years ago, he gamely smiled and ate a yellow frosted 'B'.
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 moreNuke the Newbie or How to Outsmart Others at an Estate Sale
Collage by Nicholas Ballesteros
If you are a resale junkie, this is that magical time of year when estate sales abound. I am a woman whose business is the hunt and I promise you that finding great stuff is not as simple as being at the right place at the right time. There is skill involved too once you get there. Here are eleven ways to outsmart the competition at estate sales.
No. 1 - Bow Down to the Estate Sale Boss
Behind every estate sale is a boss. They are a tough lot. And for good reason. Can you imagine coming into a house with a lifetime's worth of accumulation and sorting it, researching it, pricing it, and selling it to bargain hunters within a very short period of time? They are the opposite of hoarders. They are purgers. They don't tolerate sentimentality so don't even try. The best of them have precise systems in place to speed up the process. Just find out what they require and do that.
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