Amy Sedaris as Muse

May 15, 2015 mithra ballesteros

Today’s post is about Amy Sedaris. Some of you may ask: who is Amy Sedaris? Well, pardon me as I aerate my lungs so I can scream, “SHE IS A LIVING LEGEND!” If this is the first time you are hearing about her, I am sad at your circumstance but glad to enlighten you.

Anyway, the fabulous Miss Amy Sedaris is a comic. Maybe you know her from Comedy Central’s Strangers with Candy. Maybe you know her big brother, David. He’s almost as funny. But his face isn't quite as elastic as hers. She's got play-doh features and eyebrows wired with fishline that enable her to transform herself into characters we recognize from that one time we went to Ho-Chunk Casino.

What a Snapshot Reveals

May 8, 2015 mithra ballesteros

Today I planned to hit you over the head with an ambitious do-it-yourself project. It involves taking an old slide or negative and turning it into a sentimental masterpiece worthy of prime wall space in a soulful home. The image I’m using for this project happens to be of a woman and a child sitting on a horse in a desert. The woman is my mother, I am the child, and the desert is in Iran. Which is frankly a lot more fun to write about than pixels and filters. So the Photoshop step-by-step will have to wait for another day. Let’s talk about my mom.

Two Artists You Must Know: Amy Sheppard Morose and Stephanie Barenz

May 1, 2015 mithra ballesteros

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.

Lila Mae and Me

April 24, 2015 mithra ballesteros

I am pleased as punch to share the news that I am a new "tastemaker" at the lovely online destination, Lila Mae. A few new Finder Not Keeper collections are exclusive to Lila Mae, including the Serengeti Vignette, pictured above.

Lila Mae is an eco-friendly destination for high quality products that are sustainably made to minimize the environmental impact. Most of you have figured out that everything I sell is used, antique, and vintage, which means my collections are almost as green as the moss growing on my copy of Aldo Lepold's A Sand County Almanac. So Lila Mae and Finder Not Keeper are a good match.

Why I Bought Shares of Etsy

April 17, 2015 mithra ballesteros

Yesterday, Etsy, the online marketplace dedicated to all things handmade, went public. The share price was $16. I bought a bunch. I am filing this post under "Mistakes" because maybe I just made a costly one. But I don't think so. The source of my confidence is an aspect of Etsy that is too little discussed. I'll get to that in a minute. But first, a quick introduction of Etsy. (I've peppered this post with images of products purchased over the years on this fabulous marketplace. Click on each photo for information.)

Here's a Drink to Drown Your Sorrows

April 10, 2015 mithra ballesteros

It was hard enough to say good-bye to the 1960s the first time. Now we have to do it again? Mad Men, that silky smoky show which captivated millions of viewers and inspired me to buy every piece of midcentury barware I found, is coming to a close. Don Draper is free falling through the skyscrapers on Madison Avenue one final season and we are bereft.

Today Only! April Fool's Slideshow in the Shop!

April 1, 2015 mithra ballesteros

This is a special blog post devoted to my most favorite of holidays, April Fool's. There's even a new slideshow on Finder Not Keeper that is viewable today only. To those who may be offended by my ribald sense of humor, I can only say this: I'm doing my part to lighten the load. Tomorrow I'll make up for this unladylike behavior by ironing my duvet cover and writing the stack of thank-you notes I owe.

But for now, 'bear' with me while I tell you about the joke played on me by the carved creature in the photo above. I fell in love with his innocent eyes and when I brought him home,

Caption Help Please!

March 27, 2015 mithra ballesteros

I'm working on captions for my April Fool's photos. These photos will live for twenty-four hours on Finder Not Keeper's home page on April 1. Above is one of the photos I'll be featuring. I'd love help from you clever people to supply a caption. Make fun of the bunnies. Or the flowers. (The whole collage will be available for sale next week.)

There's only one rule. Don't hold back. Leave your suggestion in the comments below. For examples from last year, scroll to the bottom.

Be aware that swear words don't bother me. Because I am modern. Like my mom. One evening a few years ago, she called me on the phone.

Happy Spring from Lulu and Daisy

March 19, 2015 mithra ballesteros

Today's post features Lulu and Daisy. They are two cuddly lambs who live at O'Day Farm Studio where Renn (pictured above) and I went to shoot these photos. Renn is my trusty and talented photographer and the sheep farm/art studio belongs to Renn's mother, Mary and her husband Patrick. It's a beautiful spot with outbuildings that double as art studios, rambling gardens, spotless and well built barns, green paddocks, rolling farmland, and sheep. We loaded up a bunch of furniture and accessories, enlisted a son (Nick, also pictured above) to model, and drove the forty minutes out there because, why not? How often does one get a chance to frolic with lambs? It was a delightful day that convinced me I am right to dream about someday raising sheep and making feta. Here are some outtakes I thought you would enjoy, since spring is blowing coyly in our ear these days.

Kool and the Gang and Lindsey Vonn

March 13, 2015 mithra ballesteros

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?"

Happy for Sadness

March 5, 2015 mithra ballesteros

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.

The Goldfinch

February 27, 2015 mithra ballesteros

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.

Is This Ugly?

February 20, 2015 mithra ballesteros

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.

Letter to My Online Sisterhood

February 12, 2015 mithra ballesteros

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.

Dr. Van de Velde's Valentine

February 6, 2015 mithra ballesteros

"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."

Junk with Spunk

January 29, 2015 mithra ballesteros

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.

Flowers Follow Fire: Carolyne Roehm's Bloom After Disaster

January 22, 2015 mithra ballesteros

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.

The Doctor's Dedicatory Bowl

January 16, 2015 mithra ballesteros

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.

Heavenly Bogotá for the Holidays

January 8, 2015 mithra ballesteros

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.

Messy Year Means New Goals

January 1, 2015 mithra ballesteros

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?

Welcome! I'm Mithra (pronounced Mee-thra). I'm an interior stylist and a writer. I'm also a vintage and antiques lover. I have an online shop, Finder Not Keeper, where I sell my best finds. (That's a white lie. I keep the best finds.) Read more about me and the blog here.

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A few days back in the ‘Quon. All of February is the price I’m willing to fork over for one week in September.

Latest blog post about our new outdoor shower and the differences of opinion between this guy and his mother (me) on how it should be used. #linkinbio

Brainy, brave, kind, genuine, indefatigable, funny, patriotic, fair, hard working, gentle, strong, iconic.

Those aren’t my hands forming baguettes. But I took the pic. @heat_her_all_a_man has it down and I’m ready with my salted butter and honey. What do you eat with baguettes?

Surveying the herb garden after a good weeding session. Basil took a hit the last couple weeks but everything else is flourishing like summer lasts forever.

First restaurant account for @littlelaurentide! Also first time eating out since the snow was flying. Really really fun night. (Not to mention that building’s white with black trim paint color scheme is 💯)

Surprise lilies, also known as naked ladies, fit in well here at the farm for reasons we will let you ponder.

This is son #2, the farmer. Walter is working hard to turn this place into a sustainable organic farm. Follow us @littlelaurentide for the latest on how mother and son align, clash, argue, hug.

On the blog today, the newest bachelor at Little Laurentide. Will he draw viewers or is he a train wreck along the lines of Juan Pablo Galavis? Read the latest blog post to find out! Link in bio.

On the blog today: a tour of the best places on the farm to sit for a spell. And I write a bit about what it’s like to cohabit with a son who used to give me every kind of gray hair. He could teach a polar bear how to be grumpy and I could teach a grizzly bear how to be grumpy. It’s a new world for the two of us, farming together, and can you guess how it’s going??

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