Thank you to everyone who joined me at Past Basket this weekend. It was great to meet so many of you in person and tackle some of your nagging design questions. I can't wait to put on my styling hat and help my new clients transform their homes. If you need a little distraction this week, check out my favorite links from around the web...
Read moreLet's Get Together!
This Saturday, I'll be at Past Basket, the beautiful home decor shop here in Milwaukee, from 11 am - 3 pm for a meet-and-greet. If you are local, do come make my acquaintance and sample my mother's delicious baklava. Enter to win a $100 gift card and a free styling session.
We can chat about interiors and if you like, bring along pics of your "favorite" problem spots, and I'll happily offer some free advice.
Read moreHow I Procrastinated This Week 09.04.18
Here in Wisconsin, it is officially back-to-school week. It feels strange because for the first time in twenty-three years, I'm not helping one of my sons get ready for a new school year. Instead, I feel like a student myself, giddy with excitement for my new styling gig and collaboration with Past Basket. I hope to see you at Past Basket on Saturday, September 8 from 11am-3pm for the kick-off party.
If you need a little break this week from the back-to-school blues, or conversely, you want to enjoy some quiet with good reading, check out my favorite links from around the web:
Read moreHourglass: A Memoir by Dani Shapiro
I've just finished the memoir, "Hourglass: Time, Memory, Marriage," by Dani Shapiro. It is a tiny book -- the pages laid out with shockingly wide margins -- but does it ever pack a punch. Which is surprising given that Shapiro describes what many of us are living: the vague blandness of waking up next to the same person every morning, years on end. She and her husband "M." love each other. There is no dysfunction, and the drama is the kind you can't escape in life -- accidents and illnesses, ailing parents, career disappointment.
Read moreHow I Procrastinated This Week 08.27.18
We've been hit hard with rain in southeastern Wisconsin over the last few days and more is coming our way. Hoping you are safe and dry wherever you are. I find these rainy days to be perfect for hunkering down and writing. If you need a little distraction from the rain, check out my favorite links from around the web this week...
Read moreOuttakes from a Milk Bath Photo Shoot
I thought I'd share some outtakes from a recent photo shoot. This one involved a borrowed wading pool (thank you Stacey, as always), a pig trough's worth of milk, lots of paint, and an artist willing to subject herself to this crazy scheme. Linda Bleck, the children's book illustrator is the subject of a feature profile coming soon to the blog. But I am not giving anything away by stating how grateful I was for her trust. Perhaps because she is herself so utterly creative, she was open to all ideas, God bless her, including full milk submersion.
Read moreHow I Procrastinated This Week 08.20.18
What are you up to this week? I'm continuing to savor the last sweet days of summer. I'm also excitedly preparing for my new collaboration with interiors store Past Basket. I can't wait to put on my styling hat, and I will hopefully see you at Past Basket on Saturday, September 8 from 11am - 3pm for the kickoff party. In the meantime, check out my favorite links from around the web this week...
Read moreWon't You Come Meet Me at Past Basket?
I'm so excited to invite you to a party! This one has food, prizes, and an advice booth! Join me at Past Basket here in Milwaukee on Saturday, September 8th, as I kick off my new collaboration with the acclaimed interiors store.
Here's the scoop: I am the new interior stylist for Past Basket, ready to help you style a holiday table, accessorize your bookshelves, create a gallery wall, or simply edit your things. And as you will see from the photos below, Past Basket is now carrying objects and art from Finder Not Keeper.
Come by on Saturday, September 8 from 11am - 3pm, just to chat. Or bring along a photo of a trouble spot in your home and I'll try to diagnose the issue and share some quick styling ideas. I'd love to meet you in person! You'll earn my undying gratitude because I'm worried the only ones coming are my lovely parents and poor suffering agreeable Gary.
Read moreHow I Procrastinated This Week 08.13.18
Is it really the middle of August? The short summer in Wisconsin always flies by. In just a few weeks kids will be heading back to school, the days will be getting shorter, and I will start planning for Halloween. Until then, I am going to soak up the remaining days of summer. What are your plans for the end of summer? In the meantime, check out my favorite links from around the web this week...
Read moreStudio Tour of Quilter Cathy Fussell
I've written a lot about accomplished women and I must confess that these posts flummox me. In this short space, I never know whether to draw your attention to the woman, her work, the story of her past, or the possibilities in her future.
To illustrate this quandary, let me introduce Cathy Fussell, a lifelong quilter who learned to handle a needle before she memorized her math tables. She remembers being four and pranking her father by sewing buttons onto his handkerchiefs when he wasn't looking. She has spent her entire life on the Chattahoochee-Flint-Apalachicola watershed in Georgia, and its terrain figures heavily in her topographic quilts. Her husband's paintings inspire her patterns. So do the words of William Faulkner. Cathy lectures on quilting, blogs about quilting, and leads quilting workshops. Two years ago, she was commissioned to create a quilt for First Lady Michelle Obama. She traveled to Washington D.C. to present the quilt to Mrs. Obama, who, by the way, was the fifth first lady that Cathy had the pleasure of meeting.
How I Procrastinated This Week 08.07.18
I’ve been thinking a lot lately about living on a farm someday. I dream of a bucolic country life gardening, raising chickens, and having acres to roam. What do you dream of? If you need a little extra daydreaming, check out my favorite links from around the web this week...
Read moreWriting in a Chicken Coop
I am just back from a writing retreat up in Door County, a scenic peninsula in northeastern Wisconsin that juts into Lake Michigan. The retreat was held on the grounds of Write-On Door County, and it was pure bliss.
For three days, eleven of us plus an instructor had the run of Write On's beautiful property. And that included the famed chicken coop (pictured above), which was once the writing space of Door County author Norb Blei. We wandered the fields, stretched out in the grass, and turned our attention to important thoughts. Like how the flight pattern of a butterfly resembles an EKG test.
Read moreHow I Procrastinated This Week 07.23.18
I’m looking forward to attending a writing retreat later this week. I can’t wait to be inspired and recharge my creativity. What do you do to reignite your creative spark? I’d love to hear your ideas! I won’t be sending out a newsletter this week, but in the meantime until I return, check out my favorite links from around the web this week…
Read moreHow to Survive the Family Road Trip? Podcasts!
In the snapshot above, circa 1976, my family is packed in our Chevy Impala, ready to make the return drive from a dude ranch in Colorado back home to Illinois. You can't really tell from the darkened photo but the three of us in the backseat are completely miserable and the key is not yet in the ignition. Oh the agony of 1001 miles in a car with undependable air conditioning, shocks that didn't absorb, and a radio that my father refused to switch on. Time slowed to the point that my Barbie dolls married and divorced several times on the journey.
Read moreHow I Procrastinated This Week 07.16.18
It is going to be a beautiful, sunny week in Milwaukee. I have to remind myself that these quintessential summer days are fleeting In Wisconsin and take some time for a long walk on the beach and dinner on the patio. If you need a little break, check out my favorite links from around the web this week...
Read moreDo You Take This Mec To Be Your Lawfully Wedded Husband?
I had the great honor to attend the wedding of the daughter of our French friends, Beatrice and Didier. Their daughter Margaux, an intelligent, beautiful, and accomplished young woman, married Gaël, a suave, open-hearted, life-of-the-party French man.
Read moreHow I Procrastinated This Week 07.09.18
It feels so good to be at home and back to my normal routine after quite a bit of travel the past few weeks. Sometimes it’s nice to just stay put for a while and enjoy the wonderful things close to home. If you need a little break after the long Fourth of July weekend, check out my favorite links from around the web this week…
Read moreBucket List Item: Photo Shoot in Paris
It's been almost five years since I began blogging here at The Bubble Joy. Not long ago, I paid for a one-hour consultation with Abby Glassenberg, a blogger, podcaster, and small-business consultant. Abby advised a number of things, including that I spend a little of my shop earnings on updating the look of The Bubble Joy: new template, new color scheme, a new logo and profile pic.
Read moreMy Men in Havana
Only two Hispanic families lived In the small rural Illinois town where I grew up. My family, headed by my Colombian father from the cool mountains of Bogotá, tried hard to fit in. Then there was the Rodriguez clan -- a boisterous group of Cubans who fled Castro’s communist revolution only to somehow land in southern Illinois.
Read moreHow I Procrastinated This Week 06.18.18
I am off this week, but I hope you are enjoying beautiful summer days wherever you are. In the meantime until I return, check out my favorite links from around the web this week...
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