Some Recent Work... (And Some Client Love)

One of the most rewarding things about my job is getting to work with such varied styles. Some of our clients are happiest in bright, airy spaces punctuated with the occasional hit of color, some like a moody, more glamorous vibe, some fall in the middle of the spectrum... At the end of the day, it's not about imposing our style on our clients but about facilitating and collaborating and refining (and sometimes pushing) until we get to a result that feels like a total reflection of them.

But every once in a while you get to work with people (like, say, the three above) that happen to love the exact. same. things. you love, and you have the opportunity to create spaces that, well, you want to move right into.

That's when you mix up a cocktail, high five your partners in crime and marvel that you actually get to do this action for a living.

Readin' In The Rain

above images via jean stories...

tonne's home from the september 2001 vogue via habitually chic

A rain-soaked Memorial Day weekend (we're in deluge territory here friends) ruled out your grilling and pooling and, well, all other requisite "beginning  of summer" holiday activities. Never fear, there were still burgers, they were just procured from our favorite neighborhood joint and consumed while partaking in a particularly epic Gilmore Girls binge with Audrey.

When not immersed in antics of Lorelai and Rory and the good citizens of Stars Hollow, I read... and read and read. No novels, mind you (it's Memorial Day weekend people, beach-esque reading only); it was all about a towering stack-o-magazines. I've been ripping out inspiring tear sheets and articles like it's my job -- at the top of the heap, Holly Brubach's article about stylist Tonne Goodman and her two sisters in the April issue of W.

The piece had me at Tonne (her style and aesthetic sensibility being pretty much off the charts -- see exhibits A-D above), but by the end of the piece, it was her mother Marian who I'd fallen for. Hard.

Specifically there was this:

Marian made sure the children got the full benefit of growing up in New York—taking them to the Museum of Modern Art and the Metropolitan Museum, the New York City Ballet, an Ike and Tina Turner concert, musicals and off-Broadway theater, including some productions (Hair, The Boys in the Band) other parents might have deemed unsuitable for kids. “These were things I wanted to go to, so I took them along,” Marian says. “And they seemed to enjoy it.” 

 Tiger mothers looking to raise girls who grow up to rule the world would do well to consider Marian Goodman’s style of parenting. Though all of her daughters...have succeeded in careers requiring visual imagination and a discriminating eye, she did not teach them to draw or even encourage them to study any subject in particular. Stacy says what strikes her now as most remarkable about their childhood is the “mixture of discipline and freedom” that their mother cultivated. “The household was very organized, but there was also the chance to pursue your interests. Never this pressure of ‘What are you going to become?’” On Friday afternoons, Marian took them to Central Park, set up her easel, and painted while the children scampered around her “like puppies,” Stacy recalls. That Marian made time to do what she loved left a lasting impression. Though the girls credit their mother with experiences that formed the foundation for their own creative education, Marian insists there was no master plan. “I wanted them to find their own way,” she says.

I've written of my admiration for this particular style of mothering before. Marian and Talia, I do believe you are soul sisters.

Thanks for the reminder.

We Interrupt This Break in Blogging to Plug my Necklaces Over on Vee Caravan

Oh friends... I have been a very bad blogger. Full stop.

I will make up for it. I promise. In the meantime, I'm just gonna do a little pop in to tell you about the handful of baubles (above) that I made for my amazing friend Christine's shop Vee Caravan.

You can see them (and purchase, if you so wish) here, here, here, here, and here.

xx

Recent Work: Gettin' Our Mantle On

Thankfully all that sand and surf and what have you was indeed restorative, as we all hit the ground running this week with a swirl of school/work/household crazy... I still need to share some snaps of our magical trip (alas, now sadly a distant memory). In the meantime, I thought I'd share some fun work that Sam and I did for the May/June issue of D Home in the form of a little mantle design challenge action.

I have to say, it was pretty fun (if not slightly surreal) to be on the other side of the page this time around, as a couple of years ago I was helping create these kind of stories for the magazine, and now I get to make pretty spaces with one of my dearest friends that are featured in one.

Good stuff.