Pencils of Promise

Click here to go to Paloma Contreras' beautiful blog La Dolce Vita for more information on this very important cause. Thanks Paloma for including me!





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Pencils of Promise

Click here to go to Paloma Contreras' beautiful blog La Dolce Vita for more information on this very important cause. Thanks Paloma for including me!





 Subscribe to ::Surroundings::

Gratitude: The Eleventh Hour of the Eleventh Day of the Eleventh Month

Flanders Poppy tile - Verdant Tile Company

Courtesy of Bee MacGuire
Obtained From TheMcCrae Museum of The Guelph Museum 

My Boy Jack ~ Rudyard Kipling

“Have you news of my boy Jack?”
Not this tide.
“When d’you think that he’ll come back?”
Not with this wind blowing, and this tide.

“Has any one else had word of him?”
Not this tide.
For what is sunk will hardly swim,
Not with this wind blowing, and this tide.

“Oh, dear, what comfort can I find?”
None this tide,
Nor any tide,
Except he did not shame his kind —
Not even with that wind blowing, and that tide.

Then hold your head up all the more,
This tide,
And every tide;
Because he was the son you bore,
And gave to that wind blowing and that tide!

Gratitude: The Eleventh Hour of the Eleventh Day of the Eleventh Month

Flanders Poppy tile - Verdant Tile Company

Courtesy of Bee MacGuire
Obtained From TheMcCrae Museum of The Guelph Museum 

My Boy Jack ~ Rudyard Kipling

“Have you news of my boy Jack?”
Not this tide.
“When d’you think that he’ll come back?”
Not with this wind blowing, and this tide.

“Has any one else had word of him?”
Not this tide.
For what is sunk will hardly swim,
Not with this wind blowing, and this tide.

“Oh, dear, what comfort can I find?”
None this tide,
Nor any tide,
Except he did not shame his kind —
Not even with that wind blowing, and that tide.

Then hold your head up all the more,
This tide,
And every tide;
Because he was the son you bore,
And gave to that wind blowing and that tide!

In Gratitude: Mary Travers

For a voice that was deep and clear, a message that was always uplifting and a lifelong partnership that carried the first two on the simple chords strummed on a couple of guitars.






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In Gratitude: Mary Travers

For a voice that was deep and clear, a message that was always uplifting and a lifelong partnership that carried the first two on the simple chords strummed on a couple of guitars.






 Subscribe to ::Surroundings::

Look! There is fortune all around you

Click here to view larger size

The last eight years have been wrought with a lot of trauma - from 9/11/01 to Katrina to the loss of a friend, a father,  the economy - we've all experienced a lot of personal and collective trauma. And, it's enough to make even the most positive person a cynical mess.

The title of this post "Look! Fortune is all around you" came in a fortune cookie that I ate this week.  This post isn't about politics, it's about gratitude and it's about choosing to be grateful. About recognizing our fortune wherever it comes from and about saying it out loud.

Now, you may be wondering what all this gratitude talk has to do with these pretty pictures of a pretty room.  This is a living room that I decorated nearly two years ago for some lovely clients in Boston. The room was about ninety-five percent completed, but had never really been accessorized - no photos, tchotchkes or art. The clients had other priorities - pesky things like roof work and leaky windows. I'd never taken more than snap shots, which was sad because I loved the room and was so proud of it!

Well, I was lucky enough to be able to book a photo shoot with the amazing photographer Michael J. Lee (I posted about him here and here) in order to use the photos for something that I can't post about now, but will later on in the Fall.

I had about two weeks to get the clients, photographer, accessories and accent pieces all on board in order to make a deadline this week. And everyone was more than supportive and helpful. It was an amazing display of kindness to me.

So, I wanted to express my sincere gratitude to some wonderful people.   The clients didn't yet have a cocktail table and I was able to borrow this spectacular 1940's French gilded bronze glass top table from my friends Diana and Scott Cooper of Trianon Antiques. At 26-1/4" square x 19" h,  it's a small piece, but the room is not large and it was perfect.

   

 

Click here to view larger size

I'd like to thank Al Lageux of Beacon Hill Showrooms  for loaning me one of these urns, which was placed in front of the fire place. I told him I was accessorizing a room for a photo shoot and he immediately said - borrow whatever you need.

 

 Click here to view larger size

And I'd like to thank Josh Steinwand at Studio 534 for the loan of this fantastic pair of hand painted Japanese Leaf panels. Josh didn't know me, but he knew Michael Lee and that was enough. Whatever you need - he said.

How nice were all these folks? No pressure to sell, no deposits and no disappointment shown when I returned all these pieces unsold. Just a "thanks for returning them". I was so touched!

Of course, I can't neglect to thank my wonderful clients Bill and Kim who let me swoop in on their lives nearly two years after the room was last worked on. They made some quick changes, painted a wall, added the missing glass inserts in the windows and provided a budget for accessories. Talk about a dream.

And finally, a big thanks to photographer Michael J. Lee for shooting the room. I'll be doing a big post in the next week or so on his work, his process for photographing a space and how we ended up with these fantastic photos.

So, today, I am putting my gratitude out there - it was only due to the kindness of all these folks that in two short weeks I had the most beautiful photographs of this project. Lucky, lucky me. 



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Look! There is fortune all around you

Click here to view larger size

The last eight years have been wrought with a lot of trauma - from 9/11/01 to Katrina to the loss of a friend, a father,  the economy - we've all experienced a lot of personal and collective trauma. And, it's enough to make even the most positive person a cynical mess.

The title of this post "Look! Fortune is all around you" came in a fortune cookie that I ate this week.  This post isn't about politics, it's about gratitude and it's about choosing to be grateful. About recognizing our fortune wherever it comes from and about saying it out loud.

Now, you may be wondering what all this gratitude talk has to do with these pretty pictures of a pretty room.  This is a living room that I decorated nearly two years ago for some lovely clients in Boston. The room was about ninety-five percent completed, but had never really been accessorized - no photos, tchotchkes or art. The clients had other priorities - pesky things like roof work and leaky windows. I'd never taken more than snap shots, which was sad because I loved the room and was so proud of it!

Well, I was lucky enough to be able to book a photo shoot with the amazing photographer Michael J. Lee (I posted about him here and here) in order to use the photos for something that I can't post about now, but will later on in the Fall.

I had about two weeks to get the clients, photographer, accessories and accent pieces all on board in order to make a deadline this week. And everyone was more than supportive and helpful. It was an amazing display of kindness to me.

So, I wanted to express my sincere gratitude to some wonderful people.   The clients didn't yet have a cocktail table and I was able to borrow this spectacular 1940's French gilded bronze glass top table from my friends Diana and Scott Cooper of Trianon Antiques. At 26-1/4" square x 19" h,  it's a small piece, but the room is not large and it was perfect.

   

 

Click here to view larger size

I'd like to thank Al Lageux of Beacon Hill Showrooms  for loaning me one of these urns, which was placed in front of the fire place. I told him I was accessorizing a room for a photo shoot and he immediately said - borrow whatever you need.

 

 Click here to view larger size

And I'd like to thank Josh Steinwand at Studio 534 for the loan of this fantastic pair of hand painted Japanese Leaf panels. Josh didn't know me, but he knew Michael Lee and that was enough. Whatever you need - he said.

How nice were all these folks? No pressure to sell, no deposits and no disappointment shown when I returned all these pieces unsold. Just a "thanks for returning them". I was so touched!

Of course, I can't neglect to thank my wonderful clients Bill and Kim who let me swoop in on their lives nearly two years after the room was last worked on. They made some quick changes, painted a wall, added the missing glass inserts in the windows and provided a budget for accessories. Talk about a dream.

And finally, a big thanks to photographer Michael J. Lee for shooting the room. I'll be doing a big post in the next week or so on his work, his process for photographing a space and how we ended up with these fantastic photos.

So, today, I am putting my gratitude out there - it was only due to the kindness of all these folks that in two short weeks I had the most beautiful photographs of this project. Lucky, lucky me. 



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