"I started to sing a camp song..."

Family Scrapbook

M. B. Goffstein

collection

garden steampunk

The Porter Garden Telescope

from Garden History Girl

How to Cook a Wolf

So anyway. Thinking about war-time cooking made me think of this. And led me, in search of MFK & Wolf, to a charming bit of writing (and another magnificent blog to explore). Won't get long-winded about this. Here's an excerpt from said blog (and a hat-tip to Katherine Sharpe, the authoress):

"That, to me, is Fisher’s lesson: that you can eat (or, by extension, do anything) with intentionality, composure, and in the way that most pleases you—and that, within limits, you can do this regardless of how well-off you happen to be. If you get the hang of it, she suggests, other people will see these simple achievements as a remarkable and powerful thing. If you manage not to be blown off course by the whims and expectations of others, you might even make people mad occasionally."

while you are making that holiday list

Those who know me know that I tend to get a little over-focused sometimes. And I know that I mentioned the great good stuff at Ancient Industries a few posts ago. But I didn't show you of any of the marvels I was raving about, and since these are the sugarplums that are dancing through my head this December I thought it would be fun to share.

There's lots more (as you'll see when you go). Elegantly selected and perfectly delectable. Useful, each and every one! Perhaps that's why it all seems so completely desirable this year. Who needs stuff they don't need? These days, there's no reason for it. (Not that there ever is.)

So. Be good to yourself. Go have a peek. It's beautiful.

Shop Ancient Industries. (But please go easy on any hedgehogs you might encounter. It was a war-time thing.)

All photos and text, above,
via (of course) Ancient Industries.

ludwig's other girl

there is something about this drawing

that take me right back to a state of

complete happiness from my childhood

how much i love the long runner, yellow blankets,

red hair, stacked beds, window, curtains,

teardrops, curly hair, straight hair and bows

cannot be put into words. it is bliss to me.

Elsie, below, must have been delighted

to be in the company of Madeline's maker

(or course, I was sad that Madeline was crying

but perhaps that was it: the whole scene is

somehow divinely human and straight to the heart)

p.s. i spent a lot (a lot a lot) of time looking

(when i was very young) at this page and could not

figure out for the life of me how they slept in their bows

and kept them so delightfully pert. it was a beautiful

mystery to me, and i wanted desperately to sleep in a

bow and have it not fall out of my short red bob and

then i would surely wake up looking simply marvelous.

elsie by ludwig

An Aesthete's Lament is such a fun stop.

Always delightful, terribly informative.

Brilliant words on the history of

interior design (and so much more).

Incredibly erudite, basically. Genius.

Above, Elsie De Wolfe by Ludwig Bemelmans.

Pretty delicious. (From the Aesthete, of course.)

"Designers should be arbiters of the truth: They should be the kind of people who stand up and tell it like it is, and that usually calls for courage"

Beautiful.

"Right or wrong, companies who care little about the design of a customer's experience are often thought to care little about its customers. Poor design encourages people to believe in a brand’s ham-handedness, in its cloth-eared reluctance to listen and respond. If openness, communication, and accountability are the bellwethers of clarity, then poor design is a smudge—a flaw that seems to hide rather than reveal." [kevin mattice via chris messina]

I think this (see books, above) is the next

necessary step in the thorne haus.

From the marvelousness magnificently here

& by way of the Ancient Industries blog

(which I seem to end up sending mash notes

to somewhat often). Anyway...where

the heck is Ancient Industriesville?

Because I want to go there.

Really. Here, you can go: blog.

Or (be still my heart, Christmas is

coming! yes!) best gifts ever: here.

iconology

trends

here

still

rick martin took the photo

(six years ago? seven?)

i styled it (quickly, in a house i'd staged)

it just makes me happy. still.

perch

originally uploaded by victoria thorne

and in the end, the love you take is equal to the love you make

falalalala

Decked this tree (a few years ago)

with family heirlooms and delightful

eBay goodies: lots of antique glass,

Russian spun cotton & little cardboard

houses from the 40's and 50's. Great fun.

This scene was in an airy passageway just

a step away from the main rooms of the

house ... it led directly to the most sumptuous

yard (with a garden that seemed to have

once been looked after by Thomas Church).

photo by norma lopez molina