The Holiday Keeper: Never Stop to Think... Do I Have A Place For This?

Time to start thinking about what to get for those we love. 

The book at the top of the list: Never Stop to Think...Do I Have A Place For This? 

Mary Randolph Carter continues to show us how to live with what we love, and rejoice in it. How to share- with panache- the memories: how to make room for new ones. How to honor the past and delight in the present. 

Illuminating each space in her inimitable way, the author guides the reader through extraordinary dwellings and collections that fire the imagination. 

A book to be adored, thumbed through incessantly, and referred to often. A holiday keeper.

MARY RANDOLPH CARTER: NEVER STOP TO THINK...DO I HAVE A PLACE FOR THIS?

PHOTOS: CARTER BERG

christmas lights

@

trainspotters

via

the most venerable

ancient industries

the very merry bannister brush

what's not to love?

red and green &

available from the

UK branch of AI

always at the top of the list: ancient industries

simply

perfect

and

(better yet)

perfectly

useful

gifts:

ancient industries

and in the u.k., here

on being light of heart: please take note of

those flowers.

glimpsed in the brilliant here,

via the wonderful there

tied up

in string; a few of my favorite things

(more to come)

random pairing moment

because: i don't know why.

but the goods at old town

clothing, via ancient

industries, are awfully neat,

aren't they? the rest: apple

tote from the fabric society

via remodelista. chair from

gould in maine. astonishing

dining room: rhinelander

mansion in the fifties.

tartan: i can't remember.

anyone know? will add.

all clothing: old town

the hairdresser's wife said That woman writing a cookery book is like sending a blind man down the M1

did you happen to see this interview? they do cover

some interesting questions. those sisters. something

else. quite an indomitable spirit there, hasn't she?

very remarkable. and ms. wilson has done such a

brilliant job on the covers. a joy to behold. truly.

quite a life

annual reminder: shop

scintillating ancient industries

highly recommended gifts

ancient industries

is

not to be

missed, ever;

but today especially

please go see

ancient

industries

at the

chatsworth attic sale

sigh

here

(sweet ancient industries!)

Awards Season

Beautiful Blogger Award

(or: the post that just keeps getting

simplified as the day goes on ;)

Knowing that it is a great honor to be among the

Magnificent 7 chosen by Gaye at Little Augury,

and the seven Beautiful Bloggers chosen by

Daniel at Hiberian Homme, I'll be sending out

two sets of awards. Seven Beautiful Bloggers:

Hollister Hovey

Mrs. Blandings

Ancient Industries

365blanc

The House of Beauty and Culture

Little Augury

Ivan Terestchenko

[the tradition of the award, once received,

is to name seven more beautiful blogs &

tell us seven things we might not know about

you...have you but world enough, and time]

photo: cecil beaton

eva truffaut

moominsean@

archives & mythologie des lucioles

via

ancient industries

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.

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.

what more could you want?

ancient industries now has a shop.

really. what more could you want?

"Cover up under it for love."

Oh, please go see this...the quote Brooke has

chosen is really something superb:

"Mama say,

'I going to take his work clothes,

shape them into a quilt

to remember him,

and cover up under it for love.'

She take his old pants legs

and shirttails, take all the clothes he had,

just enough to make that quilt,

and I helped her tore them up.'"

More here, at wonderful Inchmark.

Via equally wonderful Ancient Industries.

Quilts of Gee's Bend Catalog

Auburn University

mama in her kerchief, and i in my cap

well, it is saturday and i am in a rush. planes touching down for christmas deliveries to our house tomorrow, people we love to hug. and not an evergreen in sight in this home, as i - not in my kerchief - have been wrestling the flu all week...

so, here, would like to point out that ancient industries rocks. what a fabulous blog! and she does book covers (our kind of gal!) and has a website, also. and, of course, i stumbled up this whilst looking at hollister's blogroll, which is, like everything else hollister does, exquisite and beautifully edited.

must go find tree, kerchief, and The Night Before Christmas....thus, "i in my cap, " above (one of my favorite, favorite lines and one i wondered over, pondering excessively when younger. much younger.)

hohoho and we're off!