Breathless

www.ashesandsnow.com



My brother took me to Gregory Colbert's Ashes and Snow exhibit at the Nomadic Museum on my 28th birthday. The experience left me breathless. I keep the exhibit's program opened and pinned to this image at the very top of my inspiration board. If this photograph is any clue to what the rest of his video and photography exhibit have in store, you must go given the chance.

Rain, Rain, Go Away...

www.millyny.com

We can always count on designer Michelle Smith to brighten our day! Never have I needed it more than right now. With March 1st right around the corner and damp, cold rains threatening to turn to snow, Mother Nature seems to be snoozing on the job. I think my sanity would be instantly restored with just one palm tree - just one! Alas, no tropical foliage in sight (at least not until my trip to Charleston next weekend!).

Milly's cheery, bubble gum colored Carnival dress may just chase my case of the drearies away. It's no wonder Michelle was the first American to be sent from fashion house Hermes to intern in Paris.

Champagne Dreams

www.saksfifthavenue.com

Normally, anything “marquise” gives me a strong case of the willies. Stephen Webster is so talented however, that he has taught this girlie a new trick. They can indeed be glamorous if incorporated into one of Webster’s edgy designs. His 18 carat champagne quartz marquise is over the top. Brilliantly set over mother-of-pearl, this pendant is so sexy I’m envisioning it with an unbuttoned safari-inspired silk button down and nothing else. Casual cool has never been so wickedly hot.

Spring '09

www.tenthousandvillages.com

With our new president, and new awareness has come a new era. Lifestyles of the American people are changing (and if they aren't, they certainly should be). Excess and unnecessary expense is not the desired path anymore (I know this statement is going to get me into trouble in some future blog post, but for now, I'm trying to make a point). And, as our First Lady has already demonstrated, one thing that shouldn't be effected - despite a more than turbulent economic time - is our sense of style as a nation.

This morning I found myself sitting under the dryer with enough tinfoil on my head to be mistaken for a U.F.O. communication devise, and a divinely thick (roughly eight inches if I had to say) stack of Hearst Publication's finest. Salon day has become my magazine catch-up day. With every turn of the page the same trend in accessories stared back at me; geometrics, geometrics, geometrics. While I won't be dedicating my entire spring to one style, I have fallen in love with this brass necklace from the Bombolulu Workshops in Kenya. Available from the uber socio-conscious website, Ten Thousand Villages, this necklace was created by blind and physically disabled artisans in Mombasa. It is so beautiful, I wish I had designed it myself.

Why Not?

I've been searching, and on the look out for an inspirational quote. Something that will keep me thinking, without the cheese factor (and one does have to be careful when displaying quotes - there is a very fine line with all the quote paraphernalia on the market these days). The reason for my quest being that I have a wall in my little house that is bare. Bare and just begging for something wonderful. Once I find my quote, why not get a bit creative and paint it in huge black letters, I thought? Well, one night while reading the NY Times online and procrastinating going to bed (one of my guiltiest pleasures), I found it. It doesn't matter what it is (I like the idea of it being a bit private, and my own personal inspiration despite the idea that I originally planned on having it out in the open, plastered across my largest wall, for all to see). What I ended up doing, out of lack of ginormous canvas & enough black and white oil paint to cover said ginormous canvas at three in the morning, was grabbing my favorite blood red nail polish (the one I don't have the cojones to wear) and painting my new found quote on the wide, floor length mirror in my bathroom. Mind you, to the outsider, it may look ridiculous, but to me it is perfect, and although I didn't know it, exactly what I had in mind. So, in the end, my self taught lesson is, why not step out of the box, color outside the lines, get creative and see where it leads us?