Love Notes

I thought it might be fun to have a little look behind the curtain, into the evolution of Meg Carter Designs.  The year was 2008, and I had just wrapped up a successful showing of my latest collection at NYNOW, but .... many buyers from wonderful boutiques had walked into my booth and said, "I love what you're doing but we can't sell shells".   All while the vast majority of my line didn't include shells.   Hmmm...

After a lot of head scratching, I thought, so what if we serve that up with a silver spoon?   We could take all the classic pieces, oodles of earrings, chains, and pearl necklaces, package them up on an engraved silver platter with nary a shell or even a fish in sight, and put a pretty new label on them.  How about "TOWN by Meg Carter Designs"?!  READ MORE

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I have some notes on my phone that I've been saving for a little Love Note inspiration.  They refer to things the French just do differently.  Often it's something Americans find amusing (and perhaps mildly annoying). 

Take for instance, the universal edict to "Dites bonjour!" and better still, a stream of pleasantries before asking a simple question.   If you are wagging your head in disbelief, just try this.  Walk into any French shop, from a rural boulangerie to the haute world of a Place des Vosges boutique, and inquire about the time, WITHOUT first, God have mercy on your soul, prefacing that with a hearty "Bonjour Madame!"  You will be greeted with an ice cold stare, chin down and back, eyebrows arched, implying, "Foreign pig, how dare you spit upon my mother's grave?"  READ MORE

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Did you ever have one of those weeks where everything seemed to flip magically into place, like a Rube Goldberg cascade of dominoes?    Last week I didn't have that.  In fact, an outside venture that I've poured my heart into for two plus years seems to have come apart.  Sigh.

And then I came across the image above, just as I was trying to pick up my déshabillée self and sharpen my focus in time for today's note.  And somehow, the dominoes magically reset themselves.  Those eyes seemed to be saying directly to me: "Put away that disappointing project for now.  Because right here is where your eye belongs."   You see, today marks the soft launch of something very special that had its genesis right here with you, in a Love Note last October.   Remember the Lover's Eye?  READ MORE

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Such a funny time of year this is.   One foot is planted firmly in the sand next to a beach chair, while the other sits in the starting block on the racetrack to fall => holiday.   What's a girl to make of it?

I think I'll turn back to something I know - nature.  How fabulous is the floral arrangement above?   I absolutely love it and might even try it myself.  It seems they've plucked all the petals off the sunflowers.  Or maybe the petals started falling of their own accord, and someone just came along and finished the job.  And don't you love the little imperfect apples scattered on the table - almost implying a tree branch lofting above, just outside the frame.  READ MORE

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As I sat on my favorite perch drinking my morning coffee and watching the goings on in Maine's Saco Bay, I chanced upon a Mutual of Omaha moment.  The water was all agitated and swirly due to a fast running incoming tide, and a group of cormorants had just arrived and were settling in to fish for breakfast.   I knew from my younger son, the outdoorsman, that there are diving ducks and puddle ducks.  Puddle ducks, he tells me, make for better eating, as they dine near the water's surface - on a diet full of lovely micro greens, seeds, insects and small fish.  Diving ducks, unlike their salad bar loving cousins, swim down to feed on all sorts of fish - bottom feeders, various crustaceans and all the other slimy stuff that never sees the light of day. 

Cormorants aren't ducks (I was pretty sure of this, just checked, got that one right, small victory accepted).   What I did not know is that cormorants are more than just divers, they're more like scuba divers, going down to depths of 25 feet and more.    I had only noticed that they seemed to be down there quite awhile before resurfacing with their catch.   Apparently I wasn't the only one watching.  READ MORE

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