Love Notes

We talked last Monday about classic style.  Yet we just scratched the surface.   Let's pick up again with classical design.  A friend of mine wrote a book about the physical response you get from seeing beauty, “Feeling Beauty”, by Gabrielle Starr Harpole.  While I can't do justice to paraphrasing the neuroscience she lays out in exquisite detail, I do intimately know the physical feeling she's describing.  You walk into a magnificent building or a beautiful room, and your involuntary response seizes control - you take a pause, an audible deep breath, then emit a sigh, while a smile takes form.  

One of my favorite spaces in Washington is the National Building Museum.  I get that pause/big inhale/sigh/smile every time I walk in.   READ MORE

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In December of 2022, I was sitting around the fire before dinner with a glass of wine, my husband, and a good friend who was visiting us.  She (my friend, not the wine) said, "I'm going to Rome next month.  You ought to come with us."  I thought, "oh, there's no way I could possibly go to Rome next month".  And then 

"But what if I said yes?"   In fact, I did.   The trip wasn't a super luxe trip, and January is  a wonderful time to travel to Europe because no one else thinks so.   (It rained a lot and we even saw snowflakes, which is virtually unheard of in Rome.)  And it became one of my favorite trips ever.    READ MORE

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Today's note is quick postcard from Palm Beach.  What other setting could provide such a treasure trove of sunshine drenched vignettes and colorful design inspiration?  So get ready - a burst of citrus color is coming at you, sure to banish the last of those winter blues.   Read more here

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