Art & About

Springtime in France–A Friend Shares Her Travels

Honestly I have had the best time following my friend Sarah Gayle Carter blogging around France that I feel guilty keeping it a secret. Her photos are sublime–she is an artist after all–and her commentary is pithy, interesting and often funny. Here below is her latest. You can also click on the link sign up… Continue reading Springtime in France–A Friend Shares Her Travels

Design Notes From Aspen’s “New” Hotel Jerome

Luxury hotels these days out-do themselves to out-“design” one another with decidedly mixed results. While many are impressive, few are inspiring in terms of ideas you might deploy in your own perhaps more modest domestic context. A hotel we visited in Aspen last week made me want to, well, get a room. Ladies and gentlemen,… Continue reading Design Notes From Aspen’s “New” Hotel Jerome

Girls Just Wanna have Funghi

The post title refers of course to the famous Cyndi Lauper song “Girls Just Wanna Have Funghi,” but it later changed to “Fun,” which may be the version you are more familiar with. And do you remember this one… It ne-e-ver rains in California/But girl, don’t they warn ya/It pours/Man, it pours… It’s kind of an… Continue reading Girls Just Wanna have Funghi

In the Wake of Westminster – Going to the (Paintings of) Dogs

Is anybody still giggling over the Affenpinscher Banana Joe winning the Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show? Is anybody still wondering what the heck an Affenpinscher is and why this little black monkey dog was named Banana Joe? I reckon it is because monkeys  like bananas, but the dog’s home is in Holland. Why didn’t they name… Continue reading In the Wake of Westminster – Going to the (Paintings of) Dogs

The Shooting Box – Plantation House, Hunting Lodge, and a Piece of History

When people think of Southern plantation houses they may think of big big white columns and broad verandas, but the house we stayed in on a recent quail hunting trip down South was a far and charming cry from the ante-bellum architectural cliché. Nestled among the pines and surrounded by camellias and blossoming redbuds, the house… Continue reading The Shooting Box – Plantation House, Hunting Lodge, and a Piece of History

Quail Hunting the Old-Fashioned Way

It was a first for all of us. All of us being Sister Duvall, Brother-in-Law Rex, His Grace (aka my husband Tom, for new readers) and me. Not the first quail hunting per se, but quail hunting the Southern old-fashioned way, on horseback and mule-drawn wagons like they do down around Thomasville and Tallahassee. I reckon… Continue reading Quail Hunting the Old-Fashioned Way

Stylish, Easy and Tropical Breezy – Design Weekend in Lyford Cay

As promised, more on the design weekend at Lyford Cay. What a treat to tour some of Lyford’s most stylish houses, and what a pity not to be able to show them all to you. But this is a private crowd, with a refreshing lack of desire to be photographed. Besides if you had us… Continue reading Stylish, Easy and Tropical Breezy – Design Weekend in Lyford Cay

White Columns and a Pink Convertible

Is this the cutest car you have ever seen? It was parked in front of the Lyford Cay Club in Nassau this past weekend as a harbinger of cuteness, yes; but more accurately perhaps to signal stylishness, great design, darlin’ people, and fantastic houses. It was the club’s first design seminar weekend and a smashing… Continue reading White Columns and a Pink Convertible

The Beautiful Old Houses of Alamos and a Rufous-Bellied Chachalaca – Mexico Part 3

The once-wealthy silver mining town of Alamos, Mexico,where we visited with friends recently, is now welcoming ex-pat Americans and Canadians drawn to the area in part for its old colonial charm, including its beautiful and historic 18th and 19th century houses. Splendid in their day but ultimately ravaged by early 20th-century banditos and revolucíonarios, many of the… Continue reading The Beautiful Old Houses of Alamos and a Rufous-Bellied Chachalaca – Mexico Part 3