Art of the Soul Weekend Retreat at Rancho La Zaca! Your soul’s voice is your True Self speaking. It is who you were born to be, your deepest meaning and your highest purpose. In this weekend retreat we’ll explore a variety of fun, take-home-able, non-woo-woo tools and techniques to access […]
Social Graces
Hosting a Virtual Dinner Party–Let’s Call It “Quarantaining”
Entertaining isolated but not alone: Welcome to “quarantaining.” With benefits to the immune system, no need for a designated driver, and little washing up to do afterward, it’s not all bad…
Guess Who’s in Salonniere’s Top 100: America’s Best Party Hosts
I am! Don’t know what came over them, but I am so honored. Oh my heavens. Fell slam off my chair, I did. Salonniere is a brilliant (obviously ;)) and stylish full of beautiful images, chic people, and smart advice about entertaining in particular and hospitality in general, which we can’t […]
What Can We Do When We Feel There Is Nothing We Can Do?
What can we do when we feel “there is nothing we can do?” When we feel helpless and afraid after what happened in Paris, San Bernardino, and Los Angeles. And that’s just in the last few weeks. Here in the bustle and busy-ness of the holidays, amid the wealth and commerce […]
Principles are like prayers–noble, but awkward at a party.
Thought after that last post I might better lighten up a little. Praise the peerage, Downton Abbey is back on PBS and the dowager countess and coterie are as quotable as ever, maybe more so. You know by now that I pray and am all for it. It’s downright essential. […]
Mabel, Mabel, Strong and Able, Keep Your Cell Phones off the Table
Keep phones not just off the table, but not anywhere near it. In this week of Thanksgiving, as we gather together, let’s be there, with one another, eye to eye. Much as I want to see the picture of your cat in her pilgrim costume, it can wait until after dinner.
Summer Reading to Catch Up on From Spring
I try not to read (or eat) more than I can lift, but sometimes it’s a challenge, particularly with the tons of great spring books that will take me the summer to get through. Here are a handful of my faves. Something here for everyone. Everyone like us, I mean. You […]
Planning a Wedding? Going to One? Please Read This.
Impeccable advice for planning a wedding with style and grace.
Art Is Busting Out All Over + Christopher Wool in Chicago + A Cautionary Tale
Art fairs are everywhere these days. The season started a bit earlier for me, however, with an unplanned visit last month to the Art Institute of Chicago and Christopher Wool…
The Inimitable Frances Dittmer
When the smoldering wreckage was found Thursday, our worst fears were confirmed. Frances “Frannie” Dittmer, sole passenger, did not survive. If you want to read about one amazing, smart, talented, funny, art-connoisieur-ing, football-passing gal–and I’m not just saying that–read on…
The Silver Lining of Breast Cancer? One Woman’s Journey Inspires (and Informs) Us All
“Beautiful and inspiring” aren’t words you expect to connect with books about cancer, but that’s exactly what Hollye Jacobs’s The Silver Lining is, and why you want it.
How to be Charming
How to be charming? Oh I wish I knew. Sometimes I think I know. Sometimes I think I am. Definitely not always. Some days are better than others. Surely that is true of even the most effortlessly charming people on earth. Charm is a quality, but it’s also a skill…