Fun Stuff

I am borrowing this darling image from one of my dear niece's facebook page. I don't know her friend who posted it and I am boringly, frustratingly too old and un-hip to have any business caring. But I do love that little HK critter so much. That's the funny thing about being a right-brain kind of person: you can't rationalize what it is that will strike your fancy. I love Hello Kitty but I pretty much have no patience for all her little friends. I adore the odd piece of peeling, tarnished, splintered vintage doo-dad but a house full o' antiques makes my nostrils quiver (and not in a good way). I covet Dupioni anything but end up buying a lot of Bed Bath and Beyond. I disdain talon claws, spray tans and a smokey eye but I can spend $200 a month at Sephora. So don't judge, take it for what it's worth and just enjoy. Okay I'm going to get my nails done now.

Bright Spots

Gosh what a dreary day it has been! I can't remember one this relentlessly gray in a long while. But of course there are always bright spots to be found. How about working from Starbucks with an iced caramel macchiato alongside? It sure beats the office kitchen, a cup full of the burnt end of the pot with skim milk and a packet of Equal.

A quick run to the bank in this wet mess of a day. I think I'll stay off the highway. Not so familiar with this road. Reward! How great is this? Can you see that the trim is a dark grass green and the awnings - the AWNINGS! - are chartreuse? I may not paint my house these colors but I'm sure glad someone did!

Back home...more work to do...seems like that calls for a yummy cupcake from Moxie by way of Gardiner's Village Market and Bakery! Which do you crave? Red velvet with a dollop of chocolate ganache in the middle, topped with a rich cream cheese frosting and a dark chocolate heart (Hmmm bad omen? The heart broke on the way home.) Classic vanilla cake with a pretty pink buttercream and pearl dragees. Chocolate cupcake with a tart cherry filling, whipped butter frosting, chocolate shavings and a chocolate covered cherry crown.

A Year Later

Oh my, is it really nearly a YEAR since I posted? Hard to believe. At least I've proven true to my word - not much to say! But really I am trying to muster some energy to power me through the dog days (wait that's summer, isn't it?). I love all the seasons so I cannot be a traitor to Winter and complain how about how wretched (some say) it has been. I've loved every single snowy, gray, icy minute of it! However for other reasons I've been feeling stymied, lethargic, stalled, stuck, lost. Paging through a new mail order catalog the other day I was completely captivated by a few images that screamed "Summer". I absolutely adore the combination of colors, finishes and graphics in the above vignette. So cheery and warm with some depth lent by the weathered frames and rustic table base. So maybe it's just the shocking nature of these bright colors against my own muted palette, or maybe it's the rock-bottom-ness (?) feeling of my current job or maybe it's just about time but in any event I want to make it mean something. So gaze upon this happy image and please remember me - I promise to be back soon! P.S. - the image is courtesy of: RSHcatalogue.com

Creativity?

It's that time of year again when we, as a working group, are challenged to develop something "new". New? What do you think that means? Creating is something we (in the group) all do but are we really in the business of new? I think our creations are about many other things: beauty, charm, wit, expression, feelings, passion, anger, frustration, action, thought. All very personal things, for that's really the core of creativity. Now, I realize that by choosing to use our skills to produce saleable merchandise for the mass market we are admitting that our personal expression will need to morph a bit (okay, a lot) into something more universal. I can live with that. But still, after doing this these many years, I resent the absence of creativity in the decision making process. So again, this year I will listen to business majors and bean counters who think their development homes are the very embodiment of beauty. I will bear with their critiques. I will heed their proclamations. And finally I will abide by their decision making. But I do not think I will embrace their aesthetic. I will continue to try to create things with some intrinsic beauty, to consider my customer's collective soul and believe that we can influence the visual world - just a little bit - for the better.