Good-bye 2013

Looking Forward to 2014 and Wishing You All a Healthy, Happy and Prosperous New Year!

The clock is winding down

Here on a cold and rainy day, everyone curled up in their respective nests, the hours pass quietly. There is so much to read, maintain, resolve and create in the midst of the boundless content provided by the web. Observing as we all succumb to our digital devices of cable television, laptop, and smartphone make me appreciate that we reside in a very different world than the one in which I grew up. Still I wrangled everyone to assemble for brunch and my husband and kids made dinner. The routine of meals maintains the comfort of predictability and keeps us moored as we orbit separately.

(Restoring order in my office and reducing the clutter- I am uncovering a lot of images as I work and seeing things anew. Hope you enjoy the vintage moment pictured above.)

The wise and unwise in us all

I'm doing something radical it seems, an effort which warrants words of "You are so brave!" from friends of uncertain standing. You see, I stopped coloring my hair. I decided I was tired of pretense. I found myself envying the men I know a little too much who seemed to take the actual color of their hair in stride. For the most part, they don't appear to subscribe to what someone else thinks it should be- it can be what it actually is. What a concept. Unlike many of my female peers who need to relentlessly engage in hiding the obvious.  No, we women must engineer to hide our physical flaws, we have to struggle in to spanx (something I thankfully don't need....yet) and find our co-conspirators, our hair colorist, or buy the box religiously at the drugstore and then surrender to the mess of covering what really is, in hopes of being what will be admired.

And my d.h., when I asked him if he was getting use to my silvery hair gave me the reply you would never seek in your worst hour, "What does it matter what I think?" Yes, a dark marital moment for sure.

Chilldom

Now that it is the day after the day after Christmas, we are settling into the vacation groove. The days begin slowly and then a wave of socializing begins. Someone heads out with the car, or someone needs a lift-often there is a kid over who eyes me with a smile and a little wariness "Is your mom going to talk to us or leave right away?" and then the chatter resumes as I make my exit.

So, it's mostly quiet. A chance to clear my desk, with time enough to make waffles as a way to move the day along, and the chance to think about life after holidays. Until they go back to school it will likely be this unfurling of lazy days, a few outings, and sufficient food to keep the various members of my household at bay.

Holiday Relief

Christmas turned out to be much more fun than I anticipated. (My son lasted through dinner and then disappeared before dessert to head over to a friend's- a better presence than last year....) The movie we chose was too crowded so we bailed and came home to prepare even more for the company coming to dinner. I didn't spend all day in the kitchen (thanks Nora!) and my offspring actually seemed somewhat pleased with their gifts. There were no extravagances- the nutty shopping sprees for "stuff" are firmly in the past.

What was lovely-
That we were together. That everyone smiled. That bickering was kept to a minimum and I felt a welcomed sense of calm knowing that all was okay in my world.

Merry Christmas and....

Happy Holidays! Wishing one and all the warmth of family, friends, well being and a full heart on this Christmas and in the year to come.

The Art Issue

The art issue of W is always a great one and worth reading if you are interested in the art world, fashion biz, celebrity, culture, and hipsters of the moment. It is front loaded with ads for the expected brands, Prada, Marc Jacobs, Chanel, Gucci, etc. with their perfectly positioned models wearing great clothes and styled to the max. Still, the editorial is awesome and this year's featured images of George Clooney by 5 female artists and photographers, including Yayoi Kusama who directed and styled the cover. (Also, incredible images of Kristen McMenamy as a mermaid- beautiful!!)

( As a fellow lover of the dot, I'm a big fan of Kusama. My friend Ellen reminded me of an earlier picture I had once taken of her when she was a vision in dots on a beautiful spring day- so I'll share that below.)

Holiday at the Artist Baker

A snowy ride to Morristown brought me to The Artist Baker where a gingerbread house gathering was in full swing. The dining room was busy with kids and adults crafting fanciful creations while nibbling on the fun decorations. Smiles all around as a festooned neighborhood rose on the table.

Snow light

Up early one morning to see snow falling outside,  I found myself entranced by the silvery light in the downstairs bath-
a moment to share.

Hope floats

Like many in December, I'm trying to tie up a lot of loose ends before the end of the year. December also happens to be the best retail window to sell a box of Kate Spade Larrabee ornaments or a set of Pottery Barn Reindeer napkin rings on Ebay and it's rapidly closing- so I am listing with more intent. As I write, the dress above (found thrifting and rejected- modelled by one of my daughter's friends) has 20 watchers so I wonder how high it will go. It definitely creates a little bubble of excitement as I go about my day. Go figure.

Chilling in Sleepy Hollow

Yesterday we had our first real snowstorm of the season and last night we braved the elements to visit our friends, David and Sandra, who live nearby. The boys were not fazed by the cold temperatures and hopped into David's backyard hot tub for a soak and a beer.
(How could I not photograph that?)

Source Material

Sorting through a drawer of scarves I came upon the one pictured and realized I had 

channelled its spirit in a fabric I recently designed for my class at F.I.T. (as seen below).

Odd to realize the connections betweens the objects in your life and the creations that they inspire.

Committed to Community

This year, I spent some engaging hours photographing the annual report for the Westchester Library System. This organization's mission is to support its members, the 38 public libraries of Westchester County by providing infrastructure, notably maintaining the technology employed by the individual libraries and cataloging of new acquisitions, the delivery system that moves over 2,000,000 titles on the request of its patrons (the residents of Westchester County through inter-library loan) along with countless programs; including training for GED tutors, medicare and health care counselors. I especially enjoyed photographing the Learning Ambassadors Program which allowed 21 high school students from eight libraries  to work at their local library under the guidance of a librarian.  For most of these teens, it was their first real world job. The list of WLS good works goes on and on. Pat Braja, WLS's talented director of development gave me great guidance as to what they hoped to document. Through her, I got to witness a lot of special moments.

I met the director of WLS, Terry Kirchner, at an event a few years earlier, where we first discussed the possibility of our working together- so I asked him to add a few lines about the work I created for this year's report below.....

"Working with Dorothy has been a wonderful process –her enthusiasm and passion are contagious, and she made all of us feel comfortable as she visually recorded our stories. Dorothy helped us to view our world from a new perspective and we look forward to working with her on future projects."

A recent acquisition

Yesterday, the sight of two sets of vintage English china arranged in piles on a table captivated me at an estate sale. One episode of temporary insanity and $20.00 later I had purchased the remains of one set including 8 dinner plates, tea cups and saucers, rimmed soup bowls and small fruit coupes in the most charming Myott/Staffordshire pattern called "Elegance". They were just too beautiful to leave behind.


(full disclosure: I might have a personality disorder where dishes are concerned.)

Thinking Holiday ( A Share)

It dawned on me this morning that December is starting to really move along. Thinking about all the loose ends to tie up, the holidays to summon forth, jobs to finish, our eldest coming home from school and the minutiae of daily life makes me feel a little zany but discovering this charming print by the wonderful Heidi Kenney on Spoonflower has brightened my outlook considerably!!

The End of the Beginning

Last night my textile design class came to an end and I'm a little sad. My instructor gave some inspiring homework assignments- I'll miss them!  She did a great job of teaching us and there were so many talented people in the class!!
F.I.T. is an amazing environment for learning and creating and I am grateful for the chance to have been there.