My Father was a Sailor

My childhood family memories could be summed up by this one photo.

My wonderful loving father Bill Thorn loved to sail, and sail we did... every weekend and every vacation. He was widowed at 48 with 3 children between the ages of 7 (me) and 21. After we lost my mother the teenage friends of my siblings often joined the trips. I’m sure it was part of a great plan to keep the big kids on the boat.

While spending so much time on a boat might sound glamorous to non-sailors, it’s not. Sometimes it felt a little like Swiss Family Robinson. Lots of salt, sun, big waves, and mildew! We were sunburn and windburn at all times. We lived off deli sandwiches, chips, and canned soda on these trips around Long Island sound and up and down the coast to the Vineyard or Nantucket. I had an orange snoopy sleeping bag and was lulled to sleep by the waves and sounds of the clang of the rigging.

There were madcap adventures like my father falling off the boat, not once but twice while on the mooring by himself, trying desperately to figure out how to get out of the water and back on to the boat. My daddy navigated with a slide rule and a chart, a depth finder, and the stars. My brother and sister became amazing sailors and navigators. I, the youngest brought bags of barbies, books, and needlepoint and played for hours down below. I became the default family cook because I never got seasick. I have vivid memories of being very young and making and passing up sandwiches to my sister who was calling down the orders.

All strong swimmers, we swam off the boat without life jackets and no land in sight. This was so joyful until my dastardly brother and sister got stuck babysitting me and took me to Jaws in Edgartown. Have any of us recovered from that movie?

My father remarried my stepmother who brought a candy jar on the boat with tootsie pops and my life was vastly improved! Soon afterwards a boarder terrier joined the crew. I’m writing this from Orlando airport where we have been removed from a broken plane. Not unlike being run aground, I am stuck in place. I just realized I’m wearing the exact outfit my father is wearing in this photo. Sailor style sticks with you.

The 2020 decision to sell Starlight Farm

Last month we sold our family home in Vermont. It was something I never thought we would ever do. I envisioned keeping our wonderful home forever and giving our children parcels of the 16 acres to build their own little individually styled guest homes. I envisioned weddings and grandchildren, Christmases, and Easter egg hunts. Maybe we would build a screened-in sleeping porch down by the waterfall. Maybe we would plant fruit trees. For sure our family would have a geographically ideal plot of land should global warming continue at the pace it is now.

Stitching near the waterfall.

My magnificent view from our master bath.

Mama bear looking to borrow a cup of sugar.

The changes the world went through with Covid-19 redirected many of my visions. In a year when we found ourselves closed in our homes I looked closely at our living situations. In a year when we stopped going to stores and stopped dressing for social events, I realized we needed so much less. In a year when I was cleaning out closets, the basement, and a large storage room, I realized we just over all, in every single way, needed less than what we had. I began to think about simplifying and purging. In the spring of 2020 when we were all quarantined at home, I began to rethink how we lived. With 6 of our 7 children very far away, quarantined in their own homes… I began to change my dreams. My dreams involved going to them rather than trying to get them to Vermont.

My favorite morning view.

My husband and I are very enthusiastic travelers. We love nothing more than setting out on adventures together and we were looking forward to taking our now adult children with us. I am a studied packer. I am one of those weirdos who has 225 pins saved on my Pinterest account with ideas on minimalist packing and traveling the world with a small suitcase. When we travel I love to challenge myself to bring as little as possible. I aim to blend in, feel comfortable, and travel light. I love it. I love living out of a suitcase with a neutral wardrobe and a few fab necklaces or scarves for a splash of joyful and chic colors. I do not love managing stuff and the reality is….I’m not good at it. In fact, I am actually really terrible at managing stuff. I may lack the “put it away” gene, and I am a master ostrich who would rather bury her head in the sand than clean out my closet or look under my bed. I am very good at putting things in piles to go upstairs or downstairs. I just really lack the fortitude to actually get those piles up the stairs.

Important words to think about as we went into lockdown. LOVE JOY HEALTH FAMILY FRIENDS PEACE MOTHER EARTH GRATITUDE

In the past year I have not been to any stores to buy clothes. I ordered one pair of fabulous Ugg slippers during the first month of lockdown when we arrived in snowy Vermont, I bought the most fabulous (and unfortunately expensive) Australian organic facial moisturizer, and a couple pairs of sneakers. For the past year my already owned beautiful clothes and shoes have gone unworn and my jewelry has not seen the light of day or left the safety deposit box. Why would I ever need more, when I don’t use what I have?

Little kitchen suppers when we were a small group.

My fabulous fine china collections have sat untouched. Tablecloths hanging in the closet, still in their dry cleaning bags from two years ago. My house felt more like a museum of a previous life, one we all hope to return to.

Chili dinner in the kitchen. Tulips from the Dorset Union Store brighten up the table.

In the meantime, there were certain items in our house that became the wonderfully loved treasures they deserved to be. I restarted my love affair with the kitchen equipment and utensils I had been collecting since my early twenties. We cooked glorious meals 3 times a day. I scoured my vast collection of cookbooks and we signed up for meals that were delivered to our doorstep. Hello Fresh and Marley’s Spoon arrived twice a week filled with ingredients and recipes. We learned how to make totally new meals while avoiding shopping while quarantined. We signed up with a fabulous food co-op that was gathering farm fresh food from our treasured Vermont farmers. We also found dog eared recipes and made long ago favorites. We each once again fell in love with favorite pots, we fought over favorite knives, and we dug out potato peelers, lemon squeezers, cheese graters, egg slicers, and meat thermometers. My egg poaching pan remains a favorite and I’m still waiting for my husband to fulfill a promise he made to bring back the soufflés he wooed me with when we were dating!

After driving from Florida to Vermont we quarantined and didn’t leave our house for fourteen days. Meals delivered to our doorstep helped make that possible.

Northshire Grown food boxes filled with specialities from Vermont Farms became our weekly treat!

We embraced “dressing down.” I said goodbye to “hard pants”; this phrase still makes me laugh hysterically and think of my niece Rachel, who was the first I heard use it. Sweatpants, tee shirt, and the boys’ discarded worn flannel shirts became the staples of my wardrobe. That pair of Ugg slippers became my all time favorite footwear and I wore old sweaters until they had so many holes in them that they were delegated to the precious pile of “nightgown sweaters”. (For those of you who don’t know what nightgown sweaters are…. they are fabulous old cashmere sweaters which are so old and holey yet still so wonderfully comfortable… completely inappropriate for public viewing yet absolutely wonderful over your nightgown.)

We also pulled out the games. We played games by the fire. No TV, just roaring fire, and family laughter, arguments, and smack talk. I loved every minute of it. Our youngest daughter got her fill of this time. We treasured having her and missed our older children dearly.

color sudoku

Frank Lloyd Wright puzzle from the wonderful Northshire Bookstore

There are only two other collections that I remained devoted to and used regularly….our library of books and my needlepoint collection. All of those design books I have been been hoarding over the years became my regular textbooks…as I studied every photo time and time again. I admired, critiqued, and learned from every square inch of each text. My needlepoint was my sanity savior. I have said this numerous times over the past many decades, there is nothing like filling in a flower, an area of background, or finishing one particular color to make you feel like you have accomplished something huge in your day. I needlepointed a great deal during 2020, finishing over 35 projects. It was my meditation and I loved every minute of it.

A belt I painted for my friend Eric Holch. I don’t usually do customs but I couldn’t resist the offer to collaborate with my favorite Nantucket artist! He designed it and I painted it for him.

As we ended a full year of living at home, our suitcases left untouched, our closets full of unworn clothes…this very important year in the history of our planet, as we coped with a global pandemic, things changed for everyone around the world. As families across the globe lost loved ones (including our own family, losing one of our most loved)…we realized we needed less, we needed less square footage to store all the things we never used, we needed less land we never walked upon. For the first time, instead of actively seeking our next adventures outside of the home…we just needed to be home. Home was safe, staying home kept others safe. We were on the team trying to help stop the spread of the virus. We needed less house, less stuff, and maybe that looked a little different than all the visions we had for so long.

A customized needlepoint pillow shows the location in which it was stitched.

So we find ourselves in a new home that checked off new boxes of things we needed and wanted, a couple thousand miles away. We have less rooms, less land, less closets, less storage areas, and less stuff. We sold two homes and the furnishings in them. We had a massive (Covid friendly) estate sale and sold all the treasures we had collected over the years. We brought with us our kitchen equipment, sweatpants, games, books, and needlepoint. There are even a few hard pants around here somewhere, which I am 99% sure I no longer fit into. We brought our favorite art, much of it made by our children. My husband brought his musical instruments and I brought my paints. Only one Ugg slipper made it in the boxes as the other has been buried in the backyard of Starlight Farm by my little furry friend. The remaining slipper will need to be disposed of soon. That’s okay, I am fairly certain I don’t need warm fuzzy slippers here amongst the palm trees.

2021 begins the year of less for us, with less material stuff and less responsibilities for stuff. With less things we don’t need….I am confident there will also be something more. What that will be, we will have to see. I will be sure to let you know!

The Feast of Venus, when a gallery owner has a brilliant idea to help feed Vermont

I first heard about this event from my dear friend interior designer Amy Thebault. Amy was on a committee which was putting on an event in our local community and she was doing her amazing tablescapes. I’ve known Amy for ages and I was curious why she was raving about this event so much!! After the event it was the talk of the town. Glorious gallery owner Lisa Helmoltz-Adams had created a magnificent event and was giving back to the community. Everyone was talking about how special it was and I was wondering what on earth I had missed! Last year I went to the Feast of Venus and I was completely blown away. Lisa, who owns a gorgeous gallery in Manchester, Vermont had opened her doors and thrown her second fabulous party to raise awareness and money to feed the hungry in Vermont. When The Duchess of Sussex got behind the Hubb Community Kitchen in England which was serving people who had been affected by tragic fire in the Grenfell Tower I immediately thought of our Lisa and the amazing Feast of Venus, both the painting and the party. In the introduction to her cookbook Together: Our Community Cookbook the Duchess says “The kitchen buzzes with women of all ages; women who have lived and have seen life; laughing, chatting, sharing a cup of tea and a story, while children play on the floor or are rocked to sleep in their strollers. Now I have come to know these women and this place well… You will feel joyful in their company, and you will leave counting the days until you go back” I share the Duchess’ admiration for the women of Grenfell Tower and I also admire this woman in Vermont who has gathered other women to cook, to share, to raise awareness, and to raise money to feed others. I am honored to tell you about Lisa Helmholz-Adams. And I too can’t wait to go back!

The Feast of Venus, painting by Elizabeth Torak.

The ever glorious Lisa Helmholz-Adams, standing and addressing the crowd before the painting The Feast of Venus by Elizabeth Torak. Lisa raised an army of women to help fight Hunger in Vermont. She’s just about to launch her third event this month on May 30th in Manchester, Vermont.

Vermonters are blessed with farming families. Love how they decorated the tables with home grown glory.

100 women dine together on locally grown food cooked by locally chefs.

Questions and Answers with Lisa Helmholz-Adams

How long have you been in the gallery business and what is your gallery like?

I have worked in the art world going on 25 years as well as working with International artists and artists in rare mediums and sculpture! My love for art comes from my mom who is a huge influence and she is my Director in my Tribeca gallery and all about family working together!! I work with the most incredible artists who embody mostly very rare mediums and 21st Century mixed media as well and have about 30 - 45 years being artists!! Their creative works are always coming through and evolving!! 

Women gather to raise awareness and money for Hunger Free Vermont.

How did you come up with the idea to throw this event?

I saw A Place at the Table at Burr and Burton Academy at the Riley Center 4 yrs ago and it was presented by Hunger Free Vermont and I was so taken about what they do, for the state and families going through hard times, with nutritious foods and farms with dignity!! This spoke to me and I knew I would one day do something to give back as I love this beautiful state and raised my boys and now grandson here. I knew that the Hunger Free Vermont headquarters is in Burlington and they are always in the papers, NPR, and VPR and taking care of 133,000 people in Vermont and more!! 3000 people just in our neck of the woods and that really HIT ME HARD!! The idea The Feast of Venus came from the painting called The Feast of Venus by Elizabeth Torak that took 5 years to paint and is all about the community of woman coming together, with a very rare medium from the 17th Century Elizabeth prepares herself. This painting spoke to me and I woke up in the middle of the night and I could see 100 woman coming together in our community and getting the word out. It was a huge success and then I did it the next year and another 100 women came!!

Now that I’m on the Board of Directors for Hunger Free Vermont and at headquarters in Burlington I really understand the depth and breath of all they do. I needed 2 years under my belt before I would do The Feast of Venus lll coming May 30th with 200 people and now with men!!! Hunger Free Vermont is celebrating  their  25th anniversary taking care of children and families and the elderly across the state!!

 What is the event like?

It is so special with 3 top chefs coming together Gail Morin, Sherrie Baker and Amy Chamberlain with there culinary chops and using local farms to make their dishes!! We will have Stonecutter Spirits and TÖST and wines along with Ben & Jerry’s and Mother Myricks chocolate goodies !! Most importantly at 6pm We will have the Executive Director Anore Horton who will say some words about The 25th Anniversary and on a very large Screen you will see on a loop of what Hunger Free Vermont does for this state. That will run for the 2 hrs with thanks to the sponsors and team!!

On the right, Lisa’s mother Mona and daughter in law Kimberly welcome friends.

Who comes to the event?

The first 2 Feasts of Venus I did back to back were 100 woman and it was done to get the word out and now it will be a great mix with men and woman and folks from all different backgrounds!! 

Artist Elizabeth Torak listening to Lisa speak about her inspirational work.

Do you have volunteers? What do they do?

I have an amazing team that makes the magic happen and the experience in itself becomes very very special!!! You will have all of your senses alive!!!

How often have you done this and how much money have you raised?

I have done this 2 times and raised around 25,000. And with tickets at $50 so it would be very affordable to come! (Editors note: This event has now also garnered 200 more people understanding the food needs in Vermont.)

How can people get tickets to come?

Go to https://feastofvenus3.eventbrite.com

Our amazing hostess welcoming guests and ready for you to join the third Feast of Venus event on May 30th. Let’s jump on the bandwagon and join Lisa in raising money and awareness about hunger in Vermont.

Thank you Lisa. Thank you for the amazing joy you bring to our community with your gorgeous feisty and fun spirit. Thank you for bringing spectacular works of art to our community. And thank you for being you and doing something so breathtakingly beautiful.

Frances Valentine

I have always been a BIG Kate Spade fan and shared the country’s grief when this gorgeous light dimmed.  I was so saddened for Kate and for all of her family, especially her daughter.  (Not to diminish the depth of dispair over this entire situation, it’s not where I am going to focus today. Having lost a parent as a child, I prefer to make this blog about design and not someone else’s private family grief.)

I first became aware of Kate and Andy Spade back in the days when the world welcomed this uber talented duo. I remember a time in my life when Kate created a particular purse I worshipped and desired. (It was green tweed and would have been perfect for life in Vermont). I was a divorced mother with 5 small children working multiple jobs to keep us afloat. There was no way it was in my budget. Two of my dearest girlfriends independantly appeared with that purse and carried it beautifully. I’m not one for jealousy and I am by far not the most fashionable gal on the block but I do remember feeling that little twinge  of jealousy.  And then I discovered Kate’s apartment in New York….over the years I have spent hours drooling over the Spades’ New York City apartment in which Kate and husband Andy managed to pull off the trifecta of perfection….classic timeless elegance, a home for their child, and a glorious mix of gorgeous neutrals with yummy pops of color. As someone who struggles with an obsessive love of neutrals and a teensy tiny passion for color in interiors, I always wonder….how do I pull this combination off? How do I balance my love of neutrals and find ways to add color without it coming out too cute or overly contrived? Like the Spades. That’s how it’s done.

Many of these photos come from one of my favorite websites www.theselby.com. Do go check it out. It’s magnificent. I first found them when Amanda Cutter Brooks posted about their visit to her. I have been a loyal follower ever since. I also found fabulous photos by www.thecoveteur.com, an amazing website I found through the wonderful Heather Clauson of www.Habituallychic.luxury. I highly recommend looking at all three websites for more information and photos of the Spades’ amazing home.

Let’s get started!

As I’m looking at this for the umpteenth time I am noticing those glossy black doors!! Kate’s gorgeous signature style and the magical mix of design elements make this photo timeless. photo by The Selby

Gallery walls galore in the front enterance. I love gallery walls and these photos inspire me to keep trying to get it right! photo by the coveteur.com, photography by Alec Kugler

Anyone who has lived with children knows there is the struggle of where to put the stuff and keep up appearances! I love how the Spades just mixed it in. photo by The Selby

I’m just crazy for this painted piece and the gilded mirror. Look at that glass!! photo by The Selby

Again, they are mix masters. I have not quite gotten this right. I LOVE antiques and they have found a way to masterfully mix in modern pieces. Photo by The Coveteur.

Oh the red pipping!! and family portraits!! photo unknown

In a video with People magazine Kate said this was her favorite table in her house because it has all of her family on it. Photos from The Selby

I miss socially appropriate ashtray displays of stolen hotel finds. I also miss matches!! Photo by The Selby

I too have a love for and collection of old cigarette boxes. Kate also said in the people interview that she started this collection with one of her mother’s and that she then found the rest of these. Photo by The Selby

Is that chair not the absolute most gorgeous blue?????? photo by The Selby

I spy some real treasures here!! Can we please have gorgeous logo matches back??? I’m going to start passing out matches for my needlepoint business!! photo by the Selby

As a recovering cigarette aficionado I LOVE this. I smoked many a candy cigarette as a child with my grandmother at Shraffts Ice Cream Parlor in Scarsdale, NY. Photo by The Selby

That phone!! I love this because it’s a real working desk. Not a desk for show. There are several chairs with needlepoint cushions in various photos. Photo by the Selby

LOVE a great bar tray!! photo by the Selby

photo by The Coveteur

What always appealed to me about Kate’s style is she took what we saw our mothers’ love…women who were raised in the 40s and then raised their families in the 60s and 70s….. fabulous classic American style with early European influences… and she added a modern twist. Kate took all of this one more step farther, with a genius use of color.

Don’t you want to hang out in this kitchen???? I always get drawn into the details of family life. I too have a TV in my kitchen in Vermont. It keeps me company while I create masterpieces or sit and have a cup of tea. Phone, cookbooks, I love it all. photo by the Selby

LOVE this. Why do I so love the combination of silver and liquor bottles? I just love the way it looks so much! Phot by The Selby

photo by The Selby

Photo by The Selby

Photo by The Selby

Photo by The Selby

I hope there are Sea Monkeys in there! photo by The Selby.

photo by The Selby

A magical corner where I’d like to sit. Photo by the Selby

As you may be aware Kate and Andy Spade began Frances Valentine after the sale of their first business. It was an opportunity for Kate to keep creating. The names Frances and Valentine are family names on Kate’s side. Kate and Andy’s daughter is also named Frances. There are many articles about the company and it’s structure and all of the wonderful people involved on the magical internet. I encourage you to read them. Kate’s dear friends, husband, and family are dedicated to keep this company going. They are all involved. They are not muddling through… they are moving forward with talent and enthusiasm and dedication. Kate’s niece Rachel Brosnahan has done an amazing ad campaign for Frances Valentine. The photos, the bags, the shoes, the colors, the attitude, all of it. They have nailed it. (Have you seen The Amazing Mrs. Maisel??? My sister Puddy would not stop talking about it and badgering me to watch it. She was right, it’s absolutely hilarious. Watch it! I have recently become a big Rachel Brosnahan fan.)

Photo from Frances Valentine of their gorgeous bags www.francesvalentine.com

photo from www.francesvalentine.com

photo from www.francesvalentine.com

I have decided to really get behind this company. That’s what you do right? When a family powers through a personal tragedy we as a community make casseroles, drive carpools, send notes. When a family and their friends carry on with a gorgeous beautiful brand in honor of their beloved founder, we get on board, we open their emails, we look at their website, and we buy beautiful bags and shoes.  There are so many beautiful products to choose from. I can’t wait to buy a summer bag. Maybe they will make a green tweed one for winter!!

xo Tricia

Reflections at 5:43 am under the influence of jet lag.

As I sat down to write a blog on something entirely different from where I am going to go, my instant messenger awoke and brought me a plethora of fabulous messages from our son in London.  When he found his mother was still on European time and wide awake since 4 am we quickly switched to FaceTime and I had a long fabulous chat while I got to look at his handsome face and hear about his first week at work. While traveling (and wandering around places visually taking in the feasts of the sights) I had a lot of time to think. One of the topics whirling it's way through my brain .... is that of electronic communication.

As a HUGE Jane Austin fan, who also follows and absorbs other period literature which reflects on the societal interactions of people, I love observing human interactions, including communication with the written word.  Dropping by and leaving a social calling card, a written invitation, or a love letter...whether engraved on paper,  handwritten in ink, and delivered by various methods all intrigue me. Although I grew up in a home where thank you notes were a strict requirement, and then rebelled against them for a way too long period of time, I love nothing more than getting a correspondence. I love the mail. I love an invitation, a thank you note, or a friendly card. The thing I love most is a love letter or poem written by my husband. No wait, I love those with all of my heart, but the thing I love the very most is a letter, card, piece of art, or very thoughtful text from one of our children. I don't feel disingenuous saying this part about ranking our children's communication above that as my husband's because I would imagine he feels the same way.  

You hear so much negativity about everyone's noses being down to their screens. While traveling this month and observing people from all over the world, I witnessed this first hand. I did it myself at times. Yet, I think there is a very lovely part of this era in time....because in some ways, I liken it back to the Austin days, when written words were used to make social and love connections. Disclaimer: According to Doug Chapman's fabulous and intuitive book The 5 Love Languages, there is no question- my love language is words. 

Those of us of a certain age talk about how we grew up without social media, texting, portable communication, etc etc. We bask in this fact and talk about how hard it would be to be young now and seeing what everyone else is doing.  FOMO our kids call it. The Fear of Missing Out.  The comparisons are obviously challenging, especially for teenagers and young adults. When we were kids we didn't know what others were doing or what we might be missing. We had no answering machines. We had no call waiting. We had to call from a telephone located in a public room of our house attached to wall not far from adults and chances are you were going to get a parent on the other end of your phone call to your friend. My own parents monitored my greetings very carefully for a time and finally relented when I had the "Hello Mrs. So and So, This is Tricia, MAY I PLEASE speak with Bloopty Bloop." If that "May I please" was not said, there would be loud whispers at me, guiding me into correcting myself. All calls had to be made in very respectable hours. Communication with the world outside of your house stopped around 9 pm unless you were assured there were not parents home at the other house.  We didn't have man servants delivering handwritten notes at all hours of the day like the lovelorn in Austin's day.

I like to think of written communication whether it be emails or texts, or private messages as some sort as a modern way for old fashion communication. The fact that millennials, and now many of the rest of us, no longer prefer talking on the phone has taken us back to a time before we had them. A quick message to connect to new people is like as a social calling card dropped on a silver dish in the foyer.  An email invitation for dinner as a noninvasive way to invite a potential friend mimics the old fashion note delivered to their home. A text from a child telling you what they are really thinking or feeling, and a love email from your paramour resemble the written words of the Austin era.

As I end this piece my messenger awakes again. This time it is the identical twin of my earlier morning communicator. (And yes, they have contacted me in birth order.) This one is from France. This joyful boy is sharing news and thoughts and ideas. My heart is full. 

The first time I saw the Dead I was 15 years old.....

I was in boarding school at the time and my friends and I decided to go to a show at the Garden.  My roommate Poos and I both had older brothers who had had lots of fabulous concert experiences and this seemed like the PERFECT idea to us.  We gathered a bunch of other girls and bought tickets. I laugh now wondering....how did we buy concert tickets in 1980? We had no credit cards, there was no internet, we were hours away from the box office. We barely had any money! We had a little school bank that gave us $10 a week (unless you called your parents and asked them to give you more, which we did frequently!).  We had pay phones which were almost always hogged up by girls chatting with long distance boyfriends. Yet, somehow we managed to get our hands on 6 Grateful Dead tickets at Madison Square Garden!

Since I grew up in Bronxville and lived the closest to NYC it made perfect sense to us that we would go to my house for the weekend to get to the show.  The part that makes NO SENSE is that my parents thought this was a great idea! Really?!?! My husband Donald tells similar story of his parents letting him go see Pink Flloyd at 15 in Detroit! (Then again, we let our youngest kid go to Ibiza...!!!)

My father's only rule was that he was going to get my 26 year old brother to drive the family wagon into NYC and would be waiting outside the show to pick us up. I though this was "Soooooooo dorky" but my father would not bend. He after all knew the last train would have left Grand Central by the time we were done. I'm assuming there was money or a bribe involved to coerce the driver.

The show was fantastic. We had a ball. And somehow we all were together when it was time to leave. I was flagged down near the exit by a 16 year old boy from Bronxville who was there alone and had no way home. He thought it was AMAZING that my brother was outside with a station wagon and joyfully jumped in with us for the ride home. Apparently a safe, free ride home from a concert...is not dorky after all!

The last Dead show I saw with Jerry Garcia was at the Meadowlands and I was pregnant with daughter Brooke who painted this canvas.

It takes a village of Vermonters to make the perfect pillow

Jumping for joy at seeing daughter Brooke's elephant pillow in the January issue of Better Homes and Gardens!! Thank you to Sarah Hadden (highlighted in another blog post) for stitching this gem and to Maria Timmerman at In Stitches in Dorset, Vermont for everything. She finished this pillow in dreamy purple velvet! In Stitches is one of my all time favorite needlepoint shops. Maria knows color better than anyone I know. She does all of my personal finishing.  I'm so proud of Brooke!!

Thanksgiving Football!!!

There is nothing quite like a unique themed party which becomes an annual family tradition.  I can honestly say my favorite party of the year is hosted by our friends Dana, Sherman, and their children. What's not to love about a family football game held on Thanksgiving morning?!?! Plus there is the added bonus of friends, food, a bonfire, a signature cocktail, and dogs....LOTS of dogs. 

We prep our Thanksgiving meal the night before to make sure we have time to make buttermilk pancakes with Vermont maple syrup for the hungry players.

Guests arrive to the lovely mountain home with a football field set up in the back field.  Players pick teams and the football players and the audience all join in for the National Anthem.

Nothing like the National Anthem on a Thanksgiving morning

John and Sherm are the stars of the the National Anthem singing!!

Some of the dogs like to play football.

Some dogs prefer to watch the line judges eat donuts.

Our amazing hostess Dana making her signature cocktails....."FANNIES"!

The bondfire crew, chatting and drinking fannies during the game.

Newest puppy in the neighborhood. 

The purpose of the new goal post was a little confusing to the canine team. 

The St. Lawerence crew has a pow-wow.

And then a cocktail for good measure.

Time out for a quick strategy meeting.

another fabulous Thanksgiving morning!!! 

Columbus day at MASS MoCA

Although always an AMAZING space, it was delightful to see the very large and fabulously constructed new  addition.

This museum has been constructed in an old converted factory. The juxtaposition between the old patinas and the contemporary art is like nothing I have seen before.

It is one of the largest centers for contemporary visual art and performing arts in the United States.

There are only a  few installations in the permanent collection. 

Other pieces travel from around the world.

The ever changing art gives a multitude of reasons to visit multiple times a year.

This is an amazing museum to bring children of all ages.

Teenagers absolutely love it.

Especially taking jumping photos in front of the Sol  LeWitt permanent collection.

Might need to try this at home!!

This sculpture was my favorite. A couple with their arms and legs wrapped all around each other, feet dangling at the bottom. Created by Louise Bourgeoise - "tied together for eternity, the figures cling to one another in a perpetual state of vulnerability."

Details  of an installation outside of the children's center.  The children's center has a play area and crafts. Their theme changes throughout the years and is always magical.

Dreamworthy Garden Tour

I love, love, love people who use their talents or what they have to make things nicer for others in their local, national, or world community. Last summer, I received an email that the owners of one of my favorite pieces of property were hosting a fundraising event to raise money for the very special Dorset Theatre in Dorset, Vermont. Jumping for joy, I quickly bought two tickets so I could bring my garden loving (garden obsessed!) husband to this amazing event. What a great cause! The theatre is magnificent!! They bring great, great shows and even greater casts. Typically, while sitting in a very special performance, I become completely enamored with the most exquisite set design!! 

Upon arrival we were each given a gorgeous map created by a locally living, nationally recognized artist and were set free to wander and admire the exquisite grounds with their vast views and and outstanding statuary. An auction was held and some wonderful vacation home visits and pieces of art were bought to raise money for this fantastic theatre.