It is written that the word paradise comes from the Persian word pairideaza which means surrounded by walls. To be in a walled garden, possibly within a larger, wilder garden, is to be in a paradise of sorts. A walled garden or hortus conclusus is a place of contemplation, separate from the world outside the walls.
The minimalist fashion movement calls for consumers to focus on clothes fitting their personal style, paring down to the essentials, and creating a capsule wardrobe.
A recent visitor to our home said to me, “I really like your walls…” At the time we were looking at a wall of antique bird prints in our bedroom. Thinking about this in relation to my recent post ‘The Gallery Wall: Memoir in Frames’ gave me the idea to write about rooms where the hangings are connected by a theme.
Antichi Sapori means ‘antique flavors’ or ‘antique tastes’ What a fitting way to begin this reflection on shopping for vintage and antique pieces.
An engaging and informative article in Veranda magazine titled ‘Are Gallery Walls Still in Style? Here’s What Designers Say’ (Rebecca R. Norris, August 10, 2023) inspires me to a fuller consideration of such. One of the designers quoted in the article notes, “A well-considered gallery wall can read like a book and…narrate a story.” There are innumerable ways to style a wall or walls in our rooms and so, this will be one of several posts on the topic. This post will consider the ways a gallery wall can be a visual memoir representative of a life story.
Sometimes, when you share something of interest to you with family and friends, they express a desire to try it out themselves. This has certainly been the case with my
Lately it seems when reading about fashion words such as slow fashion, traditional craftsmanship, deadstock, remnants, restyling, restoring, and/or vintage fashion are encountered. A fromdeepintheheart.com post of February, 2023 titled “Using Vintage Fabrics in Fashion” introduced the idea on this platform and featured a skirt made of vintage embroidered handkerchiefs embellished with seed pearls from a broken necklace and vintage sequins. Today’s post continues to consider traditional craftsmanship and features remnants of crocheted lace…
Old engravings or prints of garden plans, and as in this photo, people enjoying a formal garden are appealing to me. Searches in vintage shops, print shops, and used bookstores didn’t result in my amassing a large selection of garden plan drawings.
Working out on the land has become a passion for me. Wearing hiking shoes, a long-sleeved tunic, loose denim pants, a straw hat, and short or long gloves depending on where the work is happening, time and the rest of the world cease to exist. It occurred to me to try to document with sketches the life of these native trees and other aspects of our small piece of the Hill Country. So, I began with the purchase of an inexpensive, well designed fountain pen.
As a child I was sometimes allowed to borrow jewelry from my mother or grandmother. Most pieces came with a story. On rainy or hot days in the Texas Hill Country when gardening is not an option there is nothing better than a trip to a vintage shop and moments spent searching every inch of the glass display cases for something of interest. For several years this interest centered on cufflinks.