Late Summer/Early Fall 2006

One more wonderfully fruitful and inspiring trip to athens for our spring shoot produced some of the beauty now shown on our site.  We wound up traipsing around a gorgeous 18th century plantation house and using every room to take photos. (thanks Lee+Jerry) The pictures kept coming and the field was mowed as we packed up the last camping cot… serendipity! I couldn’t believe the size of the peonies-their heads were so big that we could have hidden behind them!  We couldn’t resist taking a shot of ourselves…weren’t smelling or looking pretty but we were glowing from the work that we did-OH and check out the roses in the background! .

If that wasn’t enough we made our last trip to a friends house that just about killed us…in a good way that is.  Had to slip in this photo of the rose bush…yes, that is a turquoise house in the background. Have I mentioned that there are some incredibly colorful folks that live here?

My daughter, bird, gets some time too. She has the face of an old timey dolly…I’m partial to say the least!

This photo rinne sent hit home. I constantly get questions about how we started, how do we do this and juggle children and husbands, how do I design…you name it-so when I saw this image with the broom taken in an old church, it gave me a chance to tell one of my funny quirks as a designer..i have to clean EVERYTHING when I start working on a new collection. I clean my desk, the studio, sweep the floor…anything to procrastinate…there was an old episode of sponge bob when he did that…kate always teases me and when the girls see the broom coming out in the studio, I hear the giggles in the background. Oh well, I say, whatever works! Clean space, clean head equals pretty, fresh, new designs.

Winter 2006

If you have ever been to our shop on Elizabeth Street, you might have seen our patron saint, who lives in our window. He or she(were still not sure) has been there since we have, and it was specified in our lease that that saint should never leave that spot looking out of the front window.  When we moved in, we found our saint under the cabinet in the bathroom.  Guess that explains why the prior tenants had to leave quickly. Don’t you just love the history in New York…

I love daffodils and jonquils. They don’t live long but the satisfaction is grand. Beautiful smell, bright green stems, and a range of colors from fire orange to peach to lemon yellow.

I had to throw this in…I shift these three pictures around on my desk all of the time. I never tire of seeing them so thought I’d pass them on.  Sometimes I get inspiration from an image that I look at 100 times. It just gets better and better. Maybe this helps too-Rinne snuck into an abandoned church outside of Athens, she caught some gorgeous shots by chance! Threw a mid-century outdoor wire chair in there with a few cushions and BAM –beauty!

Fall 2005

So, I’m listening to David Grisman & Jerry Garcia while starting to gather what I would say in a page called inspiration. hmmm…here are some thoughts:

So how does a designer get inspired? What a loaded question. I can’t really tell you but I do know that I sincerely believe that everyday has something to offer. A morning walk with my daughter, Bird, is a ritual. We stroll to a tiny garden area in Battery Park where children have planted flowers and vegetables.

So cute, it’s wild, a little overgrown, and there is always something there to see…I have even come here on my own with my watercolors to do some painting…when you need some inspiration, you’ll do about anything to get it!