Subversive Toiles

I was poking around doing some research on the Maryland Toile we found the other day, and came across a whole underground movement of subversive toiles.

Richard Saja of Historically Inaccurate , is the leader of the pack. I wrote about meeting him about a year and a half ago, here. Saja embroiders the toiles to change the story to something a little darker and less happy.

Here’s another artist’s before and after, with a power line, an upside-down grocery card, a bottle of booze and a milk bottle floating in the water.

Another artist has taken to colouring in the pictures with neon-bright high-lighters. Then there are the toiles from Timorous Beasties depicting the darker side of the Glasgow slums and some of London’s less attractive sections. Another one, that’s not really subversive is the Toile d’Iowa. All very clever and such a departure from the traditional designs!

Looking and Looking and Looking

Ugh. I know that some people love house-hunting, but I am not one of those people. I don’t want a lot of projects in a new house, and I don’t want to renovate.

Of course, all of the houses I am marginally interested in have some fatal flaw.  Like the dream place I found, where the co-op fees are going to exceed the monthly mortgage payment. Is that insane?

But this place has simply everything I want.

Olde Worlde Charm? Check. And check.Built-in bookcases? Check. Fireplace? Check. Hardwood floors? Check. Original details? Check. Huge rooms? Check. Bucket loads of storage space, including a cedar closet? Check it! Damn. Too bad about the excessive co-op fees. It’s well within my budget, too.  I would have to get rid of those ghastly lights in the top few images, but still…  Oh, and I think that there’s a kitchen in there somewhere, too.

Queen Camel and Leighton Buzzard

I came across a house today on the Guardian, and would buy it solely for its proximity to the village of Queen Camel. What a brilliant name! It reminded me of a place where I interviewed for a position when I lived in the UK – the town of Leighton Buzzard. I could only imagine my stationery with that as the address. I’d have to come up with some wonderfully funny cipher for it.

One of the things I’ve always loved about the UK is the place names, like Chipping Norton and Chipping Campden and Broad Campden, Upper Slaughter and Lower Slaughter, Bourton-on-the-Hill in Moreton-in-Marsh, and Shipton-under-Wychwood.  A place called Childswickham is probably pronounced Chick-am.  There are places that are near something else, like Brockhampton Park, Nr. Cheltenham, Gloucestershire. I had a friend whose address was “Home Farm, Nr. Barry, Vale of Glamorgan, South Wales”. No numbers, no street, just this string of information… and a post code.

It’s not just in the country where you find the funny place names. In London, there’s Kentish Town, St. Marylebone and The Little Boltons. I took the picture below for the children of one of my brother’s friends… the Little Boltons.  History is all around you.

Two Dog Nights

Even though we’re in the depths of summer, I am having two dog nights. The expressions comes from Australian Aboriginal people who used to snuggle up with their dogs to keep warm in the desert nights. The colder the night, the more dogs you had. So a Three Dog Night was really cold.Halas and Connor are having a great time, and we had a field trial of the most amazing thing ever invented – the Furminator!  I am reviewing if for the Baltimore Sun, and I am giving it eight paws up: four from each dog!

When I moved back to the States and considered getting another dog (my last dog was Frank, and this was a few days before he died!),I SWORE I would not get a) another big dog, and b) another yellow dog). So, what do I end up with? A 65 lb. yellow lab who sheds like you would not believe! I could knit another whole dog from the fur I comb off of him!  This is just one swipe of the comb!With Frank and now Connor, I had a whole basket of curry combs, shedding blades, rubber fingers, and combs to help keep their fur under control. Now that I have the Furminator, I am loving it, and so is Connor. A lot of the other utensils hurt the dog, but Furminator doesn’t. In fact, he just sits patiently while I comb him. When you see the Furminator video (this isn’t the official one), you think that  it’s total crap, but it’s not. It gets all of the undercoat, which is especially important in a Lab like Connor who’s got that double coat of fur. When we Furminate, it’s like a little blizzard of yellow/white fur tumbleweeds.

Even Halas, who looks like a chocolate Lab, but is really a Greyhound/Airedale/German Shorthair Pointer mix, benefits from a couple of swipes from the Furminator. I figure that all of the fur that’s rolling down the road is fur that isn’t in my house. And that’s a good thing!

Day-Oh!

It was one of those days today. A lot good and a little bad. Or maybe it was the other way ‘round.

I have Connor’s best friend, Halas, here for a few days while his parents are away on a family emergency, so waking up with 150+ lbs of dog surrounding me isn’t easy… for me or for Connor!

The first phone call I got this morning was informing me that the house I was ready to put a contract on was already under contract. That was a huge shock, since the selling agent had not indicated that there was any other interest, and the house has been on the market for more than a year.

I had coffee today with Jamie Shelman and her husband Thomas Meyer, both very talented artists and graduates of the Rhode Island School of Design. They’ve just moved to Baltimore from the island of Martha’s Vineyard. I’ve been e-mailing back and forth with Jamie for about two years, so it was such fun to finally put a face with the name. We had a great time, and already have plans to meet again and introduce them to some artists I know.

There was another nice media mention in our local on-line paper, The Examiner. The “Baltimore Interior Design Examiner” examined me, and I answered a few questions for her. You can read it here.

We are going to work on creating a complete picture of the Baltimore Toile, so stay tuned for our efforts on that front!

Bon weekend!

Toile de Baltimore Maryland

Reader Ellen was kind enough to send over some pictures of the toile of Baltimore that I showed yesterday.

This piece of the fabric shows the view looking up towards the Washington Monument. and this is what it really looks like. The other scene on the Toile de Baltimore/Maryland is the Maryland State House in Annapolis, the oldest statehouse in continuous use. Here’s what this really looks like. Here are two other views of the toile Ellen sent me. and So interesting. I would love to somehow reconstruct this!

Toiles-de-Jouy Book Due in October 2010

I got the good news that the Victoria & Albert Museum’s book on Toiles-de-Jouy is out in October 2010. If you’re a fan of toiles, like I am, then this book will be one for your personal library.Originally referring only to the famed fabrics of Jouy-en-Josas,‘toiles de Jouy’ has today become the catch-all term for the delightful printed cottons preferred by the aristocratic elite in eighteenth- and nineteenth-century France, made famous by the palaces of Marie-Antoinette and Empress Josephine. Sarah Grant introduces the design, dyeing, and printing processes that created these textiles, and their role in interior decoration and clothing, both then and now.  Sumptuous new photography of the V&A’s extensive toiles collection illustrates the cottons’ diversity – floral, literary, antique, allegorical, bucolic and ‘exotic’, among others – offering inspiration to everyone with an interest in textiles and interiors.  Sarah Grant is an Assistant Curator of Prints at the Victoria and Albert Museum, and was formerly an Assistant Curator in the Museum’s Textiles and Dress section.

You can pre-order the book here.

PS! After I posted this, my friend Adam sent me a picture of a Toile de Baltimore, hon!  I need to find out the story of it from him.

Mary Randolph Carter

A few weeks ago, I mentioned Mary Randolph Carter and her series of Junk books. She’s known by all as simply Carter, and in her role as Senior Vice President at Ralph Lauren, she’s been responsible for a good part of his signature American look.

Her first book, American Junk, was one of my favourite books for a long time. When I found it and started reading it, it was like finding a kindred soul who could look beyond an object’s original intent and find something new and beautiful in it. 

She followed that up with Garden Junk, then Kitchen Junk and Big City Junk. Each of these books is beautifully photographed, giving the items a dignity that they might not have had otherwise.

Several years ago, she wrote another book which is an homage to old things. The book, For the Love of Old: Living with Chipped, Frayed, Tarnished, Faded, Tattered, Worn and Weathered Things that Bring Comfort, Character and Joy to the Places We Call Home, is her most beautiful to date.The typefaces are stunning and the images of simple subjects are reverential and elegant. Her words show a respect for even the smallest object. I know that this book is going to be one that I keep for a long time.  Here are four tips from Carter about junking, antiquing or thrifting.

1. Be prepared, like a good girl or boy scout. Think ahead. Are you looking for a bedside table for the guest room or Easter costumes for the kids? "Make a list so you can stay on track and not get overwhelmed," says Carter. "Your list is your compass in the wilderness."
2. Trust your instincts. "Good junk is linked to good memories, so if you find yourself saying, 'Oh that reminds me of the time...' chances are you're onto a good thing."
3. Case the joint. Do a walk-through, making mental notes about what items strike your fancy and what ones you feel you can pass on.
4. Haggle -- it's part of the sport. "I always ask the proprietor if I can start a pile. Then, when I'm ready to cash out, I start negotiating."

To read more about Carter, check out this piece in The Selby or this one on Apartment Therapy or her semi-defunct website here.

Marketplace

The public radio show, Marketplace, is doing a piece on today’s show about the proliferation of vile and nasty anonymous comments on blogs. Because of the cloak of anonymity, people feel that they’re free to say things that they {hopefully} would never say in person. I am very lucky to have only the rarest anonymous nasty comment, but you can hear what I have to say on the topic on Marketplace. Check your local public radio listings for the time.  Here’s the link to the interview – I am so excited that they used me on the promo, instead of Arianna Huffington!

Thank you for leaving nice comments. They are greatly appreciated!

Flowers on Sunday and a Cottage to Rent

No Farmers’ Market this morning, so I had to look closer to home to take a flower picture. Since my neighbour in the back hacked down all of the greenery on “his” side of the fence, I added clumps of bamboo sticks and am training some morning glories to fill them in. I love their symmetry, which you can see even in the bud stage.

I was reading the Guardian this morning and there was a feature on great cottages for rent. Of course, I chose the most unusual one, a former dovecot, called The Ducket. It is on the coast in Northumberland, England and sleeps two. It comes with wi-fi and a library.  It is close to Lindisfarne Castle, the Northumberland coastline and Cheviot Hills.  Best of all it rents for £450 per week, which is about $700! Such a deal!