Bits & Pieces

I thought I’d do a wrap up of a couple of smaller stories today, instead of one longer one. Enjoy!

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My friends at Halcyon House Antiques are having a major sale this week. Sure they’ve done sales on this or that before, but they’ve never done a sale of everything in the store! They’ve cleaned out the closets, peeked under the stairs, searched the attic and brought everything they’d tucked away out in the open and now it’s on sale! Everything is 30-40% off – or make a reasonable offer and they might play along! Click on the link above for hours and location.

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In a case of six degrees of Baltimore, one of my friends sent me the link to a gorgeous chair, and asked if I knew the person who designed the fabric, because she’s from Baltimore, and then a little later, someone asked me to write an article about the very same person – Liza Hathaway Matthews. Some of the top blogs have written about her and here she is, in my own back garden, and I didn’t know about her. Shame on me! Liza is an artist whose work is now being made into fabric and wallpaper. Two of her paintings are in a piece by Celerie Kemble in February’s House Beautiful. I am looking forward to meeting her and writing a piece about her, too!

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A few months ago, I wrote about a project I was working on at my office. I showed you some of the before pictures of the room I was refreshing, but since that was one part of a six-part project, I never showed you the finished results!

Just to remind you what the room looked like before:

I have filled the bookcases with antique leather-bound books and other ephemera from our vast collections, so the room finally looks like what it was designed to be – a reading room.

The silver in the case above was found when we finally found the combination to an old safe and opened it one Friday afternoon. I have to tell you, my hands were shaking as I turned the dial for the final time and opened the massive door! I was pretty sure I’d find a skeleton in there!

The paint is Turtleback from C2 Paint, and it’s the most gorgeous paint! The painters told me a number of times how wonderful it was to work with and how beautifully it covered. Although these aren’t the best pictures, you can really see how the dark green paint really accentuates the beautiful millwork in the room. Before, it just disappeared.

The Reading Room again has the gravitas that it had lost for so many years while it was swathed in pink.

The final part of the project is matching up all of the museum labels with the 110 paintings we have scattered around our offices. Some bright spark pulled all of the plaques and plates off a few years ago, and I’ve spent the past year and a half trying to match up who’s who! You can follow along with my adventures matching paintings here.

What projects are you working on in the New Year?

Awards Season Starts!

One of my besties always live-blogs the awards shows and critiques the dresses, but since she’s on the West Coast right now, and is at an event, I missed out on her comedic take on things.

I thought I’d run through some of the good and bad dresses at the Golden Globes, starting with the woman whose golden globes were just a little too exposed. I was terribly concerned that the double-sided tape would choose the wrong moment to unstick itself. Not to mention that the fabric wasn’t terribly attractive and there was just too much of it following her around.

As always, George Clooney looks fabulous in a tuxedo, and his new wife Amal also looks terrific. I wish that her gloves fit a little better and weren’t so scrunched up.

What is wrong with this woman? Lena Dunham is great friends with Zak Posen, but his dresses never work for her. The waistline on this dress needs some serious work. Is the fabric too stiff? Is the cut just wrong? It could have been a gorgeous dress.

Helen Mirren always looks wonderful. Her dress is elegant and classic.

Keira Knightly in Chanel. Love the butterflies, but pretty much hate everything else about it. Not flattering at all.

I know that Rosamund Pike just had a baby, but it’s the top that is the problem, not the waistline. It looked like it needed to be hitched up about six inches to fit properly.

It reminded me of Gwyneth’s Ralph Lauren disaster several many years ago.

Colin Firth and his wife, Livia, always look terrific! Coordinated and elegant.

There is no question that Reese Witherspoon knows how to dress. She always looks fabulous.

I thought Kerry Washington’s dress was gorgeous until I saw the whole thing.

I love that Lana Del Ray decided to channel Priscilla Presley, circa 1964! So mid-century modern!

And here’s Jessica Chastain in the 2015 version of the dress.

Another man who knows how to dress… Benedict Cumberbatch and his wife, Sophie.

Ruth Wilson in Prada. She looks distinctly unhappy. Is it what she’s wearing?

Last but not least, this train wreck! It’s Tiziana Rocca (who???) and there’s an awful lot going on with this dress. Any one of the myriad elements would have been enough, but added together, they’re just too much.

Which dress did you like the most? The least?

Nine on the 9th!

Amazingly, this is the beginning of my NINTH year of blogging at Pigtown*Design! What a great adventure it’s been!

One of the most gratifying things about the blog is that I have had the chance to meet so many people that I’d never have imagined meeting. On my last trip, I got together with three people I have met through the blog: Naomi from CouldaShouldaWoulda, who was charming and delightful and took me places I’d never visited on all of my trips to London.

House of Beauty & Culture is one of the OBs (original bloggers) and we’re old friends now. Each time we meet up, we spend the entire time telling stories and laughing! Oh, yes… and drinking!

Diane at Yonks, is based out of my old stomping grounds – Cardiff – and we had the chance to spend an afternoon at a local auction. She and I talked like old friends, and although we only spent the day together, we both missed each other later! That’s the great kind of friend to have! Oh, and there was more drinking with her! Decidedly non-British drinks!

And although he’s not blogging anymore, I met my dear friend Steve and his charming daughters, Martha and Kitty, through a blog he wrote for the UK’s Guardian newspaper on The Wire, of all things. I spent six years trying to convince him that Baltimore’s Not Just The Wire©! He and his girls hosted a wonderful Thanksgiving for this American abroad, for which I am deeply appreciative!

Another benefit to blogging is all of the things that I learn when I am searching for things to write about. The blog forces me, in a good way, to look at myriad resources to find the item that no one else is blogging about. Whether it is driving around Baltimore to show you places you don’ know about,

or sharing with you something new I am reading,

I am always on the hunt for something new for you, and it keeps me on my toes!

The blog helps me find the beauty in everyday things, whether it is a gorgeous urn of flowers,

or a snowy day in the city.

I share the good times with you, like horse races and parties with friends,

and some of the bad times, like being mugged in High Point, and losing our friend Larry.

To you, who take the time to read Pigtown*Design every time a new post comes to your computer or in-box, I say thank you so much! It means the world to me that you read what I write, take time to comment, speak to me when you see me, and indulge this effort of mine. You are greatly appreciated!

Lilly for Target!

It was announced this evening that Target and Lilly Pulitzer are collaborating on a collection. #lillyfortargetWOW! If this is anything like Target’s partnership with Liberty of London, there are going to be people camping outside Target stores waiting to snap up the goods. Well, maybe not at the Target near me, since it’s not in a great area.

And Target better beef up their website, because a lot of people were very unhappy livid that the Target website kept crashing as they were trying to make purchases online.

The collection, with 250 pieces including apparel, accessories and shoes for women and girls, as well as home accents, outdoor entertaining accessories, beach gear, travel essentials and more, will arrive in stores on April 19th. They have already set up an Instagram account with lots of images of what’s to come.

Nothing better on a bitter cold, snowy night, than knowing that spring’s just around the corner and we’ll all be buying our Lilly from Target!

Back to Reality!

If you’re like me, you’ve spent the past two weeks wondering what day it was. Christmas and New Year’s felt like Sundays, but then there were a couple of Fridays thrown in there and a weekend or two. Regardless of the day, I hope that your festive season was wonderful!

It’s been a busy few weeks here with lots of parties and other fun events. An annual event to which I am invited is a New Year’s Day brunch with friends. The food is always fabulous – caviar on blinis, cheesy grits, scrambled eggs, Scottish salmon, fresh fruit and champagne.

Before we ate, we took a minute to walk, or in my case, hobble, through the garden. I am recovering from a bad knee and it’s super painful to walk right now. Although it’s freezing, I am still waiting for the first snow of the season to take the final series of images of the garden, which I’ve documented through the past year.

The iron dogs which greet visitors are festively decorated for the season with beautiful wreaths.

Small evergreens have been trained into spiral topiaries.

J made two window boxes with seasonal greenery, including some hellebores from the greenhouse. Because this part of the house is south-facing, the hellebores actually do quite well.

I love this half-urn which also showcases a little evergreen decorated with white lights. .

The inside of the house also took advantage of the plants from the on-site greenhouse and there were fresh flowers everywhere. In addition to the lilies, there were paper-white narcissus, hyacinths, white azaleas and some amaryllis.

There were also some poinsettias in a variety which I have not yet seen.

The table was set with some traditional tartan cloths, and beautiful amaryllis in a candy-cane stripe!

Honestly, there’s nothing like fresh flowers to banish the winter blues!