#ThisIsBaltimore: Is it Spring Yet?

The answer to the question is a resounding NO, although it’s supposed to get warmer this week. Last week saw one of those stunningly beautiful snows, with it laying on every branch and starkly contrasting the light and dark. The best thing was that the snow didn’t cover the streets of sidewalks, thanks to a few sunny days before it.

As you may have gathered, Baltimore is home to many unusual buildings, including this old brewery, now repurposed as Humanim Health.

And this church that was funded through the sale of pierogis.

I spotted this fellow as friends and I were sitting on their front steps. He’s next-door!

I love keeping my eye out for great textures.

From a night at the museum… for a party!

Really, the most spectacular cookies. Made by 11 year old friend. He takes orders!

The most spectacular kitchen. I wrote about the house a few years ago, here.

A thrift shop find. It’s about 12.5 inches wide!

All for now! Thanks for reading!

Book Thing Fire

If you’ve been reading Pigtown*Design for any length of time, you know of my love for Baltimore treasure, The Book Thing. Early this morning, I got the devistating news that they’d been hit by an overnight fire. As you might imagine, that’s about the worst thing that could happen to a book store. If the books didn’t burn, they would be ruined by smoke and water.

The fire might have started in the roof, which had been recently repaired, and the building, the mortgage of which was paid off last year, has been badly damaged.

I was just at The Book Thing on Sunday and was thrilled to have found, among other things, this book on London’s undiscovered interiors, most of which are in public spaces.

If you’d like to make a contribution to help bring The Book Thing back, please click here and go to the Donate button. They have not updated their website to reflect the fire, but they are updating their Facebook page.

Photos from various sources, including the Baltimore City Paper and Imagur.

Debo’s Auction

On March 2, items from the estate of Deborah, the Dowager Duchess of Devonshire will be auctioned at Sotheby’s in London. I was so disappointed to miss the preview of this spectacular auction, which is the UK equivalent to Bunny Mellon’s auction a year and a half ago for its  provenance alone.

I scrolled through the on-line catalogue and picked out some items I would have bid on.

A silver mounted cowrie shell snuff box, marks rubbed, possibly Provincial or European, 18th/19th century

Her Grace's Collection of Elvis Presley Ephemera

Jonathan Sainsbury GOSSIP - HENS

Her Grace's bespoke pine and plywood hen boxes, modern

Desk and Reading Accessories from Her Grace's Desk, 19th century and later

Two English chrome car mascots by Louis Lejeune Ltd., modern

Twelve Royal Crown Derby bone china 'Chatsworth Golden Wedding' plates, modern

80 Glorious Years – Matthew Rice

A collection of costume jewelry

An English metal mounted plywood egg case, dated 29 May 1929

To see all of the lots, click here for the catalogue. The estimates are pretty reasonable, but that doesn’t mean they will stay reasonable!

Places to Go. People to See.

As I mentioned the other day, I postponed my trip to the UK for a few weeks, and am now replanning the whole thing. I will be in London for a few days, then going back to Wales, and then heading off on a drive-round, with no particular agenda, as of now, and then finally, ending up back in London. I have plans to meet up with family and friends along the way, but would love your suggestions of where to go and whom to see.

Two places I want to visit are Sheffield because of the history of silver-making, and Stoke-on-Trent because of their history making china and porcelain. That takes me up to the more northern part of the country. I basically have four full days to play with, and having lived in the UK, I am perfectly comfortable driving there (as long as the car is an automatic!).

I am religiously checking the magazine Homes & Antiques’s website for their March list of antiques fairs and shows. That will give me some ideas of which direction I should point the car.

So, any ideas of great country homes, brilliant shops, fabulous antiquarians, etc. will be much appreciated. I am also partial to a good country church or two.

Thanks, in advance!

Change in Plans

The past week has been a bit of a nightmare! (Hence the silence) I was supposed to fly to the UK on Sunday, but had an issue with my passport. Of course, I’d sent it in mid-January, plenty of time with the expedited service, to get back by the time I was leaving on the 21st. But a week ahead of travel, I got an email from the passport service on Friday NIGHT, saying that my picture didn’t pass muster and please send a new one, within 90 days!

Of course, Monday was a federal holiday, so I couldn’t talk to anyone in the passport office until Tuesday. I got the advice to send the new picture overnight and maybe (!), I would have it back by my travel date. To show my urgency, I added the copies of my tickets showing I was scheduled to leave on the 21st.

Then came an email saying they’d received my new photo and were beginning to process the new passport. And that it would take three weeks. At that point, I was so irritated, and uncertain as to whether I could travel, that I postponed the trip by four weeks.

Naturally, my passport arrived on Friday morning. My photo has an odd orange cast, but otherwise it’s fine. And I love that the inside front cover is the words to the Star Spangled Banner and a picture of my beloved Fort McHenry!

All photos from prior trips.

The Little Greenhouse

What better place to spend a bitter cold afternoon than a nice warm greenhouse? On Saturday afternoon, I joined two friends on a visit to a local greenhouse that specializes in orchids. Orchids are such amazing flowers, so prehistoric and unearthly in their appearance. The Little Greenhouse (no website) is located just north of Baltimore and was a quick drive. When we entered from the 19* F air outside into the warm, damp greenhouse, my specs completely fogged over. But as soon as they cleared, I knew I had to take some pictures. All were taken with my iPhone, and I used the macro feature on Camera+.

Unfortunately, I didn’t take pictures of the names of the orchids, bromeliads and begonias, so just enjoy them, regardless!

This flower was about an inch long. I love the way the bottom petal curls under.

Who “nose” what this one is!

Yellow-centered bromeliad

Such a gorgeous orange.

Ladyslippers

No filter

Although it looks like I blurred the leaves on this, I actually didn’t!

Such a gorgeous pink. At Halcyon House Antiques.

My Valentine’s Day present

Thanks to Stiles & Jonathan for including me on your field trip to the Little Greenhouse!

The Notebook

Anyone who knows me knows I LOVE notebooks. I have lots of them and love making notes, writing lists and jotting down ideas. At the office, I have a series of notebooks, all numbered. Each time I have a different conversation or meeting, I write my notes in a different colour with my favourite Le Pen 18 Color Pen Set. I love ruled notebooks, but I especially love graphed notebooks!

So when I got an email from the Princeton Architectural Press talking about their cool new notebook, I knew I wanted one. They were kind enough to send a bright red one to me, and it was love at first sight!

It has a number of differen grids,

I can imagine sitting in a boring meeting doodling on these amazing grids with my pens!

The other fun thing was the dividers with a range of instructions, including how to draw perpective

and how to tie knots.

When I sailed, my favourite expression was “if you can’t tie good knots, tie lots of them!”. But I am actually pretty decent at knots.

This is a gorgeous notebook which won’t get lost in the shuffle on your desk. You can order it at Princeton Architural Press here, at Barnes & Noble here or at Amazon here. And if you join their newsletter right now, you get a nice little gift card to use in their shop!