Turquoise + Orange/Yellow

Uptown, 1968

Richard Lindner

Neue Museum in Nurnberg

*for Amy Dragoo, who was a downtown girl 

(and I thought will always be) 

but has recently gone uptown

Shooting Divas, 1996, Anna Luif

Pipilotti Rist

Centre d'Art Contemporain Genf

*for dear friend Betty Lyn Eller, 

whose fave colors are turquoise and orange

Femme assise (Dora), 1938

Pablo Picasso

gouache, 76.5 x 56 cm

Fondation Beyeler, Basel

*for Leslie Carothers, my amazing kaleidoscopic friend

in all ways

SpinnWebzeit. Die Ebay-Vernetzung

Handbemaltes Glasschiebebild Fur Laterna Magica Der Firma Newton, Comic

Museum for Moderne Kunst Frankfurt Am Main

n. z 486

Vassily Kandinsky

Weiches Hart, 1927

Two figures on a Blue Ground, 1973

Marc Chagall

oil on canvas, 100 x 73 cm

Cremaster 3, 2002

Matthew Barney

Le Gourmet, 1901

Pablo Picasso

Oil on Canvas, 92.8 x 68.3 cm

Washington D.C. National Gallery of Art

*for Hannah Yu, my sweet and oldest goddaughter

The Grand Armada, 1936

Frank Stella

aluminiumrelief, bemalt, funfteilig, 315 x 186.5 x 99 cm

Fondation Beyeler, Basel

We Rose Up Slowly, 1964

Roy Lichstenstein

Museum fur Moderne Kunst Frankfurt am Main

After Lunch, 1975

Patrick Caulfield

Acrylic on Canvas, 248.9 x 213.4 cm

Tate

Sangha Market, Feb 11, 2000

Miquel Barcelo

gouache on paper, 78 x 58 cm

www.nouvellesimages.com

*for Gia Reyes, a nurturing bff who is like my sister

Social Media Diary 4 Year 1:SNUGging

As we feverishly prepare for High Point Market, I have flashbacks of our introductory  SNUG launch at the International Contemporary Furniture Fair last spring. 5 months just flew by and now we're on our second show and debuting this Friday at Interhall IH611. InterHall at the IHFC Building has earned a reputation for housing what's new, what's hot, and what will be the next big trend. We are extremely excited to be in this premium hotspot amidst twelve million square feet of endless showrooms. For our Spring show, Tracy Hiner of Black Crow Studios, collaborated with us by showing some snug love with her wallpaper artistry. We met on Twitter and didn't meet in real life until the day before the show! A testament to how social media can work for any of us. Here is her ahhmaazing work!

And here is her blog post on our collaboration process

 

Here is Tracy with the wallpaper Alex and I chose. It was her favorite too and we didn't even ask her to do anything specific. Voila, the colors matched! I am happy to say that because of our collaboration, she is also doing something with another Twitter friend soon for the holidays and I look forward to seeing it come together.

 The Queen of Social Media in the home and furniture industry, 

Leslie Carothers,

looking resplendent on the Pugella sofa.

 caught their first meeting in real life or as we say in Twitlingo, IRL

Leslie and Marcy Feld of Irwin Feld Design

 Another IRL moment for us with Carmen Natschke of

The Decorating Diva

 The ICFF party at the MoMA Garden

 It couldn't have been more exquisite!

Jackie's sister and daughter, Jackie Von Tobel, Tracy

While in the city, I also got to catch Michele Keith's 

book signing for Designers Here and There at Rizzoli

 Eric Cohler, one of the featured designers, 

signing my book.

 Rizzoli Bookstore

 Its interiors are as venerable as its tomes.

Then I got invited by Tamara Stephenson

to Dominique Browning's Slow Love 

book signing at Barnes and Noble

It was a wonderful reading and parts of the Q & A were thought provoking. I bought the book and had it signed for a dear friend who was in a similar situation. It was the perfect token for her when we met for brunch the next day. I read a few chapters and will definitely buy another copy.

Dominique Browning, widely known as the former editor of House & Garden 

though she wears many hats and blogs at  Slow Love Life

The lovely Tamara and her son, Myles. We also met on Twitter and have shared a lovely conversation over  coffee at Via Quadronno. I am enamored with this little gem  on the Upper East Side and have been back since. Thanks T for bringing me there. Tamara's blog Nest Nest Nest showcases not only her interior design talents but also gives a peek into her philosophical perspective. Design, gardening, entertaining, antiques, and history, with beautiful photography (by daughter Gaby) are interwoven beautifully. As I rush about my marathon week, I try to channel all the sensations that embody the slow life to balance me.

Social Media Diary 3 Year 1:All The Best et al

I am still celebrating my first anniversary year and showing photos from the year that was in Social Media. Last Spring, we all came out of the woodwork, which made for a hectic social media season.  Yes, all these people we tweet or chat with are really not imaginary!

My first invite came from the royal bloggess, Ronda Carman, of All The Best Blog  for the Sferra Lose Count Party at Mrs. Howard’s in Atlanta. As most of us know, she is the brand ambassador for Sferra Linens .  The charming Texan (based in Scotland) seems larger than life with her topping the blog charts and being privy to the lifestyles of the world's most admired style makers. When you meet Ronda, her unaffected charm will immediately draw you in and you will be delightfully disarmed by her graciousness. She has remained detached by the madness and trappings that come with being a celebrated blogger. Her class act transcends well to her writing and new venture, All The Best Portfolio , a brand building by design company, that she launched this year.

Ronda Carman

I was beyond excited to meet Atlanta's bloggerati.

Shameeka Ayers of  The Broke Socialite, Blayne Beacham, Claire Watkins of CWID and High Gloss Blue, Christi Holcombe of Charm Home, Erika Ward of BluLabel Bungalow

Molly, Jenny Andrews of MFAMB , Erika Ward,  and 

Shani Gilchrist of Camille Maurice  from Columbia, SC

I used to live near Mrs. Howard's in Charlotte and every visit was like a plush pick me up . Not expecting any less from the Atlanta outpost, I felt like I wanted to dress the part that day by juxtaposing high and low. I shopped in my closet and came up with a beautiful beaded top from Lesage that one of my best friends, Garrison Rousseau, gave me. I matched it with a Prada-esque lace skirt (inspired from Fall 2008 RTW) from Kohl's, West Palm Beach. A fab find to mark my first pop into the store. I completed the look with another new discovery this year, Kelsi Dagger, by the same designers of Pour La Victoire. I wore the heck out of them all Spring and Summer from High Point, New York, and Cebu. These plat heels rate high in glam, comfort, and price.

You can listen to, Aaron Stewart- Sferra's Creative Director, here as he unravels the thread count quandary. I have been a fan of Sferra and it was one of the little details that attracted me to the SNUG partner. His thread count knowledge counterbalances his penchant for wearing nice but sometimes, holey cashmere sweaters.  Pro photos from All The Best Portfolio here. The photos below are from Mrs. Howard's website, the perfect setting for the Lose Count party.

A week after, we were invited by Dr. Richard Bennington, chair of the Home Furnishings and Design Department, at High Point University to be part of the Social Media panel. High Point University has been ranked as one of the top 610 colleges and universities across the country in the list, "America's Best Colleges," created by Forbes.com. This places HPU in the top 7 percent of the 6,600 higher-education institutions throughout the United States.     Dr. Nido Qubein, president of HPU, credits the tremendous growth in academics and campus facilities. It is ranked by US News and World Report No. 5 among comprehensive universities in the South and No. 1 in its category among up-and-coming schools. 

Dr. Richard Bennington

Leslie Carothers, of The Kaleidoscope Partnership, gave the keynote speech and a peek of What's Next in Social Media. Some of the tech information was bewildering for a tech challenged person like me to remember. Watching Leslie's presentation and how she weaves everything together further confirmed that there is no dynamo like her in the furniture industry when it comes to social media. 

It is exciting to be part of this paradigm shift and apply these tools in our personal and business matters. I was part of the panel that she moderated representing furniture manufacturing, Wanda Horton of Interior Concepts by Wanda representing interior design, Christy Brown of FurnitureLand South representing retail, Nick Iauco of Brand Intelligence Group who does social media for other sectors.

HPU students gave the audience a quick 411 on the different Social Media applications

Mitch Miles of  The 26.2 Group

High Point Market is fast approaching...We started off with a small tweetup at the Soicher Marin showroom co-hosted by Tobi Fairley and Wanda Horton last Fall. There were about 10 of us, got too busy talking that we hardly took photos. 

John Strauss commemorated his debut in Interhall with a Tweet-for-a-Table contest.

Wes Kennedy, Art Director of Home Accents Today and Leslie Carothers 

John Strauss makes these beautiful business card holders,perfect for gifts.

Last April,  Designer Detective Shay Geyer (@designershay) of IBB Design Group and Good Morning Texas design expert, asked Wes Kennedy and I to co host the tweetup with her at Global Views. This time, there was more dazzle, just the way they do it in Dallas.

Shay Geyer and Erin

Jackie Von Tobel, Leslie Carothers , Shay, Leigh , Wanda Horton 

Faith Sheridan   

Carl and Jill Healy 

 

friend and Mom of Olivia Chalmers

Wanda Horton, Davetta Moore 

Jerry Cohen, John Strauss,  

Wes Kennedy, Jeff Day 

Remote Stylists Kelly (@kellyfallis) and Matt

Traci Zeller and Jackie Von Tobel

Wes, Shay and I 

(and yes, I totally intended to blend with the interiors and 

maxed out my fave turquoise and gold combo)

One of the most coveted invites last Market was House Beautiful's  Southern Supper 2 weeks into Newell Turner's editorship.  The invitation still stated, 'Stephen Drucker requests the pleasure...."

Barry Dixon and HB Publisher Kate Kelly Smith
heralding Newell Turner's birthday

Tobi's Mom, Interior Designer and HB March cover 

Tobi Fairley,   HB Editor in Chief Newell Turner 

Barry Dixon, gentleman and interior designer extraordinaire

with the ladies

here with Thom Filicia 

Withit Networking Party

Stephanie Lowder, Withit President and President of Rare Bird Creative 

and Natura World's Communication Director Julia Rosien and fellow Withit board member

Cindy Williams, VP of Retail Strategy for Info Retail and 

Withit VP for Membership

Lizzy Freundel, Director of Marketing Communications and Innovation 

for Theodore and Alexander

Kathy Wall, President of The Media Matters and Withit Ambassador

Leslie Newby, principal of Brand Communications Inc with Stephanie

talented interior designer Julie Browning Bova aka @jbint ,

Lizzy Freundel, and I

Alright folks, I'm partied out recording everyone from Left-Right but I did this for 6 years at one point in my life. Hope the memory exercise will aid me through the years. A couple more anniversary posts coming up then I'm done celebrating :-)