Showing posts with label now. Show all posts
Showing posts with label now. Show all posts
Monday, February 27, 2017
English Country Manor – Then Now
English Country Manor – Then Now
I wasn’t really a Laura Ashley kind of girl. With a head of unruly curls and a Semitic face, the English Rose look didn’t fare well on me. But, in the 1990s, when the United States was flooded with Laura Ashley boutiques in every mall and Princess Diana was “all that” my friends were having babies and many had nurseries decorated with their beautiful pink and lilac chintz, mixed with their famous Sprigs and striped fabrics.
My own guest room for a time was decorated with Laura Ashley’s Sprig and Stripe fabrics and my baby wore some of the cutest little dresses I would buy there, on sale, off season.
But all those Laura Ashley boutiques closed in bankruptcy and that was the end of that trend although the company did eventually make a comeback.
After Laura Ashley, if you wanted the pastel hued English decor, you had to go to the decorative center and order very expensive, overpriced cotton from companies like Jane Churchill or Colefax, which - had they been a company in the states - their prices would have been more like Waverly. Remember Waverly?
Cabbages & Roses
And then came the romantic and affordable Cabbages and Roses and the fun Cath Kidston and the even more romantic, if possible, Kate Forman Designs.
While Cabbages & Roses and Cath Kidston have a higher profile thanks to the Internet, the third English company, Kate Forman, is not as well known even though they have been producing the prettiest fabrics since 2004. They have the most gorgeous web site, and I love to visit and just drool over Kate’s photographs, many of which are taken at her own country home.
Kate Forman at home in 2005.
Kate grew up in a house she describes as “shabby chic.” Her mother, Pixie Weir, designed costumes for film and the family home was filled with mannequins and fabrics, which is, Kate thinks, the genesis of her love of textiles. After studying fashion at art school, she joined a friend to share an antique shop on London’s Lillie Road. Besides selling antiques, she did a bit of interior design using vintage fabrics she sourced at auctions in London and France.
She had a special love for these fabrics that were faded and pale but she couldn’t find enough yardage for her clients who wanted the English Country Manor decor. Kate took her collection of remnants, recolored to suit today’s interiors, and then found a textile printer on the Internet who created her first line. Market research consisted of groups of friends who offered opinions on colorways and prices. Her company Kate Forman Designs launched in 2004. She still uses the same textile printer and keeps her crew low at just six people.
Kate moved her family to Hampshire to an 200 year old house that friends had once lived in and were renting out. Her shop is five minutes away in a block of renovated stables. Kate’s husband Jake serves as the financial director.
Christophe Gollut
Kate Forman was influenced by the Swiss designer, Christophe Gollut. She especially loved his use of colour and sense of style which she found “utterly beautiful.” Me too.
Just look at this living room by Gollut. So gorgeous, so English! It’s no surprise he influenced Kate’s designs.
And here, from Kate Forman Designs beautiful web site – many of the photographs are prettier than a magazine. I mean, look at this! Gorgeous!!!
And my favorite! A stripe on the sofa with a mix of patterns for the pillows. Notice the tiny bobble trim on the valance. LOVE!!!!!
An hall with an antique chest and curtains.
A beautiful bedroom with an antique bed, in her pink fabrics.
Another bedroom finished in the pink fabrics.
Swedish blues in Check and Cameo Ribbons fabrics.
Kate Forman has a line of beautiful velvets – here in red, with a touch of pink.
Just beautiful walls and mantel!
A bedroom, with her pink Delilah curtains.
A subtle stripe in charcoal for the curtains.
Beautiful – Sophia in gray. This is a very popular fabric and wallpaper.
Here is the Sophia wallpaper in gray and Bella in pink on the bed.
Here, is Josephine in yellow. Kate’s favorite fabric is Josephine in the yellow and in the red colorway.
Brighter, in yellows.
Pearl Lowe’s new book featured curtains made of Kate’s Guinevere.
The newest line – Boho: Elodie in pink. Today, Kate is favoring brighter fabrics.
And the headboard in an ikat – Jag, in pink.
Red Agnes curtains. Candy Stripe in red on the bed.
Kate Forman at her Decortex Booth. I love the caftan made with her new ikat fabric!!
The Hampshire country house. The back side facing the street is stone, while this side is stucco. Built around 1750, the house was extended in 1800 with a new wing and the addition of the Gothik porch with its extravagant frieze.
And, a romantic shot at night.
In 2006, with two of her children – the frieze is painted blue, later it is white.
Kate at the front door. A close up of the frieze around the front door and window.
2006. Inside, the living room is to the right of the front door, with windows on three sides of the room. Above this – is the master bedroom. To the left of the front door is the second drawing room, which leads to the kitchen in the extension.
The back of the house shows the garden outside the kitchen. The mud room on the left is so charming!! You can see the stone facade that faces the street on the left.
The furniture is in Kate’s fabrics, of course.
Here, the front entry with portieres, and her bobble trim at the top. Kate uses her house for some of the catalogues. Twice a year she updates a room or two with new wallpaper or fabrics and then photographs it for the web site. MusRead more »Available link for download
Saturday, February 18, 2017
Everything is Disposable Now
Everything is Disposable Now
Its like all the speed and accessibility this technology has given us comes at a price. Things seem so much more disposable now. Not just things. Relationships. People.
You meet someone using any one of the multiple methods that dont include being face to face, and you can pick them up and put them down with ease, because there are dozens of others.
So many, they all begin to blend.
Of course, you can be picked up and put down just as fast. Because, just like with you, there are also dozens of others.
Maybe were all trapped in ice cream shops, stuffing ourselves on free samples but ordering nothing. Maybe were all just digital now and dont have to live in the real world. Maybe its just retweets and Facebook Likes and late nights and text fights and meme sound bites and pictures youre embarrassed you sent but at least you changed the filter
and lit it right.
We got to know each other, or at least I thought we did.
You were the one whod been single your whole life, or fought an addiction. No wait, you were the one who had a kid.
Its like everything is disposable now and
theres no one to walk the canals with at dusk
no secrets to peel away like petals of a flower
no one to trust
no one to hold that does not turn to dust
if I made you feel disposable it wasnt true
and dont think I dont mean it even though
I wont remember you.
You meet someone using any one of the multiple methods that dont include being face to face, and you can pick them up and put them down with ease, because there are dozens of others.
So many, they all begin to blend.
Of course, you can be picked up and put down just as fast. Because, just like with you, there are also dozens of others.
Maybe were all trapped in ice cream shops, stuffing ourselves on free samples but ordering nothing. Maybe were all just digital now and dont have to live in the real world. Maybe its just retweets and Facebook Likes and late nights and text fights and meme sound bites and pictures youre embarrassed you sent but at least you changed the filter
and lit it right.
We got to know each other, or at least I thought we did.
You were the one whod been single your whole life, or fought an addiction. No wait, you were the one who had a kid.
Its like everything is disposable now and
theres no one to walk the canals with at dusk
no secrets to peel away like petals of a flower
no one to trust
no one to hold that does not turn to dust
if I made you feel disposable it wasnt true
and dont think I dont mean it even though
I wont remember you.
Available link for download
Wednesday, February 15, 2017
Monday, January 30, 2017
Dystopia Now!
Dystopia Now!
There are two subjects that are consuming America at this moment:
1) Police-involved shootings;
2) Pokémon Go.
Indeed, as protesters take to the streets to decry the former:
And one cannot help feeling that our society is on a collision course between the forces of outrage and utter self absorption.
Until I read the above article my only worry with regard to Pokémon Go was that my kid was going to discover it, but now Im also horrified to discover that apparently you can add virtual Pokémon (Pokémen?) to the ever-increasing list of New York City bike lane obstructions:
Shit.
This is very bad. See, what this means is that in addition to dodging taxicabs, police cars, delivery trucks, garbage trucks, pedestrians, and of course bike salmon, weve now also got to look out for people who are playing a game that replicates the effects of LSD while harvesting their valuable user data.
And should you collide with one of these gamers while attempting to use the bike lane, it remains to be seen who the police will treat with more derision: you, the despicable cyclist; or the gamer, who deserves whatever happens to them for using a smartphone while walking--at least according to the State of New York:
I saw the above PSA on my local TV news station the other day and it really pissed me off, because while I wholeheartedly agree that its not smart to walk around with your head up your ass I also think its a little ridiculous to say that distraction is "just as dangerous when youre walking." After all, when was the last time a distracted pedestrian plowed into a bunch of kids waiting for the schoolbus?
Its also important to keep this whole "distracted pedestrian" thing in perspective. I mean sure, theyre annoying, but theyre also really not all that hard to avoid. Consider the guy in the video:
Who slowly walks out into the street from between two parked cars:
And of course pays the ultimate price:
By which I mean he has to buy a new smartphone:
So should he have been paying more attention? Yes. But should the driver have been operating his vehicle slowly and cautiously enough to avoid something that occurs regularly in an urban environment? Also yes. Did you hear those tires squealing before impact? If you stop short in the city and your tires squeal then you were driving too fast, and if you hit something its because you werent paying enough attention--even if the thing you hit wasnt doing what it was "supposed" to do at that exact moment.
And all of this is to say nothing of the fact that our hapless pedestrian appears to be in Albany, a city so boring it would be unbearable without smartphone augmentation. I know what Im talking about too, because I went to college there for four years--and that was before cellphones, when all we had to keep us entertained was LSD!
Anyway, Im glad New York State is spending our tax dollars on making videos that say pedestrians get whats coming to them.
Speaking of crashing into stuff, the National Transportation Safety Board is now investigating that fatal Tesla crash:
DETROIT — A second federal agency is investigating a fatal May 7 crash in Florida involving a Tesla automobile operating in Autopilot mode that failed to stop when a tractor-trailer turned in front of it.
The National Transportation Safety Board, which more typically looks into accidents involving trains, planes, buses and ships, confirmed on Sunday that it had sent a team to investigate the crash, which killed Joshua Brown, an entrepreneur from Ohio.
You may be wondering why this particular crash is receiving such scrutiny when over 30,000 people are killed by cars in this country every year. Heres why:
The involvement of the transportation safety board signals even greater scrutiny of the accident and Tesla’s Autopilot technology. The agency specializes in determining the causes of crashes and is familiar with the self-driving technology used in trains and airplanes.
“I think it’s very appropriate that N.T.S.B. is doing this, and I welcome it,” said Joan Claybrook, a former National Highway Traffic Safety Administration administrator who continues to advocate improved auto safety. “I think there’s an urgency to find out if these autonomous systems are at fault because companies continue to push hard to get the technology onto the road.”
Makes sense I guess, but after well over 100 years of driving it seems fairly unlikely to me that well solve all the problems created by cars with more cars, but what do I know?
If only there were some mode of intercity transport that could carry large numbers of people over long distances on a dedicated right-of-way...
Ah, who am I kidding? It would never work.
More private vehicles is the only way to go. There are only 250 million currently on the roads, surely we can squeeze in a few more.
Lastly, speaking of creating less problematic ways of getting around, the Boston Globe has finally published something pro-bike:
To be clear, building a seamless and convenient network of protected cycling infrastructure will require trade-offs. On many streets, adding a cycle track means narrowing or removing car lanes, or eliminating on-street parking — scenarios that bring panic to car and business owners. Although research suggests that retail sales actually increase after switching parking for protected bike lanes, the proposals rarely see support from abutters. Yet we must acknowledge that our current transportation situation isn’t working for all residents, and it will worsen unless we take bold action to empower more affordable and sustainable options.
Removing car lanes?!? No! Where are the self-driving cars supposed to go???
Available link for download
Friday, January 27, 2017
Epicurus VS The View host now believes no one came before Christians
Epicurus VS The View host now believes no one came before Christians
"The View" have done it again.
To start with I should remind you that the last time we ran in with the host Sherri Shepard on the view, she was admitting to not knowing if the "Earth was round or flat".
This time it started so promisingly. I totally support chat shows discussing "important" topics. It seems in this episode of "The View" they were talking about the excellent Epicurus - a near enough Atheist, and one of the first incredibly wise writers on why Religion, all in all, was a bit shit.
He said such wonderfully insightful comments as:
Is God willing to prevent evil, but not able? Then He is not omnipotent.
Is He able, but not willing? Then He is malevolent.
Is God both able and willing? Then whence cometh evil?
Is He neither able nor willing? Then why call him God?
-- Epicurus
and
Why should I fear death? If I am, death is not. If death is, I am
not. Why should I fear that which can only exist when I do not?
-- Epicurus
(Which I took from Jonathan Miller’s excellent ‘A Short History of Disbelief’ - but more can be found here.)
His insight is all the more the impressive when you realise this was 400 years before the birth of Christ.
As such, it makes the conversation that follows even more embarrassing - and after 2400 years of progress.
Weve let Epicurus down.
Available link for download
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