Call me a granny (chic!), but this yellow rose pattern from retired Kate Spade stationery may just be my all-time favorite pattern. I can’t bear to use my last few notecards and have been saving them now for years. It’s now my Twitter background, isn’t it lovely?
It is with great excitement I announce that in January 2011 my dear friend Jane Lilly Warren and I are launching a new monthly lifestyle publication titled Matchbook: Field Guide to a Charmed Life. Each digital issue we look forward to celebrating the classics (shaken and stirred!) in our own unique fashion with delectable bites of style, beauty, decor, travel, and culture. The darling Fallon Hogarty has become our right-hand-gal as we organize the spectacular line-up for our premier issue. I’ve been pinching myself the entire process and it’s only just begun! I do hope you’ll join us on this grand adventure by following us on Twitter and “liking” us on Facebook. I can’t wait to share this surreal experience with you every step of the way! The Matchbook team believes there ought to be a destination for campfires, confetti, and joie de vivre in the virtual world — and we’re setting out to create it.
Feel free to snatch the image above and spread the news! None of this would have ever been possible without your support. Thank YOU for helping to make this Neo-Trad’s dreams come true!
Above is reason 1,001 why I adore my friend Jane Lilly Warren. It’s a collage of her “future summer cottage.” I mean really, could she possibly be any cuter/more talented/fabulous? In case you’re new, Jane is a graphic designer in Manhattan and we went to school together in Switzerland. She was also my former-Yugoslavia travel companion and we drank a lot of mai tais together at the hotel bar in Dubrovnik and shopped for carpets in Sarajevo, and wound up with a grand piano in our suite in Belgrade. Anyway, if you don’t already read her blog, Lox Papers, you really must. I heart you Miss Warren.
P.S. Fun fact: In the Wes Anderson film, The Darjeeling Limited, the suitcases have her initials! I’m so jealous.
Looking back at these pages from the January 2005 French Vogue featuring Sofia Coppola evokes such memories! My French “sister” Maud laughed when I picked up a copy from the newsstand in Paris. You see, we both knew I couldn’t actually read the half of it. I was after the pictures anywho—can you blame me? Maud laughed again when I “read” the magazine the entire train ride to Provence for the holiday. I couldn’t get over the fantastically candid photos and bright, collage-like layouts. I still can’t! What I would give to see my beloved American Vogue loosen up and strew polaroids and wonky-cut silhouettes across their pages! After the holidays I bid Maud au revoir, but French Sofia joined me en route to Italy, then Greece, Switzerland and a year later, stateside. I simply couldn’t part with it. In fact, I plan to frame the layout below with the pink post-it. No, not because I can read it—simply because it’s beautiful.
(images from Dec/Jan ’05 French Vogue)
My dear friend Jane Lilly Warren is a graphic designer in Manhattan and recently launched a spectacular design blog you really ought to know about. Lox Papers is brimming with graphics, photography and art any NEO-trad would adore. Above and below, a sampling from Jane’s inspiration archives… Vintage postcards and book covers, whimsical photographs, fine French papers… Love what you see? Me too. Shhhhhh, don’t tell my fiance, but I think Jane’s my soul mate.
