Category Archives: Wishing_True

A Matchbox Made in Heaven

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I’ve written about my friend Susan’s shop Shandell’s before, and how I particularly love her covered matchboxes. Well – as I was perusing my November issue of House Beautiful, I was delighted to see her work mentioned in the “best” of the month section!



The caption reads:

“Matchbox: A wooden matchbox with a handmade decoupaged cover? It sparked our interest. Sold in a variety of vintage designs (there’s a different image on each side), they make a great hostess gift on their own or paired with a candle. $14. SHANDELL’S: shandells.com.“

Not familiar with Susan’s work? You can see more of her antique and handmade paper creations (lamps, shades, matchboxes, tissue paper box covers, etc.) on her website, Shandell’s.

Here are some of my favorite matchboxes in the shop right now:







A little late to order the Halloween inspired on for this year, but Santa would look adorable on the mantle for Christmas 2010…

My Kind of Halloween

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Halloween is not really my favorite day of the year. In fact, I find the October marathon of horror movie commercials and late night movies to be a constant source of channel surfing terror. I just don’t like scary stuff.

Blood thirsty serial killers brandishing meat cleavers? The dead rising from their graves? Creepy neighborhood gore enthusiasts with their annual haunted house? I find none of these things fun.

Illustrations of little children in old fashioned costumes though? THAT I can get behind.



How cute are these prints from Sarah Jane Studios?

I’ve always loved this Etsy shop. It’s a great resource for stationery and nursery/kids’ room art. I particularly love the calendar series (click to enlarge):


How sweet is October?


And wouldn’t this one look cute in a bathroom?


I could post pictures of all of her work…but maybe you could just visit her shop. For even more images, check out her blog!

Stencils Have Come a Long Way Since the ’80s…

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Remember how cool stencils were in the ’80s? I had many a room border in my life back then… Just a little Lucite, an exacto knife, up to three paint colors and voila! Who needs wallpaper?

It’s amazing what people are doing with stencils now. There are tons of kits and “how to” sites out there, and the designs are SO much more sophisticated and polished than the old nod to Amish cut outs. Not that those don’t have their charm…but there are so many modern takes on stencil painting in design.

I recently saw a perfect example on Annechovie. The creations below were done with her friend Sunny Goode’s stencils.





More images, products and How To advice can be found on Sunny’s blog and in her shop.

Beautiful and Weird (and More Beautiful)

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I love to see the refurbished treasures in the Vintage Rehab shop. Here is the most recent one to catch my eye:


This 1890s Art Nouveau locket has relief on both sides (typically lockets are only adorned on one side), and if I had the money I would snatch it up in a second. But there is one odd detail. It comes with some photos from one of the past owners:


Here is what the description says about the photos:

“Inside are the original photos of Kirk Cameron and a woman who may also be a popular actor.”

Um – that would be Tracey Gold. It’s a Growing Pains tribute locket. “Show me that smile again” kids! Awesome.

Other current pretties include:




That last one is a baby locket. Beautiful AND tiny? I’m sold!

Needful Things: Tiffany Leather

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Have you had a chance to peruse the new leather line at Tiffany & Co. yet? Since I don’t live in NYC, I’m limited to online views, but I’m in a full swoon over the loveliness.

Not a flashy logo in sight. No studs or millions of zippers. It’s sophisticated elegance all the way, thanks to the direction of Richard Lambertson and John Truex.

My favorites include these killer clutches (someday they’ll be heirlooms…that justifies the expense right?)…




…ladies who lunch purses…



…the slouchy hobo…


…and this reversible tote that practically brings tears to my eyes:


I wouldn’t kick the black suede/metallic leather version out of bed either:


You think I’m kidding?

While there aren’t any rainbow T&Co. patterns to be found, label whores will be gratified by the signature Tiffany blue lining and engraved clasps.

Since I tend to gravitate toward “pretty” as opposed to edgy, this line is right up my alley. So if any wealthy admirers out there would like to buy me a little prezzie…

I do love all things that sparkle, but if I was given free range of the flagship store today, my first stop would be leather.

And the Award for Cutest Blog Design Ever Goes To…

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I just came across this new blog today and I’m IN LOVE with the header:


Since I have a bit of a thing for chinoisserie and Asian inspired design, I couldn’t help but find myself smitten with that little pagoda.

Also, Tessa of Pagoda Press recently posted a great pink inspiration board in honor of Breast Cancer Awareness Month:


As the daughter of a breast cancer survivor, the cause is very close to my heart. Just had my annual mammogram last month. Have you scheduled yours?

If you are as taken with that little pagoda as I am, follow Tessa via Google (see her side bar for the link). Then e-mail her and she’ll send you a little 3×3 magnet for the follow!


I’m sorely behind (like a month or two) in my design blog reading, but I’m definitely adding Pagoda Press to my list. Can’t wait to get my magnet (next, I may demand a line of letterpress stationery…)

There Will Never Be Another…

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Did you see the November cover of Town & Country? It features a beautiful photo of Gloria Vanderbilt with the headline “There Will Never Be Another Gloria Vanderbilt.” At first I thought this was a tribute and that she had recently died, but was happy to see that it was simply a retrospective of her more famous and/or breathtaking portraits. Here is one of my favorites:


I remember reading her early memoirs (Once Upon a Time: A True Story and Black Knight, White Knight) in high school and ever since, I’ve been fascinated with her life story. At the time, I just thought they were good books, but having re-read them later in my thirties, I was struck by her ability to write in the voice of the age she remembered in each chapter. Starting with sense memories and a small child’s perspective of the turmoil surrounding her, through the romanticized drama and angst of her teen years, the books end with the growing maturity, disappointments and hope accompanying her early marriages and introduction to motherhood.



Sadly, she didn’t continue the stories until much later in life (possibly due to personal tragedies such as her son’s suicide). But it was interesting to read the more recent, It Seemed Important at the Time: A Romance Memoir, which covered some of the same memories with a far more frank and analytical perspective.


No matter what she designs, paints or writes though (the most recent book being erotica of all things – at age 85!), Gloria Vanderbilt is an icon, as well as a favored muse of accomplished photographers for well over half a century.

The last Wishing True post featured pictures of my Grandma Olive. I love the dramatic formality captured in old photography, and both my family pictures and the Town & Country spread on Gloria Vanderbilt inspired me to search images of other famous faces…












Didn’t recognize the last three? They are pictures of my Grandma Olive’s sister, Eleanor who was an actress in Hollywood back when people “got discovered” and pictures of the greats featured above her inspired women to dream of glamour and celebrity.

My only question is WHY I didn’t inherit any of these blond goddess genes?! Ah well – I guess I’ll just have to escape into the fantasy world of celebrity memoirs.

*Other good Gloria Vanderbilt related reads include Little Gloria…Happy At Last by Barbara Goldsmith and Trio: Oona Chaplin, Carol Matthau, Gloria Vanderbilt: Portrait of an Intimate Friendship by Aram Saroyan.

The Glamorous Life

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My father just sent me several e-mails with pictures and information about my grandparents and great grandparents (even the great-greats), but my favorites are the ones of my Grandma Olive.


She was quite lovely and the old photographs show her in wonderful vintage fashions.






She died very young at 43, but she did a lot in her short life. Aside from having three sons with my grandfather and traveling all over the world, she was Vice Chairman of the Red Cross in Los Angeles as well as Chairman of Volunteers (over 1000 people). The National Red Cross had actually asked her to be the Head of all Volunteers in the US, but it meant she would had to move to Washington, DC. Pretty impressive for wife and mother in 1957!









As I went through the ancestor pictures, I marveled at how there were so many (almost 90). But it then occurred to me that compared to now, there were hardly any. People once had just a handful for an entire lifetime. Maybe that’s part of what makes the old ones seem so glamorous. They were special. An event. Each one a treasure to be put in a box, not archived in a digital folder. I wonder what the younger generations will make of us and our thousands of photos. I doubt they’ll be quite as enchanted with the 100 pictures of a three year old’s birthday party! Or maybe they will. Only time will tell…

Magic Carpets

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One thing that I love about my son Oliver is his preference of fantasy over reality. It’s something to which I very much relate. For example, while playing a picture matching game based on rhyming, he flat out refused to match “bug” with “rug” because the “bug” doesn’t rhyme with “magic carpet.”

I absolutely agree with him on this. Why walk on a plain old rug when you can sink your toes into a magic carpet?

These carpets I found on 1stdibs today would all fit the bill:













That last one isn’t my usual style – but there is something so appealing about it…

Have you seen 1stdibs? It’s pretty vast. The carpets above are from only the first five pages of almost 30! It’s great fantasy (in my reality) resource for fabulous treasures. I highly recommend a perusal.