Design Today, June 2009

It's here! Our new digital edition of Design Today, produced by our staff in collaboration with Home Accents Today, Furniture/Today, Casual Living and Home Textiles Today... click HERE to read.

Memorial Day, Lake Gaston

Mothers Day in Chapel Hill

Nothing could be finer ... congratulations to my oldest tarheel, Sophie Pyle

New queens, nine pounds of newbees, the sound of a swarm

BEFORE TIM DEPARTED ON A HONEYBEE-SHOPPING TRIP to Brushy Mountain Bee Farm (Moravian Falls, N.C.) today, his two new queen bees arrived. They're delivered via U.S. express mail in the little queen cages shown at right, with about half a dozen "nursing" bees to clean, feed, care for them (since these ladies don't seem to know how to do ANYthing for themselves except mate and maintain the buzz level throughout the hivehousehold).

TIM BROUGHT THE TWO NEW QUEENS OUTSIDE so I could get a picture and as you can see they were immediately "found" and hit upon by some of the homeboys. In the photo above left, Tim is unpacking today's cargo, including three hives, with three pounds of bees each, shown up close in the photo below left. I had to take these pics FAST as we've learned the bees HATE the electromagnetic fields emitted by digital cameras and cellphones... .) I SHOT THE VIDEO BELOW WHEN ONE OF THE HIVES BEGAN TO SWARM (or so we thought) on a very warm morning recently... the loud whooshing/humming sound you hear in the background is the bees. Eventually, they all settled down and bee-haved.

Dressed for Guess, Nest & Fashion Fights Poverty

LOVE the photos that arrived this a.m. of Sophie and Jane Pyle with Blonde Charity Mafia girls at last night's opening party for the new Washington, D.C. location of Guess. The fashion brand joined forces with Teen Vogue and Fashion Fights Poverty for the event, with a portion of proceeds benefitting Nest. As I understand it, Fashion Fights Poverty works within the fashion, textiles and design industries to identify, support and raise awareness about initiatives dedicated to the eradication of global poverty. Nest helps women artisans in developing countries obtain micro-credit loans to create sustainable entrepreneurial businesses. Some of Nest's funding comes from apparel and home accessories produced exclusively for the organization by well-known designers as well as recipients of Nest loans. SOUNDS LIKE a good organization... and reminds me of what Vici International is doing in South Africa (beautiful Thornvale embroidery and textiles) to empower rural craftspeople; and Silkroute is doing in Afghanistan ("One Rug at a Time") to provide sustenance for war widows. In the latter instance, the weavers, if they have children, must complete the rugs at home and provide school progress reports to prove their children are attending school. Similar goings on behind the scene at the Design South Africa Home Lifestyle showroom at the Atlanta market, where we met Esther Mahlangu. (right, sophie pyle at the South African Home Lifestyle showroom at AmericasMart, Atlanta 2007)

While we're on the subject of nest-dressing...

I snapped this photo of our art director/style blogger Wes Kennedy with Thom Filicia, of the Style Network's Dress My Nest and Queer Eye for the Straight Guy at a party at the High Point Market this past Sunday night. Wes and Thom, at right in the photo, are standing in front of Thom's new rugs for Safavieh. Dress My Nest is produced by PB and J Television, the same company producing Blonde Charity Mafia...

The fragrance of these lilacs...

... from Tim's backyard today, reminds me SO MUCH of my little girls circa 1995.
Photo right, l-r, my Janey ("I want to be the PINK Power Ranger"), Olivia and Sophie Pyle, seated in a vintage 1960 tub chair, reupholstered in a strawberry red raw silk that blended with every color of PopTart filling. Also, from the backyard a few minutes ago, Tim and I watched this big healthy honeybee from one of his hives go after the ajuga...

UNC Tar Heels wear Alexander Julian's lucky argyle

More on the Tar Heel basketball uniform design and "argyle nation" from Alexander Julian's talk at the Fifth Annual Design, Arts & Technology Symposium, March 6, 2009, High Point University, High Point, N.C.:

“It was the weightiest design decision I ever made, because if I screwed it up I could never go home again! The colors were already chosen and yet I changed them. The team had gone to what is known as TV blue because of the color television transmittal. (True) Carolina Blue came across as light grey, so they had gone to a heavier version of Carolina Blue which had nothing to do with Carolina Blue -- more teal than anything else. And the NCAA gives you four inches on the sides of the uniforms to decorate and I didn’t know quite what to do.

“Dean (Smith) is a brilliant coach, but he’s not as comfortable with design issues and he involved all of the assistant coaches and the entire team in the decision. Now, all of you who have tried to get one person to understand one design know exactly what I mean. When you complicate it with two people you’re trying to convince, it’s four times harder – it’s exponential. And here I had 30 people to convince.

“So I tried psychology. And my psychology was named Michael Jordan. Michael was relatively popular at the time. This was 1991, and he was in Chicago, on top of the world. I called Michael and asked him to be my sounding board for the designs...

For the full story, go here: www.homeaccentstoday.com/blog/240000224/post/320042632.html

Five girls, Four Corners, three generations, two moms, one beautiful day

Day one of spring break with my girls: our drive to the beach takes us right through Chapel Hill! Here, (from left), Olivia, Janey, me, Sophie and my mom on a sunny but chilly Saturday on Franklin Street following our lunch at Four Corners. UNC v. LSU: made it to my sister's beach house in time for the tip-off!

YES WE CAN

Our smart President, Barack Obama, thinks Tar Heel Ty's toe trauma will improve... and has picked the UNC Tar Heels to win the tournament: http://tinyurl.com/d6pq8c Tim and I look forward to watching their first round game tomorrow afternoon at Dean Dome West: the Greensboro Coliseum.

HOPE he's right...

Gulf Branch Nature Center rally pics, Arlington, Virginia

Sophie shared childhood memories of pioneering playdates and muddy shoes at the March 14, 2009, rally to save Arlington, Virginia's Gulf Branch Nature Center... video here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oJfQ6hNuBXA

Sophie joined her aunt and uncle in Arlington for the rally, which brought out close to 300 supporters. More of photographer Kevin Borland's rally photos can be viewed here: http://tinyurl.com/cjuxpk











Save Gulf Branch Nature Center Petition link: http://poprl.com/M5f

Green Chic: the nation's greenest living quarters

...more from today's IFDA luncheon at Greensboro's Proximity Hotel and Printworks Bistro, the nation's only Platinum LEED-certified (greenest) hotel . Wes Kennedy explains the architectural stuff here: http://www.homeaccentstoday.com/blog/1940000394/post/800041880.html

My lunch consisted of swiss chard-wrapped farro in a tomato-mushroom sauce, with a side salad of smoked pears (ALL locally grown and harvested) and goat cheese from one of my favorites, the Goat Lady Dairy. Wes had the salmon something-or-other. Lovely, peaceful place. The pics say it better than I can:

Happy Birthday Barbie!

http://www.homeaccentstoday.com/blog/240000224/post/1850039785.html

Where's Peanut?

Valentine's Day on the farms(s)

LAST SATURDAY, we started our Valentine's Day with a drive to Rising Meadows Farm for the spring sheep shearing -- Rising Meadows is in Liberty and down the road from the famous Goat Lady Dairy in Climax, maker of the most wonderful goat cheeses and yogurts on the planet. Last spring, we sampled a variety of their cheeses at one of their wait-listed Sunday brunches, and walked off the calories with a tour of the farm, the goats and those beautiful little "gourmet hens" with the wild feathers and colors (forgot what they're called, but a friend raises them on her farm in Charlottesville and once brought me some of their multi-colored eggs). ANYWAY, the last time we were at Rising Meadows was when we took Olivia there for the apple harvest in 2005 (photo, right). This time, we met up with our friends Scott and Louise, then followed them back to their farm where we were joined by two more couples... and the guys cooked a delicious dinner for the gals! Most wonderful Valentine's Day I've ever had! I've just started a new knitting project with yarn spun from last year's shearings. The yarns (photo, bottom right) are dyed except for the brown, which is wonderful natural colored Corriedale.

My Mardi Gras babies

Their dad and I met at Mardi Gras: Fat Tuesday 1981, corner of St. Peter & Bourbon Streets. In the photo (1998), tiny Olivia & striped-shirted Sophie at left, Jane in yellow pants at far right. Here's my Mardi Gras scrapblog:

http://www.scrapblog.com/viewer/viewer.aspx?sbid=620142

Hank is home from the vet...

...but only after spending three nights at the animal clinic recovering from something that tried to rip him in half the other night. A raccoon maybe? Fortunately there's no organ damage, the vet sewed him back together; but he sure hates that Victorian collar:

Nix on the houndstooth

WHY I'M HANGING THE HOUNDSTOOTH JACKET IN THE BACK of the closet: Aside from seeing it on every other person in the form of a hat, scarf, purse, stockings, skirt or jacket this week, it's the first time I've ever matched my hotel room:

Fun with furniture

Does this limited edition push and store wood cabinet by Chung-Tang Ho/Tong remind you of anything (like the pin thingy in the photo at right)? There is no end to the fun you could have with that thing. More from the Amsterdam design house of Droog when it opens in NYC later this month... wish I could make it to the opening. Read about it HERE.

A night on the green-town...

at the Lindley Park Filling Station, made even more special by the fact that I was joined by my good friend and favorite blogger, Wes Kennedy, my favorite and only sister, Sherry Clinard, and my favorite Greensboro designer and winner of this year's ART Award for Product Design

Barry Dixon's rug collection for Mergerian; more pomegranates for Jane

Earlier this month, Virginia designer Barry Dixon unveiled his new handwoven wool rug collection for Mergerian Rugs at the Atlanta rug show, in the company's AmericasMart showroom. The Mergerians approached Barry a couple of years ago, having become acquainted through the Tomlinson/Erwin-Lambeth showroom where Mergerian's rugs, and Barry's licensed furniture line, were displayed. Barry also used Mergerian rugs in some of his interior design projects. During the launch party, the Mergerians exhibited some of the dried flowers, barks, grasses and nuts used to make the dyes, including lots of dried pomegranates. In addition to being my Jane's favorite fruit (I've mailed them to her at boarding school), I learned from the tagged dried pomegranate I received as a party favor that the cultivation of the pomegranate has a long standing history in Armenian culture and tradition, and that the fruit symbolizes abundance, hope and fertility. I guess I still had pomegranate stains on the brain when I went to Costco Saturday and ended up bringing home my first jug of pomegranate juice, touted both as an antioxidant and an edgier alternative to cranberry juice as a mixer (pomtinis!) The 2-liter container cost almost $7, but I guess it's pretty hard to squeeze all that juice from those itty bitty little seeds... AND I just remembered this photo I took of a live pomegranate tree two years ago outside the El Greco Museum in Toledo, Spain. I was there covering the FARCAMA show... and the nicest thing about blogs is that I don't have to retell that whole wonderful story. I can just link to it HERE!

Obama Decorama: Chia heads, lava lamps, Gnomes for Obama...

...are just a taste of what's cooking in the creative minds of vendors everywhere as the nation celebrates a new administration and welcomes a new family to The White House. If you haven't gotten your Obama Patriot Time for Change Chainsaw, Yarmulkas for Baramulka wall clock or First Lady cheese tray yet, go HERE for more info.

Mama's Day in Chapel Hill

(l-r) OLIVIA, SOPHIE AND GRANDMA Clinard (my mom) this afternoon, after a big Sunday lunch of fried chicken & gravy, chicken & dumplings, bbq ribs, mac & cheese, baked apples, fried green tomatoes, green beans, yeast rolls and buttermilk biscuits at Chapel Hill institution Mama Dip's country kitchen (my #1 destination for comfort food in 1979-82 when I was at UNC -- Dip's was in a much smaller locale across Rosemary Street). Only thing missing was my Janey Pyle.

"Time for Change" at Home Accents Today, too

THIS MONTH'S EDITION of Home Accents Today has been refreshed with several new formats and ideas. We've added a new Color page; recast Design Directions as Style Setters, with a retailer focus on best selling home decor instead of new products; and added a rotating Retailer-to-Retailer column which this month features my friend and D.C. area designer/retailer Lynni Megginson. Also in this issue, my annual In & Out list, a compilation of retailer picks and pans (what's selling now)... and product editor Tracy Bulla's Sketchbooks that offer a look at what's warming up the winter market showrooms (and a preview of what's going to be selling six months from now). Pittsburgh's WeissHouse is my retail profile for January, run by second generation shopowner/shopper/curator Stacy Weiss; and I interviewed designer/manufacturer Mina Peykar about her transition into Nourison Home in my January Portrait profile. I'm showing it all off here, beginning with Editor in Chief Jenny Heinzen York's column discussing our new look in detail... so take a look: click HERE for my GoogleDocs version and use the sidebar to scroll through the pages, or visit the Web site at www.homeaccentstoday.com. The purse strings may be tighter right now, but we can still window shop!

Balmy yule-tides

HIGHLIGHTS from Christmas '08: Olivia, Sophie, Jane, Peanut and I enjoying unseasonably warm temps at the beach... my best fossilized sharks tooth find to date, not only for its size (2" x 1 3/8") but it is absolutely unblemished and perfect in form... and, just having everyone together on Christmas Eve.

A White House of many colors

My friend and co-worker Wes Kennedy wrote about and snapped this pic of Mike Farrell's cool crayola-constructed White House: http://www.homeaccentstoday.com/blog/1940000394/post/1500038550.html

Deliciously unseasonable weather

Yay! I'm about to spend another couple of hours on the beach hunting sharks teeth with Olivia and Peanut -- this unseasonable Carolina weather (sixties today, but we've reached the seventies this week) is the best Christmas present of all... also, of course, spending the holidays with my girls talking until late at night, cooking, baking, watching Summer Heights High, walking on the beach (and in Carolina Beach State Park to see if we might catch a glimpse of any of the Venus flytraps that grow only in this area of the country) and shopping the post-Christmas sales.

Christmas in Washington TV show at National Building Museum: 1996 vs. 2008

Last night, as I was channel surfing, I landed briefly on this year's production of Christmas in Washington on TNT and must admit I was surprised to learn that it still lives on. We took Jane and Sophie to the taping in 1996, when Faith Hill opened the show (which was taped at the National Building Museum), the Clintons attended and the hosts for the evening were the cast of 3rd Rock from the Sun . NBC hosted, and we went to a pre-taping tea at the Four Seasons, an after-party at the Building Museum, and another after-party back at the Four Seasons. A favorite memory: when Third Rock star Jane Curtin stooped down to share Christmas cookies and a chat with another Jane: my 6-year-old Janey Pyle who, along with her sister Sophie Pyle, was very enaging but more concerned about meeting Joseph Gordon-Levitt from 3rd Rock. I saved the wonderful dancing Christmas duck 6-year-old Janey doodled on her program while she spent several hours squirming on my lap...