Home tours, still life paintings, a finished painting called Reynard’s Banquet, giant wooden trolls, and what it feels like to turn 60
Good morning, friends.
I turned 60 this week. It seems strange to write that. Not because I feel old or don’t want to be 60, getting here is a privilege and I know it, but because I genuinely do not feel like whatever 60 is supposed to feel like.
Since Gary passed in August I have been more aware than ever that time is precious. My mother-in-law passed two years ago and that changed things too. When the people you love leave, you start paying more attention.
My mother surprised me for my 60th. She flew in Tuesday (yes, she did just fly home last week) with my niece and my little grandnephew, and we all spent the last five days together. Galleries and family dinners, days at the park, nights in front of the fire, shopping, checking out the Carolina Hotel and all of the Christmas decorations there and at the club and around the village. They were supposed to fly home today, but with the FAA ground stop, I do not think that is happening.
The best of it, as it always is, was just me and my mom, sitting around sharing stories. I will say this at 60: if you are lucky enough to still have your parents here, notice them. Spend time with them. Talk to them, not just criticize and offer advice. Love them. I see small changes in my mom each time I see her or speak to her. Things we may not do again together. Stories we may not tell again. She hasn’t forgotten us or how much she loves us. I am savoring that more than I know how to say.
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In Case You Missed It
This week I joined five blogger friends, including some of your favorites and maybe one or two new ones, to share Thanksgiving entertaining ideas and sides. Be sure to check it out.
I have also been rolling out my gift guides. Yes, everyone is doing that, and they are wonderful. Mine are specific to what I actually share here, things I use, own, or would genuinely buy for myself or for someone I love, at every price point. This week I shared the last one: stocking stuffers.Â
Home Tours
Three home tours this week, and I want to warn you now that you will want to cancel your afternoon plans.
The first is Genevieve Harris inside her 600-year-old English countryside cottage. Six hundred years. The original oak beams are still there, the historic fireplaces, rooms that each carry a different architectural era. Genevieve rebuilt the kitchen to feel as though it had always been there: cheerful yellow cabinetry, a range at its heart, lime-washed beams and green-painted windows, antique textiles and collected furniture that add warmth without trying. Outside, she has gradually transformed what was overgrown into a cottage garden with an orchard, a vegetable patch, a cutting garden, and an abundance of roses. Find her on Instagram too.
Next: interior designer Max Sinsteden at his coastal Rhode Island cottage in Watch Hill. Max and his husband Jordan Rundell bought the place in a single weekend. An early 20th-century cottage, originally built for a chauffeur, sitting at the edge of a sweeping private marsh. They turned it into a relaxed seaside retreat in six months. Max describes himself as a maximalist, but here he chose a lighter touch: crisp white walls, gleaming painted floors, his collections of china and baskets and antiques given room to breathe. Trained under David Easton and Charlotte Moss, he reworked the whole floor plan. A former living room became a grand entry hall inspired by Bill Blass’s Sutton Place apartment. A former closet became their son Everett’s snug little bedroom. The pegboard kitchen wall with blue-painted silhouettes marking the place of every pot and pan. The powder room lined with sailing charts from his father. This is a house where beautiful things are meant to be used.
And then Penelope Chilvers, fashion designer and founder of her namesake brand, inside her Cotswolds farmhouse. Originally three separate cottages joined together, with the kind of history you can feel in the walls. Antiques, family heirlooms, vintage textiles, pieces gathered from her travels. The cozy drawing room with its open fireplace. The kitchen’s hand-painted butterfly cupboard. Her studio overlooking the garden. The wraparound cottage garden, lovingly maintained from the previous owner’s original planting, that she calls her favorite part of the whole property. I could go on and on.
(I have a problem. The problem is called cottage envy and there is no known cure.)
Art and Inspiration
Reynard’s Banquet is finished. The final character was a little hedgehog. After that came what the artist calls the biggest challenge of the whole process: bringing every element together, refining the light, adding the last details, painting the delicate butterflies. And then, after hundreds of hours of work, signing her name. What an extraordinary thing it is to finish something you have made with your own hands. I would love to own this painting.
Anne Neely is an artist in Maine. Through recorded conversations with her local fishing community, she uncovers stories of a town struggling to survive. At the same time she is facing her own struggle with cancer, finding solace and protection through her work. The film was produced by RAVA Films in collaboration with the National Gallery of Art.
And finally, Thomas Dambo. Danish recycling artist. Maker of giant wooden trolls that he hides in forests all over the world. This film takes you inside Rancho Dambo, his 55-acre creative hub on a restored 19th-century farm outside Copenhagen, and shows you how his team transforms salvaged wood, discarded pallets, and scrap lumber into enormous, whimsical public sculptures. The troll heads are built in the workshop first. The whole operation runs on reclaimed materials and solar power.
That is what I have for you this week, friends. I hope that you found something you enjoyed.
Tell me: is there a particular thing, a tradition, a smell, a piece of music, that tells you the season has officially started?
Find me on Pinterest, Instagram, and Facebook for more during the week.
Be sure to visit Make Mine a Spritzer and Northern California Style for their Weekend Meanderings this week. We always have something worth sharing.
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