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I found myself in the heart of Florence, walking down an ancient, dimly lit pedestrian street just moments before the magical gloaming, when the sinking sun would bathe the city in liquidy shades of gold, bronze and copper.  (Apropos colors, when one remembers that Florence was once the financial center of Europe.) Florence is a magical city in any light, but during the gloaming it appears more beautiful and more mysterious.  Shadows deepen, elongate, shading the city in slightly sinister tones.  The air appears as gauzy as a shroud.  Streetlights flicker to life, creating otherworldly halos around the heads of the statues standing sentry in the piazzas. It takes little effort to imagine a Medici woman, ensconced in a voluminous cloak, her face partially concealed by her hood, slipping down an alley to meet an old crone hawking deadly nightshade.  What secrets do the shadows hold?  What demons does the light keep at bay? ...

While looking for artwork to decoupage onto candle jars, I serendipitiously found vintage covers of the French magazine, La Vie Parisienne .  Founded in 1863,  La Vie Parisienne was originally designed to appeal to the upper-classes, offering literary pieces, society gossip and articles about the arts.  It also featured the work of immensely talented artists like Georges Barbier , Gerda Wegener , Chéri Hérouard , Georges Léonnec , Maurice Milliere .  The artwork was considered risqué, even erotic (think early porn for the intellectual). I adore the work Chéri Hérouard did for La Vie Parisienne and wanted to share some of it with you.  I hope you find it as titillating as I do!

The duchesse de Gramont-Caderousse Several years ago, I visited the Nelson-Atkins Museum  in Kansas City, Missouri and discovered a portrait of Marie-Gabrielle de Sinéty , the Duchesse de Gramont-Caderousse by Elizabeth Vigree Le Brun.   I have gazed upon thousands of portraits in my travels and throughout my years of research, but something about this lady's face captured me.  Perhaps it was her delicate nose, flushed cheeks, and open, expressive brown eyes that gave her an air of innocence and insouciance. I confess, the fashionista in me coveted her black velvet jacket with the slashed sleeves.  I adored the way the sleeves were fastened to the jacket with red silk bows.  Who doesn't find an ensemble in red and black utterly dramatic and appealing? But there was something else that drew me to the portrait, that had me standing there, gazing at it for nearly a quarter of an hour.  A familiarity that seemed to ha...

I'll admit it:  I am a seasonal Martha Addict.  Each year, as autumn brushes the world in an ochre hue, I find myself inexplicably drawn to Martha Stewart, that peddler of crafty pastimes.  I know I should focus my energies on writing and home obligations, but the temptation becomes too great.  As the air turns crisp and crackly leaves litter the sidewalks, I suddenly start watching Martha's television show and reading her magazines.  I will sit with a plate of Fuji Caramel Apple Cookies with Brown Sugar Icing (a Martha recipe) balanced precariously on my lap, watching as the Gandhi of Gardening, the Diva of Domesticity single-handedly builds a dovecote out of Popsicle sticks and fills it with birds she humanely captures with silken ropes or bakes a million puff pastries which she then uses to recreate the Taj Mahal. I've watched Martha Stewart successfully try her hand at c ake decorating, sewing, scrap booking, woodwor...

Boucher when he was 38 years old and at the height of his popularity I have returned from my Grand Tour and am anxious to share some of my titillating finds, but first, I hope you will join with me in wishing François Boucher a Joyeux Anniversaire! The brilliant French painter was born in this day in 1703.  The son of a minor painter and talented lace designer, François was exposed to the Arts at a young age.  By the time he was twenty years old, he had served as an apprentice to the famed artist François Lemoyne, the engraver  Jean-François Cars, and won the Grand Prix de Rome (a much-coveted scholarship for artists). He was admitted to the Académie de peinture et de sculpture as a historical painter in 1731 and became a faculty member in 1734.  From that point, his career took off.    Using a pleasing palette in which he incorporated many shades of blue, Boucher was a master at depicting the whimsical, fantastical, and n...

Wishes by Amalia K. Lately, I have been feeling like Life has been getting a little too heavy.  Health concerns.  Numerous professional obligations.  Maintaining my sanity (and eroding authority) while living with two clever, rebellious teenagers.  Facing my fear that no amount of expensive French, caviar-infused moisturizer will be able to reverse the withering affect the dry Alaskan air has had on my skin and hair, that I am destined to spend the remainder of my days looking like the Crypt Keeper in a pink pashmina.  And then there's the endless fretting about when the new season of Mad Men will begin.  Add to that the unbelievable shock and sadness that comes each time I look at a new photograph or listen to a new report about the poor, devastated people of Japan , struggling to rebuild some semblance of a life after last week's earthquake and tsunami. Well, it's a lot for one woman to deal with....