Wednesday Style Points: Beautiful Rooms + Beautiful Living, A Window Into Barbara Barry From Design Bloggers Conference, 2013
So yes, it’s been a solid week – maybe even 10 days since the Design Bloggers Conference this year, but sometimes it takes us that long to process
Do you ever come off a time of travel or teaching & just need some “down space”?
A time where you can get your head + heart around all you learned, were reminded of & were challenged by?
I know I do!
Next week we will tackle my NY & CT trip, but for now we venture into the Design Bloggers Conference
I have been reading with delight the posts of my friends who have fantastic recaps & delight ME with their pictures & observations
A voracious consumer of all things Design I am
Be sure to check out Lisa Mende (A fabulous post on Leontine Linens), Elle Cole (A lovely post on Barbara Barry), Scott Meecham Wood (A post on his upcoming 2013 Peninsula Volunteers Decorator Show House). I will try to suggest a few every day or so – people who have wonderful UNIQUE perspectives on Design that you should know & follow & that I deeply respect.
Today? My take on Barbara Barry. It is really quite simple. Yet profound to me. It spoke to my soul.
It confirmed the genteel quietness with which I was raised by a mother who is long gone.
It was Barbara’s lipstick on a beautifully pressed linen napkin photo
Barbara rearticulated my love of GRACIOUS process & for that I am grateful
She shared so much – you can find it in her book, her life
What she rekindled in me was-is the passion for Graciousness
So often lost in our Eco-No Waste-Get it done Now-Efficient-Effective Society of Work + Play
You simply cannot rush or execute without EFFORT & FOCUS & SKILL a gorgeous intentional pressed linen napkin that your guest may soil with lipstick & a drop of tea with no worry or fuss about consequence other than that THEY ARE WORTH IT
I grew up with linen napkins, used, loved, worn, pressed & re-pressed, monograms that didn’t match from generations of “M, E, W, L, G…” and a few that weren’t even part of the official family tree because some Grandmother or Great-something had a passion for a gorgeous linen or monogram
Is there anything more lovely than a layered table setting? One that graciously welcomes & slows us down to take part in life?
They become family members & even now, with holes & yet perfectly pressed, they are invited guests to our dinner parties & daily living with a bagel at breakfast & warm soup at lunch
Why?
Because YOU, THEY…the Guest in my home, the family member…is WORTH IT
WORTH the effort. Is Holy in their own right – simply as a created being, in all OUR (their) glorious mess
WORTH IT.
The effort, the acknowledgement of effort.
What is your Beautiful Living?
Take the Four (4) Minutes & watch Barbara’s Video. Let me know if it speaks to you as it spoke to me.
What is your Beautiful Life?
A lesson learned, a heart reminded…there is no substitute for delighting in the BEST today
It’s all we have
“Live a custom life. There is only one you.”™
xo Ann
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PS: If you like what we are doing here, please share it with a friend on Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin…you know – all those Social Media sites! We are still small & exclusive 🙂 but we’d love to be known by your friends with the same heart for intentional living & design. It’s a passion that life itself could not take out of me…and I assume could not take out of you! Thank God for that. May today be a blessed + protected day for you and yours.
Couture Chateau 