Details, Details

My eldest (who’s nine) was away at summer camp for my birthday, so she gave me her hand-made gift on Friday. She took some lovely Anna Maria Horner fabric and engaged in a bit of patchwork, using embroidery thread.

I love to see how she puts together fabric and colored floss; indeed a hand-made present from my children is my very favorite kind of gift.

However, a second-favorite is something hand-made by someone else. Yesterday, after retrieving my daughter from summer camp, we continued north to a wonderful little antique shop set in an old carriage barn.

We had bought a four-poster antique cradle (with some Pennsylvania red paint still clinging to the wood) for our children there some ten years ago and love the owner’s eye. Each baby slept in that cradle, with bumper pads custom made by me (by hand). I actually completed them during my ninth pregnant month, while wearing two wrist braces, so aggressive was my pregnancy-induced carpal tunnel. But that’s another story, for a different blog.

Back to my narrative: Yesterday I found two objects that are perfect for my home: the first, a gift for myself, this 1870s hand-painted chair from Pennsylvania. I love the original brushwork, still intact, with its delicate rose-and-gold colors.

The second is more of a family gift, an early 1900s dovetail-wood grain bin from Ohio that’s compact enough to function as a toy chest. It’s sitting happily beside my Art Deco armoire from Nancy, France (I have no problem mixing continents or primitive and formal pieces).

Above it I plan to place this absolutely beautiful print by the talented Thomas D. Meyer. It is, of course, a detail from the Chanel 2009 collection, of a headpiece that I adored then and now. I brought the print to a frame shop today and will try to take a proper picture of it above the grain bin later this summer, upon its return. I found it on the Etsy site of Jamie Shelman, also a talented artist, who’s Thomas’s wife.

Who says that Chanel and antique grain bins don’t mix? I like the juxtaposition of delicate white paper flowers with sturdy wooden bin sides. And this print (not to mention the stuffed animals currently residing in the repurposed grain bin will keep that corner of the room youthful.