Wow!

Good design follows certain rules, but sometimes rules need to be broken. Life should be whimsical, casual, comfortable, and fun.

Imagine Dr. Seuss writing The 500 Hats of Bartholomew Cubbins. He is comfortable seated on the couch with a quill feather pen and a brandy snifter, laughing outloud at a ridiculous thought. Dr. Seuss got the idea for the story while riding on a New York subway behind a man who was wearing a hat. A bit stuffy and formal, Dr. Seuss thought, what would happen if he would take off his hat and throw it out the subway window.

At Traditions, we too like to have a little fun.

Century curved sofa, Traditions Furniture

Pointillism

Just a random thought. 

a view of Mt. Pilot, North Carolina

Today, I am thinking about Pointillism, a technique of painting in small, distinct dots of pure color, so as to apply a pattern and form a larger image. The technique was developed in 1886 by Georges Seurat and Paul Signac, as a new direction from Impressionism. Vincent Van Gogh adopted the technique, then adapted it by using short brush strokes (lines) instead of points. 

On the way to Mt. Pilot, North Carolina

If we think about digital design, there is a correlation. Pointillism relies on the ability of the eye and mind to blend points of color into a complete image; much like the digital camera takes solitary pixels and creates an image. 

self-portrait of Vincent Van Gogh from Wikipedia

Virgo

Virgo by Sid Dickens

Ergo, said Vergil 

Who grows the crops 
Or moves the stars 
Across the starry skies
Oh Maecenas, you need not worry 

He also thought 
To marry the pruned elm tree 
With the wild green vine, 
Thankfully, gave us wine 

He that cares what oxen need 
Insures new seed each year 
And gave us time enough 
To enjoy our simple lives 

Oh Maecenas, worry not
Just pray to God 
While you watch the cattle 
And nod your head in sleep

Under a sturdy oak tree
For, he above tends the bees
So, too He gave us honey
To sweeten our lives a bit

O bright September morning light, 
This thought
Comes to me 
When Virgo rises in the sky 

Ergo, said Vergil
In Autumn 
When His work is done
There's time to have some fun

 Loosely based on Vergil's Georgics, The Introduction. 

Quid faciat laetas segetes,
quo sidere terram vertere,
Maecenas,
ulmisque adiungere vitis conveniat,
quae cura boum,
qui cultus habendo sit pecori,
apibus quanta experientia parcis,
hinc canere incipiam.
Vos, o clarissima mundi lumina,
labentem caelo quae ducitis annum,

Dream Voyager

“[A] dreamer is one who can only find his way by moonlight,
and his punishment is that he sees the dawn before the rest of the world.”

― Oscar Wilde, The Critic as Artist

Sailing

I dream of voyages to distant places. I dream of what could be, for it is left to the dreamers to make a better world. Why not? For as John Lennon said, "Reality leaves a lot to the imagination."


And what does one get?

The anticipation of what is to come.

Anticipation

The joy of being in the moment.

Waiting for the moment

And Peace in a sea of troubles

Peace

Why is it called a Chesterfield Sofa

If you were born in the forties, then you probably associate the name Chesterfield with a cigarette. If you are British, then you think of a leather sofa. 

Not any sofa, but one that is deep, buttoned backed with arms and back of the same height, and typically leather. In proper British speech, the name "Chesterfield" is only applied to this sofa. 

If you were King George the Third, then you would associate the name Chesterfield with Lord Phillip Stanhope, the 4th Earl of Chesterfield, who is given credit for naming the sofa, having first commissioned the tufted leather sofa in the early 1700s.

Stickley London sofa

Stickley has adapted this idea with their own novel London sofa, incorporating the button arched back and the classically sloped English arm.

 

Stickley London leather sofa

Add a pitched slope to the back and you make for a perfectly comfortable seat. Now bring the tea at four and serve brandy after dinner.

Leo is the lion in the Zodiac

One is attracted to a Leo's zest for life. 

Leo, Sid Dickens memory tile

Leos can lift up one's spirits and provide encouragement when times are tough. Leos are warm spirited. They may come on strong, but they are social butterflies, not because they want to be but because people gravitate to and surround the Leo. 

He or she provides strength and encouragement.

I have to imagine that Leos don't like being on the bottom. Leos, after all, are caught up in themselves, born leaders, and self-centered. In a crowd, they stand out. 


A Leo is a friend indeed when you need one. Someone whose got your back.

Life moves at a slower pace in Upstate New York.

Lake Skaneateles, New York

It is August and the days are long, the nights are cool and bright. During the days, one gets out in the sunshine and sits by the lake or takes an excursion on a boat. At night, that is a different.


What better time than to picnic by the lake under the stars and enjoy the world class music of the Skaneateles Festival? It is going on now, four weeks of glorious music through the end of the month from Wednesday through Saturday. Bring a chair or a blanket and sit on the lawn before an historic three story colonial revival home located on Lake Skaneateles, one of the beautiful Finger Lakes in Upstate New York. Have a great time. 

See the schedule.

Lake side at Skaneateles

In nearby Manlius, New York, Nichols & Stone dining room tables and chairs continue to be manufactured by Stickley, keeping a tradition of fine craftsmanship that began in 1852 with the formation of Nichols & Stone, the oldest furniture making company in America. 

Nichols & Stone

The company's products reflect generations of New England craftsmen working to perfect their techniques of construction. The patina of the solid birch and maple woods are unmistakably Nichols & Stone. You need only look for the Nichols & Stone shield burned into each piece to know that you have chosen the very best, made by the oldest furniture name in America.