The little tiny moments that are fleeting, the ones you can miss in a blink of an eye. They are here for a short time and then gone. Like smoke evaporating into thin air.

These moments do not have to be spectacular sunsets that stretch across the sky and mesmerize your soul until you cannot breathe in any more beauty... sometimes it's just too much to take in! Nor do they have to be big celebrations. Usually they are tiny morsels momentarily crossing our paths. As small as a tiny flower in the crack of the sidewalk.

Nor do they have to be tangible. Recent moments brushing across my memory that I have enjoyed with my clients. Reviewing newly installed cabinetry that we spent hours, day, no months designing... deciding on style, color and the tiniest of details. The back and forth, the restraints of the space and now here we are seeing, admiring, enjoying the fruits of our labor together…broad smiles.

At times there are moments, for me, when I feel totally in sync with another. Where there is ease and flow rather than the daily push pull, stop go. Completely immersing myself in my client's plumbing order, making sure it is exactly what she wants. E-mail questions answered in moments. Completely aligned. It is the connection I savor in this moment. The being seen, even momentarily.

The sunsets, the rainbows, the night sky brightly lit with stars placed there for our enjoyment these are special, indeed they are. Somehow they don't sit in my heart or mind as much as the tiny moments of connection with another. Of being seen by another. As my projects grow bigger and more complex we encounter more problems to solve...sometimes I dream of retiring as my friends have done leaving the little annoyances at my door step. But then one of these moments, these tiny connections comes to mind and I would miss them too much...so I march onward to the next encounter, the next connection.

It is said we are made for connection and I believe that deep in my soul. Yet sometimes it is hard to live with others...especially when I am not getting my way. But I know deep down I could not live without connection, being known, and being understood...even when they are fleeting. It is the pulse of life for me.

As I make my way home after a long day on the road, Rounding the bend the sun stretches across the rolling hills casting long shadows over the landscape. There is a beauty in the light as it is grazes the treetops turning everything in its path a rich golden hue... the sun slowly making its descent to the other side of the world. The sun wrapping us in it's golden blanket... life feels peaceful in that moment.

We do not always realize it but throughout our life we cast long golden light on those we meet along the way. It could be we grace another with a smile just when they needed it. Or perhaps we tendered a moment, a listening ear when another needs to be heard. We go about our business not always realizing the impact we have on one another. Sometimes we walk with another through a trial in their life. Others walk with us holding our hand along a treacherous path, a tall precipice. Sometimes it feels like we cannot live with each other but in truth we really could not make it if it weren't for those special others in our lives.

People come in all shapes and sizes and have the personalities to prove it. We don't always understand them. As I dig deeply into my of study the Enneagram I start to scratch the surface. The one who speaks their mind enjoying an energetic banter, creating connection through conflict. The other who doesn't utter their words or opinions as it may bring discord and disconnection. A motley crew we are, and their are more varieties without enough space here to name them all.

We may never know what we have done for someone else in a fleeting moment but we do remember when others have been there for us. The one sitting by our side, the one saving us from the scathing words of an angry foe, gracing us with that tiny unassuming smile.

"I've learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel." ~ Maya Angelou.

My coach is helping me to unwrap and discover my essential self, how I impact others and serve them through talents I have been gifted with. It is refreshing to not have to be like every other, to try to appear confident when I'm not feeling confident, to not have to pretend, to be myself. It is glorious freedom the times I live without the mask. To be able to admit "I don't know" when someone asks your opinion... "1'11 mull it over"...

"Be yourself; eve,y one else is already takenn. ~ Oscar Wilde

Life is in the small things, small gestures, small moments, small lives…..

When my son was young we used to tell him he could do anything, that the world was his oyster so to speak. It was the era of parenthood where collectively we thought that kids needed to have their self esteem boosted, that it is all about possibilities and no one or no thought should hold you back.

Rather than think small we said think big. It didn't matter whether you had talent or not you can do it! There are actually some pretty funny Saturday Night Live skits making fun, as they will, of our generation of parenting style. A stone point years later my son asked me "Is it okay if I don't do something great?" The pressure we put on our kids and ourselves to do something big, to be seen, to be grand, to be noticed by the world.

I've come to believe life really is in the small things. The chance smile from a stranger, a tender moment between friends, the tiny delicate flower alive in the crack of the side walk..sometimes to my chagrin when I cannot get my well tended and watered plants to grow. These are the graces in life.

Recently working with a beloved client she asked me to push her out of the beige, to add more color if needed. Unpacking the tile we had gleaned from the showrooms my assistant commented about the lack of color, how beige they all were. I realized at that moment that the beige was not so much a safe move for my client but it is the materiality and texture that catches her eye. The way the stone is formed, the edges that are not so perfect, the iridescent flecks peaking through the natural material. These to me are small moments of enjoying the craftsmanship, the thoughtful way in which something is made.

I myself have always been attracted to these moments of appreciating the time and pain staking creativity. Whether my client and I, as we move forward in her project, keep to the beige I don't know. What I do know is that as she walks through her home and lives her life, she will have small moments of repose, little moments when she sees the tile and the rest of the world disappears as she enjoys the beauty of what is in front of her. The beauty of what has been created of clay & wood, or what stunning beauty has been forming for thousands of years just so we can enjoy it today.

As I go through this life with so much chaos and strife of late I will bid myself to stop and see, to take note of the friendly smile, the smallest gesture that brings so much life, beauty, and joy.

You may have heard me talk of my love for the Monterey Museum of Art (MMA) a time or two.. Our beloved regional museum is just my size. Small, impactful, thoughtful, and not overwhelming. The MMA focuses on California art, with impactful programs that help educate school age children in art, exposing them to something so needed for development of the whole self but forgotten in our schools. One of the wonderful features is that it only takes a bit of time to enjoy the thoughtfully curated works of art, to be enraptured by a select group of important pieces. The collections held by the museum and the exhibitions are deep and rich. My new friend, Elizabeth Barlow is opening her show along with her studio mate Susan Manchester on December 8th, both create breathtaking representational art of the natural world. Elizabeth expresses the beauty of the flower through slow painting as she describes it. Detailed, meticulously caring for every dimension of the petal, every leaf, every nuance. The luminosity of her flower representation brings the subject to life as if you were in the garden with it, enjoying the beauty, intricacy, and smelling it’s fragrance. Read more about Elizabeth.

Susan is a master at captivating the intricate, layered details of the natural world, practicing a botanical approach. She initially gravitated to print making, particularly etching. The art of etching brings such complex detail that no other art form can provide. This is truly evident in her comprehensive aviary representations. In her journey and her broad range of works she explores both wet and dry art forms to tell the story of how she sees the beauty of the biodiversity in this world. Read more about Susan.

After you visit the Flora & Fauna exhibit there are plenty of wonderful edibles right within the Adobe district in Monterey. Just a few steps away is Cooper Molera Adobe, home to many things wonderful but if you are hungry for a bite stop into Alta Bakery for lunch….the fries are the best I have ever had and I have had a lot of fries in my life. Bring your breakfast or lunch out to the garden and enjoy. If it is a bit later in the day just a few doors down is Stokes Adobe, a delightful restaurant also set in an historic adobe. What I love about it, other than the scrumptious food and the perfectly charred bread, is the ambiance. Sit out side in the garden or find a little nook or cranny in one of the many cozy rooms inside. Enjoy!

With fashion as my first career I was exposed to creations that would take hours to make, fully beaded gowns painstakingly made one bead at a time…true artisans gifted in needlework. Exquisite silks Guipure lace, Swarovski beads all elements of these creations.

Even with my background in Haute Couture I wasn’t prepared, internally prepared, for the recent exhibit at the Legion of Honor showcasing the decades of Guo Pei’s exquisite designs. I didn’t anticipate having my breathe taken away so completely.

Guo Pei’s extraordinary imagination is full of wit, humor, whimsy and outrageous creativity. Some of her creations taking 3000 to 5000 hours to make. Having grown up during the Cultural Revolution she was not exposed to what she now creates except through the stories of her grandmother who had lived in an era of opulence, the twilight of China’s final imperial era, the Qing Dynasty.

By the 1930’s, in China, the art of embroidery had ceased being taught to girls and richly embellished clothing was forbidden during the Cultural Revolution but Guo Pei longed to design embroidered clothing, just as her grandmother had described to her as a little girl. Now her studio employs 450 craftspeople and her team has developed their own interpretation of needlework, borrowing techniques from not only her homeland but many other cultures as well. Her collections are smartly themed and dramatically presented in an architectural setting befitting to the collection…East Palace, Himalaya, L’Architecture, Gardens of Soul are a few.

I am always drawn to those who have the courage to live out their dreams, to let their inner spirit drive them to create, to expose their vulnerable soul. These figments of Guo Pei’s colorful imagination will live to speak to future generations, to inspire and to encourage others to live their dream. What a gift she has shared with us.

Well Hello There

I recently bought a new welcome mat for my front door “Well Hello There” it says to me every time I cross the threshold.  When it does, I smile.

I have been gone from the airwaves too long and can’t quite put my finger on why.  Covid, busy…I’ve been a doing which sometimes can mean I’m not a reflecting, and not writing…there is indeed a season for everything.  Other than working my “day” job…is there such a thing? I’ve been working on my innards, you know my self-awareness, the stuff that gets pushed to the back of the closet gathering dust balls.  If I don’t see it, I don’t have to deal with it, right? I can just keep on doing the same thing over and over again with the same results. Einstein had a word for that.

 I do say it feels good to throw out the trash once in a while, clear the mind of the chatter, and get to the heart of it all.  It just so happens the better I understand and empathize with myself, remove the unnecessary clutter the more I have for others.

 Beside opening myself up to and understanding my own machinations my coach has been helping me with communication, dialogue and listening.  I am learning to be curious rather than assuming I know what the other is saying or what they want, desire, dream of. 

 Curiosity is a beautiful thing; I learn so much about others and sense how much I assume much of the time. Most of the time I am pleasantly surprised the deeper the conversation goes…. Usually turning towards story telling. It takes time to be curious, to respond…it is an expensive and extravagant use of time in our hurried world yet for me it brings joy, friendship, kinship, knowledge, and useful information along the way.  I’m curious what story I might hear if you and I were to sit down with a cup of tea…hmmm., I cannot wait!

 It feels good to say hello again I’ve been away too long…I’m back home crossing my threshold once again, my mat greeting me as I enter my home.  I smile.

We all tell stories… all day long, by the way we sit, walk, react to a comment, smile, and sigh we are telling stories about ourselves.  Story telling is in the fibre of our being, we tell stories to be known, in our longing for deep connection with others.

Part of my job is to tell my story but also to listen to other’s stories about themselves.  It is a vulnerable thing to reach out to another to be known and to know.  I think my clients are brave.  Brave to open their hearts, brave to put their trust in someone else, brave to wander in foreign territory. 

The process and journey of design does require great vulnerability from all parties, the client and the designer.  On the part of the client it is opening their life to someone else, showing who they are.  On the part of the designer it is listening to another, hearing keywords which give clues to what is important, it is interpreting and presenting your creative ideas.

Recently I have been listening to Dr. Curt Thompson, a physiatrist who wrote the book “The soul of shame”.  Frequently he cites Brene Brown in his talks since she is a brave soul who researches, writes books, and gives talks on shame and vulnerability.  He talks of the vulnerability in exposing ourselves to others, how shame can get in the way of allowing ourselves to be known

Thompson mentions that we are our most creative when we are our most vulnerable.

I find the most successful projects are the ones like these where the family has put themselves in my hands, they are trusting me with their lives so to speak, opening their home, exposing their daily living.  

Occasionally a potential client will call me and ask if I will help them with colors for their walls or they want me to design the tile for their bathroom but not participate in the execution.  I have to let them know that I am an interior designer who walks with you and helps you with the project from start to finish.

How can I do my best, be my most vulnerable if there is no buy in, no trust, no longevity, no relationship.  Sometimes these clients that want only a little here or a little there and don’t want to invest much are the wealthiest of people.  So it’s not affordability….hmmm.

For me designing for someone who hasn’t become know to me is like trying to pull a rabbit out of a hat.

Many a time I have heard and I have said design imitates life.  Vulnerability is letting out guard down, taking off our mask of protection, that is when the magic happens when I can see you and you can see me.  I can know you and you can know me.

Soon after I moved to the Monterey Peninsula I was wandering the artist’s booths at the funky annual street fair in Sand City called West End.  I was immediately drawn to Magdalena’s images and soon began collecting her work.  I continued to follow the evolution of her art form and later was reunited when I asked her to shoot my profile for my website,  As we were wandering the Adobe’s of Monterey looking for the perfect backdrop for our shoot Magdalena began to tell me about her life and how she became drawn to photography.

She was born into an artistic family, her mother a graphic artist and her grandfather an offset printer from Bavaria Germany.  At his shop he would meticulously set-up every letter, her mom at a young age working by his side in the print shop.  Magdalena knew early on that she was drawn to photography and it would be her life’s work, she was 16.  She attained her degree at Brooks Institute of Photography in Santa Barbara, returning to Pacific Grove, where she grew up, to explore her art further.  Over the next 14 years she developed a successful community based commercial photography business. Showing nationally and teaching workshops with Kim Weston, Edward Weston’s grand son and taking on apprenticeships with photographers in the area including Ryuijie, who shows at the Weston Gallery.  

For Magdalena her photography is about using her tools that aid her in telling the story of an experience.  When she first started taking photographs and experimenting with the medium she tells me she had just gotten her drivers license, wanting to take long drives she would head to Big Sur.  Once there it would be a day long adventure in nature with a spirit of exploration and a search for beauty “I always feel so beautiful when I go into nature” she says.  She would drive, explore, find special spots and later return to document her treasure with her camera.

“I would spend hours and hours in nature, my distractibility is with beauty.” On many of her excursions Magdalena would get to know a particularly interesting tree, remembering the tree she would return to it again and again exploring it’s beauty, spirit, and life. A beloved tree is where she mourned her grandfather who had passed away, just as her own life was blossoming…it had been a crazy rich time for her, her last year of school, work was going so well but part of her life was ending.  She would drive to clear her head and found a beautiful Oak tree with a blanket of spring grass surrounding the mighty trunk, she would lay under the tree for hours, contemplate life, ask questions.  

A big part of her process is the hunt, hunting for beautiful things.  She explores on her own and when she has found the spot that resonates with her she returns with a model and uses her tools to capture the essence of the moment. Her love of nature is so evident in her art.  Her earlier work was an exploration of the expression of the human form and the landscape, illustrating how it would feel to be in unity with the desert, ocean, or woods.

She has evolved and changed as an artist, wanting to be respectful to women and support their rights she no longer wanted her models, who are her friends and sacred collaborators, to pose nude. She began to ask herself how she could tell the same story in a considered and thoughtful way. This began a journey and resurgence of her love of theatre and fashion. Enjoying the exploration of wardrobes she muses how a model clothed can be even more romantic and enticing than a nude. “The romantic stage of any relationship is the most juicy and there is a longing, a desire even, to hang onto it” She is enjoying playing dress-up and treasure hunting in new locations. 

Enthusiastic for what is to come she lights up with a sense of expectancy when she talks about her new work.  A friend, a jazz musician, asked her to photograph her new album cover.  A chance meeting through a postcard taken from a show of Magdalena’s work at the Institute of International Studies. Magdalena shows me the images for the cover, she and her friend look so alike they could be sisters! The backdrop, a rail car located in the Santa Cruz mountains, the image exudes passion and intrigue.  She mentions “there is a certain Celtic feel of big trees, rocks, and shapes in this new location, which will only get better, the moss even greener after the Spring rains”.  She lives with expectancy of what is around the corner.

For Magdalena photography is about expression.  Film has a realism, a historical resonance- a special quality of artifacts. Her prints are museum quality, silver gelatin prints, platinum prints, digital archival print. Processing the film, shaking up the chemicals, observing the chemical reaction is like therapy for her.  I ask her “Are you surprised at how the print turns out?” “At certain times you have a goal in mind or resonance you want to create.  Other times, especially with a series, you can have so many variables, surprises are welcome.”  She cites Digital as a valid but different art form, she works in both mediums.

Magdalena also produces Bohypsian ~Spirit of the human soul~ 

An annual subscription magazine, Bohypsian, really more of a journal than a magazine that tells the stories of the human soul, the spirit, documenting Magdalena’s journeys where she follows her heart and her chance encounters that come along the way.  It is a formidable task to produce such a beautiful epic documentation of the human spirit and experience.  Also “an expensive and scary enterprise...like buying a car!”.  Her first edition was fully funded.  Magdalena recalls the magical night of the launch party attended by 70 supporting community members on a full moon…it was perfect!

Her goal with Bohypsian is to provide images that are not in the galleries that represent her work, making her images more accessible. Each page of the journal will lay flat and can be cleanly torn out and framed, thanks to the genius of her invention and proprietary binding process. Magdalena suggests Bohypsian cross breeds activism and art. “There is so much charge in our environment.  We are over stimulated and need refuge...it is about the home environment we create, food that we eat, the way that we live to be in harmony with ourselves and our environment.”

It has been a pleasure to get to know the eye behind the camera.

Follow Magdalena:

Instagram: @maddfoxmagdalena

Website:  http://michellemagdalena.com

Find her work on https://www.saatchiart.com/photography?query=michelle%20magdalena

Subscribe to Bohypsian  and share in a part of Magdalena’s heart.

When my client’s purchased their new home in my mind I imagine their thoughts, hopes, and dreams of family memories and experiences created in this new space.  I visualize as they walked through each room “seeing” their kids playing in this room, family gatherings in another, summer time bar-b-que’s outside by the pool.

This is my second go-round with these adorable clients who live with delightful expectancy...an excitement for what is to come.  As they gave me  a tour through their new home I could see all the possibilities and we dreamed together of what was to come.

Wanting to create the right backdrop before designing the furniture that would fill this home we set about to update the foundational elements.  Softer wall colors, updating trim and moulding that didn’t quite work, adding or removing as needed. Darker floors, modernizing the fireplaces.  A change of lighting throughout added a level of glimmer and shine.  Embellishing the windows with understated draperies, dripping with luxurious tactile textiles.

After these changes were completed I just couldn’t figure out why the existing white doors with oil rubbed bronze hardware kept bugging me, there just seemed to be so many doors with no significance, nothing that contributed to the home.  Do we change the hardware?  Then it struck me, let’s paint them black! Counterintuitive to the mind the black doors enriched the architecture of the home in a way that the white doors did not, gave them a richness..

With the foundation complete we set-off to the San Francisco Design Center, my clients are fast decision makers and delightful to shop with, these clients make a day of shopping refreshing and fun.  By the end of the day we were thrilled with the selections we had made for their new furniture, textiles, and rugs.  These new additions would perfectly blend with the furniture from their first home that we had decorated together years ago.

Every step of our journey was met with delightful expectancy…

Expectancy gives us a sense of wonder and excitement to see what is to come  When the final details were complete and we were ready to reveal their newly decorated home to our clients we were excited for the delight as they entered their home. An entry is such a wonderful metaphor for expectancy, guests arrive and the anticipation of what is to come...life, love, & friendship. They were thrilled as you will read in the following note to us from their heart.

Sherlene and I just wanted to write a note to share a BIG THANK YOU for all your help with our home - we absolutely love all the furnishings, rugs and decorations!!   After having some more "soak" time around the new digs, we notice new, thoughtful touches every time we sit and take things in and I can speak for both of us when I say our house finally feels like "home"!!!  We know lots of hard work and long hours went into the design process and we want to let you know that we very much appreciate all the things you have done to pull this together for us - we couldn't be happier with how things turned out!

Lawrence & Sherlene

June has been a very tough month for all of us, one laced with fear and anger.  So much so that many wonder if this is the doom of our country.  There is no claim here to be politically astute enough to answer that question.  What I am though is an observer from the sidelines and one who has lived long enough to remember other times when our country experienced unrest and nation wide protests.  

It has been 19 years since our last major event that unsettled how we lived, and that one was caused by outside sources.  It is no wonder we lose hope and live in fear with what has happened these last three months.   I myself have vacillated between fear and hope, day by day, minute by minute.

This is a sacred opportunity for me to be a beacon of hope.  A place of refuge for my clients, friends, family, and anyone else who happens on my path.  Also, I  have lived long enough to see shattered dreams and dashed hopes and then to watch ashes turn to blessings right before my eyes.  Just when things never looked like they would get better, they did.  

Recently I was having a conversation with a close friend about the affects of Covid on us personally. As our conversation started with bleak realities of the virus and the loss of human lives, connection due to sheltering and masks prohibiting us from “seeing” others we soon found ourselves counting the silver linings... there is always hope.

This could be why I love to do what I get to do everyday. My fortune is to answer my clients hopes and dreams.  Recently my trusted “partners in crime” and I spent a day installing furniture, rugs, and accessories in a dear client’s home.  This day was a culmination of shared dreams, collaboration, grit, and more than a year’s worth of work together.  

When my client’s purchased their new home I can imagine their thoughts and hopes of family memories and experiences created in this new space.  I visualize as they walked through each room imagining their kids playing in this room, family gatherings in another, summer time bar-b-que’s outside by the pool.  

As these last 3 months have passed by I know many of us have seen the impact of sheltering in place and have found  how important our homes are to our well-being, how they are our sanctuary…how they should be our sanctuary.