Sunday Morning at the Lake...

I love early morning, when the landscape is painted in shades of pearly white, cool gray, and lavender. The air is fresh and veiled in mist. When people ask me why I wake up at five in the morning, I just show them these photos.

You don't have to get up everyday at five, but if you set your alarm one morning, get a cup of coffee and a donut, and drive to a lake to watch the sunrise, I promise you won't be sorry!

Luckyscent.com

I spend hours on luckyscent.com. Amusing, only because I was born without a sense of smell. (yes, I can taste) But, I love to read descriptions of the scents, and imagine what they must smell like, It's like reading a recipe...flowers for sweetness, but a hint of citrus for freshness, and a little spice for zest, etc. Each element might smell good on it's own...or it could just smell weird...but blended together they create something sensual and beautiful.

And, I really enjoy reading the customer reviews. I find it fascinating that scent is so personal...one person thinks a particular perfume takes them to the moon, and another thinks it smells like dirty feet. Interesting...

Luckyscent has unusual and hard to find scents. These are not the perfumes you find at the drugstore, and most of them aren't available at department stores either.

So, if you want your scent to be really unique, check out Luckyscent!

My Dream Vacation Home...

If a warehouse loft in the big city is my dream home, then where would I spend my vacation? Guess! I'm a gypsy at heart. And I've always said that, if I had enough money to live anywhere I wanted to, I wouldn't live anywhere. So, my vacation home would be one that I could take with me!

I love this little Airstream Bambi. It's a beachhouse. It's a cabin in the mountains. It's a pied a terre in another big city. It's perfect for someone like me, who sees life as a journey, and not a destination.

I once drove with a friend to Aspen, Colorado (from Memphis) to go snow skiing. We decided to go through Texas to see friends, and then New Mexico, because we'd never been there. After spending a week or so in Aspen, we decided to go to Vermont. I know, that's a little random, and way out of the way, but we wanted to see covered bridges.

On the way to Vermont, we decided to go to Canada. But first, we spent a couple of days in Chicago, visiting friends and eating pork chop sandwiches from a guy in a trailer, set up on a vacant lot. We spent a few days in Toronto and two days at Niagra Falls, staying in a room where everything from the lights to the fireplace to the draperies to the TV and stereo could be controlled via remote, from a huge round bed with hot pink satin sheets. Finally, we went to Vermont.

We checked out the bridges and played darts with the locals, in a tavern made out of an old barn. Then, we began the drive back to Memphis. We stopped in Washington DC for a spin through the National Gallery of Art, and then the Smithsonian, where I pitched my cookies in the IMAX theater watching "To Fly."

In Knoxville, just a short eight-ish hours from home, our car threw a rod. So we sold it for $200, bought two bus tickets, a huge sub sandwich and a six pack, and partied on a Greyhound!

Live it up people! It's the journey...!

Goodbye, Takashimaya NYC :(

The era of famed Japanese retailer Takashimaya on Manhattan's Fifth Avenue is coming to a close. This June, the company will shutter its New York flagship at 693 Fifth Ave., between East 54th and East 55th streets. It has been at the building, which it owns and plans to sell, since 1993, though its first store on the gilded Fifth Avenue strip opened in 1958.

I discovered Takashimaya in the mid-nineties. I'd spent most of the day at The Met, and was walking back to my hotel. I was hot, hungry, and a bit stressed from dealing with the crowd at the museum.

I happened upon the entrance to Takashimaya, and the cool, calm serenity beckoned me inside. I strolled around, admiring the aesthetic perfection of, in my opinion, the most beautiful store on the planet. Then, I went downstairs to The Teabox, and enjoyed an artfully arranged Bento box of sushi, and a pot of excellent green tea. Afterwards, I bought a delicate, mother of pearl tea scoop, and left refreshed and revived!

Takashimaya has been on my "NYC to do list" ever since. I feel like a small piece of civilization is gone forever...

Michele Oka Doner

I've recently discovered the wonderfully organic work and personal style of artist, Michele Oka Doner...and now I'm a huge fan! Her work combines form and function beautifully...check out her amazing website!

Happy Father's Day, Dad!

Hey, Everybody,

Give a shout out to Dad today! Even if the two of you don't agree on politics...or his driving makes you crazy...or you're still in therapy because he embarrassed you on prom night in 1969...He's still your Dad! He's a great guy! And, if your Mom hadn't seen something in him back in the day, you wouldn't be here!

Did you ever wonder how Father's Day originated?

Father's Day was only officially made a national holiday in the U.S. in 1972, when President Richard Nixon declared it to be the third Sunday of June. But the holiday actually traces its origins to early 20th-century Washington State.

Inspired by a Mother's Day sermon she heard at church in 1909, Spokane resident Sonora Smart-Dodd—one of six children being raised by a single dad—also wanted to honor her father. She encouraged local churches to institute the first Father's Day observance the following year, and the idea caught on.

So Happy Father's Day, Dad!

Hermes Birkin bag namesake...

Did you ever wonder why the Birkin bag, by Hermes, is called the Birkin bag?

It's named after Jane Birkin, an English actress, model, singer and film director who lives in France. She is best known for her duet "Je t'aime... moi non plus" with Serge Gainsbourg.

Hermès named and designed the handbag — the Birkin bag — for her in 1984. On an Airfrance flight from Paris to London, she pulled her Hermes datebook out of her bag and all her papers fell on the floor. She complained to the passenger sitting next to her that the book should have pockets. That passenger was the chairman of Hermes; Jean-Louis Dumas, and after hearing her complain he created the Birkin bag.

Top photo - Jane Birkin, present
Middle photo - Jane Birkin, circa 1960's
Bottom photo - actress Katie Holmes with her fabulous red Birkin bag!