NEW BEGINNINGS

The holidays are over. Ready or not, we are launched into 2011. I don’t believe in New Year’s resolutions but I do believe in new beginnings and always, new ideas.

Spending time with people outside my own age-geographic-political persuasion spurs me to investigate alien territory. My grandchildren play this role. I always assumed that “cinnamons” were little red, hard, hot candies but now I know that my grandsons are cinnamons - red heads.

I wore a new necklace last week and my daughter, Holley, (the font of all things trendy) said, “Mom, you’ve got a steampunk necklace.” (The necklace: an old domino, various nuts and springs, an antique typewriter letter all threaded on black rubber.)

Obvious question: what is steampunk? That led to neo-Victorian. Wow! Here comes a bunch of those intertwining threads that somehow I’d observed but not connected.

Victorians embraced nature (but “embraced” may be too kind. “Control” is better.) They incorporated examples of the natural world in all design and art. Dark wood, lots of metal (industrial?) – often transposing hard with soft, i.e. lace, velvet, industrial played against the softness and beauty of nature.

So what have we been seeing these past couple of years? The photographs I’ve found are a beginning. So was the headline in the style section of the newspaper “It’s the Year of Velvet.” Now that we have a category, look around and you’ll start seeing neo-Victorian cropping up everywhere.

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This is a time to stop and consider the blessings of this past year. Here is my partial list. Please make your own.

1) Observing first hand the wild North Carolina wisteria in bloom

2) The color taupe

3) Watching the international space station cross the black sky with my grands

4) Lucy and Abbey who finally stopped chewing up oriental rugs

5) Finding buyers for slightly used oriental rugs

6) M&Ms

7) “Winter’s Bone” – my pick for best movie of the year

8) Creative people (you know who you are)

Happy New Year, dear friends.