It’s been a tough week in our country and I feel beaten down (again) by news. I’m not going to pour out my heart or write anything brilliant today. To paraphrase Sheryl Crow, all I want to do is show you some images that inspired me over the holidays.
Author Julia Reed died in late August last year. She possessed a charming, Southern style; the kind of style that’s not intimidating, the kind of style that is aspirational. I re-visited her homes over the holiday break, read some of the articles she had written, read a few articles written about her and I felt a little bit better about everything. Julia lived with style, surrounded by books, good food, her dog Henry and her friends.
Before I go, here’s my first book recommendation of 2020 – The Prophets by Robert Jones, Jr. We just had the pleasure of interviewing him on our podcast that’s out now. This is a beautiful, heart-breaking debut novel in footsteps of Toni Morrison. It’s stunning.
“Pride is what leads people onto ships, across seas, into forbidden lands. It is what allows them to desecrate forbidden bodies and stamp them with the names of reckless gods. Pride is at once haunted and unbothered by the disgrace it has built from turning people into nothing.” Robert Jones, Jr. from The Prophets
The Colorado Nest 
Loveed reading this thank you
Thanks 🙂
Like what I have seen , so why not sign up for more :-
Was actually looking up the late JULIA REED , about whom I just saw an article about in ELLE DECOR , to which I subscribed for many years , as I have done with many American and English , French and Italian shelter glossy magazines .
The quality of which has varied radically over the years , depending greatly on just who was editing and contributing.
It’s quite a chore , not to mention costly , to keep up with and , quite frankly , not worth the effort lately .
But I treasure all my back issues , despite how weighty they are to transport from home to home .
Not to mention all my big scrapbooks and ring files …
Just what will happen to all of them when I die … who knows.
Since I have been doggedly following international design since I was in my late teens , there is an awful lot of them.
Even down under here in Australia , Melbourne and Sydney in particular, we now publish rather good glossies of our own :- BELLE , LIVING , and a few others . My various homes have been featured in a few , my red lacquered dining room , black flower Bruegel esque wallpapered room and bathrooms , kitchens et al too .
So would welcome anything you care to share … including a home for my vast collection of shelter mags , scrapbooks, advertisement less ring bound files of Vogue Living Australia , ELLE Decor , UK and US , HOUSE AND GARDEN … you know , the fabulous eighties issues , VOGUE US coverage of the wonderful private homes of internationally famous , like the Agnellis , the Rothschilds , Roderick Cameron and his Riviera houses , later owned by Hubert de GIVENCHY , any house decorated by Billy Baldwin or the elegant girls of MAC III .
You know what I mean … and when , oh when for heaven’s sake , is someone doing a glossy coffee table book on the elegant work of MICA ERTGUN ?…….. and whatever you do , avoid the booklet published by some guy who got virtually all the facts wrong about her . No , she wasn’t born or grew up in Turkey . That , of course , was her second husband, Ahmet ERTGUN .—- and she didn’t have parents who were Turkish either . She was born and grew up in up in aristocratic, wealthy circumstances in Romania and fled , first to Paris , where she and her destitute family were looked after by other wealthy connections. She married a much older Romanian man and worked , presumably with him , on a chicken farm in Canada for eight years :- quite happily, she later said .
But she went to New York , where she met and soon married , Ahmet ERTGUN , the founder of ATLANTIC RECORDS . He , by then , was very rich and successful .
So , childless , she and the wealthy heiress CHESSY Rayner , got together and founded MAC II .. ie Mica and CHESSY . And the rest , as we know , is great , elegant and socialite history. Plus , after the death of her husband , she began a scholarship at the prestigious OXFORD UNIVERSITY in England :-
The greatest donation in supporting the study of the arts :- and not , as I understand it, money tied to financial outcomes. That in itself is just so very impressive to me and no doubt thousands of young scholars in need of support in order to continue to explore and expand our knowledge of the arts . Giving those scholars a home college to live in at Oxford as they study .
What a woman !