Southern Prep Holiday Season: Savannah Stylin'

There is Christmas Decor' and then there is Deep South Christmas Decor' and then there is... Savannah Holiday Styling!

Maybe I am just a wee bit biased with both sides of my family being-from-Savannah for generations n' generations but honestly, I have seen a lot of places around the world during the holidays and one of the most enchanting in its romantic, timeless and elegant manifestation certainly is Savannah.

Last year was my first time being back in Savannah for an entire holiday season and I reveled in it!

Being in the historic section of the city in such a pretty petite carriage house rented for a pied a terre' during our moving-transitioning months was a delight with festively decorating its fireplace mantle, having a tabletop tree on a drop leaf table and festooning the black iron staircase's railings both inside and also outside going down,down on into our tiny courtyard garden area.

This year we are settled out here on the water nearby three households of my mother's side of the family and it's been such a joyous holiday season indeed!

In this rambling, large indoors/outdoors kind of house that we have here, I have put up 4 fully-decorated Christmas Trees in various rooms with the largest being over 10 feet tall.  Mantles and porch columns n' railings are garlanded with evergreens while wreaths dot the front door, the garage, the river porch's room and an inside hallway as well.  Our old nativity creche' has been set up on the library table and the set of porcelain choir boys are singing away in front of an old mirror.  Poinsettias are in the silver punch bowl and paper whites are coming up in moss-edged pots on the french baker's rack in the kitchen........yes, this definitely feels like the Christmases I grew up in!

More than any other time this past year of fully being-here, I am feeling most "at home" right now.

The following is a brief listing of the Holiday-ways I feel are Special in Savannah and (but of course) can be found elsewhere as well in other places' variations of festive-translations:

• Using Spanish Moss, magnolia leaves and cones, camellias, roses, ivy and whatever citrus fruits happen to be around in gardens for holiday decorating inside and out.
• Any and all sterling, and silverplate, in the house put-to-use for both entertaining and decorating.
• White orchids or poinsettia plants placed into large silver bowls, especially punch bowls, lined inside with Spanish Moss.
• Saw palmetto fronds top heavily gold-gilded ancestor portrait frames.
• Sterling porringer bowls hold small guest soaps in the guest bathroom while monogrammed baby cups holding single floral blossoms are tucked into small areas around the house such as by the lamp on the front hall's entry way table or on a windowsill at the top of the stairs.
• Cheese straws and candy canes are clustered in silver mint julep cups on sideboards.
• A "Tasting Table" is arranged for setting-out food gifts n' baked goodies to nibble on 24/7.
• Bourbon is baked into cakes, Madeira wine is at hand along with Sherry in an old crystal decanter set out with its tiny coordinating glasses on a tray weighting down a tea cart.
• Sweets and savories include benne wafers, pralines, divinity, lemon squares, cheese straws, spiced and also sugared pecans set out on silver trays and compotes and in crystal dishes.
• Light cut-work white linen tablecloths and heavy white linen monogrammed napkins are put into use in the dining room while plaid tablecloths sport their tartan-reds in the kitchen areas.
• Imported from up-Charleston-way classic sea grass baskets hold everything from clove dotted fruits to clusters of antique ornaments to just received Christmas Cards set out for perusal.
• Oyster shells grace grapevine wreaths out on river dock houses while potted box woods with red bows line brick townhouse steps just steps from historic squares.
• Popcorn-tree white berry buddings intermix with holly berries in tall sterling bud vases.
• A touch of Tartan in red n' green and a touch of brushed Silver is where-it's-at with ribbon bows inside dwellings while the tradition red velvety ribbon predominates outside decor'.
• Old is preferred over new and subtle over shiny unless that shiny is sterling silvered...

And so forth and so on!  A great peering-into in regards to Savannah holiday styling aside from actually being here and being within homes is a brand new book just out, "A Savannah Christmas" by Kimberly Ergul and Holly Jaakkola.  Inside, it features a dear friend of ours wondrous antique shop among other beautiful places and spaces around this lovely city. 

Savannah is always enchanting but never more so to me than during the holiday season.....

What Preppy Christmas Decor' IS... and ISN'T

There are many ways, traditions, inspirations and cultural influences not to mention, intentional statement making as well, which go into how people go about decorating for the holiday season and Christmas.

Personally, I find it all fascinating...the differences and dynamics that direct individuals and families to decorate the way they do.  From elegant to tacky, it's all festive to me!

Obviously, the look that's always been around my houses through the years is uber-traditional which translates naturally into one heck of a Preppy Christmas occurring again and again...which is exactly the way we Preppies in my family like it.

The following is a tongue-in-cheek rundown listing of What IS and What ISN'T Preppy Christmas Decor' for your holiday amusement:

Preppy Decor' IS: White Lights outdoors and occasionally Multi-Color Lights indoors
Preppy Decor' ISN'T: Multi-Color (or any color) Lights outdoors

IS:  Greenery Garlands &Wreaths with or w/o tiny white lights, french-wired bows
ISN'T: Big Plastic Blow-up Santas, Snowmen and such

IS:  One's own arranged Fresh Greenery, Berry n' Branches Sprigs, Flowers
ISN'T:  FTD-look Floral Centerpieces

IS:  Red, Green, Gold and Silver
ISN'T:  any other colors besides the four listed above

IS: Clove-studded Citrus Fruits
ISN'T: Plastic Fruits

IS: Ornaments from World Travels
ISN'T: Ornaments from Disney World

IS: St.Nicholas figurines or images in small doses for-the-kids
ISN'T: Commercial-Santa, Snowmen, The Grinch, Teddy Bears and so on

IS: Sprigs of Greenery placed over large portraits and at the tops of grandfather clocks
ISN'T: Tinsel Garlands placed anywhere

IS:  Poinsettias, potted Amaryllis and Paperwhites, White Orchid plants
ISN'T: Christmas Cactus and any houseplant which has been ornamented or bowed

IS:  Needlepoint Stockings
ISN'T: Non-Needlepoint Stockings

IS: Traditional Nativity Sets
ISN'T: Non-Traditional Nativity Sets most-especially those featuring cartoon characters

IS: Christmas Cards placed in a basket or on a silver tray for casual perusal
ISN'T: Christmas Cards utilized as actual decor' being hung around a door frame

And so forth and so on.......

What's "Prep and Non-Prep" is but of course part n' parcel within Christmas Decor' as well as pertaining to anything else in a Preppy's life.

Have fun decorating this month and a Merry Preppy Christmas to my fellow traditionalists out there!

Best as always, Lachlan

Holiday Seasons showcase Preppy Traditionalism

A very Merry Christmas and Happiest of Holidays to all of my readers this 2012!

What a year, or should I say two years, of lifestyle/location transitioning it's been for me and my family but we're FINALLY on the end of all this process and beginning to enjoy daily living once again most especially with unpacking, organizing and then putting up all our Christmas decorations!

Bringing out ornaments made by my grandmother, mother and myself, the porcelain nativity set and choir boys figurines hand painted by my great aunt, needlepoint stockings used decade after decade and so forth... I am reminded at how much the holiday season resonates with a "several generations' traditionalism" inherent in a true Preppy's life reality.

Not for the Preppy is changing up decorations and decor' by theme or individual whimsy every year or at whim.  Neither would they gift to Goodwill or the trash can something old and perhaps a bit dusty or evidencing patina-by-time wear which has had a pride of place on the family home's mantle generation after generation.  Holiday trimmings have to be truly decrepit before they're sadly bagged-up and taken away from the house and the lives which have enjoyed them. 

Years ago, I began a tradition of doing a small "Bird Tree" after finding 3 antique glass bird ornaments in their original box which dates back to the early 1900's.  I can just imagine my Great Grandmother Birdie (yes, her real name) whose painting of birds we have here in our house, lovingly placing these upon her Christmas Tree all those years ago in Savannah.  Now I do the same here in Savannah with the garden-urn-potted Bird Tree I set up in its pride of place in our dining room's window. Both the context and continuity of this warms my heart each new December....

Here's to Preppy Prettiness abounding within the homes this holiday season who celebrate not only the season here n' now but also seasons past!

Best to you all during this season of love, hope, joy and...yes, traditionalism- Lachlan

 

Thanksgiving Greetings to you all....

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!  Here's to a wonderful, relaxing (well, hopefuly mostly relaxing) day today enjoyed with the best of what-is-living: family, friends, gratitude, a good meal or two, football game watching, lovely environments to be within and all of that good stuff.....

All the best from here where I've finished setting our table and now will work on finishing-up the preparations in the kitchen for our Thanksgiving Dinner this evening.  Earlier we enjoyed lunch downtown in one of Savannah's great hotels in the historic district, delicious!

 

All the very best to you and yours today and during this holiday season, Lachlan

Prettier than a growing mountain of moving boxes...

Not wanting to leave readers with a dull photo snap of moving boxes...

....until I get to really-blogging-again, here's a picture of one of our late-blooming gardenias plopped into a vase on a side table in the living room which is much prettier to look at than copious squares n' rectangles of cardboard :)

As is evident, we're southern-traditionalists when it comes to interior design and decorating.  This is mainly due to having family items we're enjoying which have been passed along generation to generation but also is due to the fact that (as all of us Preppies well know) true Preppies are traditional, not obsessed over decorating/redecorating and enjoy the inherent frugality of family-used furniture, paintings, rugs and such. 

There's currently very little New and Exciting out there I feel the need to add into our house's interior.

Many of my girlfriends seem entranced by the almost acid-brights of Tory Burched-like Geometrics being found as painted surfaces and prints on everything from huge decorative hallway mirrors to metal wastebaskets for bathrooms.  Personally, I can see these being fun for pre-teens and teenager's bed and bath areas but for me at least, I think they're a bit-much when found in other parts of houses unless... they are part of the whit n' whimsy of someone's light, bright Caribbean getaway cottage.

Another trending going on that I'll let others spend their money on is this New Modern Revisiting.  Less 1970's Halston and more like Bill Blass-on-an-uptick, I find its English-farmhouse-plain-NYC-loft-purposing-RennovationHardware-cataloguing-with-dashes-of-bright-modern-artwork mix up frankly confusing.  Not sure what all is going on with this cobbled together stylizing.  I'll pass...

The older I get, the more it seems to me that house interiors work best when they're the background for relaxed living and comfortable entertaining.  I tire so easily now with "forced" interior statements.  When I find myself within a house like that, I'm already ready to get back to my own space or at the very least, get outside to the porch, dock, garden where one can breathe a bit better.

Early in my adulthood, I used to add-into our home needlepoint pillows, small porcelain boxes and silver picture frames...now being into my middle-age years, I mainly bring in a few books and plants.

The three E's: editing, easy-elegance and experiencing-enoughness have become my middle-aged mantra.



  

Final Moving-in...last of the moving boxes will lead to blogging-once-again

Hello Dear Readers!

I really thought that I'd be "right back into" lots of Prepperly blogging away this summer but our moving-in processes have seemed to just stretch out endlessly amidst both of our career hours also stretching themselves out to keep us overly-occupied about 24/7 each week.

Sleep and rest became almost non existent so writing anything became completely non existent.

Fortunately, that is changing this month of October!

I am fortunate enough to be able to retire from over two decades of being in business management into the semi-retirement of part-time merchandising for the same company.  My work days are now limited to 29 hours a week which, to me, is akin to being on vacation. 

My husband and I looked into what this holiday season was shaping up into for managers of the company I work with and we made the decision that I needed to step away from all of this pre-holidays.  Caregiving for a parent takes up a good bit of my time already and is our top priority.

Sooo I'm now, as of this week, a semi-retired international-pilot's-wife and LOVING IT!!!!

This week James is home and I'm at-home so much more and so we're doing the final unpacking of moving boxes today and may head off to our farm for the weekend.  Yes, I have weekends again! 

I'm looking forward to posting about the upcoming holiday season, Preppy trends, Southern lifestyling and alla' that wonderfully good stuff....tune in next week....I'll really be posting once again.

Best to you all as always, Lachlan

This Preppy Pup...the life and times around a new house for our Mr. K

What a life but hey, some dog's gotta' live it!

One of the biggest concerns we all had with this past year's move and life transitioning was how our dog Kanon was going to take it. 

For here was a pup who had the run of an island.  Here was this little-big-man fellow who dashed into the marsh, trotted about deep woods and dragged fallen palmetto fronds around the sunny glade our house stood in before plunking into the ocean water for a quick dip every now and then.

Here was a dog who loved to race up each side of our island house's front stairway to skid on the lower platform before lunging up to the porch awaiting at the top of the stairs and now... he was heading to a new house that is primarily one floor with wide, shallow brick steps instead of a tall, tall wooden double stairway.

But here also is a doberman who is incredibly adaptable to change as we've found out first, with his adoption and secondly, his next move sitting contentedly alongside his beloved grandpa in our bigger jeep as we traveled south to Savannah.

From North Carolina to an island off the coast of South Carolina to now, the ocean water's edge of Savannah...yes, our Kanon "can do" change very well.

Now he has less stairs to charge up but he does still have his own island to dash around; this one in the form of a small private island attached to our property but only accessible at low tide.

He smells the herb garden and flowers about the property, sniffs the wind in the marsh grass, play-chases herons, squirrels and plays with neighboring dogs, sploshes around in the ocean water off the back yard, runs along his own little island's pathways when the tide's low and then.......

.......sits or lies down in one of his now-favorite spots out in the screened-in room off the living room and kitchen's french doors......ah yes, it's a rough, tough dog's-life but this one is lovin' the livin' of it!

Flowers from the new house...new yard

One of the nicest things about this new house for us has been the amount of flowers blooming in the yard and its small garden areas.

All spring I have been able to keep vases full of first snowdrops then daffodils then a variety of roses and azaleas soon followed by white, yellow and orange lilies and now...here come the roses again!

We no longer have the raised-beds pottagers garden which we so enjoyed out on the island however, I have put-in a small potted herb garden which is doing quite nicely at the moment.  A southern gal absolutely needs fresh mint springs for her iced tea at the very least eh?!

In the kitchen I have a large sunny spot for my various orchids which is nice: we put a bakers rack up against one of the bay windows and the orchids are thriving there.  There are still a few scattered about the house but for the most part, I have finally found a "home" for my orchid-tending.

Down the road from us is a wonderful local nursery with loads of beautiful plants and elegant planters, fountains n' such.  I picked up a few seasonal flowers and vines to add-to the large front porch planter urns perched at the top of the brick stairway and also to use in the planters dotted about out on the back porch's spread out areas.

James has always said that even if we lived in a mud hut, I'd find a way to have flowers in it.....

This new yard and its gardens are more "landscaped" than I prefer but there's always a way to place punches of color n' whimsy around in the form of pretty pots amid so many flowers already a' bloomin' around this place as we're moving and settling in.

Flowers all around, yes please and thank you!

A "Hello" from my new at-the-water's-edge writing nook here in Savannah

It seems like it has been much longer than a year when we began transitioning from our family island home off the coast of South Carolina to be-back with lots of extended family here within Savannah's environs.

It didn't take long for us to find a darling carriage house in the Victorian District to "work out of" as we searched for a new house while getting the old island house ready to sell.  Fortune favored us indeed when the island house sold in two weeks and in a week's time, we were moving-on towards finalizing the paperwork for a new place out here at the edges of ocean water with views much like the ones we had so enjoyed out on our old island.  With today's housing market, this was amazing!

Our new place isn't our "style" at all on the outside but it met so many critical parameters most of which involve having my father living with us.  We more than doubled our square footage but fortunately, by the sake of design (much of which involves eaves), this place in no way feels too-big or having too many wasted-spaces.  Dad has one end of the house reachable down a long hallway for his master bed and bath rooms which connect out via french doors and an elevated walkway to a gazebo.  He also has a large office, a guest bedroom and guest bathroom and storage closets.  James and I have the other end of the house for our master bed and bath rooms, a large study and office room plus what I enjoy the most, a spacious-yet-cosy "reading nook" complete with a window seat which looks out towards the dock and the herb garden side of the yard.  In between we all share a spacious entrance porch, an entrance hallway that goes into a wide living room, a formal dining room, roomy kitchen, laundry/mud  room as big as the dining room, a large outdoor room which spreads out into porches n' decking going into the back yard which on the left, faces our private mini-island and a lagoon and on the right, goes on out into ocean waters.

The three-doored garage and its long workshop area with another bathroom there completes our spot.

Merging two households wasn't easy logistically but now that we're moving into the settling-in stage of this transition, we're all so happy that we finally went down this road together.

It's such a joy being back here in Savannah and back amidst almost all of my family, on both sides, plus friends and now, some new friends as well.  We miss our ole' island digs of course... however... we kept the two upper acres with the palmetto grove facing the water and plan to build a getaway cottage there in the next few years.  We'll still keep our close ties to the area and good friends there. 

Besides being with family again, we also are enjoying the benefits of being nearer to the Savannah Airport, being in the midst of some top-rated medical facilities and my being able to return to having a full time career once again in business management and yet also, just being literally ten minutes commute from the new house in case Dad needs me for anything.

We're focusing on "being" rather than "doing", "acquiring", "striving" and it's been wonderful so far!

The irony of doubling our space?  De-cluttering in earnest for this new place!

We have donated like crazy, given away like crazy and taken things to dumpsters again n' again.

Combining households while also taking the overflow out of three large storage units has us seeking to be elegantly-minimal from this stage of life onwards.  About everything is all set up in the house now and aside from holiday and some seasonal decor' plus family memorabilia, we're storing nothing else that isn't kayak, fly fishing, flying, skiing or gardening related.

This transition has been well worth it on many life levels that's for sure!

And so... enjoy some pictures of my writing nook in our master bedroom's area.  It's my writing, reading, watercoloring, violin playing and putting on makeup at great-grandmother's vanity table personal space I'm absolutely enjoying and I hope that you all are enjoying whatever spot you're living within and living-from at this moment as well :)

All the best as always from Lachlan

P.S. my digital camera is still packed-away somewhere so these pics are from my cell phone........   

Thank you for your patience dear readers...

A sincere "thank you" to my readers n' regulars who have been so patient over the past few months during what would be one of the loooongest, most complicated n' many-layered moves I've ever experienced!

We are FINALLY on the back-end of this huge transitioning which involved moves from our carriage house, our island home and two large climate-controlled storage units in two different states several hours away from where we are here now on the beeautiful waters' edge within Savannah's environs.....

I do so want to catch-up with all things Preppy, Pretty and Positively-fun to ruminate upon with you!

Here's hoping everyone had a great springtime and here's to summertime and some more postin' soon :)

Best to you all and I'll be back posting-away now that all this moving dust has settled, wheh!

For the Modern-Preppy...some sentimental missing of Preppy-Traditions-Past

Calling card image from Wikimedia Commons. Mine... I'd have to hand to you...

For a Modern-Preppy's lifestyle, there remains an almost overwhelming abundance of things, services, experiences, choices and such readily available 24/7 however, there are a few once-cherished elements of the past within traditional preppy lifestyles which this particular preppy does indeed miss including:

Non-tickey-tackey neighborhood Tea Rooms where ladies gathered for serene afternoon repasts.

The beautiful boutique-like stores of Smith and Hawkin, Waverly, Laura Ashley...perusing around them was such a pleasure...

Full-service gas stations where attendants even hand-swept out your car's floor mats.

Elevator attendants in department stores who wore uniforms and seemed so serious.

Wearing short white gloves and pretty hats to church every Sunday, not just at Easter.

Men wearing sharp hats with their suits and many sporting bow ties during the day too.

Being handed other people's calling cards... I still make use of mine which is such fun when people think you're handing them your business card instead.

People answering their house phone with, "This is the ____ (insert last name) residence, ____ (first name) speaking..."

Personal bookplates pasted inside the front covers of books friends passed around to share.

Using dumb-waiters, laundry chutes and actual bell pulls in one's house.

Putting charges "on account" by simply saying-so at the yacht club, city club, country club when one could easily do so as a really young child without being questioned at all by the staff.

Long, deep and hot-water-heat-holding bath tubs in expansive, small-tiled bathrooms.

The smell of pipes being smoked leisurely...how, where and when did that go away?

Those wooden-sided station wagons; gosh we had ours for so many years.

Actual letters and cards received in the mail, some with sealing wax stamps on the back.

And so forth n' so on. It's fun to think back to what once-was in appreciation of what it was to experience within a lifetime even if not for a complete lifetime. So much more of this kinda' stuff to list here but now tonight's insomnia is ebbing so, time to post this and head off to slumber.

A Preppy's Winter-into-Spring Guide

Placing a bit of Spring within Winter days... Pretty and Preppy-practical
(painting: Girl Arranging Flowers by W.M.Paxton - Brooklyn Museum)

This time of year right after the New Year, it seems that Southern Preppies most especially get hints of Spring within our winter days which tease us just as (no doubt) we'll yet still be experiencing actual winterish weather with cold rainy and windy days remaining ahead of us.

There ARE ways however to put a little Spring into our Winter days while not freezing oneself: less wearing Sperry Topsider flipflop sandals and more layering with pastel-hued pashminas.

The following list is an idea-guide for us all to utilize as desired when so... desiring... Spring:

• Layer with a pashmina shawl/scarf in a rose, lavender, celadon green, ivory hue







• For the gentlemen, wear a pastel-hued dress shirt or tie underneath suits, sports coats







• Pot an Orchid or Spring bulbs into a white ceramic or porcelain cache pot







• Tie a piece of silky pastel-colored ribbon onto your pearl strand and/or pearl bracelet







• Put a white or ivory lightweight spread or throw folded at the end of the bed







• Enjoy candle scents like rose, freesia, hyacinth, lilly of the valley, peony and such







• Likewise, enjoy these scents in body lotions, perfume and long leisurely bubble baths







• Get thyself to a warm and tropical island destination asap or...







• Get to a local Day Spa or create a spa in your bathroom with indulgent tropical products







• Peruse through picturesque garden books and tropical travel destination/lifestyle books







• Plan your garden, pottager garden, potted plantscape







• Perch small pots of herbs on your kitchen windowsills or plant some of these from seed







• Keep flowers abundant within the house but group in baskets, simple clear glass vases







• Listen to the lightness of Japanese Flute music cds







• Watch the film Enchanted April to vicariously get-away from winter's chill through it







• Organize your boating, golf, tennis, fly fishing etc equipment for warmer months ahead







• Go ahead, get that shorter haircut then wear chandelier earrings n' wrapped scarves with it







• Switch much of a basic black or dark navy wardrobe over to using more light gray pieces







• Wear a little sparkle but keep it light and airy as opposed to past holiday season's big-bling







• Lighten occasional meals to being large salads, omelettes, cheese-cracker-berries trays







• Add-in citrus fruit pieces, mint sprigs, cucumber slices to your usual fridge water pitcher







• Occasionally replace red wine paired with an entree' for a fruity white wine with dessert







• Switch needlepoint to petit point, oils to watercolors, pottery to jewelry-making for awhile







• A little bit of bright or buttery yellow added in an outfit, room, atmosphere goes a long way







• De-clutter, streamline and reorganize areas to further create light/air/space around you

There's so many festive-fun ways we can bring a "Springy-step" into our new year journeying without totally disregarding winter for what it is and its own aspects of delight.

Have fun with this list and post-over some of your own ideas as well if you'd like......... Best, L.

New Year's Eve outing... enjoying some old family-roots at turning of a new year

Posing at my great-great-great-great-great-aunt's portrait...then...

...later visiting her grave. Family history fun on New Year's Eve day!

This New Year's Eve celebrating, James and I decided to "go out" for a celebratory lunch on what was a very pretty day here in Savannah and then spend the evening-in instead of our usual out and about glavanting at parties n' such before the ball drops at midnight.

I really enjoyed this more laid-back holiday for us and was pleasantly-surprised when our lunch out consisted of going to an historic house turned into a restaurant for a delightful meal and.... sitting in the upstair's dining room within which one of my ancestor's portraits is featured over the mantle.

E is my great-great-great-great-great-aunt. I'm directly descended from one of her brothers and the reason why her portrait is in this restaurant is because she was the regal mistress of this house after it was built for her by her husband back in the late 1700's on land-grant property he had in-town. Its current use as an elegant restaurant is such a pleasure to see and experience.

It was fun to pose by E's portrait and then head over to the Colonial Cemetary to visit again her graveside. My family on both sides is so fortunate to have ancestors, and immediate family, eternally resting in such beautiful spots as the Colonial Cemetary and Bonaventure Cemetary.

So a New Year's turning which encompases old family-history? "So-Savannah" isn't it?! ;)

Preppy Inspiration from... The Royal Tenebaums

Preppy style-inspirations can come from films like The Royal Tenenbaums And create lifestyle-stylized-collages on style blogger's websites

But one little Preppy was a' wearing some of this long before the fim

and is tickled to see her childhood style featured in such a great film!

(Above images are credited: movieimagesources .com; polyvore .com; my late mother's camera; Film Comment magazine)

Old-School Preppy Fashion Inspiration:

Margo's "Preppy-Pathos" fashion styling in the film The Royal Tenenbaums is an odd inspiration perhaps for this new year but I find myself craving the wearing-of Lacoste' polo tops and knit dresses, cutting my blond hair back into a bob and rustling around the makeup drawer in my bedroom's vanity table for some black eyeliner. I'd switch the old fur coat for a well-worn trench coat with this being the warmer South and me not being a fur-wearer though I have inherited a few coats n' stoles from my mother and grandmothers. I'm also not a smoker nor depressed but I hope to keep on losing a few pounds and be sporting a leaner profile like the character Margo's (aka a pre-GOOP Gwyneth Paltrow)with now being-back to eating healthy half-portions post a very festive, and festive-foods-everywhere, holiday season.

This is one of my all-time favorite movies and it's on television this afternoon as I wait to watch some football playoffs.....

To me, this film is kind of like, "Faulkner goes to Manhattan and finds some Southern Gothic-ness up there to write about."

The striking settings indoors n' out, satirical atmosphere, snippets of Preppy-childhood elements, generous dollops of eccentricity amid layered family-dynamics and subtleties of sophistication amid the ruins and then rebirth of this cast of true-characters keeps me re watching this movie and continually enjoying it.

Hmmm.... time to search for eyeliner at least before the next football game commences.......

Happy New Year everyone and Happy Preppy Inspiration wherever we all find it!

Christmas Glow... quiet evenings around the carriage house

The glow of a Christmas Tree is lovely in the long winter nights...

...and Christmas-themed Tablescapes can be such delights...

...as is a cozy fireside sprinkled with doses of glowing candlelight.

Christmas Glow... A little sentiment for my readers

Wishing my readers peace and heavenly-joy this holiday season: angelic picture circa mid 1970's in Georgia. Yes, I was part of the cast for a live outdoor manger scene long ago... ;)


Tis the Season for You


'Tis the season to be jolly...and feel so cheerful with a belly full of laughs.


Tis the season to celebrate today, toast the future and honor the past.


Tis the season to embrace the joy and the jingle bells and those church bells ringing.


Tis the season to hug loved ones, give charitably and let loose with some carol singing.


Tis the season to seek peaceful moments amid all the fun revelry.


Tis the season to be introspective, grateful, worshipful and feel life's sweet brevity.


Tis the season, so make it yours...

...truly and oh so wonderfully this year and evermore.


Sending out a little Christmas poem to my readers this 2011 Holiday Season with all the best wishes for a wonderful celebration this month to you and yours! Best as always, Lachlan

The Glow of Christmas... elegant holiday scented candles both by and for Preppies

Preppy-candle Perfection by Ralph Lauren...but of course...

L'Object has THE most elegant candle containers imaginable!

One of my all-time favorite timeless candle profferings: Rigaud, ahh.

Michel candles are easy to find and easy on the nose with their scents...

Seriously-elegant and yet evocative of nature from Michael Aram

India Hicks gives island lifestyles effortless elan- so coral chic!

Silvered pagoda-style is oh, so Charlotte Moss indeed- love this!

Christmas and candles just go oh, so well together don't they?

We've safely taken them off of our Christmas trees (thankfully) as delightful as those effusive Victorians found them to be with bringing fir trees to the forefront of holiday celebration decor'.

Now candles glow on our mantelpieces, sideboards, windowsills and are liberally scattered around various tables- dining tables, coffee tables, bedside tables, kitchen tables and such. My favorite is having a single scented candle glowing away on the entrance hall's table to greet family, friends and guests with...ahh, how lovely... especially as the nights get darker so much earlier this time of year.

Scented candles are wonderful hostess gifts, stocking stuffers and the "just a little something" circes Preppy ladies especially enjoy gifting one another with throughout the holiday season.

As any Preppy's nose knows, there's scented candles and then there's scented candles.

Other folks favor scents such as Country Cinnamon Apple and Winter Memory Melody whereas Preppies favor scents titled Persimmon, Amaryllis, Frasier Fir and Cypres. The closer to the actual scent authenticity and the further away from Norman Rockwellesque Americana-verbage is definitely the better within Preppydom. As well, the further from the look of a glass Mason jar indicates which candles are found within Preppy homes and darling little gift bags.

Beautiful scents emanating from elegantly traditional containers, or even traditional with a twist kind of containers, are definitely perfectly Preppy candles!

Above are images of a few of my favorite candles to light and enjoy along with some new versions from lifestyle designers who are totally getting-it-right with not only clothing, accessories and shoes as well as home furnishings but also...with candles too!

Happy Holiday Season everyone and enjoy the glow of candles these winter months of 2011...

Thanksgiving and Preppies...Tradition indeed from menus to wardrobes to quite memorable memories

Quick snap-shot before heading out, for the first time to Thanksgiving Dinner at... a restaurant! Wearing what probably 90% of other Preppy ladies are wearing today: old cashmere sweater twinset, long plaid wool skirt, tassled loafer-pumps with coordinating belt and strands of pearls but of course.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

This autumn has been so incredibly-busy, much more than usual, that I am truly thankful for one day to have completely "off" from all the varieties of work and responsibility within my own small life's goings-on. Wheh...

And I am also thankful for you, dear readers, who have been with me from the beginning of this blog to the newest regular-reader who just emailed me last week; as always, I so appreciate each and every one of you and hope that today you are enjoying a peaceful, restful holiday as well!

Thanksgiving and Preppy go hand-in-hand don't they? It's essentially one of the few holidays left which has remained mostly "traditional" in its annual manifestations however off-track they now are from the first Americana meal of thanksgiving, i.e. travel, turkey on the menu, family and friends around, parades and football on the television, most places closed, themed hues of orange, gold and brown plus candles lit on the table and large porcelain platters put into use.

And...the same recipes used over and over again...Preppies are not foodie innovators for the most part as we all know. Preppies actually really aren't foodies at all for the most part and so, the rare ones who are must get a tad bit disappointed with the traditional (read "dull" on my family's part) Thanksgiving meal year after year. Hence, this is one of the reasons that during my married life of 20 years now, I have only cooked one complete meal by myself for Thanksgiving Day. It shocked my husband and father and frankly me as well. It was a "one hit wonder" that's for sure! And a wonder that it was edible at all.

Years ago, my mother, aunts, grandmothers, great-grandmothers, great-great-grandmothers and so forth and so on had terrific help in the kitchen with serving and clean-up for holidays and also for actually every day's mealtime needs until my immediate family moved up-north during the late1970's resulting in our having assistance around the house being downscaled to mother's two maids coming-in twice a week. All of a sudden, our meals were anything dumped out of cans, slapped into sandwiches or microwaved from freezer boxes unless Dad took us out to eat.

Turkeys for our holiday fare once up north were hysterical productions with my late mother attempting to cook them herself. One had bare patches from the pieces of bread she'd slapped on its side after reading somewhere that this was a great way to cook a turkey. Huh? Another time, she placed a turkey into a brown paper bag which was soaked in water but still proceeded to smoke up our kitchen...yet another sure idea from some magazine or not-well-tested cookbook.

All of us kids just wanted to go out somewhere for Thanksgiving Dinner and call it a day.

Which James and I did today. Which was wonderful to do with us having a nice, quiet just-us Thanksgiving here in Savannah this year. We went to a beautiful buffet that melded all the traditional menu items with the more-gourmet, left a nice tip for our waitress and took pre and post meal walks all around the historic district on a very beautiful autumn afternoon.

We really enjoyed staying within our neighborhood today which was another wonderful dimension of this particular Thanksgiving with having no-traveling-hassles...there were just enough tourists, SCAD students with their parents and assorted locals with or without their dogs, bicycles, assorted being-outside-accessories out and about to make the streets and park squares in the historic district feel lively and yet still neighborly.

As we strolled through one of the squares after our meal, an old guy dressed in Santa-red togs sitting on a wrought iron park bench was playing the most elementary of tunes such as Old MacDonald Had A Farm, Mary Had A Little Lamb, Chopsticks sweetly on a flute and...

...it was quirky, unexpected, charming and such a delightful ending note flourish on a Savannah Thanksgiving afternoon...

Again, wishing a very Happy Thanksgiving to you all!

Farmstead Foraying: more Preppy Autumn Pleasantries

Autumn afternoons are perfect times for leisurely country-roading and...
...local farmstead-foraying for a bounty of delightful delicacies including...
...old fashioned soda to sip when back onto those country roads heading to...
...my uncle's riverside farm for further outdoors-enjoying with my favorite guy!

The cool crisp days during Autumn Season are always so perfect to get oneself out into especially when they're paired with stunning blue skies overhead!

It's an incredibly rare day when things align to where James and I actually have a "free day-off" together...whenever this happens, we take full advantage of it. Recently one of these beautiful fall days this month found us driving along the country-roads of coastal South Carolina's marsh edges ending up within the still-cute areas of Bluffton. Old Bluffton as our local friends call it.

Bales of hay, pumpkins, sunflowers and tractors were decorating galore' the landscape down one of the rural roads we were driving along. James and I stopped by the most-festive of these small local farmsteads and happily stocked up on their offerings of fresh produce, gourmet canned goods and some old fashioned bottles of orange-flavored Nehi soda. I snapped a couple of pictures while James finished putting a bag of seed corn into the back of his truck he had also purchased and it just felt like... the-perfect-autumn-day.

I have been missing our usual kitchen gardening out on the island with now being mainly here in downtown Savannah. Purchasing herbs, peppers, sunflowers and such from the great markets nested within the historic district still isn't anything like actually growing these myself in our raised beds set out near the island's waterline marshes off our yard. Juggling two garden areas just wasn't possible this year while hopping back into a busy career and dashing between two home locations trying to transition, continue caregiving etc. So I let the island's kitchen garden take a rest after its early-spring production. Awaiting this next spring is an expansion of the in-town courtyard garden. The gradual transformation of our carriage houses' plain courtyard garden area into more of a garden ensues potted-gardening structuring which will eventually include some herbs and possibly heirloom tomatoes, peppers and such.

Looking forward towards our retirement years, James and I are contemplating moving full time onto his family farm and dabbling in some gentleman-farming. Right now out there in the almost middle-of-nowhere-midstate-South-Carolina it's acres n' acres of soybeans, cotton and trees. We envision re-building the farmhouse again in the middle of a cluster of stately pecan trees and having a large area for organic gardening whose excess we could can into gourmet-goodies, cut into bountiful bouquets and even bake for selling at a local roadside stand or the local farmer's market. The proceeds would go to charity and the process of all of this would keep us happily busy and out of trouble in our 70's and maybe even beyond as we age out of our life span.

We're aiming to still be productive in our old age if our ole' bodies allow this to be so...less shuffle boarding on cruise ships and more shucking corn for whipping up into upscale salsas for sale ;) You know me, it'll won't be painted wooden country roosters n' raffia stylin' but rather toile' fabric lining willow baskets with french wired ribbon styling and elegant labels and so forth n' so on...

But until then, farming for me will remain decidedly within kitchen garden parameters unless...

...we're being more city-mouse at the moment like now and so it's "farming via country roads".

Prairie-Preppy...the Pleasantries of Autumn Sunflowers

Huge sunflowers are so-festive this time of year and...
...there's something odd-but-enchanting about their peculiar scent.

Everyone's familiar with this iconic Vincent van Gogh painting however...

...in my humble opinion, this study he did of sunflowers is much more incredible.
Inspired by images of sunflowers, I began to dabble away...
...and watercolored my own little simple-study of sunflowers, what fun!
Watercolor dabbling and spicy tea sipping provides a pleasant autumn evening.

It's kinda' fun during the autumn months to go a bit more "rustic", a tad "rural" with a dash of "prairie romantic" thrown in for good measure: small county fair attending, old-barn building antiquing, farmers' market foraying, sipping spiced cider from a pottery mug and of course...indulging in lots of bright, big ole' sunflowers!

I was at the grocers the other evening and just couldn't pass these sunflowers by...

Have enjoyed having them in the carriage house here and one rainy evening, I decided to do a watercolor study of them- happily painting away to the quiet hush of gentle rain coming down outside the windows. I lit a scented candle, tucked a comfortable little pillow between the small of my back and an upright chair at the table in the living room and just dabbled to my delight.

Lately it's been raining a lot in Savannah which I've been really, really loving. Any other setting, yes, it may indeed get quite tedious to have days and days of rain but here where the Spanish moss drips rain droplets down onto the curvy eaves of Victorian homes and then puddles them onto the sloping expanses of brick steps while mixing this all in with the scented greens, florals and dirt aromas of a tiny courtyard garden...well, now that's actually been downright delightful!

I also valued the rains we experienced out on the island where one could watch storms approach from across the marsh towards the house and then pass along on out into the ocean. Out there I felt invigorated with being literally and proverbially out in the middle of the rain's moving landscape whereas here I feel cozily cloistered within our tucked-back pied a terre' setting.

It's been an incredibly-busy autumn with both James and my careers and so the quiet rainy evenings we can spend at home have been wonderfully restorative.

My wellies are dripping on the floor, the umbrella's leaning against the door, some sunflowers are in a pitcher by the art easel while in the kitchen cinnamon spice tea is seeping as above our roof the skies continue weeping and so... all is sooo very-right in my Savannah Autumnal World.......

...........here's hoping that all of my blog readers are experiencing a wonderful autumn as well :)