By Nancy March 20th, 2013
Who remembers the Xanadu house in Wisconsin Dells? I went there on a family vacation, I’m sure it was in the early 1980’s, and I will never forget that house. I thought it was the most amazing place ever and I wanted so badly for my family to move to Wisconsin Dells so I could live […]
By Nancy March 13th, 2013
In Irish mythology, sovereignty was represented as a woman in a blue robe, and blue was originally associated with Saint Patrick. Over time, though, green became the favored association that we know and love today. According to popular history, Saint Patrick used the green shamrock with its three leaves to explain the Trinity to the Irish in the […]
By Nancy February 13th, 2013
I just met a local artist, Jean Berry, and am so excited about her work! I’m always in awe of people who can put pigment on a canvas in a meaningful way, but some of her paintings have SO MUCH ENERGY that I am just blown away. For Jean, painting is a very intuitive process, […]
By Nancy August 8th, 2012
If walls could talk, we might not always want to hear what they say! Sometimes walls DO talk though, in their own way, and every house has a story. Sparrow and Stoll recently completed a design for an extensive remodel of a kitchen and its adjoining spaces for a house in Edina. The house was built in the […]
By Lisa August 8th, 2011
I threw my first outdoor party this summer-the rehearsal dinner for my son. I’ve never tried to decorate our backyard; in fact, although we have a nice backyard, we don’t have a master gardener’s backyard or one with a beautiful pool. We have a suburban backyard with woods that have been somewhat dethroned by oak […]
By Lisa April 11th, 2011
We all know the saying “Necessity is the mother of invention.” I find that particularly interesting when applied to furniture pieces that have endured the test of time. I came across the story of the Navy chair, which is really named the Emeco 1006 chair. This aluminum chair is produced by the Electric Machine and […]
By Lisa April 4th, 2011
Its springtime and on college campuses all over, students are finishing up (hopefully) their semester projects. They can only hope that the result of their endeavors has the life span of the Parsons Table (originally named the T-square table)! This design classic was born out of a 1930’s course taught at the Paris Atelier (now […]
By Lisa March 14th, 2011
I know I’m feeling a bit spring-starved. Winter has overstayed its welcome in my opinion and I’d love to look outside and see some bright colors…other than bright white! It would seem I could solve my problem by hopping a plane to New York and heading to Park Avenue where artist Will Ryman has an […]
By Lisa December 6th, 2010
The holiday season, that is, the party season, is upon us. I don’t know what possessed me to look into the origins of the cocktail but I got curious and started googling. I hope what I learned brings a smile to you too.In 1806, The Balance and Columbian Repository was asked the question, “What is […]