Busy Month

Apologies to all for not posting with greater regularity over the past month and a half. To say it's been crazy here would be an understatement.

The beginning of October was really busy getting the collection hung at John Rosselli and Associates in New York. As this photo from All the Best shows, we did it in time for the D&D buildings market week. I owe a big thank you to All the Best and the Peak of Chic for their wonderful posts on the collection's change of residency.

Market Week saw a press breakfast and a designer open house on Wednesday the 15th. This was followed by a panel discussion in the Jerry Pair showroom on the 16th, sponsored by Decorati. The panel topic was the "Influence of Design Bloggers," which included yours truly, my dear friends Rhonda Carmen of All the Best, Marisa Marcantonio of Stylebeat, Shane Reilly of Shane’s Studio and the delightful and o-so-knowledgeable Grace Bonney of design*sponge.

Then of course, there was the hospital benefit we hosted at the store. Pre-holiday shopping was the theme and ten percent of the evenings proceeds went to our very important Columbia Greene Memorial Hospital Foundation. The evening was a great success thanks to all the wonderful attendees and volunteers. SPecial mention needs to be made concerning the generosity of one of the best local restaurants, The Red Barn who donated the hor d'ouvres, and Kinderhook Wine and Spirits and Carr wines who sponsored a wine tasting in the garden.

Whew, then it was Thomas' birthday. Since June I had been plotting his surprise birthday present. I got his niece, Elizabeth, and her husband, Gerard, to come in unannounced and surprise him four days before the party.

The much adored niece, Elizabeth

To say the least, a good time was had by all. Speaking of which, Thomas' dear longtime friends Mary Frances Benko and Wanye and Barbara Patterson plotted the riotious fete.

The New York, Palm Beach, Kinderhook set: Audrey Peckner, Roby and Rob Hasty

Eddie Ross and his partner, Jaithan Kochar, were in there along with Amy Breedlove, Barbara Hayes, Sabine Rothman, and many others wonderful friends.

All that, along with preparing for Maison et Objet in January, working on the new collection, and preparing the store for holiday- WHEW!

A Dazzling Night

Thursday night was a night of a thousand "starbursts" between the parties at Bergdorf Goodman for Jeffrey Bilhubers new book Defining Luxury and Tiffany's fourth floor hand painted designer table settings. Between the two events, I think the entire New York Design world was out for the night. I couldn't take the pictures fast enough or chat with my friends to keep up with everyone.

A follow up piece is coming on Tiffany's new custom hand painted dinnerware.

At Bergdorf Goodman

Designer and author Jeffrey Bilhuber

Stephen Drucker and Newell Turner of House Beautiful

Elizabeth Connolly

Wendy Goodman

Then on to Tiffany's across the street.

Randy and Bernadette Fertel

Designer Celerie Kemble

Greg Lindsay and Sophie Donelson

Thomas Burak and Deborah Sanders

British House & Garden

I had a big treat this month when I opened British House & Garden and found one of my fabrics in a spread. The large pillow on the bed in their feature titled Insider- New Collections is none other than my Sutton in chocolate! Thanks House & Garden.