IFDA New England Designer's Showcase 2012 Winners

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As I posted yesterday, IFDA New England just announced the winner's of this year's Designer Showcase & Recognition Awards and my bachelor pad project was selected as the winner in the Living Spaces category. This is a semi-annual design competition where submissions are adjudicated via a blind judging process overseen by Design New England magazine who are media sponsors of the competition. All the winners will be featured in an upcoming issue of the magazine.

Winner -  Kitchen or Bath:  Michael Kim Associates, Architecture.

Winner: Bedroom - Kathie Chrisicos Interiors


Winner: Specialty Spaces (showhouses, vignettes, etc): Jacqueline Becker Fine Arts


Winner: Community Service - Donna Venegas - Venegas and Company. Donna's company provided (pro-bono) the kitchen for a home that serves children and families going through medical crises.

Winner: Living Space - Linda Merrill

Congrats to all my fellow winners!

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How to Turn A Client's Vague Ideas Into Real Designs

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We've all experienced the client who can't express their design desires very well, whether it's because they don't know the "lingo" or simply don't want to focus on the process. The dream client, for me at least, is one who has been collecting images of what they like AND has taken the time to study the images to discern why they like what they see. If they've made notes in the margins, I am in heaven! I met with a woman once who proudly showed me her bulging notebook of ideas, but when I started pointing out trends that I was seeing, she was surprised and actually rejected my interpretations. For instance, after seeing several pages of painted cabinets, I commented that she seemed to prefer them to stained woods, and she looked at me like I had two heads. When flipping through her book, more often then not, she didn’t know what she’d seen in the image that she liked. I found that very fascinating.

Read more here... 

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Possibly the countries oldest woodwoorking shop discovered in my hometown!

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A very exciting discovery was just made in my hometown of Duxbury, MA! What is thought to be the oldest still in-tact woodworking shop in the country was just discovered on the grounds of a pre-school in town. They were actually using it as a storage shed and had no idea what they were overlooking. You can read the full story here. The town was a very prosperous place in the 18th and early 19th centuries due to its shipbuilding industry. Many beautiful homes were built during those years and its assumed that some of those interior finishes were likely built right in this shop!

There are a lot of similarities in the image above to a project I did in a Duxbury house about a mile from this location. It's located in the are known as Tinkertown and this homeowner believed this original structure, which was eventually added onto, was the cobbler's shop. The original windows slid side to side - perhaps to allow for walk-up business? This room dates to the 17th century and I can tell you - the original beams and woodwork are hard as nails!





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The Skirted Roundtable: Miles Redd

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This week at The Skirted Roundtable we had the pleasure of sitting down with the fabulously talented and charming Miles Redd. Known for his exuberant use of color, pattern and pizazz, Miles took us through his career beginnings, his style choices and his fantastic new book The Big Book of Chic



Miles' iconic New York townhouse exterior









Join us!



If you would like my help on your design project, I would love to chat with you! Please email me. Thanks! Subscribe to ::Surroundings::

Lin Dai - Asia's screen goddess

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I love going to Cathay Restaurant for dim sum and amidst the pictures of Cathay's movie stars of yesteryears on the walls is that of Lin Dai, the screen goddess of Asian cinema in the 60's. My mum was a big fan of hers and she used to mention to me that Lin Dai was a true beauty with the tiniest waist ever . Seeing this picture made me realise that she wasn't exaggerating at all. Love her hair cut and her dress with the musical notes. It certainly wouldn't look out of place today with the popularity of vintage designs.

If the table just next to the picture wasn't occupied, I would usually insist on sitting there for lunch, close enough to admire the picture.

Aunt Opal's last week.

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Dear Family and Friends,

We are heading into Aunt Opal's last week in Ecuador.  We have been having a wonderful time.

Here is Aunt Opal and Chuck at Turi.  The city of Cuenca is in the background.


We had fondu at a Swiss restaurant with old friends and new friends.


We took Aunt Opal to Eduardo Vega's gallery.  While we visiting, Eduardo Vega, a world famous ceramics artist, posed with Aunt Opal. 


We went to Clarke's and Brenda's house for homemade doughnuts.  Here is chef Clarke making sure we had fresh hot delicious donuts to eat.


He used his grandmother's recipe.  They were very, very good.  Thanks for inviting us Clarke and Brennie.


We had a nice dinner at Tiesto's.  The most famous restaurant in Cuenca.  Here is our table.  No one was paying attention to the camera, we were all busy yaking it up....as always.


Here is Aunt Opal with Chuck.  Our friend, Nancy Hamm, presented Aunt Opal with a token gift for her to take back to Georgia.


Best of all Aunt Opal is staying hydrated.  She is making a lot of friends too.


Love,
Nancy

A new chapter in my career - I'm now CIO for the district

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Teacher >> Chief Information Officer
Monday, November 5th, is my first day in a new chapter in my education career. I am the new Chief Information Officer for the district and I will be overseeing the Educational Technology, Information Technology, and work closely with Data/Assessment/Accountability departments. 

I have already been working on some initiatives and there are some really great things in the works, including upgrades to much of the technology in the district. I have also been getting up to speed on some of the challenges and successes we have and will need to address. 
I spent 10 years as an engineer before becoming a Physics teacher and Educational Technology Specialist. I then spent 10 years in the classroom as a teacher and as an educational technology specialist and professional development facilitator. Now, I get to use my experience from all of these areas in one job. I'm looking forward to the challenges and am excited to get started. 
The staff I will be working with is talented and dedicated and have overcome many issues and challenges in the future and will continue to do so. 
As I transition into this new role, I will not have as much time to devote to this blog, so there will be less postings at first. I will continue to post to this blog though and will be adding some new features to it. 
I also look forward to continuing to collaborate, share and learn from the members of my PLN and will be looking for advice and help in the coming months.