Always avoiding the scary, and what Dia de los Muertos can seem like…we tentatively attended a party a few years ago that turned out to be quite fantastic and brought the true meaning of the traditions into a much more beautiful celebration than usually depicted . To honor and remember those who have passed – the table was set with a spectacular centerpiece of flowers, candles, several folk art figures of spectacularly carved and painted wood. The night continued with people gathering, telling stories of those they had lost and all in all it was quite fascinating and comforting.
With Halloween behind us and Dia de los Muertos just ahead, we see many of the unique and highly collectable figurines presented in festive animation. This elegant Catrina from Peru sold today to an enthusiastic collector. I’m glad to have captured her in a photo.
Happy Halloween and may fantastic fanciful Dia de los Muertos figurines and their artistic expressions tickle your imagination this season.

“Boo” – tomorrow is Halloween and the build-up will finally culminate with all the princesses and goblins racing around the streets squealing, giggling, and comparing loot. Crashing into bed with visions of sugar plums dancing – oops wrong holiday!! Seriously though, these holiday events are so intense and exciting that kids of all ages are exhausted by the time they come and go. But here’s a comforting Halloween story about over-coming true-life fears.
Artist Christine Limke creates wonderful soft felt creatures. She had a heart attack. She thought she was going to die and it arrested her in her tracks. This was over ten years ago – she was only in her forties. She quit her job and curled up and waited in fear for the next shoe to drop. With encouragement however, she slowly decided to confront her fears and create these loveable little monsters, boos, fuzzles all with freaky faces – each adorned with a little red heart. She decided that if she could reduce her fears to things that were more funny than scary that things would improve… and they did.
Often unfairly confused with “ugly dolls” these individually handmade pieces are beautifully designed and crafted entirely by Christine. They come in all colors and textures of material, some are flag-carrying red, white and blue patriotic, others are pastel, others are made with camouflage fabric and many are themed for holidays like the “boo” shown here for Dia de Los Muertos and Halloween – others carry bunnies at Easter, some wear glittery derby hats sporting shamrocks at St. Patrick’s Day. She will even do custom orders – you tell her what would make a doll personal for YOU and she will create one!
Visit the link below to see some of her many designs and find one for you or someone you know just to show how much you care to give them a cuddly companion who will tickle their funny bone!!
Go to http://www.patriciandesign.com/retail/results.php and enter Limke in the search bar.

From Scary or Happy to just the right amount of fright – here at a client’s house yesterday I found a great example of just the right amount of fright. It’s all in the eye of the beholder – obviously – and I already stated my bent toward the Happy in Halloween – but this hairy guy was irresistible!! Just right for me!
A rather formal dining scene…expensive fabrics upholstered on stylish contemporary chairs gathered around a round, glass-top table and there he was perched long-legged and hairy with the red glowing eyes – smack dab in the center – PERFECT, I thought as I whipped out my camera and embraced the marginally scary suggestion of the Halloween fright accessory!
Last week I was cruising through the grocery store with Anya in the cart and I reached for a less interesting but big black paper spider that was sitting atop a display of humongous bags of Halloween candy. Anya frowned at me and scolded with her ever so serious 4 year old focus – “You can’t take that – it is for their decoration!” I was astonished! So much for getting a rise out of her – I just didn’t expect such mature posturing.
Decorative accessories for fright night…one man’s creepy is another man’s tame, another’s horror is the other’s fake attempt…one kid’s freaky pleasure is another’s nightmare for weeks to come! The differences are as varied as the people who celebrate the season.
Happy two days before Halloween as we near the culmination of the season’s costuming, candy corning, pumpkin carving, witches flying on broomsticks, and caldrons smoldering with gobs of spaghetti (brains)that thrill, chill and delight tricker-treaters of all ages!

Tonight we carved the first pumpkin of the season. Tomorrow we will carve four more. We bought it from Los Poblanos last weekend freshly picked from their gorgeous fields with the purple Sandias looming in the background. It was fun to have the adventure close to home, in our own community – it was a perfect day, intimate and quite special. As we decided upon the face for tonight’s carving, the discussion went as usual…will it be happy or scary? Tonight is Liam’s pumpkin. He drew the face. He thought it looked mean…but the carver has a bit of artistic license to “tweek” the details…
I’ve always veered toward the “Happy” in “Happy Halloween.” The scary is something that I avoid at all cost. The seasonal warmth of color, flavors and scents have always been comforting. Why freak-out and make things edgy and uncomfortable. Ok – I DO get it, I get the fun of it all…just don’t like it for me. From the old tattered Mummy costumes with the ratty gauze and fake blood, walking dead zombies, and Dracula (now vampires back in vogue) to Freddie and the slashers…no thank you!!
Growing up in Virginia, raking leaves was a major event around Halloween. It was an enormous job. It took several weekends. The woods surrounding our house with towering oak trees dropped tons of leaves over the course of the season. We would rake them and kick them into big piles and then rake and kick the piles onto huge bed sheets and then haul them to the curb. Sometimes they were wet leaves and sometimes they were dry. The smell of the wet leaves was bordering on moldy – not so much to be offensive – just different from the dry ones. These distinctions are still clearly and fondly embedded in my memory.
In my early childhood, “back in the day,” the streets were lined with everyone’s burning leaf piles, the fragrance of smoke was a wonderful part of the combination of smells that represented fall. But after a while it was environmentally unacceptable and the industry of leaf pick-up was formed and the great huge piles were collected from the curb in the enormous sucking, grinding trucks.
We had a mulching machine though, (yes, it now brings thoughts of Fargo and the chipper) and a fair amount went through that process as we lifted great bunches with the rake and gloved hands into the very noisy contraption to be recycled around all the azalea beds circling the house and along the edge of the woods. I always loved pressing the colorful leaves of fall between waxed paper. We continue that tradition today and did so when we returned from our pumpkin selecting, goat-petting, chicken watching day last weekend.
So, was it determined that we carve scary or happy? Here he is. Rather happy, I’d say. Liam said “He was supposed to look mean…but I like him happy, he’s just perfect!” Sappy, but true.

The house was well designed and outfitted with all the right stuff…the kitchen was as pristine as they day they moved in – could have appeared on a home tour – a sure sign that this fulcrum of the home was barely used – certainly not with the passion of the Italian heritage that the owner had formerly displayed when creating and presenting her robust lasagna made from scratch or hearty big and beefy meatballs…surely they could not have been masterfully assembled in this attractive , yet evidently unused environment! And the truth was – this kitchen had yet to be broken-in by her capable renditions of her ancestral culinary specialties.
How to begin? I asked her about basic condiments – close at hand where you see them, reach for them, use them with facility and the fact that they add character and life to your working scene. There were none. Also, the utensils that are your favorite to hold, grab for the various sauces, sautés and variety of tasks performed during the course of creating the dishes that should emanate from such a fabulous kitchen. They were not in evidence.
I often see it – kitchens in houses that are so spectacular, so well appointed yet barely has water been boiled on the massive commercial gas ranges! Sure, it’s important to construct the proper, expected kitchen in such a showcase of a home – yet it seems criminal not to use such a wonderfully designed and full-featured laboratory!
Maybe some intend to have every meal prepared by a catering crew that will love the opportunity to work in such a magnificent environment – but, really…really?
So, I love the feel of a familiar wooden spoon and at the expense of being a tad bit (others would argue) cluttered in the kitchen, I like having my tools and ingredients, at the ready – in full view of my workspace. She, the aforementioned, listened to my passion, opened her drawers, extracted the well worn and lovingly used wooden utensils that she felt were too common for her new kitchen. I begged to differ and we found a lovely container of Portuguese pottery hidden in her pantry in which to collect them by the stove. A quiche dish served as the perfect tray upon which to place her olive oil, balsamic, and a few other choice potions within easy reach and full view of her imagination as she approached the twilight hour and the spontaneous task of tossing together the evening meal.
Admittedly, today she called and reported that everything was as we had left it that day and that she was genuinely enjoying her favorite wooden spoons right there by the cook top and the condiments which not only added a decorative element, were truly a visual aid to prompting pleasantly unstructured meals on the spur-of the moment.
So find the wonderfully hand-crafted wooden spoons that are just right and feel so good as you stir the chowders, mix the batters, meld the ingredients of the perfect confections, gently fold the soufflés, sauté the savories and outfit your kitchen with the tools, condiments, accessories and utensils that serve to facilitate and decorate your culinary studio.

Completely coincidentally with the shift in the temperature, I visited with new clients yesterday to assist them with some re-design projects at their home. I say coincidentally because one of the rooms receiving attention is a grand indoor swimming pool room that smacks of winter fantasy escape to the tropics! Yes, a vacation room – where you create an environment that makes you feel that you have escaped the winter’s chill and gathered your family for a vacation of fun in the pool!
The strength of the architecture, massive exposed steel roof structure, lots of windows, great volume, and neutral deck was virtually a clean canvas. Cabana-like dressing rooms and ¾ bath all were ripe for a simple face-lift to bring it into a timeless spa-like retreat. Crisp whites punctuated with a cool marine blue called to me – appeared to me- as I took it all in and imagined the transformation from the far end of the pool.
Classic and traditional a bold blue and white stripe of durable, ultra-violet and mildew resistant acrylic fabric is the ticket for drapes flanking all window and door openings. Place prominent palm trees around the deck and voila! But let’s think about how the rest of us without such a magnificent indoor environment might create a tropical getaway in our own lives without leaving home.
While we want most of our home to insulate from the cold and offer reprieve with warm colors and textures…Calgon said it best “take me away,” as a bathroom can be designed to suggest a setting with a sense of luxurious escape. A spa-like retreat in which you can lean back and immerse in a deep bath, listen to the Blue Hawaiians play “Sway” as you sip a delicious iced Daiquiri while the hot-hot-hot steam fogs the windows, and moistens the palm fronds of the verdant plant leaning in toward the tub.
So take a look at your bathroom and envision that exciting destination and fantasy that will take you away for a refreshing, warm and relaxing retreat from the winter doldrums. Cheers!

It’s so much easier to make exterior design decisions in the mild or warm weather. Tonight, to combat the early evening chill, as the dark clouds formed nearly 360 degrees around the city, the wind blew in cold aggressive gusts, and the visible precipitation dangled over the crest in a misty layer of cold grey fuzz, we (outsmarting the elements), sat in the car to commiserate about stucco color options. Brrrrr……. (Hey Amy!)
In extreme contrast, I remember thinking one beastly summer day,”I’m glad I’m not a roofer.” And, as a result, I spent several minutes not only being thankful, but appreciative of those who perform the manual trades in less than desirable conditions – and if you do stop and think about it – there are many!!
Everything in the construction industry – our built environment – the utilities – down to the last detail of the person capably in charge of hand over hand pulling the – ok –screed/squeegee thing across the surface of the freshly poured, malleable, cement in order to create YOUR smooth concrete driveway is practicing a craft that is of great value in our world. Think about it.
Yes, think about it. In a future blog, I will speak the unspoken discussion about the value of “the trades’” because it is a passion about which I firmly believe. Meanwhile, notice your surroundings and how they got to be what there are…appreciate those that made it happen.

The towering old silos loomed up from our quiet gathering that was to be a perfect autumn adventure. “Trust me,” I said as we ventured forth not really knowing where we were headed or what we would encounter.
The girls had their hearts set on the “pumpkin patch” out by Moriarity, but we had closer destinations in mind. With a few tears of disappointment and the promise of fun things to come, we were enchanted by what we ultimately found.
Simplicity… almost to a fault. Today, without crowds, was serene. Los Poblanos has multi-seasonal charm…yet as the Indian Summer season wanes and the good days of warm weather become more suspect, today provided THE perfect weather for an outing as we took three little ladies to “the country.”
The tractors fascinated…the rows of pumpkins delighted…the scenery could not be missed even by the young ones who could easily be oblivious to such things…it was all part of a perfectly painted canvas in which we were to participate.
The Farm Store – spare, yet charming – select of products for sale – carefully chosen – some made on the premises – lovely lavender – special toys, good books, springboard for further opportunities…was intriguing for adults, mildly interesting for the kids – yet precious in its situation. We selected a delicious bag of spiced pecans and an elegant bar of lavender soap. I found it inspirational and set my thoughts for freshly harvested food-prep and de-construction of adornment… refreshing.
Petting the goats and admiring the array of chickens was certainly entertaining for all. The presentation of an olive oil bunt cake to feed the stock created frenzy. Beautiful white geese with brilliant orange faces/beaks honked, pecked and thrust their necks through the fencing to startle the little ones. Baby goats eager to be petted nuzzled the wire. All forms of fancy chickens darted about like fashion models knocked a little silly and unable to follow a distinct path.
Water gardens, weeping willows, traditional porticos adorned with chile ristras, courtyards compete with thoughtful mosaic fountains of quiet re-circulating water relaxed and renewed. This was a property of evolution and careful reinvention – quite by design.
Happy Fall – Awesome Autumn – get out there are breathe the air, select your pumpkins, walk the pathways, hike the trails, and return at the end of a most satisfactory day to the cozy interior that you call home.

Inasmuch as I’ve talked about relocating to home offices and the decisions and the desire or real economic need to do so, the same is true for retailers. There are several retail companies across the country who have decided that to hold onto the real estate, whether leased or owned, is NOT the best idea in these times and have chosen to abandon their storefronts and focus on web sales.

Sad to say because the mantra forever has been “to own the land…to own a piece of the rock…” now, due to a matrix of bad decisions on the part of government intervention and the home lending business creating a glut of foreclosures because the government maintained that everyone should own a home, developers and lenders bought into this false market which quickly morphed into a housing bubble profoundly affecting the commercial real estate market due to the resulting high unemployment rate. People lost their jobs in the broad-reach of the housing industry and the drop in purchasing hit many retailers in their guts.

Survivors were either well positioned in the remaining marketplace—insulated economic circles—or they reduced their overhead, many actually left their storefronts for the new frontier of cyberspace through which to market their goods, or they failed. When the storefronts shut, more people were left unemployed.

Ok –enough of this doom and gloom—we wish those well who have ventured into the outer limits “where no man has gone before”…oops, double reference—too retro—yet the serious nature of these challenging times makes all of us still maintaining a storefront and contributing to the fiber of the pedestrian experience—the window shoppers— the livelihood of the urban and suburban centers—thank YOU the shoppers who are fortunate to be surviving the cut-backs, turn-downs, closures….

Time to pour a cocktail, sit back and evaluate your surroundings and appreciate what you have…then move the furniture, check your colors and fabrics, your quality of light, comfort of your furniture and maximize it all! Rough-house with the dog, pet the cat…converse with your kids, family, friends…What would it take to make YOU happier and more productive?

Nice article “Home is where the office is” in this week’s New Mexico Business Weekly just out today. Amanda Kooser interviewed me along with several others in the design profession about the increase in home offices – who’s doing it and how.
There are lots of reasons. As I was quoted saying, “People who are doing home offices are as disparate and many as the kinds of businesses there are out there.” Just yesterday as I sat in a meeting at my office (real office, away from home – downtown – same place for decades) with a client and his architect, we were discussing the need for an office. He, an accountant was explaining how much of his work is done electronically – to which I said “You’re the guy on the beach with his laptop – working from anywhere.” To which he responded that it was practically true in many cases. He however is in the process of doing a build-out of a new condo purchase he has made in an office park. There are still important meetings to be held for the client whose needs require the face-to-face consultations that are not as effectively handled from afar.
Staffing requirements, manufacturing, and meeting or presenting in your own office space are each a reason why the conventional office still has a place. But for those who do not have those requirements, the alternatives are many. It is a timing thing right now that the economy has forced many to re-think their use and/or need for a conventional private office and move into their homes or executive office suites with shared amenities, while the technology has facilitated such moves. As the article explains, technology has allowed the WiFi freedom that has nearly no bounds.
If you consider the advantages of a home office, list your priorities, evaluate your options and contact your favorite Interior Designer to help make the plan. Simple questions such as: Will you receive clients or work associates? Do you require exterior access? Do you have the space to dual purpose your office space? How much storage will you need? Whether it’s beautiful or simple – it must function for your needs, support your productivity, and satisfy your comfort and aesthetic sensitivities.
So with visual connections over the screen that allow you the freedom to only dress properly from the waist-up while conducting a teleconference, to multi-tasking by doing your laundry while preparing a presentation or reviewing a proposal, you might find yourself singing “Hi Ho, Hi Ho, it’s off to work we go” – maybe in our pajamas!!!