Chai and reading and libraries

Today one of my customers bought her daughter by. Her daughter is 25. She lives in NYC but was in Philly for the holiday. The mother had to bring her daughter to the shop because she’s like I was talking to my daughter and she’s telling me I need to read this book that she checked out from The New York Public Library. She said she’d gotten two books but only really enjoyed this one called It’s Me They Follow. So her mom flips her wig. Because first off I met her mom almost a year ago when she first moved to Philly and walked into Harriett’s. I invited her back for the Deeply Rooted Dinner Party where she got to see the space when I was hosting a small dinner dedicated to my parents roots and culture. Anyway they came in because we all agreed it was an uncanny experience. Them both reading the same book at the same time and the mother having met me already. The daughter is fine and the mom is on pg 163. Her daughter wants to open a chai shop on the side. Turns out the mom teaches literacy to preschoolers. I tell her to bring the children by and also have some stuff for free. Small world. Yet big. Thankful.

Below is not the image from the mom or the daughter but instead the photo I was sent today by a different reader on Instagram. To those on the journey with ME —I know this all thread of webs feels awesome to experience.

Thanksgiving

I only wish I’d started sooner. Spent so long hiding. I was using my gift to help others, but forgetting about myself. In that time I wasted, I missed the opportunity to share this moment with folks who are no longer here on this side of life, but I know they are enjoying it from some place else on the other side. 🙏🏾

Documentin’ it…

Surrealism

Surrealism aims to revolutionise human experience. It balances a rational vision of life with one that asserts the power of the unconscious and dreams. The movement's artists find magic and strange beauty in the unexpected and the uncanny, the disregarded and the unconventional. -Tate

This image is surrealist to me.

The path with no beginning is worth beginning…

It’s Me They Follow: This Week!

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It’s Me They Follow

A novel out there doing her own thing in this world. Super surreal the photos sent to me this weekend.

Nana said, “This book will take you places, your feet will never go.”

“If there's a book that you want to read, but it hasn't been written yet, then you must write it.” Toni Morrison

Pop Up @ Princeton

I prefer the term installation. But same difference. It was still fun.

All the world’s a stage… ing

48 hours and all reused. I like staging because it feels more like my own art to me. It’s like world building in a story. There’s more freedom than interior designing for a client. Staging is like creating a temporary installation. Of course I don’t get exactly what I want because I’m working with select few pieces and they want something general and neutral for open houses. The furniture was not inventoried properly which I knew would affect us in the long run. But I’m learning still, right? Shouts to my neighbor Kat who literally let me pick through her things. Like how kind is that?! And come to find out she used to do staging. There’s so much more I wish could do—bigger rug in the dining area, my built in bench, real fireplaces, more flowers, a children’s room, curtains, a jute rug under the small nook by the stair. That powder room is not mine at all—yet. A more robust master bed, I don’t like the mixed brass in the kitchen. But all in all I think for a first try it was pretty good. I will ask Kat to mentor me.

The biggest risk I ever took.

Eat the Cake, Jeannine Cook. Eat the cake.

So much sweetness, but life is screaming “Eat the cake.”

Life lately

Born again in Brooklyn

Don’t Stop, Get It Get It

Sweetness Upon Sweetness: Honey in the Form of a Book Review

It's Me They Follow: On Tour