For those of you who follow me, you know I moved to California from a traditional home in New England… a 1917 stone and stucco Connecticut cottage to be exact. I grew up in older homes with lots of character and even lived in a historic brownstone building in NYC when I was first married. “Modern” just wasn’t part of my vocabulary. When we decided to buy a house in Santa Barbara, I was at first drawn to the older Spanish homes that…
It’s rare enough to find a shop where you fall in love with just about everything in it, but it’s icing on the cake when the owners turn out to be just as fun and wonderful as the space they have created. One of those shops, which has added immeasurably to our Santa Barbara home, is Mate Gallery. The mates are Ron Brand and Matt Albiani, who bring a nostalgic East Coast vibe to their West Coast store. Being from New…
I love art. I love the thrill of finding a piece that speaks to you and I love the soul that it brings to a home. I was an art major in college and I’m now a sometimes-watercolorist. I left most of my paintings at our home on the East Coast. I have a copious amount of paintings that couldn’t possibly all fit in The Little Glass House. One of the qualities I love most about our home in California is the abundance…
I spent all but the last few years of my life living on the East Coast. My last home that I shared with my husband and daughter was a traditional cottage that looked like it had been plucked straight from the English country side. It was stone and stucco with a cedar roof, complete with ivy strewn walls. In fact, we named it “Ivy Cottage”. I had always been drawn to older homes with charm and character. Of course, older homes come…