👁 This is a long issue, so you may need to hit "expand" or read it in your browser...
Hello lovelies!
Sorry to have been MIA last week...I had decided that I would take the week off for Canada Day, Fourth of July, announcing my shop closing and retirement jubilación, etc. but I had meant to give you a heads up...and then forgot to (oops)! So...yes...I did it! The two month's notice has been given, the big sign has gone up in the shop window, the list of to-do's as long as my arm has been made (and is endlessly being added to), and the clearing of the stuff has begun! The waves of nostalgia as I sort through everything are definitely bittersweet but it's also energizing and exciting...all things considered...I recommend it!
UNION ISLAND…
Aside from all that’s been going on in my little world this past week, my mind has also been on Hurricane Beryl and the devastation it caused in Union Island. In a case of really strange timing my daughter was meant to be there on the very day that it hit...her father is originally from Union Island and she was going to visit for the first time since she was very little. Thankfully she was hunkered down in a safer spot in St. Vincent and wasn't directly in harms way...but it was a close one! Unfortunately the same can't be said of the sweet little house where her dad was born and grew up. It’s gone. This is what it looked like back in the day…
ALEKSANDR BABARIKIN...
Sometimes life moves slowly and sometimes it swirls too startlingly fast...the work of photographer Aleksandr Babarikin captures that mood somehow. I liked the answer he gave when he was asked, in this article about his work, what advice he would give to aspiring photographers interested in exploring the unconventional (emphasis mine)...
My advice would be to explore, experiment, and find a response in other art forms. Going for a walk is always a good idea. Photography teaches you to see, the more you look, the more new hidden things you begin to notice and you see the world in a different, more interesting way.
And these words on the subject of memorable experiences related to his photography journey...
The circle is closed...I experienced a very bitter feeling of joy with a touch of sadness, as if you had finished reading the book you loved so much. Everything has a beginning and an end, and the most important thing in the middle is the way.
This circle is closing and I guess the essence of what I'll be doing next is...going for a walk!
HANNO WESSEL…
There are many things that I am going to miss about being a shopkeeper but chief among them is discovering and working with designers whose skill I admire. One such designer is Hanno Wessel of H+HANNOH…from the moment I first laid eyes on his lovely high-low, raw-refined, tailored-untidy collection many years ago he has never lost me!
Hanno's work is available in many shops worldwide and there are also two eponymous shops...one on rue Jacob in Paris and one on Atlantic Ave in Brooklyn.
Give yourself a little gift...if you have been enjoying A Treasury of Moods now would be a good time to click on the coupon below to receive 20% off a full year’s supply of newsletter goodness at only $3.33/month!
ELSA ESTURGIE…
Another of my design crushes is the sphinx-like Elsa Esturgie. She works in Paris, halfway down one of those old industrial alleyways that run off rue Oberkampf in the 11th arrondisement…
I was born in the countryside but I always felt better in the city—even if my studio and my house are both privileged places in small yards, outside the tumult of the city. I do like to work from these quiet places, surrounded by nature, which are at the same time at the heart of living a cultural, well-defined life.
Her work and the way she runs her business is consistently thoughtful and calm and, as a buyer, I have always appreciated her elegant efficiency…and I may have to stalk that alleyway once or twice more before I depart this planet!
FANT PROJECTS...
Oh...it's killing me! I've just now discovered a line that I would have loved to look at for Task. I know this is going to keep happening...you all will just have to serve as the audience for my obsessions from now on! I hope you don’t mind…
For 20 years Dutch founder, Cecile Bleyenberg, was Head of Design at Humanoid, a collection I used to carry and loved. They lost me a little when they seemed to stray from their "punk rebel" beginnings and started getting too "dressy" but I would go, every once in a while, to look longingly at the latest season in the showroom, hoping that I could buy it again! In 2017 she started FANT (an acronym for ‘free analyzing / never-ending travels’), a sustainable fashion and interior brand where, rather than producing seasonal collections, she creates unique collaborative series of work that "grab the strands of different cultures and connects them into a single fabric."
WOVEN STORE | HOVE...
One of my little regrets is that I've never felt comfortable being on camera and just talking naturally about what it is that I love about what I do. After following a few links I discovered the IG of Woven Store in Hove. Owner, Alex Thompson's video “chats” are not slick or overly perfected but I love that she does them! She talks about retail in general, explaining her ethos and what they have to offer, not in a sales-y way, but in a helpful and enlightening way. So much so, that I now want to take a trip to Hove just to check it out...it looks like my kind of shop!
Which brings up my other little regret…just between you and me…now that I’m soon to be “without shop” I will have to go back to shopping like a normal person at regular retail! Eek!
WXY…
As I was watching the video I kept wondering about those boxes in the foreground (I really am going to have to learn to switch off the product-hunter part of me)! Anyhoo...it turns out they come from a UK-based company called WXY. They are re-usable concrete boxes full of incense cones and a little brass dish for burning...and you can also buy re-fill boxes once you've used up the original batch. I like that sort of thing...
AN ODE…
It’s been an unusual and discombobulating week…so please allow me to wax sentimental just for a moment...here's a little photo montage of the 15 years of Task...I will miss it.
HEDONISMLOST...
And just for fun...this is AI-generated and I don't know anything about the person who creates them…but let's just appreciate their vision for a sec!
Thank you all for reading...let me know if you have any thoughts!
xo,
Please smash that ♥ button if you liked this post…
Oh I live in Hove and love Woven Store! Thank you for sharing 🫶🏼✨ good luck with this next chapter as you close your store