C'est Inspiré is simply that - what is inspiring. Where the words end, images continue to speak. Seeing all that is around us, we seek some aspect of something that is life enhancing... something that you would like to be reminded of - to revisit. Something to capture and bring into your world, not leave behind... . That is why I take a camera everywhere; have spent countless hours organizing images in scrapbooks and pouring over them later to revisit the place, the people, the memory.
So, C'est Inspiré may be a single photo - or it may be 50, it may mean one thing to me, another to you - the meaning isn't important. Did it inspire? Did it make you smile? Did it bring back a pleasant memory? One or all of the above will do.
During a brief period of his life, the legendary art historian Bernard Berenson kept diaries where he wrote about how to see - and what he saw. These diaries were published under the title The Passionate Sightseer and edited by Raymund Mortimer.
Anyone, anywhere, anytime can be a passionate sightseer - just look.
Last week Charlotte traveled to Lake Forest, IL to lecture at the Lake Forest Show House, which benefited the Infant Welfare Society of Chicago. Charlotte spoke to a sold-out crowd of 400+ people at the Landsdowne Estate, designed by Benjamin Marshall and built in 1911.


…to entertain in Frank Ponterio’s soothing Conservatory…
… a candlelit dinner in Missy Derse’s art-filled Farrow & Ball “Churlish” green Dining Room…
…send the “Boys” down to Gary Lawrence & Jeff Lawrence’s English pub in the carriage house, while the “Girls” take a dip in the pool and enjoy a nightcap in Marshall Erb’s Pool House…
…and to have a dreamy night’s sleep in Mary Southwort & Kevin Boksha’s Bedroom…
…BUT, only after a good workout and dip in the spa by Monica Pedersen & Becky McCallum!
(so many rooms – so little time!)
April 30, 2009