Earlier this month, Gathering Change, Inc., a charity formed four years ago by friends of mine (I serve on the board as Creative Director), was invited to attend the Massachusetts Conference for Women as one of the benefitting charities in their Community Corner.
This was the first year that the Community Corner was present at this all day conference in Boston that attracts some pretty amazing movers and shakers (around 8,000 women – plus some very brave men – attended on December 6th, the 8th year since its inception in 2005).
The theme of the day was “Imagine: Find Your Purpose and Make a Difference.”
Along with a couple of other charitable organizations presenting volunteer opportunities, we were able to share information with conference attendees who stopped by to visit our table in between scheduled lectures presented throughout the day by an inspiring roster of formidable guest speakers.
Arianna Huffington, Dr. Brene Brown, Deepak Chopra and other thought leaders and social influencers were there to encourage and challenge women to step forward and make their mark on the world. They even had a Bloggers’ Lounge and a number of social media roundtables with notable bloggers like Morra Aarons-Mele, author of “Women and Leadership in the Digital Age” and one of my local design favorites, Erin Gates of Elements of Style whose “I’ve got to be honest” conversational tone on her daily blog completely translated in real life.
I attended as many of the presentations as I could, while still spending some time in the Community Corner with the founder and President of Gathering Change, Dorothy Goodwin. While listening to the positive messages, moving stories, and words of wisdom from keynote speakers and others, I scribbled notes that I planned to pull together later for a motivational post or article. I did not realize at the time that many of the words I jotted down would speak so clearly to me after the emotional roller coaster that I, like so many of us, have been on since Friday’s tragedy in Newtown, Connecticut.
Below are just my scribbled notes – tidbits really (hopefully I am attributing the right comments to the right speakers). Perhaps some of the messages will speak to you as well. They are in the order that I heard them.
Charlotte Beers, hailed as the most powerful woman in advertising and current board member at Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia: Be leaderly. Step outside your comfort zone. Influence others. Be in charge. Be memorable. Be persuasive. Know yourself and deliver your message with personal clarity.
Marla Capozzi, knowledge management specialist and member of the Massachusetts Counsel for Innovation: We are all connected to each other. Reach out and make changes.
Dr. Brene Brown, research professional and author focusing on shame, vulnerability, worthiness, and courage: Ask for what you need. Most of us are afraid and brave at the same time. Show up and be seen. Dare greatly. A leader will find potential in others.
Deepak Chopra, M.D., renowned physician and author on topics of mind-body health, spirituality and peace: Our global identity is influenced by technology and connection. Our survival depends on a new identity. We need a wisdom based society that is peaceful, just, and sustainable. A great leader is symbolic of the collective consciousness, an agent for change and transformation. Ask, what kind of world do I want to live in? Be aware, dream, and do. Use social media to harness the power of the collective consciousness to change consciousness.
Arianna Huffington of Huffington Post: How we feel depends on what we focus on. Don’t wait for Washington to solve our problems. Do something. Use communication platforms. We all have the opportunity to reach others. Service and giving back are the zeitgeist – the spirit of our times. Finding meaning in our lives is coming to the forefront right not. It will change the world. (Of note: Arianna’s dedicated Good News section on Huffington Post is designed to provide a sense of optimism by highlighting positive stories that often get overlooked by the media’s traditional approach of report-the-worst-first. She was also quite adamant that we should all get enough rest.)
Barbara Bradley Baekgaard, co-founder of Vera Bradley: Form happiness committees. Giving to others provides the most joy.
Connie Smith, Creative Expressions Coordinator at the Women’s Lunch Place, Boston: I never realized how powerful art could be. Meditative work and creating art can save lives.
Kristin Chenoweth, singer, actor, author: What is your next purpose? What is your inner voice saying? Listen. How do you want to leave your mark and say “I was here?”
I love this color combination of a strong red with a grayish blue background (see flower arrangement in my last post). I took this photo at Studio 534 in the Boston Design Center which was host to Kathryn M. Ireland for her book signing on Tuesday, November 3rd.While some people are fascinated with sports figures or high-profile celebrities, I find myself getting giddy over seeing “design stars” in person. I really respect what it takes to make it as an accomplished designer in this business, whether one is designing for big movie-star type budgets or for homes that are more modest in comparison. For me, being able to design for others is like being commissioned to create a work of art. My client’s home becomes the canvas, and I get to play artist. It is an honor (and pleasure) to be invited to make someone’s house “a home.”
Today at the Boston Design Center, Kathryn M. Ireland spoke on Easy Elegance and Comfortable Living, The Art of Creating a Home. She was there to promote her new book titled Creating a Home, which is also available online. Check it out (and definitely visit her website) to see some of her amazing work with textiles, patterns, color and scale.
Interior design by Kathryn M. Ireland
photographed by Miguel Flores-Vianna
as seen in Veranda magazine, Sept. ’09Ireland’s visual language is well studied and appeals to the artist in me who loves bold patterns and vivid colors. She is known for her Bohemian chic approach that combines California’s easy living with the grandeur of world-traveled influences. Although she is a huge fan of saturated color combinations, she is also able to achieve the same richly varied look in a more subdued color palette (when asked!).
Fabrics from her newest collections.Despite the fact that I was just a wee bit jealous of her well traveled life (Ireland used to take her three boys on trips and they would ask, “How many planes is it going to take to get there?” while my husband and I are basically afraid to plan a long – a.k.a. over 20 minute – car ride with our brood of four boys), I did appreciate her take on fearlessly surrounding oneself with color and beauty. Although after just peeking around the corner into my family room, I think we have achieved the same result as my boys apparently had a battle with a purple feather boa from the Halloween costume bin ... and the boa lost.
This pattern Fez Palm in Olive Green from Kathryn Ireland’s newest fabric collection would be right at home in one of my boys rooms, which boldly incorporates all of these colors (some day I will post images from it when it is “photo shoot” clean ...)I am sure I could probably learn a lot from Ireland on how to live a stylish life while surrounded by a bunch of boys, but I did not have the luxury to sit down and chat with her today. She did share some funny stories, however, about making a huge outdoor trampoline that did not jive with her design aesthetic mysteriously disappear while her boys went to school, and I especially liked how she admitted to offering one of her reluctant sons money to participate in a magazine photo shoot since this is a trick I have been known to use around December 1st for holiday photos.
While my friends and I were waiting to meet with Kathryn, I had the opportunity to say hello to one of my favorite designer-bloggers, Erin Gates from Elements of Style. She was hard to miss as she is model gorgeous and was dressed very stylishly even for the Design Center (sorry, I wasn’t ready with my camera this time, and besides she probably thinks I am stalking her!) Be sure to visit her blog to read her take on today’s lecture since she mentioned that she would be posting about it, too. She has a refreshing take on this business of design that I find laugh-out-loud entertaining. She is also great at spotting design trends, and I predict she will soon be setting them, too.
Below are a couple of pictures of other designers who have inspired me lately ...
Nancy Faye Glass of Glass House Design and Linda Hentschel of Renaissance Interiors who I met through our design collaboration at The Stevens Estate in North Andover. (I had them pose today in front of the New England Design Hall of Fame Allee of Trees – just for luck). They have both been very generous in sharing their design stories and advice with me (plus we have a great time going to events like this together).
Check back tomorrow for my post on last week’s lecture at the BDC presented by Barclay Butera ...
“Barclay and I” at the Kravet showroomor “I love this job!”
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Garden Party at the Stevens Estate in North Andover
I was just visiting one of my favorite design blogs, Elements of Style which is written by the talented (and humorous) Boston-based designer Erin Gates. For today’s “Fashion Friday” entry, she notes that hot pink is one of the “hottest new trends” and posts some gorgeous pics to illustrate and inspire. Well I am glad to know that when I pulled out my peony-pink skirt last week (I bought it 5 years ago, but have always loved the designer-detail of its construction) that I was on the cutting edge of fashion as I attended an old-fashioned garden party ...
As this year’s program director for the Village Garden Club of Lynnfield, I booked the Stevens Estate Special Events & Conference Center in North Andover for our year-end event – a light and delicious catered meal set up outside this historical mansion (I am on the team of designers who are “adding sparkle” to this beautiful event property.)
Original rendering of the Stevens Estate by
Boston architects Hartwell & RichardsonMost of us wore hats (not quite Kentucky Derby, more garden inspired) ...
and the 20-or-so members from the club were able to enjoy each other’s company while sitting outside the veranda,
later touring the amazing architecture inside,
(Can't you just picture a bride – or the lady of the mansion –
floating down these stairs to greet her awaiting guests?)
then chatting over dessert and coffee while sitting beside original marble fireplaces in the intimate setting of the oak double parlors.
We had the entire estate to ourselves, and even though it can accommodate much larger parties, it felt cozy in an awe-inspiring way. Whenever I travel up the long, curvy drive that leads to the estate, I feel like I have “arrived” ... almost as if I had lived back in the day (the mansion was built in 1886 for Charlotte and Moses Stevens, one of the founding families of North Andover and owners of a prosperous textile mill).
Check back for more posts that highlight the design updates we will be making to the estate. To book a tour or to inquire about scheduling your next event, contact the estate manager, Laura Gifford. The Stevens Estate is a hidden historical treasure that brings one back to the times when entertaining at home was grand-scale, dressed-up and high-style.
Email: thestevensestate@verizon.net
723 Osgood Street
North Andover, MA 01845
Phone: 978-682-7072
