Collage of Curiosities No. 20

January 2025

The past two months have been a whirling dervish kind of blur. Flickering nights and uncharacteristically cool days. So much has happened yet there are patterns. Crackling fireplaces echoing laughter. The sharp clink of crystal glasses. The strong whoosh of north wind through the pines. The strike of a match and the sizzle as a wick catches light. These are the rituals of winter in our household. 

While many find this time of year somber, or dare I say it, depressing. I confess I find it sweetly melancholic. Give me all your snow-laden grey skies and blue evenings I’m happy to wander the woods with only my dogs and the owls as company.

Luckily for me, and despite living in Florida, I have enjoyed several snowfalls this year so far thanks to a once-in-a-century storm and travels north. The first began while I rocked my newborn nephew in his nursery. I drank it as I cradled his little warm being in the blue evening and watched flakes float silently to the waiting earth below. The newness of him and the newness of the world as it was covered in white was surreal and a moment I’ll cherish. 

This time of year I feel so much ready to burst forth. In some ways, I’m so full I’m bubbling over and new things are taking shape. While they aren’t yet ready to be revealed, they’re keeping me busy in the studio, lighting candles and making dreams a reality. 

Read on to get the story behind the pictures.

I finally got to visit We Took to the Woods, a seasonally curated store in Greenville, South Carolina. Their candle In the Glen became our scent of the season.

We got to meet the owner Bob who, coincidentally, we spotted dining at our hotel in Highlands the following weekend.

Hiking at the Primland Resort in Meadows of Dan Virginia.We exchanged the stomach flu as Christmas gifts.

The wall of taxidermied curiosities at the Highlander Mountain House hotel in Highlands, North Carolina where we spent the remainder of our holiday pretending we were at an English hunting lodge.

The Highlander Mountain House was full of visual inspiration and cozy comforts. I was constantly snapping photographs of the textiles.

A drawing I did on the final day of our stay inspired by the English lodge style decor at the Highlander Mountain House.

The house we rented while visiting my newborn nephew in Pennsylvania had a beautifully stocked library full of antique books.

Mabel during our Florida blizzard. We received over 8 inches of snowfall.