Life & Lessons From 2012...

And so we come to the end of another year. We survived the apocalypse, applauded the Olympics, waved at the Queen on her Jubilee, smiled at the royal pregnancy, cried at the effects of Hurricane Sandy and mourned the Connecticut kiddies. We saw Obama re-elected, Jill Meagher die a terrible death, and Julia Gillard hold her own against some misogynist pollies. It was a year of heartbreak, happiness, more heartbreak, hope, a little more heartbreak and then, finally, a hallelujah that it was all over.  (Incidentally, have you seen 'The Voice' singing Hallelujah in tribute to the kiddies of the Connecticut shooting? It's beautiful. Link here: Hallelujah)

But 2012 was also a year of something else. It was, in a strange way, the year of kindness. Don't you think? Looking back, I think that's the only way we managed to survive 2012. Kindness. Lots and lots of it. Several months ago, checking out of the Gramercy Park Hotel in New York, one of the loveliest hotels in the world, I jokingly asked the concierge how they coped with the diva-esque VIPs? "Kindness," he said with a smile. "We win them over with kindness." I've never forgotten it. Next year, we'll be running our Garden Tours with the same aim. In fact, we've already started implemented it into our company philosophy. {Beautiful 'Looking for Love' Paris street photo by Irene Suchocki from Etsy.}

And now, as we look towards Christmas, and to 2013 beyond it, I'd like to encourage everyone to do one thing on the 25th. Be kind. Compassion. Courtesy. Consideration. Respect. Even humour. They all go a long way in life. Don't let others' negativity and criticism get you down. Keep your dignity. Keep your spirit. Keep your happiness about you. But most of all, be nice. It doesn't take much. Truly. A word. A gesture. A hug. A note. A hello. As Robert Alan once said: "The flower of kindness will grow. Maybe not now, but it will some day. And in kind that kindness will flow. For kindness grows in this way."

On this note, I'd like to thank you all for dropping by The Library this year. So many people have emailed to say hello, while others have been kind enough to comment, and all of your notes have lifted my spirits and kept my soul joyous this year. They've also kept The Library blog going through all the 2am nights. I very much hope that The Library has inspired and enlivened you all in return. 

I know I promised to post some 'insider' tips about Paris, plus details of our lovely new tour, but I hope you'll forgive me if I leave it for a fortnight. It will really need a special post on its own. And it will offer some holiday reading over the New Year!

In the meantime, I'd like to show you a peek at what's happening in 2013, as it's shaping up to be an exciting year. Hopefully, I'll also be able to hold my earlier promise of featuring more interviews and even more exciting interiors and gardens here on the little old Library. 

Until then, wishing you and your loved ones a very happy Christmas. And a heartfelt thank you to each and every one of you. 

With love, from my family to yours. xx

Mock-up spreads for a beautiful new cookbook and memoir from The Landing Hotel and Restaurant in the Bahamas. The Library is very lucky to be involved with this project, which will be the first in a series of exciting new projects, and I look forward to showing you the evolution of this lovely, incredibly luscious book as it unfolds, page by page. Oh – and you'll love who's writing the forewords too! (Clue: An Officer And A Gentleman.)

More mock-up pages from The Landing's beautiful book. {Dummy spreads only}

Dummy spreads from another whimsical but lovely little book, How To Live A Beautiful Life: Following In The Footsteps of Chanel. 

I'm also going to show you this as it unfolds, so you can see how a book is produced, from conception through contents to photography, page design and production. 

" The most courageous act is still to think for yourself. "
Coco Chanel

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Writing A Book: The Stories Of Your Lives

I want to tell you a story. It's a good one. I hope it will inspire you. You'll see the point of it very soon.

Last Friday morning, on a crowded Eurostar train from London to Paris, as the landscape morphed from Kent fields to Normandy farmlets, I heard the most incredible life story. It was the story of the woman sitting next to me. Well, the story of her father, really.

And what a story it was.

Her father, now 92, had just begun working in the Diplomatic Corps in London. He was only 19. One night, at a summer reception, he met a beautiful young French girl. She was just 15. Unperturbed by the age difference, they spoke of their dreams, their hopes and ambitions, and their lives in London. It turned out they lived just streets apart.  The love, he said, was instantaneous. "I couldn't imagine my life without her," he explained. The date was June 2, 1939. The Second World War was just around the corner.

When France declared war on Germany three months later, the French Girl's parents sent a telegram requesting that she come home. They needed her, they said. So she said a tearful goodbye to The Diplomat, wiped her eyes, and courageously took a train back to Cherbourg.

For the next four years, The Diplomat worked in the war offices, wondering if he'd ever see her again. Eventually, he met an English girl, and – not knowing if the war would ever end – married her. It was a quiet affair. His heart, you see, was still in Cherbourg. The French Girl, meanwhile, had started witnessing atrocities that a teenager should never see. By then, the Germans had brought in the Mongolians to do their dirty work and the deaths were horrendous. After she'd witnessed an infant being crucified, she decided to join the French Resistance. She was only 19. Her uncle was already in the Resistance, and high up by that point in time, and when he heard that her name was on a German 'hit list', he smuggled her out of the country. She was sent to London, where she was given a safe house. It was two streets away from The Diplomat. Unbeknown to them both, they lived just metres apart.

For the next 10 years, she worked, settled down, married an Englishman, had four children (The Diplomat also had four), and tried to forget the war. And a young dashing Englishman she'd met at the age of 15. But she couldn't. Haunted by her memories of love and loss, she told her husband everything. He simply said that he loved her all the more.

Fast forward 40 years. In an ironic twist, the French Woman's husband had also become a diplomat, and had decided to attend a conference in Geneva. By chance, he saw The Diplomat's name on the seating chart. He decided to say hello. "Why don't you visit us one day?" he said generously. "My wife would really love to see you again." The two couples met for dinner.  The conversation was warm, polite, quietly sentimental, dignified. They decided to stay in touch. A letter here and there.

Both couples grew old, as people do. The French Woman's husband passed away. So she moved back to France, to the town of her birth. But still she kept in touch with her first love. The letters continued for the next 20 years.

Two decades later, The Diplomat's wife died also. He waited for a respectable length of time. And then he bought a ring, and took the first train to Cherboug.

The Diplomat and the French Woman were married under a lemon tree in her garden, on a bright sunny day in June. The year was 2005. He was 85 years old. She was 81. It had been 66 years since they'd last kissed.

They haven't stopped kissing since.

I'm telling you this story because this month, November, is NaNoWriMo Month. It's that time of year when would-be writers are challenged to begin writing a book. A book of 50,000 words. To be written in a month. It's a tough challenge, but thousands attempt it. It's a fantastic way to begin writing, with a deadline looming in front of you. The pressure usually forces the words to come.

Everybody has a story inside them. Everybody has a narrative of their own to tell. Perhaps you can begin writing yours down?

Go on. You've got a month to do it.

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Finding Inspiration in Life

It's easy to lose inspiration. One minute you're full of exaltation and motivation, encouraged by new ideas and creativity; the next you're struggling for stimulus and stuck in a quagmire of inactivity. To make things more difficult, influences come and go so quickly that sometimes we miss The Muse when it passes through. All too often I've noticed something amazing that illuminated that moment in time, but have then forgotten it in the onslaught of life. The flash that could have been a magnificent impetus had faded before I'd even had a chance to properly absorb it.

That's why I take photos. Instagram is no doubt wonderful for this but a simple camera or notepad will also do. I'll use anything to scribble, sketch, record or jot down notes and ideas as they appear. I'll also collect things – beautiful cards from bookstores and museum and gallery giftshops, publicity material from exhibitions, and of course pages from magazines – and then collate the 'Papers of Inspiration' (as my partner calls it) in a pocket of my suitcase for when I get home. (That's the best part: going through it all again!)

Inspiration doesn't just come on cue. You have to seek out The Muse. It's like being an anthropologist of ideas; a David Attenborough of stimuli.

Here are some places where I find inspiration. Hopefully they'll help you find it again too.

VOGUE LIVING

I was lucky enough to write for this beautiful magazine  in the 1990s (albeit under a different name), and I still have a soft spot for it. It's one of the most inspirational magazines in the world, which is why you always see it on newsstands in New York and London. I was saddened to hear that long-time editor David Clark has resigned (quite suddenly) and is now taking a much-needed break in Hawaii. However, I'm sure the new editor (whomever it is) will take the publication to even greater aesthetic heights. The latest issue is quite possibly the best ever. The online version has a story on the remarkable photographer Steve Back and his aerial shots of Hutt Lagoon (image at very top of post). If I could paint, I'd paint that photo. Just beautiful. Here are two more of Steve Back's extraordinary landscape studies...

VINTAGE MAGAZINES

Earlier this year, my partner bought me a vintage copy of a New Yorker magazine from the day I was born (or close enough to it). I've always loved vintage magazines, and this was a surprisingly thoughtful gift. It inspired me to spend half a day in London's vintage magazine stores last week looking for a vintage Vogue from the month my sister-in-law was born to give her for Christmas (top). But apart from the sentimental value, vintage magazines are full of inspiration: incredible photography by great names such as Irving Penn, cute stories on long-lost pastimes and gorgeous ideas, colours, interiors, gowns and places for modern projects. You can find them at the Conde Nast online store, or in London's vintage magazine shops. (I used the one in Soho.)

EXHIBITIONS

It's difficult to make time to see exhibitions – especially in Paris, where the queues for the just-opened shows, Paris By hollywood (Hotel de Ville), the Bohemians (Grand Palais) and Van Cleef & Arpels (Les Arts Décoratifs) took over an hour. (Surprisingly, London's shows, including Tim Walker, Hollywood Costume and Ballgowns, and were easy to access.) However, it's worth tracking down and seeing good exhibitions, as the inspiration they provide can keep you energised for months. If you can't see the exhibitions, then ordering the book can be the next best thing. I've just bought the exquisitely miniature catalogue of the Cristóbal Balenciaga, Philippe Venet, and Hubert de Givenchy exhibition. It juxtaposes the gowns with the influences of the designers – from roses to paintings, staircases, artwork, interiors, mirrors, even balustrades (one of my favourite things.) It's format is so beautiful, it has inspired the design of our next Paris book.

BOOKSHOPS

A bookshop is a magical place, which is why it's such a shame that Amazon is teasing us with cheap prices. In Paris last week, I popped by the bookshop at the Decorative Arts Museum next to the Louvre (Les Arts Décoratifs), and stumbled upon an entire section of vintage fashion books. It was like finding the veta madre – the Mother Lode! Bibliophilia bliss. There was more inspiration there than you could shake a Balenciage gown at.

TRAVEL

Those of you who read The Library's regularly will know I have a great weakness for a foreign place (especially if it's Paris or New York). Condé Nast Traveler magazine and its English version are valuable sources for ideas on places to go, even if you're only an armchair traveller. Their stories are always wonderful sources of inspiration, and this month's 25th Anniversary Issue, with Hilary Clinton on the cover is one of the best yet. The issue has offered a list of the 32 Best Trips in The World, and it includes Australia. (Thanks CN; we love you too.)

As a little addendum to the list, here are five destinations on my '32 Best Trips List':

1. Lake Como, Italy, and a day-long tour of the waterfront mansions in a 1950's wooden speedboat. BYO picnic and handsome man. (I'd take mine.)

2. Nantucket and Martha's Vineyard, and arriving at either island in a puddle-jumper plane from Boston, crossing the beauty of Cape Cod as you do. Nantucket village and Edgartown are arguably two of the most beautiful villages in the US.

3. Key West on Fantasy Fest Weekend. Hire a convertible Mustang, drive down the Keys, pay your respect at Hemingway's mansion, have a drink or three at a sunset bar and stop for some palm-tree-enhanced R&R at The Moorings on the way back.

4. A long weekend on Harbour Island, a far-flung island in the Bahamas. The celebrity spotting is incredible, but the pastel-painted Caribbean architecture (above) is even better.

5. Sailing the Whitsunday Islands in a little Beneteau yacht. Ask one of the sea plane companies to pick you up on the way out to the reef and go snorkelling on the reef: one of the world's most magical places. I get inspiration just from swimming amongst the tropical fish for an hour.

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Feeling Blue: Why Navy Interiors Reflect Our Mood

Life, Interrupted...

In 10 days we are moving to a new home. We had intended for it to be an investment property, as we had hoped / planned to move overseas. However, life has a way of throwing a cul-de-sac at you, and so we've gone overseas and come back again.

 {Butterfield 8, via Apartment Therapy New York}

The reason(s)? It's election year in the US and so job prospects in US politics are slim (ironically.) RR has had interest from several political players (those not burying their coiffured heads in policies), but it's not enough to give up the great job he has here. Not just yet anyway. In addition, we're realised that his mother is at a stage where she will need more of our help, and may even wish to live with us, intermittently or full-time. (And she is more than welcome to do so.) And my parents would miss us, too.  So we're here for another year or more. Melbourne winter, and all.

The irony is (and I was ruefully cognisant of this as I walked around New York), I could happily go and live in the US tomorrow. I could begin work there immediately. And there is far more work for me than here. (Look at Liz in her lover's Fifth Avenue apartment in Butterfield 8. She looks happy, doesn't she? This is before The Lover throws money at her, of course, and she throws a tantrum back. And then runs out the door with a bottle of scotch.)

I could also happily settle into a little cottage in Connecticut. Especially if it had a little garden. {Photo: Connecticut Cottages & Gardens}

But the road seems to have forked unexpectedly, and we're now taking the left track in life, rather than the right one. (Or should that be, the left door, rather than the right?) I'm hoping the skewed route still gets us there eventually, but I have to admit the detour has made me a little contemplative. No wonder I've been sombre all week. No wonder I'm posting images of bathers. And beaches. And New York streets. Anything to distract me from the fact that I'm still here.

Have you ever given up everything for your family? Have you ever sacrificed your own career to put your loved people first? I have to admit I've never done it. I've moved when I've wanted to; taken jobs where I've wanted to; lingered in places (Paris, London, Key West) just for the sheer pleasure of it. But when you create a family, your life becomes theirs. And theirs becomes yours. It's difficult to herd a clump of family members to the East Coast of America, especially when they're quite happy here, thank you!

The upside is, we love Australia. We love our families. And we adore Melbourne. We also have a beautiful home to move into. So I'm going to console myself with a bit of decorating. (And perhaps a glass of something, too...)

The colour scheme I've chosen for our new living room? You guessed it. Benjamin Moore's New York State of Mind. Or as close as I can get to it with a beautiful navy blue.

What's that old saying? If you can't have what you want, be happy with what you've got? Gratitude is a great thing sometimes, isn't it?

“So be sure when you step. Step with care and great tact. And remember that life's A Great Balancing Act. And will you succeed? Yes! You will, indeed!” ― Dr. Seuss, Oh, The Places You'll Go!

{NB Have completely lost the sources of these images, possibly somewhere over the Pacific. Please let me know if you know, and I'll happily credit.}

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