I’m always looking for a good reason to go to New York! It’s all about the pulsating energy, the constant activity, the lights, the diversity, its fashion! Ah, yes, NYC is always so stimulating! There’s Broadway, the museums, the shows! That’s why I’m thinking I just might have to find a last minute cheap fare and head out the weekend of March 27-29, so I can catch the Architectural Digest Home Show. Sure I may not be able to afford to redo my kitchen with the very best designers that will be serving up advice at the show seminars, but I can at least be inspired!

Architectural Digest will have spaces that some of their top 100 talents (you know the ones that you read about in their magazine!) have created. And, oh yes, there will be food demos by celebrity chefs in those beautiful model kitchens!

The other reason I’m thinking about going is that some of our wonderful Artful Home artists will be there, selling their beautiful home accessories. The final lure for me is the DIFFA Dining by Design, the premier annual Aids fundraiser, that will feature spectacular table settings. A great way to support a worthy cause.

So it sounds like a trip across town to Pier 94 on 12th Ave. at 55th could be in order for me! Want to come along?

Kathi Collins
Director of Artist Recruitment

The Architecture of Happiness
by Alain de Botton
Photo courtesy of Pantheon Books

I’m reading the most wonderful book, The Architecture of Happiness by Alain de Botton. It is just published by Pantheon Books, and I suggest that you rush right out and purchase a copy.

De Botton attempts, quite successfully, to make the argument that beauty in architecture really does matter (even though the architectural field is wary of even discussing the topic of beauty). He eloquently makes the point that our homes, in particular, remind us of who we are. He states, “We need our rooms to align us to desirable versions of ourselves and to keep alive the important, evanescent sides of us.”

I’ve always felt that beauty is important in the rooms of our lives. I believe our personal spaces shape us as much as we shape them. The Architecture of Happiness helps me better understand why this is so.