of course, when you’re an mus fan, owls are always de rigueur.

premiere tonight: abc-tv, 7pm memphis time.  dial 800.868.3405 to vote.

to celebrate today’s 45th anniversary of the film mary poppins (one of the best, sweetest movies ever!) mrs. jones would like to call out to her own personal imaginary magical nanny, jocasta innes.  whenever i am feeling (like young jane banks) a little stuck, frustrated, and/or panicked, the books i pull from the shelf for advice, techniques and color formulas are jocasta’s.  her knowledgeable presence comes through in every word of paint magic, the new paint magic, and decorator’s handbook (which are, of course, all the better when read to yourself in a keep-calm-and-carry-on british accent).

 here is a typical spoonful of sugar from paint magic (p. 173, rev. ed.):

“for any piece…of quality, or of potential to be developed, a really painstaking professional paint finish is the most substantial step toward the wished-for transformation.  slow it may be, but not boring.  there is a keen, sensuous pleasure, which experience confirms, in doing a thing thoroughly and well.”

so even if you choose to just go fly a kite today, or to feed the birds, please have a thought for nanny poppins and mrs. innes, and do it thoroughly and well.

this one, called “three’s a crowd”, had to come back to memphis with me:

grace, mary claire, and hampton.

grace’s mom had requested a couple of things for her walls, including something with a trad monogram and a bird, in pinks, greens and browns.  i hope grace will enjoy these.

(for the background on the monogram: a good old rocker-grainer tool.  the bird is from stencil 1.  the branches and leaves are bits of the stencil library’s cherry blossom # dr.2)(and of course it had to fancied up just a little, with some distressed gilding the edges of the board.)

brava to the brilliant elizabeth sheppard hurley and her associates at the met for making these saturday matinees available to us!  they’ve just announced the next season, and it is going to be fantastic.

(confession: naturally, my own wagers were determined based on the horse’s silks…i love seeing the post parade, and all those gorgeous colors.  

atomic rain: mrs. jones had her money on your vibrant pink and orange combination.  you looked magnificent out there.)

mylands is a miracle in a can.  it adds wonderful, mellow color and does all the things only a top-notch paste wax can do: restore, protect, shine, and of course give that wonderful feel and heavenly smell!  my lovely friends karen klawinski and katherine kaelin keep me stocked up…they carry mylands (in all three colors) at le cadeau, toad hall, midtown memphis. 

please excuse mrs. jones from work today.  it’s time to present my paper to the memphis woman’s club (est. 1890) on sister parish, her life, and her current relevance to interior design.  preparing to take my turn at the podium has been the best excuse ever for a total mrs. parish immersion, re-reading sister and digging up all kinds of facts and legends about the grande dame.  it’s also providing an opportunity to gush (in public!) just a little more over thomas jayne, a former parish associate (and mrs. jones’s ultimate design crush), since a conversation with him last year prompted my fascination with her.

mrs. parish’s influential signatures included glazed walls, painted patterned floors,  and lacquered and painted furniture.   she also was passionate about dachshunds, ropes of faux pearls and handcrafted treasures in crochet, patchwork and decoupage.  (are you all connecting the dots here?)  what’s not to love?

as sharpay evans says in “hsm 2″, “i need a little fabulous, is that so wrong?” 

but now it’s back to work and the real world.