Earlier this week I had the pleasure of meeting Decor8 blogger and best selling author of Decorate, Holly Becker. New York was the very last stop of her US book tour and although mother nature almost interfered by giving us a earthquake and then a hurricane, Holly made it to NYC safe and sound.
I've been reading Holly's blog for years, long before I started Fabulous Doodles. I've also taken Holly's class Blogging Your Way, not once but twice! So needless to say it was a thrill to finally meet the lovely lady herself. Anthropologie hosted the event in their Soho store, which started off with a presentation by Holly on assembling a successful mood board.
A funny thing happened, during the presentation Holly talked about the importance of including key fabrics for color, texture and pattern to set the tone. She used a gold and pink swatch as an example of a fabric she loved and treasured. What's so crazy is that I had sent her that fabric about 5 years ago! At the time Holly had asked her readers to send any extra fabrics and trims they had to put together swatch packets as a giveaway. I was working as a designer and stylist and had an entire studio space filled with fabrics and notions so I sent her a nice big box and that swatch was one of them! I had bought it from Mood and used it on design boards for Seventeen and CosmoGirl. I remember it so well because I, like Holly, loved it too and had a big piece up on my office inspiration board.
After the mood board demo drinks, hor derves and cookies were passed around while everyone mingled and the book signing began. Holly mentioned a group was going for drinks after so I hung around waiting for the singing to finsih while having a great time getting to know Rashan Carraway, aka Mr. Goodwill Hunting and Mayne Richardson.
We had fun and did a little impromtu photo shoot around the store before heading over to the Soho Grand for cocktails with Holly and friends. (Including Paul and Marcia Zia Priven, Cristina Batch-Lee of Etsy, Abby Jacobs of West Elm, fellow fashion illustrator Samantha Hahn, stylist Raina Kattelson, and Brett Bara.) It was so nice chatting it up and getting to know such a creative group of people.
If you haven't already, you should go go pick up Holly's book Decorate. Its a fantastic visual guide to decorating and making your space uniquely yours. The book also has stunning images and tips from designers such as Jonathan Adler, Nate Berkus, and Vincent Wolf.
