LA DOLFINA

With this house! I'm swooning even as I post these photos. *****sigh**** (Images New England Home Magazine via House of Turquoise) Click here to read about this amazing home.

I just acquired this painting at the Oakland Museum's annual "White Elephant Sale". (double click any image to enlarge) There are many different departments under one roof located in a gigantic warehouse. I like to refer to it as "The Harrod's of Junk". The Art Department is pretty fabulous! The reason for the odd angles of my photos is that I hung it on a large wall in our narrow hallway. What was originally a desperate attempt on my part to find a place for it,  turned out to be a most novel and unexpected surprise.  You see... we have a rather long walkway leading up to our entry.  One must walk by several windows on either side before arriving at the front door.  The painting is seen through the first set of windows on the right hand side, opposite a set of windows looking into our garage which we recently turned into our new coastal inspired, shall we say, "man cave".  It's so cozy when we are hanging out in there watching mo...

I did not do too much decorating this year, although I did add a few touches to our den where I've been spending a lot of time lately, especially since I began my blog. I love to collect anything that has to do with the sea. I guess if I could describe my style in two words, it would be chinoiserie and coastal. I found this small brass shell in Castel Gondolfo (the Pope's summer residence) in Italy where I attended my brother's wedding at The Vatican, several years ago. It was truly an amazing experience that I will never forget! I found these beautiful antique crystal sconces years ago. I was told they came out of the powder room off the ballroom in a grand old Piedmont home. My Mom found these at our favorite consignment store. I think they are renderings of costumes from a theater production, but I'm not sure. They came in these fabulous mirrored frames. We upholstered the walls in classic black & white toile and ...

  I thought a good way to start off my long awaited entry into the world of blogging would be to explain why I chose to call my blog La Dolfina. It all started with scoring a treasure... a strange looking creature that I couldn't quite identify. In fact, for many years, my husband and I debated about whether it was a dolphin or a koi fish. I'd always maintain that it was a sort of mythical dolphin and he'd insist I was wrong. Anxious to put an end to our argument, I went to the internet to find out once and for all what this exotic fish was called. As it turned out, I was right! It was, in fact, a mythical dolphin with a long and storied history. "Just as the Lion is the king of beasts, the Eagle the king of birds, so in similar heraldic sense the Dolphin is the king of fishes." My obsession with these mythical dolphins grew and continued to capture my imagination. I would delight each time I discovered a new one to add to my growing collection....