Marrakech: and a tale of a homemade New Year's Eve, Part 2

Well, New Year's Eve is not just about children, of course. And so the grownups had their New Year's Eve table in the Peacock Pavilions dining tent, too.  

In winter wonderland mode, there were handmade snowflakes hanging from the tent's roof.

And on the table, olive branches from our very own olive grove.

Peacock Pavilions intern Sarah, a florist in Salt Lake City, made these sweet napkin rings.  She also stenciled place mats on craft paper, using Royal Design Studio Moroccan stencils that were originally made for Peacock Pavilions!   I purchased the embroidered napkins in the Marrakech souks.  

 Crafty Peacock Pavilions intern Dave (Sarah's husband) crocheted these little capes for the Egyptian hand blown vases.

 

 We used our peacock plates that I bought at Anthropologie.  And Sarah made darling handprinted place cards, this one for Peacock Pavilions artist in residence, Todd.

Ah voila!

There were some delicious things on the menu, including smoked salmon and foie gras that lovely best friends had brought from France.  And of course a champagne toast.

But most of all there was laughter.  Because that's all a good party really needs, anyway, don't you think?

And then afterwards...........dancing at midnight at a Marrakech villa featured on the cover of Elle Decor. But that's a story for the very next tale....

Images by Sarah and me.

Marrakech: and a tale of New Year's Eve, Part 1

It was New Year's eve and we were having a tiny dinner party at Peacock Pavilions.  Intern Sarah made some decorating magic in our Moroccan dining tent, for both children and grownups.  

The small ones had their very own table, covered in craft paper.  Sarah stenciled the prettiest place mats for them, using Moroccan stencils from Royal Design Studio.  

My best friend had flown in from Geneva with her family for the occasion and brought darling chop sticks.

I had wrapped tins with old Rajasthani embroidered belts and Sarah, a florist, put in bougainvillea and oranges from the Peacock Pavilions garden.

The visiting violinist children were so happy that they broke into song.  Here's one.

And the visiting best friend? Well, she was impressed, too.  Or maybe it was just the violin:-)

Images by Sarah Winward and me:-)

Sakkara, Egypt: and a tale of Egyptian interior design & goodness

Well, it was all beautiful, of course:

the house tucked away in Sakkara Egypt....

the house's owner....

the furnishings....

the fixtures....

the art....

and the Egyptian garden?  Well, it was the stuff of dreams....

But the beauty that struck me the most was that of the house's owner, Rawah.  Because, you see, it was the beauty of the real kind - the inside kind.  She was currently embarked on an ambitious illustrated 5 book project on Egypt's secret lovely places, the first book on Egypt's Siwa oasis.  All for charity.  Funded by this generous Egyptian company, SODIC.  

I love meeting goodness, don't you?

Marrakech and Peacock Pavilions: a Moroccan decorating tale of evolution (or something like that)

I was thinking about how we all grow and change.  I was thinking about how different I am now from the person I was 10 years ago, from the person that I was 20 years ago. I was wondering about the person that I will become in 10 years and in 20 years from now.  Life, it all goes by so fast. I was wondering about how I could better become the person that I want to be.  More generous, more patient.  Less frenetic, lighter.  A better mother.  

We all evolve. Are we evolving in the right direction?  I wonder. 

 
Room of the Visual Voyager at Peacock Pavilions.  Vintage Algerian kilim with magic numbers, old hand embroidery around the doors bought on assignment in Kyrgyzstan, antique Buddhist temple painting from Thailand, vintage Shia'a print bought in the Marrakech souks. 

In the next few months, I am going to transform this room.  It's time to evolve it into something new.  I wonder what it will become?

PS I'm in Cairo on assignment.