Let us be grateful to people who make us happy; they are the charming gardeners who make our souls blossom.
~ Marcel Proust
So happy and humbled that My Marrakesh was voted Best Blog in Africa in the 2012 Weblog Awards, the Bloggies. I'm so grateful for your support:-) Thank you!
Love,
Maryam in Marrakesh
Photograph taken by Delphine Warin. Information on the hand embroidered dress here.
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I was a different person before I moved to Marrakesh. Not a worse person or a better person, but a different person. I was passionate about my job in a way that took over my days and nights. There were presentations and papers and briefings and receptions and working dinners. Day after day, seven days a week. In between and sometimes all the time, there was travel, one country after another -- there the days repeated themselves but in different locations.
Before Marrakesh, I surrounded myself with people who were just like me. We would speak intensely about global issues and our international development work. We leaned forward a lot, and we talked with our hands a lot. Our conversations moved from conference rooms to diplomatic homes to airport waiting rooms to small villages. I liked it that way and that's the way it was.
And then I moved to Marrakesh and I changed.
I still loved my job. I still worried about injustice and rights and tyranny. But other things crept in along the edges. It was like a warm filtered light. It was like a starry sky despite the rain.
In Marrakesh I spent time with people who were nothing like me. Like writers and artists and photographers. Like people who made films and people who made rugs and people who made dresses. And I found....I found I liked it. I also found myself becoming more like them. I stopped dreaming about my work, night after night. I started dreaming about everything else, even during the day.
It was Marrakesh, yes it was Marrakesh. It was something about Marrakesh.
{Perhaps this is a tale of rescue. Or perhaps this is a tale of loss. In any case, it's a tale of new beginnings. Maybe yours is right around the corner.}
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Ah Lovelies, it's Valentine's Day. Could there be a better reason for making things pretty? I think not.
I set our table in the Peacock Pavilions dining tent, in honor of the special occasion, with objects culled from around the house.
A vintage sculpture study in porcelain.
Faceted vases made from Moet & Chandon containers. Branches from our own Moroccan olive grove. Porcelain leaves commissioned from Caroline Douglas.
Vintage German glove molds in porcelain.
Romantic antique Victorian porcelain figurines
Large vintage birds with long swishy tails and old Swedish Dirigold dessert spoons.
Happy Valentine's Day:-) Here's hoping you're spending it with someone you love.
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PS The Instant Love photography retreat is at our place and I set this table just for them! If you're a fan of Polaroid photography, their book is a must!
There's something about Morocco that gets under your skin. It's not because it's all lovely (because there's plenty of gritty, too). But it has a certain quality that's, well, unforgettable. Something like that song you can't get out of your head or that perfume that still lingers in the air or that boyfriend who continues to provoke feelings long after you've broken up.
Morocco stays with you.
It stayed with film maker Sofia Coppola. She came back to Marrakesh to shoot a new commercial for H&M and Marni. Filmed at my friend Freck Vreeland's house in the Palmeraie, with its beautiful pool designed by Freck's wife, Vanessa. {Freck said Sofia was the kind of person who could hear a sneeze from across the room and always said "Bless you"}.
Listen to Sofia's back story shooting the commercial here.
