Ask Monica
Make a New Years Resolution That Inspires You
ASK MONICA: In my experience, New Years resolutions are much easier to keep when they’re from the heart. This year I’m resolving to organize and make visual sense of the files filled with cards from museum shows and galleries, old postcards, color palettes, et cetera that I’ve accumulated and kept in folders for years by creating a scrapbook.
Six Habits of Meaningful Holiday Gifting, Continued
ASK MONICA: Yesterday we discussed ways to put extra thought into your gift-giving this season. Meaningful, emotional gifts will be remembered long past the last round of thank you cards. As you embark on your quest to find the perfect present, here are a few more tried-and-true ideas to spark your imagination and direct your search. Read on…
Six Habits of Meaningful Holiday Gifting
ASK MONICA: Everyone loves holiday gifts, but there’s nothing that will set yours apart from the rest like learning to invest that additional thought into your selection. Meaningful, emotional gifts are the ones that will be remembered long past the thank you card. As you embark on your quest to find the perfect present, here are some tried-and-true ideas to spark your imagination and direct your search.
Making the Mantel an Open Canvas
ASK MONICA: As I discuss in my book Living With What You Love, the mantel is an open canvas. It’s a place to place your collections and keep the conversation going around the hearth. Your mantel can be as formal or as casual as you deem fitting for your home’s personality, just as the collections you display on a mantel can be as simple as shells from your nearby beach or as complicated and sophisticated as highbrow works of art. Here are some creative ideas to try—in your living room, bedroom, anywhere—right now.
Creating Atmosphere with Vintage Luggage
ASK MONICA: Vintage or reproduction steamer trunks are a romantic and anachronistic relic of nineteenth century travel. Nowadays, they are best used as a more interesting alternative to your basic storage containers. Unlike the sort of utilitarian plastic boxes you hide under a bed or in a closet, antique luggage and trunks are something you want to put out for everyone to see. They can be used to create atmosphere in a room, whether piled high in stacks or placed singly on a shelf.
The Art of Thanksgiving Table Settings
ASK MONICA: Many holidays are focused around the ritual of sharing a meal with family, but at no other time is there perhaps as much focus, metaphorical and literal, on the table itself as at Thanksgiving. Hosting a Thanksgiving dinner, whether formal or casual, is always an opportunity to refine the art of table setting. I’d like to share a few of my favorite ways to make one’s table shine, this season and forever.
Objects That Make You Slow Down and Savor Time
ASK MONICA: What’s in our home can help us better savor the precious hours and seconds of our lives. Recently I picked up a vintage rotary phone. To use it, you need to sit down to dial. It reminds me of the classic TV shows like I Love Lucy or a long time ago, when our grandparents were on the telephone. In those days, the phone often had a sacred spot in a hallway with two chairs beside it…
The Art of Informal Photo Displays
“What are some moveable, changeable alternatives to photo albums and frames?” I’m a big advocate of the informal photo display in one’s home—not for your archival photographs, but for your colorful snapshots. The trick is to think creatively about your everyday furniture and objects and turn them into opportunities to gallerize and display your photos in a clever and more interesting way. Remember: quite often it’s about the fun of having the pictures at arm’s reach, not about putting them away in a leather-bound album (though that has its place too!)
How To Display Books In Your Home
“How can I display my huge collection of books in a more artful manner?” When I enter someone’s home and don’t see books, I feel something is missing. Books should not be hidden, but should be out in the places you share with your friends and family. There’s a quote from GK Chesterton: “A room without books is like a body without a soul.”
Unconventional Uses for a Locket, Part II
ASK MONICA: “What are some unconventional uses for a locket?” Yesterday we discussed using lockets to store vacation photographs, partake in wedding rituals and wrap gifts. Today, I show you how a locket can become a conduit for everything from self-motivation to fashion and style.
About Monica & MRKStyle.com
While there are many sites today dedicated to the pursuit of jewelry, fashion and style, here at MRK Style we approach these subjects through a collector’s lens. Through exploring how people relate to Jewelry, Art, Family, Fashion, Food, Film and Travel—essentially life’s various, everyday obsessions—we reflect on how we all live with the things we love. Learn More
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