Quintessence - My New Daily Beauty Ritual

To the dismay of my Mother Joan,  despite all her gentle tutoring, my thumb remains brown, in fact, it is acid etched.  Whenever she visits, she re-pots, prunes and waters  my plants and orchids, trying to will them back to life...to no avail.  Some years back, I received a gorgeous tome on orchids.  The cover was certainly lovely, so I plopped it on top of some of the decorative books that are nestled under a coffee table in my living room.  Last weekend, we went through our usual ritual.  When I noticed her rapture, reading the orchid book, I insisted she take it home... where it belongs.

Next up on the pile, was a book I purchased in April of 1987  at Sotheby's. I had the good fortune to attend one of the preview parties, for the extraordinary auction of the Dutchess of Windsor's  jewels.  I  sat mesmerized leafing through this spectacular catalog of avant-garde jewels and objects, that chronicled the love affair of the Duke and Duchess. This uniquely beautiful collection  reflected the best of quality and design from both Cartier and Van Cleef & Arpels.  The French it seems,  always appreciated style and welcomed the Duke and Dutchess of Windsor, as if they were their own.  All of this is a round about way, of telling you about a gorgeous Lifestyle Blog called Quintessence-Living with Style and Substance,  written by Stacey Bewkes, who I recently had the pleasure of meeting through my friend Linda Levy.