thoughts for a friday.

tim walker.

well, readers we’re coming up on mother’s day, so i want to wish all the mummies out there a day of rest and repose (hopefully) for all your hard work, and a day filled with happy family memories. if i could send you all roses, i would. i was born on mother’s day, and lo and behold it’s my birthday again this sunday, so i’ll be celebrating in a slightly different way. as the years creep up i think about the women who inspire me. my own mum — she’s an interior designer who influenced my career path immensely — probably without me ever giving it proper thought or appreciation — i just soaked it all in like a sponge. i veered off my path a lot and more often than not took the least beaten one, but she’s always fully supported (if not simply just put up with) my random meandering. so, here’s to the mums today and here’s to some of the other fabulous women who inspire me. happy mother’s day and happy birthday to me.

page from then again; photo by Annie Leibovitz for vogue.

• have you read diane keaton’s book then again? it’s an insightful, and often poignant story of Keaton’s complicated relationship with her aging mother. Woven throughout the book are excerpts from the dozens of journals Keaton’s mother, Dorothy Hall, kept over the years. If you’re a Diane Keaton fan, you’ll adore her even more after reading this memoir.

hand lettering by lisa congdon.

• did you know julia child didn’t begin her career in cooking until she was almost 40 years old? Julia enrolled in a Los Angeles cooking school to prepare for married life, though she’d later admit her early forays in the kitchen were disastrous. see? it’s never too late to start doing what you love, and doing it the way only you can do it. she’s such an inspiration.

grace coddington.

• i adore grace coddington. she’s my favorite Fashion Editor, the Creative Director of VOGUE, but more than that she’s just a supremely creative, witty and intelligent woman so i always enjoy following her career antics from afar. i’ve mentioned it before, but she steals the show in the september issue so if you haven’t seen it, it’s a good mother’s day indulgence. eat bonbons and watch grace clobber anna wintour with her cleverness.

• have you ever listened to joni mitchell’s miles of aisles album? i have it on vinyl and it’s typically on my turntable saturday or sunday afternoons and i listen to it over and over. joni mitchell’s song lyrics are sublime. this is a live album and there’s one part where a guy in the audience yells out, “Joni, you have more class than Richard Nixon, Mick Jagger, and Gomer Pyle combined!” and she laughs really hard. she laughs this really great, infectious laugh and it might be one of my very favorite bits on the record. i love how a part of her audience she feels and that moment reflects it perfectly. you might like to listen to that this weekend, too.