Kathryn Ireland: a class act

Some of you may have read my little post about Suzani prints where I talked a little about the background of the pattern and share some examples of some of my faves....high end and low end. If you missed it...check it out here.

Kathryn Ireland

One of the high end examples of Suzani that I included were those amazing fabric prints of the ever-amazing Million Dollar Decorator Kathryn Ireland. I am always in awe of her fearless mixing of patterns and colors...her designs always look effortless. I truly enjoyed watching her on the first season of Million Dollar Decorator on Bravo....from that show I learned that she is a really dedicated designer and hard-worker and hysterically funny! In fact, if I wasn't an interior designer, the second best job would be to be Kathryn Ireland's housekeeper...she is privy to great clothes, great booze and lots of laughs for sure!

Kathryn Ireland

Anyway, I received a package in the mail last week and it came from Kathryn Ireland Studios in CA. I opened the package to find a beautiful box...too pretty to open...in fact, I didn't open it for a few hours because I am a sucker for pretty packaging! When I finally did cave in and open it, there was the most beautiful fragrant candle inside with a hand-written note from Kathryn thanking me for the fabric piece. I almost fell on the floor...ok, I did fall on the floor. My kids had to revive me and kept asking "what is so special about that candle?" Then I explained to them that when you admire and respect someone and their body of work and then they turn around and give you even the littlest acknowledgment, the feeling is just overwhelming. (That was my parental teaching moment...what I really wanted to say was "Shut up people...this shi* is from Kathryn Ireland bitches!!" But I realized that would have been totally inappropriate!)

The beautiful box and the handwritten notecard had pictures of Kathryn's three boys in a sunflower field as yougins' and on the inside..there was a photo of them all grown up.

Here's my little note...which means so much to little old me!

Truth be told, one of the reasons why I didn't pursue Interior Design after studying it at FIT was that the industry (at the time) was full of stuffy, pretentious people...at least that is how it felt. It seemed the better you were, the meaner you had to be. Those times have changed a lot since the HGTV era- design is more accessible so there are a wider variety of people utilizing the services and providing the service...not just the uber wealthy. Anyway, Kathryn Ireland renewed my feeling that you can be a super success, top in your field and still be nice to the little people.

I understand that Kathryn Ireland is not sitting up at night reading my blog, but somehow it came to her attention that I mentioned her and she took the moment or an employee of hers took the moment to recognize that. And for that, she is a class act. Sorry for the long post over a little candle but it meant so much more than just a candle. Plus...it smells RIDICULOUS.....as Kathryn states in the card included "La Castellane...handcrafted fragrance inspired by my Farm in France....basil, verbena with notes of lemon" it is absolutely divine! Thank you, Kathryn...I am infinitely inspired by you!