Literary Castaway
Beauty is in the Eye of the Beholder
We're back from vacation, and I've got so many fun things to share with you in the coming weeks. But first, we're busy unpacking, doing laundry, answering emails, and settling back into our work routine. When we go on vacation, I carry a practical leather backpack - it serves as my travel purse. I wrote about it last year. It felt great to come home and shed the old black bag in favor of my best-loved purse:
Do you like it?
When my husband, father, brother, and sister-in-law saw it for the first time, they all told me it was U-G-L-Y! They couldn't understand why I would want to carry such a thing. But, I was in love with my oil cloth bag by Nanette Lepore, one of my all-time favorite designers. (The interior is lime green silk with her gorgeous label stitched onto the pocket). I love Nanette's glamorous-pin-up-girl-meets-bohemian-gypsy-style, and I long for the days when I have several Nanette Lepore pieces in my wardrobe. Her playful, feminine clothes with fun details are my definitio
n of great style. But until my clothing budget increases (and my dress size decreases), I content myself with wearing her delicious perfume and her ultra-cool accessories like my rare ebay.com find. "Don’t worry", I replied to my fashion-conservative family members: "Those who are in the know will KNOW that this bag is an ultra-cool designer original." And sure, enough, they do.
When I carried the purse while delivering bon bons to the costume department at the film studios, the costume designers went crazy over my bag. One woman even took a picture! Wanna, owner of Gigi’s Shoe Boutique ( 1051 Military Cutoff Road, Wilmington ) admires it every time she sees me. I even got a compliment once from a fashion-forward cashier at the Market Street Wal-Mart. I didn't need anyone's validation to wear the bag proudly, but I do have a good time sharing these compliments with my incredulous
family. Pascal has been with me a few times when my purse has become the object of someone's admiration, and he just shakes his head in disbelief! I suppose beauty truly is in the eye of the beholder. I've carried this bag so much and enjoyed its beauty for so long, that even I must admit it's beginning to look more shabby than chic. But rest assured that this beholder will keep searching for her next Lepore-inspired beauty!
Of course, we girls (and fun guys) in the South are not to be outdone. I know of several groups who are already planning to storm the Mayfaire Barnes & Noble in full Hollywood style - black dresses, pearls, tiaras, limos and all. Since our 
I'm an idea person. And I love to brainstorm. As Linus Pauling said, "The best way to have a good idea is to have lots of ideas." I try to keep myself surrounded by inspiration to keep those creative juices flowing. One source of inspiration comes directly to my inbox each day. The website is Idea-a-Day, Where Ideas Are Free. 
Our pink house is featured in the current issue (May/June) of Wilmington Magazine. You can pick up a copy and check it out for yourselves at 
When I give tours of our home, I often tell visitors about my desire to have French doors in our bedroom that look out onto our "secret garden" space. I half-jokingly say: "The day you see us on the Food Network, you will know that I have French doors in my bedroom." Here are just a few more of the home-improvement goals on my current desires list:
The Wild Parrots of Telegraph Hill
The Hobart Shakespeareans
I love singing at salons because the atmosphere is always colorful, creative, and fun. You just know that someone who names his hair salon "The Best Little Hair House" doesn't take himself too seriously. Read even more light-hearted salon names 
"In a good shoe, I wear a size six, but a seven feels so good, I buy a size eight."
As the Bon Bon Queen, one of my job responsibilities is to stay up-to-date on food industry news and trends. Most of the time, this task is extremely boring. Here are some typical headlines: Cocoa Demand Could Cause Prices to Rise; Tea Sales Expected to Grow Dramatically;and Rising Price of Corn Causes Companies To Look Back to Sugar (a piece on substituting sugar for corn syrup in recipes since corn is so expensive right now). Do you see what I mean? This is not exactly riveting reading material. But every once in a while, I stumble on a piece of food industry news so strange or interesting, that like this one, it's worth sharing:
There’s a restaurant called The Krazy Krab. Convenience stores like Kwik Mart, Kwik-E-Mart, and Kwik Stop (Is it really more convenient to write "k" instead of "q-u"?) 
Kute Kids; Kitty Kats Embroidery; Kwik Kuts Hair Salon (not to be confused with Kwik Kutz a few towns over or Kute Kuts in Myrtle Beach); Krystle Kleen Cleaning, A Kleen Finish and Squeek E Kleen (do they clean as well as they spell?); and then, my personal favorite, Krazy Kat Tattoo. (I don't know about you, but I'd be afraid to get a tattoo at a parlor that can’t spell the word "c-a-t").
There were many surprises in this fun, fast-paced romp, but for me, the greatest surprise of all was finding 