Survey results from my readers asked for more on antiques, trends, color, and travel. July provided me with the opportunity to do it all, well almost. Lots more travel comes for the September issue of my newsletter.

July festivities included the 4th Annual Summer Social for the design and furnishings industry. Held at the spacious Tribeca Rooftop it drew several hundred guests. Robert Allen Group, one of the industry sponsors, brought along lush samples of their latest Modern Library Collection.  

Editor-at-Large reporter Sophie Donelson interviewed several of us for our comments on the collection. Check out the segment for a closer view (of the party, the guests, and of course the fabrics!) I'm kind of at the tail end of the videotape. As usual I had a lot to say about color (in this case purple), pattern, motifs, and period references.

That led to Jolie Cross Cohen, VP of Marketing for Robert Allen, to invite me to continue the dialogue on their blog.  I poured over their latest Modern Library Collection at my leisure (if you can call a deadline for a weekly blog,in my case, an article, leisurely). What an opportunity to be a guest blogger pulling together my thoughts and observations of the stuff that invigorates me. My piece, Art Deco, Modern Library and All That Jazz combines several stories. Please share your comments on the blog Design Dialogue.

Now, back to travel, I'm sailing on a Celebrity Cruise as a Design Specialist Speaker. Many of the stops are to cities I visited before. I'm curious to know how differently I'll see these places through the eyes of an interior designer not through the eyes of the social worker I was decades ago. I'll let you know.