Tuesdays With Tammy: On Fecundity

Yep, it’s a five-dollar word all right. Fecundity is the ability to reproduce. May your fecundity never be questioned, may your decision to reproduce or not reproduce ever be anyone’s but your own. This would be my silent prayer for the world. (more…)

Tuesdays With Tammy: Hoarder Collector

I LOVE my magazines…I couldn’t tell you how many subscriptions I currently maintain. The local Junior High sells scrips to fundraise, I’m telling you, it’s a win –win!

I particularly love my decorating magazines and how they use these incredibly witty headlines to describe decorating styles like: Clever Country, Beach House Bazaar and Metropolitan Minimalism…I had always thought my personal style could not be labeled until I saw the headline “HOARDER COLLECTOR.”

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Tuesdays With Tammy: The Art of Deference

def·er·ence (dfr-ns, dfrns)

n.

1. Submission or courteous yielding to the opinion, wishes, or judgment of another.

2. Courteous respect.

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Tuesdays With Tammy: The House That Built Me

I am home. I arrived on Sunday after a whirlwind two-week tour of Texas. I saw many friends and ate my share of Texas fare. . . my son said, “Mom, the French do pretty good toast, but I think the Texans do it better.”  To which my husband commented, “isn’t any toast you make in Texas, Texas Toast?” That thick sliced concept is lost on the Yankees.

The second half of my trip involved helping to break up my departed Mother’s house, the house I grew up in. I can feel your empathy coming through dear reader. . . and yes it was a bittersweet process in the best sense of the word. (more…)

Tuesdays With Tammy: Beautiful People Buy Art

“Color calls forth a vibration from the soul” says artist Wassily Kandinsky, “and art calls forth to me in many, many ways. . .”

I first heard about the artists of the Art-O-Mat from the “things I love” section of the Kate Spade website. The refurbished cigarette machine promised “kerplunking culture since 1997” and had me at the get-go. The plea “don’t go ‘round artless” spoke to my art collecting vibration. You might ask “what do I get from an Art-O-Mat,” well, the experience of pulling the knob alone is quite a thrill, but you also walk away with an original work of art. (more…)

Tuesday With Tammy: Granny’s Flags

My cousin Tammy is one of those magnetic personalities that people meet once and never forget. After eleven years, I still run into old friends who met her at our wedding, and without fail, they always ask about cousin Tammy. Maybe its because she’s wild and crazy fun, because she can be. Maybe its because she has always got her finger on the pulse of the next new thing, because she does. But I think it has more to do with her abundant love for people that is so ever present, you feel it from the moment that you meet her.  Tammy is the gem in my arsenal, and I feel so fortunate to be able to share her with you.  I have no idea what she is going to say from week to week, but trust me, that is half the fun.

“And on the third Tuesday we talked about regrets…” says Mitch Albom in the seminal book tuesdays With Morrie.

“Mitch”, said Morrie, “the culture doesn’t encourage you to think about such things as regret until you’re about to die. We’re so wrapped up with egotistical things, career, family, having enough money, meeting the mortgage, getting a new car, fixing the radiator when it breaks—we’re involved in trillions of little acts just to keep going, so we don’t get into the habit of standing back and looking at our lives and saying, Is this all? Is this all I want? Is something missing?” (more…)