Thank god it was polo season

I picked up Sibella Court's book Nomad from the library the other day. It has been giving me lots of LOLs. She has set out to inspire us to decorate our homes with items, colours, and ideas brought home from our travels. She points out, though, that you don't have to be able to physically travel to an exotic locale to be inspired by its local culture and aesthetic.

She encourages taking photos of things that catch your eye while traveling, of colours that stand out, etc. She encourages culling photographs before downloading or printing them, choosing your favourites. Then she recommends getting the prints developed as soon as you get home. I think that's great advice. Too often, I end up with a photo album full of prints that even I find boring, with some favourites mixed in, because I felt compelled to document each event and each site visited.

But it's her description of how she packs that gets me laughing.

She has a color palette for her clothing and calls it "Campaign." But my favourite bit is "thank god it was polo season." That's a keeper!

Later, in the Italy section, there is a picture of a bookshelf with some books and a clamshell light fixture. My eye overlooked the books and went straight for the light fixture. Awesome! A minute later, when Hugh happened to glance over my shoulder, he noticed it, too. It's just one clam, on a base, with a lightbulb between the top and bottom shells. It's small and rad.

I wanted more info about this clam light: is it homemade? Did she pick it up on her travels? The caption for the photo, however, only addresses the books. She painted the spines of the books with chalkboard paint, then wrote the titles in chalk. I'm sorry, what?!? You covered over the titles and rewrote them in a medium intended to be temporary? I just...sigh.