Leslie signing her latest books “Salvage Style” A “Country Living” Book from Hearst; Sterling publisher. “Nantucket Cottages & Gardens” Skyhorse publishing.
My new book, “Salvage Style” has just been released by Sterling Publishing.. The subject is decorating with recycled and reclaimed materials. For the second time I partnered with Country Living Magazine. The first book with Country Living was Aged To Perfect. Salvage Style is filled with photographs and interviews with homeowners all over the country who are passionate about recycling and repurposing material and objects to infuse their homes with character. Read More
Custom designed 10-inch wedding invitation plate created from the original invitation and designed with cutout prints to reflect the flowers from your wedding.This plate was designed for a Nantucket couple getting married in Key West, FL. The flowers were part of the invitation and remind me of old-fashioned wallpaper. See more designs below. Call for custom order info. 508-221-5564 or email leslie@leslielinsley.com
This is Nantucket’ Stroll Weekend, an event that has morphed into one of the island’s big attractions. We go all out to take advantage of the fantastic backdrop of our island, not easily duplicated anywhere in the country, to put on a great show. When dusk falls on Friday evening and the trees are lit on Main Street I keep waiting for someone to shout, “Lights, Camera, Action!”
This event started as a community affair for the locals. But like all good things that are Nantucket, it was hard to keep it that way. And so here we are many years later, attracting visitors from near and far to join us in celebrating the season. In this spirit it might be wise to put away that “Bah Humbug Spirit” islanders sometimes adapt for events that involve the invasion of the “body snatchers” and get with it. Pick and choose your activities – there’s so much happening. There will be plenty of island, kick-back time after the weekend.
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I was in the Stop & Shop the other day and guess what? They’re already giving out red tickets! This is a sure sign that from now on we’ll be getting reminders that Christmas is coming. We just finished Halloween and the best and surely biggest parade ever on Main Street. This community really knows how to dress appropriately for any occasion and outdid themselves this year. It’s fun to see the parents, not just the kids, in costume.
Last week I told you about the neat leopard skin chairs I bid on at Raphael’s auction. No bargain comes without a price tag. Sometimes a dresser has one drawer permanently stuck shut. Sometimes chair leg is slightly wobbly. Those chairs I bought are sensational. But they smell musty. No problem, I thought. I’ll put them in the sun. I put them out in the morning and took them in at night for a week. They are very heavy which makes me love them all the more and even overlook the fact that they are a tad low. The smell is fading but I first gave them a spray of Fabreze which only gave them a perfumy smell – more odious than the musty smell. The Internet suggested vinegar. I did not like this idea. Now it is ten days and the odor is fading, and my “out in the sun,” routine goes on.
We all have things that make us nostalgic. When, for example I find a old box filled with buttons at a yard sale it makes me want them.
Since sewing is a lost art, most of us are reminded of a grandmother’s sewing box of implements when we see these things. I used to sew, not well, but well enough to turn an idea in my head into a real object for use. Mind you, it was only on the order of something like stitching one square of fabric to another, nothing wearable. Once, many years ago I took a sewing class at the community school. Of all the things I could have picked as a first project, the red satin evening coat was probably a very poor choice. First of all, it was impossible to make for a beginner. And second of all, where in the world did I think I was going to wear such an elegant garment? Perhaps I was living out some fantasy from another life.
I don’t remember if I ever finished it, but I know to this day I can not claim sewing as something I’m proud of although I do own two sewing machines.
They gather dust in a closet. Somehow I never got the hang of how that bobbin works. And forget about instructions. I never trust them even when they aren’t written in Chinese. But to this day I love sewing accouterments: buttons on cards and in baby jars a staple of every yard sale and junk yard store, old fashioned scissors called “snippers” from the 1930’s, tape measures made of silk and encased in metal, wood or celluloid from the 1920’s, pin cushions, needle packs with ornate labels with fancy fonts, patterns on yellow tissue thin paper and wooden spools of silk thread.
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When I travel I like to stay in one place for long enough to feel at home. Or, at least to get more of an impression of the place than you get from passing through. Having a home away from home is always better than staying at a hotel, if possible. Jon and I have rented dozens of houses, and apartments in lots of diverse places. We’re good at temporarily moving into other people’s homes and instantly, making them our own.
During the month of August we like being a tourist in someone else’s touristy town. It’s more fun than getting annoyed at tourists invading our own hometown of Nantucket. Feeling displaced has become less desireable than being a tourist in someone else’s town.
When you go to a place and settle in for a while you get to know a few locals. You frequent the restaurants, wander into the local bookstore perhaps, have breakfast every morning at the same diner, maybe even take an exercise or Yoga class. It’s fun to enjoy a normal routine doing normal everyday things, like shopping in the local market, only in a different place from home.
We are in Napa Valley, CA. Every day we do one thing that we don’t do at home. Yesterday we took a cooking class at the CIA. Jon thought he was going to spy school until I translated Culinary Institute of America. We had no interest in cooking but it was a very cool thing to do in a really cool building that looked like a medieval castle.
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