Some words about styles: Stealing Magnolias

Here's the deal. I get an e-mail one morning asking me if I have read the new book Stealing Magnolias Tales From A New Orleans Courtyard, by Debra Shriver HERE
I answer, no, but I would love to.
The reply comes back: Where can we send you a book?

The French Quarter home of Debra Shriver
All the interior images are of her home via House Beautiful

Sometimes bloggers get asked to read and review books, and I just love to do this. So the next day via Fedex this lovely book appears on my doorstep. It's a luscious coffee table size book, with a retail price of $60. It is published by Glitterati and it's about New Orleans. I am in heaven.

As I leaf through the beautiful pages, I am sure I have seen some of these images before, and lo and behold they are different versions of an editorial in House Beautiful entitled "A Fabulously Feminine New Orleans home" HERE

The silhouettes on the shelves are of Debra and her husband
They had them made by a street artist in Paris

The interior design is by Hal Williamson, and the fabulously feminine owner of the home is described but never named. Now I know who she is! It's Debra Shriver the author of Stealing Magnolias.

As much as I love the editorial in House Beautiful, I love this book a zillion times more!

Debra and I share similarities. We are both New Yorkers who love New Orleans, and who now call it home. She lives in the French Quarter, and I lived in the French Quarter for the first fourteen months of my new life in New Orleans. She is a high powered business woman who has pretty much given up that life for New Orleans, and I was a high octane business woman who left New York and ended up finding my soul and self again in New Orleans. The back cover author photo shows a smiling blond, and ahem, I am a blond who smiles. Where does she end and where do I begin?

Seriously, Stealing Magnolias is a book I wish I had written about New Orleans, and perhaps it is the book I have been dreaming of doing. It is a wonderful gumbo of a book, combining interior design, cooking, New Orleans history, local customs, and all the wonderful things that make a powerful mojo voodoo charm that has made many a person move here and get lost in the layers that make up New Orleans.

image via Debra Shriver

Debra makes the Paris connection to New Orleans come alive in the most charming ways. She talks about day to day Parisian life style quirks commonly shared by the inhabitants of Nouvelle Orleans. Her home has trinkets and treasures brought back from Paris, fitting in perfectly in her French Quarter digs .

image via Debra Shriver

There is wonderful amount of information about the back stories and customs here in New Orleans that are just priceless. Debra's writing style is enticing and she draws you in with one heady description after another.

image via Debra Shriver

There is "Proust" style questionnaire like the one found at the back of Vanity Fair magazine that would be fun for you to take.

image via Debra Shriver

Here are my answers:

Occupation: Stylist, decorator, blogger, writer, tango dancer and tango teacher

The best thing about the city (New Orleans) is: The people, the music, the food, the style

My favorite meal: Oysters

My favorite (New Orleans) cocktail: Kumquat Champagne Cocktail

New Orleans is the only place in the world where: People say hello to you on the street

My favorite neighborhood: Every neighborhood in New Orleans, grand or humble has its beauty

The city's most marked characteristics are: The pursuit of pleasure

My favorite New Orleanian is: Miss Anne

If I had one free hour (in New Orleans) I would spend it: At Galatoires

My one New Orleans obsession is: Its beauty

I knew the spell of the city had been cast upon me when: New Orleans chose me to live here, by making the choice and transition effortless.

image via Debra Shriver

Buy this book. For yourself. For a friend. It is just one of those stunning volumes that come along once in awhile. Debra uses the best of the best writers and photographers and artists to enhance her book.

image via Debra Shriver

I have about every pretty picture book ever written about New Orleans and Stealing Magnolias stands out and above them all.

image via Debra Shriver

I plan to get several copies to give out as gifts, especially to people who still sometimes ask me why on earth I would want to live in New Orleans.

image via Debra Shriver

Stealing Magnolias is the book I wanted Vicki Archer and Carla Coulson to do, a sort of My French Life In New Orleans HERE
I wanted to co-write it with them.
I thank Debra Shriver for putting her New Orleans book first on her to-do list.

image via Debra Shriver

Meet Debra Shriver at a book signing and reading of Stealing Magnolias on November 27, 1 - 3 PM, at Garden District Books, 2727 Prytania Street, New Orleans. Tell her the Vamp sent you.

French Quarter Courtyard #1 - Before

So I get a Tweet a couple of months asking me if I was up for a styling job. I followed the Tweet to an email that led to phone calls that led to a most interesting job.

The premise was a progressive dinner party to take place in three French Quarter courtyards, a benefit for NOCCA (New Orleans Center for Creative Arts), in particular for the Culinary School.

Target was the generous sponsor, with the one request to use the Smith & Hawken product they sent for the party and for a photo shoot to be used for their various PR needs.

And send it they did! Over $35,000. of beautiful merchandise that the Target product designer and I chose to fit the personality of each of the three courtyards.

It was a complex and interesting project from receiving and organizing all the product in a hot New Orleans warehouse, to arranging for the home owners' things to be taken away and stored, to dealing with copious amounts of trash that all the packing materials created, and all the regular issues involved in planning a party, with everything done in triplicate!

Target and their PR team in New York were spectacular, the vendors in New Orleans impeccable, the French Quarter hosts stellar, generous, and helpful, and NOCCA was involved in the best possible ways.

It was the beginning of our record breaking heat wave in New Orleans, but that did not stop people from attending the sultry party, with nearly $60,000 raised in one night of fun for NOOCA!

Let's start with courtyard #1.

Courtyard #1 - Before

Small and charming, with the old servant's quarters balcony at my disposal. The home owners are avid collectors, and one of their collections is of copper pots and pieces in their kitchens. Target offered me product from their Smith & Hawken line, and there were many beautiful copper pieces to choose from.

I used Smith & Hawken zinc lanterns in all three homes, starting with this one, where they lined the narrow alley way that is the entrance to the courtyard. I chose to use wax battery operated candles for the whole project.

Smith & Hawken zinc lanterns from Target

Courtyard #1 was used for cocktails and hors d'ouvres. Fifty people were invited, and 58 turned up! Obviously this courtyard is too small for that amount of people, so the house was open to guests as well.

Patio furniture and dinnerware, glasses, flatware, and napkins from Target

I used Smith & Hawken copper rain chains to festoon the balcony rail

Planters and pots and lanterns from Smith & Hawken for Target

A Smith & Hawken hammered copper hose bowl was used for ice on the bar

Colorful fans rest in a Smith & Hawken copper boot tray for guests to take and use - a jazz brass band of student musicians from NOCCA played for the Second Line to accompany guests to the next location - Note the color of the fans...

On to courtyard #2, where dinner was served. The front entrance of each home was decorated with Smith & Hawken accessories from Target.

Wreaths and urns from Target

Courtyard #2 is long, and at first glance very large by French Quarter standards. But where do I put 50 people for dinner? I wanted this to be a seated family style dinner.

Courtyard #2 - before

So of course! I had an acrylic pool cover installed. That's precious real estate!

Acrylic pool cover by Event Rental

I placed Smith & Hawken teak tables on top of the pool! Host chairs are also Smith & Hawken, but I could not use the teak dining chairs to accommodate 58 people, so I rented bamboo folding chairs. I wanted to use a chair with a low top line so the Target product on the table could be seen and featured. I was wearing two hats: Product Stylist and Event Decorator.

Art of the Feast party designed by Valorie Hart

I added oversize tissue paper spheres everywhere! I chose hot spicy colors. The lovely courtyard is muted and monochromatic, and I wanted to inject a feeling of festive Summer fun by using color.

Over size tissue spheres

A garden of tissue spheres

For the table: I chose to leave the tables bare, to show off the gorgeous teak wood finish. I added Thomas O'Brien dinnerware from Target, and tea towels from Dwell Studio for Target for napkins. I love mixing the sophisticated pattern and color Dwell uses. More Smith & Hawken zinc lanterns were used on the tables, and ceramic pots (also S & H) were used for bright bouquets made by Tommy's Flower Shop in the French Quarter (533 Rue St. Louis, 504 522-65630.

Dwell Studio dish towels were used as napkins

Bouquets on the table by Tommy's Flowers

In another part of the courtyard, I replaced the homeowners lounge furniture with a fabulous teak set from Target.

Courtyard #2 - Before

There is an incredible terra cotta stucco wall in the courtyard, that gave me my color cue. I requested rusty orange cushions and umbrella. I mixed in navy blue accessories. I think orange and navy look so sophisticated and fresh together.

Smith & Hawken outdoor living room styled by Valorie Hart

The product designer asked that I incorporate garden tools along with the planters, furniture, and another accessories. Sure thing! I knew there were all these existing metal trellises in the flower beds, so I hung the tools on each of them. I think it made for a very pretty product shot!

Smith & Hawken garden tools styled by Valorie Hart

You can get all these pretty things at Target

A ton of ginormous planters were sent for each courtyard. I didn't have the budget to buy mass amounts of plants for them. So when I could, I popped the home owner's existing plants into the planters. When that wasn't possible, I "made" plants by using a few cases of cut lemon leaves and leather leaf fern stuffed into to Oasis floral foam. These florist fillers are often maligned, but I loved them because they withstood the annihilating heat!!!!

Cut greens were "potted" into oversize Smith & Hawken planters

Let's look at the courtyard again the day I went for the first walk through...

Art of the Feast - Before

And here's the same view on the night of the party. An extra table had to be added at the last moment for extra guests coming. I always go from plan A to Z with a smile. I had to pull a couple of rental tables from other uses, and juggle the seating arrangement. I visually pulled it all together.

Art of the Feast - After

But wait!!!! There's still one more courtyard to go to for dessert!!!! The guests walked two doors down for more fun.

Courtyard #3 - Before

Courtyard #3 belongs to someone many of us bloggers know and love. She's my fellow "New New" as she calls us, someone from New York and New Orleans. Her home was used for dessert. Again this third courtyard is a tiny gem, so a bar was set up there, and some seating for anyone wanting some sultry romantic ambiance. So the dessert buffet done by Sucre was set up on the dining table. Do you recognize it?

Dessert at house #3

I used garden ornaments from Smith & Hawken on the table: peacocks for whimsy, and mini birdbaths to hold macaroons.

Sucre did the macaroon topiary!

Small pastel bouquets were placed around the sitting room...Tommy's did these too (and all the flowers for all three homes).

Here's a total hint of whose house we are in!

Target handed out swell SWAG bags, that were placed all along the stairway

Of course I styled up the coutyard in this house too. The house is very French, so I chose things from Target accordingly.

Just to remind you of courtyard #3 - Before

Strings of copper shaded lights were festooned overhead, like the ones you often see in courtyards, restaurants, and even over narrow streets in Europe. Ceramic garden stools (from Target) took the place of larger furniture (and they have lights in the bottom!). Zinc lanterns were place around the courtyard. As night fell, I wanted the courtyard to twinkle, to be magical.

I had to "borrow" the linen covered table that was supposed to be the bar for the overflow of dinner guests at courtyard #2. So I used the owner's kithcen table as the bar, with a huge Smith & Hawken copper hose bowl for iced bottles of Proseco, and copper boot trays for glasses.

Courtyard #2 - After

Lights strung overhead were magical

French style peacocks, copper pots, zinc lanterns - all from Smith & Hawken

Styled for a product shot, but still cute for the party

Whew! Just reading all this and looking at all the pictures must have worn you out!!!!

I loved every minute of this project, and I hope you enjoyed a little insight into my work world, and I hope you got some good ideas to use for your next party. Do check out Target and get some of these things. The summer sales are in full swing, and there is still alot of summer entertaining to do.

And speaking of summer entertaining, go on over to Eddie Ross and read about his backyard bash. Alberto and I went to it a year ago!!! How fast another summer has rolled along.