My Marrakesh

Because it's almost Summer, I bring you flowery carpets, I bring you colorful carpets, and I bring you lively carpets.....   Really. Find  all my beautiful hand picked stock at my shop, Red Thread Souk.  Afordable, and, yes! payment plans possible.

She sat next to me in the airport in Washington.  Our conversation went something like this: Her: So going to New York' Me:  Yes, in transit.  I'm actually going to Marrakech.  You know, in Morocco. Her:  Morocco'  Marrakech'  Wow!  That's amazing.  I mean, I think it's amazing.  I mean, I don't know for sure.  I've never been or anything.  What's it like'   And I tried to tell her then....

I was thinking what it would be like to have someone -- a stranger -- walk into your pottery studio in Kabul, in Afghanistan, when you were just about to leave. And to have this person, a woman, a foreigner, admire your work. The lines, the forms, the grace. And to then -- even though you are late -- decide to reach for the clay.   And change it. And at your potter's wheel...   quickly, so quickly.... have the clay grow until it is something else. Transformed under...

Here's wishing you a weekend of ridiculous behavior.   Call up friends, make plans, and be too silly. Decompress:-) Shots of Fatima during the Raven & Lily shoot at Peacock Pavilions.

Ever since she had come into our lives, she had made things better.  Michelle, our Peacock Pavilions Guest Manager.  I think the universe gave her to us, somehow.   And it was her birthday.  Well, not quite, but we were celebrating it anyway:-) We went away to Relais du Lac.  It was a place on Marrakech's barrage -- outside the city an hour or so.   The flowers were in bloom. And ducks milled around with people under thatched roofs. There was music....

She sat next to me in the audience of the Caftan 2013. Impossibly slim.  Diamonds on her fingers and wrist.  Her Gucci coat folded neatly in her lap.  Her hair falling like a river to her waist.  She leaned towards me and said, That used to be me on that stage for the Caftan fashion shows.   Oh, I said.  How did it feel, I asked' Perfect, she said.  And added, Of course.   I could only imagine...   Bewitching. Wouldn't...

Under a shower of crystal chandeliers, they floated down the runway.   The Moroccan caftans.  Each embroidered.  Each beaded.  Each bejeweled.  Each conjured up by one of Morocco's finest fashion designers. Painstakingly handmade in frenzies that took hundreds of hours.   I sat riveted.  I sat enchanted.  I sat, well, enspelled. You see, I was overcome by sheer beauty. Caftan 2013 was like the sublimest of dreams.  The kind...

The tickets to Morocco's biggest fashion show -- Caftan 2013 -- had been sold out for a year.  Everyone, yes, everyone, was waiting for it to begin. Today was the day. Backstage, the anticipation was beginning to mount.  There were the loveliest caftans -- Morocco's equivalent of evening wear -- waiting on hangers... Amazing pieces of Moroccan haute couture, upwards of $5000.  Each caftan more stunning than the next. The fabrics were sumptuous.... The...

It began about three years ago. The dreaming. I began to dream vividly ? all night, every night. My dreams began to wake me up, not just once but several times a night. They still do. Sometimes I dream that amazing things will happen to me ? opportunities so incredible that I want to jump straight into the air in happiness. I believe that these dreams are meant to encourage me. Sometimes I dream hurtful and horrible outcomes, replete with betrayals and lies. I believe that these...

It must be Spring time because I'm serving cocktails at Peacock Pavilions made with flowers and herbs from our organic garden.   *hibiscus flower cocktail with tequila  *lemongrass lemonade with gin *lavender lovely with vodka.  {to name just a few}   Every cocktail starts with a homemade simple syrup infused over low heat with the herb or flower.  It couldn't be easier but it's still special and unexpected. {So I know it's Monday but...