Today I started to design some new product with my mother's many silk ties she'd accumulated over the years. She'd started making crazy quilt pillows out of them. I'd helped her collect them, this was something we did together.

Neither one of my sisters wanted the ties, so I carted them home, 8 large containers full, overwhelming really. But there was something there in all those pieces of fabric that was compelling. Beside all the beautiful patterns and colors there are the memories of all the men who wore them, who worked in them, spilled soup on them, looked at themselves in the mirror as they tied them every morning. There were lives in those ties. They represent a previous world where a lot more of us dressed up every day.

And now ironically they will be worn mostly by women in some new reinterpreted way. They swirl before me now, making me giddy with all the creative possibilities. I haven't been this happy in a long time :)

So here's to old memories and new creative passions and prospects. May they ignite our souls and carry us to new heights.