The Last Time I Saw Ferriss

Author: Kirsten K., Books, Literature, Nostalgia, Synchronicity

As I’ve mentioned before on this blog, one of the things that Kirsti and I find the most swoon-worthy is synchronicity—when the stars align to create a situation so perfect and unexpected that you could not possibly have planned it yourself. You know what else is swoon-worthy? Laziness. Whenever possible, I believe in following the three Rs: reduce, reuse, recycle—reduce stress, reuse ideas, recycle posts. Two years ago today I experienced one of the best, if not THE best, moments of synchronicity in my life, which I wrote about at the time on my personal Facebook page. In celebration of anniversaries and laziness, I am lifting the veil of my privacy settings and sharing the story here. Enjoy!

When I decided last year that I wanted to shed some weight before my trip to Paris, I started out by following Tim Ferriss’s Slow-Carb Diet. I’d read about it in his book The 4-Hour Body, and what he said about diet and weight loss made perfect sense to me. In fact, everything Tim Ferriss says makes perfect sense to me. I read his first book, The 4-Hour Workweek, years ago and found it to be surprisingly funny and eye-opening. He is the quintessential outside-the-box thinker who simply does not look at the world the way most people do. He’s always searching for a new angle. As someone who usually lives inside the box and always plays by the rules, I aspire to be more like him. He is one of my heroes.

I’ve thought about him off and on during the year-and-a-half since I started the diet, particularly when I was trying to brush up on my French for the Paris trip. Tim has an avid interest in language acquisition and has created his own method for becoming functionally fluent in any language in just a few months. I also visit his blog from time to time, because it’s packed with information on a wide range of topics, always with some fresh insight or cutting-edge discovery. However, I haven’t thought of him much in the past year until recently. Knowing that I’m a fan of Tim Ferriss, my friend Prashanta, who likes to listen to Joe Rogan’s podcast, The Joe Rogan Experience, recently sent me links to a couple of podcasts Tim did with Joe, which I listened to shortly before I left for my latest trip to Boston. Given that each show is two+ hours long, listening to them brought Tim vividly back into my consciousness.

I thought about him again while I was packing for the trip. He travels frequently and has lived for extended periods of time abroad. I don’t know if or where he has a permanent residence and have no idea of his movements, since I don’t follow him on Facebook or read his blog regularly. He’s written about how he packs and prepares for a trip and how he gets to the airport. Everything this guy does is about being quick and efficient and doing the minimum amount of work for the maximum result. Looking at my large suitcase and assortment of clothes, I thought, “I need to be more lean and mean like Tim.” He only travels with a carry-on and gets in and out quickly.

I also thought of him right in the middle of my trip, when I was having a personal issue that I considered trying to explore through lucid dreaming. Since I hadn’t read anything new on the topic for a while and I’ve had difficulty in the past with inducing lucid dreams, I did a Google search for “how to have a lucid dream.” I shouldn’t have been surprised that one of the first results to pop up was a link to a post on Tim Ferriss’s blog about the subject. He mentioned Stephen LaBerge from The Lucidity Institute at Stanford (I’ve participated in their at-home experiments for more than 20 years) and gave some induction tips. Nothing new, but I thought it was interesting that he was knowledgeable about lucid dreams. Is there anything that gets by this guy?

During the trip I saw that a friend of mine had commented on a Facebook post about a book called E-Squared: Nine Do-It-Yourself Energy Experiments That Prove Your Thoughts Create Your Reality. I was intrigued by the title and immediately purchased the ebook. I scanned the experiments and they seemed simple enough, so I figured it couldn’t hurt to try them. I was also hooked by the introduction, which gave remarkable examples of synchronicities in the author’s own life, as well as some of the scientific evidence behind the idea that we are creating our lives through our thoughts, expectations, and beliefs. I decided to try the first experiment.

Simply stated, the experiment involves giving the Field of Infinite Possibilities 48 hours to show you proof of its existence. That’s it. You simply make a statement that you want a clear sign—that cannot be written off—that there is a “loving, abundant, totally hip force in the universe” that connects everything and is responsive to your thoughts. I read this on a Thursday and decided to start the experiment that afternoon. I made my statement that I wanted clear, unmistakable, unambiguous proof of the existence of this energy field. The 48 hours would expire on late Saturday afternoon, which is when I was leaving to come home from the trip.

I went about my business and noted after 24 hours that nothing had happened, but there was still time. Early on Saturday afternoon I remembered the experiment. I’d unexpectedly turned a corner in Boston the day before and come across Max Brenner’s restaurant, and I wondered if that might have been my sign. I’d made a pilgrimage to his restaurant in New York [because chocolate] and didn’t realize there was one in Boston, so it was a surprise to see it, but then I decided it couldn’t be the sign. I’d asked for something unmistakable, so I wouldn’t have to wonder whether or not it was my sign.

After that, I was too busy driving to the airport, going through security, and getting on the plane to think about the experiment again. The 48 hours expired sometime during the flight, but I was focused on the experience of flying and on the audiobook I was listening to, so I wasn’t even thinking about it. I was sitting in an aisle seat and had been listening to my iPod with my eyes closed, but I opened them to see someone coming down the aisle toward the restroom at the back of the plane. I felt a spark of recognition, but then the person looked up and I locked eyes with him for a second. It was Tim Ferriss.

Tim FREAKING Ferriss was on my plane! My little, single-aisle 757 flying from Boston to Los Angeles at 4:30 pm on a random Saturday afternoon in October. I was utterly dumbstruck. I actually put my head in my hands, because I could not process what I’d just seen. He went back to his seat toward the front of the plane and I didn’t see him for the rest of the flight, but I was in a daze. I’d gotten my sign in the form of Tim Freaking Ferriss. It HAD to be.* I thought about walking up there and telling him my story, but I couldn’t bring myself to do it. I am not the type of person to approach celebrities or public figures to talk with them, and I have a fear of meeting my heroes and finding out that they are rude or disappointing. But this story was too good! What to do? I decided that I would send him an email, even though I’d read in The 4-Hour Workweek that he checks emails as infrequently as once a week and most of them are vetted ahead of time by his staff. Still, it was either that or do nothing. I knew that I wouldn’t see him at baggage claim, because he only brings a carry-on when he travels.

When the flight landed and passengers started filing out, I looked for him in the aisle, but never saw him. By the time I got to baggage claim, there were people crowding around the carousel, so I went and stood near a tall, 30-something guy to wait for my bag. A minute later, Tim Freaking Ferriss walks over and starts talking to the guy. Turns out it’s the friend he was traveling with. O.K., Field of Infinite Possibilities, you’ve got my attention. My heart was racing. How could I possibly approach him? I was trying to work up the courage when he walked right past me, so I called out his name. He turned and said, “Yes? And who are you?” We shook hands and I told him my name. I said that, as he might have surmised, I had read and enjoyed his books. I told him that I didn’t want to disturb him while he was waiting for his luggage, but that I’d like to tell him a story I thought he’d find interesting.

I related my tale and he was very attentive. He was gratified that Prashanta had sent me the links to the Joe Rogan podcasts. He said he hadn’t explored lucid dreaming for a while and really needed to get back into it. When I told him about all the ways he’d been on my mind recently and then about seeing him walk down the aisle of the plane, he replied, “You’re thinking, ‘Man, I can’t get away from this guy!'” From anyone else, that would have been mildly amusing, but it was Tim Freaking Ferriss, so I thought it was HI-larious.

The reason he was standing at baggage claim with his friend is that they were waiting for several boxes of equipment. Evidently, he was in town to film something (probably for his new TV show [The Tim Ferriss Experiment], which I just found out will be debuting in early December). I said, “This is just so odd. When I think of everything that had to coalesce for you to be on my plane… I mean, I don’t know about you, but I booked this flight months ago.” He said that it was very strange, because he never flies from Boston to L.A. In fact, before I’d called out his name, I overheard him say something to his friend like, “I think we took the wrong flight.” He seemed to be implying that they’d booked an earlier or later flight than they’d intended. In any case, weird!

I said to him, “Well, I know you didn’t play any conscious part in it, but thank you for being my sign.” Then I asked him if he would indulge me by allowing me to take his picture—a sort of “proof of life” for the folks back home. He graciously posed for me, making a double thumbs-up. The picture is a little blurry, but the message is crystal clear: I got my sign and it was unmistakable and unambiguous. I met my hero and he wasn’t an idiot or an asshole. Now it’s time to explore those infinite possibilities…

In the two years since my close encounter with Tim Ferriss, I have had several more experiences of synchronicity, including three that were nearly as remarkable. I’ve also explored a number of possibilities, some of which culminated in the creation of this blog. I hope my story will inspire you to think big and expect the unexpected. The Field of Infinite Possibilities is just waiting for you to make your move.

Stuff Worthy Of Our Notice™ in this post:

Tim Ferriss

The books in the 4-Hour series can be purchased from Amazon. All 13 episodes of The Tim Ferriss Experiment are available on iTunes. Be sure to check out Tim’s entertaining and informative podcast, The Tim Ferriss Show. E-Squared can be found at Amazon and Barnes & Noble.

*To those people thinking, “Coincidence!” I offer up one of my favorite quotes from Kirsti: “I hate skeptics, because you never get to experience the joy of seeing their eyes light up over something you’ve said.” Also, consider the number of flights that take off and land each day in the U.S. alone and try to calculate the odds that we’d both be on that particular plane.

Colorful Characters

Author: Kirsten K., Books, Literature

When Dressgate went viral back in February, it ignited a discussion about perception across the Internet. People were realizing that the world as they see it does not always match the way others see it. I learned this lesson several years ago when I discovered that most people do not perceive something very basic the way I do. I have grapheme → color synesthesia, which is a fancy way of saying that I see letters and numbers in color.

A B C, it’s easy as…red, blue, green. My synesthetic alphabet.

Grapheme → color synesthesia is the most common form of synesthesia (“union of the senses”), which means that some of you reading this post likely have it. If so, you probably also thought it was normal and not worth mentioning to anyone for much of your life. When I finally started talking to people about it in my 20s, nobody I spoke to had ever heard of such a thing, but in January of 2002 I happened to catch a segment on 60 Minutes II called A Sixth Sense and everything fell into place. Finally, I had a name for this condition and realized that others were having a similar experience. While I see letters and numbers in color, some synesthetes taste words or feel music as a physical touch on their skin.

This box of crayons is “Patient Zero” in the development of my condition.

I’ve read repeatedly that synesthesia runs in families, but nobody in my extended family seems to have it. Although many of the colors I see can be traced to a large box of Crayola crayons that my sister and I shared as children, she did not acquire the condition. This was about the time I was learning to read and write, so I’m certain that the association between letters, numbers, and colors was formed during this crucial phase of development.

People are often confused when I say that I see letters and numbers in color, and I find myself at something of a loss to explain. I can see the actual color of these gray letters against a white background as I type, but the individual colors are there too. It’s a mental overlay, and yet that is too simplistic an explanation. More than just seeing with the eyes or with the mind, it’s a knowing. I somehow know that 8 is red and S is dark blue. It’s strange to contemplate that other synesthetes see these numbers and letters differently. How could 5 be anything but purple?

These numbers are colorful characters in both senses. Each has a personality.

Aside from making the world a more colorful and interesting place, the primary benefit of having synesthesia for me has been in the area of memory. I find it easy to remember names, phone numbers, and dates, because of the color impressions they create. As a result, I have unintentionally memorized more than a few Social Security and credit card numbers over the years. I also love to look at license plates and street numbers as I drive or go for walks, because it’s fun to see all of the different color patterns.

In the years since I first heard the term, synesthesia has become popularized through the TED Talk and New York Times Bestselling book Born on a Blue Day by autistic savant Daniel Tammet, who has several types of synesthesia. I encounter more and more people who are familiar with it, including one young woman who, as a child, physically saw letters and numbers in color before the experience became more of a mental perception as she grew older. Only recently, I discovered that other experiences I have always taken for granted are also forms of synesthesia: chromesthesia (seeing colors when musical notes and/or keys are being played), spatial sequence synesthesia (perceiving months and dates in space), and ordinal linguistic personification (associating numbers, days, months, and letters with personalities).

But I’m not going to get into the science of synesthesia here or expound on every little detail of my experience with it. I’d rather you take a moment to consider your own perception of everyday matters. You may find that your world has a richness beyond the norm and that you have something important to contribute to our understanding of the brain and consciousness so that we can all lead more colorful lives.

Stuff Worthy Of Our Notice™ in this post:

Synesthesia

Find out more about Daniel Tammet on his website. Born on a Blue Day can be purchased from Amazon and Barnes & Noble.

A Legend, in Her Own Time

Author: Kirsten K., Books, Fine Art, Literature, Nostalgia, The Arts

Today would have been the 100th birthday of beloved children’s book author and illustrator Tasha Tudor. During her long and fruitful career, she illustrated nearly one hundred books and produced thousands of original paintings, many of which have been turned into cards and prints. Her work is highly sought after by collectors, but—despite having received numerous awards for her books and critical praise for her art—Tasha’s personal life began to eclipse her artistic life when she became equally, if not more, famous for her 19th-century lifestyle.

Unlike many children who grew up in the second half of the 20th century, I was not raised on Tasha Tudor’s books. It wasn’t until the late 1980s that I was first introduced to her through the pages of Victoria magazine, which has done a number of features on Tasha’s life and work over the years. I became captivated by this artist and author who, with her talent and resources, could have enjoyed every modern convenience, but chose to live her life as a woman of the 1800s.

Beginning with The Private World of Tasha Tudor, a series of books about her lifestyle was released in the early 1990s with elegant photographs by Richard W. Brown showing Tasha going about the daily business of milking her goats, cooking on a woodstove, spinning wool into thread, and quilting in front of the fire. Blurring the line between life and art, she found beauty in the simplest tasks and once said, “I’ve never worked a day in my life!” Convinced that she’d lived before in the 1830s, Tasha said that everything from that period came easily to her. She seemed to excel at any craft she attempted, whether basket making, woodworking, knitting, or weaving, but her favorite pastime was gardening.

Tasha lived in rural Vermont in a house that was built by her son. Although constructed in the 1970s, her home was modeled on a 230-year-old house and erected using hand tools, so it looked—like Tasha herself—as if it belonged to another century. The magnificent garden she cultivated on her vast property was her pride and joy. It was celebrated in the book Tasha Tudor’s Garden by Tovah Martin and featured on an episode of the ABC news program Primetime Live in 1997. She called it “Paradise on earth!”

Although she was in her early 90s when she passed away in 2008, Tasha never lost her childlike spirit and sense of wonder. She had a lifelong love of marionettes and dolls, and the contents of her immense dollhouse were put on display at the Abby Aldrich Rockefeller Folk Art Museum in 1996. Christmas was her favorite holiday, for which she began preparing months in advance. She wrote and illustrated several Christmas books and created annual holiday-themed images to be made into Christmas cards and Advent calendars.

Tasha also had an affinity for animals and was especially fond of birds and Welsh Corgis. She produced a popular series of books about the fictional town of Corgiville and christened her home Corgi Cottage in honor of her beloved dogs. Animals appear frequently in Tasha’s art, which she drew from life. With inspiration all around her, images of Tasha’s home, garden, children, pets, and household items can be found in the works of art she created by a window in a small corner of her kitchen.

Tasha Tudor 7 Tasha’s conversation was peppered with quotes from books she’d read or people of note. Her favorite came from a letter written by Fra Giovanni in 1513 and included the lines: “No peace lies in the future which is not hidden in the present moment. Take peace! The gloom of the world is but a shadow; behind it, yet within our reach is joy. Take joy!” It is from this quote that the titles Take Joy! The Magical World of Tasha Tudor and Take Peace! A Corgi Cottage Christmas were taken for a pair of short documentaries about Tasha’s life.

While she enjoyed quoting others, Tasha was highly quotable herself. She once said, “I think I’ve done a good job of life,” which is more than evident to anyone who has read her books, seen her paintings, or had a glimpse into the idyllic world she created in the New England countryside. A believer in reincarnation and the fluidity of time, she declared, “When I die, I’m going right back to 1830.” For all we know, she’s there (or, rather, then) right now, tending her garden and gathering wood for the stove.

Later today, I plan to enjoy afternoon tea—a daily ritual for Tasha—with a slice of cake made from her “receipt” book to celebrate a woman for whom life itself was a work of art and whose indomitable spirit didn’t let a little thing like the 20th century interfere with her desire to live in the mid-1800s.

Happy 100th Birthday to Tasha Tudor: a legend, in her own time.

Stuff Worthy Of Our Notice™ in this post:

Tasha Tudor

Books by and about Tasha Tudor can be purchased from Amazon and Barnes & Noble. For original art, prints, rare books, and other Tasha Tudor collectibles, visit Cellar Door Books. Join the Tasha Tudor Society to learn more about her life and art.

You 6E Thing

Author: Kirsten K., Books, Literature

You 6E Thing 1 During the past year, I have been swooning over a pair of novels about a beautiful, young woman with a tragic past…who just happens to spend most of her time fantasizing about ways to kill people. The woman’s name is Deanna Madden—aka The Girl in 6E by A. R. Torre. The book was a Top Pick in RT Book Reviews and, since they rarely steer me wrong, I got a copy shortly after it was released last summer.

Deanna is the narrator of her story, and she brings the reader up to speed right from the outset. She has voluntarily sequestered herself in apartment 6E to protect society from her murderous urges. Her only physical interaction with the outside world is to speak through her door to the addict she pays in drugs to lock her in at night and the UPS guy who delivers the necessities of life that she orders online. To support her unusual lifestyle, she works as a sex cam girl, offering virtual thrills to everyone from the computer hacker she hires to shield her true identity to the therapists she consults off the clock about her deadly obsession. She has made the best of her situation for three years until events conspire to lure her out of her safe haven…

You 6E Thing 2 When I read The Girl in 6E, I thought it was a standalone novel, but a sequel was released in April and received another Top Pick from RT. I found the first book thrilling, but Do Not Disturb had me on the edge of my seat—or, rather, the edge of my street. I listened to the audio version on my nightly walk and was so caught up in the story that I would often take another turn around the block so that I could keep “reading.”

For someone who doesn’t get out much, Deanna certainly leads an exciting life. The sequel picks up right where The Girl in 6E ends and it is a wild ride with several unexpected turns. Instead of Deanna heading toward danger, danger is now headed for her, and we get more insight into the other characters in her orbit. Despite the tense and sinister events of the novel, there is an amusing note at the end of Do Not Disturb, which makes it clear that readers owe a debt of gratitude to the author’s husband. It turns out that A. R. Torre’s imagination is, at times, even darker than her protagonist’s, and we have her husband to thank for pulling her back from the brink.

You 6E Thing 3 Deanna Madden has been compared to a female Dexter Morgan, but this is not merely a rehash of that series from “broad” perspective. There are certain parallels between the two characters, but Deanna inhabits her own world, both within and without. I found the descriptions of the sex cam profession fascinating, and Deanna’s desire to lead a normal life, coupled with her take-no-prisoners (well, maybe one or two) attitude, had me rooting for her.

If You Dare, the third book in the series, is scheduled for release in November, and A. R. Torre announced last week on YouTube that The Girl in 6E will be made into a feature film, but before you dive into this series, take note: these books contain raw language, graphic sexual situations, and some instances of disturbing violence that are not for the faint of heart, so those with delicate sensibilities may want to steer clear (we promote figurative swooning only).

To help me endure the wait for the next chapter(s) in Deanna’s life, I think I’ll reread the series, so if you see me with a book in hand or my headphones on, please—do not disturb.

Stuff Worthy Of Our Notice™ in this post:

The Girl in 6E
Do Not Disturb

The Girl in 6E and Do Not Disturb are available from Amazon and Barnes & Noble. The audio versions can be downloaded from Audible.

11/22/15 update:

Click here for my review of If You Dare.

Have Cake and Tea with Your Demons

Author: Kirsti Kay, Books, Inspiration, Literature, Wellness

Do you ever have those moments when you could use a little uplifting, but you don’t have time to read a self-help book? Or you try to meditate and all you can think about is all the other stuff you should be doing? If this sound like you, I have a great book to share that is perfect when your soul needs a quick attitude adjustment. It’s called Your Illustrated Guide to Becoming One with the Universe by Yumi Sakugawa, and I wish I could have it permanently implanted in my brain for quick access at all times.

The book is a collection of beautiful ink drawings with delightful ideas and suggestions for opening up your heart and finding peace and calm in a universe that is sometimes overwhelming and hard to navigate. You can easily read it in one sitting, which I did the first time. But now, when I need a little Zen, I flip through and just read a few pages. It always brings me back to center and reminds me how much there is to appreciate in this crazy world. It’s also a great book for people who would like a dreamy guide to inner peace without going full Chopra.

With lessons such as “Have Cake and Tea with Your Demons,” Yumi deconstructs spirituality into bites we can easily digest.

Cake and tea, you say?
And by having this little party with my demon I can come to realize my demon just wanted love and compassion and time? And then we hug it out and dance? Count me in!

Each page is a sweet little present to your well-being or, as the book jacket says, “a hand-drawn path to inner peace.”

And don’t we deserve more presents?

Yumi Sakugawa is an award-winning comic book artist and author. I’ve been following her on Facebook and love every new post. Her whimsical ink drawings (sometimes with color) are so full of life and warmth and continually display increased depth and complexity the more you look at them. Her drawings are usually accompanied by a poetic thought that makes you feel better instantly. Best of all, there are no complicated pop psychology terms to look up, no existential concepts that confuse you, and there isn’t a ton of reading to slog through to get to the point. With a lovely drawing and a happy thought, your spirit is uplifted and you are ready to move on to all the other stuff you should be doing.

Read Yumi. Feel better. Repeat. Becoming one with the universe has never been so easy or so fun.

Stuff Worthy Of Our Notice™ in this post:

Your Illustrated Guide to Becoming One with the Universe

Your Illustrated Guide to Becoming One with the Universe can be purchased at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Urban Outfitters, and a variety of online retailers.

Update 11/11/15:

Yumi Sakugawa just released a new book called There Is No Right Way To Meditate And Other Lessons, and it’s as delightful and uplifting as Your Illustrated Guide To Becoming One With The Universe. Yumi has a gift for combining her sweet drawings with simple text to explain sometimes complicated concepts in a way that makes you instantly feel better. Meditation can be daunting, but Yumi makes it accessible and fun. I read this book aloud to my husband and we both giggled and smiled, which in itself was a meditation—Yumi style.

Find out more about There Is No Right Way To Meditate, including where to purchase the book, on Yumi Sakugawa’s website.

All Hail Queen Victoria!

Author: Kirsten K., Literature, Magazines, Nostalgia

Tomorrow we say goodbye to spring and usher in the lazy months of summer. Every year, as we straddle these two seasons, I think of the Spring/Summer 1987 issue of Victoria magazine, the one that started it all.

I first encountered Victoria in the fall of 1987 when my mother passed on an issue that a friend had given her. I immediately swooned over the elegant fonts, feminine design, and dreamy photographs by Japanese photographer Toshi Otsuki. When I discovered that this was the second issue of the magazine, I quickly ordered a copy of the premier issue. I had no idea then that this was the beginning of an enduring romance.

The magazine’s mission statement could be summed up in a single line within the pages of that first issue: “A Return to Loveliness”. The editors stated that, “We have looked to the graceful, gracious days of the Victorian era as inspiration for Victoria—for that was the elegant time that brought loveliness to everyday American life.” As a modern-day American girl whose heart was in 19th-century England, I was hooked.

The magazine went from being published twice the first year, to seasonally, to bi-monthly, and finally to monthly in the fall of 1989. The first four issues said Good Housekeeping’s Victoria on the cover, but by the fifth issue it was simply called Victoria. On the cover of the May 1998 issue, the word “Bliss” appeared above the name and has continued to be used in the magazine and on special issues to this day.

Over the years, I have struggled to describe Victoria and how it makes me feel when I read it, but this one word—bliss—sums it up. It’s difficult to categorize the magazine: a mix of fashion and beauty, home and garden, cooking and entertaining, travel, literature, enterprising women, and so much more. There is such a wealth and variety of features in each slim issue that I can savor it over days or even weeks, instead of mere hours.

There have been three Editors-in-Chief of Victoria, each with her own personal style. Under the direction of founding editor Nancy Lindemeyer, Victoria was shamelessly feminine and romantic. When Peggy Kennedy took over with the November 2000 issue, the magazine took on a cleaner, more streamlined look and started featuring longer, in-depth articles on weightier topics. During her tenure, there was an unfortunate redesign of the logo and layout that didn’t seem too popular with readers (myself included), but the content was excellent.

By this time, Victoria had seen me through my difficult college years and was a beloved and constant friend, so I was horrified to discover in 2003 that the publisher, Hearst Corporation, had suddenly and inexplicably shuttered the magazine. After years of badgering Kirsti to subscribe, I’d finally decided to give her a gift subscription when I was told that the June 2003 issue would be Victoria’s last. Without any advance warning for the editors, there would be no farewell issue, no thank you to the loyal readers, no look back at 16 years of loveliness and bliss.

I was devastated. Victoria had been my port in the storm of modern life. Whatever ugliness I witnessed on the news or in the streets could be wiped away by a few minutes spent within the genteel beauty of its pages. I felt as though someone close to me had died.

In the ensuing years, I would regularly flip through my collection of back issues, but I lamented the fact that there would never be another new issue of Victoria. However, unbeknownst to me, there was someone else who felt as I did, and she was in a position to do something about it.

In the summer of 2007, I received a postcard in the mail with the words I never expected to read: Victoria was coming back! Phyllis Hoffman, CEO of Hoffman Media (which publishes Southern Lady magazine, among other titles), had been a huge fan of Victoria and took on the task of bringing it back to life, becoming the third and current Editor-in-Chief. In a true return to loveliness, Victoria resumed publication with the November/December 2007 issue. All was once again right in my world.

The magazine took a little while to regain its footing and become the Victoria I’d known and loved, but after almost eight years, it remains a familiar oasis of loveliness and bliss. The reincarnated Victoria has continued the traditions of a yearly Writer-in-Residence and Artist-in-Residence, as well as annual British- and French-themed issues and one devoted to women entrepreneurs. It is published bi-monthly, but there are special issues seasonally, such as Gardens of Bliss and Holiday Bliss—plenty to provide me with a regular dose of beauty and peace amid the chaos of a rapidly-changing world.

I swoon in my appreciation of Phyllis and all of the editors and contributors who have worked together over the years to deliver the gift of Victoria to its readers (they are Staff Worthy Of Our Notice). I hope you’ll discover the wonders of this magazine for yourself and join me in saying, “All hail Queen Victoria!”

Stuff Worthy Of Our Notice™ in this post:

Victoria Magazine

Victoria is available on newsstands and in digital format for iPad, Kindle, Nook and Android devices. The first 208 issues of the magazine (from 1987-2012) can be found on the Victoria Complete Collection DVD, which features two searchable DVD-ROMs that are compatible with both Windows and Mac.

On the Mehndi

Author: Kirsten K., Beauty, Books, Literature, Nostalgia, Synchronicity

Mehndi is the ancient art of applying a paste made from henna powder to the skin in intricate patterns, which creates a reddish-brown stain that can last for one to three weeks. Even though this form of ornamentation has been practiced in India, North Africa, and the Middle East for thousands of years, it didn’t become popular in the United States until Madonna and other celebrities started sporting henna designs in the 1990s.

At the time, I was working for a skin and hair care company. We sold a book featuring cosmetic practices of different cultures around the world, which included pictures of mehndi designs. A co-worker and I were fascinated and wanted to try it for ourselves, so we picked up some black henna hair powder (not to be confused with PPD “Black Henna”, which can be dangerous) at a health food store, mixed it with water, and applied the paste to our feet to test it out. Nothing happened. We’d figured that black henna would create a darker stain, but without the Internet as a resource, we had difficulty finding answers to our questions, so we gave up.

photo credit: Christina Chico, model: Payal Patel, makeup: Shirley J. Arcia

In 1997, the movie Kama Sutra: A Tale of Love was released to much controversy over the erotic nature of the film. The trailers featured Indian women covered in mehndi, so I knew I had to see it. I sat alone in the theater with a bunch of pervy-looking men and, while they were salivating over the racy love scenes (which actually seem quaint by today’s standards), I was swooning over the henna designs on the women’s hands and feet.

Earlier in the year, I’d read an article about mehndi in the January 1997 issue of Los Angeles magazine, which mentioned that henna artist Loretta Roome would be setting up The Mehndi Project at Galerie Lakaye in West Hollywood that month. When my friend Maggie was visiting from Seattle a short time later, I told her about it and she was interested, so I took her there to get a henna “tattoo”. I observed the process and took mental notes. It turns out that you must use red henna and you should mix the paste with lemon juice or a similar acidic substance to properly activate the lawsone dye in the plant, which produces the stain.

When I got home, I searched out the tiny plastic bottles with their fine metal tips that I’d seen the artist use on Maggie, then bought some red henna from my local Indian market. I mixed it with water and lemon juice and applied a simple design on the palm of my hand. When I washed it off a few hours later, there was a pale orange stain, which developed into a dark reddish-brown over the next couple of days. I’d done it!

I played around with mehndi off and on for a few years, reading some books on the topic and even making mehndi cookies at one point, but I’m no artist. I eventually became frustrated with my limitations and abandoned it, but I never stopped appreciating the beauty and artistry of the practice, so it was an act of serendipity that brought Prashanta from Divya Henna into my life.

I met her three years ago and we discovered immediately that we had many interests in common, among them a love of mehndi. Unlike me, Prashanta is actually a talented artist who had been practicing mehndi informally for years, but wanted to do it professionally. She was just getting her career underway and was looking for a guinea pig on whom to practice new designs and techniques, so I volunteered. One of the things that Kirsti and I find the most swoon-worthy is synchronicity—that magical moment when things line up perfectly in ways you could never have planned or foreseen. After years of wanting to wear beautiful mehndi designs myself, I had a professional henna artist who couldn’t wait to paint me up one side and down the other!

Mehndi by Divya Henna from an original design by Ravie Kattaura.

Whenever I am adorned in one of Prashanta’s designs, I get stopped in stores, restaurants, and even on the street by people who want to admire her artwork and ask questions. She loves and respects Indian culture and prefers traditional Indian mehndi designs over the types of henna tattoos you typically see offered at fairs and along boardwalks. Nowadays, she is in demand as a mehndi artist for Indian weddings, doing elaborate and exquisite designs on brides that cover the hands, arms, feet, and legs and can take hours to complete.

She doesn’t have much free time anymore to practice on me, but I’m still fortunate to get mehndi from her on occasion and to enjoy her company in the process. I am also routinely stunned by the precision and creativity displayed in the pictures she posts online of designs she has completed, a few of which are featured here. If you don’t live close enough for Prashanta to paste mehndi on your skin, seeing her masterful handiwork will definitely paste a smile on your face.

Stuff Worthy Of Our Notice™ in this post:

Divya Henna – Facebook
Divya Henna – Instagram

The book Mehndi: The Timeless Art of Henna Painting by Loretta Roome can be purchased at Amazon.

Visit Christina Chico Photography and makeup artist Shirley J. Arcia online.

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On the Mehndi

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