It’s impossible to truly love something if there is never any tension there. If it doesn’t have the ability to make you hopping mad, you just don’t really care about it that much, do you? That’s how I’ve come to understand my relationship with the state I live in. I’ve been in South Carolina (with [...]

I came across this absolutely beautiful cradle while visiting AFK’s website after seeing one of their advertisements in the final issue of Southern Accents.  The Southern California-based company was founded 27 years ago by Gail Sedigh, who started off in the business by painting letters formed by shapes of children for personalized nursery pictures.  Since [...]

I’ve spent the last few days working on a bit of a dream I’ve had since starting Camille Maurice… a way to put readers in touch with philanthropic events and opportunities.  Philanthropy and volunteerism are near and dear issues to my heart, and I just can’t possibly write a blog without emphasizing their importance in [...]

For the holiday weekend Mr. M and I had both settled on grilling steaks on Saturday night.  Both of us were ready to leave the summer fare behind and enjoy a glass of pinot noir on the patio in the slightly cooler breeze, and I was debating between heading to Earth Fare to pick up [...]

In the next few weeks Mr. M and I will be headed to New York.  Our tentative schedules are already so jam-packed that I worry that we will only see each other when we are both about to free-fall into that deep, dreamless sleep that takes over at the end of a whirlwind day. I’m [...]

Happy Labor Day!  I hope that everyone is enjoying the holiday and remembering the workers on whose backs the United States was built.  We’ve come such a long way and have improved working conditions and human rights tremendously since the holiday’s beginnings in 1882. Now I think our society is struggling with what to do [...]

Mary Gilkerson is a prolific artist based here in Columbia, South Carolina.  Her pieces celebrate our natural environment and are full of complexity and are colored in a rich thoughtfulness that will have you gazing upon them for hours.  I always love spending time looking at her pieces.  I always get the impression of quietude [...]

Last week Mr. M and I were shopping for wine and he looked at me and in perfect deadpan said, “You know, Grenache is the new Malbec.”  I cackled unabashedly in the aisle, the way I often do when he starts wisecracking.  The funny thing is that a few days later I found myself asking [...]

Yay, my favorite time of the year has arrived!  While I’m quite sure that South Carolina will have another hot spell in the next few weeks, there is a delightful (although small) nip in the air today that makes me want to do a Ren and Stimpy-inspired happy dance through the day.  Why did we [...]