Life on the Farm: The Selby comes to visit

I am a huge fan of all that Todd Selby does - his photographs, his watercolors, his sense of design, the people and places he is attracted to, and his so-goofy-it's-cool personality. He is creative and talented, and his style - as well as that of the people he photographs - is highly personal. A few years ago, after religiously reading his blog and combing every page of his first book, I found an excuse to cold call Todd. I was speaking to a book agent that had represented him, and I was hoping he would give me advice about the direction I should take in finding a new agent for myself. And he did - his business perspective was surprising, yet spot on. But what I was really hoping when I called him was that we'd chat on the phone and become friends. Which is exactly what has happened. Towards the end of our long phone call, he said. "Hey, what's your house like?" I told him that I was moving to England and that I would send him some photos. Six months later, in July of 2012, a month after we had settled into our cottage, Todd was here on the farm paying us a visit. The Guardian had hired Todd to shoot a dozen houses in England that would run periodically in their Sunday magazine. So here Todd was, running around the farm with a camera taking pictures of the barns, the garden, the treehouse, the cottage, the kids, us and all the animals. I was fascinated to watch him work. As a lover of photography myself I was amazed to see how differently from me he shoots things. He is spontaneous, quick, unselfconscious with his camera whereas I am always looking for the right angle and calculating in my composition. We have since kept in touch, calling each other occasionally for ideas or advice, and I am so glad to have such an inspiring new friend.

Of all the photo shoots I have done in my life, the ones Todd took here feel the most like the real me. There is nothing that makes me happier or more relaxed than being at home, in my own clothes, with no hair and makeup, having fun with my husband and kids. Isn't feeling like yourself what personal style is all about?

The kitchen is where I spend the bulk of my time at home. Even when I am not cooking, I am often on my computer at the kitchen table. What I love most about my kitchen is the view of the garden from those huge arched windows. It makes doing dishes so much easier!

Happy Gingy girl in her favourite chair. 

We are always so grateful to have the chance to eat outside in England. We can go a whole month in the summer without having the chance, but this year we were lucky to have many, many meals in the garden, even a few in October.

Coco has long grown out of Sailor, but he will always be among her favourites. Sailor taught Coco how to jump and twice won "most willing pony" when she took him to Pony Club camp. He's a legend in this part of the countryside.

What I most love about our cottage are the layers of history. Christopher first converted it from a cart shed into a house 25 years ago, but many family members and friends have lived here over the years and each have contributed to it's style. This rug is a good example. I have no idea where it came from, but I found it folded up in a closet and I liked it, so I put it in the guest bathroom where it now resides. 

The pillars represent the old entrance to the farm, just up the hill from our cottage. This is Ginger's favourite place to walk, especially in the evening when the sun is going down. 

Our kooky family portrait. Yes those are Zach's legs sticking up in the air. 

Probably my highlight of Todd's visit was when Zach rode the pig. If you read my blog regularly, you must know by now that pig riding is Zach's party trick. But Todd's reaction was priceless - he roared with laughter. 

In the tack room we hang Coco and Zach's rosettes. But we've also hung Snowflake's. Snowflake was a promising racehorse that my mother-in-law owned, but she got a bad infection and had to be put down much too early. Coco was a baby when Snowflake was around, but she still remembers her so we leave the rosettes there to honour her memory.

Zach heading up to the treehouse.

Todd's portraits of Zach, me and Coco. 

Christopher loves to collect things. Tucked away in long-abandoned barns he's got way too many old motorcycles, reclaimed window frames and vintage radios. They just sit there, but he likes to know they're there.

We have since transformed the treehouse into an art studio, but I suspect Zach misses the days of the vintage Star Wars curtain-turned-tablecloth.

My bedroom. At times I have been tempted to change the 80's Laura Ashley wallpaper, but now I'm so glad I didn't.

We have a giant barn next to the cottage that we have been talking about converting for as long as I have known Christopher. We thought that would be our obvious project while living here. But at the moment, we are both really happy living simply on a smaller scale. Maybe one day we'll get to it.

Since these photos were taken over a year ago, so much has changed. Our sitting room has been completely rearranged and recovered, but the gist of it is here. We built the bookshelves using wood recovered from the Swansea Pier, and the portraits of the kids on the mantel were a wedding present from my close friend Anh Duong.

Seeing this picture of Coco's room makes me so nostalgic. She grew out of these beds a while ago, and now she has just a twin bed that's twice the size. It's still lovely, but those beds were so precious.

Christopher and I drink way too much coffee, so this tin is well loved and worn. And I love using quail's eggs in salads when I can get them. 

I ♥ Your Denim Style: Hannah Henderson

If I wasn't so enjoying the "farm version" of my dream life here in England, I would be pining over the "creative California hippie" version that Hannah Henderson and John Moore live in Venice Beach, CA. Well, I'm pining anyway. Their home, their store, their kids, their art, their clothes, their lifestyle all make me swoon. It's all so personal to who they are and what they like. But what I notice above all is how well Hannah does denim. She and her husband seem to be experts on denim both new and old, and they both instagram about it regularly. She is hannahmas and he is bonfirebeachkids. Herewith, my favorite of their denim posts.

I'm so into ripped boyfriend jeans like these at the moment. They're all I feel like wearing. Because it's cold now and don't want the winter breeze blowing in through the holes, I've bought a second pair and had the holes patched up. The look is pretty much the same, but I am much warmer!

Hannah and John own the Venice outpost of the General Store, with the original being in Outer Sunset - my fave neighborhood in San Francisco. Both are original and inspiring, and if you aren't in California, you can still shop there online. I love the overalls displayed in the foreground.

 

I have an old wrangler kids jean jacket from the 70's that fits me pretty much like Hannah's does. It's proven incredibly useful over the years, looking best over a summer dress or under a more tailored wool overcoat in winter.

I love all the indigo/denim shades and textures. You could build a whole wardrobe around this concept.

John's love of denim extends itself to these very cool indigo/denim inspired skateboard decks.

Denim seems to always be a part of Hannah and John's inspiration.

Hilarious.

Life on the Farm: Mourning Murphy

There is so much life on this farm that makes me happy. Every morning the hens are lined up on the bench outside the kitchen window, waiting for our leftover toast from breakfast. Then there are our twin black kittens. I still call them kittens, but they are now full-sized at 18 months old. They are so deferential to my kids' treatment of them - last night Coco built Dizzy a hammock and made him spend the night in it and he obliged her - but then they go outside and they are both badass hunters. The kittens also defer to Ginger, who sees them as competition for food and affection and does her best to ignore them. But they LOVE her and spend a lot of time either seducing her into paying attention to them or stealing her food or her bed. And she lets them.

But the real heart and soul of our farm is the horses. We live amongst these beautiful, oversized, prehistoric creatures. We sit on them as they carry us around the countryside, as if we were flying. We love them. We fear them. We revere them. They live for many decades (often three or more), far longer than the other pets. Last week we had 9 horses. Now we have 8. Murphy died this Tuesday. We put him down. He was easily 30, and he had been losing teeth for years. Each year we would debate whether or not he would live another winter, and he always would. But the stakes got higher and higher as he got thinner and more frail. He could no longer eat the hard food that the other horses enjoyed in the winter. We'd have to soak his food for an hour so he could slurp it up. And even then he couldn't get it all in. His belly would swell from the lack of proper digestion, but his hips and shoulders were so emaciated. When all the other horses trotted across the field, he shuffled slowly, as if in pain. We just couldn't imagine him losing any more weight as he inevitably would this winter.

Murphy had been my niece's horse for a time, and she quickly outgrew him. And then I rode him, and then my little sister rode him, and then our houseguests and friends rode him. He was a fixture on the farm, as was Mr Teddy before him, and as Polo and Sailor are now. They serve us well, and we keep them around long after their prime has come and gone. Each time I drive by them in the field, I roll down my window and say hello to them. They really are our family here.

Christopher and I have never seen a horse put down, and we both felt compelled to watch. It was horrible. Really, truly horrible. But I'm glad I was there to take responsibility for the decision we had made. I managed not to cry in front of the groom and the huntsman, but afterwards I took Ginger for a walk and let the tears flow. Later in the day, I dug up pictures of all of us with Murphy at one time or another. And of course, we have his superstar moment on the cover of the J Crew catalogue. I showed all the photos to the kids at dinner that night. They had cried on and off for three days. But there was this one picture of Murphy trotting across a field, maybe 7 or 8 years ago. Coco couldn't believe that it was him. His happy, healthy self was completely unrecognizable to her. That's when I knew we'd done the right thing.

Even though Zach is not so big on riding, he loved Murphy. It was impossible not to.

We decided that we'd have a family ride last Christmas to say hello to all our neighbours. Murphy was my loyal steed that day. It was muddy and cold, but we had a great time.

My friend Regena loves to ride, and when she visits from New York, we ride every single day, sometimes twice. Murphy was always her pony of choice.

This is my favorite photo of Murphy. I took it around this time last year.

I think it was my little sister Phoebe (on the left) who loved Murphy the most. She spent every summer from age 13-18 with us here on the farm and she always rode Murphy. She thought he was the bomb. And yes that's a young Miss Coco on the pony in the middle. 

I'm tempted to say this was the only time Christopher ever got on Murphy, but actually I remember once when Coco was very very little. I was riding Murphy and Christopher was walking along side us. Coco said she wanted to see a horse gallop, so I jumped down, Christopher got on, and he blasted away up the gallops on Murphy. Coco was delighted.

Young Murphy, in all his glory.

Life on the Farm: J. Crew pays us a visit

This past weekend I returned home from a busy month filled with travel. Waiting for me on the kitchen table upon my arrival was the November J.Crew style guide with Christopher and Coco on the cover! I just couldn't believe it. I knew they'd be in it, and that most of the pictures had been shot at the farm, but on the cover? Holy shit.

Here's how it happened: Last June, Jenna Lyons - who is my friend as well as J. Crew president and creative director - wrote to me saying how much she loved my instagrams of life on our farm, and she wanted to know if J.Crew could shoot their autumn catalogue here. There would be lots of models, and she also hoped to casually include my family and me in a few shots. Sounded good to me. But then I got the dates. Zach and I would be in New York - I had a week full of publisher's meetings lined up in the hope of selling my book, and Zach was signed up for camp. He had been looking forward to this time in our home city for months. I thought for just a minute and then decided I wouldn't torture either one of us with a tough decision. We had made a commitment. We were going. I couldn't imagine asking Zach to stay home for a photo shoot. So off we went. And what a time we had.

But then the catalogue arrived and Zach saw Christopher and Coco on the cover and inside the book. "Hey how come we're not in it?" he asked. When I explained that it was shot during our week in New York he said, "Oh yeah." And went on his way. But he has asked me about it many more times. I guess he has to keep reminding himself how he missed out on this moment of glory.

In any case, I was so happy and proud to see the farm in J.Crew. Christopher and Coco look so at home, and as usual Ginger managed to make her way into the pages. But in my mind the real stars of the shoot were the horses - Polo, Megan and Murphy - our beloved farm family members. Which brings me to a very sad note. Murphy, the cob that Coco is riding on the cover, died yesterday. In retrospect, I am so glad we cleaned him up and brushed his hair so beautifully for a glamorous fashion send off as a cover model. He so deserved it. When my tears dry up I will tell you more about him.

There is no "look" my husband aspires to more than that of a farmer. Well, maybe a gentleman farmer. But for him it's not an affectation. Both Christopher's father and grandfather were gentleman farmers, and he was born and raised on the farm where we live. He wouldn't ever look quite as polished as he does in these pics, but I'd say it's close enough.

Polo (seen above) was Coco's pony until last year when she graduated to her first horse, and now I usually choose to ride him over my moody chesnut mare. Polo is pretty much a legend in this part of the countryside - he has been ridden and loved by many horse-loving girls throughout his 17 years of life at pony club, competitions and on the hunting field. Often when I am out riding, someone I don't know will come up to me and say, "Is that Polo?" and then shower him with love. We are honoured to have him as part of our family.

What other horse would just stand in an open field like that without running off. None that I know, other than Polo. By the way, did you know that a horse that is white in colour is always called a "grey" even if he is stark-white like Polo.

At the moment, all I can see when I look at this picture is that kind gentleman of a horse Murphy in the background.  I will miss him. This picture was taken on the gallops, where Christopher's brother trains his race horses. Sometimes I'll be in the stable yard, and I can hear them thundering up the hill. Our horses can hear it to, and the noise gets them all excited. 

An old Land Rover and a Subaru Forester are pretty much the cars that all farm owners have around here. 

This photo is very like my life on the farm - out by myself giving Polo a workout - except I would be sitting in a saddle and wearing riding clothes! Christopher and Coco do all the glamorous things with the horses, as they are much more accomplished than I am, so I'm pretty much the exercise jockey.

This picture slayed Zach! He was so upset to be replaced by a model in his absence, especially in a pic with his Daddy.

This is my favourite fashion pic from the style guide. I love her look. And I love seeing Polo's well-worn saddle. 

I am sad I missed this part of the summer on the farm, when everything looks bleached out. The variety of seasons here is incredible - much more diverse and varied than back home in New York. Each season seems to have multiple phases that look very different from one another. The changing landscape is what keeps me from losing my mind in the wet foggy gloom.

This picture didn't make it into the style guide, but of course it is my favourite. Jenna sent it to me in a beautiful vintage silver and glass frame as a gift. As if everything else wasn't enough. Love that girl.