About Me

Minnesota: the wonder years

Frosty winters, glorious lakes, Scandinavian heritage. (You get the picture.) Started design career making clothes and homes for Barbie dolls.

Minneapolis to Europe: college

Interned in Guthrie Theatre costume shop working for the inimitable Annette Garceau. Favorite job was sewing boning into corsets. (The meticulous nature of this task speaks volumes about my personality.)

College, including a year in London with hitchhiking tour through Europe. 

One way ticket to NY

Worked as a seamstress at Barbara Matera Costumes, stitching yards of maribou feathers into capes for original Broadway production of “Dreamgirls.”

Observed that all working designers had gone to Yale.

Yale University, MFA

Studied set, costume and lighting design. A dream world for a designer… the sky’s the limit.

Live from New York

Designed costumes for Saturday Night Live, dressing celebrities in silly costumes. Created looks for characters including the irreverent Church Lady, Hans and Franz, Sweeney Sisters, Wayne’s World.

It’s a good thing

Won Emmy award for television art direction, Martha Stewart Living. Perfect job for a perfectionist.

Real life design

Designed interiors for new construction and renovations. Past projects include a New York apartment, a 19th c. barn in Connecticut, a ski house in Vermont, and a house on Russian Hill in San Francisco. Variety is the spice…

Casa Italiana

Designed the renovation of a crumbling villa in the mountains of Liguria, Italy for “The Brian Boitano Project” on HGTV.

Best. Job. Ever.

I got more Italy time with the renovation of an apartment in Lucca, a medieval walled village in Tuscany. My happy place.

Fun with food

Art directed Food Network show, “Daphne Dishes” with host, Daphne Brogdon, in Los Angeles.

World traveler

Constantly traveling the world – finding treasures, taking photographs, meeting characters, having adventures, being inspired. Shares stories here on Just One Suitcase.

Writer

Contributor to Huffington Post and Dwell.com. Author of novels inspired by my travel:  That’s My Girl and What A Trip, available on Amazon.

 

Stockholm, Sweden