Wendy Franzen of Fletcher & Fork

  GRAZIELA GEMS Jewelry Designer Graziela Kaufman and Maison Atia Founder and Designer Chloe Mendel brought their gorgeous, modern-classic designs to The Lake Forest Shop in early December. A small group gathered at Ellen Stirling’s cornerstone boutique in December to peruse and try on the designers’ utterly wearable pieces. Attendees fell hard for Mendel’s soft

  BENEATH THE BARK of knobby tree branches reaching toward February’s grey sky, spring is beginning to swell. Many flowering trees and shrubs set buds during the previous growing season, and a close look will reveal rounded, plump flower buds and small, pointy leaf buds bulging from their barren branches. It is time to pull

SUMPTUOUS displays of earthly delights were the subject of Dutch still life paintings in the second half of the 17th century. Oysters—considered to hold aphrodisiacal properties—were often depicted, as were half-peeled lemons, which connoted social status and allowed the artists to show off painting prowess. The presence of silk and precious seasonings like salt and

PAOLO VENINI, a Milanese lawyer and an immensely talented designer and visionary, founded his glassware company on the island of Murano in 1921 with Giacomo Cappellin, a Venetian antique dealer. The partnership split, but Venini set up shop on his own in 1925, and her one of the few Italian manufacturers of applied art invited