In the Warmhouse Story Curio Cabinets there are hundreds of present day hand crafted objects and a mix of antiques that have meaning to me. It is quite a collection and my partner, Chad, was thrilled when I got a studio space and took dining and entertaining items out from the media cabinet, linen closet, multiple locations of underbed storage, baskets on bookshelves and random piles everywhere that I was calling decor. (They were really just piles.)

One of the very most activating parts of putting together a concept for entertaining is incorporating elements of the natural world. Each time I share one of my tables with you, I’ll spend some time talking about nature and how it influences my point of view. For this table, “If I Cannot Fly, Let Me Sing” I know that I’d need to evoke a sense of bursting forth. I started with the old suitcases. They were filled with some keepsakes on a shelf at home. I was determined that nature would be bursting out of a floating suitcase.

In the musical Sweeney Todd, the song Green Finch and Linnet Bird is longingly sung by Joanna who has been literally locked away as the young and beautiful ward of a cruel and unseemly judge. I reached out to Melissa Foster, Associate Professor of Instruction in the Department of Theatre at Northwestern University, and invited her to join me in discussing the song, the Parlor Story and life. Let’s dive deeper.

While Warmhouse Story as a concept had been percolating in my mind as a daydream for many years, like an elusive birdsong it seemed a bit out of reach. Beckoning. How might I use my own talents and aesthetic to do something meaningful?