Superbly covering my first love

On and off for the past 55 years I have been an avid reader of Architectural Digest. Originally I read it in junior high while working Saturday mornings in my uncle's design store. At that time some of our work was featured in the magazine. In 1948 the magazine contained no advertising and was published in black and white photographs. I loved reading the magazine almost as much as I enjoyed handling the hundreds of fabric samples.

This experience probably helped shape my life as a fabric lover and as an amateur decorator and amateur architect - both skills useful to one who ended up mainly as a highly educated but creative housewife.

Today's Architectural Digest is not the same magazine as it was then. Not only is it in color,it contains beautiful advertisements, many of which inspire some of my watercolor paintings. The homes shown are unique, resulting in a love for so many locations within this country as well as in other countries. Unfortunately, most of these homes are outside my financial reach. But dreaming is good and inspirational for the imagination and once in a while, a useable idea is contained therein.

Of all the magazines to which I subscribe, this is the only one that I save in its entirety.