I started making scrapbooks…

As a child, just for fun.

They inspire me because…

In the end, I have something tangible I can reach for in order to revisit the places that inspired me to record them in the first place. I always find it exciting to see what other people choose to record.

The secret to a great scrapbook…

Is that the personality, the passions and the aesthetic of its owner are evident, first and foremost. A great scrapbook is just another fingerprint, a visual diary, a photo-autobiography. Call it what you want, but it should be personal.

How I put my pages together…

Depends on the subject I am working on, but for the most part I let the images guide my hand. For their placement, it’s kind of like a Ouija board! P.S.: The simple answer is scissors and glue stick!

My style icons in the book…

I have more style icons than could be included here, but Elsie de Wolfe, Evangeline Bruce, Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, for example, are included in the book because of the material I own that came from their estates. This personal material is a part of history — it is insightful, inspirational and speaks directly to the personalities of each of these highly regarded women.

The difference between organizing images in a book vs. online via Pinterest…

Private vs. public, tangible vs. digital and so many other differences. Pinterest allows sharing and comparing. It is a personal preference really. One is not better; it is different. Obviously we may not want to share everything. At the end of the day, how much time you have and how you choose to spend it is your business. For me, headphones and music, a movie, a glue stick and scissors work just fine. Writing books, lecturing, etc. give me opportunities to share my work and that of others that appeal to me.

The colors I’m feeling for spring…

I know emerald green is the color this year, but I like my colors a little more nuanced. I’d rather wear kiwi…or paint a room magnolia leaf in high gloss or, my favorite, Vert De Terre by Farrow & Ball.

An easy tip for updating your home for spring…

A gallon of paint goes a long way. Try a new color, like sweet pea pink, lettuce green or pale iris. Spring is about rebirth after all. And don’t forget flowers and fragrance — a basket of hyacinth, a big bowl of daffodils, a single camellia… or all of them will brighten your day.

If I could live in any room in history it would be…

A sun-filled, book-lined ballroom with a view to the garden and a great sound system. Or maybe adapt the Orangerie at Versailles in Paris; the tiny coffee house that sits on a rise at Venice’s Villa Pisani; Thomas Jefferson’s bedroom in Monticello, Virginia, with an adjacent library and greenhouse, and The Tea House at Sanssouci. I am easy to please and I would settle for any one of them!!!

Places I dream of traveling to…

I have a lot of travel on my plate this spring. From now through May I will be lecturing and visiting, San Francisco, L.A., London, Savannah, Chicago, Berlin, Dresden, St. Petersburg and Moscow. I will be dreaming about on-time flights and no missed connections! But seriously, I am dreaming of a motor tour of Normandy this summer.

Book on my nightstand…

I read a lot and always have multiple books in the works and on different subjects, so I do not end up in a muddle. I just finished Catherine the Great: Portrait of a Woman by Robert K. Massie and now I’m onto The Master of Us All: Balenciaga, His Workroom, His World by Mary Blume and the audio version of Jon Meacham’s Thomas Jefferson: The Art of Power. Also, Social Media Marketing For Dummies and Blogging for Dummies — you have to start somewhere!