Things I love: Coming up with an idea before I see it in the magazines (and then seeing it in the magazines)

Last December I bought a giant blue Peruvian butterfly that caught my eye in an ecclectic Colorado shop.  Now it hangs above a shelf in my bathroom.  I love the richness of color and elegance of form that it brings to the space.

Now, here we are six months later, and guess what shows up in this month's issue of Elle Decor . . .



 

and also in the April issue of Vogue Living Australia (which I just read over the weekend) . . .



Butterflies!  The very same giant blue Peruvian butterflies. 

One of the reasons I read design magazines is to develop my eye.  In fact, Edith Wharton, in her book On the Decoration of Houses, said that the best way to develop one's eye for beauty is to look at other beautiful things through travel, visiting museums, displaying them in your house, etc.  There's a difference, though, between imitating the taste of others and developing your own.  And sometimes, when you do something that you haven't seen others do, it's easy to worry that what you've done is tacky and that no one but you would like it.  Seeing, after the fact, that others have done similar things is reassuring -- proof that you aren't totally off track. 

Not that I really thought I was off track with this butterfly.  I mean, look at that blue!