Hello my dear, dear friends. I'm sorry I've been missing in action this week. I'm currently on deadline with my next book and teaching a workshop this weekend with Leslie Shewring on blogging, photography and styling so things have been crazy hectic. I'm hoping everything will be back to normal with daily blog posts from me very soon because I miss being regular here - it is really hard for me to step away and it always makes me feel sad to leave you for too long.

In the past month, I've been working in the Netherlands, Paris, England and now New York City. I'm excited, tired, a little disoriented and energized all rolled into one. In each place I go, I make it a point to meet a few blogger friends or people who are creative colleagues in other ways. It keeps me going in many ways. For instance, in the Netherlands I had Stephanie Rammeloo and then Eline Pellinkhof to keep me company. In Paris, I met up with Nichole Robertson and had breakfast with Emilie Griottes. In London, I spent time with Sania Pell. Here in NYC I will meet up with many lovely ladies which I'm excited about.

I don't really think my brain knows where I am, although last night as I looked out of my hotel window at the Empire State Building, I did feel a bit more grounded: I am in America in an amazing city - the big apple! I'm rushing about today putting final touches on our class for this weekend, which completely sold out for those still looking for seats (we'll come back again one day), so I won't be blogging much between now and Monday. But I did want to pop in to give you all a big virtual hug and to let you know that I'm alive and well.

I thought I'd share the third collection for Murobond Paints called "Gray Scale Garden" from stylist and creative director Jason Grant today. He wrote in to give me an exclusive on this which I thought was way cool so I wanted to run it right away. I selected these photos below as they inspired me the most from his photo shoot for the collection. These photos were taken by Lauren Bamford in case you're wondering - and they are just brilliant. The man shown in one of the photos is Jason himself.

Lovely colors Jason and beautiful shots! See you again on Monday with highlights from New York and the class we're teaching! Yay!

(images: lauren bamford)