The Very Dear Sania Pell
Hello friends, how are you doing today? I'd like to share my love once again for all things Sania Pell. Sania Pell is an interiors stylist and best-selling author of two books, Homemade Home and The Homemade Home for Children (I have and love them both), and lives and works in London as a freelance stylist for magazines and catalogs. She has a super lovely home in Chiswick and a beautiful family with a great designer/photographer husband, Mark Wilson, who actually redesigned decor8 for me once and did a beautiful job. Sania is such an inspiration to me. I really adore her style and how she looks at the world. I also like how take charge she is. She makes stuff happen and doesn't sit idle. I love that about her.
Ever since first having dinner with her in Camden Town in 2010, I knew she'd be my friend. She showed up at my hotel with a gift she had handmade for me - a project from her first book - a beautiful wall hanging that she presented rolled up in a tube. I was so overwhelmed by such a generous act of kindness. It's on my wall to this day and every time I see it, I think of our first meeting and how lucky I am to have met Sania in person. I couldn't believe she was a fan of my blog and that she even read the review I posted about her first book so much that she wanted to meet me to thank me personally. No one does stuff like that anymore, really. She is super special.
Since that day, we've been friends - something I value immensely. We've done many nice things together ever since in-person, including her wonderful help in planning my book party at Liberty in 2011. I can't believe it's already been so long already, time flies! She's let us shoot in her home on two occasions, so when her living room ended up on the cover of my first book, Decorate, I couldn't believe Chronicle Books had chosen the room of my dear friend Sania! To have her home on my book cover is such a big deal to me. Whenever I look at Decorate on my coffee table, I don't just see my book but I think about her.
Sania is so talented and giving through her blog. I love that she has e a blog and that I can keep up with her there because honestly, when I am feeling a little homesick or a bit uninspired, I have these plug-in points for inspiration and her blog is high on my list. I visit nearly every day to see if she has posted. From her posts about travel to shops she's been to, shoots she's done on location, her book projects, pictures she takes of landscapes that I love so much (because they remind me of a gorgeous painting she did in her bedroom)... Whenever I visit her blog, I feel like I'm at her home and I recall the times I've spent with Sania in her craft loft or kitchen and feel really cozy and happy.
Thank you Sania, you are a beautiful friend that I admire so much. I imagine being grannies looking back at this "blog" era saying to one another, "Well wasn't that something else." I am so glad your first book, which resulted in my blog review, which caused us to have dinner one summer's night in London, turned us into friends. Thank goodness for blogs and books but even more, thank you for reaching out to me in the first place because London wouldn't be the same without you there. In fact, whenever I go to London, I'm always excited because I know we'll meet up and be total girls together and I love that so much. You're the best.
(images: sania pell)