Why Don't You?

Don't you just want to get your mind off of our troubles? For a few moments, don't you want a little fun and frivolity? And who better to turn to for this than Diana Vreeland and her "Why Don't You?" columns for Harper's Bazaar. After all, this monthly column was written during the Great Depression to help readers escape the uncertainty and drudgery of the times . While some of the nuggets of wisdom (or perhaps they should be called flights of fancy?) are a bit outlandish, some are actually quite doable.

As DV once said, these suggestions "were all very tried and true ideas, mind you." If that's true, then why don't you...


Tie black tulle bows on your wrists?


Black tulle ribbon from Bags and Bows Online


Pick up in Florida the prettiest shells you can find and make them into a mirror frame of a baroque scroll design?



Shells from Seashells.com, Sanibel, FL

Have a yellow satin bed entirely quilted in butterflies?


I couldn't find a comparable photo, but aren't these butterfly garlands from Pearl River charming?


Serve individual Pfirsch Bowle which is a peeled peach in a chilled glass with ice-cold Moselle or Rhine wine poured in? Marvelous at tea time.


Weingut Gottelmann Riesling

Go to Dazian, the theatrical-material shop, and get fake leopard skin for your bathroom floor and fake beige fur for your slipper chair?


Faux leopard, still available at Dazian

Design monograms with circles around them for the pockets of your children's cardigans and the sleeves of their dressing-gowns?


Nicholas monogram from Leontine Linens

Cover a big cork bulletin board in bright pink felt, banded with bamboo, and pin with colored thumb-tacks all your various enthusiasms as your life varies from week to week?



Pink felt from Hancock Fabric Store and Bamboo custom made frame from Pictureframes.com.