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Doors are invitations. They beckon and cajole. Enter. Come in. See what lies within.

Down through the years, my husband and I have been drawn to doors and have photographed or posed with them on our many travels. We never set out to make a portfolio of door pictures. Each photo was merely a spontaneous moment, an invitation that could not be resisted.

With the advent of social media, I’ve noted that we are not alone in our attraction to doors. Splendid doors are universal subject matter for both amateur and professional photographers.

Here is our collection of doors. Have you met any good doors recently?

And finally, here are two doors in the Czech Republic that we have not met in person but would love to visit. The first was embellished by Anna Kasparkova, a 90-year-old Czech grandma who decorated houses in her small village. The second photo is the Sunflower door in Prague.

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I recently saw a chair which I am longing to buy. It will be produced in a limited number of 500, of which only 180 will be available in the United States. Unfortunately, I’m priced out…it’s selling for $2,500.

This unique piece of furniture is one of Charles and Ray Eames’ iconic designs. Known as the shell chair, it was developed in the 1950s using the Eames’ innovative plastic molding techniques.

Shortly after the chair’s creation, Saul Steinberg, the witty artist best known for the 1,200 drawings he created for the New Yorker magazine, visited Ray and Charles in their Venice, California studio. In a playful moment, he grabbed a paintbrush and started painting his famous line drawings all over the walls, floors and furniture. The couple viewed this “vandalism” as good fun and documented the event with photographs.

Cats were one of Steinberg’s favorite subjects, and he painted one resting in the newly created shell chair. Now, nearly three-quarters of a century later, furniture makers Herman Miller and Vitra are producing exact replicas of that whimsical chair.

Ben Watson, the president of Herman Miller, states, “Being able to celebrate some of the most revered names in art and design from the 20th century through the recreation of one piece is truly special. This chair embodies the joy in Herman Miller’s approach to modern living”.

I may not have the funds for the feline chair, but I do have an Eames shell chair. And it is often embellished with a cat…a real one.

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I once was hired to do a children’s program at a huge stamp show. After working, I wandered through all the exhibits and found them fascinating. Stamps are, in essence, miniature works of art.

Not being a collector, I was surprised to learn that some highly unusual themes can be the basis of a collection. And one of the highlighted themes at this particular show was umbrellas. It was an eye-opener.

My initial thought was, “How many countries would issue stamps honoring such a mundane object as an umbrella?” Lots, it turns out, and that is because umbrellas are not at all mundane. Their uses go way beyond merely keeping our heads dry in a downpour.

I have created a small gallery of some of my favorite umbrella stamps from around the world. May their beauty and creativity make your day sunnier.

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A few weeks back, I devoted my blog to the tragedy of 2,352 cans of beer being dumped for the crime of masquerading as champagne. Little did I realize that I would be writing so quickly about another flagrant dumping incident. This event, however, involved pasta, and the scene of the crime was New Jersey where all sorts of weird stuff happens.

Heaps and piles of various types of pasta, 500 pounds of it, mysteriously materialized beside a stream. There was enough of Italy’s finest to fill 14 wheelbarrows. The pasta appeared to be fully cooked, but some savvy resident figured out it was dumped raw. Heavy rains had simply made it go limp.

The mystery was quickly solved. A veteran was cleaning out his mother’s house which was up for sale. She apparently did not want to run out of pasta during the Covid lockdown and had stocked up.

I hate to think what would have happened if another hoarded Covid item, toilet paper, had been dumped. Our son and his friends used to decorate the yards of football rivals with toilet paper. We made it crystal clear to him that if our yard got hit in revenge, he would be cleaning up the mess before it rained. Ditto for other properties if we received complaints from the parents of rival team members.

The pasta was removed by town workers with no negative environmental impacts. But when the story went viral, social media did light up with funny comments.

“They thought they had a suspect, but turned out to be an impasta.”

“Lead suspect is a guy named Al Dente.”

“Don’t forget his partner, Lin Guini.”

And my favorite…

“No one dumped anything, pasta is indigenous to the woods of New Jersey.”

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Do not show this blog to your dog. There’s a big, new trend called barkitecture. Designers vie to create the most elaborate, ingenious or downright decadent doghouses. Some are auctioned off to raise funds for shelters and rescue groups.

I became aware of architecture going to the dogs from an article in Dezeen. A London architecture studio created a doghouse for their studio dog named Lucky. Lucky is indeed lucky. His custom designed digs is called Fetch. The architects used gabion, which is a mesh basket, to form the kennel. Gabions are usually filled with rocks to create walls in landscapes. In a humorous twist, Lucky’s doghouse is filled with balls, hundreds of tennis balls. It’s a dog’s ultimate fantasy come true.

The architects plan on entering their playful doghouse at Goodwoof, an annual dog event at the Goodwood estate in England. I checked out the trailer for Goodwoof, and it is truly something to bark about. It would be a ball (pun intended) to go to Goodwoof even without a dog.

Click Here and then click the “Watch Trailer” button.

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