SantaFe-Magazine.org

Having children at your wedding does not have to end with the kids dominating the event or their parents and other guests. A little advance planning on behalf of your youngest attendees will make sure everyone remembers your perfect day as just that...perfect!

Your wedding day will be a glorious event, carefully planned and seamlessly coordinated. The sun will shine, everyone will arrive on time, you will indulge in your beauty sleep the night before and all will be wonderful.

And why not? You have worked carefully and diligently for months, considered all the menu options and have...

They say of a great beauty that her face has “good bones,” and the same could be said about Santa Fe designer Nancy Traugott’s clothing line, Homefrocks. The clean lines underscore the subtly stated structure to her designs. Her style combines common sense with a low-key, romantic sensibility, and the relaxed, easy-going fit compliments a deeply feminine look. Timeless in their appeal, her clothes attract independent-minded women willing to trust their own taste—someone like Traugott herself.

“What I make comes from me,” the tall, statuesque designer said. “I like to think about...

The old adage that ‘location, location, location’ sells a house may still hold true, however just as significant to the buying decision is ‘emotion, emotion, emotion’. The human mind loves images and emotion and buyers in particular, are extremely visual when it comes to deciding on the ideal property to purchase.

Capturing the interest of buyers can be as simple as creating visual ‘cues’ or scenes both inside and outside the property that will trigger a positive response to what they are seeing. Real estate staging is a unique ‘design to sell’ technique that uses existing furnishings,...

Get informed before you shop for turquoise. According to Joe Lowry, Sr., proprietor of the Turquoise Museum in Albuquerque, “only 10 percent of the turquoise being mined today is gem grade.” Therefore, only a fraction of what is presented as genuine turquoise in the marketplace is a natural, untreated stone.

The art of showcasing a home’s best features is to use the architecture of the space as a guide. As in traditional design, the foundation principle of redesign is “form follows function.” However, in redesign you never sacrifice the use of the room in order to make it look pretty. The redesign process “thinks outside the box” to creatively assess alternative uses for various pieces of furniture and accessories.

Redesign’s goal and philosophy is to achieve a stylish, comfortable room at little or no cost, valuing placement over purchase. In a well-redesigned room you will not...

What’s in a name? If you own a retail establishment, almost everything. Whether overtly descriptive, cutely whimsical, or a clever play on words, the name you choose can be a major clue to your identity.

So what, then, is up with Hey Jhonny, the name given to two of Albuquerque’s most spirited home accessory and furniture shops? Its meaning isn’t obvious and it can’t be puzzled out. You have to ask. But in asking, you get not only meaning, but also a great story. The name (their spelling) is an homage to co-owner Tom Ford’s late father, a man who spent his life serving the public as a Long...

Two new books offer revealing glimpses into the world of haute couture. One celebrates the great post-war decade and the other exposes couture’s decline, from a tradition of quality and superlative workmanship to the mass marketing of inferior products under designer labels. They both help point to Santa Fe as a mecca for beautiful, handcrafted clothing that reflect artisan-made standards of excellence.

In April 1970, famed fashion photographer Cecil Beaton received a note from Baroness Alain de Rothschild: “Let me know when you do come to Paris and I will show you what I have!...

After months of cold and drab winter, Valentine’s Day couldn’t come at a better time. Suddenly everywhere plush teddy bears demand “Hug Me,” aisles are lined with heart-shaped candy boxes, and pops of that wonderful color, red, fill shop windows. True, sweethearts hog the spotlight on Valentine’s, but it’s great for sharing the love with all your favorite people. And no matter who they are—a niece or nephew, grandmother, or good friend—in Santa Fe you’ve hit the jackpot for shopping. Here’s a guide to some gift goodies around town.

The fashion runways are decreeing fierce, bold colors...

The early Spaniards were drawn to the Canyon Road area by the Santa Fe River bottom, which offered irrigable land for their crops and pasture for their flocks; by a centuries-old Pueblo Indian trail, which provided a convenient passageway for mule trains and ox-drawn carretas; and by the community’s nearby main plaza and governmental offices, which offered protection from Indian attacks.

They established Canyon Road, about three quarters of a mile in length, from the most humble of beginnings—a prehistoric path of dirt and tiny houses of adobe but they imbued it with an enduring quality...

On Old Santa Fe Trail, just around the corner from St. Francis Cathedral, stands the small Gothic church known as the Loretto Chapel. Home to the famous “miraculous staircase,” the chapel was built in the 1870s for the Sisters of Loretto, a Kentucky-based teaching order who were the first to respond to Bishop Jean-Baptiste’s plea (he wrote reported wrote hundreds of letters) for teachers to found schools in the wild west of Santa Fe. Imagine these nuns traveling by boat and covered wagon over the Santa Fe Trail, with the Bishop himself teaching them Spanish along the way. The dusty streets...