Weekend Conversation Starters

[Messy Nessy Chic]   “It’s just what I always wanted!” ...said no one, ever, about that gift you settled for in the perfume department on Christmas Eve. Instead, cozy up to a weekend of [DIY-ing some last-minute but totally thoughtful gift ideas](. Useless bird feeders not included. Your Weekend Conversation Starters also has an extra dose of craftsmanship, from the forgotten artist who taught Edward Hopper to a field trip inside the last great American flower factory still blooming in Midtown Manhattan… Life’s just better when it’s homemade, isn’t it? Wishing you gingerbread and joy, [Nessy]   [Moonlight Etchings of the Forgotten Artist who Taught Edward Hopper](   [Martin-Lewis-Relics-Speakeasy-Corner-drypoint-1928]( Martin Lewis died in obscurity in 1962; a retired art teacher who had found some success in his early career, but was largely forgotten after the Great Depression took away the demand for his craft, leaving Lewis to spend his last three decades teaching other people how to etch. History chose Edward Hopper, but Martin…  [Continue Reading](   [Oh Me Oh My, Check out Every Room in this Gilded Age Dollhouse](   [76702310_1116248132064414_6923639967239372800_o-930x1240]( You just never know what talent your next door neighbour might be hiding. Michael Guidry is a florist from Finleyville, Pennsylvania who has built a palatial Gilded Age dollhouse to rival the Queen of England’s. For Mike, this is a hobby, which he acquired when his father first made his sister a dollhouse as children. He began…  [Continue Reading](   [A Brief Compendium of Captivating Fairytale Grottos](   [Screenshot 2019-12-03 at 11.38.48]( You know how there’s always one room at a party where the action is really going down? The Greeks and Romans saw grottos as a place for sensual, Dionysian desires to unfold; the stage of Venus, goddess of love. In contrast, these mystical chambers also became shrine-like places of feverish religious worship for Roman Catholics.…  [Continue Reading](   [Greetings from Pioneer Camp, Soviet Russia](   [pioneer-camps-ussr-1960-1970-photo-1]( Did you hear the one about the Soviet school children who gifted a US Ambassador with a plaque of the United States seal as a gesture of friendship in 1945? It hung in his Moscow office for 7 years before the Americans discovered it was bugged with a listening device. True story. The school children involved in…  [Continue Reading](   [How the Last Great American Flower Factory Still Blooms Over Midtown, NYC](   [DSC01950]( Once upon a time, a woman needed a parrot tulip. Not just any tulip. “She started with something like this,” explains Adam Brand, heir to his family’s 4th generation flower factory business, M&S Schmalberg. He picks up a few flat, flower shaped layers of fabric.  [Continue Reading](   [This Guy Knits ‘Ugly Sweaters’ for Every Place He Goes](   [sweaters]( Not all heros wear capes. Sam Barsky, for example, wears sweaters. Nearly 200 of them at this point. The Baltimore, Maryland native has taken the internet by storm recently with his talent for knitting sweaters of, well, everything, from the glory of Stonehenge to the streets of Baltimore; an incoming tram, or the Hollywood sign.  [Continue Reading](   [The Curious Career of Being a Human Crash Test Dummy](   [john-stapp-during-a-high-g-force-test-on-a-sled-nasa]( If there’s one thing Messy Nessy’s editorial team has in common, it’s that we’ve never quite been able to keep a normal 9-to-5. Which is why we love to learn about the ins-and-outs of the oddest jobs out there; the gigs behind the everyday things we may take for granted. Like your drive to the…  [Continue Reading](   [13 Things I Found on the Internet Today (Vol. CDLXXXII)](   [tumblr_pyp0ru2aKR1r84j0io1_1280]( 1. Mystery £50m Gustav Klimt masterpiece found hidden in a wall A Gustav Klimt painting stolen 23 years ago from the Ricci Oddi modern art gallery in Italy might just have been discovered in the unlikeliest of places—inside the walls of the gallery itself. A gardener was recently clearing ivy from the building’s walls, the…  [Continue Reading](  Interested in Becoming a MessyNessy Keyholder? [Apply now to unlock the Vault!](    [Facebook]( [Twitter]( [Instagram]( [LinkedIn]( [Blog]( [To ready more from MessyNessyChic visit the Blog]( and make sure you keep getting these email by adding contact@messynessychic.com to your address book or whitelist us. Our postal address: In a Café, Paris 75001 Want out of the loop? [Unsubscribe](.