It's a new day for this LEO. I am marking my 57th birthday with a fresh start! Enough with my personal Covid-19 (pounds, not virus!). Thus, I started the morning with a brisk run. It wasn't a long run, I admit, but it was a run. I kept moving! And each day (or each week—or each month) I intend to add just a little more speed, hills, or length to my exertions. As much as I've always hated running, all I can do is shout, "Nineteen: be gone!"
I usually reserve my resolutions for the First of January. Oh, how I started-out 2020 with such hope and resolve! Who'd have anticipated the collective diversions we'd endure? But I still hope that the year will end with delight. In the meantime, I'm turning-over a new leaf in the middle of the calendar year. It's the right thing to do.
Twenty-five years ago today, I was on my hands and knees in my first shop—413 Bleecker Street in Greenwich Village. I was sanding and refinishing the floors, determined to open-up within the period of the sun sign LEO. I was working completely alone (no money for staff!) but I had a vision and a determination to work hard, to build something of which I would be proud. One of the things I was to learn (in the following twenty five years) was that a creative endeavor does not necessarily follow a pre-charted path—to a specifically envisioned endpoint. No, a creative undertaking reflects the sum of all the decisions (large or small) which one makes along the way. A business—like a painting or a garden or a play—unfolds before its creator, sometimes in unexpected (possibly wonderful) ways.
The sun sign LEO begins today and will run through 22 August. Let us commemorate the day with this cast iron lion coin bank. He balances his kingly duties of remaining appropriately fierce and fittingly regal. Click on the photo above to learn more about him.
Though our Greenwich Village store is now permanently closed, LEO Design is still alive and well! Please visit our on-line store where we continue to sell Handsome Gifts (www.LEOdesignNYC.com).
We also can be found in Pittsburgh's historic "Strip District" at Mahla & Co. Antiques (www.mahlaantiques.com) or in Canonsburg, Pennsylvania at The Antique Center of Strabane (www.antiquecenterofstrabane.com).
Or call to arrange to visit our Pittsburgh showroom (by private appointment only). 917-446-4248