Tag Archives: David J. Witchell Salon & Spa

My Personal Decompression Oasis

THE LIFE STYLIST
We’ve removed all lulls from our lives. From the moment we wake until well into the hours we should be sleeping, we’re plugged in and preoccupied. What follows is a simple solution for beginning to turn that tide and the profound justification for it.

 

By David J. Witchell

We’re almost always conscious of that line, conscious of the implications of crossing over it, and, yet, we do, over and over again, as if compelled by an urge that, at best, can only be ignored for a day or two at a time.

Buy it. Save it. And even when there’s no logical reason why we should, we do.

My days, in every aspect, are sensory-overload. It took me years to learn how to not just manage it but appreciate it, to be present at every turn and fully absorb the experience. The linchpin, I believe, is heeding that line. It represents more than the division of more and less. It’s also balance, or harmony.

For at least few minutes each day, but usually no more than that, I unplug and meditate. What that entails, exactly, is reading my daily word and reflecting on the blessings of the day. I focus on my intentions, center myself in the present and, simply enough, breathe.

The location matters less than the immediate space. I can do it wherever I am, but the room in which I do it needs to clear from distraction. I’ve come to describe it as my Personal Decompression Oasis, or PDO. This is how I go about establishing it.

First, I’ll eliminate all spoken words, which means the TV, if there is one, goes off. My phone and computer are left in another room. Occasionally, I’ll play some music, but it’s strictly instrumental. Then, I’ll light a candle, if it’s practical. If I’m relegated to a walk-in closet, it’s not. In lieu of the candle, I’ll find another focal point, like a tree or a flower on the other side of a window.

Next, I’ll get comfortable, but not too comfortable. If I lay down, sleep will follow. Relaxing as that may be, it defeats the point here. So I’ll sit with a relaxed posture and then take three deep breaths, inhaling through the mouth and exhaling through the nose. I’ll read my daily inspirational message aloud to myself, all the while continuing to breathe in a slowed and deliberate manner. Dividing my attention between the two, the idea is to lock out any thoughts, positive and negative, about the past and the future. This very moment, the message and my breath, is the whole of my world. It’s only then that the act will bear its rewards: comfort, wisdom, strength.

It’s hard to believe that such a relatively small investment can yield such a large return. It took me a while to buy in. But once I gradually started to realize that I was feeling more satisfied with what I had and less burdened by it, I began to respect the process more. The PDO is designed to be a simple construct so that it’s sustainable, but it’s also meant to illustrate how little we actually need to get by. Nothing I’ve ever owned has touched what I’ve felt during meditation. And when you move through life feeling like you’re already equipped with everything you need, you become immune to all those threats to your things, which, you’ll discover, are the source of so much stress.

David J. Witchell is the co-owner of David J. Witchell Salon & Spa, in Newtown and Lahaska, and The Boutiques at 25 South, in Newtown.

 

The Anatomy of a Holiday Table Setting

THE LIFE STYLIST

Is there such a thing as giving too much thought and value to what your guests will be glancing at while they overindulge? For The Life Stylist, that answer is a pretty firm no.

Text and photography by David J. Witchell

img_1802The holidays begin for me well before even the first Black Friday ad. At that first breath of cool air, my mind starts racing with thoughts of entertaining. Elaborate table settings at holiday dinners are kind of my thing. Ever since I was a kid, I’ve gone around the table and sat in each chair to make sure everything looked right from every guest’s perspective.

These days, the settings are dedicated as much to the family and friends who gather around my dinner table as those who can’t, including my late brother James.

When I began plotting for this year’s round of dinners, my mind turned to a pair of artist-friends who share some of my obsession. Chuck Fischer is an established artist and author who recently launched a home collection comprised, in part, of fabrics, wallpaper and china. He’s also created the White House Historical Association’s Christmas card for four years running. Sherry Michelle is a fast-emerging visual artist who’s becoming best-known for her series of pop-surrealist paintings.

The more I thought about it, the more I realized how much promise a brainstorming session with them held. So I convened a roundtable—in September.

How early do you start planning your Thanksgiving dinner table?

Sherry It’s an ongoing process throughout the entire year. I always keep my eye open for little things that’d be cute. Once fall begins, I settle on a “color story” for the table and go from there.

What’s the most critical detail for you?

Chuck  The china collection I designed for Lenox, Mosaico D’Italia. With its terracotta, warm browns and soft greens, it’s a perfect fit. I’m also partial to low-cut flowers and candles of varying heights for the centerpiece.

Sherry  We have a long table, and the centerpieces always consist of multiple things in a row. I’m a stickler for symmetry. My mom’s special twist is to slip a scratch-off lottery ticket under everyone’s plates.

As much as I try to make these dinners new and unique from year to year, so much of the excitement that surrounds them stems from the nostalgia they evoke.

Chuck  I’m still motivated by the happy memories of my grandmother’s kitchen and the wonderful scents of the turkey roasting and the apples sautéing on the stove.

Do you leave your Thanksgiving setting in place and adapt it for Christmas?

Chuck  The day after, I put everything away except the flowers because I’m so eager to start decorating for Christmas. My tree’s usually up by that Saturday.

Sherry  That table serves too many functions to keep the setting in place. It’s where I work on my smaller commissions. And my son does his homework there. So nothing lasts past Thanksgiving night.

I find that picking a single color that lends itself to Thanksgiving and Christmas makes the transition from setting to setting a little easier. For Thanksgiving, I’ll play the bright oranges, yellows and coppers off of different-sized, red, hand-blown, glass-ball tea lights. Come Christmas, the tea lights will stay while the rest of the palette shifts to greens and white. Then for New Year’s Eve, I’ll start fresh and pair clear glass with silver and a hint of gold.

Easy as it is to lose myself in this stuff, it’s worth remembering that it’s the people at the table who create the memories, not the settings—even though they’re arranged really artfully.

David J. Witchell is the co-owner of David J. Witchell Salon & Spa, in Newtown and Lahaska, and The Boutiques at 25 South, in Newtown.

Easing Into Fall, One Well-Placed Accessory at a Time

THE LIFE STYLIST

Some modest, seasonal tweaks to your interior design will work wonders on your perspective.

By David J. Witchell

 

Before you start scattering dead leaves around the house, there are other ways to go about introducing those fall colors.

Neutral hues have always formed the base layer around my home. I get bored with colors quickly, and the vanilla canvas allows me to overhaul the accessories from season to season. Honing in on a new part of the spectrum every few months has a way of refreshing all of the fixtures, not to mention my own spirit.

Still, it’s a bittersweet time of year. It’s invigorating to reintroduce fall’s shades, but it’s just as hard stowing away the summer stuff. Turquoise encourages communication and clarity, and indigo is the color of intuition. Blues, in general, tend to facilitate peace and grounded order, which makes them the ideal palette for the year’s most carefree, restorative months.

Fall, for me, looks like warm metals and hits of crimson, cayenne, rust and goldenrod. I may be especially partial to the season because orange is my favorite color. I’ve also come to learn that it represents optimism. Blending in reds helps me feel energetic and fuels my ambition and determination, a particularly productive cocktail of qualities. Yellow just makes me smile. I throw in some green or magenta for balance and harmony. And somewhere in my office, visible from my desk, I make sure there’s a splash of purple to spark my creativity.

Beneath it all are the browns, grays and whites, the ideal companions for my seasonal whims. It’s easy to look straight past them, but without them, there’d be no anchor, no context. Instead of flowing with the landscape on the other side of the windows, the accents would appear to be at war with the spaces around them. It all works and, just as importantly, it all transitions relatively effortlessly because there’s a consistent, objective platform upon which I can express some personality. Less discretion would back me into corners that I’d be stuck in for years at a time.

And those neutral colors have some personality of their own. Brown embodies warmth and bit of gravity. Gray represents compromise. Little wonder, then, that I’ve used it so liberally. And white connects us to innocence and a sense of fruition.

Interior design is not unlike how we go about dressing ourselves. If I was to go around draped in jewelry, a loud-patterned sweater, putting-green colored khakis and a pair of Christmas-red boots, what would that say about me? I know mixing patterns and colors is having a moment, but with that kind of wild abandon, it all turns into white noise. I love my home. And when I switch out a few well-placed variables, it reminds me why I love it, because those pieces manage to cast it in new light. And that’s all it needs most of the time. To constantly repaint walls and interchange furniture and art would only be masking that appeal.

 

David J. Witchell is the co-owner of David J. Witchell Salon & Span, in Newtown and Lahaska, and The Boutiques at 25 South, in Newtown.

Photos by David J. Witchell

It’s You Against the Sun

THE LIFE STYLIST

A DIY idea that’ll inspire the reimagining of your backyard patio or deck. And, how to keep your skin supple while you savor the summer.
By David J. Witchell

It feels like a lifetime ago that I’d slather myself with baby oil then head outside, armed with my foil reflector, and bake under the summer sun for hours at a time. I don’t know what I was thinking. Even not knowing what we know now, I’m a blonde, fair-skinned guy.

I love the outdoors. That hasn’t changed. But I’m much smarter now about how I spend my time in it. The reflector’s long gone, and the baby oil’s been replaced by sunscreen. That was just common sense coupled with maturity. And a skin-cancer scare. Harder to come by was an outdoor space where my family could enjoy all the best parts of a sun-drenched afternoon without being sapped and baked in the process.

Our backyard patio is especially narrow and long, so finding an appropriately sized dinner table wasn’t any trouble. Finding one, however, with an accompanying umbrella that safely reached everyone around the table was impossible. An umbrella that size would have been too large anyway. And then it hit me. I ordered a few small sails online, erected some tall cedar trees that had toppled over in the yard and strung up the sails between the trunks and the rear of the house to create a taut, overlapping canvas roof. Total coverage, and it’s a conversation piece.

David J. Witchell is the co-owner of David J. Witchell Salon & Spa, in Newtown and Lahaska,and The Boutiques at 25 South, in Newtown.

Photos by David J. Witchell

[divider]Radiant, Not Radioactive[/divider]

These days, I suppress the pale and pasty with Dr. Dennis Gross Skincare Alpha Beta Glow Pads, applied weekly. For more comprehensive coverage at the salon, we turn to Jane Iredale, who created her makeup and skincare collection with the singular aim of nourishing the skin with every application. If she can work that kind of magic with makeup, the sun’s a nonstarter. Here, she offers a routine that’ll enable you to savor and survive the summer. —DJW

Face first
Wear at least SPF 15 on your face, neck and ears every day. I use PurePressed Base Mineral Foundation, which also has concealer, powder and broad-spectrum sun protection (SPF 20). If I’m going to be severely exposed, I’ll apply the Dream Tint Tinted Moisturizer (SPF 15) first and then the foundation. I’ve never burned with that combination.

Hand in hand
Don’t neglect your hands. The HandDrink Hand Cream (SPF 15) protects and hydrates. It’s also gorgeously fragrant. I pop it in my purse and reapply throughout the day.

Head’s up
Be diligent. The sun is responsible for 80 percent of the signs of aging. Reapply your sunscreen every couple of hours, and even more often than that if you’ve been sweating or swimming. And don’t assume that a mineral makeup will protect you. Look for the SPF rating on its label.