This is the kind of pottery I dream of one day making. I found Paula Greif‘s work on a stroll through Hudson NY this week, only the shop was closed. So instead, I stood glued up against the store window admiring her beautiful spoons, platters and bowls for a good long while. It all started with a pottery class, “with the goal of remaking everything in my kitchen,” Greif says on her website. The artist had many creative lives before turning to the wheel, including shooting music videos and designing record covers for Madonna. “Began making bottles for my friends at old field farm on the summer weekends…got a space in a group ceramics studio in red hook, brooklyn…now living and working in a 10 foot wide house in hudson, new york.” Her work is all so simple, naive and whimisical. It’s a good thing the shop was closed — I would have snapped up every piece in the window.

I can’t imagine a prettier place to spend a summer evening than right here at Le Sirenuse in Positano. This room is pure delight, with its teal floors, dainty furnishings and travelling vines. I picture guests taking refuge here when the rain comes pouring down, smoking and talking and sipping Aperol spritzes. La dolce vita, indeed.