Emma Gilbey Keller

ADVICE FOR MICHELE BACHMANN

EMMA GILBEY KELLER — Thu, 18 Aug 2011 12:34:38 +0000

Congratulations are in order for you, Michele Bachmann, for being the first woman to win an Iowa straw poll. Another glass ceiling shatters. Respect.

Read the rest of the piece at Vanity Fair…

Upstairs, Downstairs, Hols Edition: As London’s Youth Revolt, the Ruling Class Goes Abroad

EMMA GILBEY KELLER — Sun, 14 Aug 2011 11:41:16 +0000

Here’s my latest piece from VF.

“Like many of the Upper Class He liked the Sound of Broken Glass.” —Hilaire Belloc

Isn’t it inconvenient how urban calamities tend to occur when our leaders are out of town?

US & THEM: In Praise of Deepalaya

EMMA GILBEY KELLER — Mon, 11 Apr 2011 14:23:16 +0000

Deepalaya is an Indian group that underwrites education, specifically for children of the slums. While we were in Delhi we took Molly and Alice to a Deepalaya school. It was a lovely gentle, happy place, filled with solemn rows of boys and girls working hard in the morning sun. Quoting from its website, ” A quarter of a million of Delhi’s children, living in slums or on the streets, do not go to school.” For $200 a year you can sponsor a child to go to one of these schools. The child you sponsor will stay in touch with you, and you will get a copy of his or her report card. Education in India is free, but children have to pay for their (mandatory) uniform as well as supplies, putting school out of the reach of so many. Your $200 a year covers those costs. In addition you – and more importantly, your children – can raise money for other things the schools need. Vans, computers, books and so on. If you go to their website you’ll get a good sense of their energy and activities and you can make a donation. I really recommend it as a way your children can get involved and help the less fortunate.

MATH & SCIENCE GO TO INDIA

EMMA GILBEY KELLER — Mon, 04 Apr 2011 21:00:55 +0000

I’ve recently been writing about how Molly and Alice have a completely different math and science education to mine. Theirs is so much more sophisticated, and so much more connected to the real world. On our recent trip to India this couldn’t have been more evident. For starters, Alice passed the boring time on long car journeys by counting cows. (She got to 1048 by the end of the trip FYI.) Well that’s simple enough. Even I counted as a child – though I doubt I had to the staying power to get to such a high number without losing track.
Where their knowledge took off was in looking at design.

They saw everything from basic symmetry…

to tessellations…

…Polygons…

and 3D trompe-l’œil.

Geometry was everywhere. But so was the concept of experimentation.

From flowers

…To precious stones…

to marble

and mirrors.

…

They could look and (many times) touch.

They each had a camera and could photograph and make their own visual designs from the designs they saw. In this way it was an inspiring trip. Yet as an educational experience it was not entirely dissimilar from what they do at school. The math, science and design curriculum of today is all about experiencing and experimenting first hand. Different materials and methods are constantly being introduced to our children.

My girls went to India and had the trip of a lifetime.

And I loved seeing the country through their eyes.

INDIA…

EMMA GILBEY KELLER — Mon, 04 Apr 2011 17:00:08 +0000

I just got back from the India trip, and will soon post some photos that will be of enormous appeal to anyone who shares my obsessive love of floral detail. The rest of you might be mildly disappointed in my holiday pics. No cheesy group shots here. Stand by while I sort through my iphone snaps…

CAN IT BE…SPRING?

EMMA GILBEY KELLER — Fri, 18 Mar 2011 15:22:08 +0000

The girls’ spring break begins today and we are off on a long planned and much anticipated trip to India. And it really does look like we are going. Our departure looked unlikely earlier this week when 4 New York Times journalists went missing in Libya. But last night, we got the happy news that they are safe. So we took ourselves off hold and continued to pack. Honestly, with all that’s happening in the world I won’t believe we are in India until we are, well, IN India. But fingers crossed. And hopefully you won’t be hearing anything else from me for the next 2 weeks. After that I’ll post a slew of holiday snaps and continue about my day.
Here’s hoping that the world becomes a safer place for us all to live in, and that it really and truly is spring.

Thinking about the families of the missing NYT journalists

EMMA GILBEY KELLER — Wed, 16 Mar 2011 21:10:11 +0000

I know very well what it is like to be a member of the New York Times family. I have been part of it for 15 years. Of course, my husband has not been kidnapped, nor has he vanished while on assignment. But he has been a target because of his job with the newspaper, and I know what it is like to live with fear. So today my heart goes out to the families of Anthony Shadid, Stephen Farrell, Tyler Hicks and Lynsey Addario. I hope it is not presumptuous to say that everyone at the New York Times thinks that he or she is a member of your family too. Because I do believe that to be true.

I LOVE DRIES

EMMA GILBEY KELLER — Fri, 04 Mar 2011 21:02:34 +0000

So here I am trying to lose weight for spring, and surrounded by magazines with recipes for fattening and delicious looking dishes. Aaargh. What’s the antidote? Checking out what my favorite designer Dries Van Noten just put together in Paris. It’s miles and worlds away from where I am right now. But it’s all the carrot I need. Take a look at the collection here.

PARENT TEACHER CONFERENCE TIME

EMMA GILBEY KELLER — Thu, 03 Mar 2011 19:37:02 +0000

Each year when we go to parent teacher conference I am reminded of what I am trying to achieve as the mother of daughters. Our two girls are bright and confident – thank goodness. But every time I sit at one of those child-size desks I find myself holding my breath. Are they still confident? It takes so much to make your daughter feel she can do anything, and such a tiny remark or incident can undo all that effort. Today we had Alice’s conference. She’s doing fine. Next week it’s Molly’s. The world is still her oyster. Long may it last.

NEVER SAY DIE-T

EMMA GILBEY KELLER — Wed, 23 Feb 2011 16:27:06 +0000

People who say that you keep the weight off are liars. You don’t. But you can’t spend your life on a diet or you’d die. So this is what I do. I eat whatever I want from Thanksgiving to Valentine’s Day, when it’s cold and I can hide under baggy bundles of clothes. Whatever I want doesn’t mean sloping off to McDonalds for a hefty bit of supersize, by the way. It means bread, pasta, potatoes, rice, chocolate and any other carb that takes my fancy. I bake too. I don’t gain tons of weight, but I don’t feel particularly healthy. I feel – wintery.
And now here we are again, when that portion of the year is over, and once again I am contemplating removing my sweater. So goodbye carbs till fall.
Oh – as the picture shows, wine doesn’t count as a carb.