
The Green Velvet Chair
Heartfelt Stories of Art and Design in Everyday Life
Failed to add items
Add to Cart failed.
Add to Wish List failed.
Remove from wishlist failed.
Adding to library failed
Follow podcast failed
Unfollow podcast failed
$0.99/mo for the first 3 months

Buy for $14.95
No default payment method selected.
We are sorry. We are not allowed to sell this product with the selected payment method
-
Narrated by:
-
Catherine O'Connor
About this listen
When we become acutely aware of the surroundings of our life, we discover that art is not only found in museums, but it also appears in food, music, nature, and so much more. Beyond what the eye can see, this book is a collection of stories told from the viewpoint of a seasoned designer, depicting how art and design flood our everyday lives through music, food, nature, and so much more.
Laura Ballerini, a designer who started much of her creative journey at a big city newspaper and now owns her own digital design boutique, seamlessly weaves together an unlikely array of stories about her inspiring mother, museum visits, online shopping, designing in the dirt, and many other adventures (including a visit to Graceland). Some of these essays are funny, some poignant—all are memorable snippets of universal experiences meant to spark our awareness and awaken us to the rich fields of design all around us.
While this is Ballerini's personal journey spanning over 40 years of working in the design industry, those of us who are willing to be awakened will realize that art and design are the glue that hold all of life together.
©2022 Laura Elizabeth Ballerini (P)2022 Laura Elizabeth BalleriniListeners also enjoyed...
-
Just Kids
- By: Patti Smith
- Narrated by: Patti Smith
- Length: 9 hrs and 50 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Just Kids begins as a love story and ends as an elegy. It serves as a salute to New York City during the late 60s and 70s and to its rich and poor, its hustlers and hellions. A true fable, it is a portrait of two young artists' ascent, a prelude to fame.
-
-
Darkly Self Centered & Narrow View
- By Sara on 10-05-15
By: Patti Smith
-
Home
- A Memoir of My Early Years
- By: Julie Andrews
- Narrated by: Julie Andrews
- Length: 12 hrs and 25 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Since her first appearance on screen in Mary Poppins, Julie Andrews has played a series of memorable roles that have endeared her to generations. But she has never told the story of her life before fame. Until now.
-
-
The Road to Fame, Dame Julie style
- By Christopher on 04-08-08
By: Julie Andrews
-
Make Something Good Today
- By: Ben Napier, Erin Napier
- Narrated by: Erin Napier, Ben Napier
- Length: 5 hrs and 42 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
From Ben and Erin Napier, the stars of the hit HGTV show Home Town, comes Make Something Good Today, a memoir that lets us all know that great love stories are possible, big things can bloom in small towns, and there is always magic in the ordinary if you know where to look for it.
-
-
A must read for everyone who wants to see the good in life
- By Bailey Garner on 01-08-19
By: Ben Napier, and others
-
A Love-Stretched Life
- Stories on Wrangling Hope, Embracing the Unexpected, and Discovering the Meaning of Family
- By: Jillana Goble
- Narrated by: Jillana Goble
- Length: 7 hrs and 54 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
It’s easy to feel overburdened by life’s demands. Looking out into the world as well as under the roof of our home may cause us to question, “How did we get here? And how will we get through?” Jillana Goble has been there. With honesty, faith, and a dose of humor, her debut memoir, A Love-Stretched Life, chronicles what she's continually learning on the suspension bridge between reality and hope. A mom via foster care, birth, and adoption—in that order—for nearly two decades, Jillana has experienced life’s curveballs.
-
-
Refreshing and honest
- By Amazon Customer on 02-09-24
By: Jillana Goble
-
Half Empty
- Essays
- By: David Rakoff
- Narrated by: David Rakoff
- Length: 6 hrs and 48 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The inimitably witty David Rakoff, New York Times best-selling author of Don’t Get Too Comfortable, defends the commonsensical notion that you should always assume the worst, because you’ll never be disappointed. In this deeply funny (and, no kidding, wise and poignant) audiobook, Rakoff examines the realities of our sunny, gosh everyone-can-be-a-star contemporary culture and finds that, pretty much as a universal rule, the best is not yet to come, adversity will triumph, justice will not be served, and your dreams won’t come true.
-
-
A Good Friend I Never Met
- By Rodney on 08-14-12
By: David Rakoff
-
Why I Hate Green Beans
- And Other Confessions About Relationships, Reality TV, and How We See Ourselves
- By: Lincee Ray
- Narrated by: Lincee Ray
- Length: 4 hrs and 57 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
If there is one thing Lincee Ray has learned over the years, it's that the majority of women on the planet struggle with insecurities. Our skinny jeans mock us. Our just-trying-to-help mothers are just driving us crazy. Our social media feeds taunt us with everyone else's picture-perfect lives. It's enough to send you on a gummy-bear bender while binge-watching Friends reruns and not showering for a week. Lincee knows. She's been there. Right there, in fact. Gummy bears and all.
-
-
Perfect in every way!
- By Anonymous User on 10-19-22
By: Lincee Ray
-
Just Kids
- By: Patti Smith
- Narrated by: Patti Smith
- Length: 9 hrs and 50 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Just Kids begins as a love story and ends as an elegy. It serves as a salute to New York City during the late 60s and 70s and to its rich and poor, its hustlers and hellions. A true fable, it is a portrait of two young artists' ascent, a prelude to fame.
-
-
Darkly Self Centered & Narrow View
- By Sara on 10-05-15
By: Patti Smith
-
Home
- A Memoir of My Early Years
- By: Julie Andrews
- Narrated by: Julie Andrews
- Length: 12 hrs and 25 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Since her first appearance on screen in Mary Poppins, Julie Andrews has played a series of memorable roles that have endeared her to generations. But she has never told the story of her life before fame. Until now.
-
-
The Road to Fame, Dame Julie style
- By Christopher on 04-08-08
By: Julie Andrews
-
Make Something Good Today
- By: Ben Napier, Erin Napier
- Narrated by: Erin Napier, Ben Napier
- Length: 5 hrs and 42 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
From Ben and Erin Napier, the stars of the hit HGTV show Home Town, comes Make Something Good Today, a memoir that lets us all know that great love stories are possible, big things can bloom in small towns, and there is always magic in the ordinary if you know where to look for it.
-
-
A must read for everyone who wants to see the good in life
- By Bailey Garner on 01-08-19
By: Ben Napier, and others
-
A Love-Stretched Life
- Stories on Wrangling Hope, Embracing the Unexpected, and Discovering the Meaning of Family
- By: Jillana Goble
- Narrated by: Jillana Goble
- Length: 7 hrs and 54 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
It’s easy to feel overburdened by life’s demands. Looking out into the world as well as under the roof of our home may cause us to question, “How did we get here? And how will we get through?” Jillana Goble has been there. With honesty, faith, and a dose of humor, her debut memoir, A Love-Stretched Life, chronicles what she's continually learning on the suspension bridge between reality and hope. A mom via foster care, birth, and adoption—in that order—for nearly two decades, Jillana has experienced life’s curveballs.
-
-
Refreshing and honest
- By Amazon Customer on 02-09-24
By: Jillana Goble
-
Half Empty
- Essays
- By: David Rakoff
- Narrated by: David Rakoff
- Length: 6 hrs and 48 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The inimitably witty David Rakoff, New York Times best-selling author of Don’t Get Too Comfortable, defends the commonsensical notion that you should always assume the worst, because you’ll never be disappointed. In this deeply funny (and, no kidding, wise and poignant) audiobook, Rakoff examines the realities of our sunny, gosh everyone-can-be-a-star contemporary culture and finds that, pretty much as a universal rule, the best is not yet to come, adversity will triumph, justice will not be served, and your dreams won’t come true.
-
-
A Good Friend I Never Met
- By Rodney on 08-14-12
By: David Rakoff
-
Why I Hate Green Beans
- And Other Confessions About Relationships, Reality TV, and How We See Ourselves
- By: Lincee Ray
- Narrated by: Lincee Ray
- Length: 4 hrs and 57 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
If there is one thing Lincee Ray has learned over the years, it's that the majority of women on the planet struggle with insecurities. Our skinny jeans mock us. Our just-trying-to-help mothers are just driving us crazy. Our social media feeds taunt us with everyone else's picture-perfect lives. It's enough to send you on a gummy-bear bender while binge-watching Friends reruns and not showering for a week. Lincee knows. She's been there. Right there, in fact. Gummy bears and all.
-
-
Perfect in every way!
- By Anonymous User on 10-19-22
By: Lincee Ray
-
The Elephants in My Backyard
- A Memoir
- By: Rajiv Surendra
- Narrated by: Rajiv Surendra
- Length: 8 hrs and 35 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Rajiv Surendra was filming Mean Girls, playing the beloved rapping mathlete Kevin Gnapoor, when a cameraman insisted he read Yann Martel's Life of Pi. So begins his "lovely and human" (Jenny Lawson, author of Furiously Happy) tale of obsessively pursuing a dream, overcoming failure, and finding meaning in life.
-
-
The Elephants in My Backyard - fascinating read
- By Matt Jones on 06-29-21
By: Rajiv Surendra
-
Women in Sunlight
- A Novel
- By: Frances Mayes
- Narrated by: Kimberly Farr
- Length: 16 hrs and 53 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Kit Raine, an American writer living in Tuscany, is working on a biography of her close friend, a complex woman who continues to cast a shadow on Kit’s own life. Her work is waylaid by the arrival of three women - Julia, Camille, and Susan - all of whom have launched a recent and spontaneous friendship that will uproot them completely and redirect their lives. Susan, the most adventurous of the three, has enticed them to subvert expectations of staid retirement by taking a lease on a big, beautiful house in Tuscany.
-
-
Enchanting
- By Jan Harris on 04-14-18
By: Frances Mayes
-
Don't Get Too Comfortable (Unabridged Selections)
- The Indignities of Coach Class, The Torments of Low Thread Count, The Never- Ending Quest for Artisanal Olive Oil, and Other First World Problems
- By: David Rakoff
- Narrated by: David Rakoff
- Length: 4 hrs and 36 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
David Rakoff's best-selling collection of autobiographical essays, Fraud, established him as one of today's funniest and most insightful writers. Now, in Don't Get Too Comfortable, Rakoff moves from the personal to the public, journeying into the land of unchecked plenty that is contemporary America. Rarely have greed, vanity, selfishness, and vapidity been so mercilessly and wittily skewered.
-
-
PJ O'Rourke has nothing to worry about
- By dgc on 10-07-05
By: David Rakoff
-
The Seasons of My Mother
- By: Marcia Gay Harden
- Narrated by: Marcia Gay Harden
- Length: 8 hrs and 35 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In this poetic and inspiring memoir, one of America’s most revered actresses uses the imagery of flowers and the art of Ikebana to depict the unique creative bond that she has had with her mother throughout the years - and how, together, they are facing her mother’s struggle with Alzheimer’s disease.
-
-
eloquent writing
- By LA Adams on 06-27-19
-
My Journey
- By: Donna Karan
- Narrated by: Kathleen Boyes, Donna Karan
- Length: 9 hrs and 30 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In this candid memoir, featuring a foreword by Barbra Streisand, renowned designer Donna Karan shares intimate details about her lonely childhood, her four-plus decades in the fashion industry, her two marriages, motherhood, and her ongoing quest for self-acceptance and spiritual peace.
-
-
I loved this audiobook!
- By Phyllis Silver Henkel on 07-09-20
By: Donna Karan
-
Until I Say Good-Bye
- My Year of Living with Joy
- By: Susan Spencer-Wendel, Bret Witter
- Narrated by: Karen White
- Length: 9 hrs and 15 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Susan Spencer-Wendel's Until I Say Good-Bye: My Year of Living with Joy is a moving and inspirational memoir by a woman who makes the most of her final days after discovering she has amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). After Spencer-Wendel, a celebrated journalist at the Palm Beach Post, learns of her diagnosis of ALS, more commonly known as Lou Gehrig's disease, she embarks on several adventures, traveling to several countries and sharing special experiences with loved ones.
-
-
Until I Say Good-Bye is a paradox for me.
- By Bonny on 03-19-13
By: Susan Spencer-Wendel, and others
-
Glad Farm
- A Memoir
- By: Catherine Marenghi
- Narrated by: Catherine Marenghi
- Length: 8 hrs and 55 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Raised in a primitive one-room farmhouse with no indoor plumbing, the fourth of five children, Catherine Marenghi begins her life in poverty and isolation. She leaves home at the age of 17. A decade later, she is a successful journalist with the means to buy her family their first decent house. But the past will not be put to rest so easily. Catherine unravels a web of long-buried family secrets, and a terrible betrayal that robbed her family of the home that was rightfully theirs. And she finally uncovers the story her parents never shared: the gladiolus farm that was once their dream.
-
-
A beautiful story of a real family!
- By Jacqueline Spiros on 11-28-23
-
Very Valentine
- A Novel (Valentine Trilogy, Book 1)
- By: Adriana Trigiani
- Narrated by: Kathe Mazur
- Length: 13 hrs and 43 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The adventures of an extraordinary and unforgettable woman as she attempts to rescue her family’s struggling shoe business and find love at the same time, Very Valentine sweeps the listener from the streets of Manhattan to the picturesque hills of Italy.
-
-
Meh... that's all I can say
- By Tammie on 08-17-23
By: Adriana Trigiani
-
I'll Drink to That
- A Life in Style, with a Twist
- By: Betty Halbreich, Rebecca Paley
- Narrated by: Jane Curtin
- Length: 8 hrs and 39 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Eighty-six-year-old Betty Halbreich is a true original. A tough broad who could have stepped straight out of Stephen Sondheim's repertoire, she has spent nearly forty years as the legendary personal shopper at Bergdorf Goodman, where she works with socialites, stars, and ordinary women off the street. She has helped many find their true selves through clothes, frank advice, and her own brand of wisdom. She is trusted by the most discriminating persons - including Hollywood's top stylists - to tell them what looks best.
-
-
Inspirational, but not in the way I expected
- By Sand on 10-15-14
By: Betty Halbreich, and others
-
My Paris Dream
- An Education in Style, Slang, and Seduction in the Great City on the Seine
- By: Kate Betts
- Narrated by: Kate Betts
- Length: 8 hrs and 52 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
As a young woman, Kate Betts nursed a dream of striking out on her own in a faraway place and becoming a glamorous foreign correspondent. After college—and not without trepidation—she took off for Paris, renting a room in the apartment of a young BCBG (bon chic, bon genre) family and throwing herself into the local culture. She was determined to master French slang, style, and savoir faire, and to find a job that would give her a reason to stay.
-
-
Sorry but narrator puts me to sleep
- By L.W. on 05-27-15
By: Kate Betts
-
Bookends
- A Memoir of Love, Loss, and Literature
- By: Zibby Owens
- Narrated by: Zibby Owens
- Length: 6 hrs and 41 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Zibby Owens has become a well-known personality in the publishing world. Her infectious energy, tasteful authenticity, and smart, steadfast support of authors started in childhood, a precedent set by the profound effect books and libraries had on her own family. But after losing her closest friend on 9/11 and later becoming utterly stressed out and overwhelmed by motherhood, Zibby was forgetting what made her her. She turned to books and writing for help.
-
-
It’s all about me!
- By deborah milito on 07-10-22
By: Zibby Owens
-
Fairyland
- A Memoir of My Father
- By: Alysia Abbott
- Narrated by: Alysia Abbott
- Length: 10 hrs and 21 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A beautiful, vibrant memoir about growing up motherless in 1970s and 80s San Francisco with an openly gay father. After his wife dies in a car accident, bisexual writer and activist Steve Abbott moves with his two-year-old daughter to San Francisco. There they discover a city in the midst of revolution, bustling with gay men in search of liberation - few of whom are raising a child. Steve throws himself into San Francisco's vibrant cultural scene.
-
-
Great representation of the time
- By AvidReader22 on 06-07-19
By: Alysia Abbott