Theodora Anema has been a designer for her entire career after having attended an art academy in Amsterdam, the Rietveld Academy. She bought her house in the Catskills in 2000, quitting her job in 2012. On her website Pillowtique, you can find her home accessories: appliqued pillows and ottomans made with leather, suede and ultrasuede.

When her daughter was born, she wanted to design some fun accessories for her bedroom, “some things to spruce up her room. Around that time those abbreviations were widely in use, like LOL, LMAO, etc. So I started doing that and made a whole series of them”.

There’s something homely and comforting about pillows and blankets in tactile soft suede, especially as we go into winter. Beautifully-made soft furnishings like this also make excellent gifts.

“I’ve always been interested in interior design,” adds Thea. “I’ve done many interiors for friends of mine in the city and a pillow is a logical accessory that merges fashion and home.”

Thea agrees that the Catskills are bursting with creative entrepreneurs. “When I was just a weekender, I didn’t socialize with anyone except other weekenders, and now I’m socializing with people just like me who have come from the city and made their lives here and are super creative.”

Buy Thea’s wares on her Etsy site, Pillowtique.