The Eighty-Seventh One… and Elisa Stancil Levine

Episode 87 and Wendi and Dfernando's guest interview is author and decorative artist Elisa Stancil Levine.

Elisa Stancil Levine spent her childhood in a canyon on the American River, upstream from the site of the California Gold Rush. She left school at sixteen and as a single mother in Sacramento earned a degree in Library Science and studied Creative Writing. Working with partners she remodeled sixteen historic houses and was Home and Garden Editor and feature writer for SACRAMENTO MAGAZINE. At thirty-six she founded Stancil Studios, an award winning, nationwide decorative finishes company in San Francisco.

Elisa’s second book, THIS OR SOMETHING BETTER, is a memoir and takes place in Northern California, Manhattan and Paris. In it she shares the story of “the making of a maker” where she explores the combination of surrender and decisive action, trust and wariness, solitude and human connection, intuition and painstaking self-inquiry, grace and sheer hard labor that lie at the heart of the great mystery of human resilience.

Her essays have recently appeared in ENTROPY MAGAZINE, STIRRING: A LITERARY COLLECTION, THE PENMEN REVIEW, and THE WRITER’S WORKSHOP REVIEW. A third book is in the works.

Elisa’s color and pattern design have been featured in every major American design magazine including TOWN AND COUNTRY, CALIFORNIA HOMES, LUXE, ARCHITECTURAL DIGEST, and VOGUE.

When Elisa is not writing, traveling or consulting on color and pattern she and her husband spend hours immersed in nature, running and riding horseback on Sonoma Mountain.

Also on Episode 87, Dfernando and Wendi have more GORGEOUS LIVING tips: ladies trimming their beards and a TikTok yogurt cake. Plus, Wendi mentions her new water aerobics with the women in her family.