What Mr. Mahfouz writes about now are his dreams, creating little vignettes.

Peter Rossi and colleagues developed a framework for creating vignettes by systematically combining predictor variables in order to dissect the effects of the variables on dependent variables.

Every three months or so Ms. Kellison, 35, dismantles the store, rearranging older items and installing new merchandise to create themed vignettes.

He then installed the antiques himself, creating vignettes with clever combinations of furniture, paintings, porcelains and objets d'art.

Eighteen designers and 18 prominent Washingtonians have teamed up to create vignettes that celebrate the promise of summer entertaining and dining.

Inside the shop, a tiny Japanese-style house, Ms. De Vargas has created vignettes of refurbished furniture, art and collectibles.

He is even said to create social vignettes with the toys.

Books like these, for example, seem designed for the sort of person who fusses over creating neurotic little vignettes on their table tops, more so than the serious, life-long reader.

That same year, he created graphic and typographic vignettes for the Deberny and Peignot foundry.

Mr. Shea said: "We are blessed with malleable programming that enables us to create vignettes.