Things I Would Spend Money On If It Was Coming Out Of My Ears...

Just in case there is some rich benefactor looking to grant three wishes, or any of you have some gold doubloons burning a hole in your pocket and share my taste.

1. This utterly amazing small sofa from Wisteria would be the perfect replacement for my black leather Ikea loveseat, which is definitely a placeholder for something more special.

2. Any number of items from Lauren Moffatt's outerwear collection. I was really salivating over this plaid number until I realized that I basically have the same thing in buffalo plaid. Imagine my good fortune!

What can I say, it's been a long hot summer and wool coats are apparently the farthest thing from my mind, until now. But this little schoolgirl cape would be a fine addition to someone's closet. So adorable! I am a fall cheerleader for sure.

3. A Cuisinart Food Processor. My whole life I grew up and it was the only thing my mom ever used to mix anything. For 20 years it was KitchenAid who? Now I am a slave to my gigantic mixer (and won't even take it off the counter because I love it's red-ness) but I'm crushing graham crackers by hand to make tart crusts and splashing tomato bits all over my kitchen with my immersion blender while trying to make gazpacho. Santa, are you listening? The time is nigh.

4. I'd commission portraits of myself and Mr. SevPrez from John Perry. Check out the ones he did for Steve Nash and his family. For some reason I'm completely enamored of this guy. I think it's probably because he's an athlete and an artist, and I find that combination highly desirable. There is nothing better than people who can't be pigeonholed.

Lazy Summer Weekend

Saturday I made a plum pie to bring to my friend's barbeque, but the dough was a little dry (started with too much flour) so instead of rolling out a second pie shell I made plum pielets. The crust to fill ratio was killer.

Sunday, after going to the private opening of my mom's new museum exhibit, I stopped at Delicious Orchards on the way home for some tomatoes and good bread for our gourmet BLT dinner. It was relatively empty for Delicious Orchards standards, so I had time to stop, smell, and buy some flowers. I love these guys, they are so gorgeously wild and even dry well. Anyone know what they're called?

Sonny likes them too.

Summer Day of Fun 2010

My mother and I have a tradition going back to the mid 90s, the Summer (and Winter, which was added around 2003) Day of Fun, in which mother and daughter come together and take time out from their regularly scheduled lives to do something that they have always been meaning to do, or would do if they led lives of leisure, which they are destined not to because of their genetic makeup. (Mom is busy with exciting work opportunities, museum stewardship, and grammy-ship since she retired; I have a full time job in which I commute to, a personal blog in which to maintain, and a marathon to train for. It's who we are.)


This year Mom met me in midtown Manhattan and we had lunch at Sarabeth's on Central Park South before visiting the American Folk Art Museum. Originally the plan was to go to MoMA to see the Matisse exhibit, but we'd been to MoMA together before, and it promised to be packed. I just happened to read a great piece on the Folk Art Museum in the New Yorker, and had always admired the flag outside their building, so we changed plans. And boy were we glad we did. Here's a photo of part of the line (that went all the way around the block) to get into MoMA, taken from the top floor of the Folk Art Museum, which is right next door.

We saw some truly inspiring things. I'm still not quite sure what folk art is exactly, but I think it amounts to Art-by-artists-who-are-not-Artists, that is people who did not go to school to be artists. They can be artisans, or craftsman, or, in the 20th and 21st centuries, just plain crazy people who are compelled by their imprisonment or mental illness to make art. It's somewhat unclear. But I still enjoyed all the exhibits. 

We saw some stuff by Henry Darger, who was clearly mentally ill and made some disturbing art (which I did not take photos of). Sad thing is, the Henry Dargers of today are probably too overmedicated to make compelling art. 

I was tickled by his filing system for images he clipped out of magazines, coloring books, and other printed material — all clippings he used to teach himself how to illustrate his magnus opus. This file was called "Only Trees Trees Not Bees."


But by far my favorite thing in the place was the Pieties Quilt, made by Maria Cadman Hubbard, aged 79, and completed in 1848.


See for yourselves. 

Besides this amazing quilt, there were also excellent weathervanes, a braided rug made out of Wonder Bread bags, a cafe run by a very nice pastry chef who baked all the goods, and live music. 


If you are ever about to get in line for MoMA, I highly suggest finding respite in the AFAM.

The Kitchen Reveal

All the trim is painted, all the counters have been oiled.

I snapped these photos before I had my brothers and their families over for dinner to see the new space. I put our cereal containers and blender under the counter, but stopped short at putting the toaster and coffee maker away as they do in most magazine shoots. This is not Young House Love afterall, I love the blog but those people are insane about home maintenance.

I think it looks pretty good (who am I kidding, I am in love with it), but most importantly, it is highly functional for both cooking and entertaining: I have a great area in which to roll out my pie dough, and I can chop vegetables while talking to guests who are sitting on the stools or relaxing in the back room.

And I have to say, the help of my architect brother was key. I would have never thought about tearing down that wall and building our little peninsula, but it is the key to the whole space. In fact, it now seems like we have a brand new house that makes sense for living and entertaining, not one that's been retrofitted since it was built 65 years ago to keep up with the changing times. Another benefit of our new layout is that the fridge is hidden. Before it was located to the right of where the sink is now, dead center in a key focal point of the house.

The countertops and sink are from Ikea, the faucet (soon to replaced by one from Ikea) and dishwasher are recycled from a great Allenhurst estate undergoing a facelift, and the lights are from Home Depot.

Lunch Hour Shopping, Commute Hour Drawing