A Room in a House

Hello, gorgeous.

How fabulous is this room? The mirror, the dresser, the beautiful curves on that chair...it's perfection. Oh, and the floors. Those amazing floors. I love. I like to imagine it's a room in this house:

Seems like a perfect match, yes? If I were going to live anywhere other than NYC, it would be in this house. In the English countryside. (Not sure if this is actually the English countryside, but in my head it is).

Both images via That Inspirational Girl tumblr. Be warned. I could lose days in the gorgeousness of this tumblr!

Apple Crisp

Apple crisp is a favorite recipe of mine. It's delicious, simple, and so easy to throw together. I found a great recipe for it here and just tweaked it a little to reduce the sugar. You might be able to reduce the flour as well, but I haven't tried that yet-next time! Here's my take on it (instructions at bottom):

Filling:

Apples, peeled and sliced (enough to fill your pie dish-I used four)

1/4 cup sugar

1 tbsp. flour

1 tsp. cinnamon

Topping:

1/2 cup oatmeal

1/4 cup brown sugar

1/2 cup flour

1/4 tsp baking soda

1/4 tsp baking powder

1/4 cup (1/2 stick) unsalted butter, a little cooler than room temp.

Optional: 1/4-1/2 cup chopped almonds or walnuts

 Peel and slice enough apples to fill a pie dish (I used four). You can use a mix of apples-I think mine were Honeycrisps.

In a bowl, mix together 1/4 cup sugar, 1 tbsp flour, and a tsp. of cinnamon. Throw the apple slices in there and toss around until they're coated in the mixture. Then put them into the pie dish (which you can butter if you like, to prevent any stickage).

Prepare the topping: Mix together 1/2 cup oatmeal, 1/4 cup brown sugar, 1/2 cup flour, 1/4 tsp. baking soda, and 1/4 tsp. baking powder. Take a half a stick of butter (1/4 cup). It doesn't need to be room temp, but it shouldn't be frozen either. Cut it into cubes. With clean hands, crumble the diced butter up into the topping until the butter is all mixed in and the topping has a crumbly consistency. This is why cool butter is fine and it doesn't need to be softened-the heat from your fingers will basically soften it into the mixture.

Bake at 375 degrees for about 40 minutes, until the topping is golden brown and you can see some bubbly juices (plus you'll smell deliciousness). Serve warm with vanilla ice cream or whipped cream. Voila! Perfection.

And you know what I'm looking forward to as summer approaches? Peach-blackberry crisp. Mmm!

New to Me

Is there anything better than being the last to jump on the bandwagon of something that's gotten tons of hype, and then discover that it was worth every word of it? At that point I think to myself, Why was I ignoring this before, when everyone kept saying how amazing it was? Case in point:

Um, yeah. Why was I not watching this show? I really don't have a good answer to that question (IS there a good answer to that question?). However, I'm actually pretty happy about it, because now I have the opportunity to utterly immerse myself in a crazy, all-consuming Mad Men marathon. I've spent every minute of my free time for the past forty-eight hours entrenched in Season One and now am halfway through Season Two-and do I even need to say how obsessed I am?

These two make some seriously pretty pictures.

Before watching, I always had a shoulder-shrug reaction to Jon Hamm. While everyone was swooning, I really didn't get it-he kind of looked like a Dad to me, and he always had sort of a goofy smile in every red carpet pic I saw. I just thought "eh." Well, now that I've seen him as Don Draper....

let's just say, my shoulders shrug no more.

Florals

Is anyone else completely head over heels for this floral statement wall featured in the March/April issue of Lonny? It's part of the West Village apartment of Anna Burke, a designer who works alongside Celerie Kemble.

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And seriously, how pretty and stylish is she?

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I love the way she tied the fluffy white curtains with black ribbons too. It reminds me of a wedding dress with a black ribbon belt-so understatedly glamorous. 

That gorgeous wall happened to remind me of a pillow cover I had made last year and put away for winter. Now that spring's rolling back around, it felt like the perfect time to pull it out and infuse my couch with a little bit of colorful floral:

The fabric is by Alexander Henry, and I just had my tailor make it into a pillow cover for me. Not quite a statement wall, but still pretty for spring!



City Chic

I am in love with this look on Miranda Kerr:

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Miranda has got some serious style! I'm constantly drawn to her simple, pulled together, urban ensembles. I love her jeans here (I'm never giving up on my skinny jeans, no matter how many flares the stores throw at me!), and the coat is so city-chic. Don't even get me started on the bag. It's simply increasing my already burning desire to acquire this:

J. Crew Biennial Satchel

Even though I'm sure Miranda's Louis Vuitton cost about a bajillion times what this J. Crew beauty costs, it's still a bit steep for me. But I can't help loving the pebbled red leather and the structured shape of this satchel. Lately I have such a thing for frame bags, which just look so effortlessly sophisticated to me.

By the way, today I'm super excited to be guest posting on the lovely Small Shop Studio, one of my fav daily reads! Erika's blog is gorgeous and full of great style (and have you seen her house tour? I seriously die). Big thanks to Erika for having me over!

Reese's From Scratch

Reese's Peanut Butter cups are one of my all-time favorite candies, and who would've thought-they're SO easy to make at home! There are a multitude of recipes online that you can follow, and they can even be made vegan. There are easy step by step instructions and a full recipe (non-vegan) available here.

The "shell" is just melted chocolate. I prefer milk chocolate, but you can use semi-sweet or dark too! Melting chocolate can be a bit challenging (it tends to get grainy/burn if you don't temper it). I melted it on the stove over a very low heat. You can also melt it over a double-boiler or in the microwave.

To make the filling a bit grainy, like in real Reese's, here's the little secret: crushed up graham crackers!

This is the filling: powdered sugar, peanut butter, and the graham crackers. You can also use brown sugar instead of the powdered sugar.

Happy Macaron Day!

Yet another reason to envy the French: their holidays are WAY cooler than ours. Case in point: today is Jour du Macaron (Macaron Day) in Paris! Originated by renowned pastry chef Pierre Hermes, this year the holiday will raise money and awareness for Autistes sans Frontieres, by giving away free macarons at various patisserie in Paris.

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Luckily, NYC has jumped on the bandwagon, thanks to Francois Payard (big thanks to Francois, because it's not really convenient for me to hop on a plan to Paris today). You can score a free macaron at participating locations in the city today by telling the shopkeepers that you're there for Macaron Day NYC. Here, proceeds are going to City Harvest (check out Grub Street for more details).  

Even though my favorite location isn't participating, I might just have to throw on a striped shirt and ballet flats today and head out for a macaron hunt! Maybe I'll discover a new favorite along the way.

Happy Jour du Macaron!

The Dark Rose

As a fan of Erin Kelly's debut novel The Poison Tree, I'm excited to get my hands on her newest release:

It features:

• The ruins of a decaying English garden.
• 2 characters hiding from questionable pasts.
• Dark secrets.
• A love affair.

Sounds good to me! Like in The Poison Tree, I'm expecting an atmospheric tale with morally questionable characters, romance that goes awry, and a certain creeping sense of unease throughout that something is about to go wrong. Kelly is an excellent writer-she creates a real sense of suspense without losing the psychological aspects to her characters. Definitely excited for this one!

A Stylish Seattle Space

I was "paging" through the old July/August 2011 Lonny, and rediscovered the gorgeous Seattle apartment of Lisa Stasiulewicz, Amazon.com's style editor. It was designed by Michelle Adams, Ellie Somerville, and Victoria de la Camara, and photographed by Patrick Cline. I love the way it's feminine but not over the top girly-you can tell a woman lives there, but I think a guy would feel pretty well at home too.

 I love these tables from Nate Berkus's HSN collection-surprise, surprise. Nate does no wrong!

 I love the rug and the little settee-how sophisticated does that look-and so touchable!

 Is there anyone out there who DOESN'T love tulip tables? The chairs are great-they seem sort of traditional, but just low-key, ya know? I love the bar on the console table, and the lamp as well.

This is just great. They added the mantel to create an architectural detail, which is genius. Then they filled it with books, which just slays me.

The Lonny team used some budget buys in the apartment-the Ikea lamp above, for example-and it looks so perfect and high end! It's all about the mix-and I adore that Paris photograph.

Aaah, I feel so inspired! Love the Lonny archives.

No Regrets

Continuing my little week of art here, this is the piece that I hung in my entryway:

Sarah and Bendrix print

I am in love with the black and gold colors of this piece. Since I'm WAY too chicken to ever have a black painted statement wall, this is pretty much the next best thing to me, and the large scale covers perfectly the ugly little utility door (major eyesore) that lives on this wall. I have to say, this piece looks a lot better in person-unfortunately my entryway is super narrow and tough to photograph. Oh and also, could the sentiment be any more uplifting? It means No, I do not regret anything-it's from an old song, as my framer pointed out to me. Here's the photograph of this print from the Sarah and Bendrix Etsy shop:

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Isn't it just gorgeous?

I also put up my New York print from Rifle Paper Co.:

This picture is just so freakin' adorable I can hardly stand it. It looks even better in person that I expected! I might move it out of that spot, but for now this is where it's living.

Gallery Wall

As I discussed in this post, I've been struggling to decide what to do with the wall above my desk ever since I moved into my apartment (over a year ago!). Slowly, the answer became clear to me as I continued to find, collect, and frame eclectic pieces of art that I love. These items were just begging for a prominent spot in my home, so I could stare at them as they clearly were meant to be stared at. Here's the final product:

NYC Map print: You see a lot of these, but in my opinion, this is a really good one. I LOVE how they made Central Park in green in the middle!

Jessica Durrant NYC Skyline: I discussed my love for her watercolor works yesterday. LOVE the drips!

This arch photograph was taken by my sister when she was in high school, at the lovely Westbury Gardens on Long Island. Love having something personal and one of a kind in my little gallery!

Sugarcoat by Michelle Hinebrook, purchased on 20x200 a few years ago-still available on the site!

M9 by Thomas Hammer, bought on Saatchi Online, discovered via Matchbook Issue Thirteen (great issue, by the way). I like how this abstract piece contrasts with the very girly and happy pink pieces surrounding it (one is called Sugarcoat, one is called Lipstick Dots-clearly, something darker was necessary!)

I might change the arrangement or placement in the future, but for now I'm just really happy to have these pieces in a place where they can be admired (instead of in a pile in the corner behind my couch!). As I was talking about here, it feels so good to be surrounded by pieces of art that are interesting, personal, or just speak to you in some way.

Olive Yew

Recently I was lucky enough to win a gorgeous necklace from Etsy shop Olive Yew, through a blog giveaway held by the lovely Viviana of Fashion Truffles (thanks Viviana!). The pieces in this shop have that simple, delicate feel that I'm loving right now. Here's the beautiful rose gold horseshoe necklace that I received:

And look at the charming packaging that it came wrapped up in:

So cute! Here are some of my other favorite pieces from this lovely shop:

Rose Gold Bow Necklace

Double Circle Necklace

Long Bar Silver Necklace

Double Circle Bracelet

Jessica Durrant

It makes me extremely happy to be surrounded by pieces of art that I love, so I was really excited when I came across the work of the extremely talented illustrator Jessica Durrant. She runs an Etsy shop full of absolutely gorgeous watercolor and pen works that are feminine, but retain a feel of upscale sophistication. Her prints include fashion sketches, maps, city skylines, vintage illustrations and more-all in beautiful watercolors.

I desperately needed a new look for the wall near my bed, and I was thrilled to go with two of Jessica's gorgeous fashion illustrations. They give me a serious jolt of happy every time I glance at the wall next to my window:

The Trench Coat//The Geek Next Door

When it comes to decorating, art pieces are like books to me, in that they are personal and subjective-and to me, the best decorating is personal. When you walk into a person's apartment and find it filled with books and interesting art, these things tell you something about the occupant's interests and personality. I've been on a bit of an art buying stint lately, so I can't wait to show everyone the new piece I hung in my entryway, and the new gallery wall I created above my desk (including one of Jessica's city skylines!) Stay tuned for that later in the week.

A Lovely Look

This J. Crew look drew me in like a magnet. It's not just that I love the dress (which I do). It's that I would like to be this girl, from head to toe. From top (I'm obsessed with the hair) to toes (I love the neutral shoe), this whole look is perfection. And the dress is just the perfect centerpiece. It's ladylike, but the polka dots keep it young and fun. I love navy, which is just so pretty and preppy, and I adore the belted waist AND the fact that it's knee length. I can't say enough-I'm head over heels.

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Elinor dress - Edie purse - Olympia leather wedges

Corn Muffins

Homemade corn muffins make for the perfect breakfast! The Magnolia Bakery cookbook has a great version that I make whenever the craving strikes. They're moist with just a little touch of sweetness, and they always hit the spot with a little pat of butter.

Just slightly messy! 

A Stylish Sleep

How cute are these Mary Green eye masks from Shopbop? They're functional, cheeky and adorable-definitely a guarantee of a stylish night's sleep!

Sleeping Eye Mask in Tickled Pink

 Good Morning/Good Night Eye Mask

The back:

The Invisible Man

When I used to subscribe to Glamour, one of my favorite columns was Jake, the monthly dating/relationships column written pseudonymously, from a guy's perspective. I always found it fun to read the male take on girls and dating-and you knew it was honest since he was writing under an assumed name!

Recently I read this article in the New York Times Style section about the new book based on the column, and it was really interesting! Did you know the Jake column has been around since the 50's? And that one of the first pieces of advice that Jake offered up to us ladies was not to show up drunk for a date? Thanks, Jake :)

Vintage Jake

(source)

One interesting tidbit from the Times article mentioned how the Glamour editors, when recruiting "Jake", were always careful to choose someone who genuinely liked women. That might seem obvious, but to me it was the thing that always set the Jake column apart from other books/articles written from the male perspective (Tucker Max, anyone?). "Jake" always seemed to be genuinely trying to encourage and help the female reader in a lovely kind of a way-he's like your best guy friend. It's always been a column that just had a nice tone behind it, so I'm definitely intrigued by the idea of the Jake book!

Any Jake fans out there? Were you surprised to see they made a book out of it?