phew!

A great but busy weekend! My cousins were here from France – LOVE them to pieces! – and my sister from Pennsylvania …. so it was busy busy busy … hope your weekend and Thanksgiving were happy ones!

Among the things we did was visit the lovely Planting Fields Arboretum.

This is the “little” greenhouse as you walk up the drive … it is filled with hundreds of camillas all in bud ready to bloom … it’s going to be lovely. Just a hint of what’s to come …

The beautiful, old, crumbling brick walls …

The house, or as much as could fit in one picture (yes, it was that big, Coe Hall) … is a reproduction of an Elizabethan Manor built in the early part of the last century.

I could not fit the whole front hall into one picture or even six.

These halls were definitely decked!

Much more tomorrow … and then I hope to show you what I’ve been doing to decorate for the holidays!

happy thanksgiving!

A Happy Thanksgiving to you all!  I am thankful for my beautiful family, my friends, and all of you … I hope the coming year brings you all even more to be thankful for…

something’s missing …

If you take a look around this site, you will see something is missing.  It is unfortunate, but I have had to take down pictures of my children.  All of them, except for some where they really cannot be identified.  In this world of easy access, it was just too easy for people to copy them.  So I am sorry I cannot share them with the good people who come by here …

It is clearly posted – these photos are all copyright protected.   It is wrong, and sort of creepy, to copy someone elses photographs.   Just saying. 

at last!

After nearly one year of wanting to make them, I finally tried my hand at making French style macaron. Not your grandma’s macaroons! Little light almond puffs of perfection – a crisp shell with soft moist insides … a raspberry and dark chocolate ganache filling … ahhhh …. mmmmm … oh la la!

Yes, they were as yummy as they look. They will definitely be on the dessert table for my next party or get together.

a giveaway

Privilege – this fabulous website has a fabulous giveaway…. now through Sunday you can enter to win this adorably chic Jewelry “keep” or up to $80 worth of merchandise from the company that is sponsoring the giveaway.  

How darling!  How generous.  This is another blog that I follow.  Come along and check it out.  I think you’ll like it. 

love is in the air

I LOVE this house.  I love this book.  I love this designer.  (See, I told you love was in the air!)  You can go to my bookstore by clicking the green bar over on the right, and get it at a very nice discount from Amazon.    I have gotten a lot of design inspiration, happy dreams, and serious envy from this book.  Oh yes, I can see why Ms. Williams had an affair with this house ….

wishing …

Or, things you don’t know about me … about 20 years ago, when i was in college, I wandered into a little card store in the Village that had an astrology card.  The one for Libra had some cute quotes, I really loved it, so I taped it to my bathroom mirror and there it stayed until I married. Among it’s truisms:  “libras like big houses filled with pretty things…”   Oh, so true.  I was raised to what I now know to be a very nice lifestyle.  We had lots of nice things, a large  beautiful house, and got to travel – many summers were spent in the Greek Islands with family. Now I am older, married, in a nice-sized home.  I have many lovely things.  I have better than that – I have two healthy, happy children.  I am rich, in that way, beyond my dreams.  

But I was raised in a large house with some land, and I often visit these large historic homes, in Virginia, in Newport, in Connecticut and more … so I know what I am “missing”. 

Where we live in Long Island, to have a big house, you need really big money. (and I do not refer to a house the size of the Newport “cottages” – I mean just a large family home.)  Also, to have a nice amount of land you need even more money.  And I miss that.  I want a big house filled with pretty things.  So while it sounds snobbish, and against the current national mindset of austerity and saving, here is my wish list and dream house ….

This one is so pretty … I would love a simpler, white shingle style too … in fact, I think I’d prefer it.  But I love the federal style.

I want … a house with “an approach”  …

a butler’s pantry …

a conservatory large enough to have a dinner table in for a special meal with friends …

enough land for a vegetable AND a cutting garden …

over the top wish??? a BALLROOM.  The ultimate party room.  I love to throw parties.  My last two were more than 75 people.  At home.  It was pretty tight.  If I were that lucky, I would want to share with my friends. 

So while these are tough times, and the dream is far far away, it is nice to have the dream … to want, to wish, to work towards … silly, maybe.  You may think less of me for wanting it.  I hope not.  It is just a silly little dream.  I know I could leave Long Island and have all this in spades for less money than the cost of my current home.  But because I could never leave my family, and my husband HAS to work here, here we stay.  And I am happy to be here too.  In my pretty little house on a pretty little street in a really nice neighborhood.   Because even though I am wishing, I am still grateful.

to all the blogs I’ve loved before (with apologies to Julio Iglesias)

I thought I would run down some of the wonderful blogs that I follow for you …. in no particular order, here are the blogs I follow all the time ….

Traci Thorson Photography an outstanding photographer, and a heck of a nice lady! I visit her site for inspiration, ideas for photographs, and her sunny disposition … you’ll love her too …

Back Porch Musings – this lovely lady helped greatly with the style makeover here … without even knowing me. How sweet is that? A warm and lovely home, beautiful table-scapes, some great recipes, and a warm welcome on the porch …

Cottage Farm Villa – there is something about the photographs on this blog … makes me yearn for Texas. Some blogs just pull you in …

Cuisine Kathleen – great recipes and table-scapes and a warm welcome from my fellow Long Islander. She stopped by one day, and I went over and checked her out and loved it! You will too.

Raised in cotton – I cannot wait to see what they do with their gorgeous old farmhouse.

Rock Paper Scissor – great style, a love for gorgeous and adorable stationery. I wish I knew this girl – she seems so sweet and cute!

Shabby Chic Diva – a little pink, a little old Hollywood …

The Pleasures of Homemaking – another lovely, homey blog… makes me want to bake and cook and decorate … usually when I should be working.

Tongue in Cheek – this lovely American ex-pat living in France posts every single day and there is always a story you want to read …

Tara Frey – Love this girl! I want to be her friend – she is so cool! I think we are the same age, but I SO want to be her when I grow up. Great style, cute kids, gorgeous house. Love this site …

And last but not least …

Jane Brocket … love her lush colors and photographs. This lady is NOT afraid of color. LOVED her book, the Gentle Art of Domesticity too …

I’ll visit more of my blog favorites soon … I really hope that you’ll stop by and check some of these out … I bet you’ll be hooked too ….

I go a walkin’ …

I realized nearly every picture I have taken lately has been either my daughter riding, or my son playing football…. oops … so I have been wondering what to post that is a little different… and here we are.  We recently took a day trip up to New Paltz – this year was the first time I went into the town.  Well, just past the main street you take a right turn, and you get to the block which is the oldest street in America.  How cool is that?  I love history, and the old houses on this block certainly convey that … old stone …

deep sills (that window sill was at least  a foot deep)

and doors (can you believe how deep those doors are?  and that lovely old transom… sigh … my heart is going pitter patter for that transom …)

a family could take shelter in that doorway … they just don’t make them like that anymore .

Hope you enjoyed the trip down a shady old street with me … imagining another place …

more horsing around …

I love that little “biting back a grin” look. Her events done, a long day, and the helmet comed off, and the glow comes out. Not her prettiest picture, she was tired, and had a runny nose. But her hardest event was her highest score and place. Can you see the little swagger in her step? The chin held high? Let that grin out, baby girl. Let it out.

well …

Good days, and bad … On Sunday, our baby did a good job at the horse show.  Even with a broken nose, a cold, and long delays.  We are, as ever, proud of her.  I am hoping that among the skills she takes from this sport are grace, good sportsmanship, and confidence.  

The next day, yesterday, we were in a car accident.  Bad days indeed.   Fortunately, we all seem to be alright.   Someone wasn’t looking where they were going, or in a rush to beat the light, and in trying to make a left turn into an intersection, turned about 20 feet too soon – right into the side of our car.   It was like a scene from a bad horror movie – we could see her turning into our car, but we couldn’t avoid her without hitting at least one other car.   The noise was horrific and our baby was so so scared.  This woman did a LOT of damage to the car.  Both doors, a tire and rim, the back bumper, and part of the front right panel are toast.  We’ll definitely need a wheel alignment as the whole back tire is crooked.  We don’t know about the frame.   It’s a pretty new car too, and not a scratch until yesterday.  She pulled back into the proper lane and put her glasses on before the police and fire department arrived.  They, by the way, were kind and wonderful to us. 

There is an upside – remember those old Saturn commercials where the people all walked away from the accident?  They totally weren’t lying.  With the amount of damage that was done, it is a miracle we weren’t hurt.  That car is so solidly built, No plastic panels you can push in.  Solid American Steel.   That’s our car below – and that’s the color too … ocean mist. I am convinced that if we were in our old mini-van, my husband would definitely have been seriously hurt.     It’s a shame to see any American business go under, but this one put out a product that surpassed my every expectation.  It kept my baby safe.  What a beautiful machine ….

happy halloween!

Here is my little Halloween honey! My poor baby had a rough week. She broke her nose. NOT for the first time, unfortunately (which is mostly why I have not been posting, on top of the busy work schedule. running from doctor to doctor is no fun!) She now has a pretty pronounced bump on the side of it – hard to see in these pictures - and has done some internal damage as well. If she were older, they would operate, but since she is breathing okay for now, they won’t touch it. They are afraid of making a mistake cosmetically since her face is not mature. She will always be gorgeous to me, but I feel bad that her face has changed. She is a real trooper though. What a tough kid!