The magic of red, white and blue

Certain colors are just classics and always make sense together with red, white and blue topping the list. Ralph Lauren has made a fabulous career showcasing American lifestyle.  Tommy Hilfiger is another designer who has elevated the look to mass appeal.  What's All American style anyway?? Is it the beefcakes in the Abercrombie & Fitch clothing lounging by surfboards? Or is it the East Coast waspy house full of antique flags and needlepoint pillows.  Or is it the Western inspired log cabins in Aspen with leather chairs and wide plank floors.  Whatever it is, we know it when we see it.   The next few days I'm going to share images of what I think it is.  If entertaining a new design style,  celebrating Americana is not a bad road to take.

Note: All these photos came from lexingtonshop.com but the photographer isn't listed so I can't provide credit.

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Pull up a chair

It's true. In my tiny apartment, I am obsessed with seating.  It's not just that I like chairs (and I really do like chairs) but I like the idea of seating nooks for friends to chat when over.  In fact, I squeeze in seven chairs and one 72" sofa in the size of most people's dog house.  Chairs add personality without the commitment of a sofa or larger piece.  I've written about chairs before here so you might have already caught on to this love affair.

This season, I am obsessed with the new outdoor chair by Wisteria.  It's a bit retro and modern, all at the same time. I love that it's made for the outdoors yet would be fine inside as well.   I could see this around a rustic farm table in a Hamptons beach house or on an all white front porch of a midcentury Bungalow.    

Like paint, chairs can easily transfer a room without too much fuss.


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Visit to the Queen City

Last week, I was shooting two stories for Southern Living with the fabulous, Alexandra Rowley.   While I grew up down the road (OK, more like three hours down a major interstate), I hadn't been to Charlotte in years and was quite pleasantly surprised by how great it was.  Here's my hit list of favs:

Fav store to gawk at (because one gets the impression the recession somehow by passed this city):  Capitol

Fav dinner spot:  Good Food

Fav local dive:  Penguin (it is the definition of beer & burger joint). Of course, they don't have a website (I'd look down on it a bit if they did as any self-respecting, true joint just shouldn't) but here's a roadfood.com did a great write up and captures it well.

Fav find:  fried chicken at Price's Chicken Coop
* This place should come with a warning label "If you eat this food, you will NOT be able to zip your pants."  See the fryers hard at work.

End Result.  

Fav streets to cruise through:
Myers Park -Hermitage Rd, Harvard Pl, Edgehill, Sherwood between Queens West and Queens
Eastover-Eastover Rd between Cherokee and Museum Dr.

Fav home stores:
Mrs. Howards who opened last August the Charlotte location from the eponymous store in Jacksonville, Fl.  They did an incredible store renovation.  See following pictures:

Store's exterior

Each room is so well done you don't want to buy anything least you mess the whole look up. 

Wood paneled room. 

Easy on the eyes, any modern day Southern Belle would be happy here. 

Gorgeous bedroom. 

Honorable mentions for kind service and well, a bit more affordable finds:

Circa (amazing staff + loads of chic stuff)
Interiors Marketplace (if you hit it on Tues + Fridays, they have an adorable farmer's market with flowers & homemade treats. All proceeds go to Urban Ministries. Well done, Charlotte!

Back in NYC so more on living well in space spaces.  (Though getting AWAY from my small space is one way to live well in it.)

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How's it swingin'?

I am obsessed with French Beach Chairs.  Sometimes called swing chairs or deck chairs, they make my heart flutter.  They immediately take me to South of France or some fabulous yacht or dreamy backyard. I own two that I keep on a hook on the wall behind my clothes in the closet.  Once or twice a year, I take them out and haul them to the park for day of sunning.

$69 (on sale) Pier 1 stores nationwide

Truly a great value.

$99 Conran Shop

* My favorite. It's the classic design, at a can't miss price.  

$140 Quel Object

Gorgeous fabric selections, these are scene stealers in any backyard. 

$170 Gallant & Jones

Made of teak and built to last, it's hard to argue with the beauty of handcrafted furniture. 

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Custom Bike

New York City is bike crazy right now.  The Mayor has added tons of bike lanes and extra places to lock them up.  Paris might have gotten on the craze sooner but NYC is quickly falling suit.  Sadly, my brand new bike was just stolen (sigh) so I am on the hunt for another.  Found this at Urban Outfitters and love the idea of tricking one out.  Thought I would pass along in...


$399 at Urban Outfitters.

Add a cute rattan or (more practical) wire basket and take off!

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Covet

Covering markets means that I see a lot of stuff.  And like the cobbler's kids who have no shoes, I don't usually buy because there's something else that replaces the top item on the "must own" list.  That said, this one duvet from Dwell is so stunning, so beautiful that I must own.  This picture, while great, doesn't do it justice.  Dwell showed this at the Jan NY Gift Show and literally, people would stop walking the aisles when they saw it.

$280 from Dwell.  Its a fantastic resource for home textiles; a pitstop for tastemakers.

Here's another picture of it from Design Sponge's sneak peak from yesterday.  It's got all the elements that I love: a bit of vintage, unexpected color and nothing is "perfect." 

Sigh. I could sleep well in this bed.

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David Stark's magic

David Stark is at it again.   Master of imaginative entertaining, he created a gorgeous "purely paper" flower pop up shop within West Elm store in New York City for two days to celebrate the launch of his latest published work, David Stark Design.  Using pages from old books, he's created lovely faux flowers from dazzling daisies to shockingly realistic orchids to framed mock botanicals.   Bouquets of paper creations lined the shop exterior in large buckets but his magic wasn't relegated to just flowers. He paper mache garden tools, wellies and my favorite, garden hat were also on sale.    Potted plants were created so effectively that I had to look twice to confirm that they weren't actual real.   Once again, he's raised the bar on event planning. This fourth book is a keeper. 

Store within the West Elm Store.... Pop up stores are Everywhere these days. 

And yes, just like at a florist, these were sold by the stem. ....

How clever... a potted plant made of paper... Now this maybe I can keep alive....

My favorites-garden hat & watering, both paper mached. 

Even the palm is made from paper....

Isn't his cloche covered potted daffodil so fun??

Makes me want to cancel plans tonight and go cut up some books this afternoon.

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Ps   My version of heaven is hammock + ice tea + good book on summer's day. If you can relate, check out my ivillage market report on great hammock. Several sold out immediately!! woohoo!

Also, check out my Sex in the City 2 round up and Backyard Family Fun too.

Pull up a chair!

An older, sophisticated cousin use to live in a large Upper Westside Apartment and entertained quite a bit.  The apartment practically took up the whole floor and had cathedral ceilings and a kitchen bigger than my whole apartment now. The one room, however, that wasn't so big was the dining room. Living in the "just pull up a chair" mode of inviting extras to her dining affairs, she had a dilemma because those same chairs were just too much when not entertaining.  She came up with an ingenious solution.  She hung four heavy hooks on one wall in the hallway near the foyer and kept french bistro chairs hanging from each hook for folks to self-serve when chairs were needed.  And in between soirees, they hung nicely on the wall.

Folding chairs have come a long way. Here are a few favorites:

Sunburst Garden Chairs, $129, Wisteria

Terai Folding Chair, $189, Anthropologiewww.anthropologie.com

Slim Chair, contact for pricing, Fermob

Bistro Chair, $89, Conran

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Popsicles!

I entertained the other night and had a brain freeze when it came to dessert.  I had picked up some strawberries and ended up making Strawberry Fool (mascerated strawberries folding into whip cream) which presents nicely in vintage stemware but my apartment gets steamy when I cook, despite the blasting AC, so what I really wanted was a popsicle.  Popsicles are a hit with NYC Party Planners and for good reason. Easy to make and just plain fun for all, they are a crowd pleaser.  How fun to serve these at a dinner party instead of some fancy smancy thing that requires more dishes  than tiny kitchens can handle.

Serve dessert first!
Greet guests at the door with Emeril's Margaritta Pop (from Food Network)

Margarita Popsicles

Recipe courtesy Emeril Lagasse, 2004

Prep Time:

15 min

Inactive Prep Time:

4 hr 0 min

Cook Time:

3 min

Level:

Easy

Serves:

4 servings

Ingredients

• 3/4 cup sugar
• 3/4 cup fresh lime juice
• 1/2 cup water
• 2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
• 2 tablespoons fresh orange juice
• 2 tablespoons tequila
• 2 tablespoons orange liqueur (recommended: Grand Marnier)
• Kosher salt, for garnish
• Special Equipment: 4 small cups (recommended: Dixie), 4 popsicle sticks

Directions

Combine sugar, lime juice, water, lemon juice and orange juice in a small saucepan over medium heat. Cook, stirring, until sugar dissolves. Remove from heat and allow to cool. Once cool transfer to a blender with tequila, orange liqueur, and lime wedge and process until smooth. Pour into the cups and cover the top of each cup with foil. Place the popsicle stick in center of cup (down through foil, which will hold it in place). Freeze until hard, preferably overnight. Remove from freezer and run cup under warm water to loosen popsicle. Garnish with kosher salt and serve.

You can eat it or wear it....

Tovolo Frozen Jewel Popsicle
$9.99 for set of 6 at Chef tools.

Holla it out!
Prepara Volcano Ice Pops
$8.99 for set of 4 at La Prima Shops.
What's fun about these is the center is hollow so jazz it up with whip cream or liqueor for an Adults Only treat.

After dinner coffee, anyone??

Make this mocha pop by alternating coffee ice cubes over sweetened cream cubes on a coffee stirrer.  Inspiration from Icypops by Kystina Castella. 

Impatient to get the party started?  

Williams-Somona has this popsicle maker that creates one in 7 minutes!  

$49.95 at Williams-Sonoma

Books to inspire...

Exclusively at Williams-Sonoma

and

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Camp Fantasy

My BFF's birthday is around the corner and she wants to go (oh no!) camping.  Now, I love the IDEA of camping: the fun gear, the singing by the campfire, the s'mores, being away from the concrete jungle but in reality, not so much.

My family only went camping one time, for one night, actually.  It turned into one of those David Sedaris short stories that is awfully funny now but not back then.  After a knock down drag out fight with my older sister that she had to go come with us for the weekend,  we drove the three hours or so to Linville Falls, NC a beautiful spot in the NC Appalachian Trail.  We had my Dad's tent from Vietnam (NO JOKE) but only my sister could figure out how to put it up (thank goodness, she lost her battle to not join the trip).  My mom, scared of bears, slept in the car -locked, mind you-while the three of huddled in the tent. My sister tends to do a bit of sleep walking and literally cold hocked me in the middle of the night while my Dad watched in horror.  Needless to say, we checked into a hotel the next night (in separate rooms, no less) and no one brought up camping again.


Fast forward 20 years or so and I went AGAIN this fall.  This time, my camping partner who is super into it had all the gear, the perfect trails to hike, the perfect place to pitch the thing.... I mean, tent but the one thing she couldn't control was the weather. And it was bad. It rained all night.  Sloshing in the mud in the cold at crack of dawn, we decided we had had all the fun we could take and threw the gear, much to her husband's dismay, into the back of the car.  She had made homemade hot chocolate for breakfast but in our weariness, we melted the bowl we needed to heat it up.  Sigh. It was time to return home.

Here's our camping spot. It looked better before the rainstorm with a charming fire pit going and stars looming large.

Trying to make hot chocolate before fleeing the scene.  

Now it's truly camping weather and the romance of "hitting the trails" sounds nice again.  I explored staying in a yurt but those suckers aren't cheap. And it seems from the "no vacancy" signs on many websites that we aren't the only ones to have this idea.    

In fact, camping isn't what I want to do anyway but rather glamping-glamorous camping.  When people say, do you like to camp? Well, yes if this is what they mean:

or this....

   

 

I am obsessed with the idea of this sort of camping... a beautiful piece of land, a tent covered dining set up from Snow Peak. 

With this chic chair from Snow Peak to seat in as campfire songs are song...

or LL Bean's cot to lounge on under the stars (take THAT, hard, lumpy ground).

and call it a night. 

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Stationery Show

I love paper ephmera and hoard it the way some girls do shoes.  I've got a box under my bed full, a wall collage in my office and  binders full  of it.  Sometimes it's the smallest things that inspire me like a matchbook or business card. So it makes sense that the Stationery Show is my most favorite trade show of the year. It always falls on the same weekend as the ICFF show (International Contemporary Furniture Fair) so you see the handsome Italians walking around talking modern design while the wedding crowd is dishing on paper stock.  You see everyone walking around.  Personalities like wedding planner to stars, Mindy Weiss, Fab Designer, Eddie Ross, editor friends and vendors who have become friends like adorable Haile from  Fontaine Maury,  talented Whitney English from Whitney English and the Marilyn Monroe of the show, Margaret Jacobs from Macbeth Collection.  

And then there's the letter press crowd...

Each stand is adorable, well thought out and artful. They have created little nooks for themselves and like beautiful handcrafted chocolates with mystery fillings, they are all unique. How they make money, I haven't a clue but each year they bring me joy to see their creative flair.

 Here are some of my favs from the show.   

Here's a few of my favorite business cards to inspire.  

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