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Home Equity

4.25.12
photos by gluttonforlife

A quick post today, just to share with you some new purchases that have brought a bit of freshness into my home. I love these kantha quilts! Each one is a unique combination of colors and patterns, and they can be used as bedspreads, to cover a couch, wall-hangings, even tablecloths. Kantha is a type of embroidery popular in Bangladesh and West Bengal, India, that originated from the way housewives mended old clothes by taking out a strand of thread from the colorful border of their saris and making simple designs with them. Old sari fabric is used to create these hand-stitched quilts, commonly known as nakshi kantha. The decorative running stitch is similar to Japanese sashiko quilting.

 

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Garden Update & Hot Links

4.20.12
photos by gluttonforlife

Is it really Friday again? I’ve been up to my ears in work and trying to get on top of things before we leave for our trip to Venice. We’re going for the black-tie 50th birthday celebration of a dear friend, and have rented a charming little garden apartment in Dorsoduro for the first week of May. To say I’m looking forward to the time away would be the understatement of the century. But I’m also praying for rain at home (it’s been bone-dry here) and hotly anticipating a summer of gardening and foraging (more on the latter next week), both of which are off to a pretty good start. I want to share with you a few of the early beauties that announce spring, as well as a bunch of links I’ve been saving up for things to eat, do, ponder and buy.

 

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{Home, Travel}

A Hudson Valley Home

3.29.12
photos courtesy of ayumi horie

In September of 2009, after nearly 25 years in New York City, I decamped for the little cottage in Sullivan County that had been our weekend escape. It was among the best moves of my life. Recently, I read in World of Interiors magazine (one of my greatest sources of inspiration) about an artist residing in the most spare and beautiful cottage on the rocky coast of England. She said that being so far from the city enabled her to resist the trends and tug of consumerism so present in a throbbing metropolis, and fueled her artistic endeavors. Like her, I often go all day without speaking to anyone, except perhaps Titi, my boon feline companion. I am more in touch with my self and my creative impulses than ever before. I ebb and flow with the rhythm of the seasons now; the natural world is compelling and so alive to me. If this sort of existence tempts you, consider making a move of your own. There is an amazing little compound with a Victorian church for sale in the Hudson Valley that could be the answer to your dreams.

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{Eating, Garden, Health, Home, Travel}

Weekend Update: Jiggety Jig

3.23.12
photos by gluttonforlife

Home again, home again. As much as I love to travel, sometimes I think coming home is the best part. Especially when the transition from balmy Hawaii to balmy New York is so smooth. (Minus the jet lag, of course.) Our trip to the Big Island was extraordinary, and I plan to tell you all about it, but I hit the ground running and have not yet had a chance to sort through all the photos, much less my thoughts. So that’s for next week. For now, a few glimpses of spring’s first signs—it’s arrived fast and furious in these parts—and links to some of my latest discoveries. I’m chomping at the bit to start foraging and have a long list of wild edibles I’m determined to find this season. By the way, I’ve missed you madly and realize all over again what a wonderful creative and social outlet this blog is for me.

 

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{Garden, Home}

Airborne

3.9.12
photo by gluttonforlife

With the equinox less than two weeks away, spring is in the air, quite literally. It smells of change, a watery freshness that has beckoned the migrating birds, the slumbering bears, the silent buds. The ground was speckled with an ethereal frosting of something this morning—teensy hail? powdery snow?—that’s already dissipating as I write this. The first sign of the new season, fragile yet hardy snowdrops, have popped up beneath the river birch. I leave for Hawaii on Sunday. With a couple of posts in the hopper, the blog won’t be completely silent this week, but travelogues won’t post until my return. This is a vacation, and vacation I will. Read the rest of this entry »

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Google-Eyed

2.17.12
today it’s mostly slush

Hello, my name is Laura and I’m an addict. Hello, Laura. It’s been 30 seconds since I last Googled. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve tried to get off the stuff, but I just keep going back. It gives me everything I need and I can’t live without it. I don’t even remember a time before it—what was that like?! How did we know anything? Go anywhere? Where did our answers come from? I’m safe with Google. It’s the past and the future. It’s knowledge. It’s the modern oracle. It’s everything to me. And it’s good news for you, too. Just take a look at what I’ve found for you this week. Read the rest of this entry »

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{Garden, Home, Travel}

The Grey

2.3.12
photos by gluttonforlife

Yes, yes, the hair is mostly grey now. People congratulate me on having a “good” color of grey. But what if it weren’t “good”? What if I had a weird, ashy, muddy color? Would I be forced to keep coloring it in order to look “good”? There is often some level of discomfort when I get into these conversations, because inevitably people (read: women) start to question their own commitment to artificial color. I do not judge. I religiously colored my hair for 15 years and, if the inconvenience of spending precious city time in the salon chair were not a factor, I might still be doing it. But the move upstate and all it has engendered do seem to have connected me to a more authentic expression of myself I find gratifying. That said, this post is about a different sort of grey altogether. Read on to find out more, and to check out my latest list of inspiring links.

 

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Cool Head

1.27.12
photos by george billard

You may remember the Dreaded Bathroom Renovation that commenced around this time last year. You know, the one that was supposed to take a week and took many, many more? So many in fact that I came dangerously close to the edge and even broke out in shingles on my neck. In the end, it all turned out fine and we remain quite pleased with our new loo. And G finally brought home the right lens to shoot the tiny, narrow space in which we conduct all our ablutions, so I can share the outcome of all that suffering with you. Normally, you would show the before pictures as well, but I am just too ashamed to do that. Suffice it to say that I turned to G one day and said This looks like a poor person’s bathroom. That may seem like a terribly elitist statement, but I think it begins to give you the right visual. It was so bad that you would think only a total lack of funds could be keeping the owner from fixing the situation. It was rotten through and through. Cracked and loose tiles meant years of seepage and leaks, and there was a permanent air of mildew. Our towels stank just a day or so after washing. Oh, the horror. And now? Something worthy of showing you. (Though please bear in mind that the lighting does not do it justice.)

 

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Fine Prints

1.25.12
photos courtesy of stampa

It’s pretty fascinating how the internet has opened up so many avenues of opportunity for art and commerce—sometimes separately, sometimes together. There are jillions of blogs and online stores and social networks of every stripe. And now, there is a fantastic source for affordably priced art from the roster of talented illustrators represented by my dear friend Stephanie Pesakoff. Stampa, which just launched last week (as per this mention in the Times), offers limited series of prints, with 4 artists at a time each selling their exclusive work for 4 weeks only. Once the edition is closed, Stampa will never offer the same art work again. A new series is added every week, so there’s always something to discover. (There are actually 5 artists available currently, but that will change to a permanent format of 4.)

 

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{Eating, Garden, Health, Home, Travel}

JOIN THE STRIKE

1.18.12

TO HELP STOP THE INTERNET CENSORSHIP BILLS, SOPA & PIPA, CONTACT CONGRESS NOW.

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