home décor: fun weekend project

home of Pamela Bell featured in NY Times via soul pretty

I imagine this could be a fun weekend project if you’re daring enough. From what I read on this blog the couches owner had the couch upholstered in muslin and then let her daughter (and friends) tag the couch graffiti style. I love graffiti so that probably tells you how I feel about the couch.

Job well done I’d say.

Post edited it add

So I discovered a few more details on the couch. It’s from the home of Pamela Bell, one of the four original partners at Kate Spade. Her home was featured in this NY Time article where it states –

She lived for a few years with her three children and husband (from whom she is now divorced) in a temple to architectural perfection, a trophy penthouse apartment designed by Rogers Marvel Architects above a former music hall on East Fifth Street. But life isn’t perfect, Ms. Bell pointed out, and you can make yourself crazy chasing an antilogy.

This all makes me like the couch even more. To see the full slide show go here. And having seen more images of Ms. Bells home I couldn’t resist posting one more.

home of Pamela Bell via NY Times

home decor: purple walls and a tuffted couch

image via Gaita Interiors

 

Pretty, right! I’m really digging the colors in this space. They are bold yet inviting. And I love the couch. Oh how I would love to gently rub my hand across it. And the base board along with the hard wood floors adds a perfect balance of texture and warmth.

 

So sophisticated and simply pretty!

 

stumbled upon: michael williams

image by Michael Williams

I was doing some serious net surfing for potential color combos in my living room. Yes, I’m embarrassed to admit that I’m still not certain as to what my accent color will be. And that’s how I stumbled on this glammed out photo. Then after checking a few more out I realized that these weren’t real spaces for adults but for miniature people. Yeah… are you soaking that in and thinking, huh? Cause I was.

People, we’re talking miniature people like dolls… as in Barbie dolls (and other dolls but I didn’t read that far to get all the details).

I’m such a complete and total sucker cause now I want to collect doll “things” and take sleek photos. Apparently I have endless amounts of time to cultivate all these projects I think up. And no, I don’t have endless time but for a good ten minutes I was totally sucked into this doll stuff.

image by Michael Williams via flickr

Check out Michael Williams on flickr at mawphoto.com.

happy birthday to me…

Well, it was my birthday… back in December.

When I was younger I remember my extreme obsession with Swatch watches. We lived in Spain, on the military base, at the height of my fascination. I can still remember walking clear across the base from our home to the BX (BX stands for Base Exchange and it’s a retail store for military families). We would shop there for goods like clothing, jewelry, toys, electronics etc. When I could steal an hour or two I would walk clear across the base so I could peer into the jewelry cases where the watches were lined up. I’d obsess over the Swatch watches and formulate plans to make some money so I could purchase another one. Evidently I owned a few and though I don’t recall all the specifics I do know I had enough that I’d sport two to three at a time. It was the 80’s and even though I was still pretty young I knew enough to know I was in fashion.

Just this weekend I found myself on the west side of town at 72nd street. There’s a small Swatch store that my husband and I popped into. I was there to get my belated birthday gift, a Swatch watch. There back again and well, they ain’t your childhood watches! Carlos, the sales clerk, was sporting two – one on each wrist. I have to admit, I thought the look was pretty hot. Now, I won’t be rushing off to wear all my watches at once but if I was 25 I might have purchased two. Instead I walked away with one fresh summer watch.

 

watch by Swatch

 

watch by Swatch

 

And a few months back I got a belated birthday gift from Fashion Girl. Not only do I love gifts but I love gifts that are well thought out. You can’t help but feel special when the gift giver takes the time to make sure the gift is something that reflects your interests and personality. So what did I get? Well, Fashion girl gave me a little pink book called The Little Dictionary of Fashion by Christian Dior. And not that I’m the most fashionable person but I do enjoy reading such tidbits. By it being a dictionary of sorts you can pick it up and read things at random, soak in the details and then put it down. I’m finding it to be a lovely read.

 

The Little Dictionary of Fashion by Christian Dior

 

And while I was trying to find an image of the books cover I found the book being sold on Overstock.com. I always forget about this site and I really shouldn’t. It seems they have all sorts of fashion books right now from Dior to Channel. Definitely check them out if you’re trying to find goodies to cover your coffee table.

amy atlas

via Amy Atlas, cotton candy

via Amy Atlas

Not that this is a place to be outing yourself and making confessions so I’ll just make a comment, kay. This week I wrote a love letter to Amy Atlas of Amy Atlas Events. I have a teeny tiny crush on her and I’m not above expressing my dieing love and begging to be her assistant. Nope, not above that at all.

Check out her site if you want to be blown away by gorgeous dessert tables in the most phenominal colors. It’s a total sight to see.

goodies from tj maxx

Recently I went to dinner with my dear friend D. Pre motherhood I always enjoyed going out with girlfriends but now that I have a child it’s even more of a celebration when I get out. So much work goes into getting out and figuring the logistics of who’s with your child and what are they doing that you cherish the time that much more. It was fun and nice to have an adult conversation with adult language and just as nice that there wasn’t any apologizing for the use of said adult words. I can sometimes have a pretty naughty mouth and lets just say D can hold her own.

Before dinner I did some browsing shopping. OMG, shopping sans child is such a different experience. I didn’t have to worry about entertaining someone, or dodge people with my stroller. There wasn’t any worrying about is it time to stop and eat, is something being thrown on the floor. It’s relaxing when I’m alone and I get a heck of a lot more done (in half the time). Our bank account was saved by the fact that I knew whatever I got had to be lugged to dinner and then onto the long train ride home so I kept it pretty simple. Check out some of my goodies…

The water bottle is stainless steel by Quench. How adorable is it! Not to mention from TJ Maxx so I didn’t pay the somewhat hefty price tag that I’m seeing online. The mini prep bowls are from Zak! Because they are plastic I like to use them for my sons meals. They seem to be the right size for diced meat, sliced tomatoes and other such things. Of course I’m such the mother now cause there I was without my son, enjoying my time my without my son but shopping for him. But I did get something for me, the cupcake liners. I just loved the colors and I only hope they holds up once I bake with them.

goodies from TJ Maxx

fun cupcake holders

farewell my cousin

I have a lot of cousins but not a lot of cousins I would consider true friends. My cousin Natalie is one of the exceptions. She and her spiffy husband are moving oversees and not just oversees but oversees in the sense that we won’t be rushing off to visit them. It’s far and remote. Like so remote I asked her husband if they had to travel by camel in the region they will be living. That made him laugh but it was a real question. Like I really thought that was the only form of travel where they are going. And I consider myself to be intelligent and thus someone who asks intelligent questions. Well apparently I had my countries wrong and they don’t travel by camel. My point is, my husband and I will miss them. They were the only family we had in the New York area so it’s sad to see them go. Even so, I am excited for them and for this adventure they are going on.

For a proper farewell we had my cousin and her husband over for dinner. It was during the week so I tried to keep things simple. I served pasta with an Artichoke and Lemon sauce that I had purchased at Williams Sonoma. The sauce was full-bodied yet still light on the pallet. I tossed in some fresh shrimp which made for a lovely addition. I will definitely be serving this again during the summer season. I paired the meal with fresh green beans that got rave reviews. I personally don’t eat green beans but my husband declared them the hit of the meal. They were super easy with not too many ingredients – just how I like to cook things.

As for beverages, my cousin and her husband don’t drink so I really fretted over what I would serve. My dear co-worker came to the rescue and suggested I make Limeade. I had never heard of Limeade (I know, I know… but I don’t think Puerto Rican’s drink this stuff) and was instantly intrigued. I didn’t find a recipe that was easy enough for making after work but after looking at a few I got a jist of the ingredients and decided to wing it. I found some gorgeous black seedless grapes with the intentions of making a Grape Limeade but the grapes never got smashed down for their juice. Never the less our Key Lime Limeade (with a garnish of black grapes) was delicious.

I have to mention that my cousin who thought she was just coming over for dinner got stuck squeezing an entire bag of key limes. She is such a trooper. And of course, there are photos. Here goes our Key Lime Limeade with a garnish of black grapes and fresh lemon.

 

Key Lime Limeade with Black Grapes

For the life of me I can’t find a link to the Artichoke and Lemon Pasta Sauce I served. Perhaps it’s only available in stores but here’s a photo I took.

Artichoke and Lemon Past Sauce

I am slowly making my way through several recipes I want to test via My Baking Addiction. Jamie made these sound so enticing that I made her Spicy Green Beans and I don’t even eat green beans.

Green Beans

I’m not sure what I’ll be cooking up in June but I have some ideas.