Inspiration: A Dream of a Home

Photo: This is Glamorous

It started this morning with this:
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/24/garden/24cottage.html
I'm totally inspired.

Although I've been in my house for almost a year, there's still a lot I want to do with the interior. It's a small house, so I want every room to be special, useful, and have a unique personality. Admittedly, right now I spend the most time in the main living room (i.e., where the big TV is mounted. How very Homer Simpson of me.) It's summer and I have some spare time. Time to leave the college dorm room look behind and complete this baby.... I want a house like this.

The former owner had amazing style and vision. She took a 1930s house with blue vinyl siding, and transformed it into a gorgeous cedar-shake Cape Cod cottage, complete with a columned back porch and white picket fence. I fell in love at first sight. Unfortunately I never got to see the house furnished in person, but I did get to see pictures. Another huge plus: She left most of the window dressings and light fixtures, and for that I wish I could hug her.

So I moved into this "happy house" (as I dubbed it before it was even mine) as a newly single girl trying to get back on my feet after some major life changes. Luckily for me, it was move-in ready; so that lethargy I felt from Life's slap upside the head didn't keep my house from looking like a home fairly quickly. But it still has a long way to go. I've dragged my heels on really making this little house all mine, to a point I am embarrassed to admit. This is my punishment: publish it on a blog and out myself.

On yes, and one other thing: I have three dogs. THREE. And they are Shetland Sheepdogs. I don't run from the fact that I am, indeed, a Crazy Dog Lady. (I wonder if the neighborhood kids tell spooky stories about me around campfires?)

The Canines of the Household

Front sunroom: It has built-in bookshelves, and a huge window. It's also the first room you see when you walk in. It is the perfect "sitting" room... tranquil, and if it had the right decor, a room that brings the outdoors in.

Middle bedroom/Living Room: Le sigh. This room came to me just waiting to be made into a fabulous guest room-- the lovely former owner even had an amazing geometric shape painted onto the floor in lime, yellow, and taupe hues (I know what your knee-jerk reaction may have been to what you just read; she anticipated that too. So she smartly put up a page from Southern Living with a gorgeous room she'd obviously modeled this one after.) This room needs a guest bed, some major furniture re-arranging, and... oh yeah, those moving boxes really need to go.

Dining Room: Close to being "there." Except for the fact that, the chairs are like sitting on a plank elevated by toothpicks and superglue. I am not exaggerating. They are the most uncomfortable pieces of furniture ever. They are a great dinner conversation topic, however.

Main Living Room: My first real "big kid" purchase was a sofa from ZGallarie that is the center of this room. The color is Pool, it is entirely impractical but I love it more than one should love an inanimate object. (My boyfriend has assured me that it's "actually comfortable," which makes me feel better.) Clean lines, silver nail head accents, dark wood trim... and no animals allowed.

I have silk dupioni window panels my mom graciously handed down to me, in a sage/yellow/red plaid pattern. I never realized aqua and red could coordinate until my mom assured me I should try it. So I did, and it does. This room doesn't need too much more, but it definitely needs a pretty rug to tie in the taupes/aquas. I also have a wall that is very bare.

The Bathroom: Yes, THE. One. Single. Small. Something will have to give if this ever becomes more than just my house, as I am a product junkie (that's a whole different post). Former owner left the shower curtain and balloon shade that is a fabulous pink/orange toile (very Anthropologie). I had a time trying to decide what color to get for towels and floormats (no more orange or pink)... so I went with black. It works, now I just need a few things for the blank wall.

Kitchen: Small but pretty. In keeping with the New England theme, the floors are painted light gray and cabinets are white. The island has a thick light wood/cutting board type top, and a similar light colored wood hides the pantry and washer/dryer. Three french doors make for great lighting and easy view of the backyard. I've brought in some aqua here and there, and for this room really just need some kitchen accessories (NOTE TO SELF: not clutter), and a roman shade for the window over the sink.


I will probably go room by room for my inspiration posts so I can really concentrate on one room and not get sidetracked.

Let the games begin!

{ Birthday Parties and Eighties Babies }

Last week, I turned 30.

I'm not going to lie... I've been dreading this.

Another decade older. In one day.
A new age group in InStyle's "What to Wear at Any Age" feature.
A different box to check on my voter registration card.
I feel the need to start reading The New Yorker
and permanently program my radio to NPR.

Have I been ousted from the world of fedoras, skinny jeans, Chanel's Black Tie nail polish...?
I just can't do Talbot's yet. I can't.
And really, it seems a shame to delete "Party in the USA" from my iPod.

As I tread lightly into the world of the real adult, I am going to take full advantage of the fact that birthdays are the one day of the year you can be totally about yourself.

I am dedicating this post to all things decadent and self-indulgent...
highly influenced by Varuca Salt.

Everything Fabulous

I want a wine cellar.
I want a closet like Carrie Bradshaw.
I want a garden of gardenias, lilacs, hydrangeas, and roses--
and I want them to bloom all year long.
I want to provide educational funding to low income schools.
I want to visit Florence, Italy and the Holy Land.
I want to meet Tim Gunn.
I want to find homes for all the pets without one.
I want to go to Fashion Week in Paris. And London. And NYC. And Milan.
I want someone to discover a cure for cancer.
I still want to be a good cook like the Barefoot Contessa.
I want to publish a children's book.

That was a quick, stream of consciousness list... I am sure I'll be think of more at random times, and will add them as I think of them.

Time to get busy; it seems I have a rather lofty bucket list.

{ Dream Shopping Becomes Reality }

Fantastic news, friends!
I am so excited to share that one of my favorite blogs,

The Swelle Life

just opened an online boutique!

All images courtesy of The Swelle Life and Swelle Boutique


The sweetheart author behind The Swelle Life has impeccable taste, so I knew the boutique would be fabulous and unique.
She has a great eye for all things lovely-- emerging designers, gourmet cupcakes, couture collections, eclectic artwork, new accessories, incredible architecture ... literally, this list could go on for days. She finds beauty everywhere.

And now it's translated into a shop... Helloooo, happiness!

You know a boutique is special when it literally makes you feel giddy just seeing the clothes... imagine the thrill of actually owning them! The pieces are ethereal, feminine, whimsical, yet so very practical. There's a variety of gorgeous hues and textures represented and all pieces are either one of a kind or limited edition. Also of note: the prices are unbelievably reasonable.

Here's a tiny sample.

Thank you Denise for adding a spoonful of sugar to my day!

But enough of this typing... I have shopping to do.

Visit Swelle Boutique at http://www.swelleboutique.com/

{ Into the Book }

I use this blog often as a laundry-list of sorts, a place to compile my favorite websites, people, ideas, etc. I have gotten into a bad habit of writing novella-esque entries... very time consuming and resulting in an average of 1.5 posts a month.

Not today. Today is a To-Do list of books I have seen lately that I "need"... so I don't forget.

First up:

Flair was just featured in the Velvet and Linen blog, and I am in love. All things about how to entertain. Elegant table settings, invitation etiquette, place cards, party favors... fabulous.

Next:

Philippa Gregory is to the history nerd what John Grisham is to the law school graduate.
I'm sure some members of academia would dismiss Gregory's books as fluff because they stray here and there from reality...
but really, it takes the charm out of a love story when you know that the dashing prince took a bath maybe once a year.

This one is on Eleanor of Aquataine, an often-overlooked character of Great Britain's 12th century royalty.

Next:

The B.C. + Parties = Happiness.





One of my favorite contemporary theologians has a commentary to the Bible. I always love reading the footnotes in Scripture; sometimes they give me a unique perspective on an old story, and always give me a deeper understanding of the Word.





I think the title of this one says it all.





Just found this one, and I think I want it too. Dorothy Draper's decorating style fascinates me.



Last but not least:

One of my best friends has given me a project for the summer, and that is to help her 5 year old boy decide on a "theme" for his room. I have already offered up these two ideas...

And for whatever reason, both have been shot down.

Too juvenile? Maybe.
Impractical? Yes.
But aren't they pretty?

Thus it's back to the drawing board for me and my 5-year-old client.

{ Riches to Rags in Camelot's Backyard }

I'm really excited about this post. It's a topic I wanted to write about before this blog actually existed, because it inherently has all the traits that I wanted my Joie de Vivre posts to contain:
fun, fascinating, lovely, sometimes tragic and always romantic, extraordinary things.

I wish I could tag all relevant words on this topic, but I can't. I want to make tags like these:

Propriety and Rebellion.
Present and Past.
Wealth and Poverty.
Stagnation and Ambition.
Celebrity and Obscurity.
Freedom and Captivity.
Sparkle and Decay.
Fantasy and Reality.

(You get the idea.)

All these are contradictions, but somehow they all fuse together to become the story of
Grey Gardens.


And now is the perfect time to post, since my mom and I recently celebrated Mother's Day by seeing a local (and fabulous) production of Grey Gardens.

Last year, I read an article about an HBO movie starring

Jessica Lange and Drew Barrymore.
I love them both, and I love period dramas based on true stories...
so of course I had to see Grey Gardens.

A side note: I always somehow end up doing WAY too much research after I see a "true story" movie, because I just have to know more about the real people in the stories. Examples:
Miss Potter. Amazing Grace. The Other Boleyn Girl. Capote. Finding Neverland.
(Did you know the real-life inspiration for Peter Pan committed suicide?! That burst my bubble a little.)

But back to the topic at hand.

One thing that makes this story so intriguing to the public is that the two pricipal characters, mother and daughter Edith "Big Edie" Ewing Bouvier Beale and daughter Edith "Little Edie" Bouvier Beale were aunt and cousin of Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy Onassis.

Edith's husband, New York City lawyer Phelan, purchased the gorgeous East Hampton beach estate as a summer and entertaining home for the family. Big Edie was a beautiful free spirit, who like all wealthy wives kept a house and a busy social calendar, yes; but went against the grain of the cordial entertaining formalities (light gossip and dirty martinis) and gave live performances of her favorite songs with the help of her loyal accompanist, George Gould Strong.

Little Edie was known as "Body Beautiful Beale" and was on track to become a well-married society woman herself. She claimed to have marriage proposals from the ill-fated Joe Kennedy, Jr., and J. Paul Getty, among others. She also had unconventional aspirations like her mother-- a dancer, or perhaps Broadway star.
But while a debutante, Edie mingled with the beautiful and wealthiest of East Coast society.

Edie, age 8 or 9


Debutante and "Body Beautiful Beale."

Spread in Italian Vouge

In 1932, Phelan left his theatrical and at times uncouth wife Edith with a small trust fund and.... Grey Gardens.

I think I see the ghosts of Miss Havisham and Estella peeking around the corner.

After a brief stint in NYC, Little Edie moved back in to take care of her mother. They would live there, alone, for decades; and the once beautiful Hamptons home fell victim to the reckless hands of Neglect, Compulsion, and Squalor. Infested with fleas, overrun by cats and racoons (and thus their carcasses and waste), filled with garbage and decay, without running water... A sparkling palace left to deteriorate quietly to an unrecognizable shell.

Big Edie rarely got out of bed; Little Edie lost her hair from alopecia. They ordered sparse groceries and at times ate "pate" meant as cat food. In the fall of 1971 and throughout 1972, their living conditions were exposed as the result of an article in the National Enquirer and a cover story in New York Magazine after a series of inspections (which the Beales called "raids") by the Suffolk County Health Department.

With the Beale women facing eviction and the razing of their home, in the summer of 1972 Jacqueline Onassis and her sister Lee Radizwill provided the necessary funds to stabilize and repair the dilapidated house so that it would meet Village codes.

Albert and David Maysles became interested in their story and received permission to film a documentary about the women, which was released in 1976 to wide critical acclaim. Using a direct cinema technique, the women were left to tell their own stories. Little Edie fashioned outfits from skirts as scarves, upside down sweaters, and vintage brooches, and reminisced about time with Joe Kennedy, Jr. and the Barbizon Hotel. Big Edie belts out some of her favorite songs and cooks corn on a hot plate next to her bed. They fight, they sing, they love. And they get their long sought-after fame, in a film that has launched a thousand franchises.

Edie at the time of the Maysles documentary, 1976

Some call it exploitation, some a train wreck you just can't look away from; others call it a celebration of individuality, contentedness, and female independence. Regardless, there's no disputing it's a cult classic and a story that intrigues many (like me) still today--

Just look at the musical, the documentaries, the coffee table books, the bobble head dolls (really-- click the link if you don't believe me), the haute couture fashion shoots and ready-to-wear collections, coloring books, buttons, fan clubs, and abundance of online websites dedicated to Grey Gardens.

Below, the HBO promo starring Drew Barrymore and Jessica Lange.

And one of my favorites: the real Little Edie in her own words on the "best outfit for today."
She has an enviable confidence and innovation in fashion:
"My costumes? That's a protest against having worked as a model for the Establishment, believe it or not. A lot of models feel that way. Sometimes their lives are protests against having worked as models. Besides, I didn't have time taking care of mother to get out and buy any clothes. So I used what was left of mine and mother's in the attic." - Little Edie




For more information on Grey Gardens, check out these great links:
http://www.greygardensonline.com/
http://www.greygardens.com/
http://greygardensnews.blogspot.com/
A house tour of Grey Gardens today: http://lxtv.com/openhousenyc/video/10233

Grey Gardens circa 2005, restored to its former glory.

Little Edie sold it after Big Edie passed away, on the condition that it not be torn down.
"All it needs is a coat of paint!"


True Glamour Never Fades.

{Barefoot in the Kitchen}

I can't cook. I have gotten by for a long time being okay with that fact. I'm the girl who asked her grandmother for a great recipe, because some friends had generously bought me a page in a community cookbook where I was supposed to share "the best recipe in my repertoire." I had no repertoire. I'm the girl who made muffins for a boy in college, only to have her roommates play helicopter with them--while still in the pan--because I'd neglected to spray Pam on the cooking tins prior to baking.

I have even.... this one really hurts to admit... gone to a local market, purchased some gorgeous couscous and caprese salad, and taken it out of the market's packaging and put it in MY Tupperware so it would look like it came straight from my kitchen. So very very sad.


That's not to say people didn't try to teach me. Mothers have given me cookbooks (many with titles including terms like "Simple!" "Basic!" and "A Kid's Guide to...." Friends have literally taken me step by step through making things in their kitchen (one of my favorite memories is of D's basil jelly making day, where she did everything but I proudly poured the sugar in the pot and-- ta da!-- I got to say, "I cooked basil jelly from scratch." Yep.

At the age of almost 30, however, a few facts dawned on me:

1. All my friends do it. I'm a sucker for peer pressure. And eating with friends is fun.
2. You can drink wine when you cook, and no one will judge you.
3. I will mess up. I will burn things. Drop stuff on the floor. Be tempted to throw it back into the mixing bowl. Cut my finger. Have the pizza place on speed dial because dinner is inedible. And that's okay... because I won't learn if I don't try.

3. One day I will have a family. I will have children and will make memories with them. I don't want a eulogy starting with "One night, over a bowl of Beenie Weenie, my mother said something to me I'll never forget..."
4. I don't want to be the designated stir-er anymore.

This is where the lady below comes into the picture.

My friend N is obsessed with the Barefoot Contessa, aka Ina Garten. N has always been a great cook, but now she is a phenomenal cook. Everything she made while I visited her for a week was delicious. Everything. And she says she owes it all to "the B.C."

After the first amazing dinner, we started chatting about the Barefoot Contessa. We watched one of her shows. She's really personable, explains things clearly, and kept saying, "How easy was that?" A welcome phrase in my cooking verbage. And N told me the Barefoot Contessa's story, which was fabulous:
Garten had started out in the corporate world, then decided she wanted to do something more creative with her life. She and her husband saw a little specialty food store in Long Island called "The Barefoot Contessa." Garten wasn't a cook, but wanted this store; she sent in a lowball offer... and the store was hers.

"I had no experience in the food business but knew that it was exactly what I wanted to do," she said.

How awesome to have that sort of blind faith in yourself and your dreams? Love it.

The store evolved into a career, and even though she sold the store she kept up her life as a cook, writer, and "Barefoot Contessa." (You can read more about her here.)

I was inspired and didn't want to talk about learning to cook anymore. I wanted to try it... again.


So I went to the local library and checked out what seemed to be appropriate for a rookie like me.
The Barefoot Contessa: Back to the Basics. I loved the opening pages-- it outlined the "Barefoot Contessa" philosophy:

Food can be simple and fabulous; entertaining should be easy, elegant, and fun.

I found this great interview she did with the Huffington Post -- her words better explain why I think this lady may be the key to bringing me out of the Cooking Darkness.

LM: For the novice who wants to start cooking, what basic utensils would you suggest they start with?

IG: A set of good sharp Wusthof knife. A KitchenAid mixer. A Cuisinart food processor. All-clad and Le Creuset pots. And a whole stack of half sheet pans.

LM: What one cooking tool or appliance do you use most often in your cooking?

IG: My knives.

LM: What are the most versatile ingredients that you keep on hand?

IG: My go-to ingredients to add flavor to things are: salt, pepper, Parmesan cheese, freshly squeezed lemon juice plus good vinegars and a drizzle of olive oil.

LM: What dish would you recommend to a greenhorn cook who is trying to master one dish, would you suggest any one dish to start with?

IG: Roast chicken. It's in my first book, The Barefoot Contessa Cookbook, with carrots, fennel and potatoes cooked in the roasting pan—it's an entire meal and it's absolutely delicious.

For me, it will be all about the baby steps. Yes, I've already gone to YouTube to find a demo on what exactly it means to "julienne" an onion. (It's here, and it's awesome). I have a few battle scars from Taco Salad night where I fought the iceberg lettuce and the lettuce won. But I am going to persevere and would like to thank N and "the B.C." for giving me the jumpstart I needed... it only took 29 and a half years.

I'll leave you with a few visuals to enjoy from the life of a Barefoot Contessa.


Her home as photographed for House Beautiful. Courtesy of Black Eiffel blog.


Mrs. Barefoot and Assistant (thanks N for the clarification)

Some samplings.


Ina's pal who I have incorrectly identified twice now. So-- I don't know his name, but he is mighty easy on the eyes and I like to stare at him when he's on the show.