A few weeks ago Tina and I went to the Metropolitan Museum to see Playing with Pictures: The Art of Victorian Photocollage. I had read a few things about it beforehand...and it sounded like it was right up my alley...but seriously?...it turned out to be one of the most inspiring exhibits I've been to in a while!
In the 1860s, the popularity of the carte de visite (affordable tiny paper photos you could have taken and then hand out to whomever you please) started a kind of photocollage craze. Women would cut out these pictures of their friends and family and place them in hand-painted vignettes. What I found surprising about these collages was how thoroughly modern they seemed. They were so wonderfully weird and witty and playful and surreal. Not at all what you would expect from a bunch of aristocratic Victorian ladies! The show ended yesterday...so I decided to do a quick post with a few images from the exhibit for those of you who didn't get to see it.
Auctions are something that I have been interested in getting into for a while now. I've heard that you can find great vintage and antique furniture etc...and if you are lucky you can snag some real bargains.
Justin and I went to the preview last Friday where we got to walk around and take a look at everything that was for sale. We picked a few things that we were interested in - a mid century modern credenza, an antique glass front bookcase, an old work table, a box of quilts and old American flags....and we decided what our max price would be for each item.
The actual auction was on Saturday....and while I was back in NYC with some of my oldest lady friends for a bachelorette party, Justin was there bidding on the items we had chosen the night before. The credenza and the bookcase went for more than we were willing to spend...but we ended up with the work table, the lot of quilts and flags, 10 boxes of books, 3 wooden chairs, and and a tapestry covered armchair. (The books and chairs were a last minute impulse buy that Justin couldn't resist because they were going for SUPER cheap.) All in all we spent under $200 and ended up with some great stuff.
This is one of the items from the box lot - a big, beautiful yo-yo quilt large enough to fit a queen size bed. It's made with the most darling vintage feedsack style fabrics.
Let me apologize for this terrible, blurry photo. It does not do this table justice. It's beautifully weathered and work-worn in person.
I had ripped this recipe out of some magazine a long time ago. Martha Stewart...I think?? But I can't find it on her website. I remember that it had something to do with Blue Hill at Stone Barns....and I believe this is THEIR recipe for mint ice milk.
1. Bring a medium pot of water to a boil. Using a slotted spoon, immediately plunge mint into an ice-water bath. Lift out mint;drain well. Reserve ice-water bath.
2. Bring milk to a simmer in a medium saucepan over medium heat. Add mint. Remove from heat. Let cool slightly.
4. Stir simple syrup and corn syrup into milk-mint mixture. Let stand until cold, stirring occasionally. Refrigerate until very cold, at least 2 hours (or overnight).
5. Freeze in an ice cream maker according to a manufacturer's instructions. Transfer to an airtight container. Freeze at least 1 hour. Before serving, let stand at room temperature to soften slightly.
The recipe makes about two cups. Not THAT much. But I think it is super cute served in small portions. You know... just as a little palate cleanser/mini dessert. I put mine in an espresso cup with a tiny spoon and garnished it with a sprig of mint...and voila!...adorable.
I'm gonna be honest. I'm more of an instant gratification kinda girl...so cooking anything that takes a long time...and requires a lot of waiting...is not usually my jam. And, believe me, while I was making this I kept complaining. I was all: "this is SO much effort for so little"..."are you serious, ANOTHER step??!!"..."I have to wait TWO HOURS now???!!! The last thing I said was: "I'm never making this again". But then I tried it....and I am TOTALLY making it again. It is SO good. Promise.
NOTE: I was super surprised at how green it turned out. I mean...it's GREEN green. I was expecting more of a mint green situation. So, should you decide to make this recipe...here is a fitting musical accompaniment.
We got our first package in the mail! It was from the Historic Landmarks Preservation Commission of Kingston and had all kinds of information about the four designated historic districts and a list of preservation and restoration guidelines for the homes that are within these areas.
Our house is in the Chestnut Street Historic District. It's a small area...only a few blocks long. And it's great because it means that nobody on our street...or the surrounding streets can do anything crazy to their house. Any changes you make have to be consistent with the period and architectural style of your home. That means no vinyl siding, no crazy paint jobs, and most importantly no tearing down beautiful old buildings.
The top photo is the view from our front porch. Our street is a tiny cul-de-sac with only about 6 other houses on it and ours sits at the very end. Here are a few of the other houses:
I've always been super into home improvement. I was comfortable using an electric screwdriver and taking on minor room renovation projects by fourth grade and one of my favorite Christmas gifts ever was a set of power tools from my dad.
Well, now I have a whole house worth of projects ahead of me...and there's one thing I really want.
A tool belt.
Specifically, a Klein tool belt. Everything they make is so handsome and classic. And I love that you buy the belt separately and then choose the tool holders and pouches that best suit your needs.
And while I'm making a wish list...let me just go ahead and put one of those AMAZING tool bags on it! Aren't they to die for?!
NOTE: If this all seems a bit extreme....you should know that my college roommates used to call me Bob Vila....so, trust me...it wouldn't be THAT weird if I wore a tool belt.
I've been living here for one week and my ideas for each of the rooms are starting to take shape. Unfortunately, my budget doesn't allow me to do much more than look at free paint samples. But that's okay....I think it is best to really get to know each room before you start buying things anyway. So for the time being I'm just going to pore over this stack of paint chips and come up with some color palettes.
Here's what I'm thinking so far:
It wouldn't be MY house without a healthy dose of aqua/mint green/turquoise...so I plan on using these colors VERY liberally.
For instance...in the dining room.
I am thinking the lighter shade for the walls...and the darker for the french door that leads to the porch. The natural wood moldings around the windows and door in the dining room have a very warm, almost orangey cast, as do the pine floors...which I think will look LOVELY with the blue/greens.
NOTE: That is NOT our real dining room table. It is our old kitchen table that happens to be in the dining room. Let's just pretend it's a beautiful, long, old table with some mismatched wooden chairs. Oh...and the color of those paint chips doesn't look terribly accurate on my screen....but you get the idea....right?
Justin and I finally finished unpacking all of our kitchen stuff. That includes not only the abundance of things we brought from our apartment...but also ALL of our wedding presents. Since there was literally NO room for anything else in our apartment in Brooklyn we decided to store them in my parents' garage until we moved into a bigger house.
Well, now we're in that bigger house...so we got to open all of our super sweet gifts and start putting them to use!
One of the lovely things we got was a ruffled cake stand with a glass cloche. It was just screaming for a pretty baked thing...so I decided to make it one.
I made an orange yogurt cake using a recipe I had cut out of an old issue of Martha Stewart Living. It is available here. However, I wanted mine to be a little more decorative (after all, it is going onto the world's cutest cake plate) so I also made some royal icing (recipe here) and piped on a few swirls and then topped it with orange zest and a dusting of powdered sugar.
I think I'm going to be doing a lot more baking. Here's some reasons why: a.) I get a big kick out of it, b.) I LOVE sweets, c.) I have all kinds of new baking accessories, d.) I have LOTS of counter space to use said baking accessories....and most importantly, e.) what's a better way to get my NYC friends to come visit than tales of delicious homemade treats?!
