A rainy weekend

The weekend is only alive for one more hour. Or, at least it was when I started this blog post (I keep getting distracted from writing this by Don Draper's drug fueled frenzy). We were still celebrating our 4 year old's birthday (what? How on earth did 4 years already pass since she was born?) and so rushed headlong a little giddy with parental pride into the weekend. But it was nevertheless a peaceful one, as rainy weekends often are.

We had a dinner party on Saturday night, I served pasta with tomato and ricotta cheese, roast chicken with lemon, fennel, and saffron. There was rhubarb crumble for dessert.

So much is fixed with a little rhubarb crumble.

Food

I'm usually a gin & tonic girl - but like Adrianna, I can be swayed by a good margarita especially if it's a spicy cucumber margarita.

Nikole Herriott has posted the single most beautiful photograph of pasta I've ever seen. Don't believe me? Travel over there to get a recipe for spring broth and see her new collection of gorgeous blue ceramic bowls.

With a blog name like Honey & Jam, Hannah better be good at producing jam recipes. This one for strawberry balsamic black pepper jam won't disappoint. Plus she shares some photos of her gorgeous Appalachian Spring and it's the kind of green landscape I could get lost in.

Bea at La Tartine Gourmande is writing her second cookbook and considering her first one is my go-to for inspiration and colorful recipes, I'm sure her second will also delight.

Interior design

Are you looking for a nice decorative tray for your coffee table? Suzanne and Lauren McGrath at Good Bones, Great Pieces put together a cute selection.

I love the idea of a painted metal bed in my girls' room. Clearly Emily A. Clark does too. This selection  of painted beds is sweet and would serve as a wonderful color source against white walls.

Ok, this is kind of a serious DIY project, but the results are spectacular. Check out this modern brass chandelier that Little Green Notebook posted. It's by the talented Megan Pflug for One Kings Lane.

Emily Henderson is redoing Joy's (of Oh Joy!) studio! Could I be more excited about that? She says she's doing it to get in good with Joy's adorable 2 year old, Ruby. I don't care, as long as I get to see what she does with her space. It's going to be insanely gorgeous.

None of the categories above

I truly hope you're reading the hilarious tumblr, Beyonce Art History. It's Beyonce + fine art ... what could be better?


Night!!

Coming home

My sister, Genevieve, returned from a job in Cambodia last week and it was fun to catch up because we hadn't seen each other in almost 6 months. The first few days she rested, but after that we hit some of my favorite parts of the city, like the High Line. It's the perfect time of the year to be in the city. 

And it's always the perfect time to come home.

Interior design

Lovely sisters, Porter and Hollister Hovey (could those names be any cooler?) are selling off 100 of their favorite pieces on One Kings Lane on May 23rd and I'm definitely checking it out.

Ok I always daydream about creating or crafting my own art. I may have finally found something I'll actually do in How About Orange's simple stamp DIY project.

SF Girl By Bay took a trip to Japanese kitchen accessories store Umami Mart in Oakland, and now I really wanna go too.

Emily Henderson's master bedroom makeover is to die for. As a girl in search of some decent bedside tables, this post rocked.

Food

Adrianna at A Cozy Kitchen comes up with the BEST flavor combos. Check out this  apricot sage hazelnut galette.

Lindsay at Love and Olive Oil created a delicious looking wild mushroom papardelle that I'm totally in to.

I just learned how to use coconut oil and chocolate to create a hard candy shell on Hither and Thither!

Other things I'm into

I went to see Great Gatsby on opening night last week, and wow, just wow. I was mesmerized by the 3D effects, and Leo. What else is there to say? Leo, Leo, Leo. I've loved him ever since i saw him in Baz Luhrmann's Romeo + Juliet. (I remember playing "Pretty Piece of Flesh" from the soundtrack over and over on the drive to high school every day with my sister, Julie.)

I have the lovely Jessica to thank for a recent Nashville addiction. Like, watching episodes on my iphone as I walk to the subway in the morning addicted. Connie Britton + Hayden Panettiere = heaven.

Everyone needs to head over to say hi to Allie at Hyperbole and a Half (if you haven't already). She's been struggling with depression and this is her first post back in 18 months. And as usual, her post is brilliant and terrifying and funny and totally, totally real. I've missed her, and I'm so glad she's back.

Storm King

We visited Storm King art center in April. It was a glorious day and the cloudless blue sky seemed to stretch for miles. It's a 500-acre sculpture park that was opened in the 1960s and is dotted with the coolest art.

It's just an hour's drive out of Manhattan and you will feel like you're in another world. Hope you all had a lovely weekend! I'll be back soon with more links.

Spontaneous

Last Saturday we took a spontaneous trip up to Storm King Art Center, it's an incredible 500-acre park filled with huge sculptures that has been around since the 1960s. It was a glorious day to walk around and admire the way the sculptures interact with the environment around them. As it's only an hour's drive out of the city, I think we'll be making more trips before the weather gets too hot.

A little spontaneity can never go wrong. Have you done anything like that lately?

Food

Sarah at A House in the Hills is on a 3 week Ayurvedic cleanse (between the Whole 30 diet and this, I'm seeing diets and cleanses everywhere this season!). She has put together a watercress, jicama, and tangelo salad that's making me consider going on this cleanse myself!

Do you have rhubarb in your part of the world? I haven't made anything with it yet and I'm worried that I've missed the season. Take Ashley's advice and try out these rhubarb floats on Not Without Salt.

Laura at The First Mess (one of the most beautiful sites out there), has a stunning post on simple asparagus ramp soup that has me sitting on the edge of my seat. Wipe your bowl clean with rustic spelt bread. There's also some interesting information on the over-foraging of ramps! Too many people foraging? I wouldn't have thought that was happening yet.

Fashion/style

Do you have a teacher to thank for all their hard work with your kids? Check out this beautiful list of 10 ways to celebrate a teacher by Victoria at A Subtle Revelry.

If you're on the lookout for summer flats (let's face it, I'm on the lookout year round) then take a look at Paolma's roundup of the top 10 flat summer sandals on La Dolce Vita.

Interior design

I have a thing for yellow in decor. Thankfully so does Amy Azzarito, and she put together a collection of her favorite rooms for Design Sponge.

Have you seen mega site Domaine Home yet? Born of the Who What Wear empire and run by the talented Mat Sanders (of Domino and Apartment Therapy), this one is already a new favorite. It's billed as an online shopping magazine and they've kicked off with a look at beautiful homes in New Orleans, Pasadena, and Los Angeles.

Just like Holly Becker at Decor 8 I fell in love when I saw this Victorian Melbourne home. The bold graphic carpet just pops against the white furniture.

Lean in

Can we talk about what I'm reading for a second? I read all types of books, from science fiction to fantasy to YA to mystery to memoirs by all the leading comedy ladies out there. It's part of working in publishing. But one genre I rarely read is business memoirs. Nothing has ever gripped me before. But that's changed. Because all you women (mothers or not) need to run out and get Lean In by Sheryl Sandberg.

Okay, wait, men need to read it too (dads or not).

Actually, everyone needs to read it.

Got it?

I'm reading Lean In in bits and pieces on my morning commute and I swear I'm stepping off the subway train with more purpose, more power, and more goals than I ever have before. It has come along at just the right time for me, at a time when I'm feeling the tug between home and work more keenly than ever. I'm only halfway through and I'm sitting up straighter at meetings, participating more, and generally making myself heard. And it's not just for women working in offices, it's for women in all walks of life, for anyone raising a daughter to be a bold, creative individual, for men who want to relate to a woman, for men who are dads and want to make sure their daughters (and sons) get every opportunity they deserve and work for. Like I said, it's for everyone.

Now that you've got your night's reading (or morning commute reading) all queued up, let's move on to some fun stuff out in the food world, shall we?

Food 

I seriously cannot wait for fig season. I eat them raw, straight from the fruit bowl. Nicola of My Homegrown Kitchen puts them into a raw fig honey tart for a guest post on My Darling Lemon Thyme.

Let's make guacamole for Cinco de Mayo! And Adrianna at A Cozy Kitchen has come up with a a mango and cilantro guacamole recipe. For those of you who don't like cilantro...well, I'm sorry, I've got nothing, except WHY don't you like it?

Coconut milk is amazing in everything, and especially in soup. Heidi at 101 Cookbooks regularly makes this ginger coconut milk soup and I am adding it to my repertoire too.

Speaking of Heidis, the lovely Heidi at Foodie Crush has put together yet another winning grilled cheese combo, this time chorizo and peppadew paper! And to that I say "yes, please!"

Are you as excited as I am that it's rhubarb season? Spoon Fork Bacon has a rhubarb raspberry crumble and Megan at A Sweet Spoonful gives us a rhubarb breakfast cake.

Braised fennel with saffron from Deborah Madison's Vegetable Literacy

Rediscovery

Isn't it weird how you can live in a city for 11 years and still feel like you don't truly know every nook and cranny? I feel like I'm still finding inspiring and exciting sights and events. I hope I never stop. 

These photos are from a trip to the Brooklyn Botanic Gardens last weekend. I'm guessing the gardens were/are a whole lot busier this weekend as it is the Japanese Cherry Blossom Festival, but I'm still glad we went last weekend, right before the blooms along the main walkway were at their peak. The tops of the trees are still extending frozen fingers towards the sky while the lower branches are slowly budding red. It felt like a sneak peak of spring.

The sadness emanating from this statue in the Botanic Gardens parking lot was palpable.

Interior design

Apartment Therapy has a soft spot for tiny apartments, and always hosts a Small Cool apartment contest each year. It hasn't begun yet, so feast your eyes on these eight totally cool (and under 400 square feet) apartments.

Justina Blakeney is visiting Copenhagen and has noticed a color trend that I'm going crazy over: copper and blush. I would have thought those two were too similar, but they work, they totally work, people. ...And now I want to redecorate my bedroom.

Speaking of redecorating, I've been wanting to do something to my office at work for ages, and I'm thinking this Washi Tape framing trick that I saw on Apartment 34 might be just the thing to spruce up my otherwise plain office.

Erin Gates of Elements of Style put together her top five no-fail home accessories for Better Homes and Gardens Style Spotters column. I want the Mongolian lamb pillow!

Kirsten at Simply Grove teaches us how to achieve this incredible kitchen on a budget.

Emily Henderson has put together a tween bedroom with Land of Nod hat makes me want to be a tween again - especially if it means getting a bedroom with that bedside table and lamp! And you could too, cause Emily is giving away $250 to spend at Land of Nod!


Enjoy the rest of your weekend :)

Links and some cherry blossoms

I hope your weekend was lovely and you felt things calm down after last week's insanity in Boston. On Sunday we drove out to Brooklyn to visit the botanic gardens, and see the cherry blossom trees in all of their flowering glory. I wasn't prepared for quite how beautiful those cherry blossoms are on a hundred year old tree. The gnarled trunk gives way to the most exquisite, pillowy white flowers, and I could have stood underneath those trees for hours just looking up. Some of the trees weren't quite open yet, but I'm glad we saw them this weekend, as next weekend is the Japanese cherry blossom festival that's going to pack the gardens (and wouldn't be too fun with children).

Food

Umm, you all know already that I go crazy for pound cakes, or really anything baked in my bread tins. But how about this spiked almond joy poundcake from Jessica at How Sweet It Is? It has melted CHOCOLATE drizzled on top for pete's sake!

Dinner for one is rare in my household of four, but if I was doing it, I'd do it Cozy Kitchen style with Adrianna's recipe for a Vegan latin bowl.

It's grilled cheese month, did you know? Want to try out this cobb grilled cheese from Foodie Crush? I do.

If you're as crazy about Game of Thrones as me, then you'll want to try out these direwolf scones on The Inn at the Crossroads. I might have to make them for next week's episode.

I'm buying up the entire lavender stand at the Union Square Farmer's market on Wednesday to make this gorgeous lavender French 75 from Love & Lemons.

Interior design

Issue 11 of Anthology magazine is out, and it's all about food and drink - yay! View the preview here.

I'm dying over these gorgeously whimsical homemade shadow boxes made by young Lova on Sweet Paul.

Kim at Desire to Inspire has featured Swedish photographer, Anna Kern on the site again and I couldn't be happier. The homes she shoots are eye candy to say the least.


Ok, can we talk about how I'm excited for Ready for Love tomorrow night? Like, I may actually watch it as it's airing, which is something I never do. I'm a DVR and fast forward through commercials girl (which is pretty awful for someone who has a husband in the advertising business!)