So as not to fight the brick mantel, I aimed for a traditional Christmas, with a whimsical touch. Without the poinsettias, I feared a boxy, albeit symmetrical, mantle. Instead, the poinsettias are fun and free. They were a joy to make!
The restraint in the detail has a modern quality to it, while still feeling handmade and intricate. Good add to the West Elm collection.
…The presentation is cinematic, the mood somewhat anxious.
Loughman, Stephen. Finite. 2004. Ballyfin, County Laois, Ireland.
A Cranberry Curd Tart from David Lebovitz: I’ve been hoping to try my hand at this beautiful recipe. Not up to the standard of the Lebovitz (imperfect crust; slightly under chopped hazelnuts, etc.), but a nice challenge for this Thanksgiving.
Note the layering of texture and color–warmth, curiosity, and the occasional misfit object. His use of differing styles and formalities reminds me to relax and combine that which I love. Reminiscent of Miles Red, with a southern ease. Enjoy.
Photos Courtesy Williammclure.com
Feeling uninspired by an awkward and unfinished room in my home. Read an interview with Celerie Kemble on One Kings Lane. Absolutely inspired by her commentary:
A space with everything custom-made in the room would look like a model apartment; if I did everything antiques, it would feel imposing. You have to thread things together.
Things don’t need to match, they need to play well together.
Let your taste keep driving you toward what you want–instead of starting again and again and rethinking. The people who respect their initial choices even if they’re not 100% and build on them get a much more personal and interesting space.
He did not cultivate self, even His divine self: He took no account of self. He was not led…into the recesses of His own soul to brood morbidly over His own needs…He was led by His love for others into the world, to forget Himself in the needs of others, to sacrifice self once for all upon the alter of sympathy. Self-sacrifice brought Christ into the world. And self-sacrifice will lead us, His followers, not way from, but into the midst of men. Wherever men suffer, there will we be to comfort. Wherever men strive, there will we be to help. Wherever men fail, there will we be to uplift. Wherever men succeed, there will we be to rejoice. Self-sacrifice means not indifference to our times and our fellows: it means absorption in them. It means forgetfulness of self in others. It means entering into every man’s hopes and fears, longings and despairs: it means manysidedness of spirit, multiform activity, multiplicity of sympathies. It means riches of development. It means not that we should live one life, but a thousand lives–binding ourselves to a thousand souls by the filaments of so loving a sympathy that their lives become ours.
-B.B. Warfield
Continuing with our cardinals, No. 2, for you.
No. 2: Saturday, not Friday.
I am convinced that dinner parties and hosting–the full hilt, that is–should be relegated to Saturday evenings. Friday evenings manifest a mild collapse of exhaustion and release from a week worked well. Left-overs or pizza should be the “go-to” on a Friday night. However, come Saturday, one is fully released from work and its manic schedule, to enjoy the process of hosting. You will wake to the pleasure of the table-scape and rearranging, recipe-following, and related last-minute runs to the grocery store. Friday, on the contrary, has the time to provide no such pleasures. Plan for Saturday, not Friday; you won’t regret it.
Was recently given a subscription to Travel + Leisure, which has been such a treat. Their October issue is full of orchestrated travel plans and updates, as well as a spread on the Cliveden House. The Cliveden House is just outside London, donated to the U.K. heritage organization by the Astor’s (Americans), who purchased the House during Queen Victoria’s reign. As the article provides, the Great Hall of the Cliveden House is the setting for John Singer Sargent’s portrait, Lady Astor (below). The Great Hall’s recent restoration–following a recent purchase by billionaire property developers Ian and RIchard Livingston–is displayed in the video below. Love the restoration process,including the redecorating. Remove, pair down, and work from a splendid base to get rich results. I’ve included a smattering of Sargent’s other works (housed all over the world) for good measure.
Sargent, John Singer. Portrait of Madame X. 1883. Oil on Canvas. Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. Sargent, John Paul. Madame Gautreau Drinking a Toast. 1882. Oil on Canvas. Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, Boston. Sargent, John Paul. Lady Agnew. 1882. Oil on Canvas. Scottish National Gallery, Edinburgh. Sargent, John Singer. Street in Venice. 1882. Oil on Canvas. National Gallery of Art, Washington.
The Weekend Design 