the haystack needle

friday pause

(photograph by ethanollie via sfgirlbybay)

First, isn't this photograph absolutely gorgeous? I adore laboratory glassware — I have a few pieces that I love to use as vessels for blooms. 

And in chemistry-speak, I've been working on a big concoction. So big that it gives me butterflies even thinking about spilling the beans, and I'm quite sure I haven't been filled with anything close to this kind of excited energy since a certain week in September when I was getting ready to marry Dan. I promise to fill you in later next week. (I'm too overwhelmed to bring out the megaphone just yet!). Some Friday links for you:

+ I thought I'd seen every garland — but this lemon leaf garland is citrus meets awesome.

+ I'm itching for a getaway, even a short-distance one. This looks like the perfect spring weekend. 

+ thanks to Melanie, I discovered a new-to-me food blog that I'm seriously loving everything about. 

+ Not sure how this caddy fits over a showerhead, but I love its style — would be cute nailed to a wall in your bathroom, filled with soaps and lotions. 

+ So clever. Repurposed ironing boards. 

+ I wish my bangs would behave like this and I could be a braiding master. 

For a Friday song, here's Eyes of the World, Grateful Dead (more specifically according to my nerdy husband, 2-26-77, Swing Auditorium). Love this line: "Sometimes the songs that we hear are just songs of our own." Happy weekend, and thanks as always, for following along. 

staub lunch

On Tuesday, I was treated to a most delicious lunch at Williams-Sonoma (Columbus Circle) hosted by Staub. The food was phenomenal — the chefs behind Seasonal cooked us up a plate of braised short ribs (heaven) with a fingerling potato puree, and white asparagus. For dessert, I finished every spoonful of my strawberry-rhubarb cocktail with vanilla meringue. I'm on a mission to try making the braised short ribs. Below is the recipe that they passed onto us. 

Unlike my enameled cast iron at home with its white interior, I love how Staub's dutch ovens are black (so you don't have the brown staining.) At the lunch, they talked a lot about the engineering behind the lids of the cookware — the lids are flat with little bumps that are designed to collect condensation and create a rain forest effect in the pot. Perfect for braising. I have to say I'd love to try the tasting menu at Seasonal for a special dinner sometime — was really impressed with the food. And the chefs were sweet to share lots of little tips, like how they cook their white asparagus in milk for the best flavor.  

braised short ribs, recipe by Seasonal

10 oz Brandt beef short rib

.5 tsp kosher salt

.25 tsp cracked black pepper

1.5 oz root vegetables (carrot, celery, leek)

1 oz shallots

2 oz red wine

2 oz demi glace, garlic clove, thyme

Season and brown the short rib. Add root vegetables and shallots to the casserole. Deglace with red wine and demi glace. Add garlic, thyme, pepper corns and bay leaf and braise until tender (will take several hours!). For the sauce, reduce and strain multiple times to remove impurities.

 
 

styling makeover: part 2

The other big project accomplished in my friend Erin's living room was a gallery wall above her sofa. When we started, Erin's living room was four blank walls. And after shuffling some furniture around, it was clear that the sofa would stay on the big wall facing the fireplace. Immediately I thought a gallery wall would be perfect above the sofa. So we got to work. We started with one treasured print, a drawing of the little white chapel where Erin and her husband Mark were married (the print on the far left.) With a gallery arrangement, I like to hang mismatched frames of different sizes. So we raided Erin's house for options and looked through stashes of art and frames that had not found a home yet. Erin had a lot of great art to work with. I love the vintage photograph of a group of women taking a class photo. And we needed a pop of color, so those two vintage embroidery pieces in their little green frames were a sweet addition. I love how her gallery wall has some humor to it — art doesn't have to be so serious. 

The empty frame was a lucky accident. I was hanging the little green frames, and we'd forgotten to take down the other frames while I was pounding the nails in (bad Jen!) — so that gilded frame (which originally had a black-and-white photograph Erin had shot) dropped to the floor and the glass shattered. We decided it was meant to be as the new photograph didn't really mesh with the vintage style of the gallery wall, anyway. So a cool empty gilded frame was the finishing touch. I like how her gallery wall has room to grow. I'd love to see something round under the vintage photograph (maybe a small patterned plate or even a little round mirror.) All the more reason for another thrifting adventure!

 

I don't have any overall shots of the living room (ran out of time and needed to catch my train!), but one other big change was dispersing some lamps around the room. Come sundown, that living room was a dark space because there's no overhead light. I found this cool paperclip style lamp hiding in a corner of Erin's living room. The velvet chair and ottoman needed a light to make it a cozy reading nook — perfect pairing. The chair sits low, so none of Erin's side tables would have been the right height next to this chair. So I flipped a vintage crate (originally holding firewood) to serve as a side table for the lamp. We moved the firewood into a large terracotta pot. The little metal table behind the chair used to have a lamp on top (which looked too big in proportion with the table and wasn't by any of the furniture to help with lighting.) So I swapped in a little succulent, since that space gets great sunlight next to the window. Erin found those vintage cake tins on the windowsill while we were thrifting, and she's planning on using the tins to house some herbs in small pots. 

That's all for now on this makeover! I'm happy we were able to get the furniture and lighting in an arrangement that works for Erin and Mark to hang out and enjoy their living room. And the easiest way to make a room feel lived-in and welcoming is to add some art on the walls and bring some plants inside. Erin's hoping to have that sofa (in the top photo) reupholstered in a fabric that's more their style. And she has a fantastic Danish modern chair with two cushions that need a makeover. It's a work in progress, as is the case with most rooms. 

Thanks for sharing your space, Erin! It was so fun working on the little makeover with you. 

styling makeover: part 1

Here's more from the styling makeover I did on my friend Erin's living room. I hope you'll let me off the hook with using the word makeover (which I know implies before and after.) I didn't realize that we'd end up spray painting in her garage and Mod Podging in her living room when the weekend started. It was one of those things. We came back from thrifting and Erin started telling me about what she didn't like about her living room and what she wanted it to be. I started moving around furniture and then the next thing we know it's 1am and we have a shopping list to get at Michaels the following morning. But I'll describe what we did and some tips on what helps me give a room a facelift.

 

Erin has a gorgeous fireplace in her living room — it's the star of the room. She used to have a series of prints lining the mantel that were an Asian motif (that cut against the style she was shooting for), and they are quiet prints that blended with the blue of the walls and gave no pop to the room. Those were the first to go. On our thrifting hunt, Erin scored a roll of vintage toile wallpaper (for just $20!). It's a rather cheeky toile that's a more oversized pattern and black-and-white, which made it super cool in my book. I suggested we use the wallpaper to create art for her mantel. Working with frames Erin already owned, I immediately grabbed a vintage gilded frame (which I used on a horizontal to show one scene in the toile), and the only other large frame was this one above. This frame was the perfect size to highlight a vertical pattern in the toile, but it desperately needed a makeover with its sad, yellowed finish. 

 

Spray paint to the rescue. I cheated and skipped on spray primer and used a different brand of spray paint — we were in a rush and Michaels was out of primer and Krylon's white gloss spray paint. I'm a big Krylon fan, and I have to say after using this other spray paint found at Michaels — I'm still a Krylon fan. It took more than the usual number of coats to get a solid finish, and I didn't get the same gloss that I've seen with Krylon. But it was still a dramatic makeover. 

 

So much better in white! Here's how we mounted the wallpaper in the frames:

+ move empty frame around wallpaper until you find the part of the pattern you want to highlight in the frame

+ run pencil around the outsize of frame (for where to cut) and mark an x in each corner of the inside of the frame (where you want the pattern to line up)

+ using an exacto knife, cut wallpaper along your penciled lines 

+ flip over wallpaper and Mod Podge the entire backside of your wallpaper

+ take wallpaper piece and line up two of your marked corners with corners of your foamcore board (foam board should already be cut to fit inside your frame)

+ carefully smooth down your wallpaper on foam board using a wallpaper brush

+ pile a few books on top and let your board sit for 20 minutes or so

+ once the wallpaper has dried, flip it over and snip off the wallpaper overage with an exacto knife

+ add to frame — instant art!

 

If we'd had one supersized frame, I probably would have hung the frame centered over the mantel. Classic look. I actually prefer what we ended up with: two frames that together make a statement. I like the frames leaning against the wall, because it feels less fussy. And fresh flowers always give a lift to a room. 

styling shuffle

Here's a peek at the styling makeover that I'll be sharing with you tomorrow. In less than a day and with a budget that came in under $100 (including supplies), I helped my friend Erin turn her living room from a space that was a bit of a neglected furniture depot to a cozy living space that invites you to curl up with a book or entertain with friends. I love how this little arrangement turned out. That gorgeous collection of Edward Hopper books, which Erin referenced to write her art history masters thesis, was hiding in her upstairs office. I thought such a lovely collection, with sentimental ties, should be front and center in her main living space. Under the glass cloche are a couple wood block letters of Erin's name. I love styling makeovers — when you shuffle pieces around and work with what you have — it's one of the more gratifying projects to decorate by simply finding potential in the objects you already have lying around. 

instant makeover: giant map

I'm back from a very fun + full weekend up in Connecticut visiting my friend Erin. We conquered a bunch of junk shops and tag sales, enjoyed an amazing dinner of Afghan food, treated ourselves to homemade ice cream, and accomplished a complete styling facelift of her living room for less than $100. Rather amazing! I'm admittedly a little tired today. The biggest find of the weekend was most definitely this giant 5-foot map — for just $30! When I saw this map of Connecticut's Hartford County, I knew it needed to go home with Erin. Despite her home's frustratingly rock-solid plaster walls, we managed to hang the map yesterday. It's added one big wow to her family room. I love maps hung as art — what a score! 

friday pause

 

I'm headed to Connecticut for the weekend to see my friend Erin. Oh E, I can't believe I missed calling you on your birthday (I successfully willed myself to believing that there was more of April left by ignoring my calendar — experiment gone awry.) I hate missing birthdays, because I know how much I love to hear birthday messages myself. I'm super excited to see Erin this weekend, hit my favorite junk shop in the world, ride around in a car, and stay up late talking about everything we miss on a daily basis. And I made a special surprise for Erin that I can't wait for her to open. Here's hoping my motion sickness stays in Brooklyn, so I can actually get some reading done on my 3-hour train ride. Some links for you:

+ image above from collection of astrology birthday cards by oh joy

+ dip-dyed tea towels (and possible shower curtain!). I love the ombre effect.

+ I want to try making this apple salad — what a good spring lunch.

+ affordable art: a hand-drawn ranunculus on a vintage book page.

+ such a cute tartan bag (and it's a cool shape to tote around town.)

For the Friday song, I'm leaving you with some classic Blondie — perfect for my girls weekend. Have a happy weekend!

Rapture - Blondie