I like sports as much as the next gal – which is to say not all that much.  Hey I love baseball, and like basketball, but football has never made it’s place in my life.  In fact I’d rather clean out the basement than spend an afternoon with the Super Bowl raging in my TV room.  But this weekend might be an exception.  With Madonna holding court at half time I’ll just have to set my DVR to catch it.  In the meantime, I’ve been enjoying MDNA’s new vid that popped up last night, Give Me All Your Luvin’.

Tomorrow may be Groundhog Day (I have a feeling Punxsutawney Phil will not be seeing his shadow this year) but today is Imbolc, or St Brigid’s Day, a luscious day of celebration in the Irish culture.   It marks the beginning of Spring, and like everything ancient, involves a good measure of superstition and watching for omens.  One of the foremost of which is the weather on this particular day – if it’s a bit fowl where you are that’s a good sign.

According to Wikipedia:  “Imbolc is the day the Cailleach, the hag of Gaelic tradition — [in which she] gathers her firewood for the rest of the winter. Legend has it that if she intends to make the winter last a good while longer, she will make sure the weather on Imbolc is bright and sunny, so she can gather plenty of firewood. Therefore, people are generally relieved if Imbolc is a day of foul weather, as it means the Cailleach is asleep and winter is almost over.” 

The Gaelic people also watched for serpents or badgers to emerge from their burrows:

“The serpent will come from the hole
On the brown Day of Bride,
Though there should be three feet of snow
On the flat surface of the ground.”

All right, enough history – to celebrate the day you can simply light a nice bonfire somewhere (that works where I live, not so much if you’re in a city) or candles (no need to let the wax drip all over you as on our model below)….

…and make up a fresh batch of Irish Bannock – an easy bread that I think you’ll like fresh from the oven and spread with a touch of butter. Recipe is below!

Irish Bannock

Ingredients:

If you’re old enough, you might remember the floofy wedding dresses from the 80′s – just take a gander at this gallery from google and you’ll get the idea if you’re a youngin’.  Most of them were obviously inspired by Rose Parade floats with their intricate beadwork, raucous lace detail, puffed sleeves, high necks, and flouncy skirts – everything onto one dress.  I know, I actually sewed one – and it wasn’t pretty.  Enter Vera Wang.  Wang immediately smoothed down the wildness, making wedding gowns less embarrassing and more awe inspiring.  But I think the real turn came when Carolyn Bessette wed John Kennedy in her regal Narcisco Rodriguez gown.  Sans ruffles, it sent a shock wave through every bride-to-be’s heart.

For quite some time now, ruffly, floofy, over the top dresses were decidedly off the menu, with brides opting for sleek over silly.  But I was giggling as I watched the Real Housewives of Beverly Hills this season, as Lisa Vanderpump’s daughter, Pandora tried on one bridal confection after another.  The very fashionable Housewife Vanderpump looked on, not in horror, but in adoration.  So is this the cue? Are we floofing it up again as we march down the aisle?  It seems so if this collection from Lazaro is any barometer.   But unlike the insanity of the 80′s these gowns are gorgeous in their excess -  in fact I’d have not a problem in the world wearing one these beauts!  I think the key is in not adding every bell and whistle to every gown.

I’m always thinking about clever promotions or ideas for getting my clients out in front of the public (that being my job and all).  Pop up shops, luxury celebrity suites, and press events are always in the mix.  So I was really intrigued when I saw this story about the Styleliner on FashionIndie this week.

Styleliner founder Joey Wolffer took a retired potato chip delivery truck and tricked it out, making it a very cute boutique on wheels.  If the Marshall’s commercial springs to mind, I would say the concept is pretty similar, yet the Styleliner was designed to feel like an ’80′s nightclub and its offerings are more unique and indie.   This weekend the Styeliner will be at the Sundance film festival – next week Palm Beach .  Very clever, right??  Be sure to check out this very cool video about the Styleliner>>

It may seem like I’m gorging on chandeliers lately, but this is the last one, I swear – I don’t have any spots left (except in my office, which now has me thinking….).  I saw this vintage rose chandelier (in the same shop where I grabbed the dining room piece) over the long weekend.  We’ve had a ceiling fan in the master bedroom for several years – it’s great in the Summer months but otherwise collects dust from September through May.   We have standard ceilings in the Connecticut house, so trying to get it to push down heat in the Winter just creates an unpleasant cold draft.  So this beauty is a great alternative – I put in frosted chandelier bulbs and a rheostat that if turned down low gives the ambiance of glowing candles.  I adore it, even though I’m not a gold and gilt person, this gives a French vibe that is elegant and unexpected.

I’m taking the time to give props to this fabulous aqua blue bubble necklace that I found at a vintage store this week – yes it’s the J Crew.  I’m a sucker for this color (as you must have guessed by our website design) and can wear it a bib style or long with sweaters.  Love it!!

Have you ever seen something in a store that just grabbed you?  If you’re reading this blog you probably have.  Last week, on New Year’s Day to be exact, I saw this scrumptious vintage chandelier in a shop near our house in Connecticut, that was/is well priced and really pretty.  Whenever I see pieces like this, they’re easy to resist because they’re usually a big investment piece – priced in the thousands and not on my list of needs right now.

To be clear, I’ve been renovating my house out in the woods for some time now – bit by bit.  Most recently we took down an ill thought out wall that the previous owner had installed between the kitchen and the TV room (that was never in the original plans and served to chop up the rooms on the first floor into little dark bits)…and changed the finishes in the kitchen, added a big island, and put up a few cabinets.  As a result the dining area is back to it’s original (large) area, which allowed me to put the leaves in the dining room table, and buy some new dining chairs.  The chandelier I had there was still fine, a bit small, but fine considering it is also a pass through room where a big distraction hanging in the middle of the room isn’t really necessary.

So anyway, I saw this tulip shaped chandelier about a week ago, it was priced well, but right after Christmas and with all sorts of bills coming due I didn’t want to spend the money.  So I left it – and then spent a week torturing myself thinking about it.  The train of thought went something like this:  “Should I get it?  I always want this and that!  Why do I always want things?  I have the money but I just spent a lot on this and that… maybe there’s another one out there I’d like better…. stop thinking about it!” over and over.

So on Saturday I was back in the neighborhood of the store and went in, really hoping someone had bought the chandelier, taken it off with them, and put me out of my misery.  But there it was, chained to it’s lovely spot in the dealer’s alcove.  So I asked the sales person if it worked – she of course made a phone call and came back with a vague answer:  “Well you should never buy a lighting fixture from an antique store without planning to rewire it.“   Ahh OK, that’s good advise but only served to alarm me.  I left and went home and started on the internal dialogue I mentioned above again.  By Sunday I’d had enough already.  I have a long history of not buying/getting things I want, and trying to make myself happy with substitutes which never seems to work.  I went down and took the thing on approval.

First I tried the lights with a swag kit – they seemed to work fine, however at some point someone had put the wrong sized candle fixture covers on, making it difficult to screw the bulb down to the contact in the socket.  I think the dealer had incorrectly thought this was a wiring issue.  I temporarily fixed that (cut it down so it would make contact) and installed it over the dining room table.  But of course now I’m convinced that it will burn the house down, even though the wiring looks fine – the plastic covering on the wires is a little dry and there is no ground, but I have it up until my electrician can come over and check it over.   Anyway, I think it looks lovely.

Well – there’s the first week of 2012 – and I must say it was pretty great.  I snapped this photo yesterday with Instagram on my iPhone – the lake clearly isn’t frozen, but my fingers certainly were.  As you know, unless you have those trick glovey-gadgets that can text, you have to take off your gloves to use the darned thing.  The frozen finger issue together with the two dogs that were hopping around at my feet as I held their leashes between my knees made this a creative challenge, but I kind of like it anyway.

One of my resolutions this year is to try to be more creative, ie: produce more original photos, prose, articles, videos, recipes, interior design projects (even if they’re not perfect – ie: crap) rather than just re-blogging other people’s work.  It’s a lot harder than you think when you have a million other balls in the air.  But I try

Have a great weekend!

I didn’t grow up in a snow prone region, so I’ve never made a snowman before – let alone a snowlady.  I’m always thrilled when the neighborhood kids roll up a snowperson and decorate it with sticks and hats.  If I made a snowperson I would decorate it with an Hermes scarf, a vintage hat and a Chanel Bag.  Perhaps in that light I should stick to adoring my little collection of winter wonderpeople, who never melt.

Well Happy New Year!   Don’t know how you spent yours, mine was nice – the NYE part was dicey however.  A neighbor set off several rounds of professional grade fireworks over the course of several hours – they were low and loud, and right over dry woods.  If you have horses or dogs you know how distraught they can get – just imagine trying to calm a 1500 pound horse who is having a melt down in the middle of the night – shaking and sweating uncontrollably.   Meanwhile the dogs did their best not to pee themselves as they hid in the basement.  Fun fun fun.

Anyway, today is the end of the holiday season – no banks or mail, or traffic on the roads – so I’m planning the year ahead.  One of my favorite projects is putting together a calendar of dates – a collection of wild and whacky holidays along with the traditional ones that we publicists set our year by.

For example, today is “Happy Mew Years Day for Cats” (I have a feeling a cat food company had something to do with that one);  “National Thank God It’s Monday” (what they really mean is Thank God the Holidays Are Over); and “Run It Up the Flag Pole and See if Anybody Salutes Day”.

Most of these holidays are the product of PR departments with a sense of humor.  In that spirit I’d like to launch my own holiday for January 2nd – National Take Down Your Christmas Decorations Day!  In my neck of the woods, people get very excited about Christmas.  Just before Thanksgiving they begin decking the halls with live boughs and wreaths of pine on every door, window, gate, and mailbox.  It’s pretty until about mid January – then the perky red bows start to fade and droop, the pine is frozen and faded and forgotten.  By March these relics for the most part transform into live tinder, and the bows are soggy pink pieces of trash.  I won’t even start on the lights, the inflatable Santas, the topiary sleighs – please folks, I beg you, take them down now – you know who you are!  Valentines Day, St Patrick’s Day, Easter are not to be celebrated with crusty old Christmas Deco!  Neither are National Apricot Day, Peculiar People Day, or National Dress Up Your Pet Day (those are coming up this month!)

I suggest in the place of the red ribbons and dried out Winter greens, some vivid purple flowers set on your table to brighten your day (like these above and below).

I’m also suggesting National Get Revenge on Your Insane Neighbor’s New Year’s Eve Antics Day for later in the month – in this case I think firing off a double barrel shotgun outside their bedroom window at 4am would do the trick – what do you think? Too much?