A Day of Writing

Diane Hanna did it again!  That girl, in all her tulle and flounce, came to the store for two remarkable days of writing.  We filled the table with eager and fine writers; we filled the room with life stories!  Thank you to all of you who attend these workshops!  They would not be possible without you.  We will do it all again, for the fourth year, next February 2011!

Roseland Cottage circa 1864

The last Wednesday of February was not only a wet and windy one, it was also the day that had long been scheduled to head out of town for an adventure!  These road trips can’t be put off!  The Patch boys (Don and John) and I had cooked up a plan for what could only be expensive trouble.  We decided to travel to that little hidden corner of Connecticut called “The Quiet Corner.”  Oddly enough it isn’t all that far a journey from Boston.  The countryside is positively beautiful…even in a driving rain storm.  There are hills and fields and estates and lovely winter structures with  amazing old barns in their tumble- down state and ancient old and grand trees whose spines were quite naked and bone brown.  We went first to Putnam, the home of several antique shops.  Most were closed that day but one: a huge collective with some great treasure kept the three of us very happy for several hours!  I found nothing to buy and that is most unusual…the guys did just fine!  The whole of our time in the collective, the storm pelted the windows and streets.  Rain water rushed down the stone curbs joining forces with roadways…giving the whole of Putnam and our not so little antique shop the sense of an island!  Almost as if we had washed up there!

We loaded up Big Jane (my car) with their purchases and then headed into Pomfret for lunch at The Vanilla Bean.  Now that was utterly delicious…complete with a huge slice of German Chocolate Cake (served with 3 forks)….I hadn’t had a slice of that cake since my Aunt Bella who would have served a huge piece on a brown transferware plate and there would have been one fork!

On our way out of town, we passed through Woodstock, CT, and it is here that we came upon this coral pink “cottage.”  This was just plain jaw-dropping, breath-taking splendor.  What a gift for a wet, grey day, the last Wednesday in February!

The Last of Summer's Leaves

Well, what can be said of a Tuesday…the middle of February, the dead of winter and another snowstorm.  My friend Diane labeled it this morning: “restless” that’s what she said.  It is true I want to take up belly dancing and get a wild tattoo.  I want to throw a few worn out linens in the suitcase and head for the sun.  I want some cold outrageous coconut drink,  and I want to sip the whole thing poolside with a sweet young pool boy who delivers it to my chaise lounge.  I am wearing the worn linen trousers, and the sun is covering my bare feet…my face is, of course, protected by a big colorful shade umbrella.

I went to see Jeff Bridges in Crazy Heart yesterday, and I left the theater with an urge to head west.  And once I got there, I would walk into one of those bars that dot the side roads of Nevada.  I can imagine the smell of such a place, having been there more than a time or two.  It would smell of stale smoke and wet wool and spilled beer, and the bar itself would be rubbed smooth.  The tall bar stools would have chrome legs and tired leatherette seats.  In fact, the  whole place would look a bit tired.  There would be a juke box playing Western songs, and I would settle right in way over there in the dark corner, and I would watch the world happen.

Parked  out front, at odd angles, would be pick-up trucks with dented bodies and back ends littered with assorted pieces of ranch life like shovels and maybe a big black and white Blue Heeler just waiting for his master.  There would be hay scattered on the worn bed of the truck and, you just know, there would be a gun rack and bumper stickers from political parties I would have nothing to do with!  But I would love the scene for the moment and for that time “restless” would not enter my world!

 My mother could get restless, and when she did the whole house would shift.  Moving furniture was an art form for her…something one did when all else seemed so the same.  Over her lifetime, she shifted the bathroom at the house on the corner of 6th & G Streets three times….the sink, toilet and tub went from Avocado to Harvest Gold. In the end, they were all Mauve…her final and most cherished color!  Of course, this shifting, which grew from “restless,” required a plumber and a carpenter and took weeks to manifest…but it cured her “restless” for the time being.

A Booth on Pier 94

A Tad of Paris at the Javits

John Derian at Work!

John's Wall of Blue Decoupage

John Derian’s booth is always one of my favorites (as is John).  It is nearly impossible to resist his work, but then, why would any sane person want to! I bought several  pieces out of this  blue story for the store.  How I would have loved buying the whole group!  If only I had a bigger store!  John created some truly remarkable pieces for Spring.  They will be in soon and featured front and center once they arrive!

Paste

Denise Fiedler, the designer of Paste, is an old friend from early South End days in Boston. She has created Paste and lives now in San Francisco.  I bought the chair series and some dogs and several wilder animals…though, we all know nothing could be wilder than Pugs and I bought a few of those too!  I thought these would be good for kids’ rooms, and the chair series in one, two or threes would be terrific on a dining room wall.  These pieces are created from torn and cut papers culled from antique books and embellished with vintage gold bits.  Quite charming and very affordable!

Tatine Candle

Tatine was a favorite over the winter.  They have several new scents, which I loved and ordered, along with Creeping Moss, which sold out early last November.

I want to mention here that the PatchNYC booth was jaw-dropping as it usually is…I bought several pieces of Don Carney’s drawings in antique frames and two new needlepoints  in vintage frames…from these two genius men will also come new linen scarves. PatchNYC has also created a number of candle fragrances with the women at The Soap & Paper Factory.  These women are brilliant at fragrance, and the Patch men designed the packaging.  What a combination!

Coming to the store will be new and amazing books…odd titles, wonderous reads, nonsense and must haves!  I adore books… I find them hard to resist, and I assure you that you will too!  In the assortment of goods will be new soaps and lotions.  80 Acres has come up with a lavender scent for their hand cream and soap that will sooth the weary soul. Lavender is tricky…this one works!  I found a new group of greeting cards and journals I loved.  We will have more Lucky Fish for children…those little nippers deserve a chic cotton t-shirt  in the best ever sludge colors!  I could go on, but I won’t, I want you to have some surprises when you come into the store!

After Dinner at Freemans

One reason for trade shows, in my book, is the dining.  Not that you will find fine dining at the Javits Center!  Each evening it was a new feast with great friends…the youngest of which was just over two months old!  Lucien’s mother and grandmother own Bon in Tucson so each night he joined a rather fine group of diners in rather fine places to dine! If you haven’t had a chance to eat or drink at Freemans, make that a must when you’re in New York.  With Don and John from Patch, we ate at Bombay Talkie, which just might have the best ever cocktails in all of the Big Apple (that might be a bit of a stretch!), but for sure, it has the most delicious Indian food!  We also had a splendid meal at Cook Shop on Tenth Avenue.  So, now my passion for fine food, great friends and a wicked trade show is out in the world and public!  Sometimes I think I own the store just to do the food, friends and New York thing!

Party Still Life!

Well, I promised a few weeks back, when I posted the ‘Over The Hill’  bag  that photos were to follow…now, this is not to imply that I am over the hill…God Forbid!  But I am in a new decade of life.  It seems there have been so many: there were children decades, married decades, and there were decades of driving a big mustard yellow Volvo on the wide open highways of  Northern California.   It was that same Volvo that I would park curb side of the brown shingled  house on Locust Avenue in Mill Valley, and of a warm summer day, you could find me and my down pillow, with a good book, curled up in the way-back of that mustard car.  If the weather was just perfect, not too hot, not too cold, I could catch a nap between pages of the trash novel I was reading.  I might call that decade my ‘easy decade’!  I might be tempted to think of this new decade as my wild, fun decade!  Long gone is the mustard Volvo, the house, the husband, the children are grown…so why not move right into WILD!

Candlelight and Flowers on a Cold January Night

Everyone, young and old, just plain looks better with candlelight!  Add to that, remarkable flowers in colors found only in the early summer.  I just can’t imagine a better January treat!

Silas and the Blues Band

Dancing fools!

Wally in late September at "The Arb"

The first time I saw Wally, it was November; he was seven weeks old and in the arms of his breeder.  He was wrapped in a turquoise towel, his little face peeking out from the folds.  I was there to think about getting a dog.  Mind you, I say think…up until the moment I laid eyes on him, I was certain I could easily walk away.  He cost what felt like a fortune; I thought this whole thing was a bit excessive, even if it was my idea to buy a pug.  I didn’t have a clue about dogs, no sense of their purchase price, no idea of the time or monies to follow just to keep the old boy upright!  In fact, his purchase price was a bargain given what the next 13 years would bring!  Wally (Wallace when he was wearing more formal attire) was a challenge…he had more trainers than I have had husbands, he couldn’t bear the sounds of air brakes or the color yellow of a school bus.  I like to think this was his worn chino stage, which he wore with a muscle tee shirt with a pack of unfiltered smokes in the rolled-up sleeve!  He was a thug in those days, nearly impossible to train, who slept on sofas and beds and loved the very best to curl up on the coat of some guest…especially if said guest didn’t relate to dogs!  Wally saw me through the death of my partner, my father, my mother, and assorted friends who all left this world way too early.  Wally stuck it out and knew when to be present with grief.  He has aged and is now in his dressing gown stage…I like to imagine it to be one of those silky types with a small print and a lovely silk satin shawl collar and with this he would be wearing a pair of black needlepoint slippers with the image of a fawn pug on each foot.  They would be the sort of slippers that the Duke of Windsor wore when he and the “Dutchie” lounged about with their assorted pugs.  There is no question that Wally is slowing down and that this will be his last winter.  I wonder what will become of Lulu who adores him as much as I do.  She is blind and toothless.  Wally is her seeing eye companion, and he is my long-time beau.  How lucky I have been to have had them both!

Wally & Lulu sleep away the month!

It is true…this is a month that one needs to take a long rest.  It is the month I turn a year older, the month I question all those resolutions made just days before, the month I question owning a store (didn’t I tell you to talk to me in January about all that love of retail!).  January just isn’t pretty, no matter how much you might love the cold!

This bag says it all! Pictures to come.

Don, John from PatchNYC & Maren Rossman at Oleana!

If you haven’t been to Oleana, in Cambridge MA, you must go today…this very minute!  It is one of my favorite places for the best ever food!  Ana Sortun, the chef owner, also owns Sofra. Which is my other favorite for coffee, pastry, a wee treat of exotic luncheon fare.  Ana teaches a few cooking classes a year at Sofra and, on occasion, hosts tours to celebrate the cuisine of other cultures.  Though I have taken the classes, I have yet to do the food tour…not yet anyway!

Diane Hanna at Kiskadee Coffee shop in Plymouth, MA

So here is what I want to tell you about Diane…other than the fact that I am a big fan of her work.  She is a poet, a special and unique teacher and a remarkable talent who wears layers of netting and practical shoes.  She hosts a writers’ workshop each February at the store.  The dates this year are the 21st & 22nd…limit is twelve lucky people per day.  If you’re on my email list, you will be hearing about the event, if not, check out the website for details.  Join us with your blank notebooks and your pens for a day of magic!

Pajama gams and practical boots!

Five AM Front Window!

This morning, at 4:30, it was ten degrees above zero, the moon was a crescent in a jet black sky, the air still and quiet.  A perfect setting for a cozy pajama party.  But would the girls of flannel and big down coats come out in this bitter cold?   I hit Dunkin Doughnuts for the coffee and sin, wearing woolen long johns under my own pajamas, then a robe, and a coat, a wooly scarf, a hat, warm gloves, a million layers, or so it felt…’Dunkies’ might be the only place on earth that an old girl could stand in line (yes, there was a line!), as if, in this outfit, at this hour, I was perfectly normal!  I have come to the conclusion over the years that being normal might be just too dull…the following that this store has is anything but normal!  The women arrived, ready for coffee, eager for bargains and in fine spirits!  By 5:15 there was barely room to walk through the store.  At 6AM the line for check-out snaked around the room…the place smelled of hot coffee and early morning.  You know that sort of early morning where something great is in the air, some sensation, maybe it is anticipation, either way, it has an electricity all its own.  I have to say, I love you all for coming, for your adventuresome spirit and your great support!  You keep the store, and me, going!  God love you for even thinking of leaving your beds on a ten-degree day!

Vacant Bed...early morning January 10th!

O.K. Darlings…this might be a bit premature…but I hope all of you roll out of your warm comfort zone this Sunday January 10th at 5AM.  Keep on those pajamas, no fancy makeup, throw on a coat, I hear it will be very cold, and come down to 6 Birch…the coffee will be hot and plentiful, the doughnuts will be sinful and the bargains…AMAZING! You can return to your unmade bed by 8AM with all your delicious purchases still in their bags.  Think of what a jump you have gotten on your day!  Join us, as the sun rises!

Day One, Twenty Ten

This is just about as good as it gets!  Two dear friends, Don and John, for a New Years Eve dinner and slumber party….I can’t imagine a better way to see out the old and celebrate the new!  We were, three (unwashed) adults, four dogs (three of which were Pugs!), great food, Apricot Egg Nog, and twenty two years of back issues of The World of Interiors! Now, first I must tell you, these issues have traveled from attic to attic with me, all tapped up in their own boxes…just waiting for a snowy night and enough Egg Nog to see us all through the stacks.  Here is the deal…we have become critical and maybe a tiny bit jaded…the old issues are not all we had dreamed them to be…not that they will be placed curb side, for next weeks trash pickup, any time soon….they were savored, with a somewhat clear eye, then placed back into their boxes, carried into the attic, put way over in the far corner, under the eves.  These boxes will be shifted around for, most likely, another 22 years!

Apricot Egg Nog

10 eggs separated

3/4 cup sugar

1/8 tsp. salt

1/2 cup milk

1 cup heavy cream (which you will whip)

46 ounces of Apricot nector

1 cup Rum (you could use Brandy)

1/4 cup Cointreau

fresh grated Nutmeg

In double boiler, mix egg yokes with 1/2 cup of sugar, salt and the milk…cook, over gently boiling water, until thickened…about 15 minutes.  Cool

Beat egg whites until frothy, add the balance of sugar then beat until stiff…pour cooled custard over the beaten egg whites…fold in gently…add whipped cream…fold in gently.  Add nectar, Rum and Cointreau.  Mix to blend, cover and chill over night…Stir with wire whip, when about to serve, sprinkle each serving with fresh grated Nutmeg.  Enjoy!  I cut this recipe in half, for the three of us, and could easily have treated the whole neighborhood…were we willing to share!

Christmas Eve by Candlelight

What a night!  I had so hoped to capture this evening but all photos were pathetic!  You must believe me when I tell you that, for a bit over an hour, I was surrounded by magic in this truly amazing sanctuary on Bedford Road in Lincoln, MA.  In this exquisite little church, lit only by candlelight, with its twelve over twelve windows, its creamy white walls, graceful altar, and pews which had small gates at each end, no center isle, and side ‘boxes’ with seats and these too had wee gates…the snow covering all but the walkways, the sky pitch black with the half wedge of a moon and the night filled with stars!  For a non church goer, this alone could convert me!  Add to that a choir and grand music and some readings that were relevant to the madness of this world…this was a perfect Christmas Eve!

The store ended its Holiday season nearly nude of goods and for that I am grateful!  For each of you who stopped by for the Port or some chocolates or a cookie or to visit or, lastly, to shop…to you I am grateful!  These weeks of December are long and delicious with visits and wrapping and chatter…I won’t even mention the pounds of cookies or bottles of Port we went through.  Tonight’s Candle Light service had a line in one of the opening hymns….’joy’s a gift you cannot buy.’  What I sell to you is the product.  What you give back to me is joy.  Thank you!

May you have a happy, healthy 2010