Pinks

Pink


Pink


Pinks. I couldn't resist this Dianthus at the nursery last weekend. The combination of two-tone bright pink flowers and bluey-grey leaves is gorgeous. A girl can never have too much pink, even in the garden.

And on the home front

We haven't been ignoring the house this week. A couple of chores were crossed off the to do list. This guy came down. We haven't had a cover on it since the cabinets went on the wall because I didn't allow for the door opening when I went for the extra long boxes.
The ceiling was primed and we had just enough left-over paint to give it the three coats it needed to make it match seamlessly. Then the new fixture went up and we can now open the cabinet door. Ta da, another problem solved.
We took part in the annual slaughter of the carpenter bees. They only seem to be over the porch this year (so far, anyway) but they've already managed to drill two new holes that will be really difficult to fill unless we get a bigger stepladder.
Things we have to do this weekend: repaint the back door, sand and paint the bottom of the garage door, sand and stain the holes the woodpecker made, stain the new frame around the kitchen door.

Taxes or....

I had to pay the Town taxes this morning and I've spent the rest of today musing what I could have done with the money...


Like buy this unique and sensuous modern Ripple bench by Toyo Ito from Generate.

Cold water

See that blue water? Pristine blue water? Do you want to know why it looks like that? I'll tell you. Because no one has put so much as a pinky-toe in there since we opened it a month ago. Why? Because it's a freakishly cold 62F, that's why.
This year was the first Memorial Day weekend we didn't jump in the pool since we moved here. Even though we are hardy Europeans, we need at least a week of temperatures in the 70s to get the water warm enough for us, and this year that just hasn't happened. We've had one day, or at the most two, of warm weather followed by a stream of dreary, chilly days.
A neighbor suggested we use solar balls to heat the water but I can't find any more information on them. Does anyone know if these things work? It says non-toxic, but what are they made of? Will they mangle the mechanics of my new pump? I'd really like to start swimming soon and I'd be willing to try these things if I knew they'd do no harm.

Rear yard, rear end

Another stella shot of a dog's behind as it flees the evilness embodied in the camera

Cupcakes and family secrets

You know you're part of the family when...


Someone offers you the chance to feel the difference between saline and silicone breasts - saline today, silicone sometime later this summer


They trust you enough to tell you things secure in the knowledge it will not reach the internets the following day


Someone confesses that when they were small they liked to eat the paper that cupcakes are baked in. Bonus points if you admitted you preferred the casings to the cupcakes. Double bonus points if, while telling this story, you are actually chewing on the paper.


They eat all of your Strawberry-Thyme cupcakes but want to know why they are so tiny. That's because these are English fairy cakes (insert inappropriate joke here) adapted from the super-sized American version here. If you are a US reader, make the American version. If you're European and have access to the smaller paper cases the recipe is as follows:

Strawberry-Thyme Fairy Cakes
Take 3 sprigs of thyme and infuse in 5 tablespoons of milk. Set aside for 15 minutes. Discard the thyme. Cream together 100g butter and sugar. Add two eggs, one at a time, with a little self-raising flour, beating between each addition. Carefully fold in 100g sifted SR flour and a pinch of salt. In a separate bowl, mash a couple of strawberries, grate in the zest of half a lemon. Carefully stir this into cake batter with one or two tablespoons of the thyme-infused milk. Divide between 12 paper cases and bake in 180c oven for 12-15 minutes. Cool.
For the Glacé Icing
Mash another couple of strawberries with the rest of the milk and another teaspoon of lemon zest. Sift in enough icing sugar to make icing that coats the back of a spoon and pour it over those fairy cakes.
Enjoy!

Parade

Memorial Day 2008
After a toast in remembrance of the fallen, one to those who have served and another to those still serving, we went for a stroll. Although some of us seem to be striding purposefully.

Trickin' Out the Yard

When we moved her 47 months ago (I can't believe it's been that long, it seems like yesterday) we took a look at the property and pronounced it perfect "We don't have to do a thing here", The Guy said, "Except take down those trees a foot away from the window" I added. "Ha" the garden gods mocked us, and this weekend found us spending a few more dollars at the nursery,


We got a tray of Woolly Thyme to go between the bluestone pavers on the north path


And sedums to make the rockery next to the bridge look pretty. The two in the foreground I planted a couple of years ago and they are huge now so I hope the others grow in the same.


Unfortunately while planting we discovered that one post of the bridge has completely rotted and the only thing holding it up is the cross span. We'll need to replace that and six boards before anyone leans on it.
If the garden gods are reading this: we are not finished with the yard, we will never be finished with the yard. We are sorry for our hubris.

The Start of Summer

I want to be rich so I can decorate my house with live lobsters.
via remodelista.

To decorate my $230 million pad

I would so start with this gorgeous Hermes Espresso Cup and Saucer on sale at Bluefly.com, part of the Balcon Du Guadalquivir set. Available in red on white porcelain, 2 for only $171.00. It would work pretty well in my kitchen here, too. Except for that pesky price tag...

£8,000 per square foot

That's the price a London businessman will pay if the deal on this house in Kensington Gardens, London, England goes through. Britain's richest man, steel billionaire Lakshmi Mittal, can well afford the £117,000,000 ($230 million) price tag, I'm sure, and rumor has it the house isn't even for himself but his son Aditya because dad already owns a sizable house on the same street. But honestly $15,000 a square foot? With a declining housing market and a looming recession? I ask you is this a smart move?
via Huffington Post and The Times

White pine

Apparently you can make alcohol from pine but much research on the internets elicited nothing...

No-sew curtains

I took the porridge colored drapery panels back to Crate&Barrel and while I was in the store I had a look around to see what I could possibly buy to stop the sun shining through the windows at 5 AM.


I spied this greeny-silver from afar. It was pretty stiff and opaque so I wouldn't have to line it and it was already hemmed so there was no sewing involved. It's the right size and it doesn't matter to me that it's a Linden tablecloth. It's not the first time I've used a tablecloth as a drapery panel.



I bought two 60"x90" tablecloths at $39 each and spent $68 on hardware at Bed, Bath and Beyond. Not as cheap as chips but pretty close. The Guy attached the hardware and I attached the tablecloths to the rods with clips. Just one tiny design dilemma. That central support bracket meant we could only draw the curtains halfway. Oops.


I took the drapes down, cut each tablecloth in half and reattached them lengthwise, folding over the raw edge at the top. Luckily, there was still plenty of fabric. (Insert sigh of relief here).


They go fine with the checkered Pixel drapes on the other window, but eventually I will hem the top, making a pole pocket while I'm about it. I think it will look neater than the clips.
I just need to find the iron so I can stick the Stich Witchey to the fabric. I know we put the iron away when we demo'd the laundry room in December '06, I just can't remember where....

Spruce'd Up

New growth on the blue spruce on the north drive. (And yes, that is another azalea to the left in the photo in the link!)

Nul points*

Even united by a made-up language Belgium can't win. Last night was the first semi-final of The Eurovision Song Contest and Belgium failed to qualify for Saturday's final. So sad, so cruel.
Don't despair, through the power of the internets I bring you Ishtar with O julisi na jalini, the official entry of my adopted country. It sounds like a mash-up of Steeleye Span (Gaudete, anyone?) and The Smurfs. No really.
Click if you dare and remember Belgium is the home of the surreal.



Special bonus video: Father Abraham and The Smurfs


I always thought he said "Fruit Smurf begins" now I realise it's "Flute Smurf". Oh the power of youtube!

*translation here

I Heart Showart

That's show-art, not sho-wart I guess, anyhow I love it. It's Italian and so is the website. but don't let that frighten you. Click either link under the name Showart, the left will open a new screen, the right will open the site in the existing screen, and the hit collezioni on the left and wonder at the beauty of the shower pans, especially the Linea Texture. Only available in Italy, of course, but all the same: Pretty, pretty, pretty.

via Trendir

Who'd Stop the Rain?

It's been raining for hours (seems like days) so when I got home I left the umbrella on the porch. Guess who took advantage?

Stuck on TuneGlue

I don't know how I've managed to live without the extremely cool TuneGlue all my life.
It's an interactive "relationship explorer" and with just a few clicks you can see how bands and artists relate to one another musically. Take for example the artist featured in my last post Grandmaster Flash. Enter his name in the search box, click expand and similar artists will appear, click on one of those to see more relationships or on releases to check out their discography.
I'm totally addicted to it, firstly because it is so beautifully designed, second you can point, click and purchase music (from amazon.co.uk, though) and thirdly it totally appeals to the geek in me. I can play six degrees of musical separation to my heart's content. Deeply sad but at the same time deeply satisfying.

via Very Short List

P.S. There's another set of relationships in the music player at the bottom of the page....

Hip Hop Message

Guess who will be signing copies of his memoir in Huntington next month?



Grandmaster Flash himself will be at the Book Revue at 7 PM on June 12.
Remind me is "memoir" code for fact or fiction these days?

Modernist Architecture Reality Check

For lovers of modernist residential architecture there was mixed news this week. While the Richard Neutra Kaufmann Desert House (above) sold to an unidentified buyer for a respectable $16,800,000 ($19,000,000 including an adjacent plot), the Louis Kahn Esherick House (below) failed to reach its reserve.


Both houses were offered for sale as part of Contemporary Art and Design auctions and their selling price was expected to far exceed their real estate value. Auctioneer Richard Wright, who was hoping to sell the Esherick House for between $2-$3,000,000, didn't blame the declining housing market for the failure to sell, pointing out that bidders at auction would be paying cash and not worrying about a mortgage. Christie's, who sold the Kaufmann House, were also disappointed that bidding was at the lower end of the valuation. They had marketed the house as a work of art with a estimated price of between $15-$25 million.

Azalea Round-Up

I don't promise that this is the last time I will mention the word azalea, or post a pic, but they are looking so phenomenal I put together this composite. They are all different plants and because these were in the yard when we bought The Cool House I have absolutely no idea of the names.

It must be the combination of a mild winter this year on Long Island and a long, cool, rainy Spring that made the blossoms so abundant and so long-lasting. We've had a few real rainstorms and a lot of the plants have taken a beating in the past week but some of the pink and the white azaleas are still at their best, and the rhododendrons are just breaking out. If only we could get a few days of temperatures in the low 70s it would be perfect.

Mayday

I invented a new cocktail in the time between the wedding and the reception yesterday.
The Guy named it M'aider or Mayday as it contains Lillet, an apertif from South-west France, and I was pretty much underwater half-way through sipping it. I'll share it with you but be warned, it could leave you (ship)wrecked.


To a cocktail shaker a third filled with ice add 3 measures gin, two of Lillet, one of Noilly Prat. Shake.


Take a martini glass. Fill with ice and water so it's really cold, empty. Rub a slice of lemon around the rim.


Pour the contents of the shaker into the glass. Top up with tonic water. Garnish with the slice of lemon and a cherry.
It tastes like summer but packs a wallop so enjoy in moderation!

Sadie's disguise

Sadie had surgery to remove a large cyst caused by an ingrowing hair follicle. She was a trooper and came through it all excellently


We made her wear this attractive T-shirt for a while, which didn't impress her at all


But did cause a visitor to The Cool House to ask who the kid with the long black hair was.....

First BBQ of the Year

The temperature hit 68F, the yard has been cleaned up, it's barbeque time!


First Hoegaarden of the summer (and yes that is a Krups scale bowl we are using as an ice bucket!)


Polly banished to the bridge while there are hamburgers about


Sadie drooling


Life is just a bowl of cherries - and cherries are the perfect summer dessert.

Something old, something new...

Comments left on my recent post about the rehabbed powder room and also by The Handyman made me think I should explain in greater detail why we kept the fixtures we did and how I arrived at the plan for the new ones.

Like many projects in this house it was undertaken piecemeal. When I first thought about this room (2004) I was going to strip it completely, starting with the shag carpet, but we didn't have the budget to do it right away. I did, however, start formulating a plan. I could say it started with a doorknob but it was a little more complicated than that...


Between 2004 and 2006 we had a bunch of leaks, drips and other plumbing issues that resulted in a completely rebuilt toilet mechanism. When we decided to redo the powder this Spring room I didn't want to throw the WC out especially as the china looked good, it fitted the space and I'd spent more than the cost of a new loo getting it fixed.


One day in 2005 the ventilator broke and when put in a new one we also tried to fix the chandelier back to the ceiling. We couldn't and neither could any other contractor who has worked on the house. We knew it had to go when we redid the room, so eventually we swapped it out for one we already had.


I was going to rip out the vanity and replace it with this unit but the more I thought about it the less I liked it. For one, I'd lose precious counter space, then I'd have to possibly remove the mirrors and maybe re-texture the walls. Finally I wasn't sure I liked the bowl and faucet enough. In the end it seemed like too much money to spend to get something I wasn't 100% happy with. There was nothing wrong with the original cabinet so I figured why not get rid of the part I hated, the fake marble top with its clamshell sink and tiny faucet that only elves could operate, and keep the base.
The shag carpet bugged me every day. We wanted to wait until we remodeled the kitchen before we took it out but the longer we lived here the more remote that day seemed. Once we'd made the decision to keep the vanity and tile up to it there didn't seem much point in waiting any longer, we'd just get it done.


Then came my favorite part: shopping. Firstly I shopped for free in the "things I thought we'd use but never did" department aka a shelf in the garage. I found a chrome towel bar I bought for the boys' bath remodel that we couldn't fit in that space. Then I started spending money. I love Carrara marble and we've used it throughout the house to update other bits of furniture so that was an easy choice for the countertop. I made a paper template and took it to the stone guy up the road and he had it cut in two days.


The faucet I wanted, the Tara Classic from dornbracht would have cost a stress-inducing $918 but I found a much more reasonably priced version at overstock.com. There was a brief obsession flirtation with a red vessel sink but I think the one I chose out of necessity actually looks better here. It cost a little more but it compliments the marble really well.
Our ethos during the renovation of The Cool House has been to save as many original features as possible, to do as little harm as we can and accomplish it on the smallest feasible budget. Having said that I do like the occasional "wow" piece.


My designer neighbor once charitably described the old powder room as "not horrible", she hasn't seen the new version yet but I hope she will approve. There's a lot of old, a fair bit of new and some things borrowed from another room in this remodel and I think it all works together. I'm happy anyway.

Pink rhododendron

Pink rhododendron on front drive