Archive for February, 2013

February 28th, 2013 No Comments

5 easy ways to personalize your home with monograms

The monogram shop Mark & Graham, the newest launch of the Pottery Barn, Williams-Sonoma family offers an array of wonderful products to monogram. They offer free monogramming and free gift boxes for all their products. This is really great to have another online option for personalizing gifts. Small monogrammed details around your home are an inexpensive way to personalize a space. Leather options are nice for a more masculine touch, like the candle and trays, while a tissue box cover can elevate a powder room or den from those paper tissue boxes and fit in with the rooms color … Read more

February 27th, 2013 No Comments

weddings with gail brill: MONOGRAMS! – see gail’s inspiration, the behind the scenes process, to designing exquisite wedding details with martha stewart and much more!

  This monogram (below) of the alphabet was drawn by JM Berling around 1908. He was a great monogram designer and lettering artist. I love monograms. To me they are the lyrical coupling of beautiful letter shapes. They can be style specific, like Art Deco or Romantic, they can be simple and stark or elaborate with iconography and symbols. Unlike a family crest they are totally accessible and available to anyone. Everybody that has a name has one. Monograms are evocative of a time when manners mattered and social stationery was essential. Now don’t get me wrong. There are a lot … Read more

February 26th, 2013 No Comments

personalize your table setting with monogram chair covers & matchbooks

To continue with our monogram theme this week I wanted to share with you a table I styled for InStyle magazine. First I had Gail Brill (our weddings contributor this month on the blog!) design a personal monogram for the couple. We then gave the monogram design to Penn & Fletcher in Long Island City to embroider chair covers in a blue that was in our color palette. Now I did these here for a wedding reception, just for the bride and groom, but you can do this idea for your own chairs at home too. We simply … Read more

February 25th, 2013 No Comments

this week’s color palette: neutrals & blues/ personalizing with monograms, today a monogrammed mortgage button

This week we’ll explore the ways to personalize your home & celebrations with monograms. Today I thought I’d share with you something I did in my own home when we renovated. We needed to add a new staircase (since years ago the interior staircase had been removed to make two separate apartments) and while on a frequent trip to Nantucket I came upon these “mortgage buttons” made of ivory in the Nina Hellman antiques store. I had just read about these and was ecstatic to have found them! The legend is when a mortgage was paid off there was … Read more

February 23rd, 2013 No Comments

oscar party: how about a stiff bourbon mississippi punch? add these ingredients to your shopping list!

A bit bored with just a glass of champagne to watch the Oscars?  I don’t want to talk bad about my favorite go to drink, but this Mississippi Punch could be just the ticket to watch the Oscars with friends. Self serve… with a combination of black tea, bourbon, cognac, sugar, lemon and nutmeg… sounds like the perfect mix! Here is the recipe: Mississippi Punch Ingredients 1½  cups raw sugar 1  quart black tea 1 quart bourbon 2  cups dark rum 2  cups cognac 1½  cups fresh lemon juice 1½  quarts water Nutmeg Preparation Dissolve the sugar in the tea, then … Read more

February 22nd, 2013 No Comments

cakes & cupcakes: a special collector’s edition is on stands now from the editors of Martha Stewart Living

Martha Stewart has released a special collector’s edition, The Best of Martha Stewart Living Cakes & Cupcakes. This one seems to be narrowed down to some versions that even I could do with the right tools. Of course all the recipes, tools, resources and directions are clear and have photos accompanying them. This is perfect with Easter and Mother’s Day coming up. It’s only on stands until May 6th, 2013, so best to pick up your copy now. A few of my favorites that I’m dying to try are the Salted Caramel Chocolate Cake, the Anemone Cupcakes and the Ruffle … Read more

February 21st, 2013 No Comments

interiors: creating a rosy pink, yellow & peach living room

Our color palette this week has been a rosy pink, yellow and peach, so we thought this inspiration photo could provide some brainstorming for combining this color palette in your home. (don’t forget we suggested 3 Benjamin Moore paint colors on Monday to help you with this palette) This is room is a bit country in feel, we chose some more tailored designs as suggestions to help achieve this look. We started with a tride and true Benjamin Moore paint color called Rose Petal. Rose Petal is a cross between peach and pink- it doesn’t look too orange when … Read more

February 20th, 2013 No Comments

weddings with gail brill: what a professional calligrapher can do for you, it’s not just addressing envelopes!

Oddly enough, I am going to start this blog post talking about an American Folk hero named John Henry. When I was a kid, my parents read to us about Paul Bunyan and his Blue Ox named Babe, Johnny Appleseed and John Henry. John Henry “was a steel drivin’ man” who used a hammer to lay railroad tracks. One day he was pitted against a steam powered hammer that could do the job better than a man. John Henry took up the challenge to compete with the machine and in the end, John Henry won, but it didn’t end well. … Read more

February 19th, 2013 No Comments

tabletop: have fun with your setting by using a bright spring palette

I love minimal tables and design (as you can see from my shop), but now that I have children I’m finding that bright pops of color and whimsy is fun and can be just as pretty when setting a table, especially for the holidays. Adding little touches like small bowls of lollipops, candy sticks and cupcakes are inexpensive but effective to make your table look festive.  A table like this is very easy to pull together, so let’s break it down to make it easy for you. If you’d like to work from this specific palette then make sure to … Read more

February 18th, 2013 No Comments

this week’s color palette: rosy pink, yellow & peach, inspired by spring fashion

The editorial in Town & Country has been so beautiful lately. I love this color palette for spring that I saw in their March issue.  It’s from within a fashion story called “Artist In Residence” which was shot at Frank Lloyd Wright’s Taliesin West in the Arizona desert by Bettina Lewin. Of course the setting is amazing, but I like the unexpected colors together and as you go on in the story- I love seeing burgundy wine for spring and black and white (which we saw a lot of at the Golden Globes) which is also a great neutral … Read more