I love the color palettes found in succulents- deep teals, greens, green-grays. In fact I think it’s one of my favorite palettes. I’m horrible with plants, so succulents and I have a love/ love relationship. It’s really hard to kill a succulent since they store so much water and are great in stone beds and dry climates. There is a Cactus and Succulent Society, which is a wealth of information- from species to locating your local chapter and resources.
Yum! With all this tomato talk this week I thought I might feature a tomato recipe to try. Here’s one from one of my favorite cooks- Donna Hay. Donna has seasonal magazines, numerous cookbooks, a ‘general store’ on her site, and styling ideas and tips. I think you’ll love to explore her world if you haven’t already.
Oh my gosh! I love this paint finder tool called Chip It! from Sherwin-Williams Paints. You take any photo and upload it into the Chip It! tool and it will automatically sort through hundreds of paints and find matching paint colors pulled from the photo’s color palette. Use a photo that inspires you and instantly it tells you what paint colors to use! I uploaded the tomato photograph that inspired this week’s color palette and this is what the Chip It! tool came up with….wow! How great is that? Try the link above to upload your own photos and … Read more
Susan Spungen, former Food Editor of Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia and author of “Recipes: A Collection for the Modern Cook” had a gorgeous summer wedding at Blue Hill at Stone Barns in New York. Vegetables inspired table names, represented by seed packets and letterpressed on seating cards. Fresh tomato miniature sandwiches and an heirloom-tomato salad were enjoyed by guests. See the entire beautiful wedding online at Martha Stewart Weddings and Susan’s cookbook is definitely one to have and to hold for your kitchen library.
Personalizing a lunch or dinner for friends can be very easy and not so overwhelming. Here using the colors in our tomato color palette this week, all I did was take a toothpick, a piece of paper cut into a flag shape with my friends’ names and poked it into a cherry tomato as a place card holder. This could be an easy lunch or dinner for friends and family. I used fresh vegetables along a cutting board as the centerpiece and served corn soup with cherry tomatoes and crackers as the starter. I took dry corn grits and filled … Read more
I love this photo that my friend, photographer Sang An, took for Body & Soul magazine. It’s an heirloom red and yellow tomato sandwich with herbs, tofu spread and sea salt. Tofu is not my personal favorite so I think I would personally change it to a mozzarella cheese. These first weeks of August are always the time my Dad’s tomatoes are fully ripe and we enjoy tomatoes and corn- any which way! I especially love fried green tomatoes. And just like in the movie “The Help” – Crisco is the secret to frying green tomatoes…coat them in flour, put … Read more
Trove, founded in 2006, has risen quickly with many awards under their belt already as well as two patterns being included in the permanent collection at Cooper Hewitt National Design Museum. Trove pushes the limits of scale and repeat with most patterns 12 feet high and 3-6 feet across. They mix traditionally recognized design elements with non-traditional application and eco-friendly materials. One of their newest patterns is called “August” (featured above). As part of Trove’s science inspired Spring 2012 Collection, the August pattern portrays past queens from Denmark, Japan, Romania, Italy, Greece, Prussia and India. Though the queens have their … Read more
Thinking ahead to some romantic cool fall nights by the fire- treat yourself to some much deserved luxury! Herringbone Cashemer Throw, $470, by Hugo Boss, available at Bloomingdale’s, Velvet Robe, by Kumi Kookoon, La Ligne De Chanel Professional Eyeliner Duo, Noir-Lame (for that sexy, smokey eye), $45, from Chanel, Mens’ Beveled Polished Black Carbide Ring, $169, from Tungsten (makes a great gift for him!).
My latest purchase of a hardcover design book was “Black and White (and a Bit in Between): Timeless Interiors, Dramatic Accents, and Stylish Collections” by Celerie Kemble. I highly recommend it for your reference library. It’s full of beautiful inspirational photos and useful design information and resources. There are countless ways to combine black and white in your home interior and Ms. Kemble surely deliveries with this book which focuses on the classic color palette.
This black licorice cake is one of my favorite cakes. I thought it was so creative to use the string licorice to make bows. Wendy Kromer, a Contributing Editor for Martha Stewart Weddings, made this cake. Wendy has made hundreds of cakes for Martha Stewart Weddings magazine, many of which you can see collected in her book she co-authored with Martha called “Martha Stewart’s Wedding Cakes”. I had the pleasure to work with Wendy while I was an editor at Martha Stewart Weddings. She is so genuinely kind, so talented and loves what she does. She also opened … Read more
