Inspiration Board - Roses

My husband very rarely brings flowers home. So when he did bring home roses the other day, I was very happily surprised. I love roses, but never buy them myself because of their usually very short lifespan. These roses, however, have lived in a vase for about 10 days now.. They are the longest lasting cut roses I've ever had. I guess the air in the new house is perfect for them. Anyhow, I have been admiring them day in and day out. I just love the vivid hot pink color and the innocent white.

Roma

I looooove my new Bottega Veneta bag! I can't wait to get all dolled up with it - but meanwhile, here are some pics with my pregnancy houseclothes; not very inspiring, but isn't it funny how a bag can elevate anything?

Retail Sales Jump

A headline from this week's news was "US Retail Sales Jump Eases Double Dip Concerns". Oh boy... I feel like I have singlehandedly turned the economy around with my recent wild shopping spree. It all started at the Banana Republic, then came Bottega Veneta, Gucci (shoes on sale) and finally yesterday a quick run into Daffy's which turned into a treasure bonanza.. The consolation for my budget and closet space is that I am so ready to pop this baby out that it is bound to happen any day now. And I know from previous experience that I will not be gallivanting around stores with a new born baby in tow..instead I will be hibernating home, not exposing the baby to the nasty germs of the world, staring at the beautiful little human creature, checking its every move and making sure that it's breathing, wondering the amazement that the thing came out of me, loving, loving and loving it, and then later on feeling like a cow that's only needed for milk...

A Quick Fall Shopping Update

A Quick update: My new baby (no, not THAT baby, but the Bottega baby) came home on Saturday.. I picked Roma - and will do a post when I have a chance! I also did some serious damage in the shoe department - not the motorcycle boots but something totally unplanned. I guess an old dog just cannot learn new habits. NOW I really have to cool it with shopping for a while. You'll understand why when you see my loot... Pictures to come when time allows.

So many designers, so little time

Saying this may age me, but I remember a time when there really wasn't that many designers to follow. There were the big houses that everyone knew, and a couple of rogue designers that had their own totally different esthetic. But within the past decade a lot has changed. Really even only within the past few years. This change has taken place specifically in New York, where the fashion scene has been much changed and invigorated by a great number of new designers that represent fresh talent. Alexander Wang, Philip Lim, Prabal Gurung, have become superstars, and there are more new designers coming to the scene all the time, including Jason Wu, Vena Cava, Ohne Titel, Sophie Theallet, Richard Chai, Project Runway winner Christian Siriano, etc.. With the New York fashion week going on right now, it is hard to keep track of all the designers that I want to check out and follow. Here are a couple of favorite picks.

Richard Chai - Lovely and very wearable - and of course Finland's "own" Suvi Koponen looks absolutely amazing!

Christian Siriano - talk about wearability - I could put this on any day!

Richard Chai - what a beautiful silhouette this outfit has!

Of course I still love my Marc Jacobs and Michael Kors, but these fresh designers bring a lot of interest and youthfulness to the fashion week.

New York Fashion Week

I love following the New York Fashion Week. For years I used to work right next to Bryant Park where the shows were held in giant tents, and I would stroll around during my lunch hour enjoying the atmosphere and a glimpse of a model or a guest arriving here and there. This is the first time the fashion week is being held at the Lincoln Center, which in my opinion is just as fitting a place for fashion as Bryant Park, and anyway, I no longer work near to the park, so I have to enjoy the week just by following the shows in the news and online. The week kicked off yesterday with the Vena Cava show, here are a couple of my faves. Love the blue and gray combination, and what an easy summer hairstyle!

More Fall Wants - Bottega Veneta

I have been drooling after a brown leather woven Bottega bag for a while now. The desire has come to a point that I'm on a first name basis with Georgia from the Bottega boutique, and chat with her a couple of times a month on the phone.. Poor Georgia, she did not make a commission out of me yet because so far I have been able to resist the urge - after all, I have been under strict no-shopping rule for a while. But now I am really giving in. To justify, I did not get a birthday present, and my husband usually also gets me a little something for the birth of the new baby, so if you roll those two things into one, it probably spells Bottega! And technically, if it is a gift from the hubby, I am not even breaking my no-shopping rule. But it is so hard to choose which one I want! Sometimes, after wanting something a long time it just gets impossible to decide... Here are the contenders:

Large Veneta

Pyramid

 

Parachute

 

Roma

 

Montaigne

Inspiration Board

I've never been good with actual inspiration boards, I tried to have one once or twice, but it wasn't really working for me, I clipped out two things and then forgot all about it. This time, I will try use this blog as my inspiration board, and add items as I come across them. The rules are simple: I can add anything that inspires me! The first thing on the board is a painting by Pierre Bonnard. I have been thinking about him lately as I gaze out of the windows of my new house to my lovely green garden. I love Bonnard's window paintings, the way the window frames the scene and the vivid colors he uses. However, for my inspiration board I choose another painting by Bonnard that I just love because of the tranquility of the moment and again the beautiful vivid but at the same time very calm and soothing colors.

Motorcycle Boots

I have been looking for the perfect motorcycle boots (they are on my have to have list for the fall) and these by Gucci come close. However, I really don't want to pay almost a grand for these boots so the search continues.

What I want, What I need, What I have to have for fall...

Aaahhh, fall fashion! It's love, love and love! Even those fall seasons that feature trends that a fashion lover doesn't really care for, it's still love, after all, love conquers everything. You can always find something, a sweater, a coat, a boot... But this fall, there is just everything to love. I adore the current ladylike and minimalist fashion - and having that for the fall season is just the cherry on top. However, fall is the most dangerous time budget wise...a fashion lover can easily get carried away with excessive shopping...especially after being pregnant for 9 months and having had like two things to wear. So such a person should prepare herself for the temptation, have a very good plan, and stick to it, if they don't want to blow their budget to smithereens and cause strife in their relationship, and suffer from shopping hangover until next June.

I really have not been shopping for myself for a (very) long time. But my new foodmarket is in a stripmall (a very nice one!!) that has a Banana Republic, Scoop and a couple of other nice stores and pricey boutiques. I had controlled myself for weeks, but finally gave in and went to Banana..and came out with a bag full of stuff. The only explanation is that they had an amazing sale and I was starving. But that experience really reminded me what a recovering shopaholic I am and how important it is to have a plan, and be disciplined. Another dangerous aspect about my new living situation is that I am quite near the Americana mall at Manhasset - a luxury shopping paradise if there ever was one. Over there I really need to keep my wits with me..

So I decided to very carefully create a list of items that I am allowed to buy this fall. There will be wants, needs and have to haves. And all categories will be edited down to the bare necessities that I just cannot live without. I have never tried this approach before, as I have always been the kind of shopper that just browses without a plan or mission, just for the fun of shopping and the thrill of the hunt. But if I am to allow myself to start shopping again, I need a new normal and this is worth a try.

In the wants category I could list pretty much any item from the Tommy Hilfiger "Meet the Hilfigers" ad campaign, however, two items stand out as "uber" wants: the tall duckboots and the asymmetrical schoolgirl wool skirt.

I have to admit that I have never been a big TH fan, but his 2010 fall collection just hits the right note. It is such luxurious preppyness that I am totally taken.

However, in reality, the 5 inch high heels of the TH duckboots may be a bit much for a fall when I am just mainly going to be seen pushing a new born baby in the Bugaboo. So maybe this want will not make it into the have to have list.. The skirt on the other hand, is under serious consideration. It is a bit short, but the twist on this schoolgirl skirt really appeals to me, and I believe that this look would have staying power for years to come and be easy to combine with classic turtleneck sweaters, opaque tights and lovely fall boots.

Pregnancy Issues - part 2

Given that I am now closer to 40, I am adding one worrisome item to the post partum recovery list. That is the recovery of the skin and muscles of my belly and hips. During this pregnancy I've noticed that my skin is not as elastic as used to be, and I am getting stretchmarks for the first time (oh, the sacrifices we make for our babies..). The stretchmarks scare me and make me afraid that I will have that cangaroo pooch that many women can never get rid of.

I am not a huge exercise fan, and I am definitely NOT one of those women who continue with an exercise program until their due date (to be honest, the minute I learned that I was pregnant I picked up the phone and put the gym membership on hold with a big smile on my face). And of course I've never had a washboard stomach to begin with.

So I was quite excited when I heard about a couple of new products that help pull the stomach in after giving birth. Supposedly these products support your muscles and skin in the post partum recovery and are a "must have" for anyone. I figured, it won't hurt to try.

Wink - they actually manage to make this post partum shape wear look sexy!

The best product on the market seems to be the Wink shape wear. However, they are only available online and since I am very leery about ordering stuff online that is supposed to fit just right, I looked for other options.

Belly Bandit - They make a Couture version!

I went to my local Pea in the Pod store and the lady there recommended the Belly Bandit stomach compression belt. It is supposed to reduce uterine swelling and water retention. Yes, I said, I definitely need all that help, and was sold after seeing the cute packaging. The price was a bit steep I thought for a product that actually is very simple, but the word "couture" suckered me in, and I handed over the $50.

Especially for Mom from Babies'r'Us. Decidedly unsexy!

Today, however, we went to Babies'r'Us to get some baby supplies, and I found this Especially for Mom postpartum support. At $24.99 I figured this would probably do the same job that the couture Belly Bandit does. This support belt is decidedly unsexy and there is no cute packaging..but the price is halved too. So this is what I'll be wearing for the first few weeks after giving birth. I will let you know whether it works. I am keeping my fingers crossed that it will!

Pregnancy Issues - part 1

As my due date approaches, I am thinking more and more about my body's recovery after giving birth. With my first child almost eight years ago, I bounced back quickly and did nothing special to get into shape after the pregnancy. With my second child, five years later, I went through a mild baby blues period, and then had to diet drastically to lose the baby weight.

This time around, I am expecting the baby blues again (those pesky hormones get more and more difficult as you get older!) and difficulty in the weight loss department (the metabolism is definitely not what it used to be). I now know, however, how to deal with these things. I can improve my mood by getting out of the house every day and getting some exercise in the fresh air, using St. John's wort herbal products, and just giving myself time and space. And I do know how to eat to lose weight.. I use a modified South Beach diet, and cut out all sugar including fruit for a little while,  swear off refined carbs, juices, sodas, coffee, and make sure I get lots of lean protein, fiber, eat small portions often, drink tons of lemon water, many cups of green tea a day, and get enough sleep. The sleep part is the hardest with a new baby - none of my babies so far have been good sleepers, but let's hope this one will be the exception.

So what's up Earl?

I have been playing with my brand new Acer aspire one netbook tonight and waiting for Hurricane Earl to arrive.. So far I am happy with the netbook, it is a really cute little machine in my daughter's favorite color purple - and will be so handy for checking emails and FB on the fly, and for many other things such as googling something for the schoolkid in the family room and checking recipes in the kitchen. My beloved mac is in our upstairs office, and it is not always convenient to run up and down the stairs when you want to check something online. Our lives these days are so connected to internet that this netbook makes life a bit easier.

And as far as Earl is concerned, I guess it was all just hype.. Long Island was supposed to be hit hard - but as of now there is hardly a rain drop or a gust of wind to be seen. Let's hope that Earl will bypass us and won't cause any trouble!

Livingroom - Before and After

The living room has also gone through quite a transformation. When we bought the house, the walls were wood paneling and the living room looked like a huge sauna. We took out the wood paneling, installed new walls and windows, added a couple of pieces of new furniture and the bamboo floor - and here we go.. Extreme makeover results! See for yourselves:

Last walkaround before closing. The living room looked very long and narrow - and reminded me of a sauna.. What are we getting ourselves into?

But we did see the potential!

Wood paneling removed..

The ceiling was replastered.

New walls were installed.

 

 

 

 

 

 

New Windows and a new Bamboo Floor!

Lots of empty spacel

The living room now looks huge and no longer resembles a sauna!

Update on the Nasty Surprise

We did it! Saved the rug that was infested by moths, that is. The moths are gone and the rug is in place, and it looks good. At least for the time being. Since the moths had eaten the fringe off of the ends, the rug tends to unravel like a broken sweater from where the fringes used to be. We'll keep the rug until it totally unravels, though..

Here is the rug on our deck while "demothing" is taking place. 

And here is the rug in our family room

Kitchen - Before and After

There are still some final touches needed in the kitchen, such as backsplash, installation of the range hood, touch up paint work, etc. However, the transformation is such that I can happily show before and after pictures at this point..

Before..

In the middle of the renovation, after the gut job...

And here is the transformation!

The Housewarming Party!!

We have been playing beat the clock with the baby and have been working like crazy to get the house ready (hence, there has not been much blogging going on). One important deadline was a housewarming party to a few of our friends on Saturday 8/28.

My au pair made this fabulous cake with white chocolate and raspberry filling. It was yummmyyyyy! 

And here is my party outfit - less than a month to go before my due date so outfit was pretty much whatever comfortable I could find that would cover my ever expanding self :-)

Yet another lesson learned...

And that is, if you snooze you lose..

I finally made it to CB2 today to pick up the rug I've been planning to use in the entrance, the super cool "Keep Calm and Carry On" rug. What a humongous disappointment to find out the rug has been discontinued, and there is none to be found in any CB2 location, anywhere, from Illinois to Florida (I know because my darling husband called each store to find out whether they would have had a random rug left - and the best advice he got was to try eBay, which also did not yield anything).

Not sure what to do with the entrance now. CB2 has a Hopscotch rug that I may consider as plan B. It would be fitting for a house full of girls. But I have not made up my mind about that yet.

Time Crunch + Renovation Status

I don't know if it is because I am highly pregnant but I just feel so inefficient and like I am not getting enough done in a day..every day is a time crunch! There are still boxes and piles of stuff everywhere. I am really getting the message in the saying "less is more". It really is! And I will truly try to remember that from now on and live by it.

I met my new neighbor the other day, who happens to have two kids same age as mine, and she told me that she still has unopened boxes in the basement and she's been here two years. She moved from City as well and is very nice!

Renovation-wise there are a few nagging things that just seem to take forever to get fixed, like the cooktop (which hasn't arrived yet!) and the vanity top in the children's bathroom. The vanity top was supposed to come in today, but now they told us it's coming on Friday. We shall see.. It would make life a lot easier if we had the top, sinks and faucets in the bathroom! Another nagging item is the washer and dryer which have not been installed yet. Laundry is piling up like crazy. Now I am happy that the kids have a ton of clothes so they at least can wear clean stuff.. But regardless, we need to have those machines hooked up sooner rather than later. The basement is still a complete disaster, we have not even been able to really decide what to do there. A full basement renovation will probably need to wait until next year. Right now we'll just make do by changing the carpet and painting the walls.

A Nasty Surprise!

I have never had problems with moths, in fact, I don't think I've ever even seen one, until today... We brought in an antique woolen rug from storage where it was stored for a couple of years, waiting to find a right place. We now finally have use for the rug, which is actually very beautiful, light colored, traditional rug. It was to go in our dining area. Anyhow, when we opened the rug it was infested with moths, and they had fully eaten the fringes off of both ends of the rug. Yuck!

We quickly removed the rug from the house to the deck where we broomed, vacuumed and sprayed with a pesticide. And then my other half jumped in a car to drive to the nearest Home Depot to buy some moth killer stuff.. Hopefully we can save this beautiful carpet. 

Entrance Evolves + more renovation status

The plans for the entrance have totally changed along the way. I had planned to make it really glamorous and put in black marble tile for the floor, full wall of mirror, a sleek and slim black high gloss desk, with a black chandelier hanging above for added oomph but that plan has been totally scrapped (maybe in the next home when kids have all grown up..). The floor is now bamboo, same as elsewhere in the house, for a nice continuous flow from the entrance to living room, kitchen and corridor. The entrance area is still evolving, but we recently reserved the Linea dresser from Crate and Barrell as our entrance storage piece. The piece does not look too much like a dresser, and is a perfect fit for our entrance. I guess it is a very popular piece as the estimated delivery date is on 9/18! However, it's made of solid teak and will probably last forever. Now we have to figure out whether to do a mirror on top of it, or a piece of art..probably art, something colorful and modern. I am still planning to use the "Stay Calm and Carry On"  rug from CB2, to give a bit of humor and flair as you enter the house. We also need to find the right light fixture to tie it all together..

And, talking about light fixtures, we found yet another funnel pendant lamp for our kitchen, and I was finally able to arrange for a delivery from the Greenwich store, yay. I was not looking forward to a day trip to Greenwich in the middle of everything now, although it is a lovely place and holds a lot of memories for me..

We now have a working dishwasher, fridge and the chandelier hung in the dining room. All the electric outlets work and the central air conditioning ducts have been cleaned so that we can breathe clean air :-)

Here is a picture of the piece that will go to the entrance:

Renovation Status & Lamp Trouble

The electricians came again yesterday, and did their magic - we now have working outlets in the kitchen, and the beautiful Samsung fridge is cold and good. I just love the look of the french doors and it is wonderful not having to bend down for the veggie box. And now we can get rid of our temporary white monster - it is going to be banished to the basement where it can serve as the back-up fridge.

The electricians are coming back today to hook up our double wall oven and the dish washer, yay. They are also finished with their work up in the attic running wires, putting up new boxes or circuits or whathever they needed to do, which means that we can finally really clean up the attic and use the space for storage purposes.

No word of the cooktop yet, though, I think I had mentioned that the Bosch Induction cooktop arrived with the ceramic top all smashed up, and we have been waiting for the replacement for a few weeks now... We have been eating a lot of take-out! Anyway, last weekend my husband bought a giant barbeque grill, the Weber S-670, which the company calls their "top-of-the-line grilling masterpiece" :-) And we already tested this masterpiece when we had our first BBQ on Sunday night, with first guests coming to check out our new place. There will be losts of firsts :-) I don't know about masterpiece, but the corn on the cob came out perfect, as did the hot dogs and chicken wings..

There was bad news last night too - and it was the gorgeous funnel pendant that was supposed to hang on top of the kitchen island. The electrician installed it but it did not work. The wire was live, the bulb was ok, but there was something wrong with the lamp itself.. I was so disappointed because it really looked amazing hanging there.. Not sure what to do now, try to get another one or just return this (and the one we did not even pick up from Greenwich yet) and look for another suitable pendant light. Well, the price was too good to be true anyway.

The Funnel Pendant

We recently purchased two pendant lamps to hang on top of our kitchen island. The Funnel pendant is made of aluminium and goes well with our kitchen with its stainless steel appliances and aluminum trim of the glass cabinet doors. We got so lucky with these as they were on sale, more than 50% off. Apparently the store won't carry them anymore so they heavily discounted last stock. The only thing is that our local store only had one, and we needed two. Luckily the Greenwich store had another one, so now we have to take a trip to Greenwich to pick that one up - the store does not arrange for delivery on these floor sale items!! Despite the lack of the delivery service, it's still my favorite store, Design Within Reach. I just love that store and its amazing collection of new and old design classics.

Book of the Month

As an avid reader, I totally dig Kate Spade's new clutches! They are so cute and adorable I may have to get one..although it is doubtful that I will have a chance to wear it in the few upcoming months, given my impending maternity leave and ever expanding state in which I have seem to give up all hope of ever looking stylish or cute again. I am pinning all my style hopes, dreams and wishes to January 2011 when life will return to a more normal state bodywise (hopefully).

Moving = So NOT Fun

I had totally forgotten how horrible moving is. Or maybe I did not even know how bad it could be, since the last time I moved in 1998 I hardly had any furniture or much of anything other than some personal items, clothes, etc. There were no movers required, just a borrowed van and a husband to carry my stuff in.. Fast forward to 2010 ---> ---> ---> it took 6 guys, 2 16-foot long trucks and 12 hours to move our stuff. And we took a lot to the house little by little on our own...

We had so much bad luck with the move; it is going to be material for stories for years to come. But let's not dwell on the negative - all our belongings have been moved to Long Island, and we are now living amidst a chaos of boxes, and all kinds of stuff piles here and there.

The most important thing is that I love, love, love the new house. Why did I resist the move so many years?