Flowers for Friday

Not one of Flora's brilliant race
  A form more perfect can display;
    Art could not feign more simple grace
      Nor Nature take a line away.

      - James Montgomery, On Planting a Tulip

Nothing adds more elegance to a room than a large clear vase of tulips. Whether you fancy the pinkest pink or a creamy ivory, tulips gracefully bend and arc on their green stems.  They delight us with their simplicity and amaze us with their beauty.

This Friday, indulge in a bunch of fresh tulips and you'll be cheerful all weekend long. 

Wild for Animal Prints

I have a design confession: I LOVE leopard prints.  If I didn't control myself, my apartment could very easily look like a set on The Sopranos.  

But, with restraint, a touch of leopard in any room adds a sassy and unexpected twist on your usual style choices. 

Under the Big Top

For the past few days, I've been delighting in the pages of Water for Elephants.  This novel, carefully researched by author Sara Gruen, follows the "roustabouts" and "kinkers" of Benzini Brothers' Most Spectacular Show on Earth in the midst of the American Great Depression.  Like hearing a fairy tale for the first time, it colored my imagination and pulled at my heart.  Its characters, both animal and human, live on in my mind long after I finish reading.

Taste Testing: Steel Cut Oats

"A simple enough pleasure, surely, to have breakfast alone with one's husband, but how seldom married people in the midst of life achieve it."
Anne Spencer Morrow Lindbergh

In the nutrition-focused month of January, consumption of healthy breakfasts surely increases.  My favorite hearty morning food is steel cut oatmeal.  While the slow cook version of these delicious nutty oats require nearly an hour of preparation time, Trader Joe's has come to the rescue yet again and offered us their frozen "Steel Cut Oatmeal."  

Words to Live by

Soup du jour

"Soup is cuisine's kindest course.  It breathes reassurance; it steams consolation; after a weary day it promotes sociability, as the five o'clock cup of tea or the cocktail hour."
Louis P. De Gouy, 'The Soup Book' (1949)

 
In a meteorological turn of events, this winter in California has been particularly blustery. With the cool weather, I've been satisfying my soul with a nice warm bowl of homemade soup for dinner.

January Rejuvenation

Hello, dears!  After a little holiday hiatus, I'm back in blogland.

As much as I delighted in the festivities of December, I am so happy to return to a routine, clear out the holiday clutter, and start another year.  While I've never been one to make New Year's resolutions, I do always aspire to dive into another year with a focus on health and well-being.

Silver Bells

Right now I am adrift in a sea of papers to grade and exams to score (thus the erratic postings).  So, as I wind down another semester, I am daydreaming of fancy, silvery, Christmasy things.  Just a few more days until I may rest and delight in the sparkle of the holidays.

The Color of the Year

In yesterday's Wall Street Journal, I was happy to discover that honeysuckle pink was named by Pantone as the color for 2011, replacing 2010's turquoise. 

This particular hue of pink is a soft, cotton-candy shade with undertones of orange.  It is a universally flattering color for fashion and a undeniably cheerful color for home design. 

Words to Live by

I wanted to share a few favorite words on this winter morning. 

Stopping By Woods on a Snowy Evening

By Robert Frost

 

Whose woods these are I think I know.
His house is in the village though;
He will not see me stopping here
To watch his woods fill up with snow.

Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree

"The best way to spread Christmas Cheer, 

is singing loud for all to hear." 

-Buddy the Elf

Everyone has their favorite holiday tunes. Maybe it's the classic crooner you listen to while decorating the tree or sitting by the fire, or maybe it's a catchy modern song that sticks in your head all December.

Sugar Plum Dreams

When I hear even just a few notes of Tchaikovsky's Nutcracker score, I cannot help but twirl.  Though my ballet skills have surely tarnished since my youth, the music reawakens my urge to arabesque and pas de bourrée across my kitchen floor.  Tom Cruise may play air guitar in his undie to Bob Seger, but I put on my imaginary tutu and stage a mini production of my favorite holiday ballet. 

Cheers: Festive Beverages

If you're throwing a holiday fête or just having a few friends over for drinks, you need not invent a new candy cane martini to offer a festive beverage to your guests.

Holiday Joy

"Joy is not in things; it is in us."
--Benjamin Franklin

The Little Village

Each November, as soon as the Thanksgiving dishes are cleared away, I excitedly bring out my small collection of Christmas treasures. Even though I have amassed special ornaments from my travels over the years, what I really relish at Christmas is setting up my little village.  

As I neatly place the houses and sprinkle the glittered "snow" all around, immediately I feel like a girl again, as if I'm rearranging my doll house or pretending to play in a winter wonderland. 

Joyeux Noël

One splendid Thanksgiving, my mom and I ditched the stateside turkey, and flew to Paris for a week.  While breaking with November traditions was unexpectedly delightful, what truly enchanted us was seeing Paris reveal her holiday finery.  

As we bundled up and tried to emulate the French woman's perfectly imperfect scarf tie, we explored the city which was then covered under a glistening sheet of ice.  At times treacherous to travel, the ice looked simply magical as it dangled on Christmas lights and danced on roof lines.  Fountains that I had seen gurgling in springtimes past now looked sculptural, suspended in time. 

Though Cole Porter taught us to love "Paris in the Springtime," there is nothing more dreamy that Paris in the midst of a deep winter chill.  

The tourists who remain in the city are huddled in cafés sipping chocolat chaud rather than clamoring to get to the top of La Tour.  The mêtro stations smell of roasting chestnuts instead of tightly packed commuters. One feels inherently more French wearing layers of coats and scarves than milling about in shorts.  

Thanksgiving Nibbling

Planning the Thanksgiving menu is a highly personal affair.  Everyone coming to the table has their special requests and nostalgic dishes.  

Must-haves at my own Thanksgiving are my dad's cranberry-orange relish, corn pudding courtesy of my mom's dear friend, butternut squash gratin with pesto, and mushy-gushy unctuous green bean casserole. If I am especially brave, I will attempt homemade yeast rolls and try to replicate that glorious scent that always emanated from grandma's kitchen on Thanksgiving.

While there's usually no altering the long-standing Thanksgiving favorites, one culinary aspect of Turkey Day can inspire some creativity: appetizers.  

Thanksgiving Tables

As we inch ever closer toward Turkey Day, you are no doubt planning your menu and making the final grocery list.  While you clean your cranberries and polish your pumpkins, don't forget about your table.

Here are a few inspirational tables to get you in the mood for Thursday's feast.  From the simply modern to the classically autumnal, these tables would enchant any turkey-tipsy guest.

I'm Dreaming of a....

pink Christmas, with every Christmas card I write.....

I haven't even had my first bite of Thanksgiving turkey yet, and I can't stop thinking about pulling out my favorite pink Christmas decor.

Here's some pink festiveness to get you in the mood for the official start of the Christmas season next week. 

Pink Frenchie's Favorite Things

Every Christmas season, Oprah produces a magazine and an entire show dedicated to her favorite things---the goodies, some grand, some ordinary, that she will be giving during the holidays.

Oprah I am not, but I have gathered a few of my own favorite things to share with you. (spoiler alert: if you are Pink Frenchie's mother or mother-in-law you may want to skip this post...it is kind of like peaking into Santa's bag)

MarieBelle Aztec Hot Chocolate
Decadent chocolate with a touch of chili spice, this hot cocoa mix is made of bits of actual chocolate.  Hardly your average Swiss Mix powder, this blend produces a deeply rich and flavorful beverage befitting a cold winter day by the fire.

Words to Live by

Morning Rituals: An Ode to Coffee

He was my cream, and I was his coffee -
And when you poured us together, 
it was something.
~Josephine Baker


I tend to have many rituals in my daily life.  Call it obsessive compulsive, or perhaps I'm just a creature of habit, but I cling to little routines as if they're liturgy. 

My favorite morning ritual requires coffee. I savor that moment, just after waking, when I add dark, aromatic French roast beans to the Cuisinart machine and listen to the burr grinder preparing my coffee. 

I sit in my p.j.s and catch up on all of the e-mails that have come in overnight as I sip the freshly-brewed elixir.  My students tend to be most active online between midnight and 4am, like studious little hamsters.  I respond to their many nocturnal requests when I first awake.  Having a creamy cup of joe by my side makes the daily grind of work enjoyable.

Though I didn't begin to enjoy coffee until my mid-twenties, now, it is one of the greatest pleasures of my day.  Opening my glass jar of beans and catching that first whiff of roasted goodness helps me transition from slumber with joy and anticipation. For the only thing better than the taste of coffee is its distinctively enticing scent.   

To complete the coffee ritual, I have a hierarchy of mugs.  For weeks at a time, I use only one mug: maybe the heavy diner-style mug from Yosemite or my gigantic mug from my alma mater.  These days I prefer a mug with capricious Eiffel towers all along the sides.  A good mug makes the coffee taste that much better.

Bottoms up, coffee-lovers!  May you have a highly caffeinated morning. 

Mapping it out

 

I have a map fetish.  For this reason (and my superb navigational skills---thanks for that gene, Dad), I will never ever ever own a G.P.S.  I am categorically opposed to those little Garmin goodies which tell you to turn here and exit there.  

I love getting my hands on a map, awkwardly unfolding its pages and figuring out where to go.  Plotting a route, veering off course, and seeing the grand design of a city is supremely pleasurable for me.

Autumn Weekend Getaway

There is a harmony 
In autumn, and a lustre in its sky, 
Which through the summer is not heard or seen, 
As if it could not be, as if it had not been! 
- Percy Bysshe Shelley


Having serious fall-withdrawal, I was happy to head to Tennessee for a long weekend with friends at our alma mater.

While Southern California offers faint whispers of autumn, in the hills of the South, fall sings like a soprano: crisply, profoundly, robustly.  Nearly every tree changes its colors.  Leaves crunch beneath foot with each and every step.  Cool mornings and sunny days prominently mark the transition to bleak winter.

A Royal Engagement

When I was a little girl, I knew one thing was certain about my future: I was to marry Prince William.  I was convinced it would work out just splendidly: our mothers were pregnant with us at the same time, we both have equine bone structure and flaxen hair, we both studied art history.  Clearly, so much in common.

Now, that Will has announced his engagement to the lovely Kate Middleton, I have visions of royal weddings on my brain.  Since I never witnessed the grandest weddings of the twentieth century, Charles and Diana for one, I am excited to see all of the pomp and circumstance surrounding these nuptials.