No staff here, nary even a committee. We believe, yet getting there can feel huge.
Yesterday, wore some new red shoes to the office.
Today, picked up a pair of white poinsettia to bookend the fireplace and a pair of ivy topiary for the countertop of home central. White and green, we can do that all season long.
Three small steps, and so it begins.
No gift guides here, simply some amateur photography, peace and good will.
Happy Friday everyone. xoxo
Monday night, 6:15 pm, and wickedly procrastinating about putting together some dinner. Long weekend was a food and drink fest, always serving in the double digits. Second daughter turned twenty-four Sunday, and as usual we celebrated with a dinner at home.
Food is looking robust, night before we were doing cocktails and champagne, thank you Gabby and Danny.
Love the balloons.
Stuffed some chicken breasts with local herbed chèvre and basil leaves, stove top roasted tomatoes, peas, and quinoa.
Cake was homemade, four sticks of butter with the cream cheese frosting, butter is love. Found we were out of candles and couldn’t bear another grocery visit so simply stuck a red rose on top and surrounded the platter with tea lights.
We did pick up some new dishes, grey, and grey linen napkins. Dishes are french, and like the ones we’ve loved and used for years, simply a new color.
It’s always double Monday after a long holiday.
Happy Birthday Booie. xoxo
(couldn’t get the post up yesterday, way too exhausted).
Okay, Tuesday night, 7:24 pm, and waiting for the teens to get home to have pan sauteed scallops and sugar snap peas and they are now looking pretty sorry.
When you’re the one that makes the house hum you’ve just gotta go with it- coconut cake still sitting around yet those scallops can’t wait.
Every day dress and coconut cake with tea lights. xoxo
We like some makeup, not a lot of makeup. In fact, it’s kind of our ethos here: put on some makeup.
As we’re living with two teens and a make-up loving young adult, our kit is usually MIA, really can never even find mascara. Went out and picked up these things here, all Bobbi Brown. We like her mojo, ‘The secret to beauty is simple: be who you are.” And, she wears lots of denim. Natural looking makeup and a lipstick that looks like lips, count us in. Bobbi, thank you.
It’s eve of Thanksgiving eve and if you’re wondering this is what our kitchen really looks like. xoxo
Most recent comment on the blog gave me great pause: ‘while I enjoy the fashion posts, I love the food, celebrations, family and just your style and attitude posts the most. They are the ones that inspire me to light the candles, stop at the farmer’s market and enjoy it all! Thank you!’
two tenderloins, prepped for oven roasting
serving up 4 scratch blueberry pies with whipped cream, all out at the country house
My reply was that fashion is a true professional and personal passion, feeding those I love supersedes all. It’s like this thing that I have to do to make the day whole, and right.
Last night I was on deck to lend support to colleague, partner and friend at a gig she was in charge of, a fundraising fashion show with 375+ women in attendance. To get there without guilt needed to have dinner ready to go for the crew at home, even while I wasn’t there. It was sautéed chicken breasts, with fresh herbs, and roasted brussels sprouts and sweet potatoes. Nothing crazy; simple, honest food. No photos, it was a weeknight work night. We know men and women all over are cooking for those they love, we LOVE that. We LOVE coming together at day break or days end to break bread. We’re really all about feeding others.
gotta love hosting in an apron, this time is ski town for fall festival, when it’s all ready to serve, off it goes
arranging the porterhouse and the rib eye, always by hand
we like to serve on huge platters
steak and greens, always a hit
ketchup and A1 on the table, yikes, fresh flowers on wrapped gifts, yay
So, our true roots here of this little blog are every day dress and that encompasses the clothes we wear, the way we move, the food we eat. It’s even as simple as making the bed, even though no one else is looking. It’s like a lifestyle kind of thing, taking what needs to happen each day and putting forth some effort and making it a little special.
bacon, eggs, pancakes and bagels, next morning | we had a houseful, 14 of us in all
Sharing here some iPhone photos of recent food happenings, the digital camera just really doesn’t happen when we’re in the thick of it.
we’re kind of liking pumpkins that aren’t orange this year
casual weeknight table setting, real linen, not necessarily matched
fast food = salad, ciabatta rolls, burgers, lettuce, tomato, and lobster ravioli
oops, we’ve got two knives here 🙂
we hang at home in our mens’ shirts, sleeves rolled, and make single colored simple flower groupings
If you’ve been reading and have arrived here, thanks for being part of our community. xoxo
Dear friends,
We’re in a bit of transition: went abroad, blog crashed. Ditched the trainer (he was great yet it’s not the look I’m going for), and the housekeeping (how hard is it to vacuum?), wicked head cold set in and worked a full tilt fall winter 16 trunk. And the election?….
The major thing going on (haha) is that we’re in edit mode: every decade or so it’s good to do a wardrobe cleanse. We’ve driven car loads to the Goodwill, we’re just really into a pared down wardrobe. We want our clothes to look great, feel great, be great, and if they don’t measure up out they go. White shirts and blue denim, lifetime keepers.
We’ve dressed women professionally 16 years, dressing daughters for 26 years, time for a little time out and wardrobe reassess. We’ve got three living it home, aged 23, 17, and 16, and they’ve even been involved in the great closet clean out.
We’re studying trends and taking note of what works exceptionally well, stay tuned.
picked up some Gucci ghost, might be for the men yet we like it
Blog posts have been few, the work has been real. We’ll get back to being social real soon.
xoxo
Husband decided less than a week ago it was time to go again, this time to Tuscany. So go I do.
To get done what needed to be done before taking off wore the favorite denim on denim with some new block heel black suede boots.
Thinking we’re pretty much giving up on any footwear that can’t take to the road without speed and grace.
Every day dress, always, on the road. xoxo
ps. packed it all in a carry-on: three jeans: two denim, one stretch leather, 3 dresses, 2 sweaters, 3 tanks, 2 shirts,1 jacket, 1 scarf.
Sometimes you’ve just gotta add something new to the nightly | weekly rotation.
As a home cook we put out plenty of chicken dinners, usually with a green vegetable and a potato or grain. Tonight we’re throwing in a tomato, cucumber and red onion salad, while that said chicken is roasting along with some butternut squash. All plentiful at the market, and not earth moving at all, simply fresh, quick and easy.
As a stylist we put out and wear plenty of little black dresses. Last night put on the new one and cycled in last year’s shoes, and a bag from three year’s ago.
We probably can’t, and shouldn’t, have new things all the time. Keeping it fresh means embracing what works, and rotating in a few new things that engage and delight.
All photos iPhone, we’re slightly unorganized, it’s Tuesday, and the camera battery(s) aren’t charged.
Thinking about the blog here a little. We don’t really want to push new things to buy all the time, there’s plenty of those out there, we really want to inspire daily lifestyle choices, incorporating of course good clothes, good food and wine, a nice house and garden, and spending time with those we love.
Celebrated 29 years of marriage last night; in that new, little black dress. xoxo
Last week Sunday we were all about making a mess: casual dinner for 6 morphed into impromptu party for 40, plus assorted dogs.
Cooked off 4 scratch blueberry pies, chocolate cookies, and banana bread, always start with dessert. 4 beef Tenderloin, 4 whole chickens quartered by knife and hand in the sink, gotta love the prep work and really should have gone for 6 birds, 3 dozen corn, green beans, yellow beans, miles of greens, roasted new red and white potatoes, and lobster mac and cheese. Bake, cook, grill, cook. All out effort. Dance party pics didn’t make the blog.
Love feeding those we love.
If it’s a mess, so be it.
Dishes for days…
It’s Monday, a long way from last week Sunday, and we’ve been in suite 101 having a ball working fall winter 16 fashion. If that gig doesn’t work out perhaps we’ll take up cooking for zillions.
xoxo
Late summer and this time of year, dinner, so easy. Grab what’s fresh, slice and sauté, and grill up some protein. A little yogurt blue cheese dressing to balance it off. No recipes, no cookbooks, simply get it on.
Blog has been on the back burner, we’ve been focused on family, work, and getting two teenaged daughters back to school.
Family dinner keeps us cool. xoxo
On the road for twelve days, husband likes to go-go, and now home, where I most love to be.
In the kitchen, cooking market fresh, and second daughter now styling second son’s girlfriend, love that too. Simple flowers from the garden, and the Rombauer Vineyards Chardonnay from our winery visit in the cooling tub.
We’re also back full tilt in the home and studio offices, fall trunk show starting next week Wednesday. We simply love good food and beautiful clothes, so why not work at it?
Every day dress, home, for now.
Happy Friday, xoxo.