Out of Office

early morning sun

Summer 2019 in our Northern Hemisphere ends astronomically on Monday September 23rd and I’m holding on tight. 

Fifth child is off to the UK for her junior year semester abroad and we dropped sixth child at Providence College in RI for her sophomore year. Husband looks forward to and expects regular phone calls and texts from the sophomore, and she is not obliging. Older siblings report she’s on a bit of the party circuit, probably doing exactly as the same as the majority of the college population first week or so of back to school. When pressed she simply typed back on her iPhone to dear dad: THRIVING. Good for her. 

Four older kids are easing into adulting, all doing it in their own unique way, the world is good. 

This is the first-time husband and I have experienced what some call an ‘empty nest’, and I must say I enjoy the benefits. 

Last fall our second daughter had debilitating health issues and she remained at home with us while we assembled an exquisite care team to help see her through. She has come out of the abyss and is rebuilding her life. When your child suffers, she doesn’t suffer alone, we all felt the pain. 

So now, with a little newfound autonomy, we’re kind of landing where we want to land- and I’ve been a little more than ‘out of office’.

Black Point Inn
sandy quiet beach
rugged coastline
cliff walk

We’ve been in Boston MA and took a short road trip to Maine to revisit the coast we used to vacation on thirty-four years ago as singles. It was beautiful. Our stay at Black Point inn offered the best of both worlds, sandy beach and gentle bay on one side, and rugged gorgeous cliffs, rocks and surf on the other. Our room was old school, (like the food), and we spent hours simply looking out the windows and enjoying the view. 

lobster Benedict, food was okay

I chose lobster on the regular, lobster benedict for breakfast, lobster roll for lunch, and lobster ravioli for dinner. The wine pours were generous, it all made me happy. 

Ten hours of driving and back on the home front and of course I had to clean out the fridge, details, and then prepped for Labor Day weekend company. 

all this gorgeous color
can they get any better?
peppers and onions
starting to simmer
stirring in the minced thyme

I find solace in the kitchen and have learned to love an organized mise en place. Husband still can’t get his arms around my preoccupation with good food and what’s next for dinner- not sure if that thing about me will ever stray. 

On the style front I have things from summer I haven’t even worn yet, shame, and have started to slowly move towards fall, incorporating more fall ‘looks and feels’ into the rotation. 

We have a trip to London, Amsterdam, and the Scottish highlands on the very near horizon, and for this I bought a natty plaid pant suit, two cashmere sweaters, a pair of Italian stretch suede pants, two merino wool sweaters, a wide brown leather belt , and a gorgeous pair of black boots. They are all lined up and waiting to be put on the ‘packing rolling rack’, a system I designed that works exceptionally well when culling the closet for travel. 

smashed red potato salad with red onion and dill
ratatouille

Today we’re at the country house, and yesterday I made delicious dill potato salad and classic French ratatouille. Yesterday I made scratch blueberry pancakes and the day before that a blueberry pie, triple batch of Bolognese, scratch Caesar dressing, garlic croutons and chocolate chip cookies. You could say I like to feed those around me. 

Essie polish | Geranium

We will be vacillating between city and country, sleeping where we want to sleep. 

Professionally I’m debating whether to jam in a short quick fall trunk show this month of September, or simply go full out for the one on deck October 12thto the 22nd. I’ve also got a talk on the line for an upcoming wellness workshop, ‘Creating a Beautifully Balanced Lifestyle’ where I will be speaking about how to ‘Reignite Your Style and Confidence’, very good stuff. 

This post has been kind of a brain dump, if you’re reading this far, wow, and thank you. I love that with age now I know I can take time off and that I will do what needs to be done when the time calls for it. For now, we’re still soaking up the warmth…every day dress.

morning routine

two cups of coffee before anything else

In the online world there’s a ton of talk about morning routines. You can google ‘morning routine’ and a whole slew of articles, opinions, books, tips and tricks will flood your desktop. Here at the every day we keep it kind of simple:

Upon waking the very first thing is to brew some coffee. Feed the dogs while the coffee drips. Drink two cups with half & half, maybe check email, maybe check bank balance, maybe check Instagram, maybe check the blog and maybe check the business. If there are humans up and about, I’ll forgo all of the above and drink coffee with them which is so much better. Click this link here to read Why Social Media is Ruining Your Life.

My very favorite thing is to hit the gym first thing several times a week and, on most days, I’ll walk (or run) with the dogs. 10,000 steps plus a day here we come.

An absolute non-negotiable for me is to make the bed. I’ve been making the bed every single day for as long as I can remember. If I do some simple math that means I’ve made the bed approximately 30,000 times as I’ve made countless kids beds too. The best thing about making the bed is that even if your day goes to hell you can feel good about getting one thing exactly 100% right. 

I like to spend some time settling the house because I really can’t be my best when stuff is all over and dishes are undone. This could literally take me all day and absolutely all of my time as running a household (or two) is never ending. Sometimes I put a timer on and race the clock just to see how much I can get done in an hour or two. 

Next up is breakfast, and that’s usually some kind of eggs, with greens if I’m working it, and definitely some buttered toast of some sort. I’ve been playing with intermittent fasting and postponing breakfast for as long as reasonable.

Three of four daughters and I do morning pages: three free hand written pages of semi-conscious streaming. Once the words are on the page most everything else feels a bit better. Click here to see Julia Cameron’s The Artist’s Way.

After all that it’s time to get dressed, put some makeup on, brush the hair, and get out the door or work from home. It’s really a pretty routine thing, coffee, dogs, exercise, bed, house, food, clothes. When all that is done it’s the start of a really good day. 

Would love to hear about how you all get your day started, is coffee in the mix, making the bed, or intermittent fasting?

black white and blue in Chicago

beautiful blue sky, and we walked miles
black dress, white sneakers, white bag outside of Carlisle | Per Se showroom
The Burberry building caught our eye, great looking, and nice things inside

Predictably one of my favorite color palettes is black, white, and shades of blue, (hello Caroline). For touring around the beautiful city of Chicago wore a black silk maxi dress, white sneakers, and carried a white bag, it felt right for a summer city look. That long dress endured 17k steps, up and down and all around the miracle mile, river walk, and even held up for the late afternoon flight home. I’m not afraid in the least of outfit repeat, wore that same dress the night before with a pair of sandals for dinner down in Lincoln Park at North Pond.

the view outside our room
morning room service
we had a suite, home away from home
I spy three handsome men :), and he is all of them

We stayed at The Langham, and absolutely loved it. Great gym, spa, food, room, service and location, would return in a heartbeat.

If you’re in Buffalo you can shop the L’Agence dress locally at Tony Walker & Co., everyone on the floor is helpful, my particular favorite is Lexi.

Every day dress and black, white, and blue while in Chicago.

let’s speak French

boom, just as I got a little comfortable with my super simple French expressions, we were on our way out

Exactly as I was feeling somewhat confident third week in with my super simple French conversations, boom, we packed up and flew to Spain. Super thankful sixth child is French fluent, and four of our other kids can speak Spanish. Me, not so much, and definitely felt challenged and my brain had to work overtime. 

Three weeks in the south of France surrounded by all of our kids, pure heaven, husband and I would go back in a heartbeat. 

French dress, French handbag

While packing I threw in my one and only Chanel ready-to-wear piece, this dress I wore last summer for oldest daughter’s country-side wedding reception. Danced all night and put myself to bed, still wearing the dress. The next morning, I slipped it off, probably dropped it on the floor, and maybe the next day hung it on a hanger. There it hung, no steaming no cleaning until I just recently popped it in a large zip-lock bag and stuck it on the top layer of my case. Good clothes don’t need to be precious; I believe they are meant to be worn, loved, enjoyed. 

Thinking I’ve got a pretty decent handle on French clothes and food, really need to spend some time concentrating on the language. Oldest son did some Spotify podcasts while driving before traveling, and he was spot on. 

Ethel’s 80th

gathered at the barn for ‘stingers’, our featured cocktail
Ethel, peanut, me looking at old family photos
Queen City Strings
absolutely love these two, Ethan and husband
the gang’s all here

Birthdays in our world are most often celebrated with a scratch baked cake and dinner at home with family and maybe a few close friends. Mom turns eighty late August, and we gathered for a barn dinner last week to celebrate as my dear sister and her family were visiting from San Francisco, CA. 

seating for sixteen
birthday girl place card and menu

It’s not often we’re all together, she’s got a full life with her huge west coast event design company, Radeff Design Studios, managing fetes for thousands. The two of us together pulled off a home cooked five course seated dinner, country-side, and it was brilliant. 

Tracy ordered rentals, booked the string quartet, arranged flowers, designed graphics, and basically planned the menu. I came in at the eleventh hour and baked a cake and cooked off the entrée, a little well done. 

Mom really started the two of us on this party-planning journey, even while holding down a full-time job back when that was really not the thing she would set the table, make fancy food, and have us put on our best clothes to come together and break bread. That’s a gift that continually gives, the desire to feed and care for others, making meals memorable and soul stirring, whether it be scrambled eggs with toast and homemade jam or a wedding celebration for 200+.

happy birthday dear mom

There were sixteen of us that night, my sister and I with our men, her eight grandchildren, and two life-long young friends. Most of us took turns raising a glass and offering a toast, telling stories with love and affection of fun and crazy times. An 80thbirthday is reason to celebrate. Mom, you are beautiful, independent, curious, elegant, and ever-evolving. Happy Birthday and wishing you many returns of the day. 

Maxwell toasting Ethel
birthday bouquet from Lexi
the table is set
menu details
seated dinner for sixteen, how we celebrate birthdays

day on the water

let’s all live in the south of France

Most of the last three weeks have been countryside Provence yet we did break code and booked a boat outing, highly recommend.

We brought plenty of alcohol, obviously, should have packed a picnic as we had to buy sandwiches and chips from the gas station, not one of my best culinary feats.

Yeah, I did that

It was a ball, swimming in the Mediterranean an absolute highlight. Driving back that evening I thought I could live forever in the south of France, wishful thinking indeed.

Happy weekend everyone, tomorrow we start moving west, we’ll be stateside Monday. Third week of June is one of my favorite times of year, the long days feel endless.

Elizabeth and Ethan