early gifting

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With big food days approaching, you know, Thanksgiving and Christmas, yikes, every day dress was gifted yesterday. 

Thinking we all might like to make it ahead, and couldn’t be more thrilled to have Ina’s latest in the repertoire, thank you.

Mom, client, I get to dress her in the day job, wrapped it up nicely: plain white tissue, real ribbon, small gift card, and a sprig of thyme.

Ina, we count on you. Just yesterday did your Mac & Cheese, no tomatoes in the house and used whole wheat bread for the crumb top, your recipes and way of cooking and presenting have become part of our every day life.

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Can’t wait to dig into your latest volume, now we just need to make a little more room on the shelf.

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Thanks, mom, client, early gifting is so much fun. xo

Ina Garten | make it ahead

ps. hyperlink to Ina Garten, Make It Ahead, so slow on the upload. You know where to find her, she’s that good.

now we’re plated

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Change is good. Keeps you on your toes, right? After years of serving family style starting a slow switch again to now we’re plated.

Had a chef come in three nights out of six while in Provence in September. Obviously, he plated everything. Now that we’re settled in back at home trying to recreate that French kind of feeling.

Here’s my stateside effort:

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Three courses, still working on that. Lifestyle is a work in progress, for sure. Always a good thing to keep things fresh, now we’re plated.

And, here’s one more: chicken, haha, husband’s favorite. 🙂 Homemade sweet potato fries make up for the sameness. 🙂

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at the gallery

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Spent a good part of the weekend outdoors, walking. Walked everywhere and did some good work. It’s amazing what can get done in your head when you walk miles.

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Read a book too: Show Your Work! 10 Ways to Share Your Creativity and Get Discovered, by Austin Kleon. Really like what he had to say, if you have any sort of online presence, artist or not, (aren’t we all really artists in one way or another?) this quick little read gets to the good points fast. He talks about sharing, and teach what you know.

And, now that the eyes need help picked up some readers. Usually buy them half-dozen at a time, here you see three pair.

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So, here’s my Sunday night share: walk always, every day. Visit your local art gallery. Read. Cook dinner, doesn’t have to be fancy. Tonight its Caesar Salad with pan-sauteed chicken. Always use real cheese and grate it yourself. Best reading glasses? At the gallery.

Book and Readers | picked up locally | Albright-Knox Art Gallery

pull it in

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November 1st, and we’re headed straight to holidays. Time to pull it in, clothes, time, work, house. A week or two ago out in the country decided to pull in the geraniums and give a try at overwintering them down in the cellar, just like my grandmother Lottie used to do. Cut them down by half, uprooted them, shook the dirt off, and down they went.

It’s not just the cost of buying new plants next Spring, it’s also the time, energy, and full day I’d love to save in actually going out to get them. As you move along you know what you like and what you need so if I can just put them away, half of the lot covered in brown paper bags and the other half hung upside down from the rafters, I’ll be all set come mid-May in 2015. Will have to drive out and mist them from time to time, not really a big deal.

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Fashion wise, it’s been such a spectacular Fall that I have yet to fully plan the Fall Winter wardrobe. While I know the big guns are already all about Spring Summer 2015 and beyond, this is the every day and like I tell my mom I’m often not sure what’s happening even tomorrow night. So, I’ll be about pulling it in and putting it together this weekend. Laptop and Lookbooks in hand, all set. Good place to start might be this Burgundy cashmere sweater and bucket bag. Will go quite nicely with a glass of Pinot Noir, snowflakes flying as I write.

Every day dress, pull it in.

sweater and bucket bag | Worth New York Fall Winter 2014

fun at work

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Feeling that there’s a super magical power in a good sweater and a silk scarf. Monday comes and it’s fun at work.

Not wanting to bore you but this cashmere crew has been the total go-to for weeks now, added the silk scarf to at least look more ‘dressed’.

Colleague Erika has it going on, she’s in heels and a jacket. 🙂 We’re in trunk show mode and days can get downright busy.

Her client Suzanne, while she liked the raspberry jacket, really wanted to know more on the scarf, says she has tons and just never really wears them. Showed her how to tie one on, kind of explaining that the less precious it looks and the more kind of effortless, the better. Oh, we have fun at work.

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Every day dress, hope you’re all having fun at work this week.

 

about face

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Lots of commentary going around about one of our favorites (maybe Bridget, maybe Renee): thinking that what we all do requires time, money, and choice, and that we, as women, should value that option and leave well enough alone. And, when getting down to the nitty-gritty, why not support (or simply just not critique), what one of us might feel important, or necessary.

Really don’t want to get too deep here, it’s just that I’ve been working with women since the age of eighteen; let’s all feel good in our skin.

We’ve all seen it, sometimes great, sometimes too much, and sometimes you just can’t tell.

Every day dress, about face, keep the faith.

 

 

 

 

roasted, and baked

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Saturday night, all tucked in, going nowhere, and couldn’t be happier. Travel, while great, has me roasted.

To compensate, it’s been all things work and domestic. Brussels sprouts, clipped off with kitchen shears, combined with some olive oil and good old kosher salt, and roasted in the oven. Almost like eating potato chips, ha.

Baked the cookies for the new neighbors, they’ve been here since August, and delivered with, shocker, a bottle of wine, always feeling just a bit behind. 🙂

Every day dress, roasted, and baked.

Thanks everyone for reading. Thinking this might be a good little feel good about what you do blog. Thinking that if you like to dress and you like to cook or even simply like to eat, you might find something of interest here. Everything we all do matters. For those that like numbers, site visits are about 200 per day, so you all out there, small group and couldn’t be happier, seem to keep coming back. Thank you.

Have a great and safe weekend. xo

 

sometimes sneakers

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In being real, sometimes you find yourself doing the runaround wearing sneakers. Maybe you even have great new boots for the season yet your day’s activities might call for lots of movement. So, sometimes sneakers it is.

Simply make sure you pair them with real clothes and leave those other pants, you know which ones, in the bag. They should be fresh, too, those old running shoes with the wide stable bottom won’t look as clean.

Every day dress doing the runaround last weekend in Boston MA. Same sweater and jacket and jeans as seen all season, pairing them up differently and together, keeping things easy.

Sneakers | Nike

Sweater Jacket Belt | Worth New York

Tank | Helmut Lang

lulu, in provence

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In keeping with the kind of dress and cook thing, had the divine pleasure of meeting Madame Lucien Peyraud, Lulu, last month, while wine tasting in Bandol, France.

She has cooked for family and friends for well over fifty years, at Domaine Tempier Vineyard. Better yet, she’s blended marriage and kids and cooking and working and loving and even sailing all together to create a wonderfully rich life. Husband and I stopped in on our exact 27th wedding anniversary and without saying a word her daughter called her in from the back room to sign the only English cookbook on the premises. And, she was dressed in a dress. 🙂

Lulu’s Provencçal Table, by Richard Olney with foreword by Alice Waters, (the woman who really kind of introduced me to great good food some seventeen years ago at Chez Panisse), is a sweet little keeper of food and lore all taking place in the beautiful French countryside.

Lulu in Provence, you make my heart sing.

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Every day dress, dress and cook, continues. For the record, wore a has seen many seasons Roberto Cavalli dress. Nothing like a good throw-on.

 

dress and cook

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Kind of at a blogging standstill so decided to just jump right back in with the things I seem to do best: dress and cook. Simple they may be but they both move us all through the day.

Yesterday for an off-site client meeting wore the few new things that have been added to the rotation: sweater, scarf, bag. Pretty standard, especially when paired with black jeans, a bit of the difference being doing the sweater in cashmere and making certain that the jeans are hemmed to a good length. So many of us run around in jeans all day and really by paying attention to the length of your pant your style standard can be instantly upgraded.

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Dinner was simple oven baked wild cod, pan roasted organic sweet grape tomatoes, blanched and then sautéed green beans. Salad and bread on the side and dinner done. No cookbook, no google search, no recipes needed.

Not going for any fashion or food empire here, intent is to inspire the women (and men) that matter to me to do small things every day that make their days better.

Every day dress, dress and cook. xoxo