Simple post here: while the husband is off in Newport RI and Boston MA getting twenty-something daughters prepped for the new school and work year, we stayed upstate, (teenaged daughters and I), and spent just about every cent we had on their back to school stuff.
One thing we came home with that always brings pleasure and satisfaction, a new stack of dish towels. Tried and true and maybe a bit pedestrian but when you feel like so much is going on all around you there is a feeling of well-being when opening the kitchen drawer and finding freshly laundered and ironed dish towels. No fabric softener here, we want to the real deal. Like scented candles on the dining table, some things are left better undone.
Every day dress, tried and true and finding order in the kitchen by bringing home new towels.
Wishing everyone a safe Labor Day weekend filled with rest and relaxation.
This time of year, all you really need to do is gather up what’s good and fresh and put it together. First in, Coho salmon, local corn, homegrown tomatoes, done. Next night, revisited the CA pizza thing, homemade dough with 1 1/4 cups hot water, (perceived temperature even though we do have the thermometer), 2 packages active dry yeast, 1 tablespoon honey (we like it when the hive is still in there), 3 tablespoons olive oil, salt, and 4 cups King Arthur flour. Mix it up in the Kitchen Aid for about 10 minutes, roll it out on the counter, add whatever you like with some more olive oil on top, bake it up in a hot oven, add a green salad, and dinner is easy.
After a day with work, dinner is the treat, and dinner is easy.
Totally on the edge right about now, wanting everyone to get back to where they need to be come September 1st. Have had this feeling every end of summer since having a couple of kids, simply wanting everyone to get through the swimming, boating, driving, flying, (drinking), safely, and to resume work, study, play.
Last weekend we tucked in about 34 adults for food and drink at the ski house for husband’s office weekend retreat. Dina’s Restaurant, thank you, food was out of the park and you took the edge off of being on the edge.
Every day dress, honestly, a little on the edge. Be safe everyone. xo
Husband confided to oldest daughter last night while having a post-work glass of wine that if it was chicken for dinner he wasn’t in. ha
Felt challenged at first, what’s wrong with what works? After a day full of stuff that needs to get done we all need/like to eat. Did chicken tonight, and yes he was in. 🙂
Buy the best that you can, and keep it seasonal too. Note the difference in two pots of basil: one on the left, ordinary store-bought, one on the right, organic specialty nursery stock.
Makes me think of my clients that tell me (no) more black, or, (not) one more black dress.
When given the choice of dinner or not I’ll take more chicken please, and yes, another black dress.
Post dinner activities included hand trimming flag-stone pathway. Totally understand how the face, body, and entire cities can sink after a while.
Every day dress, more chicken, and yes, another great black dress. Why not?
Every August, without fail, the current go-to wardrobe seems tired, bright colors so not it, and sandals feel almost too exposed.
White denim, blue denim, a black jacket, a Zara floral silk shirt and an apron seems to be about right.
The runaround has begun, soccer and field hockey so that’s two drop-offs and two pick-ups, oldest sons have moved out and into a modern two bedroom, oldest daughter home for a week and second daughter not yet ready for back-to-school and to hit the books again.
Full house. The wardrobe, work, and the blog have been second string. It’s okay, it’s a start to transition.
Have learned that good things almost always take longer than ever expected. It’s the start that’s the hardest. Once things get going they always seem to have a way of working out if you keep at it and hang in there.
Every day dress, start to transition. We’ll all be in full swing before we know it. Here’s to new beginnings, almost September. Love that fresh start every Fall, always.
Here’s to your start to transition, whatever that may be. xoxo
Did the peach cobbler again, this time around forgot to stir in the cup of milk. haha. Multitasking and here there and everywhere is not the best way to get things done, even though it was still delicious.
Every day dress Peach Cobbler:
1/2 cup salted butter, 1 cup all-purpose flour, 1 cup sugar, 1 cup brown sugar, 1 tablespoon baking powder, pinch or two of kosher salt, 1 cup milk, 8 or so fresh peaches, 1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice, ground cinnamon.
Melt butter and pour in baking pan. Combine flour, 1 cup white sugar, baking powder, salt and milk, still until just combined. Pour over batter in baking dish.
Meanwhile bring 1 cup brown sugar, sliced peaches with skin on, and lemon juice to a boil over high heat, stirring, and then pour over batter. Sprinkle with cinnamon.
Bake at 375 degrees for 40 to 45 minutes or until perceived doneness. Serve with softened ice cream and while still warm.
Okay, the leather culottes are in the closet, gray cashmere pullover is on order, we’ve seen the brightest moon in six years, and all of a sudden we’re working full days. Even with all that and back to school schedules creeping in, let’s keep this summer time thing going just a bit longer…
Stopped at the market and picked up all that was fresh. Peaches, of course, and zucchini, eggplant, and plum tomatoes. Had the fish man fillet a full halibut, no photos, we started to have too much fun in the kitchen. Cooked up some pasta too, we had a three-year old and one year old, let’s keep this going.
While fall clothes and colors are all about us I’m still about white shorts, cotton voile shirts, and black cashmere sweaters borrowed from the husband after a full day in the office.
Every day dress, let’s keep this going, Summer 2014, not over yet.
Been a little slow with the post feed, sometimes you can feel a little all alone out here. 🙂 Travel schedule’s been crazy, and working a Trunk Show downtown to boot.
So, here goes: Saturday night stood in the closet and pulled on multiple outfits, nothing seemed right. Husband promised two teenaged daughters tickets to One Republic with a friend each and we were the escorts. Final pick? A crew neck sweater from last season and white skinnies. Honestly getting a bit tired of skinny jeans, but they really always seem to work and in a hurry.
Once you get dressed and out the door it all seems easier. The gorgeous beautiful teenagers even had outfit anxiety and they had really nothing to worry about. They chose short shorts of some kind and tank tops, how hard is that when you haven’t hit twenty?
Thinking the crew neck was okay. Every guy in the band, and there were six, had on a crew neck tee. Even THEY had outfit anxiety, or so it seems. Lead singer, Ryan Tedder, expressed at the end of the show before the Louis Armstrong encore that they had toured upstate for what has seemed like forever and next time they pass through they really want some new clothes. They’re pretty much in the big time now and were headed straight to Jersey. How funny, how true. We all like new clothes.
Seems the more you go, the less you need, especially off duty. For west coast on the go trip, essentials included:
Cashmere wrap and silk scarf, blue jeans and white jeans, denim skirt, black blazer and black workout jacket, black boatneck sweater, white shorts and black exercise pants, tanks and tees, mostly on the black side, one pair of sandals, two pairs of sneakers but really only needed one, one pair of black boots. Â One bright handbag, and most important, handsome husband and two teenaged daughters.
Started in LA and drove up the coast and flew out of San Francisco. Temperatures ranged from 102 to below 60. Â Really into this carry on thing and keeping it light. Such a drag to haul so much stuff all over.
For off duty travel, cashmere, denim,white, and black. Easy.
Now it’s all on duty for Fall 14 Trunk Show. Starts tomorrow, Wednesday, and goes through next week Wednesday, August 13th.
You can do it. With the right stuff off duty travel for seven or eight days with only a carry-on is so possible.
When the mood strikes and usually among the same blood line, we here at every day dress can throw down four letter words with the best of them. You won’t see them digitally, in print, and hopefully never hear them at the dinner table.
That said, there are some four letter words we just love and use regularly: food, real and good food; and wine, usually good wine and often enough fine wine. Butter counts too as we kind of weirdly believe that butter is love.
A couple four letter words it’s taken us about 49 years to get over: diet, lose. Those have occupied way too much head space and have never gotten us to any good place. Still get sucked in, loving fashion and great clothes always makes you want to be thinner, those two words just always lead down the wrong path. While clothes invariable look better on stick thin women, it’s so much more fun to embrace lifestyle too and know that undressed women perhaps look and feel better with a few well deserved curves.
As recently as 18 months ago 35-year-old male trainer that put me through really heavy weight training workouts knew my desperation with always wanting to drop 10 pounds or so. He recommended the banana diet. Yes, 30 freaking bananas a day. Being a believer in all things  actually tried it for about an hour and a half on a cold winter day while out skiing with the family. Result? Disaster and four letter words, not the good ones like real food and good wine, but the rough ones hurled out at two teenaged daughters when getting on the chair lift on a crisp beautiful morning was more complicated than usual. Way to set a good example. Those four letter words were so not right and were set up by some unrealistic diet plan. That banana thing I think was the turning point. Never again. Took that chair lift up, skied down the mountain, and fueled the body with what it needed and one of the paradigms of every day dress: eat some protein at breakfast.
Fashion and fitness magazines always have ways for us lose, diet, or move ourselves down a couple of dress sizes and they always promise it will happen fast. Now even the really good ones like Town & Country and Harper’s Bazaar have entered the email feed with ways to lose. While obesity is a huge health problem in our country and heartbreaking to see in children, that’s an entirely different conversation than what you’ll find here. We’re talking about moving our bodies as much as we can, walking over driving, stairs over anything that requires power to get you up or down, and knowing that life is abundant and setting yourself up with wishful restrictions is not much fun.
Michael Pollan’s In Defense of Food is a slim book that’s kept on the nightstand to circle back to when the pull to believe in some magical diet plan or how to lose weight fast comes calling again as it does and will. His premise is sound: Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants.
Every day dress on four letter words, yes, sometimes it’s just the best way to express yourself, and usually only among intimates. On our favorite four letter words, food and wine? Yes, and often, and probably for both like Mr. Pollan says, not too much. 🙂
Still in CA, heading back east tomorrow, Sunday, and jumping right back into helping women look and feel great with beautiful clothing. Trunk Show August 6th through August 13th.
Wishing everyone a great weekend with some good, real food. And, if you like, some good wine too.
Sometimes it’s that what we find challenging is that what makes us really grow. Life and work have picked up the travel calendar, six kids, almost can’t call them kids anymore, the four of them in big cities are really young adults, a husband that is restless, and growing a fashion business can kind make you be on the move.
Travel? Once you get there all is good. It’s the getting ready and getting out of dodge that’s the big work.
Woke up Tuesday morning out in the country and really didn’t want to go anywhere at all. Got the virtual office thing down but when you’re wanted at the home base for laundry and dinner detail and then the next morning in NYC for work stuff you’ve just got to move.
Put off the details by cooking sauce and meatballs the hottest day of all July. Then packed it in the car with the dogs and the gear to serve it up later. Somehow making dinner for the family makes everything else feel okay. You know that procrastination thing? Anything but the hard stuff and the hard stuff here was packing and going.
Did the dinner thing, went to bed, set the alarm, 3 am, got up and got out of dodge.
Here’s the fashion details: white denim all the way, corporate trip yes but it is July. White denim dress for travel out on Wednesday with a black jacket. White denim jeans with kind of sexy black silk blouse for dinner Wednesday night, no photo, don’t we all dress for dinner? And white denim skirt and silk blouse and cashmere wrap for office meetings the next day it’s always cold when they crank the air conditioning.
Handbag above not really relevant to this post but thinking it is really gorgeous. 🙂
Shoes were black. Black Aquazurra for travel, you can really walk anywhere in those and black low heeled boots for dinner out. Have resolved that any shoe that is worn or packed when traveling needs to be able to move in.
Eden, Buffalo, NYC. Next up, Saturday LAX.
Every day dress, travel. What we find challenging is really what makes us grow.
