An Interview with...me

Today, I'm part of Amy's Blogger Crush Series...(I'm blushing) and just because I kept this interview for a month before I sent it back doesn't mean I'm lazy (I am)...it just takes me a while to get up my courage to write about me. And her questions were REALLY hard...Read it here today, on the wonderful Amy's, Old Sweet Song...

thinking about too many things

via dreamhouse via P

via shiny squirrel

via dieline

via mucca design

via ffffound

via apartment therapy

via mucca design

via ngoc minh ngo

revisiting gray gardens, Robert J. Eckholm, NY Times

via ffffound

via me

triple crown keyfob set via bonbon oiseau

a buttery butterfly for good measure, here

a total bonbon makeover
a total studio makeover
a brand new studio
a brand new space

working weekends
resting weekends

handwriting
a simple meal
fleeting flowers
stopping to smell the flowers

making important phone calls
making unimportant phone calls
answering important/unimportant emails

reading stories
telling stories

the kentucky derby

Mother's day

Mother's Day is coming.*
What are you thinking about?

*Hey. Pssst...Mother's Day Sale just because I love you: today until tuesday, may 5th at midnight take 25% off earrings, necklaces, and bracelets. Write 25% MDAY in your email--pretty good huh? we'll even stamp her initials on our hangtag...even better. oxodeb

breakfast, lunch, dinner

Breakfast at our favorite spot, Five Leaves: a billowy bowl of homemade ricotta with chestnut honey, thyme and figs, like eating a delicious cloud.





Lunch: photoshoot with the Daily News at Brooklyn Botanic Garden (heeheehee--I'm going to be in the Daily News next Tuesday in an article about local artists inspired by the Cherry Blossoms!)....It was fantastic to be there by ourselves (closed on Mondays)..well, Martha Stewart Weddings was also there, doing a photoshoot under the cherry blossoms--see it back there?


Dinner: tired but obsessed by a recipe in the new issue of Saveur, balancing bags full of groceries and bonbons, got home and made it this way in 20 minutes--it will now be my new go-to recipe:

I used a can of butter beans and heated it up with a clove of garlic and a sprig of thyme until garlic is soft about 10-15 minutes. Take off heat, add a little coarse salt and pepper and a tablespoon of olive oil. Puree with a hand blender or whatever you blend things in at home.
Next, Put some water on the fire with a little salt to blanche the dandelion greens-while water waits to boil, put a small saute pan on with a little olive oil, add about half a thinly (or not so thinly) sliced onion...saute until soft and golden. Now add cleaned dandelion greens to the now boiling water and blanche for a minute until bright green. Drain and immediately add to the pan with onions--sprinkle with a little salt, a crack of pepper, a dash of red pepper flakes and a squeeze of lemon. Serve on top of beans and drizzle your most excellent olive oil on top--it's that good.

oh! and thanks amy...

Monday Dose of I: A Few Quotations (aka "Remarks")

I've been telling anyone who'll listen that I've been reading quotations...I think they've been helping me get over some invisible bump. Here are a few from some of the heavy hitters (aka visionaries) I found inspiring:

I long to accomplish a great and noble task, but it is my chief duty to accomplish small tasks as if they were great and noble.
Helen Keller

No pessimist ever discovered the secret of the stars, or sailed to an uncharted land, or opened a new doorway for the human spirit.
Helen Keller

My great concern is not whether you have failed, but whether you are content with your failure.
Abraham Lincoln

I feel like a wet seed wild in the hot blind earth.
William Faulkner

Drag your thoughts away from your troubles... by the ears, by the heels, or any other way you can manage it.
Mark Twain

Forgiveness is the fragrance that the violet sheds on the heel that has crushed it.
Mark Twain

The man who has begun to live more seriously within begins to live more simply without.
Ernest Hemingway

It is not only fine feathers that make fine birds.
Aesop, The Jay and the Peacock

The best way to find out if you can trust somebody is to trust them.
Ernest Hemingway

Each friend represents a world in us, a world not born until they arrive, and it is only by this meeting that a new world is born.
Anais Nin

I also loved another one on friendship that I cannot find now and can't remember who said it. It was something like: "A friend shouldn't be judged by the last conversation you had, but by your entire history with them". I love that.

Of course send more if you want... hope this week...it's a good one!

Saturdays at the Flea

Tomorrow I'll be back at the Brooklyn Flea in Fort Greene once again, with more Cherry Blossom inspired pieces for the Brooklyn Botanic Gardens...will you come and see us? Let's hope for good weather!

(We'll be spending Saturdays at the Flea for the next few Saturdays up until May 16th! Don't forget Mother's Day is around the corner!)

Stage Craft

Down home news: last night we went up to my niece Emily's school to see her in her final play--she's a senior now. The set was so particularly beautiful on a pretty Spring night. I always get a little weepy when I see her because I feel so proud...she's there in the middle of the last one, raising a pretend glass of champagne...Yay Emily!!

What Trees Can Tell Us

Happy Day After Earth Day. I am celebrating the week by reading Barbara Kingsolver's book Animal, Vegetable, Miracle and feeling really motivated to do even better this year.

But I am celebrating today by sharing some wonderful work by three very sweet friends. Their love of nature is expressed so clearly and so beautifully and move me so deeply, always touched by their delicate handling and understanding of their subjects...here, trees...

Monica

nadia

Traci

Earth Me, Kamikaze style

carrying this book under my arm all over the house (see below)

some new seeds

this will be an entire mint afro by mid-summer

deciding where things go

old broken pots---I might get fancy with them

my first foray into strawberries!

our tiny plot

Step One: Sunday, tired from the show, I started to clean up my tiny little plot a little and then went out and bought some seeds and some little plants to really stir the pot. I even smashed some old broken pots in case I want to get design fancy.

Step Two: Yesterday was some serious pounding rain...(see this if you don't believe me!).

Step Three: Today I woke up early and lay in bed reading this birthday present to myself until I looked out the window at the obviously hung-over silvery sky, the wet soil and saw the herbs I had transplanted were thriving already, the flowers looked happier than most people, and that the little 3 square foot plot my landlady has "lent" me over the last 7 years, was ready soon for lavender and tomatoes.