Custom a la Bon

Have been doing a lot of custom work lately and at the moment working on a new engagement ring while trying to get ready two bigger bonbon orders to ship to Japan at the end of the week.
Here's a gold necklace we shipped off last week to a wonderful husband for his wonderful wife for a special anniversary. He wanted to represent the names of their three kiddies, Eden, Anchor and Olive. At the end we decided he needed to be represented too and added a pretty freshwater pearl, (his name's not Pearl but he seemed pretty precious) which you'll have to imagine because I added it a few minutes before it flew.

A lot from just A little on a Summer Night

the lake where Jim caught us some fish, Canada

the wine on the patio

the table

the Northern Pike, caught during man-trip to Canada, quickly defrosted

simply pan-fried, joined by marinated radishes,
cucumber wedges sprinkled with cumin and salt,
a salad with beets and feta cheese brought by friends

the strawberries Ed brought, which were smushed en route,
and so soaked in St. Germaine, elderflower liquor,

to top vanilla ice cream for dessert

Saturday impromptu dinner party with old friends, arranged by my incredibly talented and sweet husband, deliciously simple side dishes brought by aforementioned beautiful friends. I didn't do anything except get these strawberries drunk and laugh and eat and drink and think, tonight is kinda special.

*top two photos by Jim, plate by Gleena

And Now a Word from this Puppy

photo: Sandy Pei/model: Iggy

This puppy, named Iggy, is my friend Sandy's new roommate. She owns Snacky in Williamsburg and now she gets to come home to Iggy being this puppy. Look at that belly!!

Now if we move, we can get a new roommate too, which we couldn't have here. Way to look on the bright side right? See I'm trying! Thanks pals, for helping me see the bright side, the unicorns, rainbows, puppies and better but not necessarily bigger (see aforementioned puppy) things ahead.

Leaving

We have to leave the apartment we've been living in for the last nine years. It's of course for the best but I hate when my brain doesn't shift that way. A little sad about it. Moving.

Monday Dose of Inspriation, I hope: An Evershifting Idea of Home

hello little maples

After my father died, my mother was lost. It was the first time she was alone, really alone, for 64 years. She was also alone another time, when she was just coming of age, when she boarded a ship from Germany in 1938 and stepped foot on American soil, to be taken care of by a strange family in St. Louis. She slept on the cot in their living room and waited patiently for her parents to come and get her. They did and she flourished.

The summer after my father died, she decided to get herself a new bathroom, tearing down the peeling shiny seventies wallpaper (with matte ochre seashells) and up came the mottled-egg Turkish tiles for a newer sleeker brighter place, with beautiful white ceramic subway tiles lined by tiny mossy green stones, walls painted a soft lichen green, bark-brown flooring like a forest floor and a brand new glass shower. Last she chose a large medicine chest, mirrored inside and out, where she could see how pretty she still is at 86.

photo by Alexa Vachon

My mom gets dressed and puts on makeup every day, takes in her newspapers and drives her friends and sister-in-law to their appointments, food shopping and lunches at the local diner. She watches Dancing with the Stars, the Bachelorette and the Today Show. She doesn't really like to cook anymore but she loves breakfast and makes fantastic scrambled eggs.

Last week when I went to her house to do the gardening, the job my father used to do, I cut back the peonies and the first flush of roses to reveal a little path of maple seedlings. A year before he died, the city cut down two large maple trees from his front yard, the maple trees that do what large trees from our youth do best, memories of shade provided in summer, of climbing to a higher place to watch the cars pass or to swing on like a monkey, a place to sneak away, to be alone, a refuge from participating in anything in particular, where the voices from the house couldn't find me but I could find myself, amongst big green leaves and a strong tangle of branches.

Every year the trees grew and got bigger. Until they were gone.


Finding those young maples on the Friday before Fathers Day was a beautiful magic gift, like the tomato "volunteer" that grew last summer, offering so many tomatoes she didn't know what to do with them all, a message from him, we thought, that he would continue to provide for her and us kids and spouses and grandkids too, always. (This year there is some wild strawberry and more tomatoes doing the same work.)

Magical thinking or not, an ever-shifting idea of home, absolutely where the heart is.

Floating On

Click above to hear song

I don't know. This is the song that always pops into my head when it all goes pear-shaped.

To make matters better, I'll be at the Brooklyn Flea today up close and personal with Father's Day on my mind. We're bringing our tools so we can stamp up to three of his initials free of charge with every purchase of a moneyclip or keyfob.
Come say hello?

And Speaking of June Weddings

Jenny's headpiece: old + new (old)

for les demoiselles d'honneur
(or "flowergirls en Française)

This was for the very bright and wonderful Jenny, who got married two Saturdays ago. She brought me her grandmother's crown of meticulously crafted wax flowers the week before (we are not strangers to last minute doings). It was from the 1920's. The only problem was the elastic in the back was a little tired and she wanted something to cover it and also show her wedding's colors. We had this bright flower bouquet in stock and she loved it so vóila! Histoires were made.

Her grandfather worked with Cecil B. DeMille and therein lies the inspiration: some incredible objects given to her to wear for her big day from her grandmother's trove, including an old locket from Cecil himself with an enameled pansy in bright purple and yellow. So her colors I think were chosen around this! How cool. Brighter than bright cheerful brights!

Monday Dose of Inspiration: Bonbons and Collaborations In Croatia for a Breathtaking Wedding

There once was a story of a beautiful girl named Natalie, a lovely friend of a lovely friend, who came to me and wanted the perfect wedding. She showed me colors and wishlists and inspiration boards until I felt like I got her and she seemed happy, so we collaborated to create some pieces for her and her bridesmaids for a magical wedding which was to be in a land far far away from Brooklyn, in fact on a little island called Pag, a coastal island off the coast of Croatia on the Adriatic Sea in the month of June, 2010.

I create bridal headpieces and jewelry for very special brides. Brides who are sweet and humble and funny and have magic in them, a lyrical sense that will allow their weddings, after all the planning and exhaustion and decision-making to let the day unwind itself as it may, letting the flowers and setting be a gift to their witnesses and their absolute love for each other be the final crowning touch amongst all the carefully planned details.

And it looks like that's exactly what happened here. I am so moved by these shots, sent yesterday by Natalie in celebration of their first wedding anniversary. It was the first time I had seen their photos and I was floored by the magnificent setting, all the spirit and love present at their first moments as husband and wife and especially by her beauty (enhanced, may I add, by her hot bonbons in which she rocked two bonbon changes throughout the evening!)

Part of the wedding was photographed by Alexa Vachon, one of my favorite old friends and photographers. She has this ability to capture the most incredible moments, cutting through the fluff, in which you really can see how amazingly real this was, never necessarily from each flower in place, not a fairytale, but very much rooted in reality conjured by the who's in who she photographs. She lets the actual romance come from her subjects, their spirit mixed with hers, the tender fragility of their beauty in these moments which she really really sees, which, I think, is a rare quality.

Creating for brides, I like to think, comes from the same place, from their spirit mixed with my sensibility, whatever they bring to the table mixed with whatever I have to offer. It's an incredible feeling to see how it all got put together, my offering one small part in bringing out the natural beauty and happiness and hope. A very real dream. And the happiness that part of the putting together was amongst friends, Lizzy's introduction of bonbons to Natalie, Alexa's photos, and the collaboration of bride and groom, family and guests that makes a wedding real and amazing. And the rest is a story that tells itself.

It's a little food for thought on a Monday.

Welcome Home My Love

"If you have two loaves of bread, sell one and buy a hyacinth for it will feed your soul"
-Persian Poem

Maxine is helping

Finally hung the drawings by one of my
favorite artists (and people), Barbara Reiser

beautiful Melissa, raps.

a dark picture of the eggs, recipe below

Jim comes home today!
I had a good long week: a trip up to see Nadia in the country, a dinner gathering of the East Coast Boondogglers Association in which there was lots of laughing, a special guest from out of town, cocktails with St. Germaine (aka "more of that delicious crack shit all up in here"), amateur, but none-the-less impressive, rapping and *deconstructed deviled farm eggs.

Then there was a serious spring cleaning, a rained out but excellent day at the Brooklyn Flea and last night, the quietest night of the week, windows open, listening to rain and the wind, and I missed my husband. He loves the sound of rain.
He says, "Listen to that sound. You hear it? I love that sound."
Me too.
We're getting the band back together. I will make more of these for him.

*Deconstructed Deviled Farm Eggs

1. hard-boil some eggs, preferably from happy chickens. I like mine medium boiled, so that the yolk is still bright yellow and soft.
2. Slice in half and top with a small dollop of garlic mayonaisse,
center with a drop of grainy dijon mustard
3. chop some shallot and parsley very fine and sprinkle on top
4. sprinkle some fleur du sel or just sea salt and a grind of pepper
5. top with little sprigs of dill.

enjoy!