Table Service

Nathalie Leté for Anthropologie

from anthropologie

i love this idea...antique silverware by the pound! From Napa Style
but I do need compote bowls! I do!

Laguiole steak knives from here

I imagine after the "first Thanksgiving", all those folks sat down to share a meal, and the chicks were wishing they had better tools than boat spikes to eat their oysters. After our dinner the other night we realized we had forgotten to ever acquire proper entertaining tools known to modern man as the "table service". We've collected many things over time but we never got smart things like real silverware and dessert plates. We don't even have a proper cake server. It was sad to serve the lovely desserts our guests brought, stilton and port and cheesecake and figs off of teacup saucers and paper napkins. Mom was right. It was like not having clean underwear at the hospital.

Now I have it in my head that I want cockle forks and salt cellars and berry spoons and fish forks. In the spirit of impending days of entertaining and large sit-down dinners, I will find time to give thanks. But today, I found some time to want. Who's with me?

The Morning After the Night Before

strange fruit

evidence of half of everything i drank

always throw orange flower water, figs and marcona almonds at the problem

thyme honey

Saturday. We made tagine (I am on an all things Moroccan kick again) for 5 incredible people Thursday night. No photos from the actual evening (too wound up and fun having) but the light Friday morning, made the wreckage look nice.

wild beasts waiting for the kill

And my neighbor brought these gorgeous anemones to dinner. I think she laced them with kumquats and sage herself. She is amazing. They set the stage for a day of photo taking though. I am nothing if not a total practicioner of utilitarian impulse--after this I used the light and flowers and kumquats (and cats) to photograph my holiday collection, better late than never. It will be going up on the site next week but first I procrastinate with pretty flowers and wild beasts.

Escape Plan

awesome vintage travel posters via ffffound

But I'm going to Iowa instead. I do love these though, back when flying was glamorous a la Mad Men. Also, I just read this post from this time last year and clearly had a much better handle on things than I do this year. Lessons learned and heeded.

Save these Dates! Bonbon Claus is Comin' to Town

First let me say, suddenly today means for me, the holidays are almost here. It is certain. And we have been elvishly been preparing for some of the most exciting holiday events we've done to date. Recession be damned, we'll have things for everyone, so I hope you can join us at one or all of these...but especially this one, where you can see where it all goes down, I can serve you a glass of wine and you can see EVERYTHING, (including the SS10 Collection and the new studio!):

*Sunday, December 6th, 2pm-6pm*

Bonbon Oiseau's Annual Holiday Soirée and Very Fun Sale
(and the first peak at our newly finished STUDIO!)
*The first 20 people will get a little Bonbon Giftbag, our first foray into silkscreening!!
along with Tamika from Therapy, Breck from Sesame Letterpress,
toys by Patrick Weder (& other surprise guests)
Shop early and funly, enjoy a little cocktail and of course join our annual raffle to benefit the food bank for new york city filled with a plethora of goodies and delights!

*Saturday December 12th, 12pm-6pm*

at the Flatbush Farm for Designers Giving Back

with a host of amazing artists & designers.
I'm proud to be part of this where a portion of our earnings will go to
the Brooklyn Rescue Mission
and will have some very special items not shown at the other sales...surprise!

*Wednesday-Sunday, 9th-13th*
&
Wednesday-Sunday 16th-20th
Two December weeks of Bonbon love in NYC at
Brooklyn Flea's Gifted
20 e. 4th St at Lafayette

I'll have all sorts of things for fat and thin wallets and of course our miraculous keyfobs and moneyclips which are the perfect antidote to what to get him or her (they really do transcend space and time).

Some scenes from some of our events last year:

Of course if you're nowhere near NY, look out next week when we'll have all sorts of new things up in the Bonbon Shop for the holidays and an offer of
15% off* through December 1oth on all web orders.
(Oh and if you have a blog and want to spread the word, just let me know and I'll give you an extra 5% for a total of 20% off!)
Your last day to get your orders in for Chanukah delivery is December 8th
and for Christmas delivery is the 17th!

*(bridal pieces, custom work and Icky not included...sorry!)

The Shnozberries Taste Like Shnozberries

The grocery section of Ikea. It's the section after you checkout and is only part that keeps Jim from putting real nasty voodoo spells on me. It makes us forget the shopping that preceded it.
The food shop is what I imagine the Stockholm airport to be like, after you get through the long lines and security checks, you get clean, clear colors and to the point graphics. You get fishy tubes of salmon and jars of citron herring. You get elderflower drinks and jams flavored like the flavors of love or cloudberries at least. I have no idea what a cloudberry is but I bought some anyway because please people, they're CLOUDBERRIES for christ's sake. Oh and the Anna's cookies...thin crispy gingery deliciousness--perfect for the holiday drop in when served with elderhjortonappledrÿk.
Thanks to Nadia for driving the point home that we should really stop and linger, even if it is mean old Ikea. Ünd we did.

Monday Dose of I: Sunday Suppers

photos by Karen Mordechai

Last week was a long week that turned into a longer weekend from Thursday night on: a bad cold that had me out flat. I was full of thera-flu and up for nothing except back to back movies.
Watched: Adventureland (loved it partially because it was based on the Adventureland in my hometown)
documentary about teaching apes to talk (yessss), Paperclips (see this), Away We Go (totally hit the spot), Apocolypse Now redux (perfect for when the theraflu kicked in) , The Visitor (je recommend), Annie (Yes that Annie and don't ask..it was a formative film for me), Mad Max (these two were back to back--it just sort of happened, another formative film..I know, I know). Plus old episodes of 30 Rock, Bored to Death, Larry David, and old Project Runway (in which I decided not to go there--too fierce), The Orange Housewives in which I decided life can be cruel, and I'm sure there was more. Don't remember. Foggy. Napped through some of it.

Missed: A day of work, Dinner with Jen, Going to see Where the Wild Things Are, Breakfast at Five Leaves (aka the clubhouse) with Ada (although a phone conversation was subbed), another cancellation on Jen (such a drag) and sad sad sadly, dinner with Marie and Vince and Storbie--ughhh.

But by Sunday, the rain stopped, the wind died down, my nose stopped running, and I was getting back to myself (albeit a little guilty and hungover from all the tv and cold meds and missing the chance to see my friends). But I had taken it so easy, weaned off the thera-flu that hardly a sniffle remained and by 3 pm Sunday, I was able to do something I'd been planning all month (but I want rainchecks for what I had to miss): Sunday Suppers.

From the beautiful table and decor and the friendly guests, to the sweet and warm and wildly talented Karen and Casey, who welcomed us like old friends, and skills learned (boil cippolinis to get them to peel easier-ohhhhh!) I was so absolutely blown away by the beauty of all of it. Inspired to say the least, and really, what an incredible way to emerge into the world. Can we plan another Sunday Supper for all of us? What an incredible place to meet and enjoy and it was so inspiring to see a project like this come to life and shared, so perfectly delicious and down-to-earth and just what the doctor ordered on a quiet and beautiful Sunday afternoon. More coming but the menu so far is here...

*Thank you Karen and Casey and Ken and your team of lovelies...and also my date, Rachel! and to my wonderful husband for all the soft tissues and chicken soup and taking care of me so I was well enough by Sunday at least not to miss this.

Thank you

Thank you. Thank you for all your sweet and caring responses to my Wild Things post. Thanks for getting it. On that note I am emerging from the thorny thickets and turning a crummy week of learning life lessons into a spectacular week of finding out how many people out there, like you, are kind and wonderful enough to care and think of me. I don't know what I'd do without you...

Maxine and The Last Fig

Actually the only fig. Maxine loves being up on the table amongst the clutter and fig (and fig related literature).


This was the same day we received these from Aran, the beautiful photos she'd taken when she was here this summer. I was speechless. Maxine shows her gratitude for such sweet friends differently (frantic licking). We're deciding on a wall for them but in the meantime they are part of a larger, stuff-filled tableau.

Yet Another Post about Where the WIld Things Are

photos courtesy of Warner Brothers Films

I've been a little (very) sensitive this week. It's easy for me to get weepy. Like when I read this review by A.O. in the NY Times. I haven't seen Where the Wild Things Are yet. I've been saving myself for it. I do that when I order uni in a sushi restaurant too, although maybe that's not the same. It's not about saving the best for last but more that My first glimpse of this film will be a moment so much larger than me. It's personal un-discovery is to be savored for a day when I am prepared to be blown away and to have put it all behind me all at once. Once known, the experience of it will morph into a different thing--sort of like the loss of innocence or something.

The review is about taking children to see films which convey difficult and lifey subjects. Here are some excerpts*:
" No place is free of conflict and bad feeling, and no person has the power to make problems disappear. Where there is happiness — friendship, adventure, affection, security — there is also, inevitably, disappointment. That’s life."

"The impulse to protect children from these kinds of stories is understandable. Like adults, they experience plenty of hard feelings in their daily lives — at home, on the playground, in the classroom, in their dreams — and they may want, as we do, to use movies and books as a form of escape. Bright colors, easy lessons and thrilling rides that end safely and predictably on terra firma have their place. But so, surely, do representations of the grimmer, thornier thickets of experience. That’s what art is, and surely our children deserve some of that too..."

I am in some thorny thickets at the moment, trying to feel my way through as an adult, maybe.

* written by A.O. Scott for the New York Times

Hey Susy, Love Bonbon

Somehow in my busyness I not only missed the prettiest part of fall, I also missed this from one of my very favorite blogs and people, Hey Susy...It was written on November 2nd. I am very flattered (and very behind in visiting). I love Susy's impeccable taste and the collages she puts together on her blog are incrawonderful so I am doubly flattered. There is something so gratifying about kind words and thoughtful reviews like this that make doing this work really really worthwhile.

And Cindy just told me we were mentioned on Style me Pretty yesterday as well. I was wondering why I'm selling so many money clips and new pieces for Fall. THANK YOU with all my bonbon love Susy and Carrie...

The Wall

photos by Alexa Vachon

My pal Alexa Vachon's post today about the anniversary of the fall of the Berlin wall is beautiful.