My Young Photographer

Beckett has always loved taking photographs. He recently set up a photo shoot in the backyard with his model animals. He wanted it to look like they were really in a jungle setting. Funny thing- I took a photography class in grad school when we lived in NYC, where 2 photo majors did this exact same thing. Beckett's work has just as much integrity and unique perspective. (So says his mama). He even influenced Petra to set up some shots of her own.

Yes! Mess!

You know this is a very uncomfortable subject for me: Messy Fun. I have been observing my kids and their indoor play scenarios. It inevitably involves making a gigantic mess. I try very hard to look the other way and let them just destroy the order I have worked hard to establish. It has been a huge struggle. I try to remember back to my childhood and our play habits. I have to ask my mom if we had to drag every plaything from our bedrooms, spread them amongst the common living areas and beg to leave it there for days. I just don't get it. We finally have enough space for the kids to have their own rooms and just spent a chunk of change on a beautiful family room downstairs and yet the main living room and even the bathroom are where they gravitate to. They feel the need to spread their armfuls of blankets, pots and pans, and shelves full of nonsense where I just want to relax and revel in my minimalism. I promise myself to try and roll with it, let their imaginations run free and chaos unfold, but I'm exhausted just thinking about it.

NYC aka Fort City

NYC living room

West Norwalk bathroom.

Ok- this is inside Petra's bedroom- but shortly after this photo was taken, it spread beyond...

Petra's Room Evolves

Since Petra has denied me the motherly pleasure of putting pony tails or braids in her hair, I can at least get satisfaction from filling her room with girly goods. I had made Beckett a bulletin board for his room and since then Petra has been asking for one. I used the left over homasote from my desk project and made hers trimmed in ribbon. She finally has a place for photos, mementos and don't forget glitter covered Popsicle sticks.

 

I hung it low so she can reach it from her bed.

Can you believe I found a lamp filled with pom poms? PINK & GREEN pom poms? I thought I was in heaven at Homegoods when I found this. For a mere $24.99 I can read Petra her nightly book while glancing over at this miracle. 

We also hung her melted crayon project, which we can't seem to get enough of. We seem to make one every couple of weeks and the excitement never fades.

Here are some other crayon projects we did during our visit with the Angelos in Virginia.

       

These we did back in February upstate with my niece Aubrey.

My Baggage

When I was about 14 years old, I was bringing home some decent cash from my babysitting gigs. Whenever I could catch a ride with my mom to the Aviation Mall, I would blow all of my earnings on cute little purses, my infamous 'Stayin' Alive' tote bag, and various pocketbooks that made me feel grown-up.

The second I walked in the door my father would always say, "You know, Cara, if you spend all of your money on pocketbooks, you will have nothing to put inside them". He was right. I never had any money and funny thing is- I never carried any of those bags. Until recently, I was the sister who would go to the store stashing her wallet, cell phone & sunglasses in everyone else's bags.

Now that I am all grown-up, I have strayed away from the desire to own lots of bags, but I do strive to find that perfect bag- the one I'll carry for years, a classic.

Here are a few of the senseless but fun bags I own:
The Bermuda Bag

I was ba-nanas over these Bermuda bags in middle school. There was an entire store in the mall dedicated to them. Not a cart, a store. I could never afford them back then. Then few years ago, my sister, Theresa surprised me with this set she found at a vintage store on the Vineyard. "Perfect for summers here around the pool in New Canaan," said the Stepford wife. 

You can buy new Bermuda Bags here.

The Hobo Bag

I was in the mood for that boho-chic look a few years back, and bought 2 of these hobo bags, only real  hobo's bags are plastic shopping bags. Digging through these deep, shapeless sacks makes me insane and I'm pretty sure that's why hobos mumble as they rummage through theirs as well.

Fun for a date night, but not a classic.

The Little Clutch

The Summer Bag

This is probably one of my best bag purchases. Many summers ago, the sisters and I made our seasonal pilgrimage to Walmart. Walmart I said! We each bought this beach bag for about $9.00. I swear, I have never gotten so many compliments on a bag. People go NUTS for it. And by people I mean everyone. I gravitated to it because it reminded me so much of a Paul Smith rug I covet:

The Serious Bag

This bag was my most recent attempt at feeling grown up, although I have recently been referred to as Dr. Quinn Medicine Woman carrying it. That's ok. This bag goes with everything (except my Yoga outfit), keeps things in order inside, and was affordable. It has structure. I had stalked its cousin, the Biennial Satchel from J.Crew forever, but this Evan Satchel from Banana Republic was much more my speed price-wise - plus I used a 40% off coupon that mysteriously arrived in the mail. It was a steal.

Desk Quick-Fix

As you may remember, the wall behind my kitchen cabinets caught fire 2 days after Christmas last year.  It is a brick wall that is shared with my fireplace on the opposite side. Luckily the smoldering cabinet was torn out, thrown onto my front lawn and no one was hurt. The firemen were smart enough not to smash the avocado green Formica counter top and it has since been in my garage collecting dust. I temporarily set up my Ikea desk in it's place in hopes to someday have the cabinets rebuilt, and original counter top placed back on top.

Here's what my Ikea situation looked like:

You can see where the linoleum floor tiles & sheet rock were ripped up by the firemen:

In the meantime, we decided to do a quick patch & paint job, then hung the counter top for my desk. 

                                 

We still need to fix sheet rock, but will wait for cabinets to be rebuilt and floor will be done in cork someday. For now it works!

I covered a length of homasote with a burlap-ish fabric for bulletin board back splash.

Bertoia Barstool Update

So...I am learning my lesson slowly. When you buy such inexpensive knock-offs, you don't get white glove service. Duh. 2 days after I placed my order for the $135 stool, it arrived. No invoice or packing slip in box, in fact, absolutely no paperwork was included. I pulled it out of the box and soon realized it was the wrong height. It was a barstool, not a counter-height barstool which is what I needed. After several emails and phone messages left (I even posted on the dude's Facebook page), Jordan returned from a 10 day Passover break. 10 days? Really? He is obviously a one-man-show. Fed Ex picked up the wrong stool and the right one was delivered the next day. He knew I was about to disgrace him all over my "very popular mid-century modern blog" as I had threatened. 

So after all the nonsense settled, I do love my stool. It seems super sturdy, perfect height and finish. Compared to the certified Bertoia from Knoll, I'd say it looks pretty damn close:

Harry Bertoia Barstool

  

$1096.00                                                                                        $135.00                                                               

$75.00 shipping                                                                              free shipping

8-12 weeks delivery time                                         VS                  24-48 hr. delivery time

2Modern.com                                                                                 Instylemodern.com

I needed a counter-height barstool for the desk area in the kitchen. I love Harry Bertoia's wire chairs and barstools. He designed them in 1952, the same year our house was built, so I think they are totally appropriate. The only dilemma was price. I found reproductions in a range of prices. They all look identical. For some purchases I can understand why we would splurge for the licensed reproductions, especially wood furniture or anything upholstered, but metal? I just couldn't do it- plus we are trying to save our dimes for the upcoming bathroom reno. I took a gamble and ordered the one on the right. It should arrive this week and I'll let you know how it stands up. Stay tuned...

Boost Week Done!

This is Tracy Anderson. She is Gwyneth Paltrow's personal trainer. I now hate her. She has un-human-like energy and willpower. I have been following her "Method" for the past week both diet and exercise. I have 11 more weeks to go. I and am happy to move on to what she calls a reset week with food I can actually bite into. All last week I ate purees and soups and barely chewed anything. 

I'm bragging here.

I never bought so many veggies at one time. It took all day to chop, steam & blend all of this together:

This is just some of the finished products: apple & blueberry sauce, sweet potato & corn puree, carrot & parsnip mush, gazpacho. I still had chicken soup to make. Lordy!

Dear Gazpacho,

You are unbearable. You make me gag. From now on I will take all of your separate ingredients and chew them up like a normal lady. I hope we never meet again.

Sincerely,

Cara

Poster Picking

Out of college I moved to the East Village with an Art Education degree to pursue a teaching job and my masters in Art History.  I had no job and no money. While I tried to piece together nanny positions and register for grad courses, a good friend hired me part time to help in his paper restoration studio. George Athias cleaned, restored, and mounted crumbling ad posters from Europe to sell at auctions or to private clients. I learned so much from him about the restoration process and resiliency of paper. 

George's enormous loft studio environment in the heart of the garment district was the cool-artsy version of today's tech-geek Google offices. Edith Piaf or French techno music blasted, George bought us lunch everyday, and the atmosphere was so much fun, instead of leaving at the end of the day, you stayed and your envious friends would come and meet you there for a little taste of the experience. For a first job out of art college, it was a dream.

There were a few times when money was tied up, for whatever reasons, so George offered to pay me in posters. Sometimes he gave me what was available and a few times, he let me choose. I obviously knew the rare Toulouse Lautrec's were off limits. I chose several Villemot's from his ad campaigns for Bally shoes and Orangina, and my prized pick: a  Lu Lu Biscuit ad by Fermin Bouisset. I recently saw this poster framed and hanging on the wall of a very chic upscale store in Westport. I hadn't seen it in years. I'm in LOVE with the image of this little french school boy nibbling on a biscuit.

Here it is in the store:

Here it is in the house. Looks so small here, but it's really big, and desperately needs to be framed:

I ran home and unrolled the rest of my posters. I am hanging them temporarily to enjoy them, but not entirely sold on them being permanent fixtures since they don't necessarily go with the rest of the decor. 

This Bally one I think actually works in this spot:

Not sure where to put this one- it is HUGE. Almost billboard size:

This one is a more manageable size - maybe for Beckett's room since he's into orange like his mama:

The one that got away. I remember working to restore a few of these. I wish I had acquired this one to round out the Villemot collection. I'm obsessed with her. I dream of her and her little pink shoes:

Will post more pics once I find spots for the others.

Chairs Done!

I finally had some time to re-cover my dining chair seats. I had already purchased the fabric with a super 50% off coupon from Joann's Fabrics. I set up my work table and began to remove the seats from the chair frames. Unfortunately, the chairs will very soon need to be tightened & glued.  They all seem to be a bit wobbly and creaky, but I couldn't wait. They are Craig's List chairs after all.

 I decided to leave the old fabric for a little extra padding. It actually went much faster than I expected. I just had to change staple size to accommodate for going through all the layers.

 

I generously sprayed each seat with Scotch Gard since I know how my kids eat...

 I hit a snag when I went to screw the seats back on. The holes were stripped out and the screws just spun around. I had to drill pilot holes and screw into fresh spots to secure seat to frame.

After & Before