The Gang’s All Here

Most things in life are better when we experience them with family, friends, neighbors, coworkers, or even people we’ve just met. And those who live near, our neighbors, are often the people we relax with the most.

You may not think of yourself as a party giver, but if you think small, you can get started easily by inviting a couple of neighbors over for tea or coffee. Bake some cookies to go with, or buy some at the local bakery or grocery. If the house is a bit messy, enjoy the beverages and chat on the porch. It can be as simple as that.

Taking a step up, you might invite a few more people and have an activity. My most recent fun afternoon was a cookie decorating afternoon. There were six of us, and all I did to prepare for it was bake sugar cookies to decorate and buy some decorative frostings. It was lots of fun, and everyone took home some cookies.

Taking a giant step when you’re ready, you might do something that is still easy but includes more people. A neighborhood soup supper is a great way to start. Soups are easy and inexpensive to make and you just need bowls and spoons for serving. You can start with only a couple of kinds of soups, and ask the neighbors to bring an appetizer or dessert to fill out the menu. Or you could ask the guests to bring the soups and you provide the go-withs. I have been doing annual soup suppers for 50+ years, and this year I made eight different soups and we had 30+ neighbors here. It was a lovely evening. But you don’t need to start with that many!!!

I know that some neighborhoods aren’t as friendly as others, but you might be surprised at how many people would love to get together. Each time I move, I have made the invitations for our soup supper and delivered them to the closest 20 or so houses. The response might be small, but I have never been in a neighborhood where there weren’t at least a dozen or so people who attended. And getting to know those people makes even the most closed up neighborhoods a better place to live.

Have Your Centerpiece – and Eat It Too!

Next time you want to add some color to the dining or buffet table, shop your favorite grocery. First hit the floral department and select one or two bunches of colorful and long-lasting blooms. Alstomerias are ideal and carnations work nicely too. Then head for the produce aisle.

Green, of course, will go with any flowers, so head for broccoli, brussels, avocados, zucchini (baby ones are nice), artichokes, and any leafy greens. Then add veggies that accent your selected colors. For my example, it was radishes, beets, and red onions. Arrange these in a bowl rather than a vase to lay on as many as possible without any florist tools.

Before the event, take photos of your handiwork so you will remember how you did it. And as soon as the dinner or potluck is over, take it apart! Your produce will still be nice and fresh and you can wash almost all of it and use it in another meal – as part of the menu!

Pure Whimsy with Andy

Andy Warhol was a Pittsburgh native. And Andy was a colorful, imaginative, and whimsical icon. We love him and can’t resist celebrating his all-too-short life. Our 2021 holiday cards were folders with inserts that featured Andy’s Christmas-related art each accompanied by a quote from Andy. We annually decorate our foyer bannister with decorative shoes to complement the Andy Warhol shoe rug on the floor.

Shoes were one of the things that Andy drew over and over again. In fact, he noted that he was paid for his commercial drawings per shoe. Counting shoes allowed him to know how much money he had earned.

Our annual New Year’s Brunch carried the Andy theme into 2022! Although Andy and a friend had created a cookbook (Wild Raspberries), the recipes created by Suzie Frankfurt (and hand written by Andy’s mother) were satiric and not intended to be cooked and eaten.

To plan the menu, I turned to two other sources. First, The Serendipity Cookbook, a product of the owners and cooks of Serendipity 3, a cafe in New York frequented by Andy. The book even contains Andy’s “recipe” for his beloved Campbell’s Tomato Soup.

The second was an Eastern European cookbook that included recipes from Austria-Hungary, the area where his parents lived before they came to the United States. I found recipes that I imagined must have resembled the home cooking of Andy’s mother.

Maybe next holiday season, you can create a whimsical theme of your own to add a new dimension to old traditions. After all, as Andy said, “Everyone must have a fantasy.”

The La Bellitude Loo

How do you manage to bring together elegance, practicality, and whimsy in the smallest room of the house? It’s not really that difficult, and when you pull it off you have what I would call a La Bellitude Loo.

First, keep it simple. Too many bathrooms are victims of multiple patterns, styles, and surfaces. This one maintains a silver/gray color palette throughout, expands the stainless steel shower tiles to the adjoining wall, and uses a smooth battleship linoleum for the floor so as not to further eye clutter the space that there is.

We give it a feeling of space and light by hanging on to the tiny exterior window, choosing reflective tiles, glass shelving, putting a half wall with a glass top between the shower and the toilet, and using a sliding shower curtain a la IKEA rather than a glass door (which would have taken up every available inch of remaining space).

Simply framed photos and a table lamp help to make this loo feel more like a powder room. The table lamp is particularly nice, because, although you need bright light when you’re shaving or putting on make up, in the evening having a soft light on a small table or even the back of the toilet is much nicer. It can also serve as the night light.

Also on a shelf or a table, there should be a candle with matches at hand. You probably already know my attachment to candles, but in the bathroom it’s even more important. You know why.

Down to tiny details – get rid of the bright green, bright yellow, bright red, bright blue – you get the picture – bottles of hair products, soaps, tonics, rinses, medication, all of the things that make bathrooms look like you have just wandered into a small drugstore. Decant, decant, decant. Into things you recycle, things you buy, even things you find.

Label Them So You Know What You’re Using!

I found a good, lidded storage basket that fit on the narrow shelves and the back of the toilet so I bought four of them. Once again, a cohesive look and less eye clutter. And 3M hooks in the shower for a few necessaries keeps it tidy. And yes, they stay up in spite of all the water.

Finally, what is a La Bellitude Loo without a touch of whimsy? And this one is one you’ve seen if you read the ceiling blog. Andy and the geese need a day at the micro-spa too. Wouldn’t be La Bellitude without them!

Andy & the Geese in for a Day at the Micro-Spa

Instant Decor! (The secret life of scarves)

I have dozens of scarves, actually it might be over 100 but who’s counting. I bought some, inherited some, and was gifted some. I love them all, but they don’t all necessarily fit into my wardrobe. What to do with the ones that don’t? Oh, so many things!

Decorate with them – your home, your purse, your pet, and more. Start with an easy one – make a scarf into a table runner. The long, narrow scarves are naturals, but other shapes can be folded to work as well. It can be an easy way to change the color and feel of your home as the seasons change. Bright flowers for spring, autumnal colors in October, and a knitted “outdoor” scarf on the table for the holiday season.

With larger scarves, you don’t have to settle for a table runner. You can use them as an over cloth or as the actual tablecloth. You’ll probably want to use something as a table pad under the scarf, and if you don’t have a pad then a folded blanket will do. Just remember that if the table will be used for dining, the scarf may take a spill or two. I wouldn’t use the favorite or delicate ones for this.

Tie-backs for curtains or drapes is a good use for scarves, and so is a door knob. Square scarves can be tied to cover a square pillow to give it a new look without a stitch of sewing. And if you have a really large, artsy scarf you can hang it and use it as wall decor.

You can, by the way, still use them to decorate yourself but in different ways. They easily function as a casual belt, and smaller scarves can be tied to the handle of your purse a la the style of the 60s. It still looks pretty and playful!

The 60s place for a scarf is still cool.

A scarf for your puppy love instead of a bandana with bones on it can give her or him a real fashion-forward canine look.

And you know we’re in favor of reusable gift boxes, so we would also recommend using a scarf to tie/wrap small presents. The recipient can enjoy the gift and then use the scarf to gift another.

Try the mantel for the long narrow ones.

One more thing about scarves. If you don’t have a collection but would like to try some of these inexpensive decorating ideas, there are usually lovely scarves to be found at thrift stares, just waiting for you to take one or two home to brighten up a room.

I would love to hear your ideas for keeping the scarves in play. I still have a lot of them waiting to be used!

Every Day Is a Holiday!

Everybody celebrates at least a few special days – birthdays, national holidays, religious observances. But in our house, a few is not enough!

We expand the list by creating annual holidays of our own. There are lots of special things in life that are worth remembering or honoring. Why not enjoy them?

Because they were both witty and creative, we adopted Jane Austen and Benjamin Franklin as the “patron saints” of our home, so naturally their birthdays are always on the calendar. My favorite poem is “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock” so we celebrate that not on T. S. Eliot’s birthday but on the first day of the month the poem was published.

Jane & Ben celebrate too.
They summer at their lake house!

Sometimes our holidays are reminders of wonderful trips. I Love Paris day marks the anniversary of our first trip to that beautiful city, and the day is observed with a French feast. Barcelona Day is another, and of course I whip up some tapas for that celebration.

In the slighter harder to explain category, we celebrate Peony Day (which usually manages to coincide with the first blooming of our front yard peonies. Then there is Founders’ Day which is in honor of the day that we moved into our home.

In the nearly impossible to explain in 10 paragraphs or less are Hedgehog Day and Love a Pig. Trust me when I say that they have very good reasons for making the calendar.

How you celebrate you own mini-holidays is up to you. Ours often include decorations, special foods, field trips, readings, and/or drinking a toast to the honoree. No matter what or how, the cost can be as little as nothing and the cheer that you bring to everyone can be priceless!

Where elegance, practicality, and whimsy come to play!

Category: Entertaining