Rediscovery

Isn't it weird how you can live in a city for 11 years and still feel like you don't truly know every nook and cranny? I feel like I'm still finding inspiring and exciting sights and events. I hope I never stop. 

These photos are from a trip to the Brooklyn Botanic Gardens last weekend. I'm guessing the gardens were/are a whole lot busier this weekend as it is the Japanese Cherry Blossom Festival, but I'm still glad we went last weekend, right before the blooms along the main walkway were at their peak. The tops of the trees are still extending frozen fingers towards the sky while the lower branches are slowly budding red. It felt like a sneak peak of spring.

The sadness emanating from this statue in the Botanic Gardens parking lot was palpable.

Interior design

Apartment Therapy has a soft spot for tiny apartments, and always hosts a Small Cool apartment contest each year. It hasn't begun yet, so feast your eyes on these eight totally cool (and under 400 square feet) apartments.

Justina Blakeney is visiting Copenhagen and has noticed a color trend that I'm going crazy over: copper and blush. I would have thought those two were too similar, but they work, they totally work, people. ...And now I want to redecorate my bedroom.

Speaking of redecorating, I've been wanting to do something to my office at work for ages, and I'm thinking this Washi Tape framing trick that I saw on Apartment 34 might be just the thing to spruce up my otherwise plain office.

Erin Gates of Elements of Style put together her top five no-fail home accessories for Better Homes and Gardens Style Spotters column. I want the Mongolian lamb pillow!

Kirsten at Simply Grove teaches us how to achieve this incredible kitchen on a budget.

Emily Henderson has put together a tween bedroom with Land of Nod hat makes me want to be a tween again - especially if it means getting a bedroom with that bedside table and lamp! And you could too, cause Emily is giving away $250 to spend at Land of Nod!


Enjoy the rest of your weekend :)

Links and some cherry blossoms

I hope your weekend was lovely and you felt things calm down after last week's insanity in Boston. On Sunday we drove out to Brooklyn to visit the botanic gardens, and see the cherry blossom trees in all of their flowering glory. I wasn't prepared for quite how beautiful those cherry blossoms are on a hundred year old tree. The gnarled trunk gives way to the most exquisite, pillowy white flowers, and I could have stood underneath those trees for hours just looking up. Some of the trees weren't quite open yet, but I'm glad we saw them this weekend, as next weekend is the Japanese cherry blossom festival that's going to pack the gardens (and wouldn't be too fun with children).

Food

Umm, you all know already that I go crazy for pound cakes, or really anything baked in my bread tins. But how about this spiked almond joy poundcake from Jessica at How Sweet It Is? It has melted CHOCOLATE drizzled on top for pete's sake!

Dinner for one is rare in my household of four, but if I was doing it, I'd do it Cozy Kitchen style with Adrianna's recipe for a Vegan latin bowl.

It's grilled cheese month, did you know? Want to try out this cobb grilled cheese from Foodie Crush? I do.

If you're as crazy about Game of Thrones as me, then you'll want to try out these direwolf scones on The Inn at the Crossroads. I might have to make them for next week's episode.

I'm buying up the entire lavender stand at the Union Square Farmer's market on Wednesday to make this gorgeous lavender French 75 from Love & Lemons.

Interior design

Issue 11 of Anthology magazine is out, and it's all about food and drink - yay! View the preview here.

I'm dying over these gorgeously whimsical homemade shadow boxes made by young Lova on Sweet Paul.

Kim at Desire to Inspire has featured Swedish photographer, Anna Kern on the site again and I couldn't be happier. The homes she shoots are eye candy to say the least.


Ok, can we talk about how I'm excited for Ready for Love tomorrow night? Like, I may actually watch it as it's airing, which is something I never do. I'm a DVR and fast forward through commercials girl (which is pretty awful for someone who has a husband in the advertising business!)

The Standard

I've been meaning to tell you about our little staycation to The Standard last weekend. It was glamorous and ridiculously awesome. We left the girls with my parents and escaped to our own little haven for 18 hours.

Left: the tallest building is The Freedom Tower. Right: We looked right down on the High Line.

ahhh, I could have stared at that view for hours (and I did)

Enjoy the rest of your weekend!

Food love

Those gorgeous pale blue skies reveal a tentative warmth. Spring doesn't feel quite real yet. Neither does anything that happened yesterday in Boston. Boston native, the always eloquent Erin of Elements of Style put it beautifully. I'm heading out for a run bright and early tomorrow morning, and I'll dedicate it to everyone in Boston. It will be my most mindful run yet.

Food

Head over to Local Milk to congratulate the lovely Beth on her one year blog anniversary (it's hard to believe that gorgeous blog has only been around for a year!).

Joy makes some almond milk smoothies and I'm digging her flavor choices: beet, blackberry, and kale. Okay, I'm not really digging the kale option, but I know I should be adding that to my diet.

Sometimes you just want something simple for dinner. This cod in creamy vanilla sauce from Gourmantine would do it for me.

Kelsey at Happyolks always posts the most meaningful essays. Her words on life and the choices we make are full of wisdom and careful thought. Plus, there's a recipe for quinoa and roasted vegetable salad.

I try out many different spices in my baking and cooking, but I come back to the spice cardamon time and time again.  Emma has used it in an Estonian cinnamon-cardamon kringel bread that I'm looking forward to trying.

Make sure you travel to Saveur before Friday to vote in the annual food awards. Some of my faves are nominated!

Out and about

None of these trips were big enough for their own post, so I've done a quick roundup to show what we've been up to in the city lately.

Recently we took a trip to the Museum of Natural History. We were there to see the whale exhibition but as usual, we spent most of our time in the lobby, gazing up at those incredible (replica) dinosaur skeletons.

I love walking around the West Village

The Freedom Tower is almost done

And there was a trip to The Standard hotel. More on that to come.

Happy Monday!

A morning run

I stepped outside my building this morning at 6:15am, my shoes laced tight for my first morning run in ages. I could barely believe it myself. But then I got to Central Park, and turning the corner on the reservoir, I looked across the water and saw this:

And somehow, it was all worth it. Glorious--this city of ours.

Food

I'm a glutton for lemons, I have 5 in my kitchen now and need to come up with something other than my usual lemon recipes. Helene of Tartelette blows me away as usual with lemon cakelets with vanilla bean cream, oh and there are some chocolate pots de creme in there too. Another one of my weaknesses.

I enjoy reading Donal Skehan's blog because he's Irish, a talented photographer, and well, pretty cute too. He also bakes a mean chocolate cake.

For some reason, I grew up with a Christmas morning tradition of broiled grapefruit halves with brown sugar scattered over the top. I was reminded of it when I saw this recipe on The Forest Feast. Although, Erin uses cinnamon to give it an extra sweetness.

Sarah and her sister took a trip to Mexico. Get a recipe for Baja fish tacos while you gaze at her incredible shots of the Sea of Cortez.

If you've ever wondered how to make an egg look all perfect in a photo, then look no further. Jessica at How Sweet it Is has you covered. This is not a recipe for eating eggs, but just cooking them so they're super clean for food photography!



On a non-related food note, is anyone else excited for the NBC show Ready for Love? I'm missing the Bachelor, and Ready for Love will fill in nicely.

Interior love

I'm just focusing on interior design today - it makes up about half of what I work on as a book editor, and so it's near and dear to my heart. Here's some interiors love for you:

Interior design love

Ooooh, feast your eyes on this Melbourne home featured on The Design Files. I love the pops of color by using African textiles and bowls.

Do you guys read the online interiors mag Covet Garden? In case you don't (and you should, by the way), My Scandinavian Home gives us a sneak peek into a light-filled and colorful home in the current issue.

John and Sherry at Young House Love made great use of a beautiful Rifle and Co. calendar by framing the images for another gallery wall in their hallway. Sadly (for me), the calendar sold out within minutes after they did this post!

Jenny chose well for her living room rug. It's the perfect mix of faded and color and makes her room look so cosy and chic.

In the constant search for an attractive bed with headboard, I never once thought about a wall decal instead. But Apartment Therapy did.

Oh, I'm sorry, one food item before I go: Head over to Not Without Salt to congratulate Ashley. She's turning the "dating my husband" section of her blog into a book! With her gorgeous writing and dreamy photographs, this one belongs in my kitchen and on my bedside table.


Have a beautiful weekend, everyone! We're thinking about checking out the whale exhibit at The Museum of Natural History and maybe I'll even catch Tilda Swinton napping at MOMA!?

Drag

Winter is dragging its heels on the way out the door around here. I thought today was going to be glorious, and while it did have its moments of brilliance at lunchtime, it started raining around 4 and then the wind picked up. A City Bakery cookie (always the double chocolate one) with a new friend was a bright spot. And, at least a cold night means the view from the apartment windows stretches into miles of glittering lights.

Interior design

I think decorating with unicorns sounds like a perfectly fine idea. Clearly, Apartment Therapy agrees.

I learned from Cup of Jo that my favorite online art shop, 20 x200 has closed. Joanna suggests Banquet as a good alternative.

After a controversial incident involving some serious vote mongering, Emily Henderson has wrapped up her nightstand styling contest. She wisely had two winners (one voted by peers, and the other voted in by Emily herself). Go see all the amazing and inspirational entries. I'm gathering ideas for my own nightstand.

Food

As the weather gets warmer, I'll crave light recipes like these sprout crunch radicchio cups from The First Mess.

Another light one like these cucumber noodles in peanut sauce from A House in the Hills would be a perfect weeknight meal (and provide leftovers for lunch the next day).

Head over to see Kevin and Amanda and enter to win a Le Creuset skillet and some pretty Anthropologie kitchen spoons.

This is my next pizza. FOR SURE. Jessica at How Sweet It Is comes through in a pinch, as usual. I mean come on, it's a chicken enchilada on a pizza!

Make sure you congratulate David and Luise at Green Kitchen Stories on the release of their cookbook. It's coming out in the US in one month, and I cannot wait. Also, while you're there, watch their book trailer, it almost made me cry. I want my Sunday mornings to look like that!

I adore fennel. I've never braised it before, though. Neither had Megan at A Sweet Spoonful, until she tried this recipe for braised fennel wedges with saffron and tomato from Deborah Madison. I have to try this before the warm weather hits. I'd pair this with couscous or rice. I also really should pick up a copy of Vegetable Literacy.

Yay, the talented Hannah at Honey and Jam is doing a cookbook - and I'm so happy that it's with Abrams. Really thrilled about this one!

Fashion/style

You may already know about the new Kate Spade Saturday line. It's the weekend; the Kate Spade way. Also awesome: free shipping AND free returns!

Honey Kennedy has hit me with a spring shoe bomb and now I can't stop thinking about my next pair.

I'm kind of hoping to catch Tilda Swinton napping at MOMA.


Phew, that's it for now. See you later this week!

Spring poem

This was the closest I could come to a hill or vale of daffodils today!

Koseli just reminded me of how much I used to love this Wordsworth poem. In fact, I think I had it memorized at some point in my schooling. It's the perfect poem to celebrate this spring weather we're having today. I'll be back later with a crazy amount of link love for you!

Daffodils

I wandered lonely as a cloud

That floats on high o'er vales and hills,

When all at once I saw a crowd,

A host, of golden daffodils;

Beside the lake, beneath the trees,

Fluttering and dancing in the breeze.

Continuous as the stars that shine

And twinkle on the milky way,

They stretched in never-ending line

Along the margin of a bay:

Ten thousand saw I at a glance,

Tossing their heads in sprightly dance.

The waves beside them danced; but they

Out-did the sparkling waves in glee:

A poet could not but be gay,

In such a jocund company:

I gazed--and gazed--but little thought

What wealth the show to me had brought:

For oft, when on my couch I lie

In vacant or in pensive mood,

They flash upon that inward eye

Which is the bliss of solitude;

And then my heart with pleasure fills,

And dances with the daffodils. 

                                                  --William Wordsworth