Ode to nothing

It's the last day of February, and that feels infinitely impossible, yet achingly hopeful at the same time. How can this be? How is it that the shortest month of the year also feels like the longest? I want to love you, February, I really do. Your 28 days contain my grandmother's birthday, my birthday, a day dedicated to love, and you even have a long holiday weekend. You're a short one Feb, you should zip by and you should herald spring. But you don't. You've dragged your snowy, polar feet all over my back and I think I'm permanently hunched over from the chill you breathe down my neck.

Let's face it, February, if I'm writing you an ode, then it's an ode to nothing.

See you in March, everyone.

Weekend tidbits

I hope you all had a lovely weekend. We had a special dinner with friends to celebrate my birthday at The Writing Room (which recently replaced the Woody Allen favorite, Elaine's) on the upper east side. And then on Sunday I had to physically restrain myself from driving out to IKEA in Brooklyn to see whether they have an Expedit bookshelf in stock. Did you hear they are discontinuing them? How will I ever be able to achieve my dream of an entire Expedit wall? I ventured up to Central Park with the dog to chance a run but ended up mostly stumbling around in the slushy mess that is the Bridle Path.

We also finally redecorated the girls' room - bringing in lots of red and white to give it a more cohesive feeling. The room is so tiny I can't take photos with my DSLR, but here's a little sliver of the room:

interior design

Ok, if I could hop on a plane, I'd head straight to this sauna hut in Sweden.

Daniel of Manhattan Nest finished his office and I'm seriously digging the white painted floors.

food

I'm pretty much a summer vegetarian and a winter omnivore, so I'll give this lamb and coconut curry from Cook Republic a shot before I give up meat entirely in the warmer months.

I can't think of a flavor that intrigues me more than cardamom, it's floral and spicy and it totally brings desserts alive. I bet this cardamom oat crumble from Happyolks is amazing.

Simple, roasted, gorgeous cauliflower. Never, ever gets old.


How was your weekend?

The beautiful details

Sunday walk by the East river

I was at the Guggenheim this weekend, and though it was a fairly quick trip (with young children you have to kind of dip in, and then out immediately) I did linger in one particular gallery to listen to a group of art students discussing a particular Picasso painting. I noticed that the woman in the center of the group was blind, and the other students were describing the lines of the painting to her in aching detail. The details were so beautiful that I had to stop and listen. I traced the lines with my eyes as the earnest student described them to the woman. It's those very details I want to celebrate.

And now let's see who else likes to focus on the details:

interior design

I'm dying to paint a navy blue dresser in our entryway pure white like this gem featured on Apartment Therapy.

Or is blue a trend that I need to keep going with? I loved this blue feature wall on Bright Bazaar and then Centsational Girl put together this roundup of blue rooms in all their glory. Maybe I'll leave that blue dresser as is.

Jenny's piece on the Arizona flea market scene makes me want to hop a plane down to Arizona pronto. PLUS I'd escape this never-ending snowstorm here in NYC.

Should I ever own a home (or apartment) with a fireplace, I'm pinning these ten ideas for an amazing fireplace by This Little Street for ultimate inspiration.

food

I hope no one from work is reading this entry, because I think this poached pear mascarpone tart from Chew Town would be a solid entry for our next company bake-off.

I don't know why I have trouble cooking salmon, as it's a perfectly agreeable fish, but I can never seem to get it right. Perhaps this sous vide salmon with roasted beet sauce from Brian at A Thought for Food might be one to try. Of course you have to have a sous vide water oven, hmmm, maybe i'll just try out the roasted beet sauce of this recipe instead.

I need to share the meyer lemon olive oil bread recipe I just made last night, but in case you need meyer lemons in your life RIGHT NOW, then you should try out this meyer lemon magic custard cake recipe from Diane and Todd at White on Rice Couple. Their recipes never fail!


And now I'm off to revel in this snow day we're having here in the city. Winter is kind of blending into one big snowstorm for me, and all I can do is laugh now - it's just so ridiculous.