For those of you not familiar with Sarah, she is a Canadian Interior Designer who has parlayed her abilities into not only a successful business, but a successful TV career, furniture and fabric design business, is the new Home Design Director for Good Housekeeping magazine and now, has added author to the mix.
Yesterday, her new book, Sarah Style hit the shelves:
It's actually on sale at Chapters this week for the ridiculously low price of $16 and so no surprise, it is winging its way to me at this very minute...
It looks like candy, doesn't it?
I love Sarah because she can decorate high end, but she can also come down from the mountains to give advice and support to the rest of us.
I started watching Sarah years ago on Design Inc and continued to follow along on all of her TV projects.
She is usually assisted by the talented and crazy-funny, Tommy Smythe:
Tommy is the ying to Sarah's yang, and is a talented designer in his own right. I am particularly drawn to his use of old world and masculine touches in his decorating projects.
One of the things I vowed to do when I began to work and write from home was to never, ever, turn on the television. I do make exceptions of course, but they are rare.
I do not do this because I am a snob.
Au contraire.
I could so easily get sucked into the TV that I might never leave it and so have left my viewing habits till later in the evening with the family.
But then one day, I discovered that a local channel was running a continuous loop of Sarah's House and Sarah's Cottage. At twelve noon. Which just happened to be the time I stop and take lunch.
When I was a kid, there was a show on every day called Elwood Glover's Luncheon Date.
Elwood was a refined gentleman, if I recall, and the show is most famous in my mind for the fact that Stompin Tom got married live on air:
But my luncheon date is different.
Most days, you will find me in the kitchen, having lunch with Sarah and Tommy. I am now into the second cycle of watching the shows. I cannot seem to get sick of them. I'll take a slurp of yogurt and say "Tommy, you are a SCAMP!" or give a nod of affirmation when Sarah tells us something VERY IMPORTANT about design, something which, if I'd known about 20 years ago, might have saved me much heartache. But Sarah wasn't in my life then, and that's through no fault of hers.
Someday, when I am a rich authoress, I shall have Sarah and Tommy round to the MacKnight house, where, over canapes and champagne, they will explain to me just how and why things aren't quite jiving... Then I will say something wistful like "it would be so great if Toronto designers ever worked in New Brunswick" and they will immediately yell "WE HAVE ALWAYS WANTED TO DO A PROJECT IN NEW BRUNSWICK FOR A RICH AND FAMOUS AUTHORESS!" and there will be much hugging, some snide asides by Tommy about a paint colour or man-made countertop, and all will be well with my world.
Until then, I will be in the kitchen, eating with Sarah and Tommy. And thumbing through the book when it comes!
I am up to armpit in things this week, what with the beginning of NaNoWriMo.
Some of you may recall that I did this last fall, but for those of you who do not recall or who weren't here, NaNoWriMo is National Novel Writing Month and the goal is to whip up the first draft of a novel, or a minimum of 50,000 words. I succeeded last year and am undertaking the adventure once again and it seems to be going pretty well, as at day 4, I am 11,000 words in. The point is not to write the Great American (or Canadian) Novel - it's to get a first draft on paper and spend the months thereafter beating it into submission. Or yourself. You decide.
For some reason, this works very well for me as I tend to be slightly competitive and god forbid I shouldn't make it. I am not being competitive within anyone in particular, mostly myself, but the same me that wanted the gold star in elementary school is the me that wants the completion certificate at the end of the month, not that it's necessarily worth anything...
Books, even unpublished ones, are a difficult thing to give birth to; much more trying than the two babies I found time to push out in the mid 1990s. But I do love it and am slowly getting better at it, and really, isn't that all you can ask for?
So last night I wanted an easy supper and for this family the easiest supper is homemade pizza. I make the dough and then put out all kinds of toppings and people make their own, which is much more pleasant than people dissing you on the ingredients YOU chose.
My pizza toppings were from a Jamie Oliver: Pizza Fiorentina!
Basically, I topped my own little pizza (enough for my dinner and for lunch the next day) with pizza sauce. I wash 4 pieces of swiss chard, chopped the stalks and separated them from the leafy greens. Boiled water and tossed in the chopped stalk for 1 minute,s then added the greens and cooked them both for another minute. Drained them, dried them, tossed them with the juice of one lemon and a finely chopped garlic clove and then dressed the pizza. Cracked an egg on top, sprinkled some mozzarella and voila:
Really, really good. And so pretty! I had the leftovers for lunch today and was happy for it, since the writing was actually going quite well!
November has come in like a lion, so I fully expect it to go out like, well, a lion, since that's what winter tends to do around here. I would be lying if I told you that I don't look with great envy at the blogs of my Southern Hemisphere pals like Heidi and Ruth, traipsing around in sandals and garden-hopping. sigh... This snow won't stay, but it is a harbinger of things to come.
Hmm - am feeling obsessive these days about the origins of words and of course I know what a harbinger is, but for the life of me could not have told you its origin. Well here 'tis:
Of course, this is from Dictionary.com, so I anticipate rebuttals from the historians and linguists in the house.
Did you know Barry is trained as a linguist? Yes, prior to his career in policing he gained his BA in English with a specialization in linguistics.
Furthermore, did you know that his birthday is on the 15th and that he has ordered me to order this for him for his birthday, since he is an arbiter of good taste?
I was thinking of the word arbiter the other day and for good reason as I am reading Dickie Arbiter's new book:
I've always had a soft spot for Dickie, since for North Americans, he is the 'go-to', along with Andrew Morton and Ingrid Seward, to explain all things Royal to we in the colonies. I always like his no nonsense approach to things and so when I saw this book, I downloaded it right away and have been making my way through it. Arbiter deftly weaves his experience as press secretary for Buckingham Palace with his own colourful life, which begins as an orphaned German Jew and moves on to Rhodesia. People do lead colourful lives and this bloke seems to have landed in the right place at the right time, although not without some nasty bumps and experiences along the way.
Of course as soon as I started reading the book I became obsessed with where the word Arbiter came from:
One of the most interesting facts in the book, aside from the Royalty stories, is that he legally changed his name from Richard Winston Arbiter to Dickie Arbiter, and long before he became famous. Dickie is an unusual name, from a North American perspective, perhaps best known when used derisively for this gentleman:
And speaking of Tricky Dicky, I would be remiss if I did not take a moment to acknowledge the death of Ben Bradlee a couple of weeks ago.
Bradlee was a giant in journalism and no doubt the reason that countless young people flocked to the profession in the 1970s and 1980s.
As Editor of the Washington Post, and the guide for Carl Bernstein and Bob Woodward's investigative journalism of the Watergate scandal, Ben Bradlee was a shining light of integrity - pushing his staff to get the fact straights through sufficient corroboration of sources.
I can remember reading All the President's Men in the mid to late 1970s. I admit to being an uber-geek around this sort of thing, and having spent a summer watching a good bit of the Watergate testimony in 1973, reading the behind-the-scenes accounts of how the two reporters pieced the story together and how it brought down a government, was riveting. At one point in my life, I was desperate to be a journalist, but I suspect I would have spent my entire career relegated to reading the weather or covering You Tube videos...
Most of you no doubt know that Ben Bradlee and his wife Sally Quinn bought the run down Grey Gardens and restored it to its former glory after Big Edie died.
Hard to imagine that this
Became this once more
We take our delights in life where we can, and Ben and Sally obviously loved restoring and living in this fine jewel.
And speaking of delights, one of my, and Barry's, great delights while travelling is listening to Car Talk on NPR Radio. The show began 37 years ago, but we only discovered it 15 or so years ago.
The Peabody Award winning show has been in reruns for the past few years after the hosts, Tom and Ray Magliozzi, retired. Sure they were talking about cars, but mostly they were joking and cracking wise and spreading their love for all things vehicular with their audience.
Tom and Ray
Sadly, Tom passed away today at 77. It is hard to imagine one of these brothers without the other, given the obvious delight they took in ribbing one another about their knowledge or lack thereof of cars when folks called in. The Magliozzis are from Cambridge Massachusetts, a fact obvious to anyone who listens to the show.
When you listened to their show, you always felt that these were a couple of guys who really enjoyed life. The older I get the more I love to hear people who love what they do. So many people do not, and what a gift to just be thrilled to go do something you love.
At the end of every show, the two brothers would sign off and say "Don't drive like my brother", but I would change that now to say "Don't drive like Wendy" because yes,
I had a car accident last week.
Perhaps car accident would be too harsh a word, since in reality, whilst backing into a parking spot I scraped my neighbour. It is amazing how much scraping your neighbour can cost. Luckily there is insurance for when you scrape your neighbour, but insurance cannot blot out the embarrassment of scraping your neighbour to begin with, can it? No, I can tell you unequivocally it cannot.
Insert back end and you'll just about it right...
I just hope this little scrape is not a harbinger of things to come....
You did wonder how I was going to keep this in a continual loop, didn't you?
It is the realization, nay, the culmination of 50 + years on this planet in which I am only able to name two Halloweens where I enjoyed myself.*
I could perhaps blame it on growing up in the 1960s, when Halloween costumes involved threadbare things you wore over your snowsuit, paired with scary masks that made you feel claustrophobic - sweaty and cold all at the same time.
Do you like the term "ventilated mask" - WTF toy manufacturers of the 60s!
We shuffled from house to house carrying pillow cases, barely able to see, furious when someone gave us an apple, which a) wasn't candy for goodness sakes and b) probably had a razor blade stuck in it, if the urban legends of St. Stephen were to be believed.
Later, we graduated from these kinds of costumes to home made ones, which meant we were either gypsies or hobos. You see, my mother wasn't much for Halloween either. We raided her old clothes bag and made do.
*I once went as a lion to a university Halloween party and was a huge hit but that's because I had not pants ( did have tights in my defense) and then later went as one of the Grapes of Wrath (there were 4 of us, we made our costumes by hand and painted angry looks on our faces and stomped around, stopping only to drink). Two good memories!
Later, I had my own children. I did better. Not Dina better, but better.
But I never could be bothered much about the decorating. If we were really ambitious in a given year, we would carve a jack o'lantern or hang Halloween stickers on the windows.
But it was a half-hearted effort at best.
The week preceding Halloween was always busy in our house growing up - it was my sister's, mother's and brother's birthday all between the 18th and the 25th of October and perhaps there was nothing left in ours or our mother's gas tank for Halloween.
Perhaps it was because it was a different time. It was the sixties and early seventies after all; my mother loved us, but she wasn't all that invested in what we were doing, so long as we came home at the end of the day with limbs attached. My dad and Bill Garcelon, my friend Lisa's dad, walked us around the neighbourhood when we were really small, but gladly forgot about that as soon as we were able to run in packs.
Perhaps it was because I dislike all things horrible.
I used to fake sick from time to time to have a mental health day from school when I was in elementary school and would watch Midday Matinee on CHSJ, which seemed to delight in terrifying its audience. Perhaps the adults weren't terrified, but ten year old me was.
I can remember watching the movie, Don't Be Afraid of the Dark, starring Kim Darby and Jim Hutton, unwitting new homeowners who were sharing their new home with a bunch of murderous zombies. I never liked to shower much after that movie and became a bath girl.
Sure, they don't look scary now, but trust me....
The most charming portrayal of Halloween has to be Tootie's adventures in Meet Me in St. Louis. I might have survived watching that as a young girl.
Or Linus' adventure waiting for the Great Pumpkin, which is arguably the only other decent Peanuts TV special.
No, I just never much cared for Halloween. I have my candy all ready for the 20 children* who will come on Friday night (*I use the term children loosely, since at least half of them will be teenagers 6 inches taller than me). I might carve a pumpkin.
But mostly, I will endure the day and begin to plan for Christmas. Because I definitely do NOT suck at Christmas....
And remember: stay safe out there and check those apples!
And no, it is not related to my general ADHD tendencies and desire, from time to time, to hit the road:
Nope, these are achy legs and hips that would make me squirm all evening long and have me flopping like a fish back and forth all night.
Apparently, this is often a side-effect suffered by women, ahem, of a certain age. As if everything going south and then settling around the equator wasn't bad enough...
But thanks to good old-fashioned home remedies, I am almost completely symptom-free and it is has made such a difference to me that I feel I need to pass this along in case anyone else is suffering from this as well.
The plan is three-fold:
I walk every day - usually from 30 minutes to an hour
An Epsom salt bath every night with at minimum of 1 cup of Epsom salts. Drink plenty of water before you get in!
After bath massage legs with lotion cut with rosemary oil.
I don't know who old Julia Lawless is, but her rosemary oil has been a god-send:
Wait - here is Julia's story, courtesy of the website:
Today Julia is highly respected as an authority in the field of aromatic plants and oils, appearing on TV and radio as well as giving lectures and interviews. As Managing Director of Aqua Oleum, she is directly responsible for selecting top-quality essential oils and checking the quality of all products that are sold. She is also in charge of the formulation of all new products and acts as a general consultant to the industry. As a keen gardener, she has been developing a three-acre plot in Wales over recent years, exploring the potential of those aromatic plants which are resistant to climate change. She is also trained in Tibetan Buddhist yoga and has practiced meditation for many years.
She is well known for her many books on herbs and aromatherapy, which include: ‘The Illustrated Encyclopaedia of Essential Oils’; ‘The Complete Illustrated Guide to Aromatherapy’ ; ‘The Fragrant Garden’; ‘Aromatherapy and the Mind’; ‘Aloe Vera’; ‘Tea tree Oil’; ‘Rosemary Oil; ‘Rose Oil; ‘Lavender Oil’; ‘Home Aromatherapy’; ‘The Home Use of Essential Oils’; ‘Illustrated Elements of Essential Oils’ and ‘Heaven Scent’. See BOOKS
I am not being paid by Julia, but I had read on-line that Rosemary oil massaged into legs and joints gives soothing relief and I can attest to it.
The bottle recommends putting some drops in almond oil, but since I am allergic to almond oil, I have used my own lotion with excellent results.
I find I can skip the odd night, but unless I do this regularly, it really returns rather quickly. Now I look forward to a nightly 15 minute soak - I take in a book and just enjoy the whole experience.
The rosemary oil does smell like rosemary, and Barry tells me I smell remarkably like steak (we always cook our steak with rosemary) but never mind - I have found huge relief!
I have been busy and neglecting you all terribly, so this is a post about a whole lot of disparate things!
There are colour stories that I dream about in my wardrobe.
I would so love to find a dress with these murky greens and russets all rolled together...
Or a pale lavender blue kissed by deeper plum shades. Wouldn't a blouse like that be divine?
After much avoidance of prints in the last year, I purchased two things this fall that were a) cheap and b) colourful.
This blouse was $15 at Target. It looks lovely with black pants....
And this boho jacket was also inexpensive and I pair it with long sleeve black tees and leggings and feel very Midnight At The Oasis....
And then there is the $15 Calvin Klein pink sequin skirt I scored on ebay that will come out to play come the holiday...
Besides dashes of pattern and colour, I have been reading all kinds of books these days:
I am halfway through Middlemarch and I am loving it!
I am finally getting through books of Christmas past - am I the only one who doesn't get through all their Christmas books - and the last few weeks have been treating myself to the Encyclopedia of the Exquisite By Jessica Kerwin Jenkins. Any book that has essays on masquerades and trapezes is all right by me. Just a delight!
I also picked up At Home with Madame Chic.
I know some people (and you know who you are, ho, ho!) didn't love her first book, but I love Jennifer L. Scott because I feel she brings the lovely into whatever she does.
One of the critiques is "doesn't everybody already know this stuff". Trust me - they don't. I love her ideas for approaching everyday life with peace and pleasure, not always an easy thing to do! This would be a wonderful Christmas gift especially for a mother of young children and I will likely give one or two copies as gifts this holiday season. For a longer review take a look at the Hostess' glowing review here.
I am also reading The Paris Architect, which is a gripping tale of a man's slow march towards heroism.
And every couple of days I read Naomi Klein's new book. This is obviously a character flaw of mine, but I simply cannot read more at a time. It is too depressing, at least early on, though I think it is critical reading for those who want to save the planet and are wondering what new economic models might help do that...
I have discovered new (to me!) makeup line at Target, Pixie, which, I believes makes the best and smoothest eyeliner pencils I have ever tried, even better than Urban Decay, which I thought was impossible to surpass!
The hallway is now painted and new carpeting put down on the stairs:
The green has indeed proven soothing....
When my handyman gets so inclined again, we will add crown molding here as well as the dining room. This is likely a Spring 2015 project however...
Is anyone else thinking of holiday clothing?
I confess - as if I would have to confess here - to an over-exuberance of holiday spirit (doesn't that sound like Dorothea, GSL?) that I carry with me the other 11 months of the year.
I am insanely jealous of my American friends - I think that the American Thanksgiving is the perfect beginning of the season and would find me in frippery that much sooner! Have I mentioned that having Thankgiving dinner with American friends is a bucket list item for me. I anticipate an invite from George and crew any moment...
Anyway, despite my love of fancy party clothes, I don't actually need any really fancy fare, and apart from the sequin skirt, I think I will focus on sparkly tops (mostly from my wardrobe) and nice trousers.
In the 25% off sale last week at J Crew, I broke down and bought these to try:
I love the idea of alabaster velvet pants paired with heels and loafers and other winter whites or blues...
The perfect lounging look. I'd put a little pixie dust on:
That's snow sparkle from Pixi!
And a brilliant red lip!
Or dressed up with a lovely silky blouse or t-shirt or something sequinned...
Of course all outfits will be a moot point if it arrives and is ill-fitting, so one needs a back-up plan, which I have yet to find.
But there is lots of time. I wonder what time George serves his Thanksgiving meal - lunch or later afternoon.
There is nothing so lovely as the turn in temperature to make one feel all cocoon-y.
Yesterday, I spent most of the day preparing for a dinner party. I always love to do that, but I can be a bit of a tightrope walker, suddenly deciding that I am going to make something I've never made before.
In this case it was a panna cotta recipe by Gordon Ramsay, and despite fears, it turned out beautifully.
PANNACOTTA WITH POMEGRANATE GLAZE
Serves 4 2 medium sheets leaf gelatine (11 x 7.5cm) 250ml double cream 50g caster sugar 50ml milk 15ml dark rum, or to taste
Pomegranate glaze: 20g caster sugar 275ml pomegranate juice
Chocolate shavings: Block of good-quality dark chocolate, for grating
1. Soak the gelatine in a shallow dish of cold water for a few minutes. Meanwhile, put the cream, sugar, milk and rum into a saucepan and slowly bring to a simmer. Heat gently for 30 seconds, then remove the pan from the heat. Taste for flavour, adding a little more rum if you wish.
2. Squeeze the gelatine leaves to remove excess water, then add them to the cream mixture and stir until fully dissolved. Tip the mixture into a jug.
3. Now pour into four individual glass dishes, leaving enough room for the glaze. Leave to cool, then place the glasses in the fridge to set for at least two hours, or overnight if preparing ahead.
4. To make the pomegranate glaze, heat a dry frying pan.Tip the sugar into the hot pan followed by the pomegranate juice. Bring to the boil and allow to bubble for 10–15 minutes, until thickened to a sticky, syrupy glaze. Pour into a small jug and leave to cool completely.
5. Pop the chocolate in the freezer for 10–15 minutes before serving. Pour the cooled pomegranate glaze on top of the chilled pannacottas. Take the chocolate from the freezer and draw a small straight-edged knife along the flat side of the bar to make curled shavings. Top each pannacotta with chocolate shavings to serve.
(Christmas with Gordon by Gordon Ramsay is published by Quadrille.)
NOT mine! Stolen from the internet!
Yay Gordon and Wendy!
After hours of good conversation and a healthy dose of wine, I headed to bed after midnight.
Honestly, midnight itself is exciting enough; I see it so rarely, that when I do see the two hands of the clock pass twelve it feels as if I am doing something naughty!
The morning after a late night is reserved for coffee and much laying about. In this case, you would have found me curled up with Indy on the couch, reading Middlemarch. I am getting ready for Dani and GSL's book club in late November, and I am truly loving the book.
Last night, however, you would have found me boiling my homemade ravioli in my lovely new copper pot.
If a person can love an inanimate object (no Ryan Gosling jokes please and thank you or other smutty comments), well, I love this pot:
Made by the Italian company Ruffino, it cooks like a dream. I do not mind the polishing one little bit. It is very meditative!
And of course once you start thinking of copper kettles, you start to think about warm woolen mittens, don't you?
And when I think of warm woolen mittens now, I can't help but think of my friend Barb, a retired school teacher and gifted writer, who has a wonderful blog called wool gathering.
In the blog, Barb shares her perspectives on many things, but what I love best about her blog (and her Facebook posts) is when she shows the spectacular mittens she makes and sells:
Given her literary bent, she is not one to simply make the mittens and sell them.
Nope - she gives them the most spectacular names. The ones above are called (left to right): Strawberry Blizzard: Strawberry Blush; Stormy Rose; Strawberry Yogurt; I Never Promised You a Rose Garden. Last winter she had a pair (and Barb correct me if I'm wrong!) named after David Adams Richards' novel Evening Snow Shall Bring Such Peace. I mean, come on, how cool is that? Don't you just love it?????? Well I do, and so I thought it worth sharing, along with Barb's blog link for those who are interested in some of Barb's favourite things.
I see a pair of Barb's mittens in my winter wardrobe for sure!
And perhaps a cream-coloured pony under the Christmas tree?
It has been so long since I had a "real" pair of mittens! I can't wait!!!
Hope you are having a fantastic Sunday! Stay safe out there!
