Green Xmas (with blue tints)

We spent a busy Saturday decorating the house for the holidays.


We got it up just as our first parcels arrived from Amazon Santa.


Although the indoor tree is a cut spruce we bought from the local fire brigade (they deliver it, too!) we went to the nursery and bought a living arborvitae to have by the front door. We can plant it out in the spring. I had to put holly sprigs around the bottom to stop the kittens climbing in and pulling the decorations off.


The garland on the door is holding up well - no needles dropping yet.


I collected some more greenery from the yard and made three arrangements with a red and a white painted birch branch we bought from the nursery.


I added some roses to one of the vases.


Fruit, pinecones and votive candles around the blue spruce branch on the mantel. I don't know how we are going to light the Yule log with all that greenery in the way. We may have to do this instead.


Four white candles in the Swedish Jul ring we used to hang from the ceiling.


The Prussian soldier stands guard over the liquor. Somebody needs to.
We finished around 7 PM, then we went to a holiday party in the Village and saw how talented home owners really do Christmas decor. I have no photos but imagine something like this only more opulent. It was a staggeringly beautiful display and my yuletide decorations cannot hold a ahem candle to it.

How long does it take to memorise your address?

How long have we lived in this house? Almost three and a half years. Forty-two months. Quite a long time. That's why it surprised me on Friday evening when there was a knock on the door and a delivery guy asked "This 250"? No, answered Steven, "This is 265.
He has had two of the numbers transposed since we first looked at this place, and he still can't get it right. His excuse when challenged about his lack of precision? "I'm not good with numbers".
He's a statistician.

You never know who's reading your blog

Last night we were invited to a special Northern versus Southern Hemisphere food and wine duel at one of the best restaurants in Huntington (nay, on the Island) Aix en Provence, during the course of which my neighbor told me he reads this blog.

It's always a stomach- churning moment when you find that someone you know has been reading your words. The first thought that ran through my panicked brain was "Did I write anything scathing about them"? I mean, I only put my true feelings and frustrations into this blog but I try to remain polite and positive. However I have noticed recently that a few of the posts were a little testy in tone. At one point I seriously considered changing it's name from Beach House to Bitch House. But I digress.

At some point during last night's very enjoyable dinner (on the whole we liked the Northern food and the Southern wines the best), my neighbor said I hadn't blogged about his house and I took that as carte blanche to write this piece.
I had wanted to write about my neighbors' renovation for a long time, but I was concerned they wouldn't want their house out on the internets for people from Honolulu to Hajdu-bihar to gawp at. I did once mention it in passing and I asked if they were keeping a blog or video diary of the experience but they weren't. They were too busy living it.


Turning this old cottage and adjoining stables into a stunning home reminiscent of an English country cottage took twice as long as estimated and I'm guessing a whole stable-load more money but it was worth every second and every cent. The outcome is phenomenal and feels completely authentic. It certainly helped that one of the owners is a designer who had the vision to see through the dark and dirt to turn the stables into a huge light and airy living space with a master suite in the hayloft. They needed to be diplomats to deal with the locals constantly asking when they were going to be finished, or why they didn't just knock it down and build a new house on the land.


Now it's complete and truly this renovation should be featured in Architectural Digest. It's more impressive than anything I've seen on HGTV or Ths Old House. I cannot get over the way the two buildings flow seamlessly into each other. I love the way they kept some original windows, and had others replicated. The shingles they found match the originals perfectly. And the kitchen? Everybody who has seen it is madly jealous. It looks like a butler's pantry circa 1920 but it's functional and modern. How do you do light and airy yet keep it cozy? I don't know but she accomplished it, and she incorporated the sliding barn door into the interior too.

Steven has only admiration for the way the non-designer half of the duo coped with the cramped living quarters and cluttered chaos for two years while they were more than doubling the living space. And speaking of chaos I am secure in writing that when one of the neighbors has finished reading this, the other will have turned that Versuvius of boxes and bags full of Xmas decorations into a beautiful representation of an American winter wonderland.

Modern Gingerbread House

I swear if it didn't cost $78 I would so get one of these.
A modern. gingerbread. house. Who'd a thunk it?

Don't forget your breakfast

Happy Dag van de Sint!
Tonight in the Netherlands and tomorrow in Belgium is the time when all good children get their presents fron St Nicholas (Sinterklaas) and bad children get a whip from Black Pete's (Zwarte Piets) switch.
I usually don't start any Xmas shopping, baking (except for Xmas pudding) or decorating (except for the wreath) until we've done Sinterklaas, but as there are no children in the house this year I began early. To celebrate I made some speculaas. You would not believe how good the kitchen smells with the butter, molasses and spices.



I also collected holly, spruce, fir and pinecones and made some decorations for the light posts on the drive.



And finally, a reminder that a hearty breakfast sets you up for the whole day, here for your audio/visual pleasure is DJ Nicky & Ontbijt Piet with a special Sinterklaas version of "Jump de Hele Dag": "Vergeet je Ontbijt Niet" (Don't forget your breakfast) courtesy of Verity in Brussels. You have been warned!

I love duck tape

One of the spotlights over the bar burned out several weeks ago and I've been attempting to get it out ever since. The problem was it was wedged in so tightly there was nowhere to put your my fat fingers and get a grip on it to turn it. Steven tried and pronounced it "impossible".
Last night I was sitting in the den with a glass of Cabernet when I had an "aha" moment. What if I stuck something to the bulb and used that to turn it? What better than duck tape?


The lightbulb was no match for my ingenuity and the tape. Of course I didn't have a new lightbulb of the correct size, but I did have this eco-bulb.


It may not be a look that'll catch on but the long thin shape made it much easier to screw into the socket.


And it will be using a lot less power.

Wowser wallpaper

What do you think of this Fracto wallpaper from Umbra? I love it in rust and want to put it in the foyer.


It's only $39 a roll and we wouldn't need many for this space, it's also super easy to hang, even for the novice. It says so right on the website.


My only concerns are that it might be a little dark and it has to co-ordinate with the rooms that are open to the foyer: the den, dining room and great room, and they all have a lot of crimson accents. And there's the kitchen too, because even though there's a door there, we never close it.

Much happier now

clean desk
Originally uploaded by modernemama

See that desk? See how free of clutter it is? That's because I have now imported all my cds into my iMusic library and filed them away in the media cabinet in the den. Yes. I love a mess-free environment.
I've also mastered how to upload photos from the new iMac to Flickr! (There's a specific designation for media on this OS).
So I can stop complaining about the Leopard Operating System and just enjoy the iMac.
One of the best features is the sound quality of the speakers. Oh, and the volume. These dudes rock. Now I can choose whether to blast music through the speakers in the den, great room and kitchen from the amplifier in the den or to blast it through the house just from the iMac. It really is that powerful.

Détente

It may be my imagination but I've always thought snow makes people nicer - everyone just seems happier when the ground is white. And now some empirical evidence, of the feline variety at least.
Poor Hermes, the colourpoint, has been trying to get Cassis to love him since he arrived. But Cassis is top cat and won't let the other kitties come within a whisker's breadth. Until now.
Maybe it's just protection against the winter chill, but I like to think it's the "snow effect" that's got them to cease hostilities and cuddle up close.

Snow

The first snow of winter. Good thing I spent a few moments yesterday putting out the snow poles. It's too light to plow but the ground is getting pretty frozen now and those things will be difficult to "plant" in a few days. We also put up the exterior tree lights so it looks pretty at night time.

Compromise

In the interests of marital harmony I compromised and allowed Steven to bring the reclining chair and footstool from the den into my office. Now we can both be comfortable while watching Project Runway Canada*. (Un)fortunately there are no cupholders, or a popcorn machine for that matter, so I don't think it qualifies as a true media room.


As moving the recliner left a big dead space in the den I decided to swap the sofas around. It thoroughly confused the dogs.


And now I need to clean the carpets again.


*Project Runway Canada, if you love the US version, you'll adore this. The same but nicer.

The last of the fall color?

It may be the last day of November but we still have a lot of fall color left. Normally the backyard is pretty bare by Thanksgiving but a lot of the big maples still have their yellow leaves. The weather is scheduled to get really cold over the weekend so I'm guessing this is the end of the prettiness for this year.

iMac, so bad it's evil

By far the worst thing that happened last week was the loss of my iBook. The guys at the apple store attempted to revive it but it was a hopeless cause. I did have one night's elation when it looked as though they would be able to get the remaining data off the hard drive but it was not to be. I had managed to rescue all my photos but the documents they retrieved weren't the ones I needed and the hard drive eventually died while transferring the contents of my iTunes library.
This is where it all got interesting. Steven bought me* a new iMac for my birthday and it is a thing of beauty. Huge screen, super fast and gorgeous. But the Leopard OS is driving me nuts.
For a start there is no AppleWorks any longer, you have to purchase iWorks separately. A fact I was not aware of until I tried to write a document and the iMac requested $80 before I put virtual pen to virtual paper. Nice.
Then I wanted to automatically upload the photos I'd taken of the kitchen to Flickr. Flickr and Leopard aren't yet compatible. I'd put that down to teething troubles except that I can't upload photos to Blogger either. Apple would prefer I used .Mac to publish on the web and thats an add-on too. $70 a year for web-hosting. At the moment I have to select the photos I want to use and drop them on the desktop where blogger can see them. Another step I don't need to be doing.
But the most irritating thing is the sync with my iPod. I used to be able to transfer the contents of my iPod to my iTunes Library. Not anymore. The only things I can transfer now are those purchased at the iTunes store. And I do have one song I purchased and one I got for free, neither of which it would kill me to live without. I do, however, have another 1000+ songs that were downloaded elsewhere or imported from cds I no longer have, and those tend to be the ones that get played most frequently. So I won't be "erasing the contents of my iPod and syncing the new iTunes library. I will, however, be waiting for a hack to solve the issue. Or for Santa to buy me a new teeny, tiny iPod nano, in red, so I can play the new cds I got for my birthday at the gym. Which is probably what Mr Jobs wants me to do.
Right now I'm transferring all the songs that didn't make it off the iBook, and that I still have, from cd to computer. So far it's taken all week and I'm about half-way through. Anything to do with decorating the house for the holidays or maintenance on said house will just have to wait.
*Steven has suggested turning my office into a media room so we he can watch movies on the flat screen.

Anyone know where I can bag an Impala?

Yesterday I wrote that this had been a frustrating week. Here's the second thing I could have done without. The table and chairs above came from our previous kitchen, a tiny space but very efficient. We chose the table because it was small - we could sit four at a pinch but it's better when there are just two people eating there. The Impala chairs we fell in love with at the Modernica store in Soho, NY. We each chose our favorite colour (mine's red - that's a surprise, no?) and custom ordered them. The intention was that if we moved to a bigger space we'd buy a larger table and two extra chairs. Well that's not to be. Modernica has closed it's Soho store and are no longer producing the Impala chairs. This is a classic design but I have no idea who has the license to produce them and although I've spent two days looking on the internets there don't seem to be any floating about out there. And I'm not having much luck yet finding a buffet/sideboard/credenza either.

Beaten by the celery soup

It's been a trying week chez modernemama. Granted we got the kitchen painted and it looks awesome and I, inspired by the paint colors, made celery soup. The problem came when I pureed the soup in the KitchenAid Blender.



I switched the thing on, pressed puree, there was a horrible grinding noise and the little plastic teeth that hold the jar on the motor shirred off. I was pretty pissed as I was pureeing already cooked vegetables. I mean I could have passed those through a sieve, it's not as though I was blending ice to make Margueritas. I expected more from that machine. Although I have had it six years past the guarantee so I guess it didn't owe me anything. I did save the jug in case we get a new one, as their accessories aren't cheap, but I'm not sure I'd buy another KitchenAid as I can get a handheld Braun and a Cuisinart jug model for less than the price of my old one. Until then, no breadcrumbs, no garlic and ginger paste for the Rogan Josh, and chunky soup only.

Azalea Blossom

This solitary blossom emerged on the purple azalea on the southern border. An azalea blossom in November is a real bonus, look at the autumn colour on the leaves surrounding it. Pretty.

The kitchen is painted but the tacky carpet remains

This is where we started in June 2004, flowery wallpaper and vinyl blinds, dingy ceiling and brown indoor/outdoor carpet. Practical, but not our style. Our Impala aluminum chairs and cafe table look really odd amongst all the abstract florals. The two Marcel Breuer chairs got repositioned to the basement where they remain.


I couldn't live with the flowers so within a week or so we had white walls, and the dresser and table from an upstairs bedroom took a pause on their way out of the house and stayed in the kitchen for the next 40 months.


Earlier this year we hung the plans of the house above two Andrew Geller sketches and that just seemed to emphasize the grotty ceiling. So we decided that rather than wait until the kitchen is updated, we'd just give it a coat or two of paint and clean it up a bit.


We chose eventually to go with Benjamin Moore Cloud White on the ceiling and Titanium on the walls. Half way through painting I skimmed the Pottery Barn catalogue, (I usually throw it straight in the recycle bin) and discovered Titanium was a Pottery Barn colour.



I feel the same way about PB as Phoebe in Friends so I tried to persuade Steven we needed to pick a different colour but he wasn't having it, and as he was wielding the paintbrush, he won. Just as well, I'm really pleased with the colour in here now.


We had to move the dresser and table to paint and we couldn't bring ourselves to put them back so it's looking a bit empty right now. I'm searching for a walnut credenza that will fit along the wall, something similar to the ones I cannibalized for the dining room and the great room. I'd also like to replace the cafe-style table with a larger oval Saarinen table, or this round Rondo Lapalma table but I'm not sure that would ever be in the budget. Still, we are making progress. Now if I could only get rid of that looovely brown carpet......................

Outdoor decoration

I gave my neighbor a huge bag of pine cones from that giant fir tree in the photo, and we clipped some Hinoki (False Cypress) and Holly (in foreground of photo) from the front of the yard. She provided the bows, wrapping and expertise and made this beautiful mail box cover. Isn't that awesome?

We raised the ceiling

Well not really, we just painted it. But it sure feels higher, and cleaner than before too.



This is Steven doing all the work. So far it's been a day to prep, a day to put one coat on the ceiling and all this morning to touch up. He's hoping to put at least one coat on the wall before this evening. We'll see how that pans out.



The animals are all seriously freaked out, including Jefke the cat who is watching from the safety of his perch on the microwave.

Thanksgiving Paint Colors

It seems a shame to paint over these swatches, doesn't it? The first square on its own didn't look right, the next couple were better, but adding the last two colors makes the original one really pop.
Top row from left to right: Sweet Pear; Titanium; Crystalline; Iced Cube Silver. Bottom row: Wind Chime; Titanium. All by Benjamin Moore USA.
We decided that the sagey-grey will work best (although I'm still hankering after the Sweet Pear, especially with the Titanium next to it) and the lighter tone is the one we chose. Which just happens to be? Titanium. Yes, that's right, the color we painted the dining room walls and the powder room, too. The strange thing is that in the dining room it is more grey with an undertone of green and in the powder room, which has no natural light, it's definitely grey. I put two coats on the swatches on all the walls in the kitchen and it registers from sage green to silvery green. Certainly not grey. I really resisted this color because I didn't want the whole house painted the same but it just looks right. I hope we are still happy once the whole room has been painted.
But first we will be tackling that beige ceiling.