by Alexis L. on December 29, 2011
A tiny pistachio macaron of a studio apartment. Nick Olsen breaks a lot of precepts for studio decorating, deploying color on the walls, pattern everywhere and creating a lively –not just livable– space. The video shows that 300 sq ft is, indeed, tight to move in and I have a few quibbles about his choices but I think this is a lovely departure from the usual triple-white Ikea-driven rooms that are presented as good studio design. And while prices aren’t given, the look could of the room could definitely be accomplished on a small budget with a lot of thrifting and creativity.
by Alexis L. on December 15, 2011
I adore natural trees–in 2009 we had a Christmas branch with just a few ornaments and last year, we chose a small, real pine tree with paper and straw decorations but when we stumbled upon this “bangle tree” in the NYC flower district, we decided to go for major frippery. Ornaments are a combination of Ikea non-breakables, garland from Jamali Garden, Holdiday 2006 Thomas O’Brien for Target collected from eBay, and topped off with glittered bow from that most rarefied of outlets–the $.99 store.
by Alexis L. on November 25, 2011
Here’s hoping that your Thanksgiving was spent in good company and surrounded by good food. What did you do and what did you eat? Did Friday morning find you queued up in mall lines?
We didn’t find much time to photograph the scene in our home, being far too overwhelmed with chopping, searing, arranging, then eating and sighing but here are a few photos–
Part of this menu for Thanksgiving 2011
roasted cauliflower soup
duo of seared venison and moulard duck
with port reduction and white wine mustard sauces
sauteed brussel sprout leaves with purple figs and walnuts
cranberry sauce
sauteed broccoli rabe with garlic
haricot verts and yellow long beans
wild rice dressing with bacon, apples and herbs
white cheddar creamer potatoes
enjoyed with
cotes du rhone and sangiovese-cab sauvignon
spiced pumpkin cake with spiced cream cheese frosting
enjoyed with
1981 Darroze Bas Armagnac
by Alexis L. on October 5, 2011
If you could distill the essence of the American social proposition and national ethos, you might reduce it to this: “opportunity.” The American Dream is not a hand-out; it’s the opportunity to obtain wealth and all of its’ signifiers, especially the home and the fence. Our national legend has it that this opportunity is meted out more-or-less meritocratically, that in a nation without royal tyranny, we mostly rise and fall on the basis of worth ethic, intelligence and character. This isn’t always so but true misfortune and denial of opportunity is usually a limited and personal tragedy, a rare cancer, an exception that proves the rule of American Exceptionalism.
One project that is complicating that narrative–that national insistence that as Americans we live the lives we have earned and that we are all part of the healthy middle class–has arisen as part of Occupy Wall Street: WeAreThe99Percent, a Tumblr which is giving voice and face to the 99% of Americans who are not ultra-wealthy. The stories they tell are not merely affecting but critical. Yes, critical, because whether you are Tea Party Patriot, a fiscally conservative Democrat or a Revolutionary Marxist, there is a need to bear witness, to hear each other and engage in a shared reality rather than a combative rhetoric. I do not know whether the stories below are true but they certainly ring true and they speak of home and how economically ordinary people are experiencing home in a post-prosperity America.
I’ll be revisiting this.
again, all via http://wearethe99percent.tumblr.com/
