Well, my-my-my look who is showing off for us this weekend – I can’t even believe how beautifully the peony bush is blooming! I swear, I have not seen it bloom like this since we bought The Country House two Springs ago. As a matter of fact, I recall celebrating with peonies in the City on closing day. My, how time travels…the day after getting the keys to the house, we moved the old kitchen cabinets out to the barn. You must think I am nuts with all these new closet ideas, but there is a method to my madness. When the plan for our glass breezeway got shot down by the building inspector, we needed to find other options that would help us fit more efficiently into our little house. Fact is: I am working like crazy to figure out how we can optimize storage in the most efficient way possible. You see, we intend on moving everything out of The City Apartment and treating the weekend house as more of our forever home. Makes sense that I totally stopped giving you decorating updates on our space in NYC, right? Anyway, it’s likely that I won’t be spending my time differently than I currently am now thanks to an app on the phone called ‘hotel tonight.’ There will still be about four days a week in New York – it’s just that all my clothes, shoes and things will be in one place.Since the beginning, I’ve really struggled with the whole splitting my stuff between two homes thing – I never seem to have the right gear in the right place. Now when I go into the City each week, I will just have to pack a bag like I am going on a mini vacation. Since we don’t have a basement or an attic, losing the kitchen cabinets in the barn and converting them into floor to ceiling closets seemed like the best option possible for us.I am also thinning the crop of clothes and shoes from my 20’s that I have sitting around. Because it’s not like my Sergio Rossi shoes circa ‘99 are getting any more fashionable – or are they? A few weeks ago, I stumbled into a chichi vintage clothing store in Nolita and they were selling a Ghost dress that I still have hanging in my closet for several hundred dollars. First of all, I don’t even think it was $$$ to begin with?! and secondly, Oye – vintage now includes clothes from the late nineties! While I usually take things to Good Will, I just learned about Shop Linda’s Stuff and am thinking about trying it out. I’ll let you know how it goes!And before I sign off for the week, I wanted to tell you about a little guest post I wrote. The lovely folks over at NewlyWish online gift registry asked me to help kick off their Wedding to Home series of blog posts, and I was more than happy to oblige! Please check out my post about translating the wedding theme you choose into your wedding registry for your newlywed interior decor.

BTW: the NewlyWish gift registry isn’t limited to brides-to-be. I set up a wish list that I plan to share with the Mr. That way, he’ll never be stumped when my Birthday and our Anniversaries roll around!

  Posted by Amy Beth Cupp Dragoo / Personal and Register for... and Uncategorized and What to wear?

What you’ll need from the market: 4 cups of roughly chopped ripe Summer Tomatoes or Plum Tomatoes during the shoulder season (about 1.5 lbs) 1.5 cups roughly chopped Seedless Cucumber – if they are not available to you or you’re using regular cucumbers out of your garden, be sure to cut the cucumber in half [...]

  Posted by Amy Beth Cupp Dragoo / totally delicious dishes and Uncategorized

Remember a few weeks ago when I told you we were putting doors on the open shelves in the fireplace room? Well, we’ve decided to have the same cabinet maker do a large built-in armoire in the master bedroom for us too. We’ll paint it the same dark grey color as the walls in the [...]

  Posted by Amy Beth Cupp Dragoo / Design and Uncategorized and work in progress

I made my baked asparagus with egg recipe last night – it’s one of my favorites – consider this a reminder that it’s worth a try!

  Posted by Amy Beth Cupp Dragoo / totally delicious dishes and Uncategorized

Even though the weatherman predicted gloomy grey for the entire weekend, we had plenty of sunshine to warm up the days. It turns out the Wisteria I was so worried about -it bloomed flowers before it grew leaves- was doing exactly as Mother Nature intended. I had no idea that Chinese Wisteria did that! And [...]

  Posted by Amy Beth Cupp Dragoo / Uncategorized