Did I ever tell you this story? When I turned 25 my mom went through all the tried and true recipes that she made when I was growing up. She hand wrote each and every one on a separate sheet, placed them in a plastic sheet protector and organized the entire list in a three ring binder complete with different sections. She covered all the bases – from Salads, to Main Dishes, Cocktail recipes, to Pies and Cookies – I have all the recipes that she is known for.
Mom presented the binder to me on my birthday “To my favorite Chef.” If I ever follow a main course recipe, it’s my attempt at recreating a meal “like mom made.” Fact is, I own hundreds of cookbooks – I am an addict. I love food photography!What really and truly makes my heart sing is baking. Maybe it’s the perfectionist Virgo in me? {winkwink} The fact that if you follow a baking recipe down to a T it will look, taste and be exactly what the photo looks like in the cookbook. I love that. It is so incredibly satisfying! Celebrating as a kid, I always wanted my birthday cake to be white cake with lemon yellow frosting and have colorful sprinkles on top. Funny thing is, I don’t even like cake very much. It’s the icing – it’s too sweet. I am more of a coffee cake kind of gal.
Anywhoo… there won’t be any baking for me today. Heck, we’ll be lucky if the kitchen is installed and unpacked in time for Thanksgiving! I am simply marking the date. It’s been ten years I have had my binder and I am incredibly thankful for that. I am off to enjoy what’s left of my 35th birthday in New York City. I am so happy to be taking a break from the cleaning and the boxes in Connecticut and celebrating in the city I have called home for so many years. Have a wonderful day!

24 Comments » Posted by ABCDDesigns / Nesting and Personal and Uncategorized

As you know, we decided to go forward with the move even though we couldn’t put anything on the second floor. The wood flooring “specialist” did the most horrendous job possible on our wood flooring. I had three different wood flooring professionals over last week to look at the mess he made. All agreed the job was sub par. This fact sent us scrambling to figure out how to fix the mess in the three days leading up to move in day. My painters swooped in to save the day – however, the solution didn’t come fast enough. This week I have been waiting for my wood floors to get three coats of paint to cover up the dark stain = no *indoor* shower access. I have to admit – it’s been super helpful to have an outdoor shower. I’ve even loosened up a bit (considering we have no neighbors for miles) and have tried the shower sans swimsuit a few times – eeeps! Needless to say, I still think we need to come up with a privacy screen treatment for it. Each time I shower outside, I hope and pray that the UPS guy doesn’t happen to stop by with a delivery = talk about stressful!
Long story short – it’s day six of me unpacking moving boxes. The movers arrived at about 2:30 in the afternoon last Saturday. They pulled the last box off the truck at about 6pm. The movers must have made a hundred trips into and out of the house with their dirty shoes. Luckily I realized it would be messy and I lined the floors with craft colored building paper. Don’t laugh – I might have selected my floor protection by what color I liked better! A helpful hint: if you use blue painters tape to put the rosin paper down, be certain that you pull the tape up quickly after you’re done using the paper. The blue tape bond becomes extremely strong and will pull up any new urethane finish that you might have on the floor. That little lesson I learned in our old Soho apartment – I let the paper sit until I unpacked the box. The job took days and I was pulling up the new wood floor finish left and right – what a mess!I ran around and pulled up all the tape right when they left. When the boxes and paper overwhelm me, I take it to the transfer station. I have made multiple trips to recycle our cardboard boxes and newsprint packing paper. Oh my gosh, moving is not an eco-friendly activity! Ugh. What I did learn: these people in Connecticut don’t mess around with their trash. On one of my visits to the transfer station, I saw someone rescuing an abandoned vintage Eames Lounge from the dumpster. What a find!So far, the library is coming together nicely. It’s actually the living room, but with a gigantic built-in bookcase as the focal point, it is hard to call it anything other than a library! The biggest disappointment is that our china hutch doesn’t fit in the dining room. (It’s too tall!) We were lucky enough to find a house with beams in the ceiling, but those beams are exactly what are keeping the poor hutch from fitting in the room. Boo!The house is blessed with a ton of open shelving. I think it will be too visually stimulating to add a glass front hutch to any of the other rooms. It’s such a shame, because I absolutely love the china hutch! But the fact of the matter remains that it will only really be right in the dining room.That is the first week update from the ABCD Homestead! The Mr. is hoping to catch a 5:19 train, so I have plenty of work to squeeze in before his arrival tonight. I am off to organize my sewing, craft and art making tools in the romper room – I am going to make use of all that kitchen cabinetry we moved out there! I wish you a wonderful weekend. xox

12 Comments » Posted by ABCDDesigns / Nesting and Personal and Uncategorized

If I were a superstar blog writer, I suppose I would have had a slew of guest posts ready to go live this week while I am unpacking all the boxes. But I am not, and I don’t. Heck, with both flooring disasters delaying us by more than 5 business days, I was ready to postpone the move until September. That is, until I learned our movers were going to charge us for changing the move-in date. Not only that, we’d have to pay for another month of storage in the Bronx. Which (might I add) is almost equal to our Connecticut mortgage payment – pure insanity, I know. Instead of putting off the move-in day, we simply had the movers place everything on the first floor while the second floor gets the second and third coat of paint.Please bear with me… I realize ABCD Design hasn’t been totally itself lately! It takes a lot of time to scour the internet and scout things in real life that inspire me enough to want to share them with you. Between all my personal time being soaked up with renovations, recovering my bike accident, and now unpacking – I am doing all I can just to stay above water!In happier news, I unpacked all my cookery books over the weekend and they have a new home in the laundry room. It’s so great to see them again – now all I need is our kitchen installed. The art is here, (safe and sound, thank goodness!) and our paintings look great leaning against the dark living room walls. I am truly delighted with our decision to nest in the Country and keep our little postage stamp sized spot in the City for late nights out and early morning commitments in the Big Apple.

{Images of moving boxes via Patti Friday, formally called the Liberty Post}

22 Comments » Posted by ABCDDesigns / Nesting and Personal and Uncategorized

There have been a handful of inquiries from my fellow blog writers asking to interview ~me? Gosh, I am flattered! I love the idea that it might bring some new voices over here to ABCD Design. But who knew this week – the week I am scheduled to move out of storage after 17 months – was going to be such a busy week for ABCD on the internet?This past Wednesday, Kelley Moore asked ABCD Design to take part in her RAMBLINGS series ~ my pleasure!On Thursday, ABCD Design was featured at La Dolce Vita blog. Paloma has been so generous about sharing my ideas and ABCD Design with her readers over the last few months. Do you recall back in July when she asked me to take part in her 10 things I can’t live without series? Then, she was kind enough to ask me to be in her Style Files series. That was a fun one! I answered questions like what’s your favorite season? Scent? Flavor? Color? Food? Flower…And last, but certainly not least, Morgan from the Pepper Design Blog asked me to take part in her Friday Guest Interview. She asked me about my design aesthetic, trends I see, and tips I’d like to share.Do you know what the best part is? All of these posts featured photos of my last apartment. A place I moved out of 17 months ago. While it was indeed a beautiful space – I can’t wait to unpack all those things and repurpose them in the new house. I am going to make new memories and take new photos. All the anticipation over the last 1.5 years -of where, when, how- has been stiffling! Now that we’ve put down roots on the East Coast, it will be a whole slew of new decorating, nesting, kitchen organizing, cooking, and settling in. Exactly what this sketch book is supposed to be about! All that fun starts tomorrow morning when the movers arrive. Wheeeeeeeee!

8 Comments » Posted by ABCDDesigns / In The News and Personal and Thank You For The Mention and Uncategorized

After two flooring disasters and a beautiful paint job, we’re nearly ready to move into the new house. Today is jam-packed. I am making the most of what little time I have in the City. I have meetings today with wedding photographer Amanda from Swoon Over It and event planner Lisa from Anderson Green Events. Later this evening I am going to an event at Bunny Williams atelier where I plan to catch up with my ladies from the New York Design Center. BTW: I can not believe I am going to have the opportunity to meet Bunny in real life…I am beyond excited! Tomorrow I am back up to the country to see that the painters finish up ~ should be a wonderfully busy week!!

8 Comments » Posted by ABCDDesigns / Personal and Uncategorized