When we traveled to Sweden and Denmark last year, I couldn’t be stopped from checking out pharmacies for new beauty products as I’ve done on past trips to Paris, arguably the best spot in the world for pharmacy finds. The variety I found in Scandinavian pharmacies deserves honorable mention as I was delighted at the […]

Life’s too short to wear ugly anything; the same goes for these Christmas sweater sugar cookies. I love all cookies, but there’s almost nothing better than a beautifully iced and sprinkled sugar cookie. My sister, Christina, and I were inspired to decorate cookies when she came across Fancy Sprinkles. We decided to keep our palette […]

It’s hard to be minimal at this opulent time of year. Yet, the more times I have decorated (then undecorated) our home for the holidays, I am learning what really transforms and gives warmth to our space and what is just clutter and stressful to store year after year. Instead of going all out, I […]

Williams Sonoma buche de Noel, Williams Sonoma

I love receiving Christmas cards almost as much as I love sending them out, and also like to store cards from the last year or so and bring them out at Christmas before eventually recycling them (or upcycling them if there’s a pretty motif I can reuse in cardmaking or gift wrapping). Since it’s fun […]

I have a little collection of blue and white vases that I display in our dining room beneath some beautiful hand-painted birds on silk. While I am minimizing our Christmas decorations this year, I wanted to add a some complementary decor to make our dining room festive. With some acrylic paints, I mimicked the designs […]

What to do with those heaps of luxury ribbon you find yourself hoarding? How about this lovely upcycle? I glued lengths of Hermès ribbon all the way around an ordinary pencil holder to create a pretty makeup brush holder that sits on my vanity! shop the post (paid ad) Adhesive Technologies 0441 High Temp Mini […]

I was dazzled the image of this New York Times Cooking recipe for their Rose Apple Tart and was determined to make it for Thanksgiving this year. Not only is it undeniably pretty, but also supremely and wonderfully delicious, as well as easy to assemble. I used Honeycrisp apples for their pink skins, which is […]

This year for Halloween, we placed about a million pale pumpkins all around our house, four of which (barely) survived ravaging by squirrels. Of these remaining, I wanted to use them for our Thanksgiving centerpieces. This time of year is tough for cut flowers, as seasonal blooms are scarce and grocery store bunches offer little […]

For the the most wonderfully moody season, I know of no way better to create ambiance at home than with candles. Throw on Charlie Parker radio on Spotify and a cold, rainy day and you’re in business. While I do tend to hoard candles, I also burn and enjoy them at almost an equal rate. […]

This combination just smells like Christmas to me. When I was was little, especially around this time of year, my mom would fill a little saucepan with water and add to it orange peels and ground cinnamon, keeping the stovetop on low all day. There’s a cozy feeling of warmth from this simple trick, like […]

I could lie and say that I love doing laundry, but I am not going to. Because it can sometimes take herculean effort to get moving on this household constant, I need little enticements to make the task a little nicer. Podcasts certainly help, but Jo Malone is a little better. Instead of settling for […]