Book 'Em

Even though our tastes in literature differ tremendously, both JM and I are avid readers (yes, that's a euphemism for "severe geeks"). Yet, neither one of us has actually bought a new book since 2009. How can that be, you ask? Have we switched, so he is now catching up on my florid, relationship-based novels and I his military historic non-fiction? Decidedly not. Have we stopped reading and instead turned our intellect toward other pursuits, like chess or solving Fermat's last theorem? Um, no (and what intellect?) Have we run out of space on our color-coded bookshelves? Well, yes, but that's not the reason. The real reason is that we are now both now fully converted to reading on our Kindles ($139-379 on Amazon.com). As you know, I like to write about the things I love, and the only reason I haven't written a post on this topic before is that I thought everyone sort of already knew about them and had their own preconceived opinions, positive or negative. However, thrice in the last week, people (okay, they were all foreigners, but still...), have stopped me on the subway platform, in the airport, and walking down the street (yes, I can read and walk at the same time), to ask me what was this strange screened tablet I was staring at, and whether I liked it. Also, Amazon announced the new generation of Kindle last week (It has 3G wireless! And comes in black!), so I figured this post might be timely after all. Don't get me wrong, I still love the look and feeling of a real book -- the smell of the ink, the texture of the paper, the feeling of that first time you crack the spine -- that's all like porn to us nerdy bibliophiles.  But there are a lot of benefits to the Kindle that give real books a run for their money. Here are just some of the reasons I love my Kindle.

You Can Take It With You- at any given time, I have a lineup of five or six books waiting to be read on my Kindle (including The Fountainhead, which, in physical form is a real honker). And when I travel, I can take all those books with me, without having to actually carry six books. My Kindle is light enough to carry anywhere in my purse, but even when I don't have it with me, my books automatically sync to the "Kindle for iPhone" app, which means that I can seamlessly pick up right where I left off, right on my phone.
Immediate Gratification- I was recently talking books at lunch with a friend (we geeks band together), and as she made suggestions, I was able to download them to my Kindle right away. So much better than writing them down on a napkin I would inevitably lose.
Privacy, Please- When you read on a Kindle, no one can look over your shoulder or read your book jacket. And while there is something amusing about the communal experience of finding yourself in a subway car with eight other people all reading The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, it was a relief to me to be able to read the Twilight series without being judged by my fellow commuters. Oh, shut up, you've probably read them, too.
Easy Does It- Even if you are a technophobe, the Kindle is surprisingly instinctual and easy to use. My husband's grandfather, who has never really used a computer, picked up how to use the Kindle very quickly. It also has a screen that uses real ink, instead of backlighting, so there are no problems with glare when you read in the sun. Also, you can turn the page with the push of one thumb, which makes it much easier to read one-handed while in the bath, or while cooking, or walking the dog (yes, I do read in those places).

The only downsides I have encountered with the Kindle are that you have to remember to charge it (although the battery lasts a very long time), you have to turn it off for takeoff and landing on an airplane, and you can't lend out the books once you've finished. But that last one isn't really a problem for my husband and me, anyway. 

And, no, Amazon isn't paying me to write this (but, hey, Jeff Bezos, you can if you want to).

It's a Wash

I don't want to make presumptions about your life- I mean, for all I know, you could be way better at doing laundry than I am. You might be the Lord of the Laundry. The Sultan of the Spin Cycle. The Professor of Permanent Press. The Dean of Dryer Sheets... But if you're not, here's a primer on my processes and the products I prefer.

Five Steps to Perfect Laundry
1. Get Sorted. Unless you have never watched a sitcom in your life, you should probably know that mixing red clothes and white clothes in the washer will result in pink clothes. I sort clothes by color (darks, brights, whites), and by type (towels together, delicates separate). I have a hamper with different sections so I can sort things as I use them.
2. Pretreat Her Like a Lady. The surest way to never get a stain out of an article of clothing is to wash and dry it without pretreating. I use Oxi Clean Spray Stain Remover, $5.50, from Amazon.com- I think it works better than Spray 'N Wash, and even better than messy, damaging bleach. Spray it directly on a stain and rub the fabric against itself. It's good to let it sit for a few minutes, but don't leave any laundry product on your clothes for more than a couple hours as it will damage the fibers. The other day I spilled half a glass of red wine on my white dress, and this stuff got it out easily- I felt like Billy Mays.
3. Brighten Up. In addition to regular detergent, I always add a brightener to the wash. I like Biz, $5, best, but you can't buy it in New York, so I use Clorox 2, $7. I find they really work to keep whites from getting dingy and keep bright colors from fading. And they also work at getting out stains.
4. Dry a Little Tenderness. I tend to set my dryer to "Light Dry" to prevent the dryer from cooking my clothes. I'll pull out sweaters and t-shirts and jeans, smooth them out and let them finish drying in the air (which keeps them from getting deep-set wrinkles), but I'll let towels and such dry all the way.
5. Get Into the Fold. Not to sound like your mom, but your laundry isn't really done until it's folded and put away in your drawers. If you fold your laundry while it is still warm from the dryer, you can smooth out most wrinkles before they set, but if you let your laundry sit in the dryer until it cools, you ain't never getting those things out.

Follow those steps, and you'll be the Swami of Suds. If you weren't already.

Laundry photo credit: Martha Stewart

I Heart... Monograms

Like most preppy people, I derive a certain amount of pleasure from things that have my monogram on them. I think, in my case, it stems from never having been able to find my name among all the Jessicas and Jennifers on the rack of personalized pencils and mini license-plate key chains as a child in the '80s. Now, of course, you can't walk by a playground without tripping over a Lily (it's the #10th most popular baby name and climbing the charts), but back then, I ranked #747th, back with the made- up names people came up with by shaking a Boggle cube.

Monograms are more personal and more grown-up versions of those "personalized" items, with the added bonus that strangers on the street don't know your first name just because you have it imprinted on your Minnie Mouse fanny pack. And there are so many great online vendors providing easy and quick monogramming services, now, that you can get almost anything monogrammed, and you can choose a monogram style to suit almost anyone. One more reason to go monogramous.

Nautical melamine plates: four for $100, from Horchow. "Belle Pois" bed linens: (starting at $80) from Schweitzer Linens. Umbrella: $31 from Morgan & Company. Needlepoint loafers: $158 from By Paige.

I heart...Palm Beach Style!

Palm Beach is known for its distinctive style- both in decorating and in fashion- and I happen to be a fan. It seems to me that true Palm Beach style is the love child of casual and comfortable beachiness and gilded ornate opulence, with a dose of hallucinatory Technicolor thrown in. While I have been known to sport a Lilly Pulitzer print or two in my day (but never more than one at a time), I tend to prefer Palm Beach in its subtler incarnations- the beauty that results from taking the natural beauty of coral, palms, seashells and sand and elevating them as objets (that's French for objects), of using heavenly silks in simple beachy stripes, or of framing a rustic print of sea creatures in a gorgeous gold frame.

I love this nautilus shell on a mohogany stand ($100). It goes to show that sometimes things from nature are more elegant than anything we humans could come up with.

This sea urchin lamp from Horchow is on sale for $172, with free shipping when you use the code "lovehc". I love the coral-colored shade on this sucker.

These colorful graphic wallpapers would be great in a bathroom. The yellow bamboo pattern is from Woodson and Rummerfield's for $88/ roll. The green lattice is from Ballard Designs new line of wallpapers for $119/double roll.












It wouldn't be a Palm Beach posting without a little Lilly thrown in- this is the dress I am lusting after in the new Spring collection. It's $278- but I'm hoping that the poor economy combined with the power of prayer will get this puppy on sale in time for Easter.

I Heart...Chinoiserie

If I were ever to find myself in the position of having tremendous wealth (keep working, hubby), I think I would decorate one of my numerous homes (probably the one in Paris) entirely in chinoiserie.
Chinoiserie is the Asian-influenced style that became popular in European decoration and design during the 17th and 18th centuries (as trade increased). The term Chinoiserie refers to the European-made imitations of Asian design, not to things actually made in Asia (and incorporates Japan and other Asian influences, not just China). While I admire Asian design, I happen to prefer the imitations, which have an English-ness or French-ness they can't seem to shake, no matter how much they try. The beautiful pink room above was featured in Southern Accents magazine. The piece in this room is obviously an antique, but this reproduction bookcase from Dorothy Draper would fill in nicely, and has a very pretty, modern quality.






There are few things in this world that would drive me to steal, but if it were possible, I would peel this De Gournay wallpaper off the wall with my fingernails in order to have it in my home. It is all hand-painted (and thus, quite expensive) and so super-dreamy, I can't stand it.

It's possible to incorporate chinoiserie in more subtle (and less costly) ways- this Chippendale-style Macau chair from Ballard Design is $279, and this pretty Ginger Jar Lamp from ShopTableLamps.com is just $150.











I'm also crazy about these lovely linens from Leontine Linens. They have several Asian-inspired styles, and this bamboo-looking monogram just does it for me.





Lastly, what would a decorating post be without hearing from our friends at Domino? This turquoise chair/ fireplace combo feels like it stepped out of a dream. I love how their ornateness contrasts with the simple sanded wood floors and the worn rug. How do you say "gorgeous" in Chinese?

I heart...Silhouettes!

I've been lusting after silhouettes ever since they started popping up in all my favorite magazines and stores. So, I thought, what better thing to profile? If you don't want be to left in the dark, you should scope out some of these lovely little portraits.

This page from Domino is a beauty- I love how the old-fashioned silhouettes look graphic and modern in the color-blocked room.

These silk-screened pillows from Jonathan Adler are so great- imagine them on a bright colored couch. Cuteness.



Check out these little framed silhos from Simply Silhouettes- you can send them a photo of your profile and they will convert it into one of these cuties. They will even make tote bags or pillows from the images. Which is adorable, beyond a shadow of a doubt. (have you had enough of my silhouette puns, yet?)


Here's more gorgeousness from Domino- I'm obsessed with the bunny silhouette in this picture.







A friend of mine even hired a master silhouette artist to work at her wedding making hand-cut little portraits of all of her guests. And a few of us at my old office had ours cut by the same guy, as samples. Here's how mine turned out- it looks like me, but I swear to you I was not wearing a scrunchie. In the meantime, I have decided it can't be that hard to do this yourself, so I am going to try to make them of my husband and me (sans '80s hair accessories). I'll check back in with the results (unless I fail miserably, and then we will pretend this never happened).

I heart...Trompe L'oeil

We've all seen cheesy pastoral murals on the walls of restaurant bathrooms, and I think we can agree that there is nothing sophisticated or elegant about those. But lately I've spotted a lot of very clever and charming takes on trompe l'oeil which have made me reevaluate the concept. It's a cheeky and sassy way to bring old-school elegance into a modern space, and typically a lot cheaper than the real thing would be!


Look at these amazing tablecloths from Mark Cutler- easily turn a junky old table into a work of art. I also love this wallpaper from Deborah Bowness- if we didn't have so many real books I would cover our whole apartment in it.









I fell head over heels for this "Grandpa Clock" from Dutch by Design. So cute and practical.




Lastly, I pulled this page out of Domino last year and have hung onto it since then. What an ingenious way to create a beautiful central focus-point in a room without a fireplace. And you can take it with you if you move! Those tricky tricksters.

I heart...Birds!

One of the things that made me fall in love with our new apartment is our lovely upstairs master bedroom. It's on the top (sixth) floor of the building, and has a whole wall of windows onto the terrace, which makes it feel like a treehouse, or a bird's nest or (for you SAT word-lovers) an aerie. When we started decorating the room, my little literal heart couldn't resist this pretty wallpaper from French Country mecca Pierre Deux. I'm always drawn to busy pattern, which can get overwhelming in a smallish space, so we limited the paper to one wall.


I also couldn't resist the bed, which reminded me of a big ol' birdcage, and has the added advantage of playing to my childhood canopy-bed obsession. There are several versions of this bed out there right now, including one from Anthropologie, but I got ours for a bargain basement price from the Pottery Barn Teen catalog (which is really only slightly embarrassing). It came in a less sophisticated powdery white color, but with one semi-unpleasant afternoon and 3 cans of black matte spray paint I was able to remedy that quite satisfactorily.

Further evidence of my avian obsession are the four bird prints we have hanging at the top of the stairs. Apparently, Singer sewing products used to give out these collectible cards with their threads and whatnot as a sales gimmick in the 1920s. They are like baseball cards, but with birds on them- they even have facts about the different birds on the back, like player's stats (this Yellow Breasted Chat, for instance, is capable of mimicking the songs of other birds). Evidently, the bird-card collecting craze has passed, because I bought these on eBay for a couple of bucks, and stuck them in cheap 4x6 frames from Bed, Bath and Beyond. Not that I was searching "birds" on eBay or anything.