Sweet Dreams

It's a bit hard to see from the picture (pardon the iPhone image), but I've got a sweet pair of iron twin headboards in at the booth. Perfect for a girl's or guest room, or used together as a king headboard.

I love starting off the week with pretty new things.

$250/pair, found at Hunt & Gather

Matchbook

It's a cold and rainy day here in Winston-Salem, but the gloom has been kept at bay in the Applegate home thanks to warm chocolate chip cookies (I've had 4 in the past hour), a sleeping baby (yay for long naps!) and this delightful surprise:

Matchbook is a new online lifestyle magazine that covers everything from decorating to fashion to cooking to travel to books to pretty much anything else that will help you lead, as they say, "a charmed life." In fact, the entire publication is dedicated to this cheerful aspiration, but not in a saccharine, "I've seen this a million times," way. No, Matchbook is clever and fresh and quite enjoyable. In addition to the expected topics such as Classics For Your Closet (which, don't get me wrong, I always enjoy and take note of) and interviews over coffee with various style makers, Matchbook also includes unique pieces such as the history of the Burberry trench coat and "10 Things You Didn't Know" about Princess Margaret (which is even more interesting if you've recently seen The King's Speech...a brilliant film, by the way.)

It's easy to get overwhelmed with the growing amount of online magazines these days and it can be hard to know which ones are worth your time. I really believe, though, that Matchbook is. Co-founders Katie Armour and Jane Lilly Warren do a phenomenal job of making this smart and relevant e-magazine stand apart from the crowd.

Just as I do with Lonny, I'll now eagerly await a notice in my inbox that a new issue of Matchbook is live. Although it's still not the same as having it arrive in your mailbox, as Domino used to, it's a great read nonetheless, full of style and inspiration (and did I mention it's free?)...so I'll take it.

Buttermilk Pudding Cakes

Did you see this recipe for Buttermilk Pudding Cakes in the latest edition of Lonny? I made them this weekend and can testify that this recipe's a good one. It's pretty simple, too, which (paired with being delicious) makes it a new dessert staple in the Applegate home. 

Buttermilk Pudding Cakes with Sugared Raspberries

Buttermilk Pudding Cakes:

¾ cup sifted bleached all-purpose flour 

1½ teaspoons baking powder

2 large eggs

¾ cup whole or low-fat buttermilk

1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

⅓ cup sugar

4 tablespoons (½ stick) unsalted butter, melted and cooled to room temperature

Raspberries:

8 ounces (2 cups) fresh raspberries

½ cup sugar

Whipped cream (optional)

Preheat oven to 425 degrees with a rack positioned in the top third of the oven. 

Sift the flour with the baking powder in a large bowl. In a second large bowl, beat the eggs with a whisk until creamy and yellow, and then whisk in the buttermilk, vanilla, sugar, and butter (the mixture will look curdy and broken; that is fine). 

Add the flour mixture to the egg mixture, and whisk until the batter is combined and smooth.

Divide the batter among 8 standard (3-ounce) nonstick muffin-pan cups, filling them two-thirds full. Bake for 9 minutes. Check the cakes by inserting a knife tip between the rim of the cake and the muffin cup and pulling gently to expose the side of the cake. If the side of the cake appears evenly browned, the cakes will hold together when inverted and are ready. If not, bake for another minute and check again.

While the cakes bake, place the raspberries in a medium bowl. Shower them with the sugar, and then use your hand to gently toss them in the sugar until they have a light dusting on them. (If the berries are overripe or bursting, or wet because you washed them, the sugar will dissolve on them. This is fine—they’ll still taste great!)

When the cakes are done, invert them onto individual small plates and divide the berries among them, mounding them on top and around the cakes, and top with a dollop of whipped cream, if using.

Daily Painters

It's Friday already?!? I'm certainly not complaining, but where did the week go?

Part of my distraction this week stems from a new website that my Mom introduced to me called Daily Painters. Each day it features the work of many different artists, which you can buy right from the site. I would love to collect more art, and this site has given me many new artists to consider. Some of my favorites from this week are:

Nancy Poucher

Carol Marine

 Michael Naples

 Cori Solomon

 Delilah Smith

 Debbie Miller

George Coll

Mark Adams

If you're like me and forget to check certain websites frequently, you can sign up to have the daily paintings emailed to you. Whether or not you're in the market for new art, it's a treat to see beautiful paintings each morning and to discover new artists. Be sure to check the size of the paintings before buying; most all are pretty small, making them perfect for displaying on a bookshelf, in a gallery display on a wall, or on a table top.

Enjoy browsing and happy weekend! 

Happy Weekend

Hope it's a good (and long) one. 

the pretty flower picture is from here

Who, me?!?

I was giddy with excitement when I found out that Elizabeth of Life of Style added me to her list of "Stylish Bloggers." What an honor, as Elizabeth is a talented designer and blogger with impeccable taste. If you haven't checked out her blog, do so now as it's certainly a must-read (especially for those of you who are local; Elizabeth is a Raleigh girl!)

So here are the rules:

After receiving this award you have to pay it forward and follow the rules:

Rules

#1) Thank and link back to the person who awarded you.

#2) Share 7 things about yourself.

#3) Award 10 great bloggers that you have RECENTLY discovered

#4) Contact those bloggers and tell them about the award

7 things that you might not otherwise know about me?

1. Someday I hope to open a store. It will be full of wonderful "finds," from furniture to accessories to lighting and art and a custom upholstery line. Edgar will have a bed by my desk and will keep me company throughout the day. (I'll have to figure out a way to keep him off the couches...)

2. My favorite place to be is on a North Carolina beach, with my family, a stack of magazines, a shrimp burger and an ice cold Corona (with a lime, of course).

3. I love frozen yogurt and am kind of a snob when it comes to Oreo flavors. Best place to get it? The Yogurt Pump (Chapel Hill) or Thomas Sweets (Georgetown).

4. My favorite movie is Love Actually- it's a poignant film about love- the kind that makes you giddy and happy and the kind that's hard, the kind that's a choice you make every day, no matter how difficult it may be.

5. I love the Carolina Tar Heels. I was singing the fight song as soon as I could talk and it's the only school to which I applied. Nothing beats a spring day in Chapel Hill, walking through campus with a Sutton's cherry coke.

6. If I could go on a shopping spree in any store, it would be Anthropologie. I love that place. Amazing clothes, fabulous jewelry, unique home goods, and it always smells amazing, doesn't it?

7. I have the best "jobs" in the world; being a Mom is the most incredible gift and each day with Rob brings new joy and delight. On top of that, I'm able to explore flea markets and thrift stores and bring life into old pieces that I find...and actually make some money doing it (not a lot, but still). I love helping to make people's homes beautiful; it's meaningful and satisfying, and even though furniture, fabrics, and rugs are material, earthy things, I think that creating beauty is work with eternal value, and I am blessed to do it.

I'm passing along the Stylish Blogger award to:

Happy House Blog

Pink Wallpaper

Moxie Maley

Pink to Green

Ten June

Southern Exposure

The Glam Lamb

The Pursuit of Style

The Estate of Things

Amy Meier Design

Chloe Redmond Warner

Thanks to Chinoiserie Chic, I got to see some beautiful new images of Chloe Redmond Warner's designs this evening. I love her style and am especially enamored with the Chiang Mai Dragon headboard, bedskirt and daybed. How I'd love to design my bedroom around that print!

Enjoy!

Sale!

Everything in my booth at Hunt & Gather is 20% off right now. I hope you'll stop by once the snow melts!

And in the meantime, if you're looking for something to read while you're hunkered down at home, check out the new issue of Lonny. It is, once again, pretty incredible.

Dreaming of Market

The spring High Point Furniture market is being held early this year (in the first week of April), so I'm already beginning to receive catalogues from various vendors featuring new products. These tables immediately caught my eye:

They measure 20" x 20", so two of them would make a perfect cocktail table (I personally think that four together, as seen above, is a little much...unless your room is HUGE and can really handle it).

So here's a question for you: would you like to see these in my booth at Hunt & Gather? If so, what colors are your favorite?

Happy Friday

It's Friday, folks, and I'm excited because my night will include:

I hope your weekend is also full of a few of your favorite things!

Things that I'm Loving

1. This breakfast room. And the highchair...which Rob received for Christmas [yay!]

It's so sleek and small that you barely know it's there; a real plus in our tiny eating area. And, it can be used as a chair (as seen below) as the child gets older. Genius design by the Swedes...who else?

2. This shower curtain. You'll recall that we discussed custom shower curtains awhile back. I would add this curtain-style to the top of the list when looking for a unique design in your bathroom. I love how it kisses the floor and frames the tub. And the fabric...so fresh!

3. Leopard print carpet. Bold? Yes. A little risky? Yes. But when it's done well (as Miles Redd shows below), it's fabulous.

4. Custom tablecloths. Any boring table can be transformed through a custom-made tablecloth in a great fabric. Opt for a soft outdoor fabric to guard against inevitable spills. It's an inexpensive take on the dining room table with limitless possibilities for color and pattern.

So many ideas & projects...where to begin?

January...

...here you are again.

photo by Anna Spiro

photo by Anna Spiro

photo by Anna Spiro

photo by Anna Spiro

I couldn't help but feel a little bit (okay, a lot) jealous of Australian Anna Spiro from Absolutely Beautiful Things when I read her blog this morning. Her latest post shares the same title as this one, yet the meaning of the month for her is starkly different:

"For me January is all about being on holidays at the beach with my family. We spend long days playing in the sand and swimming in the ocean. We read, we cook, we talk, we laugh and I'll admit we fight too. We sleep the afternoons away and prepare ourselves for the year which is forthcoming. January is my favourite month."

For me, here in North Carolina, January is tough. It's cold, the excitement of Christmas is over, and warm days at the beach seem very far away. January is most definitely my least favorite month.

On a brighter, optimistic "new year" note, January does inspire me to get my house in order. This weekend was spent organizing, purging, deep cleaning and rearranging (see bookcase image below...it's amazing what an hour and a "take to Goodwill" pile can do). Although I'm weary of New Years resolutions, I have been inspired to make some goals: do something about my boring mantle (time to scour the old magazines for ideas), read more books, be more adventurous in the kitchen, use my fine china more (which shouldn't be hard to do since I've only used it once in 4+ years...and that once was 3 days ago), and, of course, blog more- a never-ending goal of mine.

Whatever your goals or resolutions are for this year, I wish you the best and a happy 2011!