luxury goods come to mongolia

What? Louis Vuitton and Burberry have stores in Mongolia? I might have been more surprised if you told me that they were setting up shop in rural Mississippi. When I lived briefly in Ulan Bataar six years ago (really, six?!), I wouldn't have imagined it.

The mining was already big business, but my impression then was that the wealth was being taken out of the country. It seems as if the rich/poor divide in Mongolia has grown a lot and fast. Even six years ago, the corruption was evident, so I cannot imagine that this wealth has grown organically or justly. Instead of being pleased with the seeming economic leap, I'm worried about average Mongolians' liberty.

Here's the Wall Street Journal article. It is not, as I had expected, about the high-quality native cashmere...

no excuses, no exceptions

Ah! Lauren, I love you! Whenever you receive a package in the mail from my friend Lauren, you know it's going to be good. After reading about my love of watching Ina Garten but not cooking her recipes, Lauren sent me this:

That's the Barefoot Contessa book that I have always wanted. How did she know?! Lauren's handmade card, tucked above the top left corner of the book, starts:

Lauren herself is the best cook I know. Her food not only is divinely delicious, but also tastes like she put her love into it.

So what should I cook first? Something easy like a salad of radishes with butter and salt? Or more adventurous like ile flottante? Thank you, Lauren! You made my day!

Inspiration: Ina Garten

Last year a major coup was convincing Alvaro that we needed to get DVR. The sole reason is so that I can watch Ina Garten's Barefoot Contessa. It's a cooking show, and I do not cook. Well, I can, but I don't do it for fun, and because Alvaro is such a good cook, I have no real need to do so. When I do cook, I never use a recipe. So why the heck do I watch Ina Garten?

Because she's so lovely! First, she appears to eat what she cooks, which shows that she is a real person and has an appetite for life. Second, she's so cute! Third, she is so elegant, yet casual with impeccable taste. 

I love her tablescapes, her house, her garden, and her view of her town. She cooks and designs very much in a geographic-inspired way - she's the epitome of all that's good about her region. 

(Photo from the Food Network.)

prettiest back support ever

When Alvaro and I went to Mexico more than a year ago, I finally bought a piece of embroidery, a typical craft of the state of Puebla. What made it even more special is that I found it at the Santa Rosa ex-convent, where mole, the chocolate-spice sauce, was invented. After eight months of keeping the embroidery on a shelf in our coat closet, I realized that once the baby came I'd never have time to make it into a pillow, so I finally got it done. 

Well, *I* didn't exactly make it into a pillow. I bought a pillow on an incredible sale from Ballard Design, and, not owning a sewing machine and knowing that my hand-stitching would be too rough, I had it sewn on at the tailors. 

It turns out that a broad audience likes Puebla embroidery; I recently saw pieces hand-made just like mine for sale at the Dean & Deluca store in SoHo - for a lot more... not counting the trip to Mexico. (And here's praise for a lumbar pillow.) The best part - it's so comfy!

last vacation

During the past year, I saved up my vacation days for Mateo's arrival, which meant that we haven't gone anywhere far for quite a while. But at the very end of summer, we went to the loveliest lake in New Hampshire. We stayed at a friend's family's home, where we've been so lucky to visit for the four years. 

I can't think of anywhere sweeter. Given the choice of a trip to the mountains or the beach, I'd pick a lake! It's serene, not extreme. When I was having trouble breast-feeding, I'd close my eyes and try to relax by imagining myself on this dock. 

It's fresh, crisp, blue, green, and brown - such a wonderful escape from the city.

This is where I've been

It's Mateo!

Ever since I got pregnant, I have been absorbed with the prospect and then the reality of our wonderful baby boy, who was born in January. What a gift!

sole full of soul

I dreamt that I owned a pair of Tom's shoes, which seemed like a pretty good reason to go around the corner on 5th Avenue and buy them.  

For every pair that you buy, the company gives a pair of new shoes to a kid who needs some in the developing world. Comfy and cute for me and doing good for someone else, too. Sole-ful. I'm wearing them all weekend long!

gift of color

How amazing to find a package in the mail from Lois, a master basket artist. The most incredible part? When she was visiting our apartment last month, she noticed what my favorite colors are, and then she sent this perfect little basket.

Can you see that she matched the colors exactly to my favorite painting?

I feel so lucky! It's so personal and so beautiful. Thank you, Lois!

our neighborhood is number one! (?)

New York recently rated the city's neighborhoods. They used a transparent system and fully admitted that readers have different needs and desires for their community, so they included an online interactive feature where you can prioritize your needs to find the right place for you. Here's the article.

Nevertheless, their overall conclusion was that the best neighborhood in New York City is Park Slope!

Looks familiar!

Park Slope does well in green space - Prospect Park - housing quality, creative capital, safety, restaurants, schools, and - surprisingly - nightlife. It fares relatively poorly in housing cost (you have to pay for all that goodness) and diversity. 

The diversity ranking is one the best parts of New York City. My current neighborhood is, to me, quite diverse, especially compared with any other place in the nation where I've lived, but for New York, it seems that it could be even better. New York raises one's expectations about the tight co-mingling of people of different nationalities, races, religions, and socio-economic status. Tolerance is the norm here. I'm becoming a diversity snob by living in the city and would have a hard time living in another place where groups' communities rarely overlap. 

Another reason to love the city. I'm coming around.

quick note

When we moved in, one of the first wonderful, unnecessary purchases I made was my personalized stationary from Lion in the Sun stationary shop.

The other day I was walking by their window and saw this:

Zooming into the bottom left, we can see my stationary being displayed! 

Fun! And I had so much fun picking it out that it's nice to see that the shopkeepers like it, too.

cycles of green

Some of many parts of this home that make me feel so lucky are the three windows in the living area. We're on the third floor, so we get to look out at treetops and sky instead of the street and cars. Over the past nine months, I've loved watching the leaves change. 

Last summer

Autumn

Winter

Spring!

Spring!

Spring!

FEED Guatemala

Yippee! The FEED Guatemala bags have arrived in stores. Do you know the FEED Projects? By buying one of their bags, you provide food and nutrition to children around the world.

Malnutrition is the under-lying cause in over half of the world's daily 24,000 preventable child deaths. In Latin America, Guatemala has the highest rate of child malnutrition, and the proceeds of the the FEED Guatemala bag support UNICEF.

The bags were made by Guatemalan women using Guatemalan fabric through the organization Nest. There are two sizes: a tote, which provides enough nutrients for 3 children for a year, and a small pouch, which provides enough nutrients for 1 child for a year. Both bags come in dozens of fabrics in all different colors. I spent over an hour in the store with friends trying to pick which few were my favorites - I love them all!

They are available exclusively at Lord & Taylor, so hurry out now or hop online! This purchase will make you feel fantastic - not only when you look in the mirror, but also when you look in your soul. I'm thinking that I might need a few more!

greek coffee cup designer passes away

Oh, it feels so coincidental! After just recently mentioning how New York-ish it felt to get coffee in the classic Greek diner coffee cups, the "Anthora," for our walk over the Brooklyn Bridge, I just read in the New York Times that the designer, Leslie Buck, just passed away.

From the New York Times.

He wasn't Greek - instead, an eastern European Jewish immigrant fleeing the Nazis - but, as the marketing manager for an upstart paper company, he understood his clientele, the Greek diners ubiquitous in the New York in the 1960's.

Maybe it's lucky that we came across the paper cup a couple of weeks ago. It has declined from its height of 500 million made per year and is now only made on special request. Let good design endure! Alas, with fewer Greek diners and a lot more specialty coffee cups, the times they are a-changin'.

like mother like daughter

Last week my mom visited, and when she arrived and we saw each other, it was so unnerving: we look identical. There's always been a resemblance, but as I get older, I'm starting to look just like her. She's cute, so that's not the weird part! It was just strange to see myself in someone else. We were even both wearing all black and had our hair the same way that day. Here we are later that weekend.

Have you ever had this experience? Do you continue to grow to look alike? 

melting pot as boeuf bourguignon

My intention was not to write so often about food, but, jeez louise, I love it, particularly the good stuff. Luckily, so does Alvarito. At one point we decided that, besides values, our only two similarities are our loves of eating and traveling.

Today for the first time, my Mexican husband made Boeuf Bourguignon. Our melting pot:

Alvaro lived in Mexico until age 27, so he is fully immersed in the concept of the big afternoon meal, comida, especially on weekends. It's so nice to cook something new and grand and then savor it. This French-inspired one was particularly delicioso, delicieux - each bit involved so many flavors, such depth.

Diverse cultures, food, exploration, adventure, taste, family. A true meal.

divine hens

Thanks to my friend Emily B., who's also a neighbor, we discovered Los Paisanos, an old-school Italian butcher in Cobble Hill. Every single thing we've gotten there has been absolutely amazing - the platonic ideal of meat. For instance, on Christmas Day, we had a rich, earthy, delicious Spanish stew with five types of ham and sausage.

 In one weekend recently, we had a roast chicken for six people and then individual cornish hens with my mom. Alvaro, with the help of a Mark Bittman recipe, worked magic. I'm craving them now!

Heavenly cornish hen.

Divine roast chicken.

family on the bridge

Here they are! Jane, you asked to see Mom on the Brooklyn Bridge, and here she is with Alvaro. Look at those smiles!

By the way, I don't know if you can tell, but they are holding classic Greek diner paper coffee cups! A very New York day.

Bridge

Almost three years living in the city, and this was my first time on the Brooklyn Bridge. It's beautiful! It makes you feel good to be there. The view, the size of the structure, the tourists gawking with reason. 

A spectacular place.

cycles, updates - guest bedroom

Nothing's ever done, and that's just fine. It's done for the moment or as good as possible given the current circumstances.

When I bought a new duvet cover and shams for our master bedroom, I moved the others into the guest bedroom, and they actually look much better in here.

And these cool colors are a real improvement over the warmth of my (albeit wonderful) Tricia Guild duvet. The bedrooms now feel the way I want them - cool, tranquil - for ourselves and our guests.

accepting matchy-matchiness

Matching seems to be out of fashion, but I keep coming back to it, so I might as well embrace it. I have to say that I adore British decorating, which is hard to admit even to myself. Rationally, I appreciate other styles more. However, what makes home and design fun is that it is impossible to ignore the emotional implications of choices.

When we got a new bed last month, we could no longer use our bedskirt that matches the shades. The thought of the toile shades just hanging there uncoordinated seemed unacceptable, so I got the matching comforter cover and shams. Phew.

Are there parts of your character that are hard to admit? Do you rationally like different items that you emotionally want? How do you reconcile the difference? Of course, design - whether clothes or decorating - is only one of the more visible manifestations of choice. How do you make peace with your preferences?