Note to self: find more friends with cottages

Earlier this summer I was lucky enough to get away with some girlfriends to another friend’s lovely cottage tucked away behind two other cottages on a tiny side street in a little neighborhood in Newport, RI.

 

At two blocks in from the harbor we were just a block from the main road’s restaurants, shops and boutiques, but once we turned onto the alley and were ensconced in our little patio we were worlds away from the noise of the street and tourists.

The cottage was beautiful but comfortable, with cozy rooms tucked under eaves and stairs, a huge sunroom, and original art on every wall.

  

We lazed on the beach and walked the Cliff Walk and lounged in Adirondack chairs. Ate fish and chips on the edge of the harbor. Bought and sold extravagant yachts and stately mansions and charming cottages with our imaginary riches. 

 

We drank a lot of wine and dark ‘n’ stormies. We slept in and ate late breakfasts and lingered long over coffee.

We did a lot of window shopping, and bought delicious fudge. We found the most amazing little natural food store.

 

There was a lot of walking, and talking, and not talking. Ridiculous laughing. A little crying. More wine.

 

We decided we all need more friends with cottages to loan.

Well, that's one way to get more shoes....

[Not the closet in question. This be Mariah's shrine de shoes}

A 51-year old San Diego woman is accused of embezzling more than $9.9 million over 7 years from her employer to fund her personal lifestyle and gambling habit.

"The woman is also accused of using nearly $25,000 to convert a bedroom into a closet to store her extensive shoe and clothing collection. Investigators say that the collection consisted of 400 pairs of shoes valued at a total of $240,000, designer clothing valued at a total of $300,000, and 160 designer purses valued at a total of $320,000. The closet included a granite covered center island, crystal chandelier, and a 32 inch plasma television."

The Sheriff's Department says that the woman was able to conceal the alleged scheme for so long because of her position at the company: chief financial officer. The losses resulting from the alleged thefts forced the company to conduct layoffs and restructure its operations.

The woman faces charges of grand theft and embezzlement.

Her laid-off co-workers must love her. So sad. The full story here.

Sex in the City, Quiet in the Country

No, we're not talking about me here (I'll never kiss & tell), but Sex & The City author Candace Bushnell, a Glastonbury, CT native whose country home in tony Roxbury, CT is featured in the Home section of today's Hartford Courant. One of my non-Resolution resolutions is to purge everything from my home office and start over with a nice clean slate, kind of like her desk here:

{photo by Cloe Poisson, click here for more photos of CB's surprisingly country colonial.}

Below is a pic from her NYC apartment, which was featured in Elle Decor a few years ago, one of the few issues I kept because I really like her style and use of color, but with white walls in most of the apartment.

{"Candace Bushnell, Elle Decor", originally uploaded by Jessica Condatore}

I really like the color of my living and dining rooms, but since my apartment faces north, every winter I get the urge to lighten and brighten with some paint. Luckily for the BF, who has volunteered to help me paint, my Gemini nature has issues with choosing a color, so we'll stick with Behr's Caribbean Coral for now.

PS - thank you for all the well wishes with my lousy sinuses over the holidays. I'm all better now!

She spends in a week what you make in a year

{Marie Douglas-David, soon-to-be-ex-hubby George David, and actress Julie Delpy at The 10th Anniversary of Green Cross International and Global Green Founded by Mikhail Gorbachev. MGDavidJDelpy_101104, originally uploaded by Global Green USA.}

Currently duking it out in Hartford Superior Court and on the front pages of the Hartford Courant are the Davids, one of America's uber-rich couples, he the former CEO of United Technologies, she a countess and former Wall Street type who apparently spends more in a week than what some people make in a year.

Click here to see what she spends it on. No really. Click.

I have a hard time wrapping my head around those types of numbers as weekly discretionary expenses. I know that there are people out there who are far more wealthy than 99.9% of the rest of us, and I know that in a divorce there is a little fudging of numbers going on, I just wonder if I was ever that rich would my lifestyle escalate to one where I spent that kind of money on clothes, hair, facials, flowers etc., every week. Every. Week. Oh, sure, in the beginning there would definitely be a shopping spree and lots of travel, but I don't think I could keep it up. There've been too many instances in my life (as a newlywed, as a new divorcee, etc.) where I had to be super-frugal, and even get a second job, just to make ends meet. I'm not saying I would maintain my current lifestyle 100%. I just don't think I could spend four grand a month on my hair.

What about you? Would you be all Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous?

Chicago is my kind of town

Wrigley Building and Michigan Ave at Dusk, originally uploaded by robinsegg0523.

This was the view from my hotel room (28th floor) every night. Too bad I was too busy with work to enjoy much of it. Maybe when I go back in December for our next conference....

Bon appetit!

{The renovated kitchen in Julia Child's former Cambridge MA home. Photos from Premier Properties of Boston}

{Julia's kitchen back in the day, now on display at the Smithsonian. Julia had the counters custom designed at a height comfortable for a 6'2" woman to cook at. On the right is one of two pegboards designed by her husband to hang all her pots, pans and molds. Photo from the Smithsonian via current.org}

The late, great Julia Child donated her famous Cambridge kitchen to the Smithsonian, so it stands to reason that the house it came out of would need a slight remodel. Now that the house is for sale, the world can peek into the rooms that never made it on camera in the 40+ years that she lived in and filmed her Boston-based public television cooking show.

The original kitchen has a homey look that contributed to the success of her show, which focused on the approachable aspects of gourmet cooking. But I think she would have appreciated the bright airiness of the new kitchen, especially as it features Miele, Sub-Zero and Kuppersbusch Okotherm appliances, as well as a big marble-topped island perfect for rolling out pastry dough. As it should, for $4.35 million, no?

I love my DVR, and Sarah Richardson

I have been battling The Mother of All Colds since Tuesday night, hence the lack of posts. Between fits of coughing and being in a coma sleeping, I have been learning how to program my new DVR (yes, I am late to the game). Now that I have this newfangled toy, I can catch all the design shows that I can never remember when they are on, including one of my favorite Canadian designers, Sarah Richardson. I had my own mini-marathon of her yesterday. I love her style, her sass (in the episode with the LR/DR combo (pics below) she kept replaying the tape of the client saying "I defer to you" every time the client disagreed!) and that she is not afraid to show her clients used furniture that can be reupholstered vs the "all new all the time" approach that others have.

{client kitchen before}

{client kitchen after}

{client living/dining room before}

{and after. ALL photos from Fine Living Network site}

I also like that she shows the sometimes tedious and non-glamorous side of the all the details and time that go into a design project. Things like having furniture delivered, taken away, redelivered, etc. so the client can see it in the space. Or waiting around for the client to meet them on the shopping trip, or going to ten different shops to find the right sofa, or finding out that because of one delay, the whole project is on hold until the carpenter is available again. Too many design shows, in an effort to keep up with the pacing and presto-chango that viewers expect after seeing "reality" design shows like While You Were Out, Trading Spaces and the completely unrealistic Extreme Makeover, make it seem like the Magic Decor Fairies come in and do everything overnight.

A-M over at The House that A-M Built, is chronicling the long process of having a house built from the ground up, and the millions of tiny decisions that go along with it. She started on April 1 when they acquired the land. The first hole wasn't dug until May 28. Where are those magic overnight fairies when you need them?

When I win the lottery #854

{Arcadia in Cape Cod. Photo by Goodheart Properties}

Out of curiosity I clicked on one of my Google ads and this was what came up. The house is gorgeous in its simplicity, and not your typical beach cottage at all. There are multiple buildings, including a guest house with two bedrooms, and the Master Suite (check out the bathroom, I could fit my whole bathroom in just the shower area) is connected to the main house via a breezeway (that must be fun in the winter). I wonder if there is a helipad to make that commute to Boston a bit easier. Oh, and it is only $3.6 million!

Paris 360

{Paris s'éveille, originally uploaded by gadl}

I have not (yet) been to Paris. It was never high on my list of places to go (Italy, Greece, California, Bali, etc.), but lately it seems I know someone who is going to Paris or just got back from Paris or has a cousin in Paris. Even the re-run of House Hunters the other night was one of their International episodes, with an almost-too-cute American couple looking to buy an apartment in Paris (for just under $1 million...). My BFF honeymooned in Paris last July, one of my favorite former neighbors was there (and Amsterdam) just two weeks ago with his BF, and one of my other neighbors is headed there next month.

Hmm, guess I'll just have to content myself for now with this 360-degree photo of Paris By Night. Cue the accordian music...

I want a bath

{photo from Country Living}

Specifically, I want a bath in a clawfoot tub like this, in a bathroom like this. But alas, to is not to be, at least not for the time being, considering that I live in a condo in an apartment-style building, with no window in the bath, and nowhere near this much room. Oh, sure, there's a tub in there, but it is your basic shower/tub combo, without the length or depth of a tub like this. And I am 5'9" without the heels, so the one or two times I tried to take a bath in my tub, I could never get the full-immersion experience that a proper bath requires. Either my upper body was under water and my legs were out, or my legs were under and the rest of me shivered above-board.

So, #87 on the Things To Do When I Win The Lottery list is to redo the whole bath with a lovely, lovely tub like this, and to luxuriate in it on a regular basis.