According to The Countess...: May 2012

Saturday, May 26, 2012

Blogfest Afterparty at The New Traditionalists

“If you want to understand today, you have to search yesterday.”

-Pearl S. Buck

The above quote is featured on The New Traditionalists website, and it is befitting of this fine American-designed-and-made furniture company...

The Blogfest afterparty at its Soho showroom was one of my favorite events in the three day conference. I had been to their booth at the Architectural Design Home Show this year, and it left me wanting to see more...

Classic bones with modern updates, and absolutely of heirloom quality. I commented that there was a Ralph Lauren feel and was not surprised to learn that many New Traditionalist designers got their start there.

They offer a huge variety of finishes, from stains to paint choices to interesting fabrics and animal hides. Each piece is totally customizable, notice how different the same piece looks in two different finishes:

I especially love their nursery collection, both under the New Traditionalist brand as well as its sister line, ducduc. One of my favorite blogger nurseries includes pieces from this collection.

Also, they throw a mean party... amazing libations, and LOOK at this spread of Southern food...

For those of you looking for unique pieces of well-made furniture, check them out...

Wednesday, May 23, 2012

Craziest Obituary Ever

This is a real obituary, found here. Crazy, yes. But I assume no one could call her a wallflower...

On Mother's Day, Kathryn "Kat" Carr finally burned through the last of her nine lives and claimed her rightful place as De Facto Empress of the hell she lived in and its many outlying colonies (i.e. Portages Lakes, Barberton, Aberdeen, Windsor, etc.) Sincerely, when she shows up, I suggest you all look busy and if she happens to be wearing leather pants and carrying a bottle of Jack, you might want to consider running.

Kat Carr was a "crazy woman". She never backed down for a challenge; she never walked away from a fight and she never once apologized for anything because she had no regrets. Every thought she ever had came straight out of her mouth and every person she ever met never forgot her; she was larger than her life, and her life was a blockbuster movie just waiting to be written.

Though her spine was made of steel, her heart was soft and she was a sucker for a sob story. She never turned away anyone in need - not anyone, no matter how many times she got burned. Over the years, she gave shelter to the homeless, allowed entire families to sleep on her floor and took in numerous children who had no one to care for them; as well as raising four of her own, entirely on her own. There was nothing you couldn't tell her. There was nothing you could say that would shock or offend her, or that she wouldn't understand. She was the one person in the world you could always talk to when you couldn't talk to anyone else. No matter how bad it was, she could always make you feel better; because no matter what you said, she always had a story that completely topped yours.

Kat was preceded in death by her parents, James and Genevieve Price; her sister, Heidi Price; her husbands, George Adams and Stephen Speer; and her son, Stephen Carr; she will be forever missed by her husband, Earl Freeman; her ex-husband, Wayne Botez; her children, Nicole (Brian) Esker, George (Sarah) Adams and Jessica (Michael) Maguire; her grandchildren, Alex, Debra, Sabrina, Jacob, Shane and Michael, as well as The Eiseman Family, her many neighbors and friends at the Lakeside Trailer Park, any many, many others including; the fine people at Anheuser-Busch, Phillip-Morris and the Ohio State Lottery.

Following Kat's request, cremation has taken place. The family will receive friends on Saturday from 3 to 6 p.m. at the Campfield-Hickman-Collier Funeral Home, 566 W. Park Ave., Barberton 44203.

Everyone dies, but not everyone lives. Mom lived. She lived hard, but she lived full. So, "Don't cry because it's over….. Smile because it happened!" Light your smoke and raise your glass and remember the last thing she said to you that made you laugh so hard you thought you were going to wet yourself; but this time don't hold back. Because she never did……

Monday, May 21, 2012

Blogfest Bound!

I can't believe Blogfest is already here, it seems like I signed up ages ago. I am excited to kick things off tonight at the Kips Bay Showhouse at a party hosted by Architectural Digest's Margaret Russel. It will be great to finally meet some of my favorite bloggers. Since I live in NYC, I think I failed to prepare for the fashion show that is Blogfest as much as the other bloggers coming from out of town. I'll be going straight from the office tonight, and I'm not exactly looking my sassiest, I guess I'd better bring it tomorrow. I hope all the bloggers were prepared for the rain... it is non-stop and heavy today!

Hard to believe I snapped this photo last night on my terrace, it was so beautiful and sunny all weekend, so we spent a lot of time outside, topped off with dinner al fresco with a centerpiece of my favorite flowers in my new favorite Juliska bud vase, a hostess gift from the baby shower last weekend.

The weather wasn't even the most exciting part of my weekend though... we pulled the trigger on this enormous Venetian floor mirror, and I cannot wait until it arrives...

I have been dying for one for a while, seeing them in some of my favorite rooms, including Sketch42 blogger Nicole Cohen's entry hall. From the looks of it, I think I bought the same one she has!

For now it is going to add a little glam to our master bedroom, something like the image above. Interestingly enough, I recently had a burnt orange velvet bolster pillow made for our bed too.

I will try to upload some updates from Blogfest throughout the next few days, very excited!

Friday, May 18, 2012

Blue and Orange Baby Boy Shower

Last weekend, two other ladies and I threw a baby shower for a friend who is due to have her first baby, a boy, in July. One of the other hosts offered her lovely home in Alexandria, Virginia, and we had a lot of fun incorporating her beautiful china, crystal and silver into a blue and orange hued luncheon...

Loads of orange tulips and roses from Costco were transformed into arrangements in julep cups and other vessels...

With rented linens and chairs and a table large enough for all, we served lunch under the sun in the garden...

A few lanterns out front to let people know where the shower was...

Guests wrote well wishes to the mother-to-be...

And started with chilled melon soup served in the hostess's cut glass punch bowl, an inherited piece. It weighed a ton!

A little bar for mango mimosas...

And then we moved outside for a delicious lunch...

For the game, we riffed on the infamous Suri's Burn Book with our own version, calling the baby to be "Witty from the Womb." Celebrity mothers were covered with painter's tape and each guest received a ballot to guess the mom based on the child...

The winner got a big stack of gossip rags tied up in a blue ribbon...

Next it was time for cake....

And presents...

Guests left with baby onesie sugar cookies bought from Etsy...

It was a perfect afternoon, can't wait to meet the baby!

Thursday, May 10, 2012

Go: ABC Kitchen

ABC Kitchen, the Jean-Georges restaurant in the ABC store, was named Best New Restaurant of 2011 by the James Beard Foundation, so that should tell you how impossible it is to get a table. I had been for brunch right when it opened, but dinner is what really shines here, and we hadn't been able to get in. I heard a tip that if you go early you can get a seat at the bar and order the full menu. We happened to be in that neighborhood around 6:30 last Friday evening, and we scored two prime seats. It was amazing!

We tried:

Housemade chicken and pork sausage, warm potato and wholegrain mustard salad (yum)

Pretzel dusted calamari (double-yum)

Kasha and bowtie pasta, veal meatballs (meh, wouldn't re-order)

Whole wheat pizza with mushrooms, parmesan, oregano and farm egg (my husband was drooling over this)

But the star of the night was dessert:

Sundae with salted caramel ice cream, candied peanuts and popcorn, whipped cream, chocolate sauce

Really I never thought a sundae could be that good. My husband has asked me to replicate it twice since then, and I've done my best, but we'll definitely be going back and throwing elbows if we have to just to get another sundae.

All the reviews I read of this place said that a celebrity sighting would be a given, and sure enough, we saw Emma Stone and Freida Pinto, not together, although they did chat. I've actually had a big week of celebrity sightings... including Elizabeth Banks the day after the Met Gala, hiding behind dark glasses. I'm assuming I'm not the only one who put her on the Worst Dressed List. But the most major sighting of my week: Hoda Kotb in Central Park. Seriously, if I hadn't been in a hurry, I would have tackled her and forced her to call Kathie Lee to go day-drinking with me, because would there be anyone more fun to day-drink with than Kathie Lee and Hoda?

Wednesday, May 9, 2012

Too Slow for Rye

We visited the Westchester County town of Rye this past weekend, another place on our short list if we decide to leave the city. It is a darling waterfront haven, and so far has my husband's favorite downtown. We had planned to see the house above, but it went into contract in five days! We were too slow.

You can probably see why it went so fast... aside from being in a great neighborhood, it is staged perfectly. Staging is SO important. We saw seven other homes in Rye, and the first one is still giving us nightmares because of the clutter and awful paint choices. And it has a higher listing price than the home above to boot!