Home Inspiration Today

A longtime blog follower and fellow lover of vintage  requested a little help with her kitchen remodel. Amber and I worked on some small items in the past but the kitchen was a pretty big design challenge.   I have been doing e-design for a while  and this was the perfect project since we live over 100 miles apart.  Our finished project was featured in This Old House magazine June 2015 Amber is very creative and was able to manage her subcontractors and control her budget which is critical to a great outcome using e-design as a roadmap for a remodel.  The "before" kitchen was pretty dark  and there was so much brown it sort of sucked the energy out of the room.   The layout is open to the family room, which is wonderful and the updated kitchen brought new life into the adjoining spaces as well.  The entire bank of upper cabinets over the cooktop was removed and the island was reworked to add a cookbook and display niche.   The pendant light ...

an egg is just an egg  and egg salad can be pretty ho hum this is an adaptation of egg salad that is velvety and rich  It can be served for brunch or packed for a picnic when you want to splurge  ....wonderful with an ice cold beer too Hard-boil 6 eggs and cook 4 (actually 5 because I always eat a slice:)  slices  of good quality thick bacon  finely mince a nice shallot, about 2 table spoons  combine 1/4 cup mayonnaise  1 Tbl dijon mustard 1 Tsp dried tarragon 1 Tsp vinegar pepper to taste...salt is optional because the bacon is salty  dice up 6 lovely hard cooked eggs and add to your mayonnaise mixture  along with the diced bacon bits   add a few shots of tabasco if that sounds good  your salad should be chunky and not overly dressed   this is great in a wrap  but use what you have  finely slice some crisp iceberg lettuce and top with about 1/2 cup of egg salad  I topped the salad with fresh pea shoots...

Do you have a uniform? Is there a look  or a certain combination of items that you seem to gravitate to  when  you get dressed? For me, the awnser is Yes....yes and double yes Try as I might to be as chic as a Parisian  I am pretty much a California "basics" sort of a gal. Sadly, in the past I often purchased things that had no business in my closet... by that I mean they will probably never get worn, at least by me.  It's not because many of my fashion choices are not cute or stylish...it's because I wear the same really simple, comfortable things over and over again and pass on the new and trendy thinking that today is not the "right day" to wear it.   Weird....I know   So if today is not the right day to wear something  that pretty much sums up the theory  that I'm buying things that just are not working with my lifestyle The photo above is Matilda Kahl an art director at a big New York Ad house.   She grew incredibly frustrated with ...