Archive for the ‘ENTERTAINING’ Category

This may seem silly, but I dont know why it never occurred to me before.

My two year old daughter is still not trustworthy with glass plates, and we have a few kiddie plates, but they are just OK in the looks department…. Now that its “dining al fresco” season, why not stock up on melamine plates to use for your kid? You can get really fab ones this time of year, so you wont have to compromise on style.

I bought these today from West Elm:

(The fork and spoon are from Pottery Barn Kids)

And I bought a few so if a friend comes over I dont have to scramble all over looking for two matching plates so that the kids dont fight! I totally could have picked something that matched my house a little bit better though!

I  somehow managed to write a few posts for other blogs in weeks before I gave birth – My husband says take every job you can do from your bed! Cant argue with that!

Check out this post I did for The Jewish Hostess on styling a Purim Table Setting that’s fit for a king… I actually loved this post so much because of how beautiful the round ups turned out.

I tried to infuse Middle Eastern/Moroccan flair into a traditional Jewish meal… Something tells me, all of you will like this, even if you arent a member of the tribe!

NYC is filled with secret sources for all things awesome. And by secret- I mean, totally well known to everyone but me. But I figure if I dont know about it, you may not either!

There is a flower market on 28th street in NYC, duh. If you wake up at the crack of dawn, you can get the best selection of flowers in the city, stuff that is out of season and normal florists might not have. (Its slightly intimidating, but you just have to pretend you know what you are talking about.)

Every time I buy flowers, I lament my complete lack of good flower vases. I have about a billion vases, but all of them look particularly awful with flowers in them. The mouths are all too narrow. So Erica, of Design Blahg glory, took me to Jamali Floral and Garden Supplies a few days ago…. Also known as prop stylist heaven.

They have just about EVERY SINGLE type of vase, container and garden supply that you could ever want.

And since I have a long standing obsession with all things brass, I almost squealed aloud in delight when I found these:

$20- $36$18

$10

$45

These are the ones I bought, the 6″ cylinder polished brass cylinder. I bought 2, because when in doubt- buy pairs. This is how Martha styled those babies for a wedding. I could have down without the number 2.

And here they are at my house! I had some lovely white hydrangeas in them yesterday, but those have a lifespan of about 25 minutes in my apartment, so I replaced them.

Of course, Jamali has more than just brass vases… but they literally have everything, so you really must go see for yourself. Luckily, they have a website.

I saw someone buying these Kim Seybert Capiz Shell placemats in Bergdorf’s the other day and I kindly, or what I thought was kindly, told her that Crate & Barrel has almost identical ones for 1/5 the price. She stuck with BG’s. So now I’ll tell you.

High: $65 each

Low: $16.95

So they arent EXACTLY the same, but for $48 cheaper EACH, I would stick with C&B. It’s not like you just need 1 placemat! $48 x 12 = $576 worth of savings!

From left to right: Wild rice, roast with mushrooms and onions, aloo gobi, stuffed peppers, eggplant meat rice cake looking thing, roasted root veggies, sweet potato and fresh cranberry casserole, stuffing in a bundt pan, sautéed brussel sprouts bok choy and leeks…And the bird.

I just slept for 13 hours.