Casa de Dye * Scottsdale, Arizona

My reason for a recent trip to the Phoenix area was simple...I had a generous invitation to the home of Sydney Dye.  She is a dear friend of my sister's and they have this little group of friends...they call themselves the BDC or BirthDay Club.  These ladies have been celebrating way more than birthdays for almost two decades.  Sydney is a woman of many many talents.  She has a degree in law,  interior design and a few years ago she completed a program at Arizona Culinary Institute and teaches cooking classes in her home.  You can find her at First Fig.com.

As soon as you drive through the gates, you know you are in for a treat.  This vignette is just as you arrive at the front door.  The lanterns and religious candles illuminate the entry at night.

There are wonderful surprises in every corner of the house.  These beautiful vintage crystal bowls sit on cantera stone bases filled with oranges from her property.

Throughout the property there are many comfortable areas to relax and entertain.

Both inside and out, there are little treasures around every corner.

Winter lettuces and tomato trellises made and designed by her husband. 

In addition to an olive grove and orchard, they have oranges, kumquats, Myer lemons and the tree with pink blossoms and beautiful variegated leaves. . . a lemon tree for pink lemonade...of course.

Sydney said they are waiting to sheer the sheep for their annual upcoming Children's Day they host each year for their neighborhood elementary school.

A separate building on the property houses a beautiful workshop with a full bath and complete kitchen.  A dumbwaiter in the kitchen delivers food and beverages to the screening room and wine cellar.  A spiral staircase takes you downstairs and is lined with sconces made from antique garden tiles from England.

One of my favorite things is a sign she has in her potting room/office.  Labor Omnia Vincit, a Latin phrase meaning "hard work conquers all."  A lot of planning and work has gone into this home and property and it was truly a wonderful day to be able to visit with Sydney and her friends while taking in all the beauty she has worked so hard to create.  Sydney served a delicious lunch in this room.  We had a green salad with three varieties of beets, a frittata and warm breads.  The drink she served was  made with simple syrup, fresh ginger and mint, fresh pink grapefruit juice and a bottle of Pellegrino. The table was set using her collection of vintage silver napkin rings.  I also took home a bag of her potpourri.  She just happens to have a tray of rose petals from her rose garden.  She scooped them into a cellophane bag and said to add orange peel and fresh herbs when I got home.  To see more of Sydney's work, take a look at Phoenix Home & Gardens.  Thank you Sydney for a beautiful afternoon!

Postino & La Grande Orange, Phoenix, AZ

Postino is in the old Arcadia Post office building. The entire restaurant and bar has an inside out feel with huge commercial garage doors that are rolled up when the weather is not too hot.  Postino is known for their bruschetta.  You choose four from a menu of 11.  Our favorite was the ricotta cheese with dates and pistachios.  Next door from Postino is La Grande Orange, same owners and I just found out they have locations in Pasadena and Santa Monica. 

La Grande Orange is known for their English Muffins...and they are so good.

Don't forget to enter my give away. 

Lunch at Arcadia Farms, Scottsdale, Arizona

I arrived just in time for lunch at Arcadia Farms in Scottsdale, Arizona.  it is the quintessential  place to have lunch if you are in the area.  When we first walked in they asked us if we had a reservation.  I looked around at all the empty tables while my sister said that yes we did have a reservation, but we were a little early.  Within 15 minutes the place was buzzing and nearly every seat was filled.  

The restaurant takes up the entire block of First Avenue, just off Goldwater Boulevard and Marshall Way in Old Scottsdale.  There is a restaurant, a separate building across the street for take-out and sweets and it also houses their catering division.  Next door is where the owner resides behind a gated courtyard.

Since the restaurant was originally an old house, there are several rooms, courtyards and the entire interior is in black and white...of course I loved it!

The food was delicious.  We shared warm chopped vegetable salad and seared salmon over greens.

Phoenix has so many innovative restaurants with wonderful menus and many are in buildings that have been renovated from an old car wash or a post office.  Tomorrow...Postino!

Thanksgving in Napa

Just an eight hour drive North of Dana Point and the most beautiful colors of autumn that you could ever hope for awaited us in Napa, California.  It rained through the night and there was fog in the hills, but the sun came out and it was the most beautiful Thanksgiving day.

The colors were amazing . . . everywhere you looked, something was blooming.

We've had some memorable Thanksgivings over the years...a lot of them spent with family and friends and cooking big feasts, but others just as memorable where we've traveled and made it seem like Thanksgiving...even on the train from London to Paris, or this one, where it wasn't until Thanksgiving morning when my husband had made several calls to make reservations for our Thanksgiving meal.  This time of year always reminds me of what I'm most thankful for. . . my family.  I hope you and your family had a wonderful Thanksgiving. . . wherever you are.

autumn in new york

One of my favorite things to do in the fall in New York is to stroll through Union Square Greenmarket.  The colors, textures, smells of the season are all around you.  We shared a pint of the freshest and sweetest apple cider I've ever tasted. 

                           The market was filled with ideas to set a beautiful table for the holiday. 

I loved all the colors of the season, but this is what I was most drawn to...bundles of wheat, grasses...all different textures.  I even loved how they looked wrapped in brown paper against the gray honeycomb pattern on the ground.  Maybe next year bundles of these down the middle of a long table with a natural linen gray cloth and simple hurricanes with ivory candles?  How will you be setting your Thanksgiving table?

 

Going here . . .

be back Monday . . .

"Yes Please"

I asked my daughter over morning coffee if she would like to go to LA for the day and her reply was, "yes please."  Good answer, because sometimes it's just a good idea to get out of the hood...our familiar surroundings.  It's not all that easy to do in Southern California.  It was actually less stressful to go into Manhattan when we lived about 40 miles outside the city in Connecticut.  LA traffic...it's as bad as everyone says it is...period.  Still, there's much to see and experience in Los Angeles.  My daughter Madeline and I love to shop and eat, so that's what we did in LA on this beautiful October day.

We found ourselves complaining that putting in two quarters only registered 15 minutes on the meter.  Wait a minute...that's only $2 per hour.  Aren't we used to spending $15 an hour in some midtown NYC parking garages?  Why are we complaining?  They even make it as easy as inserting a credit card and adding minutes.  Okay, maybe there's a few things good about LA.  We had a good laugh about a Woody Allen quote Madeline heard from her AP English teacher.  It goes something along the lines of "the only cultural advantage that LA has over New York is that you can turn right on red."

We had lunch at Chin Chin in Beverly Hills for less than $20 and brought some home.  This part of BH seems, at least to us, off the beaten path and far less typical of what you might think of Beverly Hills.  Madeline is embracing the preppy style and I have to say I am loving it!  Jewelry:  Helen Ficolora "M" charm necklace, acorn locket on long chain, Madewell, bracelets, H&M, TAG Heuer watch, her dad's.

The corner of Beverly and Charleville.  Dimsum at Chin Chin.

What she's wearing. . . Prep head to toe starting with a Burberry sweater of mine from like 15 years ago, her little brother's Ralph Lauren shirt, Coach bag, a recent Thrift store find, cut off shorts from American Eagle Outfitters and  Sperry Top-siders.

We ended our day by strolling through the Farmers Market and a little shopping at The Grove.  There is so much going on here on a Saturday evening.  We heard live music from Midnight Train and there was an outdoor movie going on as well.  So how did you spend your Saturday?

Noshing in New Haven

I think it's safe to say we found one of the hippest spots to have a bite to eat in New Haven, Connecticut on our trip to the East Coast.  We took Metro North to the New Haven station, toured the Yale campus and found ourselves to be quite hungry and by this time it was close to 3 o'clock.  We stumbled upon The Study at Yale  and inside the hotel was the restaurant, Heirloom.  We missed the lunch menu by seconds, but were happy with the bar menu.  On a trip like this, we walked for miles so we did not feel the least bit guilty in the amount of calories we were about to consume...at least not at that moment. 

I have to admit I kind of love that she still orders a Shirley Temple.

 

 

Heirloom  is a beautiful restaurant that serves "coastal farm cooking" according to the website.  The hotel has amazing summer rates, so if you find yourself passing through New Haven on I-95 I would highly recommend checking it out.

We took Metro North from Grand Central.  The trip is a bit longer than we expected, but the New Haven train station is small and lovely.  It was a pretty easy walk to campus.  It looked like rain so on the way back we grabbed a cab from the hotel to catch our train to NYC.

The Yale campus on a summer day.

Summer in the City - Part Four

A trip to New York is not complete without a stop at the MoMA. We always had family memberships to all the museums, so we could avoid lines and spend as little or as much time as we liked.  Summer or winter it's such a nice way to spend a part of your day for a little respite from the city.

Nothing says summer like a bunch of sunflowers.  These were at the information desk at the MoMA.

I had seen the "Wish Tree for MoMA" on other blogs, but wanted to check it out in the Sculpture Garden for myself.

I imagined it to be much larger...I don't know why I do that.  There were tags and pens to write your wish and then hang it from the tree.  Who could resist?

I have always loved the iconic I Love NY logo by Milton Glaser, but never more than when shortly after 9/11 there was a new version.  Glaser created a version with a small smudge on the heart in the spot where the World Trade Center Towers once stood and added the words, More than Ever.  He sold copies for $100 and all proceeds went to help NY charities.  My kids both have them hanging in their rooms.  You can check it out here.  It was on the back pages of New York newspapers and everyone started displaying them in their windows all over the city.  It was an amazing site and made you believe everything would be alright....somehow.