a summer afternoon

Brown Derbies are a great summer afternoon cocktail and they are very easy to make. You will need bourbon, honey, grapefruit juice, hot water and ice.

2 ounces of bourbon, 1 ounce of grapefruit juice and 1/2 ounce of honey simple syrup. Honey simple syrup is made of equal parts hot water and honey (stir hot water and honey until syrup is consistent). Pour everything into a shaker and...shake.


We bought this tray at an antiques store in Maine. It is early Twentieth Century American with silk brocade fabric, a glass cover, wooden frame and metal handles. It is great for carrying cocktails outside or around a party.

Take your Brown Derbies outside and enjoy the midafternoon sun.

flowers.

Here are some of the flowers we like to keep around the house.

zinia:



straw flowers:



ranunculus:

We always like to keep fresh flowers on our piano.

scabiosa:

Mason jars make great vases.

wax flowers:

We purchased this little car in ojai. During dinner parties, we move the centerpiece onto the seat of the car to make room on the table.


succulents, all kinds:


These beautiful plants are from The Generic Man pop-up store in Hollywood. We keep them in a giant wooden trough with a metal stand. It is early 20th Century Hungarian.

our wedding

Even though we got married almost a year ago, we wanted to share a few of the aesthetic choices we made.

The escort card table was covered in moss and white tea lights.

The dress is Vera Wang, but it looks vintage. Chantilly lace, drenched in delicate sequins. The best part, however, was the velvet belt with beige and dusty rose chiffon blooms.

While the bouquets were beautiful, they were not exactly what we wanted, but that is part of the process of letting go and letting people do their job. We wanted the bouquets to be mostly herbs and greenery focusing on lavender, rosemary and sage. They ended up being mostly flowers, but they had enough herbs to make them smell amazing.

The cake was made from Jordan's grandmother's banana cake recipe smothered in rich chocolate frosting. It was delicious and we look forward to eating the top tier in September.


Our photographers were simply amazing, we HIGHLY recommend them. They are incredibly talented and just the most wonderful people.
www.vieraphotographics.com



There is only one photograph of the centerpiece, and it doesn't really capture the whole effect, but you get the idea. We used mostly succulents and a variety of white blooms. They were placed in wooden boxes with candles and large metal numbers to mark the tables. The centerpieces came out perfectly. We were able to save several of the succulents that dried beautifully and make great decorations.

Also, our wedding was coordinated by the lovely Michelle Buckley of Mint Julep Events.

months later

So. Quite clearly we haven't posted for some time. We will get back to it shortly.

We have moved, so the first thing we will do is throw up some pictures of our new place.

And then, who knows.

where we live

We decided to paint our dining room orange. Kind of crazy,
but it works. It looks especially fantastic at night.

We picked this strange, little yellow fruit from a tree in our backyard.
We have no idea what it is, but we sure do like the way it looks.

We bought this filing cabinet on the street in Manhattan. It is one of the best purchases we ever made. Each drawer is labeled, the contents range from balloons to matches to love letters.

This is our mantelpiece, above our working fireplace. The picture is of Julia's grandfather, Albert, during World War II.

This is one of our dogs, Miles.