Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving morning began with my apartment filling with smoke and the carbon monoxide detector loudly telling us to get out of the apartment right! now!

{megan's chocolate bourbon pecan pie}

After two thorough cleanings of the oven (tip for next year: clean the oven before Thanksgiving day), a minor freak out (not that everything wouldn't get done, but that it wasn't going to get done in the leisurely way I had planned - I have issues), and some major multi-tasking, the meal was perfect and the evening was lovely.

{coffee table turned dining table}

The first guest did, in fact, receive a freshly poured cocktail from a (finally) calm host. And let's just say that it was not the last of the evening. We're still working through the surplus.

{tv stand turned bar}

My friend Ian and his fiance Ashleigh brought their adorable white golden retriever puppy, Misty Bear, and she was definitely the guest of honor. It just felt so home-y to have a dog around. And she was super well behaved. The photo below is not begging, just hoping.

{the puppy, hoping}

{the best guest, misty bear}

Happy Thanksgiving, all.

Thanksgiving prep

This Thanksgiving will be the fourth I've hosted for friends here in New York (I've hosted one other, in London, that went fine except for the part where the turkey was still frozen after four hours in the oven and I cried while asking the rotisserie chicken guy for the largest one he had) and my goal is to have everything nearly ready by the time guests arrive so I can calmly hand them a cocktail instead of thrusting a bottle of wine at them and resuming my freak out in the kitchen. And this year, I'll be giving up two hours of cooking time to head to the Upper West Side to catch a few giant balloons floating by.

So, to keep turkey day as stress-free as possible, here's what I'm doing in advance:

Tonight I'm...
- making & freezing biscuit dough
- making the pie dough
- making a compound butter to be squished under the skin of the turkey
- making the topping for the sweet potato casserole
- washing all the serving dishes & platters

Wednesday I will...
- make the pumpkin cheesecake
- make the chocolate pie
- make cheese straws 
- roast sweet potatoes
- prep the brussel sprouts
- slice fennel & seed a pomegranate for the salad

Which just leaves the turkey and lots of assembling/heating on the big day. And, hopefully, plenty of time to drink apple cider mimosas with my guests.

a helpful reminder, via craftily ever after.

Blanca Gomez

Aren't Blanca Gomez's illustrations the cutest? I bought a few of her greeting cards at Paper Presentation and then went Googling around for prints. Now I just need to decide which one to get...

A few more balloons

I love, love, love this ad. Career goal: make an ad this beautiful.



"Burst" for Schweppes by George Patterson Y&R, Melbourne

Cloudy with a chance of helium

On Monday night I was lucky enough to attend the epic finale of Sufjan Stevens' latest tour. This review sums it up better than I ever could ("...it seems astonishing—even a little unfair—that someone can be an exceptional musician and composer, a gifted lyricist, dreamboat handsome, and laugh-out-loud funny."), but the highlight of an already spectacular show was the moment when hundreds of giant, helium balloons rained down from the ceiling. From our seats on the mezzanine we couldn't see the nets full of balloons suspended from the ceiling, so it was truly magical when they suddenly filled our view of the stage and the faces of too-cool, bespectacled and bearded hipsters lit up with smiles.

Aren't balloons great?

And finally, the best moment of the night (balloons start around the :30 mark).

a gorgeous (sold out!) print by Juliane Eirich, huge balloons from Sugar  (via you are my fave), Joanna & Alex's engagement photo and the t-shirt that immortalized them, both by Max Wanger. 

Friday afternoon

I have mini-panic attacks when asked to pick a favorite anything. Ask me a simple question like, "Who's your favorite band?" and my mind immediately jumps to "Who would you listen to if you could only listen to one band, ever again?" And I add in other variables like mood, weather, and volume and I end up paralyzed with indecision. I realize that the person who asked me is just making small talk, and that the look of wide-eyed terror on my face is probably freaking them out. But whether the question is favorite food, favorite color, or favorite Golden Girl, I can never choose. I want options.

All that to say, I've been thinking about starting a blog forever. But I've been stuck on what kind of blog to start. A baking blog would keep me from posting a great etsy find, a shopping blog would keep me from posting a great recipe, and so on and so forth. And so, in the spirit of just doing it already, this blog will be about lots of things. Starting with a video that is making it seem possible to make it from 4:30 to 5:30 on a friday afternoon. Happy weekend, people.