Housewarming, With Pie

I can't think of a better housewarming gift than food. When you're surrounded by boxes of everything you own, it's much easier to eat the pie your friend just brought you than search through mislabeled boxes for a pan to cook anything in.

So for my soon-to-be-newlywed friends (well, that applies to a lot of my friends lately, but I'm talking about these in particular), I bought a simple white pie plate and filled it with mixed berry pie. Wrapped simply in a towel for them to keep, it would have been quite cute if I had left it on their doorstep with a note and ran away.



This being New York, I did not do that. I stuck around to see the new place and have a slice with some melty vanilla ice cream. Eaten from one of three dishes they have, on the floor on a rainy Brooklyn evening. Welcome home, friends!

Painted Silverware

I love the look of this painted silverware. Not so much for everyday, but I'd love to get a bunch of mismatched silverware from a thrift store and paint the handles all the same color to use for outdoor parties (instead of plastic!). DIY instructions via More Design Please.

Weekend in Pictures

{waiting to get onto the Intrepid to see "E.T"}

{summer berries for pie}

{I stole a baby. just kidding, I borrowed her}

{strolling through brooklyn heights}

So, I saw "E.T." and loved it. It was so fun to see it in a big crowd, with everyone cheering and clapping for their favorite parts. Plus, how stinkin' cute was Drew Barrymore?

Aside from getting a step closer to my "No, Really, I Did Grow Up In The 80s, I Swear!" badge (Goonies up next!), I hung out with an adorable baby who thought eating all the grass in Union Square was an awesome way to spent a Saturday, and made a pie that I'll tell you about in a post this week. How was your weekend, friends?

Better Late Than Never

Somehow, I've managed to live nearly 29 years without seeing "E.T." My parents once tried to get me to watch it during a sleepover, but everyone else had already seen it so they stayed in my room playing and I lasted through only the first five minutes before begging to be allowed to join my friends. So I'm excited to see it for the first time tonight, on an aircraft carrier in the Hudson.



It's a hidden talent of mine, to not have seen movies that fall into the category of "Movies Everyone Has Seen." And when I have seen those movies, it's when someone's found out I haven't seen a given movie, and makes me sit down to watch it. I swear, I don't go out of my way NOT to see movies, it just happens. For example:

Movies I Haven't Seen:
The Goonies
The Sound of Music
Indiana Jones (any of them)
Star Wars (any of them)

Movies I Saw 5-10 Years After Everyone Else:
Titanic
Forest Gump
Gladiator
Schindler's List
Braveheart

I have, however, seen "Son in Law" more times than I can count.

Art by the People

This is so fascinating—in the mid-nineties, Russian artists used market research to find out what people most wanted in art and what they least wanted. People from 14 countries answered questions about their favorite color, if they preferred famous people or ordinary people, and what season they like best, then Vitaly Komar and Alex Melamid painted a scene they felt best reflected the most wanted (and another painting for the least wanted) art of that country.

The image above is what Americans like in their art: a placid outdoor scene featuring some wildlife, three ordinary people, and George Washington. Here's France's most wanted (they are, as could be expected, more comfortable with nudity than Americans!).



What's really interesting is that nearly every country surveyed seemed to favor traditional paintings of scenery and dislike abstract art. Except Holland! They were the only country that preferred abstract art over more traditional scenes. What do you think, does George Washington standing by a lake typify American taste in art?

Images via Dia. See all the paintings here.

Midnight in Paris

I finally saw Midnight in Paris this weekend and I looooved it. I'm not sure how I managed to never see a trailer for the film, but I didn't, so I had no idea what it was about. Which sometimes makes things better, don't you think? I was expecting pretty Paris, and funny Owen Wilson, but it was fun to be pleasantly surprised with Hemingway, the Fitzgeralds, and Cole Porter.







If you haven't seen it yet, here's a little cheat sheet to some of the historical figures.

Weekend in Pictures

A weekend that started with absolutely no plans and ended up completely full. Full of movie-watching, trashy food-eating, blueberry pie-baking, rooftop-swimming, Pimm's Cup drinking, flea market-browsing, sunset-strolling and unexpected happy tears-crying. Phew. A good one, for certain. How was yours?