.

Move.

2010-01-25T15:40:00.001-08:00

http://katekoza.wordpress.com/

Have a Blue(berry) Christmas.

2009-12-12T10:59:00.001-08:00

Great recipe from this morning's Times, courtesy of Rose Shulman...

Oatmeal Buttermilk Blueberry Pancakes:

These are denser than ordinary whole wheat buttermilk pancakes. Make up a batch, freeze them in packets of three, and thaw in the microwave for a quick, substantial breakfast.

You'll Need:

1/2 cup rolled oats
1/2 cup low-fat milk
1 cup whole wheat flour
1/2 cup unbleached all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 tablespoon sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 large eggs
1 1/2 cups buttermilk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
3 tablespoons canola oil
1 cup fresh or frozen blueberries

Process:

1. Combine the milk and rolled oats in a bowl, and set aside.
2. Sift together the flours, baking powder, baking soda, sugar and salt.
3. In another bowl, whisk the eggs, then add the buttermilk and whisk together. Then whisk in the vanilla extract and the oil.
4. Add the flour mixture to the wet ingredients and quickly whisk together. Do not overbeat; a few lumps are okay. Fold in the oats and milk. Let sit for one hour, or refrigerate overnight.
5. If necessary, spray the hot griddle with pan spray. Drop by 3 to 4 tablespoons onto the hot griddle. Place six or seven blueberries on each pancake. Cook until bubbles begin to break through, two to three minutes. Turn and cook for about 30 seconds to a minute on the other side, or until nicely browned. Remove from the heat, and continue until all of the batter is used up.
6. Serve hot with a small amount of butter and maple syrup.

Yield: A dozen pancakes.

Advance preparation: You can keep these, well wrapped, in the refrigerator for a few days, or freeze for up to a few months.

Rudolph the Red Nosed ____________ .

2009-12-08T07:52:00.001-08:00

The NYC Parks Department brought a couple of reindeer into Central park today for kids (and infantile adults like yours truly) to pet. Needless to say, I was inspired. Thus, some Etsy finds to celebrate Santa's transportation department...

Seedy.

2009-12-07T20:42:00.000-08:00

I am very near completion of knitting a scarf I have been working on for about two weeks now, and am determined to finish at least one more prior to Christmas. However, I would very much like to learn and master the seed stitch for the next one; I just love the chunky, Early American look of it!

Christmas List

2009-12-07T07:25:00.000-08:00

My mother asked me to hurry up and come up with a Christmas list. I have thought and thought (there's really no stand-out item that I desperately yearn for), and here is what I have come up with:

Hail to the (Holiday) Chief

2009-12-07T06:54:00.000-08:00

There is no danger in me stating that no one does the holidays better than Ms. Stewart. Her website is chock full of wonderful ideas for edible treats, homemade gifts, and decorations. I tried many of them out for Thanksgiving (the pinecone, feather-plumed turkey placeholders were by far the most popular of my Martha-inspired creations), and cannot recommend them enough. There's nothing like gathering in the kitchen for Martha Craft Time! As an added homage to Martha, I have included a clip from my favorite of all Martha episodes...

Holiday Hydrangeas

2009-12-06T21:43:00.000-08:00

I know it - I am odd. I am likely one of the only girls on this earth whose favorite flowers are hydrangeas. My mother (who might as well be Martha's second-in-command) and I got into a rather heated debate tonight regarding the utility of my choice flower during the holiday season. I, loyal hydrangea-lite that I am, was insistent that they can be used with equal enthusiasm during the winter months as during the spring and early summer. My mother laughed.

Thus, proof:

Snugglies.

2009-12-06T12:30:00.001-08:00

Must Be Santa - Bob Dylan

2009-12-01T10:04:00.000-08:00

Cover up your White Winter Hymnal.

2009-11-29T06:44:00.001-08:00

There are so many amazing cover of Fleet Foxes' "White Winter Hymnal" on Youtube, all with their own distinct personality. I am quite taken with all of them, and simply had to declare this publicly. Below, the original by Fleet Foxes followed by the covers.

Burberry's "Art of the Trench"

2009-11-14T07:28:00.000-08:00

My scholastic productivity is doomed by the existence of Burberry's new trench site.

http://artofthetrench.com/

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/10/business/global/10burberry.html?_r=1

I hate Kate Spade because she creates perfect things that I cannot afford.

2009-11-08T08:56:00.001-08:00

Love at First Sight

2009-11-06T08:20:00.001-08:00

I don't want to win the lottery. Just everything in the Boden look book :]

http://www.bodenusa.com/

Jack Wills University Outfitters, UK

2009-11-04T06:43:00.000-08:00

My wonderful friend Edie is currently in graduate school in Brighton and recently introduced me to on of her favourite local British shopping haunts, Jack Wills. While some of their clothes ring too much of Abercrombie circa 2001, I am enamored with their website and love their accessories and outerwear. If they invited me to be in their next seasonal film (likely), I certainly would not say no...

Further justification for my transfer application to UCL...

2009-10-27T13:01:00.000-07:00

Aaaaaaaand I'm transferring...

2009-10-27T10:32:00.001-07:00

Because you can never Keep Calm enough...

2009-10-23T10:25:00.000-07:00

Inspiration = 9F

2009-10-23T09:29:00.000-07:00

ggg thanks 9F for inspiring an impromptu British Tourism Council video search on YouTube :)

Oh, Kate.

2009-10-19T13:24:00.001-07:00

New England's Most Haunted Places

2009-10-18T18:43:00.000-07:00

Bah Humbug.

2009-10-18T18:05:00.000-07:00

Weekend splurge of necessity, not luxury (so I justify...)

2009-10-18T07:13:00.000-07:00

I had intended to wait far longer before purchasing new Uggs, but my trip to Boston yesterday and subsequent return to undignified temperatures in NYC prompted a change in the 2009 Ugg purchase timeline...

As an aside, something I have never understood is why the Ugg advertisers always place the boot models in locals that don't really look as if they require Uggs. It calls to mind my days in Miami when the temperature would hit 68 and everyone would rush out and buy ski parkas and sherpa everything. Oh, nostalgia.

Pedal Peepers in Vermont

2009-10-18T07:00:00.001-07:00

"And then there were the trees, a patchwork of scarlet, orange and yellow that transformed a vista into something so perfect it almost didn’t look real."

http://travel.nytimes.com/2009/10/18/travel/18bike.html

B-to-the-S

2009-10-15T20:43:00.001-07:00

Oh, how this angers me.

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

Hot hot heat.

2009-10-13T13:20:00.000-07:00

It is now officially autumn in NYC, and for the first time this year, even I have to admit that it's cold. For those of you who are blissfully unacquainted with NYC radiator policies, most buildings in the city have automatic heat adjustment. What is this, you ask? Why, it is the scourge of Satan.

In order for the heat in most buildings to kick on, it has to hit 42 degrees outside and stay that way for 72 consecutive hours. Not until hour 73 is the Heat God (a.k.a. fancy thermo-computer in the basement) satisfied that it is, in fact, winter. Once Heat God has ascertained the season, he proceeds to blast/melt you out of your apartment by turning your radiator against you and smothering you with 100 degree heat. Which then forces you to either open your windows (if it's not snowing/raining) or turn on your air conditioner (if it is) in order not to wake up transformed into a pool of human paraffin on the floor.

While I am praying for Hour 73 right now, I know that the moment my radiator comes to life, I will be wishing for this very moment - sitting freezing at my computer wearing five coats, staring lustfully at my radiator, with my tiny space heater blowing directly on my scuff-covered feet.

Sigh.

Reviewed.

2009-10-09T20:01:00.000-07:00

The highly anticipated (by me) New York Times review of my cause célébre(r).

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/09/arts/design/09lincoln.html

"Finding Autumn Gold in Unexpected Places."

2009-10-08T18:48:00.000-07:00

Beautiful New York Times article -

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/09/travel/escapes/09foliage.html

An Education

2009-10-07T10:50:00.001-07:00

= where you will find me this Friday night.

Pick-me-ups

2009-10-06T13:29:00.000-07:00

I have had a bad week. Ergo, I spent money at my favorite place - Therapie on Columbus at 75th. As if I needed an owl-shaped mug and more hand towels.

A tiny tragedy.

2009-10-03T07:44:00.000-07:00

Abercrombie only has size large left in this delicious Ava jacket :(

Pendleton Woolen Mills

2009-10-02T20:35:00.000-07:00

www.pendleton-usa.com

Christina's World: Wyeth's famed subject - the Olsen House in Cushing, Maine

2009-09-29T08:07:00.000-07:00

I want to go. Soon, please.

For fall, my favorite American painter.

2009-09-27T13:11:00.000-07:00

Andrew Wyeth.

Like Alice, but without the acid trip.

2009-09-24T20:27:00.000-07:00

"Winnie Foster was beginning to lose track of time. Had she been there a day? A week? A month? It seemed to Winnie that the Tucks lived in a way the rest of the world had forgotten. They where never in a hurry and did things the slow way. For the first time Winnie felt free to explore, to ask questions, to play."

...spent the night re-reading one of my favorites.

Home for the Holidays

2009-09-24T09:27:00.000-07:00

Pottery Barn is serving up some tasty new temptations...

these just scream "NEW ENGLAND!" and I LOVE IT.

Transgendered.

2009-09-20T11:32:00.001-07:00

It's always good to occasionally check the men's section of jcrew.com to see if there are any smart finds that can be re-calibrated into retro-chic baggy girls' wear. Because ladies is pimps, too.

Timepiece.

2009-09-19T12:48:00.001-07:00

I am currently drooling over this over-priced Coach watch.

Talbots...

2009-09-19T12:42:00.000-07:00

...not just your mother's store anymore.

Historical Capital

2009-09-15T06:05:00.000-07:00

...and so it is that the bulk of my first NYHS paycheck will be going towards purchases of a most decidedly unhistorical nature.

New England Quilt Museum - Lowell, MA

2009-09-12T08:46:00.000-07:00

The art of Yinka Sonibare

2009-09-11T09:05:00.000-07:00

Yinka Shonibare has quickly become my absolute favourite contemporary artist. Born in London to Nigerian parents, his work explores issues of race and class through re-conceptualization of famous works of art in various mediums. I recently visited one of his traveling exhibitions in NYC, and was blown away. Shonibare purchased Dutch wax-printed cotton in London (considered by many traditional "African" fabrics) and uses it to compose elaborate colonial era dress. The mannequins donning the outfits are arranged so as to call to mind famed classical paintings and themes. The result is the blending of cultural traditions in a way that challenges historic cultural classifications.

Autumn in NY has officially arrived.

2009-09-11T08:57:00.001-07:00

I shop at Bath & Body Works from September - December because...

2009-09-11T08:36:00.000-07:00

Forget Heaven. When I die, I want to go to...

2009-09-11T08:16:00.001-07:00

Yankee Candle Village in South Deerfield, MA.

Sometimes all it takes is a picture to make me happy...

2009-09-03T07:37:00.000-07:00

My Hero in Chief and my Vice Hero rooting around in the latter's office.

Pumpkin, Spice, & Everything Nice

2009-09-02T06:00:00.001-07:00

Yesterday, pumpkin spice returned to Starbucks, and I was offered my dream job.

This dually glorious sequence of events was obviously not a coincidence, and only I would appreciate it for the kismet that it is.

Because pumpkin spice annually heralds in all things good and true...

autumn, sweaters, colored leaves, twinkle lights, and jobs at the New York Historical Society. Apparently.

One little girl in a pale pink coat heard, "Lay ee odl lay ee odl lay hee hoo." She yodeled back to the lonely goatherd.

2009-08-30T14:00:00.000-07:00

KOZA - Czech (eastern Ashkenazic): from western and eastern Slavic koza ‘nanny goat’, probably applied as a metonymic occupational name for a goatherd.

In case you didn't realize (and if you did, you deserve the Obscure Fact Know-er of the Year award), my last name translates directly to "goat" in the land of my dad's ancestors.

If only I had inherited my mother's plain Anglo-Saxon family name. It would have aroused far less nominal humiliation.

On the bright side, it wouldn't have lent itself nearly as well to thematic Etsy searches...

I spent Sunday...

2009-08-30T13:09:00.000-07:00

...lost in the New York Journal(s) of American History. The perfect follow-up to a Saturday night spent joyfully hyperventilating in the Colonial American wing of the Met.

"The New- York Historical Society publishes a semi-annual periodical called The New-York Journal of American History. The journal is a revival of the New-York Historical Society Quarterly, which was published between 1917 and 1980. The new publication, edited by Valerie Paley, is designed to serve both scholars and general history enthusiasts alike."

The Long Goodbye

2009-08-29T09:42:00.001-07:00

Because my hero is Caroline Kennedy. Because he was America's greatest senator. And because he proved that resilience is limitless.

I love bookstores, but...

2009-08-28T13:30:00.000-07:00

...I am on hiatus from Columbia's. After a morning spent in line at the registrar's office, I was not planning to repeat the process at the bookstore. Two hours later, I emerged with my spoils - the most expensive art history book ever written that has guaranteed my inability to go to J.Crew. Ever. Again.

New, from the only store that matters.

2009-08-26T19:50:00.001-07:00

Love these. They make me want to go lie in a field with that guy that plays Oliver Wood and blow on dandelions.

Pictorial Webster's.

2009-08-16T09:41:00.000-07:00

Remember children - it's never too early to start your Santa letters...

gramercy gingham girl.

2009-08-12T12:55:00.002-07:00

As September approaches (gasp!), I thought it appropriate to pay homage to one of summer's best patterns.

Photos courtesy of the multitude of geniuses on Flickr.

Vicious Cycle

2009-08-12T11:40:00.000-07:00

Stumbled upon a great blog this morning while eating my toast. Started by two classy Chicago gals, it encourages all of us ladies in cities to ride our bikes more frequently, and with style. As I have been pining over the pumpkin-colored Dutch bike in the store-front display on Columbus for weeks, this blog is inevitably going to end up prompting me to go into debt.

http://letsgorideabike.wordpress.com/

Gone, gone, gone...

2009-08-06T20:48:00.000-07:00

to New Hampshire & Massachusetts for the weekend to do some blueberry picking, muffin making, hiking, and general New England cavorting. Too bad it's not fall.

Lands' End lands it.

2009-08-06T07:42:00.000-07:00

Just received the autumn Lands' End catalogue via post, and may I just say, they have come a long way from supplying this fourth grader with her school uniform...

To keep the Anglophile warm...

2009-07-29T13:30:00.001-07:00

Oh, if only I had $150 to spend on frivolities such as The Perfect Cardigan.

Courtesy of J.Crew, as always.

On my mind...

2009-07-21T17:59:00.000-07:00

All we can hope for in this life is to find the place in this world most suited to us, the place where we can stop holding our breath. The place where, without even realizing, we best settle into our own skins.

And 99% of the time, that place is not the one where we started out.

Time-Traveling in Oxford, England via the NYT

2009-07-21T07:03:00.000-07:00

= The kind of article that makes me yearn for a one-way ticket across the pond. Not that everything else in my life doesn't lead to the same yearning. It does.

"You can lose yourself here and forget there ever was a century other than the 16th ..."

http://travel.nytimes.com/2007/02/11/travel/11dayout.html

I love...

2009-07-19T18:52:00.001-07:00

That every single New Yorker creates their own New York. It is truly a different city for every single person in it. For me, it is the fantasy-land of bookstores, wit, parks, the smell of roasted nuts, and the autumnal light portrayed in You've Got Mail. And yet, ask anyone on the street what they would "tag" the city, and they'll render an entirely different list than mine. It's kind of like going into the subway, picking a random stop anywhere on the line, and getting off. Each and every time you exit the tube, it is like emerging into an entirely different town. And it is always, always, always a delightful surprise. Though in no place more so for me than my very own neighborhood, which seems so perfectly suited to me that given the chance I would not relocate.

However, if I were uprooted by force (read: gun to head), I would choose a wee corner of the West Village known to some residents as "Little Britain." There was, in fact, actually a campaign to formally re-name this area Little Britain a few years ago, but unfortunately, Gotham never took kindly to the idea. I, however, will always offer my infinite goodwill towards my favorite of world peoples by calling it by its now informal name. The epicenter of Little Britain, indeed the very headquarters of the campaign, is a Small tea shop called Tea & Sympathy, which is flush next to A Salt and Battery, a fish and chips spot managed by the same jolly bunch of Britons. T & S is, so far, my absolute favorite restaurant in the city. It is tiny, tiny, tiny (not much room for other people - yay!), decorated in genuine informal British splendor, and is the perfect spot to read Bill Bryson books or catch up with a friend over biscuits and Earl Grey.

www.teaandsympathynewyork.com

livres pour l'amoureux de livre

2009-06-30T13:15:00.000-07:00

Translation: books for the book-lover.

Growing up, books were my barbies. Instead of arranging Skipper and Ken in B's tricked-out convertible, I stood my books on their spines, balanced them on my windowsill, and ran my fingernails over their mountainous pages like fingers on piano keys. I still do.

Currently, I am working on marketing a new scent to Sephora - Essence of Tome by Barnes & Noble. A hint of Sandalwood added to the dominant scent of leather and cured maple.

Coco avant Chanel.

2009-06-30T06:46:00.000-07:00

If I were already living in England, I wouldn't have to wait so long.

Paris Theatre & the Oak Room

2009-06-30T06:22:00.000-07:00

I am excited to get back to NY, as I have been holding out & waiting to see Cheri at the Paris Theatre on 58th (http://www.theparistheatre.com/).

Right across from the Plaza, there is no better place to see a foreign or tasteful film that at the P.T. The best part? Making a last minute trip to the Plaza's Oak Room (http://www.oakroomny.com/media/oakroom.html) afterward...

From the NYT (http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/31/nyregion/thecity/31pari.html?_r=1):

"The 586-seat theater is one of the oldest art houses in the United States. Opened by Pathé Cinema in 1948, the Paris started out showing French films (“La Symphonie Pastorale,” which ran for eight months), and it still shows French films, both revivals (“Belle de Jour”) and new ones (“Amélie”). When French films are not available, the theater shows movies that seem French, including the Foreign Films Lite oeuvre of Merchant and Ivory."

Before I hit my cool, cool sheets...

2009-06-29T19:05:00.000-07:00

I only have one more week here in Florida before I move to Manhattan. I am getting sentimental in advance. Tonight, we splurged and opened all of the windows in the house and simultaneously put the air on full-blast to combat the invading humidity. Though it diverges somewhat from our usual Al Gore-ish ways, it is the most simplistic feeling of luxury to have your hair blown by an outdoor breeze while remaining just below 90% humidity. I just went in my room to get the fan going in advance of retiring to bed, and found that my sheets are deliciously cool. I can't wait to turn myself into an inverted hot pocket benethe my covers and battle with my eyelids while trying to finish The Cider House Rules. Ah, the fleeting feeling of summer freedom.

Meanwhile, these make for a happy Kate at bedtime...

* Photos courtesy of the brilliant blog of the brilliant Katy Elliott.

In preparation:

2009-06-29T12:51:00.000-07:00

As we all know (and comfort ourselves with every other hour), Harry Potter is eminently upon us once again. To celebrate, I wasted time and found the following celebratory items, any of which I may be donning/utilizing on the big night...

It's a Mad, Mad world...

2009-06-29T05:43:00.000-07:00

As those who are familiar with my regional predilections may be aware, I am of the opinion that very few places in this great land of ours surpass the majesty that is New England. For what reasons, you ask? Oh, so many things. The fact that it lends itself especially well to those of us who love books more than almost everything else in life, wish for autumn all year long, esteem pumpkin and apple above all other baking ingredients, and aspire to one day (once the debt of graduate school has waned) purchase an old, ollllldddddd house and spend our days stripping wood floors and uncovering multiple layers of wallpaper.

The recent NYT article on the Mad River Valley of Vermont, famous for its pillowy white slopes in the winter, perfectly captures the spirit of my New English obsession. Plus, being a girl of Adirondack origin, I am a bit biased...

http://travel.nytimes.com/2009/06/26/travel/escapes/26Amer.html?ref=travel

Getsy.

2009-06-27T14:18:00.000-07:00

It would be impossible to quantify the minutes I non-waste on etsy.com...

Frugal Paris, NYT

2009-06-27T13:52:00.000-07:00

"The picnic is the great democratizing institution of summer, when Parisians spill onto riverbanks and bridges and into parks and gardens, chasing away the memories of winter and rain with baguettes and bottles, sandals and sundresses."

http://travel.nytimes.com/2009/06/28/travel/28frugalparis.html

Jigsaw Outpost, 06.26.09

2009-06-26T15:08:00.001-07:00

Cosas que cosquillearon mi suposición hoy:

If this is liquor, I need AA.

2009-06-26T14:58:00.000-07:00

The legend is true...the J.Crew men's shop in Tribeca, housed in a rough-hewn converted liquor store, EXISTS! I, like thousands of other, spent a good piece of time yesterday simply taking in the genious of the facade, decor, and authenticity of the place. If you ever wander onto this little island, it's worth a gander...

235 West Broadway at White Street
NYC 10013
212-226-5476

Sketchy.

2009-05-06T16:48:00.000-07:00

Go west, young woman.

2009-04-01T09:01:00.000-07:00

Tomorrow I leave Miami bright and early with my travel writing class to traverse our great nation and come out on the other side - in San Francisco. Each of us is working on two stories for the National Parks Service about SF scenes and sights, and I, of course, wanted to write arts and literature features. Surprisingly, my maniacal pitch that stretched the national parks-books associative relationship beyond the realm of even the Bush-terrorist-Iraq linkage scheme actually worked. Apparently that summer spent interning for a politician in DC *did* pay off...I know how to use my words to weave shiny truisms out of a self-evident falsehoods.

Thus, I will be stalking the staff, authors, and customers at City Lights Bookstore for a legitimate reason for the first time in my life (usually I stalk them unofficially and while wearing any one of my many official disguise wigs). Subsequent to my full dose of book nerdiness, I will be working on a piece about the over 600 murals in the Mission District. One of which I am particularly excited about - it depicts a giant lobster dancing a polka. And we all know I have a thing for the King of Crustaceans...

I have always claimed that I do not have a "best" friend, but...

2009-03-31T12:46:00.000-07:00

"It is a truly great thing to start life with a small number of really good books which are your very own." -Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

Praise Song for the Day

2009-03-30T21:24:00.001-07:00

(I've been meaning to post this for a while)

by Elizabeth Alexander

A Poem for Barack Obama's Presidential Inauguration

Each day we go about our business,
walking past each other, catching each other's
eyes or not, about to speak or speaking.

All about us is noise. All about us is
noise and bramble, thorn and din, each
one of our ancestors on our tongues.

Someone is stitching up a hem, darning
a hole in a uniform, patching a tire,
repairing the things in need of repair.

Someone is trying to make music somewhere,
with a pair of wooden spoons on an oil drum,
with cello, boom box, harmonica, voice.

A woman and her son wait for the bus.
A farmer considers the changing sky.
A teacher says, Take out your pencils. Begin.

We encounter each other in words, words
spiny or smooth, whispered or declaimed,
words to consider, reconsider.

We cross dirt roads and highways that mark
the will of some one and then others, who said
I need to see what's on the other side.

I know there's something better down the road.
We need to find a place where we are safe.
We walk into that which we cannot yet see.

Say it plain: that many have died for this day.
Sing the names of the dead who brought us here,
who laid the train tracks, raised the bridges,

picked the cotton and the lettuce, built
brick by brick the glittering edifices
they would then keep clean and work inside of.

Praise song for struggle, praise song for the day.
Praise song for every hand-lettered sign,
the figuring-it-out at kitchen tables.

Some live by love thy neighbor as thyself,
others by first do no harm or take no more
than you need. What if the mightiest word is love?

Love beyond marital, filial, national,
love that casts a widening pool of light,
love with no need to pre-empt grievance.

In today's sharp sparkle, this winter air,
any thing can be made, any sentence begun.
On the brink, on the brim, on the cusp,

praise song for walking forward in that light.

Eat. Sleep. Read @ indiebound.org --> Support your local bookstore!

2009-03-30T21:14:00.000-07:00

Books & Books, my favorite place to spend my days here in Coral Gables, is showing their support for independent bookstores by displaying banners for IndieBound, an alliance of independent booksellers and supporters. I am proud to be among this group of people who believe that local bookshops add an important economic and social element to communities, and hope you'll join the cause, too! Go to www.indiebound.org to learn more!

A Very Vineyard Summer '09

2009-03-30T10:11:00.001-07:00

My luck seems to be so good as of late that I worry I am in danger of it running out sometime very soon.

Great books I have read/want to read since I last blogged about great books I read/wanted to read

2009-03-30T09:53:00.001-07:00

aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaand...to conclude, my favorite "I Should Have Read This Six Years Ago When It Was a Choice on My High School Summer Reading List Book," discovered as being beyond brilliance by yours truly in the past two weeks...

You can't always get what you want. But sometimes you do.

2009-03-25T10:17:00.001-07:00

As of Fall 2009, my Kathleen Kelly, Upper West Side life will finally, finally, FINALLLLLLLLY begin.

Never had I felt so grateful/thankful/lucky.

libros, mi amigos.

2009-03-11T22:28:00.001-07:00

Cardi party.

2009-03-11T11:12:00.000-07:00

Apian Splendor

2009-03-11T11:08:00.000-07:00

My anti-wedding wedding dress.

2009-03-01T19:58:00.000-08:00

I have always said I don't want a big wedding. I am not that girl. No big venue, no big guest list...no guests at all, actually...Cape Cod saltbox church, a pumpkin cheesecake, maybe a nice sail afterwards complete with lobster rolls and flip flops - or fisherman sweaters if it's winter. And me, wearing a black, no-frills anti-wedding wedding dress.

That is, until I saw this.

This resplendent piece of attire that has "KATE" written in every crevice and stitched into every seam. And dammit, now I am going to have to cave and be cliche and wear a white dress.

This if, of course, all completely hypothetical, seeing as I am at least ten years away from the big day.

But us Type As have to plan in advance, of course.

Oh, crap.

2009-03-01T19:53:00.001-08:00

Palmetto, GA feature in the NYT

2009-03-01T13:48:00.000-08:00

I love this. Primarily because the honey picture reminds me of The Secret Life of Bees.

Amagansett.

2009-02-21T12:50:00.000-08:00

Old LL Bean Maine Hunting Shoes

2009-02-16T21:07:00.000-08:00

In & Out

2009-02-09T12:05:00.000-08:00

With each passing day, I become more and more annoyed by Gwyneth Paltrow and increasingly, irrevocably in love with John Adams.

I was at first hopeful about "GOOP." It did not take long for the concept, and its creator, to disappoint. The whole mess is one big paradox. "Save the world, be more responsible, but I strongly suggest this $9834298342 bag as the perfect 'You're such a good friend!' Christmas gift!" or "Let me stir up a buzz on the internet and induce every search engine/email server to post a story entitled 'Gwyneth's Book Picks!' And let me make said list as maddeningly irrelevant as possible by avoiding originality and instead including every Oprah pick/mass-market best-seller of the past two years. Anna K.! Ms. Austen! The Secret Life of Bees! Though I have nothing new or unique to suggest, I am a celebrity who wants to prove my hip intellectualism, so here is my unassailable book list!"

Ugh. And now she has a cookbook?! At least that morsel of brilliance isn't to hit shelves until 2010. However, the fact that there is buzz over a COOKBOOK by GWYNETH PALTROW that is not to be released for another YEAR AND A HALF (and that emphasizes FAMILY TOGETHERNESS AT THE TABLE) does nothing to assuage my fears that Gwyneth-mania will continue in full-force through the Year of the Tiger. I used to love Mario Batali, but I now fear that he inadvertently added to Gwyn's faux cultural credentials. Ah, well. Each person has the right to pontificate and popularize, I suppose. I just wish she weren't so damn sanctimonious about it.

If only Dame Judy Dench would have a PBS culinary travel special, trend-forecasting website, and cookbook deal. Now THAT would be worth the while.

My hero supremo.

2009-02-08T18:54:00.000-08:00

"Just because you're not famous, doesn't mean you're not good."
- Laura Linney

This woman is my hero. And, quite honestly, I don't care that 99.9% of the population has no clue who she is. The .01% that comprise the upper echelon of awesomeness do.

http://silhouettemasterpiecetheatre.com/

2009-02-08T18:47:00.001-08:00

A Guy kind of girl...

2008-12-14T07:30:00.000-08:00

Remember, remember the Fifth of November,
The Gunpowder Treason and Plot,
I can think of no reason
Why the Gunpowder Treason
Should ever be forgot.

Winterberg, Germany - brightest moon in 15 years

2008-12-13T06:27:00.000-08:00