Simple Pleasure Friday: Fresh Sugarsnap Peas

One of my favorite things to do (and don't do often enough) is to peruse our local farmer's market with my boys, tasting and buying fresh food.

Last week we bought some sugarsnap peas and as soon as I tasted them, memories rushed back to me.   I haven't had fresh sugarsnap peas since I was a kid. 

{Porcelain Farmer's Market container from my best friend, Frammy.  By Anthropologie}

What struck me about the sugarsnap peas was not how good they were (I like them but can only eat a few at a time... it's not "love") but how they brought me back to summers...  The flavor made me think of my Grandma Maestranzi's summer cottage vegetable garden and also of my Aunt Janet's garden in Rhode Island.  It also reminded me of snapping green beans for my Grandmother.  It's amazing how taste & smell bring on the memories. 

Had any good simple farmer's market pleasures lately?




Enjoy your weekend!!

If you'd like help creating a home you absolutely love, contact me about our design services.

Client Family Room Sneakity Peek & a message from the past

I'm not back to work yet and am still on a "maternity leave" of some sorts, but I have gotten a few things accomplished.  I wanted to share a little sneakity peek of a client's family room:

Our client  found the old cabin blueprints above the sofa at a thrift store years ago and we loved them too so we had them framed.  The blue bowl on the coffee table is one I found a while back and its design is made out of safety pin idents into the clay that were then outlined in gold.  Right now it's a corral for the remote controls, but when entertaining it can be emptied and filled with something pretty like flowers or napkins or something seasonal.

Their new linen sofa by Lee Industries is so comfortable and I wish I'd fixed the back cushions for this pic after I put the throw blanket on but I didn't notice that until later. Oh well.  I love its lines and it's such a comfy "vegging" sofa.

The faded oushak rug has hits of blue in it, so for a bolster pillow, we used my "Pierced Porcelain" linen in a custom blue and we had the pillow edged in the Greek key trim.   

 I added a few interesting accessories to make the room feel like home (my client is very trusting and really lets me have fun & get creative with the accessorizing, which I love.  It's all a total surprise to her when she comes home-) and one of them was an antique children's book full of stories.  Glancing through the book I found this inscription:

{Hard to read but it says, "If my name you need to see, Look on page 103"

Of course I had to know the name, so I turned to page 103:

{If my name you still would find, Look on page marked 59"}

....Well, you can't stop there (at this point I'm thinking, "Ok kid, when is this going to end???") so I kept turning:

"Susan Cornelia Jones"

...

"If on that name you chance to look, Think of me and close this book."

...And that made me smile, because as I slowly closed the book, I did think of Susan Cornelia Jones.

...There was no way not to.  Reading her note gave us just the tiniest little insight into this girl...  she was fun & creative and patient... and more than that, she wanted to be thought of one day, to be remembered. 

I looked her up and found a couple of different Susan Cornelia Jones's  (I mean come on, I'm searching for a "Jones!!") but I did find a Susan Cornelia Jones who lived in Washington, DC in a Georgetown townhouse as a girl and then moved to Virginia with her husband and two children.  I found the book around here so just maybe.  And I found another from Long Island who died at the age of 24.  And then another from Texas... 

I'm not sure if any of these are her or not, but either way, I hope she's looking down today & knows we found her message.



If you'd like help creating a home you absolutely love, contact me about our design services.

Our new Patio: Little Liess's Bar & Grill

We spend so much of our time outside & love having familly meals & parties out there so this year we decided to do a little work on our patio. Here is is "before" (I can't believe I'm showing you this pic!!)....  I think this is from two years ago or maybe three??  (is it sad that the years are starting to blend together??) with the AC unit, some messy gravel& the sawhorse table my husband made (which I loved but just didn't work out because it was so heavy!!! and the wood started rotting eventually..  great for a summer though)  I guess it was a couple of years back because it was before we painted the back of our house & shed.   Anyway, here it was "before"--

{We got the patio set at Lucketts for a steal but it came with ill-fitting cushions...  I immediately replaced them with NEW slightly-less-ill-fitting cushions that will hold us over for a couple of years until we feel like springing for new custom ones.)

We planned to continue the concrete all the way along the back of the house & resurface the old concrete to match the new.  I sketched out these plans of the back bar area with slate counters for the contractor:

Our grill isn't built-in...  It's just the same old grill that we made a custom opening for:

And here it is now:

We loooooove being out here now that it's completed & entertaining is so simple. 

Here's a pic of the non-custom cushions I found online that drive me CRAZY because in order to fit them I had to turn them sideways showing the seems, but that I am totally good with making do with for now because they are such an improvement to the original cushions...

The table is from West Elm & I can't say enough good things about it... (It's pretty, hoses off nicely, is super-strudy and holds up to the birds!!  --- if you know what I mean ;) ;) ..see spot in very front of table..  (I clearly didn't do any cleaning up for these pics- woops!)

The stools & chairs are from Pottery Barn & I'm really happy with them too.  The silver chairs are ooold.  We made a little cubbie for our firewood on the right which I love because it just adds a little interest & warmth..

I can't wait to have some mojitoes with my girls out here:

Eventually we'll paint the bar the same color as the house but for now, while we try to have a chill summer, it's staying as-is.  We also plan on continuing our dwarf holly bushes around this area of the patio too so it looks like it's always been here.

One last before:

And one last after:

We love eating at "Little Liess's Bar & Grill" as the boys have dubbed it!!! ;) ;)  Thanks for checking it out!!

And one pic of the littlest Liess, 3 week old Luke:

{Like me & the rest of my children, red-eye remover was required.}

If you'd like help creating a home you absolutely love, contact me about our design services.

Hydrangea Time

After Luke was born (2 weeks ago today) I pretty much hibernated inside the house & in our back yard for a week or so- snuggling & trying to keep him fed.  Then one day as we were heading out, I noticed that our hydrangea had bloomed without me noticing.  Like crazy:

...So of course I had to take a few inside...

I love the old-fashioned appeal of hydrangea...  My grandma used to have a ton of limelights at her summer cottage.   I had just enough time to cut a few and am heading out today to grab more...

The thing I love about hydrangea is that there are so many I don't feel guilty for picking them...

I have all different colors (guess our soil PH is pretty inconsistent)...

I love the blue...

Here's a picture of Christian taken 2 years ago bringing a bunch in...

...They (both him & the flowers) were much smaller back then.   I never thought the hydrangea would get taller than me!!

my timer's up- baby's crying- so i'm out  but i cannot thank you all enough for all the well wishes and notes...  your friendship means so much to me.

If you'd like help creating a home you absolutely love, contact me about our design services.