Winter Wonderland or Winter Whirlwind?

Life
January 5, 2015

Happy New Year Lacquered Lifers! Hope you didn’t miss me too much – whirlwind doesn’t even begin to describe the last couple weeks for the Brock family! We have been absolutely all over the place – so happy to be back home, but honestly feel as though Christmas came and went too quickly this year. Does anyone else feel that way? Anyway, glad the new year is here, the time for new beginnings, resolutions and new opportunities. While I begin the task of reorganizing my desk for the year ahead, here is a little recap of our last few weeks … On Sunday, December 21st, got in the car here in Charleston, SC and drove fourteen hours to East Hampton, to celebrate Christmas with my in-laws for a few days … While we were there, I thought I would attempt (for the first time) the Feast of the Seven Fishes. A Southern Italian/Italian American tradition of a Christmas Eve meal featuring seven courses of fish (seven for the seven sacraments). Above are two of the seven. For a first try, it went pretty well …

Then it was off to my hometown of Darien, CT to visit with my parents for a few days, a visit which included two more Christmases … While I was hoping for some snow to put me in the Christmas spirit while we were up North, I can’t say that I hated the warm winter temperatures and sunset strolls on the beach with Hamish and Mr. B. On Sunday December 28th, we headed back to Charleston (this time it was 15 hours in the car), and on New Year’s Eve Mr. B and I hosted two other couples at our house for a little New Years Eve dinner party … Finally, on Saturday the 3rd of January we got in the car again, this time to drive to Florida, to pick up the newest addition to our family, Hugh Wooster Brock. He is actually Hamish’s nephew! So Hamish now becomes Uncle Hamish to little Huey. We’re very excited (and exhausted), and looking forward to the two pups becoming the best of friends.

So there is our holiday season recap! So glad to be back to Lacquered Life’s regularly scheduled programming.

In a Pear Tree …

Interior Design
December 24, 2014

Good Morning Lacquered Lifers! Sorry for the lack of posts of late, its that time of year! Holiday parties, and holiday travel. I hope you all are enjoying the season as much as I am. In honor of Christmas Eve, I am sharing pictures of a holiday table that I put together with a little help from my friends at Herend and Sferra. I stuck with the traditional Christmas shade of green, but eschewed the red in favor of gold. And an overall theme? Well let’s just say I was thinking pretty heavily about the 12 days of Christmas and particular fruit tree … The china pattern I used is Herend Fish Scale, with a dinner plate in Green and a service plate underneath in Gold. Herend’s website has a great feature called “Set My Style” where you can pull together a place setting with different Herend china patterns and colors coupled with Moser crystal. It is a great feature for all those brides to be who are trying to figure out their china pattern.
I knew I wanted to keep the green theme going with the table linens, and there are no better solid color linens than Sferra Festival Table linens. The linens come in over 100 different colors, and with the very cool Sferra “Linen Colors” App, you can easily determine what color napkins will go best with your china! You take a picture of your plate, click on the color in the china pattern that you want to match, and voila! The App generates a number of Festival Linen color suggestions to pair with your china. Pretty great, right? I thought so. I went with Sferra Festival Linen napkins and placemats in “Kelly”. It is important to note that because of the size of my dining room table, I folded the placemats in half – otherwise they bump each other at the corners. Oh, and the crocodile? He is a nutcracker. Isn’t he great? The flatware is an awesome antique mall find, along with the nutcracker – the stemmed glassware is World Market, and the Sparkle Rimmed Tumblers are from Anthropologie last year. Thank you so much for looking at my Christmas table – hope you all have a wonderful holiday!

G&G Gift List

Books
December 15, 2014

Good Morning Lacquered Lifers! All of a sudden Christmas is a week and a half away, and I am nowhere near finished with my shopping. In fact, I have barely started. If you’re anything like me, and you’re looking for that one stop shop for all your gifting needs – look no further than the Garden & Gun Store, G&G Mercantile + Co. I was lucky enough to attend the Garden & Gun Jubilee last weekend, which introduced me to all the wonderful made in the south products that Garden & Gun has available through their store, and let me tell you there is something for everybody. Here are some of my picks, but this list only scratches the surface of what the site has to offer.

1. But Mama Always Put Vodka in Her Sangria by Julia Reed – A favorite book of mine, by one of the great Southern tastemakers, this is a collection of hilarious and heartwarming stories about friends, family and entertaining, accompanied by some fabulous recipes. A great gift for a good friend.

2. Sallie’s Jams – I just picked up a jar of the Peach Pepper + Ginger yesterday, and I can personally attest to its magnificence. A great gift for a hostess, which will stand out amongst the numerous bottles of wine she received.

3. Dart Earrings by Another Feather – A perfect gift for any lady in your life, she will get tons of wear out of these beautiful gold studs.

4. Catchall – You can never have too many catchall’s and the simplistic design and awesome Mark Twain quote on this one is a great gift for anyone on your list.

5. Ledbury Seersucker Shirt – Looking for something for that special guy in your life? Try this beautiful seersucker shirt by Ledbury. He will have it forever, and think of you every time he puts it on.

6. Curated Vintage Cocktail Napkins – One of my favorites. No two sets are alike. Great for your best friends who you love to share cocktail hour with. Each combination is unique, discovered by Garden & Gun.

7. Copper Flask – Beautiful, fun, and yet serious. I think this is the perfect gift for your little brother … who’s not so little anymore.

Happy Shopping!