My week in pictures

On some weekends I look back on the just passed days and I wonder what I have been doing. These are the weeks where I routinely cover all the necessary spots, drive more then I walk, run errands, pass out meals on accord and, washing the piles of laundry my family regularly produces, makes one day look like the next anyway.
And yet I still look back with satisfaction: This is our regular life, peaceful, all the steps are needed and I wish I could record the fleeing moments, the days we often look back and do not remember.
I take pictures all the time of things I love, things I want to remember, things which fill me with joy...so here is the week which just has passed.
Do you record the passing of time in your life? 

In Patricia's studio

Sunday began with a visit to my dear friend Patricia of PVE, who again took part in the annual
Studio Tour of the river towns on the Hudson, Hastings, Dobbs Ferry, Ardsley and Irvington, NY. A wonderful institution which I have been looking forward to visit for a few years now. It was again more then inspiring to see so many artists displaying their works of their own creative year.

Roses, given to me by Beryl

My wonderful friend Beryl, whom I see not too often due to her traveling schedule and her life split between India, Ireland and the US, came over for a Sunday afternoon filled with stories and laughter and later shared dinner with us all. Together we cuddled up on the sofa and watched 'Call the Midwife'  and 'Mr.Selfridge', TV series we adore. We both have  worked as midwifes in our lives and being addicted to the BBC masterpiece classics, the last one is just a delightful must. Sunday nights are booked for time being...

Country home

Monday, Tuesday: Spring has finally arrived in our part of the country and I absolutely adore this little country scene of a red painted tiny house not far from us and its lovely little garden, tulip filled and adorned with something like a remnant of a mill stone. 

I pass it often and each time I smile and thank the owners in my mind for this moment of beauty in my day.

My miso soup

Miso soup is something I make regularly, its super healthy and quick to make, at least once a week. I use Brown Rice Miso Master Organic, using water, some carrot slices, broken up wakame (a type of seaweed) and scallions, simmer this for 5-6 minutes and then add some firm tofu (do not boil) and my miso paste, stir and eat. Sometimes I add a teaspoon of raw almond butter and a squeeze of fresh lemon. Yum!

Rolling out the green carpet

Wednesday: A part of our front lawn needed replacing after two years of fighting a nasty infestation of fungi and weeds. We care for our greens organic, but this was something we could not seem to manage anymore, after the winter everything was pretty dead! So we decided to take the plunge and get roll out grass and it looks splendid. Now I water the land twice a day for a good 1/2 hour. I think we will eventually need a sprinkler...

Unbelievable green

Which reminds me that we also have planned a second Zelkova tree to match the one planted two years ago. It is a fast growing shade tree, resisting common tree disease and we had gotten this one free of charge by the  town after the large, earlier existing tree needed to be taken down. At the time we felt bereaved and were happy to learn, that upon request the town would replace a cut  town tree. They did it within a few months and actually an arborist came and discussed the options with me. I was very impressed. Together we decided on the Zelkova serrata. (Japanese Zelkova) And although this tree is not the flowering beauty I had originally in mind in front of the house, I am very happy with this quiet beauty now growing. So, a second one will be planted, hopefully this autumn.

Pink explosion

 Decorative cherry blossoms?

Thursday, Friday: These amazing clusters of pink blossoms can be found on some trees along the Aqueduct, a historic walkway above the Hudson between Yonkers and Croton-on -Hudson. It is a well preserved path, sometimes narrow, sometimes wide, tree covered and leading along parks, back yards and quaint neighborhoods. Walkers, joggers, bikers, kids and dogs share the space and it is almost like a secret garden, where, on a weekday morning, only the initiated find themselves alone with the birds... at least the lucky ones not to be in an office at that time.

I walk with my friend Paola, I walk with Patricia, I walk with my husband and alone, and apart from the exercise it is a wonderful place to brainstorm plans for the future and hatch out ideas which would perhaps otherwise never see the light of day....this place always opens one up in unexpected ways.

I meditate while walking. The most wonderful experience.

My thirsty boy

Saturday: Seeing my youngest boy out and about on his bike, the trampoline and with his friends playing soccer and basketball after the long winter months is priceless. 

Today is soccer practice, tomorrow another game and hopefully the boys win another round, the team has been doing great so far.

Picking up my son's lunch sandwich

I also chatted with one of my older sons in Berlin, such a lovely thing to have Skype and to see him, all into his studies and plans for the future. 

I enjoy the little moments, the connecting moments, the time we can spend together, even if it's thousands of miles apart, sitting opposite each other, sharing a cup of coffee and stories of late.

I had also time in between, while waiting in the car in the school pick up line to read the latest in Architectural Digest, beautiful homes I would like to share with you to, this being a Design blog....

AD magazine

This is the bedroom of Vogue Brazil style editor Donata Meirelles, designed by the South American tastemaker Sig Bergamin... Ahh. Such delights in color. Pick up a copy, this or any other, I usually have a moment at the bookstore....

The best of everything

Now I am sitting on my deck, feet up, sipping on a green machine juice, freshly made and I will read some of the  New York Times, Wall Street Journal and have another look at Gwyneth Paltrow's latest cook book, It's All Good.

Indeed!

This has been my week, nothing breathtaking, but just a quietly fulfilling one, with all the good things in life:

Family, friends, health, good food and work.  I am so thankful!

Wishing you all the same, happy weekend!

All images by V.Zlotkowski apart the last via AD magazine.

Nest

Autumn is for building a nest.... the temperatures drop, students are back into the groove, a cozy place beckons....

I love making a nest at this time of year!

Image via Houzz

Sail away

Or rather row, row, row away...
It's just wonderful, how whimsical some ideas are!

via

Perpetual summer, sun and water must be the feeling in this bedroom.

Is tomorrow Friday again???

Image via stumbleupon.

Making a home

I do not know about you, but the older I get, the more I feel home is that very spot on earth, the place, where I do not need to have to conform to anything, do not have to fit in, but do so love to be utterly comfortable, that I will be able to forget the year I live in....
Like a shell, fitted to my body and soul. No need to compete, certainly not anymore to be at the designing front line at all times. Not living in 'up-to-the minute' decorating trenches.
I want to slide through time, looking at old things and new ones, living side by side, lay my hands on chipped china with a past and cutlery with patina. It's my history. 

Moss from the forest, driftwood from the beach and lavender from the market...

I love to remember years gone by and dream up future days. 
Often I buy things because they remind me of things I've almost forgotten. Books, letters, photographs.
I particularly love old photographs, not only of family or friends I know, but people from long ago. Somehow I connect.

The Savannah bride from 1919 found a new home here.

I want to live with all the books I have read and all the leaves and flowers I have pressed, the stones I collected and the cicada, picked from the drive way years ago, which I love to see under glass. 

Some of my collected vintage books and old letters.

Since I was a child I have collected old books and letters. 
There are small drift woods from my first tropical vacation and the baby shoes and dresses from the children, collected in small boxes in my tiny closet. I can't bare the thought of them in the cold or too hot attic.
I feel Georgian in my four poster bed and Edwardian at my desk. 
I acquired new bedding a few days ago, absolutely 'now', and somehow it fit's right in with the old things and vintage prints I found at a New York flea market years ago. No need to change anything else.

Fourposter a la mode!

I often dream of big changes, but I take no severe steps to make them. Something holds me back. Gently, I feel history's pull. I am not lazy.
I think myself back to the nineties, when we bought the red leather couch and matching chairs with it, reminiscing about my thoughts back then, of all the little hands going to mess with them....Now I laugh a little about the matching part, oh well....so what! The little hands have become big hands, almost over night!

Feeling rather English here...

With all the pink going on for years, these might feel dated to some, but they aged gracefully, small scratches telling stories of dog paws. I cannot part with any of them. They are all well loved. They are somersault proof.
Call them classic....timeless.
Changes come slowly in our house. It's not that they are not welcomed, but I consider these changes more like growing. Growing up and growing older. A carpet here, some pillows there. A lamp moves from the family room to a bedroom and back to the dining room. Like old friends, they are trustworthy and yet often feel like new!

Through our dining room window two years ago. Little has changed.

The dog has claimed the ottoman as his prime spot, which sits right in the middle of our music room. It is the room where we read, talk and play piano. I have tried to change his place, so I could have a coffee table, but then, why shouldn't he be there, when we gather round? He too is comfortable. The table moved close to the piano....

A little cramped, but we all want to be in here!

For years I wanted to change things, but now, that I am slowly able to do so, I feel like not really to want it anymore....

80's kitchen made to work!

Well, I can part with the "historic" bathrooms (here I draw the line - no pictures)  and the freaky old kitchen with broken hinges and missing doors (hence the skirts), but the changes do not have to be gravely. It would not work with the spirit of the house. 
Maybe it's because we are in the middle of life. Not starting out with all new plans and not old, to not want to change anything at all anymore. But comfortable in the middle. Having achieved equilibrium....
It's a wondrous feeling.
As I opened the latest 'Elle Decor' last night, what did I find? Suddenly red everywhere! Sofas, chairs, walls.... I guess we made it through a trend loop! Old is new again! But do I really care? 
Perhaps I should wait with that kitchen a few more years....
Is not this real life?






All images by V.Zlotkowski

A bedroom

I looked through my pictures for evidence of great details and this is one of the images, which came to my mind. I had seen it a couple of month ago in Lonny magazine and I truly love it.
Analyzing what makes it so enticing are a few things: The symmetry and the contrast between the light walls and the modern bed on one hand and these lovely antique chests, functioning as side tables, one the other.
I adore the popping coral red of the blanket at the end of the bed and the small vases filled with roses left and right next to the head board. The wall mounted reading lamps blend in and do not draw attention. But I become aware of the nail trimmed headboard. And I notice the smaller leaning prints along the wall behind the books. Please click on the images to enlarge and to see ll those lovely details!


There is a lot going on a in quiet way. Looking at the picture I realize how the large classic prints add height and definition to a small and rather boxy room, leaving space for the white monochrome painting in the center. The carpets almost mirrors the scene. All the patterns work well with each other, enhancing the effects of sublet elegance. The longer I look, the more I discover the details. There is a blue and white duvet, striped pillows, sheers and softly gray patterned curtains. And love sits right in this bedroom's center! I love how the light streams in from two sides. This is unique.
There are three layers of carpeting: A wall to wall sisal, a softer larger mat, perhaps a woven wool and again a smaller one right under the bench with a yellow frame inside...
I love the books staples, large colorful ones, perhaps of travel designations or beautiful interiors? Maybe gardening or fashion photography? This place makes me dream and in all its intimacy it opens a world.
On the opposite site is a fireplace. And an armchair with a history. Notice the red piping...And another popping pillow!
I can not see a TV! How divine!


Did I tell you it belongs to Lulu De Kwiatkowski?
It is beautiful!

And a happy weekend ahead to all of you!
xx
Victoria


Images via Lonny magazine.