Antiquing In New Orleans: Kevin Stone Antiques

 Day two in New Orleans, we headed to Magazine Street for some more antiquing. 

With the 81 degree temperature and dragging along my 26 year old daughter and her friend, we weren't feeling the love.

That's until we met Kevin Stone of Kevin Stone Antiques!

 Not only does he have a fabulous store of amazing antiques, he knows New Orleans inside and out.

We found out where to go and what to do.

 He talked us in to canceling our reservation at August, the only restaurant I was determined to go to, and eat at a tiny little Italian restaurant instead called The Italian Barrel.

"I would crawl across broken glass for their pumpkin raviolis!"

Kat couldn't change reservations fast enough on her iPhone!

 While the girls and my friend Teresa picked Mr. Stone's brain, I shopped...

Way in the back, in the corner, these two Black Forest framed prints called my name!

Be still my heart!
  Look at the detail on these frames!


While I was trying to decide which one, Teresa told me to buy them both.

Kevin Stone gave me a great price, so I did!

I couldn't give him my credit card fast enough!

"Shop Like You Mean It!"


Kevin Stone Antiques and Interiors
3420 Magazine Street
New Orleans, LA

(You can also find Kevin Stone on 1stdibs, here.) 

Oh, and BTW, the pumpkin raviolis were amazing!

Storefront Windows In Nola

A Flower Shop.

At first I didn't the think they were real, they're so perfect!

Notice the reflection in the window?

Can we say "Pantone's Emerald Green?"

Voodoo Store.

Notice, it's alleged "go away evil oil!"

I didn't buy any, needless to say, as I need the real deal!

More voodoo?

More reflection in the window of the New Orleans architecture.

Too bad they were closed.
Instant vintage martini shakers...
I'll have mine shaken, not stirred, and very dirty!

Window shopping in Nola is so much fun!

The Tablescaper is hosting "Oh The Places I've Been!"
This is one of my favorite places ever!

Antiquing In New Orleans: Lucullus

 The first antique store on my New Orleans "must see" list was Lucullus, the quintessential store for all things pertaining to the epicurean arts.

A beautiful tablescape greeted us as soon as we walked in.
Such an elegant table setting with vintage china, silver, crystal and monogrammed napkins.

Yet another tablescape with lovely silverware.

I thought I had died and gone to heaven!

But Lucullus is more than "The Tablescape," it's also about the preparation and serving of food.

This is Patrick Dunne's store, the expert in culinary antiques, and he actually believes that meals taste better when prepared with old things!

Patrick Dunne says, "Like all history, the story of how we eat is really just another part of the long tale about being human, one necessarily full of vast communications and contradictions."

"The use and reuse of old things can be functional as well as beautiful."

I couldn't agree more.

As I took it all in, I realized how important and primal to the human spirit the art of preparing food and dining with loved ones is.

Exemplified by a table of white ironstone soup tureens, all with a special history of their own.

I could only imagine the banquets and dinner parties they must have been a part of!

Lucullus is located in the heart of the French Quarter in an early 19th century building...

...with a beautiful and charming original courtyard.

Very New Orleans!

I've been wanting to visit Lucullus since I first wrote about it, Patrick Dunne and his book, back in August, 2011.  You can read it here.

His book, The Epicurean Collector can be ordered here.

This was the first of many antique stores that we visited the first day.

I soon realized that we need more time here.

Two and a half days is simply not enough time.

A huge thank you to those who sent me their New Orleans recommendations.

They were much appreciated, and we really tried to do it all.

I have to say, I fell in love with New Orleans!  

Girlfriend Trip To New Orleans

I'm so excited to visit New Orleans for the first time tomorrow with my friend Teresa, Ashley and Kat!

I've never been.

Don't know what to expect.

Suggestions, tips and recommendations, please!

2013 Design Trend: Lace

As a hopeless romantic, I've had a love affair with lace for most of my adult life.
Lace curtains, lace tablecloths, lace embellished hand towels--at one time or another, I've had lace incorporated in to my decor.
Not so much now though.

Vincent Wolf

Elle Decor recently named lace as a design trend to watch for in 2013.
They said, "Your grandmother's tablecloth is now hip."

Valentino

At first I was surprised, but then it occurred to me that lace has been showing up in the fashion world a lot lately.

Balenciaga

Except for a few lace edged antique linen hand towels, our home doesn't have a bit of lace anymore, however my closet is full of it!

I love wearing black lace tops with jeans, or a black lace dress with boots, like I did when our daughter got married. She even paired a lace dress with a leather belt for her wedding.

That's the thing about lace, it looks best when paired with something rustic!


This rustic kitchen is made ever so romantic with the lace curtain in the background.


Just a touch of lace juxtaposed with rustic linen or burlap makes my heart skip a beat!


When I think of lace, I think "romantic..."
Leave it to Coco Chanel however to sum up her love of lace:

"I consider lace to be one of the prettiest imitations ever made of the fantasy of nature;
lace always evokes for me those incomparable designs which the branches and leaves of trees embroider across the sky, and I do not think that any invention of the human spirit
could have a more graceful or precise origin."
~Coco Chanel
April 29, 1939

Lace is one design trend I'm looking forward to seeing more of in 2013!
How about you?

The Perfect Cup

"A cup of coffee, real coffee, home-browned, home ground, home made, that comes to you dark as a hazel-eye, 

but changes to a golden bronze as you temper it with cream that never cheated, but was real cream from its birth, thick, tenderly yellow, perfectly sweet, neither lumpy nor frothing on the Java. 


Such a cup of coffee is a match for twenty blue devils and will exorcise them all."
~Henry Ward Beecher


Do you feel that way about coffee?
This past holiday vacation, Mr. A was obsessed with finding the perfect cup of coffee.
Apparently, my coffee wasn't cutting it!


 He thought that my old fashioned way of making a pot of coffee in the coffee maker wasn't producing the results that he was looking for.
I was reminded of the Folger's coffee commercials from the 50's where the wife just doesn't know how to make a good cup of coffee!

My favorite blend, Peet's Major Dickason's just wasn't rich enough he said.
Funny, it says it's rich, complex and full bodied on the bag...

I can understand his quest.  I too love a good cup of coffee.

I even have a coffee bar set up on valuable counter real estate dedicated just for coffee making.

 So for days, he experimented with various drip methods and various coffees from Starbucks, Peets, Blue Bottle, etc.

Eventually, he found that freshly roasted beans, (Peet's JR Reserve), ground for each cup and using the drip method with a Melitta coffee filter is the perfect cup.
For him.


My perfect cup:
Already ground Major Dickason's from Peet's (I abhor that coffee grinder sound in the morning) which is made the night before in the coffee maker to produce a pot of coffee that is rich, complex and full-bodied, just waiting for me in the morning.
Add a healthy pour of Half and Half and I'm a happy girl!


Just for fun, a 1950's coffee commercial.
Seriously, instant coffee? Ugh! 

What's your perfect cup?

Soup's On!

 I am hereby declaring January to be soup month at our house!

It's cold outside and there is nothing I like more than a pot of soup on the stove to warm up with.

Especially after all the overeating during the December holidays, soup seems like a healthy alternative and welcome respite this month.

It just so happens that Santa brought us a slow cooker for Christmas.

Uh, make that last Christmas!

I decided it's time to learn how to use this thing!

A new cookbook would be our inspiration to get started.

We decided to begin the New Year with Chicken-Tortilla Soup.

Talk about easy.

Onions, jalapeño pepper, garlic and tomato puree in a blender.  Add chicken thighs, chicken broth and cook for 5 hours.  Shred the chicken, add corn and cook another half hour.  The soup was too thin, so I added a can of drained black beans, and tortilla strips to the soup to punch it up a bit.

We garnished the soup with cilantro, avocado and lined the bowl with tortilla chips.

Delicious, and perfect for New Year's Day!

Recipe as follows:

I'm so not a cook, but I can make a mean pot of soup.

The problem is that my repertoire is slim.  I know how to make chicken soup, lentil soup and split pea soup, and that's about it. 

Do you have a favorite soup recipe that is simple and delicious?  

Please send it my way, as I need all the help I can get for "January Soup Month!"

I'm joining Alison at The Polohouse for Favorites on the First.