Thursday, April 12, 2012
Tuesday, April 10, 2012
Anyone there?
Alas, I have sparse updates to share on the Wee House; wedding planning in these final stages has proved to be an all-consuming task for Ryan and me these days.
This past weekend we did host Easter at our house. The Phantom Gardener owes me some pictures of my tablescape.
Speaking of the Phantom Gardener, the limited work we’ve done as of late around the house has been outside the house. The bulbs Mom planted have begun to come up – just the daffodils have bloomed for now, but the tulips are next. We’ll get some good pictures this weekend and update the blog.
But for now… I’m sharing some images of the Wee House and Lord's Square that were passed along to us by members of the Trask family, who owned the house prior to the family we bought it from.
This past weekend we did host Easter at our house. The Phantom Gardener owes me some pictures of my tablescape.
Speaking of the Phantom Gardener, the limited work we’ve done as of late around the house has been outside the house. The bulbs Mom planted have begun to come up – just the daffodils have bloomed for now, but the tulips are next. We’ll get some good pictures this weekend and update the blog.
But for now… I’m sharing some images of the Wee House and Lord's Square that were passed along to us by members of the Trask family, who owned the house prior to the family we bought it from.
Monday, March 5, 2012
(Great) Marsh Art
My grandfather's painting now has some very fetching company.
Some of our dear Ipswich friends gave this beautiful piece to us as a wedding gift. I've been lusting after what I call "marsh art" ever since we moved up to Ipswich and it is just such a special gift.
The piece is by an Ipswich-based artist Colleen Kidder. If you hop over to her blog and look at the November 28th entry, there's our sweet piece in her studio here in town.
There is really nothing else like a beautiful light on the marshes in the late afternoon. If we ever leave the Wee House, I would love to live on the marsh. The Great Marsh spans over 20,000 acres in Ipswich, Rowley, Essex, Gloucester, Newbury, Newburyport and Salisbury, so perhaps our next project is somewhere out there...
Some of our dear Ipswich friends gave this beautiful piece to us as a wedding gift. I've been lusting after what I call "marsh art" ever since we moved up to Ipswich and it is just such a special gift.
The piece is by an Ipswich-based artist Colleen Kidder. If you hop over to her blog and look at the November 28th entry, there's our sweet piece in her studio here in town.
There is really nothing else like a beautiful light on the marshes in the late afternoon. If we ever leave the Wee House, I would love to live on the marsh. The Great Marsh spans over 20,000 acres in Ipswich, Rowley, Essex, Gloucester, Newbury, Newburyport and Salisbury, so perhaps our next project is somewhere out there...
Tuesday, February 21, 2012
On Gurgling Cods
One of the gifts I received for my shower was a beautiful Gurgling Cod from my maid of honor, Sarah. The Gurgling Cod has become a traditional shower or wedding gift amongst my Boston girlfriends, and indeed amongst many other Boston area natives. Lots of ladies at the shower (though not Nancy, our Dedham girl!) were unfamiliar with this rather peculiar pitcher, so I thought I’d share a little bit of info here.
When the Gurgling Cod is turned over to pour out water, the hollow “tail” creates a “glug-glug” sound. Cheap parlor trick, but iconic nonetheless. Someone’s gone so far as to make a video of this phenom and post it on the internet. See it here, if you like.
According to the Shreve, Crump & Low website, the Gurgling Cod was introduced in 1964 at the request of Benjamin Dale Shreve (whose son, Richard, would be the last family member to run the company). The Gurgling Cods were modeled after traditional English "glug jugs".
“Glug Glug Jugs” were originally made by Thomas Forester & Son in Staffordshire, England in the late 1870s. However, most people associate these jugs with Dartmouth Pottery, who originally produced a fish shaped water jug which they called Gurgling Fish Jugs.
The Shreve version was given a local twist with the anatomically correct fins, gills, and scales of the codfish, one of New England’s most enduring symbols. The British company Dartmouth Pottery produced the Gurgling Cods for Shreve’s until the studio was closed. After that, another Shreve supplier suggested Wade Ceramics, which operates out of Burslem, England. Burslem is apparently part of the U.K.’s “Pottery Belt,” the originator of iconic British pottery brands such as Wedgwood and Staffordshire. (All of great interest to this Dec Arts fan who once studied Wedgewood in England and perhaps of less to my Dear Readers.)
I’ve been eagerly anticipating having a Gurgling Cod of my own for quite some time. Ryan got me this one as a stop-gap measure for this past Christmas. It’s a “Gurgle Pot” brand and a great color for the kitchen and front room. I like that the mouth is a little wider (similar in form to the Glug Glug Jug, actually) and big enough to allow me to use it as a flower vase.
Always room for one more pretty thing, I think. Even in the Wee House.
When the Gurgling Cod is turned over to pour out water, the hollow “tail” creates a “glug-glug” sound. Cheap parlor trick, but iconic nonetheless. Someone’s gone so far as to make a video of this phenom and post it on the internet. See it here, if you like.
According to the Shreve, Crump & Low website, the Gurgling Cod was introduced in 1964 at the request of Benjamin Dale Shreve (whose son, Richard, would be the last family member to run the company). The Gurgling Cods were modeled after traditional English "glug jugs".
“Glug Glug Jugs” were originally made by Thomas Forester & Son in Staffordshire, England in the late 1870s. However, most people associate these jugs with Dartmouth Pottery, who originally produced a fish shaped water jug which they called Gurgling Fish Jugs.
The Shreve version was given a local twist with the anatomically correct fins, gills, and scales of the codfish, one of New England’s most enduring symbols. The British company Dartmouth Pottery produced the Gurgling Cods for Shreve’s until the studio was closed. After that, another Shreve supplier suggested Wade Ceramics, which operates out of Burslem, England. Burslem is apparently part of the U.K.’s “Pottery Belt,” the originator of iconic British pottery brands such as Wedgwood and Staffordshire. (All of great interest to this Dec Arts fan who once studied Wedgewood in England and perhaps of less to my Dear Readers.)
I’ve been eagerly anticipating having a Gurgling Cod of my own for quite some time. Ryan got me this one as a stop-gap measure for this past Christmas. It’s a “Gurgle Pot” brand and a great color for the kitchen and front room. I like that the mouth is a little wider (similar in form to the Glug Glug Jug, actually) and big enough to allow me to use it as a flower vase.
Always room for one more pretty thing, I think. Even in the Wee House.
Wednesday, February 15, 2012
De-Lovely
For our Valentine's Day dinner, we had coq au vin and for dessert, I introduced Ryan to crepes.
For the chicken, I modified a recipe from Pioneer Woman (view it here). Instead of using a whole chicken (I don’t know how to quarter a chicken… yet!), I used chicken thighs. A disclaimer: there is nothing remotely healthy about this recipe. I told Ryan my only nod to health was the whole wheat enriched egg noodles I served along with the chicken (with some butter and nutmeg, how my mom has always prepared egg noodles).
Here's a couple process shots (with a few shower gifts in use - I'm not wasting time!).
In the interest of keeping it real (something I’m going to try harder to do moving into year three of this blog), here is how we attempted to keep our oven door closed tight.
One of our not-so-favorite topics of discussion is which one of our antiquated appliances is going to stop working first, thus requiring us to drop a cool $1,500 on a replacement (no doubt the day after paying our mortgage and credit card bill). Lucky us, the fridge, washer/dryer, oven and dishwasher all seem to be about the same vintage, so once the first one goes, it will likely commence some sort of appliance replacement/bankruptcy domino effect. For the record, my money’s on the oven as the first to go. But I digress.
Moving on... here’s a few shots of the Valentine’s Day table, set with our new wedding China, place settings and linens. It looked so great! So did the beautiful flowers my Valentine contributed to this very chic tablescape.
How delish are those navy and white Ikat napkins? My family and friends really have impeccable taste. Well done, all.
Midnight in Paris and crepes for dessert were de-lovely (I’m being extra clever with my blog post title since Cole Porter is in Midnight in Paris, FYI). I used this “Easy Crepes” recipe, which indeed was easy, and made them the night before. All we needed to do were heat up the crepes and pick our toppings. Topping selections included chocolate sauce, Nutella, raspberries, strawberries and crumbled Sweet Sloops.
For those of you uninitiated, drop everything and immediately seek out and try a Sweet Sloop. Now. They are made by Harbor Sweets in Salem and are sailboat shaped almond butter crunch candies with white chocolate, dark chocolate and pecans. You have no idea. Bonkers.
No pictures of our crepes because we ate them up as soon as we rolled them up! If Valentine’s Day isn’t a free pass from Shedding for the Wedding, I don’t know what is…