So....its beeen exactly a year since my last journal entry, but SO much has been happening lately that I have been regretting NOT putting up on the website!

As many of your know, I am the co-director of activities for the Tudor City Greens (www.tudorcitygreens.org) two Manhattan landmarked parks in Midtown East. Several months ago, we were excited to recieve a call from a venerable Tudor City Establishment, the prestigious FlowerSchool NY, www.flowerschoolny.com, who contacted us about putting on an event in the Park.

I always enjoy looking at the spectacular arrangements displayed in the windows of the Flower School, which is located on the first floor of my building, daily on my walk home from work. Since 2003, founder Eileen Johnson has been "dedicated to showcasing the best in floral design." The flower school offers Master Classes, together with "a roster of the best Master Floral Designers in New York City, with frequent guest designers from throughout the United States, Europe, and Asia."

In the Flower School's first collaboration with the Greens, we teamed up to host a benefit for the non-profit Greens while showcasing the final projects of the School's event design class. The best part of it was that the event design students - led by noted Boston and New York based designer, David M. Handy - did all the work! (www.davidmhandy.com).

Meanwhile, I got to enjoy the event, which began at 5pm after arriving home from the office. Students created displays with different themes, such as "Farm to Table," "Modern Elegance," and "White Wedding" selecting dishes, seating, and designing accompanying arrangements. Can you guess which theme is which?? We received a respite from the intense heat we've been having in NY and many turned out for a wine tasting to support the Greens as well as friends creating displays. Sussex Wine Shop was the vendor of the beverages served. Enjoy these photos from the event!

 My friend Michele Keith, author of Designers Here and There published by Monacelli Press, and TCG board member and friend.

     Student Olga with her display.

Lisa Harte, friend, and Interior Designer Elle Lebowitz-Becker with son Noah

TCG Treasurer, Anne Stoddard (far right) with Greens Supporters

 A display Table

Event organizer, Cal Crary of the Flower School with chic FlowerSchool NY patron

A very modern table setting. I liked the square motif in this look.

 An aspiring designer with her colorful composition.

The charming pair of  North Carolinians turned long-time Tudor City Residents - Country Boy & City Belle -  http://countryboycitybelle.blogspot.com/.

1. Pickles: Tangy. tart. sweet. The perfect summer side.
2. Fresh Peaches from Auman's Peach Farm in Pinehurst, NC and Eagle Springs Blueberries. Check out my recipe for peach blueberry cobbler.
3. The Fireflies song by Owl City.
4. Cows
5. Olives
6. Pugh + Scarpa
7. Raddishes and Sea Salt  
8. Williamsburg, NY
9. Banana Ovaltine Milkshakes
10. Fresh Chuncks of Parmesean Cheese (Inspired by The Standard)
11. Govornor's Island
12. Shake Shack (Totally worth the wait.)
13. Avocados
14. The Flatiron District
15. Trader Joe's Dumplings (With a good drizzle of soy sauce on the side.)
16. South Beach, Miami, FL
17. East Hampton.
18. Feinstein's at the Regency. I've been hanging out there a lot lately with my neighbor Raissa Katona Bennett. 
19. Potato Salad.
20. Brunch. At Cafe Ze. Can't be beat.
21. Chickens
22. Stars and Stripes, in miniature.
23. Pale Male. (The Hawk in Central Park.)
24. No. 7 Sub Shop

I recently had the opportunity to explore the green homes on the mall in Washington D.C. during the final weekend of the Solar Decathlon 2009, a global expo of homes presented by the U.S. Department of Energy. Featuring submissions by university teams from the continental U.S, Puerto Rico, and beyond, the exhibit showcased a variety of new technologies and materials to promote the idea of "Green Living." While the weather was somewhat unconducive to touring the compact homes in the exhibit, I still enjoyed exploring a number of the submissions.

 Among my favorites was the submission by Rice (pictured in the above two photos.) What was so great about this home to me was the economy of construction and feasability of their solution. Ringing in at around $100 / sf it was also one of the most affordable homes in the Decathlon and demonstrated some real potential in the "take home ideas" department. Since it was designed for a real neighborhood in Houston, TX it met the challenges of being able to conform to an actual site. A crisp modern design using inexpensive off-the-shelf materials from retailers such as IKEA and Home depot to acheive simple, clean "high design" drove home the concept. 

My favorite home in the exhibit was the so-called "Sol-Abode" presented by Team Alberta. While advanced systems were in place throughout the home, the best features were simple, yet creative design gestures such as a glass "keyway" which bisected the center of the home struck a great balance between "styling" the home and providing integrated aesthetic and functional features to meet the needs of an end user in the space. While no larger in square footage than the other submissions, the Sol Abode felt surprisingly large thanks to good space planning and those aesthetic gestures I mentioned earlier, not to mention the extra deck and roof deck space integrated into the plan.

Its no secret to anyone who knows me that one of my favorite pastimes is visiting historic homes. There are many values in visiting places of historic significance in your area, but it seems to me especially significant this year. I recently attended a lecture at the New York Design Center given by Elle Decor Editor in Chief, Margaret Russell and Elle Decor editor at large, Mitchell Owens as part of the New York Design Center's program "What's New What's Next @ 200 Lex." Also in attendance was Eddie Ross. While the lecture sought to highlight the design trends of the moment, Michell Owen's reminded all in attendance, "the future of design is in the past."   

Owens presented a compelling series of images of designs from the past and their contemporary counterparts. As a teaching assistant of Architectural History in college, the connections between structures of antiquity and the structures that ensued fascinated me. Every design responds to a collective history in some way - whether by reinventing a precedent or reacting to it. While a plethora of connections can be made at a critical level of investigation on this topic, the uniquely American take on designs at the turn of the 19th Century remain especially relevant today.

These photos are from a trip in September to Tryon Palace in New Bern North Carolina. While the style is borrowed from English taste, what I love about them is the spirit of invention they posses. The photo above, for instance, shows true American ingenuity of using flush mounted wood planks in lieu of more expensive stone. The nearly two centuries that have passed since this New Bern home's construction have revealed the materiality of the wood siding and the real charm of this home.

Borrow the idiosyncracies, pieces, forms, and colors from a historic home. Many styles integrate suprisingly well with contemporary, even modern, lifestyle. A shaker bench might blend perfectly in an urban loft. These pieces warm and enrich our homes and give a sense of place and history.  The historic homes in your area are a design treasure chest to be plundered.

Why brave the heat and the humidity of August in the city? The even hotter free concert series at Lincoln Center Out of Doors which began  on August 5th and ends next Sunday August 23rd.

I checked out Raul Midon on August 7 and most recently Brooklyn Qawwali Party and Susheela Raman on Wednesday the 12th...

Check out http://new.lincolncenter.org/live/index.php/lc-ood for more info.

Still abuzz from the July 4th festivities the day before, Pamela McBride - an Architect who works in the tradition of Robert A.M. Stern, Carol Adams - owner of the shop "Excentricities" in Westhampton Beach, New York Interior Designer Garrow Kedigian, new friends Bob & Peggy Dillmeier, and myself enjoyed a casual lunch by the ocean at Swordfish in Westhampton. Delightfully kitsch, Swordfish remains largely unchanged from the 1960's. From the brilliantly painted turquoise wood swordfish arching over the entrance, to the garage door fronted "cabanas" which open out to the ocean, the entire compound assumes the feel of a piece of pop art. The view from the cabana as we enjoyed a picnic lunch was spectacular, but a quick jump into the ocean afterwards greeted me with an icy-cold chill, keeping all but the hardiest swimmers out of the water.

Come summertime in the city, New Yorkers head east to a small group of villages on the tip of Long Island known as the Hamptons. For a few blissful weekends, they trade in the cacophony of the hot and crowded city for the picturesque village streets and sandy beaches of the Hamptons. While a famed playground for celebrities and the wealthy, the Hamptons also play host to a simpler, quieter life celebrating summer spent with family and friends, fresh ingredients, a passion for all things green, architecture, historical preservation and crisp modern style, and days spent out of doors. The resulting mix is a style and feel that is truly unique to this remarkable collection of villages. 

Clad in ubiquitious cedar shingles, the beachouse in East Hampton sets the tone for a relaxing day at the beach. 

Laying out a blanket field-side and enjoying a picnic lunch with other spectators is the perfect way to take in a polo match. Teams from all-over the world come to compete at the six week long Mercedes-Benz Polo Challange.

Following a dinner of a delicious chicken club sandwich (bacon, tomato, and chicken with guacamole on a baguette) at the classic Upper East Side Institution, "EJ's Luncheonette", I decided to catch the 7:30 of "Julie & Julia." Expecting a slightly saccharine tale paralleling the stories of now famed blogger Julie Powell, and the legendary Julia Child, the movie turned out to be just was I was craving.

The endearing charecter of Julia Child, as played by Meryl Streep, admits early on, "Its hard not to love me," and could not have been more right. Its not new news she endeared herself for years through her books and television programs teaching Americans how to eat, cook, and "master" the previously daunting world of French Cuisine. This week, five years after her death, Americans are reminded why they fell in love with her in the first place, and fall in love with her all over again.

Amy Adams plays the spunky Julie Powell. Through her challenge working with "Aspics" (yes they can be just as bad as they sound) I am reminded of my experience in my sophmore year "Food Science" class working through my food science binder chapter bearing the same name. I was assigned, with my lab partner, to concoct a somewhat strange gelatinized version of a chicken salad which which bore the moniker "Chicken Little Mold" and which I hope to not experience again anytime soon.

Julie Powell also reminds us of the joys of cooking and eating, yet perhaps even more importantly, that there is no time like the present  for setting lofty short-term goals to aspire to every day. Leaving the theater, I returned home to see an old copy of "Mastering the Art of French Cooking" stacked on top of my shelf of cookbooks. While I occasionally thumb through its pages, prepare a recipe or two, and hope to one day seriously study and cook my way through it in its entirety, my ultimate inspiration was not to begin my own "Julie / Julia" project. Rather, I felt inspired to truly begin work on this small journal and see where it may ultimately lead.

Exactly one year after moving to New York, it seems to me that now is the perfect time to begin recounting this adventure which is already underway, take stock, shape, and focus it, and set some short term goals which with any luck will one day make the "big goals" seem somewhat within the realms of possibility. Now if that's not abstract enough for you, I'm not sure what is.