Cookie?
December 15, 2014
Nothing says Christmas like a plateful of homemade Christmas cookies. If you have the time, great, but who wants to run out for that list of ingredients? Relax. Simple shortbreads…using only 3 ingredients you have on hand…to the rescue. Pull out that rolling-pin, some vintage cookie cutters and turn on that oven. If this is the only baking you do this season, no one will be disappointed.
photos:gp
Show Me Your “Ugly”
November 2, 2014
Less than a month until Thanksgiving and Christmas right on its heels. Still, you have no idea how to handle your ugliest interior design dilemma before the crush of holiday revelers start popping in. Well, help is here. Take a quick snap of an area in your home or garden that could benefit from a new set of eyes and send* it to me. I’ll select one submission at random, come up with a plan and post the simplequietmodern resolution. There’s no time like now…I spotted my first installation of Holiday lights only yesterday.
Keeps the pics to a few… add any detail that might help… and get them to me by midnight November 8, 2014 at gpettyint@comcast.net with SQM in the subject line. Your place looks great but your holiday cooking or entertaining skills have you in a knot? I’ll take that submission as well. Let’s get started.
Your holiday signature…
December 17, 2012
create it. It’s a simplequietmodern statement that will be fondly remembered year after year by your friends and family. It also simplifies the task of readying your home for the onslaught of revelers each Christmas in the midst of a carrying on with the rest of your busy life. It could be a signature menu for a Christmas Eve or Christmas Day supper that folks look forward to every year … vases of assorted Winter greenery and white tulips, narcissus or Amaryllis to usher in Midwinter…the offering of a signature cocktail like a smart Christmas Manhattan with a splash of Marachino juice…illuminating your Christmas Eve with candle light and a roaring fire exclusively or, simply keeping a bowl full of seasonal Clementines within easy reach. No matter the direction, when repeated every year it will not only become second nature, easily the first thing on and then checked off your holiday to-do list, it will signal the arrival of your Christmas and another season of memories you created simply…seemingly effortlessly.
starting at the top:
White Mink Protea with cut white Pine and Magnolia branches will last for weeks.
Clementines,traditionally the original stocking stuffer, for that blast of vitamin C and natural sweetness.
Nature provided Cardinal’s nest and a scattering of vintage glass ornaments.
“No Brainer” Gingerbread Brownies will kick off the season perfectly. You can find the recipe here:http://www.ohbiteit.com/2012/11/gingerbread-brownies.html
There is nothing like roast pork to anchor your holiday dinner. This lesson from Martha can be found here:http://www.marthastewart.com/920465/bone-pork-loin# My preference is to have the butcher tie two boneless loins together and simply season with garlic and caraway seed.
If you’re not able to secure white tulips you should have no difficulty finding white Phalanopsis orchids in plant form that will last well into the New Year.
Sorting through your collection of mid-century vintage ornaments and separating them in groups of like color can make a modern statement as you revisit and display them each year.
*photo of the roast from Martha Stewart Living
Until next year…
January 8, 2012
when we carefully unpack these vintage gems again…wondering about the families they came from, each Christmas they brightened and the “sophisticate” who was so fashion forward as to select PINK as their Christmas color story in 1950 something. Do you suppose there were pink toothpicks in the cheese cubes as well? I know there was at least some pink champagne…and hey, champange of any color works for me. 
Lights out
January 6, 2012
Epiphany. January 6th.Time to take down the Christmas decorations. Simple as that. Easy in my case. Two strings of ice-like lights hung in long verticles struck the perfect note. Simple, quiet, modern….
very effective.
