Confession: I am the world’s worst book club member.  It’s not an aversion to reading, so much as a time management issue.  I repeatedly presume that my speed-reading skills from law school will translate to the ability to read a 400-page book on the bus the morning before our club meets.  Somehow I always manage to contribute commentary (thank you, Wikipedia and New York Timesbook reviews!), but...

Infusing grandeur into otherwise drab Monday mornings with five things/ideas/events for the week: I. Yesterday I hosted a baby shower for one of my closest girlfriends. I signed up to bring cupcakes to the party, but ran out of time to actually make them - and it was too late to place an order at my favorite bakery. In a bind, I found myself perusing the cupcakes at Safeway… I decided that they...

Patience is a virtue that often escapes me. The instant I identify something that I want, I find a way to get it. My mother often reminds me of this trait with an exemplary story about me slipping out of my high-chair and squirming my way across the floor to steal sweets from a candy bowl before I could even crawl. Unfortunately, this characteristic hasn’t improved much over the last thirty...

Over the summer, I had the privilege of hosting an engagement party for two of my favorite people.  The “host committee” nominated me to design the invitation and make cupcakes.  The couple could easily win a competition for the preppiest duo in the entire world, prompting my choice of a Lilly Pulitzer-esque pink and green palette for both the invite and the dessert. For the invitation, I...

Infusing grandeur into otherwise drab Monday mornings with five things/ideas/events for the week: I.  I am obsessed with the print company 20x200.  One of my favorite pieces is this “Salty” print  by Michelle Vaughan.  I framed it with two oversize mats for maximal impact and paired it with my Jonathan Adler custom pillow and a scrumptious chinchilla throw. II. While I adore a super chic...

When you think about the ingredients that compose a salad, puff pastry is not something that immediately comes to mind.  But when I happened upon a photograph of a puff pastry-wrapped pear (Feuillete de Poires if we’re getting fancy) delicately perched atop a bed of greens and Roquefort, I couldn’t resist attempting the curious combination. From the pictures you would never guess how easy this...

Infusing grandeur into otherwise drab Monday mornings with five things/ideas/events for the week: I.  My latest party store discovery, Luna Bazaar, offers these whimsical honeycomb globes in every color imaginable.  At less than five dollars per globe, you simply must include them in your next fete! II.  Indulge in these charming blueberry cupcakeswith lemon cream cheese frosting this week!...

2013 has already been one of the most incredible years of my life.  I know that this is a bit of an overstatement, given that we are a mere ten days in.  But as it turns out, a lot of amazing things can happen in ten days.  The most recent highlight came on Monday evening, when I was delighted to learn that SFLuxe - San Francisco’s source for luxury living – decided to do a feature on Table +...

Infusing grandeur into otherwise drab Monday mornings with five things/ideas/events for the week: I.  My friends gave me these porcelain heroic horns from Jonathan Adler for my birthday.  I love that they are unusual, yet manage to fit in flawlessly with the rest of my interior design.   II.  Over the weekend I signed up for the Cultivar Wine Club, which is one of my absolute favorites in the...