Quite pleased with my Second Avenue deli purchase yesterday. Twenty one spray roses for five dollars.

Time to add the trees! Really, the pumpkins should totally drop out, but I love them, and they are still perfectly firm, so I am keeping them.

It's getting to look a lot like Thanksgiving! Mini pumpkins, check. Gold leaves, check. Gold mini pinecones, check.

With the table design all set and the house clean, today is all about the menu and gathering ingredients. I have already been out to 82nd Street in Jackson Heights, Queens to get some special surprise treats for our TG feast tomorrow. I bought a small ton of veggies too.

Yesterday at the Container Store, I found delicate gold leaves that look like lace to include with my mini pumpkin, purple mums and gold pine cones. Now I must set the table, and go back out for more food gathering. Back soon to post more.

My Spring/Summer Table:
green stripe table cloth, white cafe paper and polkadot placemat overlays

All of my table designs are conceived as 'Modular layers.' Just like my clothing collections!
I think that layering complementary and contrasting
textures, patterns, and colors
creates more interest to your table (and to your ensembles too).
To read more about my concept of Modular Dressing,
click here.

I was browsing my blog the other day, when I came across an old table design which I completely forgot about [pictured above]. I have been using a purple linen tablecloth and brown wrinkled craft paper overlay [pictured below] for so long that I forgot about the summery green stripe table cloth with the white paper and polka-dot placemat overlays.

So I am designing a new table for dinner tonight and making a refreshing and light lemony-feta orzo pasta and mesclun salad. I am also trying to nurse my Lucky Bamboo back to health. I think it got heat stroke over the past 2 weeks. These plants mean a lot to me. I must make a grand gesture to try to save my Lucky Bamboo! I hope I can work some magic. Please send your good thoughts in the direction of my Lucky Bamboo...

The purple linen tablecloth with brown wrinkled craft paper overlay
as set up for a dinner party.


The purple linen table cloth with brown wrinkled craft paper overlay
as set up for Holiday: the same basic idea 'further accessorized' with
seasonal laser-cut plexi snowflakes

The 10 minutes per room trick did the trick.

I have a guy who does all kinds of amazing laser-cut plexi shapes. I can't tell you my source, because he makes special shapes for me for my Limited Edition Necklaces. Like the three on this page. Let your fingers do the clicking. Perhaps you will find a nice gift or two.

Anyway, my latest acquisition are these laser-cut plexi snowflakes. I love them. I love looking at them. I love plastic. It can be said that I have a penchant for plastic. I have so many ideas for these little shiny shapes. I have already put them to good use as coasters and various table accents. I plan to hang some in the window along with some hanging tealights that I have coming in the mail. When that arrangement is up and ready, I will be sure to show you. I must admit, I am most excited about my snowflakes as coasters. Who else will have laser-cut plexi snowflake coasters made by my secret source? I think I need to get more snowflakes. You can never have too many!

delightful assorted shapes and sizes


I like a layered table. What can I say?

This was my pre-show breakfast this morning. Today was my last day at the Market NYC for a little long while. I came for market research, I got my information, and now it's back to the Web for me. The good old Web. (subtext: shop online)

Notice how the sun's raking angle highlights the placemat's faux woodgrain and earthy texture of the Portuguese corn bread...


so much
depends upon

the Portuguese corn bread,
toasted slightly to my liking,

glazed with fresh-ground all-
natural peanut butter,

beside the coffee with a hint of hazelnut and cinnamon
in a melamine 'Modern Design' cup by BROOKPARK,
sans saucer.



A breakfast haiku of sorts.

I needed to change the feel of my table with minimal effort and minimal dollars. I didn't want to make a new tablecloth, so instead I swapped the white cafe paper for brown craft paper. Try it! I wrinkled it to give it a bit more interesting texture. I love layers. It works for dressing yourself, and dressing your table. What a little modular dressing can do!

Add a new layer in your life this week. It will make you feel refreshed and brand new and sparkly.



Modular Dressing is a new featured regular column for the blog. gee
Click here for a more in-depth read about my concept and economical approach to fashion.

Our Cinco de Mayo celebratory dinner came a day early last night. Wow what a dinner! After a week of Spring Fever forcing us (forcing us, yeah right) out the door to a different restaurant each night, I have to tell you all about this meal we finally cooked. Wait, was there actual heat involved? Oh yes, the beans. And I did heat the corn tortillas.

Back to the meal. First, my new table design, in honor of Cuatro de Mayo. I made the tablecloth. It looks like blades of grass. I am living my index page. Design seeps into the darndest places. I meant to take a picture of the food too, but quite frankly we were hungry. It was one of those great meals where you can make endless flavor combinations. Yum.

We had ceviche! My husband made it two days before, after watching 3 different cooking shows this weekend. He is good at cross-referencing. His with salmon, red onion, cilantro, jalapenos, and fresh orange, lime and lemon juice, plus other secret tastes. And I made black bean dip with lime, coriander powder, coriander pods and Indian coriander sauce (don't you agree that Mexican and Indian spices overlap quite a bit?), guacamole with some lime, tomato, scallion and a dash of plain yogurt to give it a little creamy quality and pico de gallo. We had chips and freshly warmed corn tortillas to scoop up the yum. It was so good!

Happy Cinco de Mayo today!



Some table details ~ I layered the tablecloth, to keep it cleaner longer, and to tone down the graphic print a little, with white butcher paper and sheer plastic polkadot placemats. The white-on-white looks neat. Woodgrain placemats (actually wood) pick up the woodgrain (actually plastic) divided chip dish. Green "olives" napkins from IKEA pick up the tablecloth, sod coasters, green votives and lucky bamboo. The red melamine plates are good luck, and we are back to Chinese again. I can never stray very far from the Far East can I? Hey wait, these are the colors of the Mexican flag! You see, I can't help being East-meets-West.

I like having dinner parties, not only for the cooking aspect, but for the moving around the furniture into new modular arrangements aspect, different from the day-to-day. Plus I get to use all of my cocktail napkins!

Before I moved from my first apartment on Beacon Hill (it looked roughly similar to this) to my second in Bay Village (oh my gosh, this is my old street!), I decided that all of my furniture had to fold, convert or come apart. I was in a condensing and organizing mindset at that moment. But I still like the idea, and still choose pieces of furniture that have a multi-use quality. Stools that can double as end tables, bookcases made of smaller cubes (to resemble a Japanese tansu), a coffee table made of two smaller tables, etc. It makes for easy moving, and more design combination options. Modular living.

Living in New York now, the thing I wanted in my apartment above all was the feeling of space. Empty space. Empty calming space. It took many yard sales for us do it: nine yard sales in Boston before we moved here. I also went around "interviewing" my minimalist friends and studied their apartments and closets to discover what it was like to live without "back-up stuff" or "just-in-case chairs," which is what I was doing. After setting up and striking 9 yard sales, I think I realized the true pleasures of owning less stuff.

Above, our living room set up for hors d'oeuvres and cocktails.

I am thinking a lot about dinner parties and table designs lately. I want to make a chocolate brown linen tablecloth to go with my new green candlestick and a few other accessories. I like to layer at the table, combining placemats and tablecloths and coasters in various combos. Butcher paper makes a good layer too. It is so bistro-chic, and it is disposable. You can use white or brown depending on your color palette. And then there are all the great paper napkin designs there are to choose from, especially those at IKEA. I have a bit of a cocktail napkin collecting problem actually. This is just some of my collection...

For Spring I like to show some bare table and use a combination of smaller table linens, runners and sheer placemats. I know it sounds weirdly like clothing design, but hey, I am a fashion designer after all.

So anyway, my suggestions for a striking table are the same as for a stand-out personal style: choose modular versatile pieces and layer layer layer. You can create a unique table and a unique you. It's all in the mix! And it is so much fun to keep changing up the elements when you are wanting a little something new and fabulous. And it doesn't have to cost a lot.

Below are some are table linens I made (like the white and grey runner and the green striped coasters); some are single napkins I purchased (from fancy design stores like Bliss and Lekker in Boston) and pressed flat; one is a bamboo window shade I cut to size for a table mat. For a sushi party one Spring I grew small pots of grass to complement the bamboo mat and arranged votives in soy sauce dishes.