my week in objects (mostly).

1. this box.
{and all those stamps. because some friends just know exactly the kind of thing i love}.

2. these sandals.

{because i got them on a super sale this winter and now i can wear them with bare toes}.

3. this messy bun.

{because james snapped the shot. we have almost literally no photographs of me. messy bun'll have to do}.

4. this blue bowl.

{and all those strawberries. you already know why}.

5. this ring.
{because i've never shared it here and i'm miserable at photographing it. but i got it all freshened up at satomi's studio this week. it's sparkly and fresh and i picked out a tiny new one to go with. 2 months}.

what little something made your week?

other things:
i'm digging pink lately. just little bits of it.
i made fancy ice cubes.
on wisdom.
deliberating iced coffee.

make-believe: wave watching.

i've always had something of an overly active imagination. in that spirit, a new series imagining accompaniments for favorite pastimes. not saying i need any of these things, but sometimes it's fun to imagine them. if you'll indulge, i'm playing at make-believe.

today, accompaniments for a white-hot summer day spent wave watching. toes in sand, book in hand, sun glinting off the water.

1. the wave watcher's companion 2. linen espadrilles 3. iphone case 4. sunglasses 5. beach towel 6. alain in blue

layout by erin boyle. photos sourced from links above. 

< two fifty: life in a tiny apartment.

buy a fan.*
make it one you like.
clean it often.

three tips for the price of one.

beyond the difficult-to-reach window in our bathroom, we have just one small window in our apartment. just the one. as mentioned before, our window overlooks our neighbors' expansive back patios. a new neighborly duo moved in last month. they've installed bamboo fencing and a grill and seem to have invited all of their friends and family for weekend shindigs. we gaze at them moony-eyed from our tiny window, but to no avail. i suppose we'll need to toss them a tin can telephone line to give  the message that we're coming over for dinner.

all of that is to say that i relish our window. our solitary window is our only link to the verdant back yard of our neighbors and i am loathe to seal it off and block a full quarter of it with a window air conditioner. call me crazy, but i rather enjoy listening to birdsong, and when there is one, there's nothing more delicious than a breeze.

the one caveat with this system: prop a fan in front of a new york city apartment and before you know it, it has attracted just about every greasy, black, inexplicable bit of grit and grime the city has to offer. make sure you can pry your fan apart and give it a good scrub.

quickie poll: air conditioner or fan? i'll be writing more on the subject over here, soon.

*this is ours. we've had it for five years. still going strong.

strawberry rhubarb cobbler.

there are some things that are worth being particular about. red strawberries are one of them.

it's a sad thing indeed to bite into a piece of fruit masquerading as a strawberry and find the inside hard and white and the fruit sour. holding out until strawberry season to sit down with a whole bowlful of heart-shaped fruit and no plans other than to devour each one is worth every minute of the wait. turning whatever you can't devour straight away into a cobbler, well that borders on brilliance.

on the list of things not worth being particular about? having a strawberry rhubarb cobbler come out of the oven running all over the place and staining your white dish towel.

chalk it up to juicy strawberries or impatience and dig in with two spoons. hearty dollops of barely sweetened whipped cream make everything better.

we ate ours on the steps of the church across from our apartment, our tiny space made far too hot from the heat of all that cooking to stand it a moment longer.

two skillets and enough cobbler for dessert after lunch and dinner.


strawberry rhubarb cobbler
recipe adapted from mark bittman's recipe for cobbler with blueberries. tweaking it a bit more might mean less juiciness, but as you know, i've decided not to be particular about a little extra juice.

2 cups strawberries, hulled and cut
2 cups rhubarb, sliced
1/2 cup sugar (i used a bit less)
8 tablespoons cold butter
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
pinch salt
1 egg
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

1. heat oven to 375 F, toss fruit with half the sugar and spread into lightly greased pan(s)
2. in a bowl combine flour, baking powder, salt and remaining sugar. add the butter and blend (bittman suggests a food processor, i used a pastry blender). beat in egg and vanilla by hand.
3. drop mixture onto the fruit by heaping tablespoons. bake 35-45 minutes until golden yellow (his words, not mine and perfect description, don't you think?). serve straight away topped with copious amounts of homemade whipped cream.