Wishing you a safe and delicious Thanksgiving.
11/24/20
9/18/20
Weekend Inspiration: Shana Tova with Dahlias
Shana Tova to all those celebrating! Wishing all of us a year of peace, health, beautiful surprises, content, and beauty. I defrosted a turmeric challah roll with pistachios and nigella seeds for my celebration and to go along with labneh drizzled with olive oil and topped with honey and smoked honey.
May we all be and do better in the new year.
8/21/20
7/2/20
Weekend Inspirations: Farmgirl Flowers
When it's another weekend at home, you may as well spend it with gorgeous flowers. Super grateful to my friend Jenny for sending these beauties to me after I told her about one of my emotional meltdowns.
What are your plans for this 4th of July weekend? I'm going to continue sewing masks, writing VOTE post cards, and exercising.
Special projects will include dusting, laundry, perhaps baking bread, and maybe food takeout or delivery!
4/10/20
3/27/20
Friday Flower Love: Weekend Inspirations
Mood boosters:
a walk outside
a thoughtfully prepared meal
a spoon of Nutella
Facetime with friends and family
yoga
Fleabag
How are you all doing in this new temporary (I HOPE) reality?
Yesterday I picked up roses and tulips at the grocery store and paired them with yellow mums from a few weeks ago to arrange my birthday from-me-to-me flowers.
I'm planning on celebrating on Sunday by making a mini brownie cake, a batch of Russian potato salad, and facetiming with my family.
TGIF.
1/23/20
Pomegranate & DIY Leather Earrings
For something a little different, I wanted to share with you my new hobby: making leather jewelry! It all started when my friend Kate bought a pair, and then my twin bought a pair, and then I thought about buying one, but instead made my own!!
Here are a few other examples:
The ones above are made from recycled leather from a wallet! All the earrings have sterling silver hardware and are very light in weight, but big in their presence.
I've had a lot of fun making these and sold a few to friends and a boss's boss's boss!! If you want your own, check out my Etsy page ;)
12/20/19
Weekend Motivation: Flower Friday
TGIF!! Wanted to share a photo of a flower arrangement I created with gorgeous blooms I won from Darling and Daughters!
11/19/19
Flower Arranging: Hand-Tied Technique
This past Sunday I did two things for the first time: taught a flower arranging class and taught at Hill Center!
After attending a few flower arranging classes, assisting 3 classes at Smithsonian, and being a life-long flower enthusiast, I proposed teaching a class at Hill Center, and to my great joy they said YES.
8 students signed up to learn from me! Yes, I was nervous. Yes, I created an Excel spreadsheet with several flower arrangement "recipes," and yes, I brought home made brownies to sweeten the deal.
After meeting my students and discussing the basics of flower arrangements, learning about their favorite flowers and their first flower memories, we went on a field trip to Trader Joe's to pick up the flowers.
Back at Hill Center, we sipped on mimosas, snacked on the brownies, and I demonstrated how to create a hand-tied arrangement: you build the entire bouquet in your hands and then rubber band it to keep it intact.
The students then created their own arrangements. They all turned out great!!
All the photos throughout the post are of the arrangement I created with a few extra flowers left over from the class. This "recipe" contained mums, roses, eucalyptus, and alstroemeria.
Eight happy faces with their gorgeous creations.
I hope to repeat this class again!!Let me know if you'd like to learn this technique.
7/26/19
Weekend Inspiration: Flower Power
TGIF! Above is a gorgeous, if I say so myself, flower arrangement I made in a class I assisted taught by Sarah of Urban Petals.
In the first class (out of 3), I learned how to arrange flowers in my hand instead of in a vase. You start with one stem and then add more stems one by one with the stems somewhat wrapped or twirled around one another: it's harder to explain in words than to actually do.
At the end, you use a rubber band to hold all the flowers together: it's basically a bridal bouquet, but luckily you don't have to be a bride to enjoy this.
The beauty of this technique is that you can easily trim the ends of the flowers and change the water (do this at least every other day) without having to redo the entire arrangement.
Once some of the flowers wilt (irises were the first to go), it's easy to remove them and slightly re-fluff the rest of the bouquet.
Can't wait to see what I learn in the next two Tuesdays!
3/8/19
Weekend Inspiration: Macrame Wall Hanging
TGIF! Happy Friday and happy International Women's Day.
I wanted to share with you the latest arts & crafts project I made last weekend: Macrame Wall Hanging. Doing this simple wall hanging reminded me of all the macrame projects I did at a summer camp in Moscow. There's something magical about completing a project that is seen daily in your home.
Go create something!
1/11/19
Weekend Edition: Apartment Therapy's January Cure
DEHOARD. CLEAN. ORGANIZE. Those are just some of the things I've been doing for the last week or so thanks to Apartment Therapy's January Cure.
Who knew I had so many random notebooks and notepads?
Who knew I did not actually lose those international electricity converters? They just fell behind my suitcase.
Who knew how much dust was hiding under my bed, in my closets, and behind my dressers?
Who knew I have at least 15 random glass jars from jams, pickles, etc?
I KNOW all that now!
The plan for this weekend is to go through all my kitchen cabinets.
Good thing my galley kitchen is pretty small. I've already found bowls and glass containers I'm giving to a friend because I have too many. I put post it notes on each cabinet and drawer for an easy visual of what needs to be done and for the sense of accomplishment of taking them off once that space has been cleaned.
I'm also going to clean the fridge: now is a good time because I don't have that much in it.
And those flowers? They were actually also an assignment: the easiest one because I buy flowers for myself all the time.
Share with me your cleaning and dehoarding tips.
6/22/18
Weekend Inspiration: Flower Power
Weekend is almost here! I want to remind you once again to treat yourself to some flowers! Find your own sunshine!
Earlier this week I bought a miniature sunflower plant at Whole Foods for only $2.99!! That's cheaper than a fancy coffee, will last longer, and will bring you so much joy. Plus, no calories ;)
4/27/18
3/16/18
Weekend Inspirations: Ricotta, Cucumber & Hard Boiled Egg Toast
If you, like me, are dreaming of the weekend and a big breakfast with a mug of coffee, and maybe a cactus (because why not?), I have just the idea for you!
Ricotta, Cucumber & Hard Boiled Egg Toast
1) Start with home baked bread
2) Toast the bread and slather it with ricotta
3) Season with truffle salt: why not be fancy?
4) Add sliced Persian cucumbers
5) Add 8 minute hard boiled egg (the center of the egg is not completely cooked)
6) More truffle salt
7) Add halved cherry tomatoes
8) Serve with coffee
1/19/18
Weekend Edition: Buy Yourself Flowers
TGIF! I'm back from a wonderful vacation in Mexico City with my twin Anna and our friends Kate, Sveta, and Jenny!
One of the things I did almost immediately, other than unpacking, was buying fresh flowers. You see, when I was a little girl growing up in Russia, my parents and my grandmother always placed fresh flowers in Anna's and mine room for us to see after we came home after summer camp. Isn't that the sweetest tradition?
Well, I now do the same for myself. I encourage all of you to treat yourself to fresh flowers or a new plant!
This arrangement is an homage to Pantone: greenery for 2017 and ultra violet for 2018.
12/1/17
TGIF: December
TGIF!! I'm back from Lisbon where I had such a great solo vacation. I'm planning on blogging about it and sharing with you all my favorite impressions, but for now I wish you a great December and a lovely weekend. {If you are as impatient as I am, you can go see all my vacation photos on instagram.}
Buy yourself some flowers, because having a bit of nature in your home is so uplifting! I added a few fennel tops to my bouquet.
Tell me if you have any exciting plans for the last month of 2017.
5/19/17
Weekend Edition: Tulips And Chives
TGIF! Wishing you an awesome weekend! I'm taking a train south to Williamsburg to visit my friend Evi for the weekend! There'll be food, catching up, a bit of shopping and staying in HarmonAirBnB ;)
I leave you with a bit of flower arrangement I did with white tulips and blooming chives. Don't you love the combination?
3/24/17
3/10/17
Weekend Inspiration DIY: How To Paint A Modern Canvas For Your Bedroom
Want to do something crafty this chilly weekend that will immediately transform the look of any room in your home? Take an old canvas art piece (unless it's original Van Gogh or something like that) and paint it over!
WARNING: there is no food involved in this post ;)
Below is a photograph of my bedroom with a canvas from World Market I've had for 6 years. It's pretty, but I've been wanting something modern and graphic for a while.
When I saw the photograph below on West Elm's instagram, I knew what I would need to do. No, not buy the image in the photo...try to recreate it!
Step 1: cover the old canvas with 3 coats of paint making sure to let each coat to dry thoroughly before painting the next one. Depending on the color you choose and the original color of your canvas, you may need more or fewer coats of paint.
Step 2: paint the design of your choice.
Step 3: allow the paint to dry completely.
Step 4: hang your new art piece!
At first I wasn't completely sure what I thought of my new art piece, but after living with it a few days, I really like it!!! And the best part: it cost me nothing because I already had the paint!
Go do something creative this weekend!
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