The coin canister

My friend and realtor, David, who sold my last apartment and found me The Beautiful Wreck, sent me a lovely Christmas gift this year. I've steered a few possible clients his way recently and it's his way of saying 'thank you'. Totally unnecessary but appreciated nonetheless! It's a glass canister set into a wrought iron base of metal leaves. There's a hammered copper lid with metal rose hip on top. I decided it would be a great place to stash coins and it looks great on the little shelf above the dining nook.

The moose on the mantel

Most every year my mom gives me a Christmas ornament as a holiday gift. This year she gave me a little wooden statuette of a moose (or is it a reindeer?), wearing a buffalo plaid sweater. Super cute. When I got home with it I realized I didn't have many Christmas decorations in the city, so I decided it would look good on the apartment mantel alongside my little snow scene in a jar that someone gave me a while back. (Thanks Mom! xo)

Eye on the prize

Ever since I moved into the apartment three years ago I've been wanting to find a small painting for the dining niche, something small, an oil maybe, with an ornate gold frame to offset the modernism of the niche's design.
Coincidentally, my friend Jim has been taking painting classes, and he has a surplus of canvases that he's created. I jokingly told him I wanted one and he kindly said, "yes". Yay.
He texted me a small (5" x 7") oil study of an eye.

I immediately loved it and thought it would be a great solution for what I'm looking for.
I Photoshopped his painting into frame to see what it would look like:

Jim was in Michael's, the craft store, the other day. He brought the painting to see if there was a frame that would work. He texted me this one and it was only $11. Perfect.

And here is the real painting nicely placed in the niche. I'm very pleased with the outcome.

The new neighbors?

I had been out on the island for over two weeks. When I arrived at the apartment the other evening I saw a bag of Halloween candy with my name on it sitting on the hallway table.

I figured someone had left it at my door and the cleaning lady had brought it inside, because no one would have actually come inside my apartment to leave it, right? (yes, I leave my door unlocked...with TWO doormen on always on duty 24/7 what's the point?)
Anyway the note said, "Enjoy! Patti & Ellie (5G)"

So my first thought was, "How nice, I've got some new neighbors and they left me a gift." A couple? I figured the apartment had finally sold and this was a nice gesture. I asked one of the doormen if, indeed, the place had sold. He had no idea. He said the previous owner, Mr. Stevens, the older gentlemen who had passed away, had his nephew come by a few times to take some personal belongings from the apartment but he hadn't heard about any sale. I also asked on of the porters. Again, he knew nothing. I even texted my realtor friend to see if he could look up a possible sale on the place, he has access to places online that has up-to-date info on current apartment sales in Manhattan. He texted back and said he found nothing and that he didn't think it has sold as there was just an open house a few days ago. Then  it hit me: the note was from the two realtors I've been chatting up since the apartment went up for sale. They've been really friendly and I take to them everytime I see they're having a showing. Case solved! And I thought I was getting a nice lesbian couple for my next door neighbors, LOL.

Through the looking glass

I realized the other week that I wanted a full length mirror. I kept racking my brain as to where to put it. In such a small apartment there's very limited wall space. The only place was maybe behind one of the closet doors in the hallway. Then I had an epiphany. What about the small column/wall next to the bathroom door, the wall that's essentially behind the bed headboard?
The more I thought about it the more I knew it would work.
And it did.
I got a high bid from a mirror company. I was able to get the price down by getting the tax knocked off. Then they postponed the installation date and I whined and whined and got $25 more off the price (the squeaky wheel gets the grease!), so here's the wall BEFORE the install:

Here's the two tallest mirror installation guys putting it up, they were giants!

Here's the finished product. Not only do I get a full length mirror to help me get dressed, but mirrors always make a room look bigger. It's an old decorator's trick I've used in every apartment I've ever owned and it always works. I like the way the reflection makes it look like there more bookshelves on that side of the room. Mirrors also bounce a little extra light around, not a bad thing to also put in the plus column.

Speaking of reflections, I also like how the mirror reflects the soffit on the ceiling, it makes it look bigger...

Here's a side beside comparison of the BEFORE and AFTER, not bad, huh?

I must be doing something right

I ran across this photo on Instagram the other day, it was from a designer or from some publication like ELLE Decor, and I thought it bore a lot of similarities to my favorite apartment.

The Chesterfield sofa, the leather Eames chair, the gray shelving unit with square cubbies filled with

object d'arts. Pretty much a carbon copy of the elements in my place...

Makes me think I've got at least a modicum of taste, right? ;)

The sale next door

I posted about the passing of the old gentleman who lived next door a while back. Well, it didn't take long for his estate to put his apartment up for sale. I was taking out the garbage the other day and there were two realtors sitting inside his place greeting folks for an open house. Being the Gladys Kravitz that I am, I introduced myself and took a look around. I'd never been inside his apartment even though his front door was inches away from mine! The apartment was surpisingly modern and has a nice layout. And what's more surprising is that it's priced--to my eye--at a STEAL: only $775,000! You can see the listing here.
Here are some pictures:

And here's the apartment's layout:

It'll be interesting to see how fast it sells...and who moves in!! Stay tuned!

The Barcelos Rooster

Recently my friend Tony took a vacation trip to Portugal. He brought me back a small souvenir, a small ceramic statue of a red rooster. He told me it was a popular "tchotchke" of the country found everywhere you looked. I Googled it and found out it's the unofficial symbol of Portugal. It comes from an old national legend where the bird symbolizes the famous Portuguese love of life.
You can read the full legend here.
Here's the statue that commemorates the tale, found at the Archeological Museum in Barcelos, Portugal.



My statue is all red.



I thought it would look good on the small marble shelf above my stove...and it does!

Lyrical

My good friend Joe had some bad news recently. His elderly father passed away. Fortunately, he was able to spend his last few days with him in his home state of California. When Joe and his sister were packing up his father's belongings there was his collection of books on lyrics by the masters of 20th Century popular song, great artists like Cole Porter, Irving Berlin, Frank Loesser, and Lorenz Hart. Joe asked me if I'd like to have them and of course I jumped at the chance. He sent them to me cross-country and they're now happily ensconced on my shelves along with other large coffee table books. I love them and am glad they found a good home (thanks Joe!) :)

My "Kitchen Still Life"

I've been wanting a small painting to put in the corner of the kitchen above the new wooden island I bought at IKEA. In my mind I wanted something in the mid-Century style of a British artist I've always liked, William Scott. His still life paintings were usually of mundane household items done in a totally modern, spare style that elevated the objects to pure art. You can read more about him here.
Here are a few of his works:














Then I got to thinking, "Why don't I just paint my own still life? I can even use Scott as my inspiration!" In other words, I'd just rip him off, LOL. Plus, I had a small canvas lying around that I never used and lots of acrylic craft paints....perfect.
I found one of his paintings that I particularly liked called "Kitchen Still Life" from 1948, I liked the colors, yellows and blues that would work well in my kitchen. I decided to do my own take on this piece. Here is the original Scott painting:



This work is done on the horizontal but I wanted my painting to be vertical, so I adapted the objects and added a pepper mill to the arrangement of lemons, eggs, cups, saucers, and kitchen utensils. Here's how mine came out:



Pretty close, right? I posted a picture of it on Instagram right after I finished it.



And here's the painting in it's intended spot. I purposely used the blues to coordinate with the blue of my Dutch oven (it's there on the top shelf of the island).

R.I.P. Mr. Stevens

Back when I was trying to get all the permits and board approvals to begin the renovation of this apartment, almost 3 years ago, I hit a snag. Seems my next door neighbor, Mr. Stevens, was trying to stop the construction for fear of the dust and noise it would cause. As you can imagine it almost sent me over the edge. You can read all about it in an old post here.
Everything eventually turned out fine. I met Mr. Stevens in the hallway a few weeks after I moved in and he was always pleasant, we would make short chitchat in the lobby or elevator bank when we'd cross paths, the issue of his renovation fears never came up.
So cut to me getting home to the city the other day and when I got off the elevator I saw a green sticker on Mr. Stevens' door, his is right next to mine.



I got up close to read it, thinking "this can't be good".
It said "THESE PREMISES HAVE BEEN SEALED BY THE NY POLICE DEPT..."



Uh-oh.
Could it be a robbery? Or something worse? I had a sneaker. So I called down to the doorman and asked him what was up. Sadly, Mr. Stevens had passed away a few days before, one of the doormen found him collapsed in his apartment. I later found out from another doorman that he was supposed to be visiting his nephew's family and when he didn't show up they called the building and asked if someone could please check on their uncle, that's when they found him.
No one knows the official cause of death but it was probably just very old age. Recently late at night I would hear him cry out, as if he was in some sort of pain, it was a little eerie, especially when the walls are so thick in this building. To hear that he must've been pretty loud. I do know also that he was very frail and it was quite an effort for him to walk, he used a cane.
I'm not sure why the police close up the residence, maybe that's a city ordinance until they determine the real cause of death?
The last time I saw him was in early January, he wished me a happy new year. I always got a kick out of the fact that he had a local wine shop deliver him two bottles of wine a week. They would always be sitting outside his door. At least he had that little joy. And his cat, an Abyssinian.
Of course, now my mind runs to thinking about how great my place would be if I could buy that aparmtnent (it's a one bedroom) and combine it with mine. Yeah, fat chance. With what money?
Anyway, now the new intrigue will be Who will move in next to me now? Stay tuned. And God bless Mr. Stevens, may he be enjoying his wine up in heaven.

Out, out, damn spot!

I have a suede coat that I adore. It's basically a jean jacket shape, but in suede. I got it a few years ago at Brooks Brothers and everytime I wear it I get compliments.
All good...EXCEPT.
The other month I noticed there was a small stain on the back, maybe the size of a Kennedy half dollar. No telling what it is or how it got there. Obviously I leaned up against something...or maybe I took it off and laid it on the offending stain causer? In any event, I thought I'd take it to a dry cleaners and see what they could do. There are several in my neighbor within a few blocks. The first one wanted to charge me EIGHTLY DOLLARS with no guarantee that they would get out the stain. I said, "no, thank you" and went to two more establishments. It wasn't much better at either of those. One wanted SIXTY-FIVE dollars and the other FIFTY. No way, not gonna happen. I was prepared to pay maybe twenty dollars but this was just too steep for my wallet.
So what to do? Plan B is to look for some KTR...do they even still make that stuff? Or maybe some other kind of sued cleaner. What could a can cost, eight or nine dollars? Stay tuned for the saga of the spot...

Once (again) on this island

I recently posted about the new kitchen island I got from IKEA. You can read all about it here.
Since I had 'hacked' it a bit by adding a dishtowel hook on the side, it got me curious about other IKEA Hacks, so I Googled the topic and found dozens of other ideas for transforming IKEA stuff. One of the articles I ran across was a hack of the very island I had purchased. The blogger had painted the piece charcoal gray, added a towel bar, and replaced the butcher block top with a marble slab. It was pretty spiffy. You can read that article here. And here are a couple of photos from that entry:





So it got me to thinking: I could do the same to my piece to give it that little extra "tshudge" and make it less "IKEA-ish". I didn't feel the need for the marble top, but I did have half a can of dark gray paint in the cupboard left over from the renovation, the color I painted the entry hallway. It would be perfect. I also went to Home Depot and found a different dish towel hook for the side, one in antique brass instead of the silver one I had. This would match the kitchen cabinet handles better. Best of all, the new hook was only $6.00! Perfecto.
Here's the progress of the re-tshudge and the finished product, I'm very happy with how it turned out.

Umpainted, ready to begin...

First coat of primer

First coat of paint in charcoal gray

First coat of gray done

Second coat done and the finished product

Fits just right in this corner

The antique brass dish towel hook

I may add the towel bar at some future date if I can find one the right size, stay tuned for that.