Madras

Madras is such a wonderful preppy look for the summer.

I love this bag from LL Bean

Or how about these Brooks Brothers shorts for the man in your life

Or these shoes from Sperry, mmmm these would look great with all of my Shorley Blue tops from Lilly

Cashmere Coat

On mild winter days my favorite coat/jacket is the cashmere Shere Sweater Coat by Lilly Pulitzer.

I have three plain ones in navy, black and coral plus a cabled one in beige.

The Shere sweater coat by Lilly Pulitzer is my classic recommendation of the day!

Decorating the walls

I'm sure you have a lot of fun choosing furniture and accessories for your home. I know I do.

However I always have a hard time finding artwork. It doesn't seem to matter if its original or mass produced, it just seems to take me a while to find the pieces that speak to me.

When I was building our country abode I found that since this is a second home that not only did I need to devote a lot of time and energy to the building process but I also needed to fully furnish it from scratch. That meant a lot of new artwork.

Here are some of my finds...

In my foyer I have a very large map of London that I found at Restoration Hardware. The color of the river exactly matches the silk curtains. A very lucky coincidence!

In my sons bedroom there is a gorgeous framed photo of a yacht from Ethan Allen.

In my daughters bedroom there are six framed antique pressed flowers that I found at Scotts Antique Market in Atlanta.

In our bedroom there are four pictures of birds (you can just see the edge of the fourth on the far wall of our bathroom)

I won't admit how long it took me but I actually made these myself. They are all cross stitched on linen...

Barbour

Barbour has been quietly providing us with beautiful clothing since 1894.

Their coats and jackets are worn in London and in the countryside, by royalty and by those attending the Glastonbury festival.

When I lived in London it seemed to me that just about everyone we knew owned a waxed jacket from Barbour and judging by the picture of Kate Middleton wearing one I strongly suspect that they are just as popular today.

(Helen Mirren in The Queen)

I have a green Border Jacket which is over 20 years old and will probably last me at least another 20, but I would love to get another one in either black or navy.

Clothing is available in the US from the Barbour website ....

Downton Abbey

This show is brilliant!

Highclere Castle where this series is filmed is less than 20 miles from my parents house! I know whats on my to do list next time I visit.

Handbags

I have been sorting through and reorganizing my closet this week.

Here are a few pictures of my newly organized handbags.

I got rid of a lot of boxes as well as a few old bags which meant that I had room for my LV Carryall, jewelry box and makeup bag.

Ahh, nothing says January better than a bit of closet cleaning :-)

Cooks Illustrated

I have a lot of cookbooks.

Plus I love to get recipes from the internet.

I mean I really have a lot of cookbooks ... at both houses.

I promised myself I wouldn't buy any more.

Well ... unless Delia Smith or Ina Garten published a new one in which case I would need two copies one for each house.

I have been doing really well about not buying a new one. But just before Christmas we got a delivery from Amazon that contained this...

My husband had ordered it and it has fast become one of my absolute favorites.

Check out the Cobb Salad I made for dinner the other night ...

Best Cobb salad ever!