:: letters home - on Christmas day ::

i made goldenrod eggs for lunch today. an old family favorite. the process, the smell, the taste - it reminds me of childhood. reminds me of maunga & poppy's house in decatur. it was almost a year ago that we lost our dear poppy art. i haven't posted a letter home in a while and thought it would be a great complement to my breakfast-for-lunch.

[click to enlarge]

25 Dec. 1944
Dear Mamma,
Well here we are having Christmas in England and I had much rather be spending it at home. Maybe I'll be able to spend the next one at home and I certainly hope so. We have a turkey dinner with all of the trimmings and the only thing wrong with it was the fact that we had to wait for the Col so long that it was cold. Everyone was mad at him.

I am on duty to-night as Office of the day and I have to inspect the guard again in a few minutes. I won't have to be on again until about the middle of January.

There was no mail again to-day but I know that I must have a lot on the way somewhere. I just hope that it begins to come in soon. I have received only one letter so far and that was from Lillie written on the 28th of Nov.

Has Elizabeth been hearing from Walt very often? I haven't written to him as yet but will someday real soon. Tell everyone hello for me & will you send Billy & Tish's new address? Will write more later. I need some v-mail.

Love, Arthur

:: hellow, love ::

my office is set up in what would be my dining room (if it wasn't my office). i removed the bar in my kitchen/dining room when i got new counter tops because i didn't think i'd ever use it as a sit-at bar. if i were going to have more than one other person over for dinner, he/she would have to bring a tv tray because i only have 2.

all that to say, my house is not really set up for proper (or even remotely proper) dining. as someone who loves to cook & eat and someone who loves to feed other people, this is a little strange and, at times, even frustrating. so i've been trying to come up with the -just right- solution to create a dining area in my kitchen.

and i'm getting closer.

i love the look of tulip tables. clean. simple. iconic. and while i appreciate the aesthetic of the whole pedestal group with the tulip chairs (fewer legs = less visual clutter), i like the idea of pairing the table with a less matchy-matchy, mid-century inspired chair. (this original eero saarinen set by knoll sold for $1,800-2,200)

today i decided to check in at cb2.com to see what was new, what was on sale. and a word caught my eye: "grellow." what? could it be? the description of the cool, more streamlined pedestal table reads, "our fave round...pops in our fave new grellow (grey + yellow)."

hellow, grellow!
can a color sell a product? yes.
can a color name sell a product? quite possibly.

cb2.com

:: love twig ::

i love trees. i love twigs. i love this necklace.and the colors of this one are perfect for me.

cursivedesign.com

:: pantry raid - blueberry zucchini bread ::

i actually have a recipe for this one!

blueberry-zucchini bread (muffins)

INGREDIENTS FOR MUFFINS:
3 eggs, lightly beaten
1/2 cup vegetable (or canola) oil
1/2 cup applesauce
3 teaspoons vanilla extract (i like to have a heavy hand with this)
1 3/4 cups white sugar (original recipe calls for 2 1/4 cups, but it was too sweet for me with the applesauce)
2 cups shredded zucchini (i leave the peel on)
1 1/2 cups all purpose white flour
1 1/2 cups whole wheat flour
1 teaspoon salt (i use kosher salt)
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1 tablespoon ground cinnamon (heavy handed)
1 1/2 pints fresh blueberries

preheat oven to 350 degrees. place muffin cups in muffin pan.

in large bowl, beat together the eggs, oil, applesauce and sugar. fold in the zucchini. beat in the flour, salt, baking powder, baking soda and cinnamon. gently fold in the blueberries. transfer to the prepared muffin cups. (or use a pyrex baking dish - ungreased.)

CRUMB TOPPING: combine 1/4 cup wheat flour, 1/4 cup white or brown sugar and 1/4 stick of softened butter. mush together with a fork or spoon. add more dried stuff if too buttery, more butter if too floury. should be just mushy enough to crumble on top of the muffins or baking dish. can also add some chopped walnuts. (raw sugar can be sprinkled on in place of the crumb topping, too, but i never have that on hand.)

bake until a knife or toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. i check on them when i can really start smelling the cinnamon and bake a little more if necessary.

:: happy accident ::

we (corey smith) had our big atlanta summer show this past saturday night in alpharetta (atlanta), ga at verizon wireless amphitheatre. an exciting night - we've sold out chastain park two years in a row, moved up to the bigger venue on the outskirts of town and still had over 6,000 people there! our publicists came in from nashville and our business manager was there, too. as we were standing around after the show i looked around and realized with had inadvertently dressed in a nice little showing of my favorite color combo. a pic for the blog was a must.
(high contrast due a broken camera - and our natural glow, of course.)

:: love ::

thesartorialist.blogspot.com

the dress, the belt, the shoes, the bag, the colors...the fit, the stride, the posture, the vibe.

:: girl scouts get bangs ::

i'm considering getting some bangs. i do this every week when i get bored with my current 'do. i need to just make the leap, but i dread the growing out process (assuming i end up wanting to grow them out - i always do). but why not go for it? the girls scouts have.

underconsideration.com/brandnew

a logo revitalization and modernization for the girls scouts logo brings about a new hairstyle, a nose job and a little lip-lift. read more about the changes here.

:: letters home - at Christmas::

i'd thought about saving this letter home for Christmastime, but decided i would keep posting them in the order they were written and sent home.

[click to enlarge]

19 Dec. 1944
Dear Mamma,
It won't be long now before Christmas now and I suppose that by the time you get this Christmas will be over. Last night I could hear the people from the town singing Christmas carols and it sounded pretty. There must have been quite a few from the volume. I don't know whether they were singing it for us or not.

I still haven't received any mail whatever from any of you. If you will tell everyone to use v. mail it will arrive sooner. Have you sent any fruit cake or fried chicken yet? I could really use it right about now. I wrote Daddy a long letter a few days ago and I suppose he has received it by now.

I have visited Liverpool and it is a pretty nice place. I hope to make London some day and then I'll write you all about it. I tried to call John Gantt but I couldn't get him so I wrote him a letter. I should hear from him before so very long.

Can you send me some candy and cookies and ask Elizabeth to send me Walt's A.P.O Did Elizabeth get my letter to buy Lillie's Christmas presents?

Lots of love,
Arthur