Coming back from summer vacation is never easy, and for me, it was especially hard – my summer flew by in a blur of nighttime feedings and diaper changes for my daughter, Georgia Ruth, who was born on May 30, and a flurry of camp field trips, sunscreen and water wings for Ruby, my 5-year-old.
And now, all too soon, I am back at work and Ruby has started kindergarten – real school! – at Morris Jeff Community School. For Ruby, the transition was made easier by a brand-new Rapunzel backpack and matching lunchbox; for me, it was the joy of coming back to pages upon pages of absolutely top-notch kitchens and bathrooms.
If the constraints of the real world weren’t an issue, I would probably spend my days floating back and forth between kitchen and bathroom – baking a loaf of bread, taking a long bath, making some pasta, taking another long bath, pouring a glass of wine, taking another long bath…. My own kitchen and bath would be perfectly suitable for this plan, but the kitchens and baths we’re featuring in this issue are truly the stuff fantasies are made of!
Although the kitchen and baths in Simon and Rebecca Finger’s home are definitely noteworthy, we couldn’t leave out the rest of their gorgeous Uptown Colonial Revival. The Fingers purchased the home, which was badly in need of renovation, after Katrina, and worked with their friend and designer Jill Dupré to strike a perfect balance of traditional and modern that also accommodates their three young children. Between my two girls and my stepson, I also have three kids in my home, and so I know just how difficult it can be to maintain any semblance of style with kids around – the décor of my own home can best be described as a mishmash of Barbie, Disney, Nerf, Fisher-Price and My Little Pony, under a thin veil of cookie crumbs, chocolate milk stains, Capri Sun pouches and baby spit-up. And that’s on a good day!
The other thing cheering me up right now is the dual promise of cooler weather and football season. To that end, we have a delicious game-day recipe for grilled sausages in Gatherings, and Last Indulgence pays homage to beer, the ideal accompaniment to both grilled sausages and a Saints game.
Although spring is generally thought of as the time of rebirth, Living With Antiques features an easy and inexpensive way to bring your faded antiques back to life. For the Garden gets into the back-to-school spirit by exploring educational gardening programs for kids, which can have long-lasting positive impacts on many young lives, and Home Renewal tackles an unpleasant but useful topic: how to rid your home of lingering bad smells.
We also have our usual fill of art, crafts and trends to help inspire you as you adjust to the end of summer.
Letting go of the long, hot days of summer is never easy, true, but at least in New Orleans, at least for me, there is always something to be thankful for. And autumn is absolutely the perfect time for that!
