Meet Nancy Kerr, the previous matriarch of Rivermont. There are so many things about this house that I love, but, without a doubt, its good spirit is the thing for which I am most thankful. And, from what I gather, we have this lady to thank for that.
A plucky war bride from England, Nancy and her husband Jim raised four boys within these walls. Nancy was an impressive being; she was a nurse during WWII and was the first hospice nurse in the state of Tennessee. I’m sure I’ll share more about the Kerrs’ tenure in this house at some point as we have so enjoyed getting to know their family. But for today, I just couldn’t resist sharing this portrait.
It was painted by Nancy’s sister-in-law Elizabeth Kerr-Rike who was the preeminent portrait painter in Knoxville in the forties and fifties. In fact, James saw some of her work hanging in a local country club recently! In the words of Nancy’s third, Christopher, “She could catchthe essence of a person in her drawings.” This portrait carries such a presence that the first night she was here, Dexter walked right up to her and growled. (I’m happy to report that relations have warmed since.)
There is just something about her expression and that gleam in her eye that I can’t seem to get over–powerful, confident, and perhaps a little mischievous. Anyway, she’s staying at Rivermont until her granddaughter (who shares her striking features) has a place of her own. For now, we couldn’t be happier that she’s here for a bit longer.
Our first trip to Chicago was a year or two after we got married for a conference in mid-December. Windows were filled with colorful displays, there were brass bands playing outside the department stores, and–my favorite feature–when it snowed, the flakes would get caught up in the wind between tall buildings and make you feel like you were in a snow globe. It was heaven for my small-town, Southern self. We’ve come for the annual Chicago Brass concert, the St. Patrick’s Day Parade (when they turn the river green), and we’ve seen more than our fair share of Sinatra-worthy destinations (cue the music). So today, I wanted to share a few of our favorite places in Chicago with you!
The Chicago Symphony
The CSO is amazing, but, more specifically, their brass section is world-reknown. If you ever have a chance to go to a performance, grab drinks at the Rhapsody downstairs (pictured above) and then arrive early enough to bask in the ornate details of symphony hall.
Note: I have more than a couple pictures of this sign, but this one is my favorite because: *SNOW*
The Berghoff
The food in Chicago cannot be emphasized enough. The Berghoff is close to our favorite place hotel and offers the best German comfort food around. I’ve started recreating their apple + onion soup at home and am a big fan of the house root beer.
Other places we love to dine:
Yoshi’s: Yoshi’s is a staple in Boystown offering French-Japanese fusion. The staff has all been there for decades, and we love our annual visit. We actually went last Sunday night and missed seeing Yoshi’s wife who would say, “Bye, Tennessee! See you next year!” As it turns out, Yoshi actually passed that same night. There’s a tribute to the chef here.
Hugo’s Frog Bar: This one is connected to Gibsons’ steakhouse (They share a kitchen.), but we actually prefer their fare. You can get a slice of key lime 6 inches high with meringue, and we’ve seen a celebrity or two while sipping our bouillabaisse.
Sepia:This is chef Andrew Zimmerman’s place–a bit more modern than the others. It offers fare that is often experimental and rich. The interior is gorgeous, and the wine list expansive.
Art in Chicago
At some point, I would love to take a trip and just show you all of the amazing art in Chicago. Seriously, while the Art Institute of Chicago boasts an amazing collection, the whole city is full of opportunities to see art. There’s a Picasso Sculpture in Daley Plaza that dates back to the mid-1960s while Millennium Park is covered in beautiful pieces that are a bit more recent. There is a bandshell designed by Frank Gehry that is a bit too epic for words, and one of my favorite pieces is “Cloud Gate,” a giant, stainless steel, reflective bean designed by Anish Kapoor.
That right there? That is a circa 2010 #tbt #selfie! We were taking awkward travel photos to share on Facebook before it was cool, guys. #winning
Also, if you ever get a chance to see any live comedy in the city, do it! One of the funniest people I know in real life taught at Second City and took us to an improv show on one of our trips. The smaller theaters are interesting too because you feel more like you’re in on the jokes.
The Palmer House
We have tried other hotels, but we still go back to the Palmer House each trip–even if it’s just for a cocktail or two. The lobby is breathtaking! If you’re there during the holidays, try to catch carolers as they stop for a song or two in the lobby.
Do you love Chicago? What’s on your must see list?
This morning I was up bright and early to hang out with one of my favorite gals, Abby Ham. We made peach pancakes and peach berry smoothies on Mornings with Fox 43. The peaches came in more of an avalanche than a steady stream this year because of all the rain we’ve had, so we’ve literally just been throwing peaches in everything to not waste any!
I mentioned these peach pancakes in last week’s post, but in the video below you’ll get a couple tricks for whipping up perfect pancakes of your own. Also, if you’re curious, we loveBob’s Red Mill 10 Grain Pancake Mix–whole grain and hearty.
For the Peach Berry Smoothies, we mix this recipe up all the time based on what’s in season. (By “we,” I obviously mean Husband who actually makes this in the morning while yours truly is still doing her pre-coffee stagger.) In the middle of winter, we use all frozen fruits and more juice. In the summer and fall, we use whatever fruit is in season and less juice because the non-frozen fruit holds more water. While we like the punch of protein, the non-fat Greek yogurt is not necessary for this smoothie to be tasty. Here’s the breakdown of the recipe I made on air:
The Detroit airport is epic. EPIC. Detroit is actually on my list of places to visit soon. But next time I want to see the city not just the airport.
*/cue Willie Nelson/* “On the road again…” This time, after a quick layover in Detroit that included rad views of planes like the one above, we are in Chicago. I love market season! I’ll be sharing some to the trends we’ve seen a bit later in the week, but today I just thought I’d share some snapshots from the last few days.
In flight selfie–I am very easily entertained!
This Jaume Plensa sculpture brings a beautiful presence to Millennium Park. It’s called “Look Into My Dreams, Awilda” and stands 39 feet tall.
I love visiting the Art Institute of Chicago! Their collection is pretty amazing. Favorites include: the Impressionist collection, American folk art, and the sculptures in the Modern Art wing
Portraits & busts of men from the early 1800s always make me think of Husband. #hairgoals
This time I spent some time doodling in the Pritzker Garden.
#freethenipple
I’ve also been indulging in very sparkly cocktail hours. Prosecco at the Palmer House, Rosé at Roof. (*Please note the quote on the menu.)
The views from Roof were pretty unbelievable. If you look closely, you can see “Cloud Gate” and Millennium Park.
I’m off to do some more exploring! It’s going to be a very busy week so stay tuned.
We’ve been home for the week between menswear shows, and I thought this would be a good time to just share a few pictures of life lately. That view above is one of my very favorites. It’s looking out a second story window at Rivermont down to the workshop. In the top, you can see the bell that guests and delivery people ring when they arrive. It’s just the best sound!
On Saturday morning, friends came over to see the new digs and brought this beautiful bouquet of zinnias from the farmers market. Zinnias are some of my favorite flowers–so colorful and cheerful. They always look like they’re having a good time.
(And yes, I am still obsessed with that dining room wallpaper. #glitter)
We were delighted to have our first house guests this weekend, and I’m happy to say we managed to pull together at least a few rooms to greet them. I have this theory that heirloom quilts and fresh flowers can cover a multitude of sins.
Staying up late at night to catch up with friends you don’t see often is just one of the best things in the world. Caryn and I even got to sneak away on Monday afternoon to do a little thrifting. That’s where I scored this old glove mold.
We’ve been eyeing the ones at Fish’s Eddy for a while, but running across this one by chance was even better! It fits perfectly in our living room upstairs where these fab curtains also reside.
An amaryllis also bloomed over the weekend. One of the coolest things about moving to a new place is watching what pops up in the gardens. A friend told me that amaryllis are often called “naked ladies” because they bloom with no leaves. And now, of course, I’m hoping they pop up everywhere just so I can say to my friends, “Come see the naked ladies at Rivermont!”
Hello & Happy Friday! Since I haven’t done a round-up of random links in a few weeks, I thought it was high-time to share all the things I’ve had bookmarked. Here goes…
The other night I took my cooking to a new frontier: The Grill. We’ve had so many amazing goodies in our CSA basket, and there’s something about veggies in the summer that’s just begging for that little accent of charcoal. If you look at the peppers and onions in the picture above, you’ll see that they make a circle. That’s because I used my new favorite kitchen doohickey: the fire wire. It’s a long, flexible kabob skewer, and you can order one here for under $10.
It is rare that I listen to an album from start to finish, but today I listened to Jon Batiste’s Social Music.
It.
Was.
Phenomenal.
If you have Amazon Prime, you can listen to it here, or the album’s on Spotify. His version of St. James Infirmary is absolutely incredible, which is rare for a song that is covered by everyone in the genre. If you recognize his name but aren’t sure why, he will be the house band for Stephen Colbert’s new Late Show.
We are big fans of Wayne White (who you may remember from this post). Recently, The Bitter Southerner did an excellent profile on the artist that’s definitely worth a look–even if it’s just to swoon over the photography by Kendrick Brinson and David Banks.
Finally, it’s national tequila day! Here’s a little something to get your celebration off to a good start.
Home again, home again, jiggity-jig! One unplanned detour through Atlanta and we are home–after a wonderful, whirlwind of a trip to The Big Apple. On this trip I tried not to take as many pictures and really just soak everything in. But on Sunday, one of my favorites and I went to see the 150 Years of Wonderland exhibit at the Morgan Library. It was there that I read about Lewis Carroll’s humorous essay “Photography Extraordinary” and, if you’ll excuse the pun, went down a bit of a rabbit hole.
In 1855, Carroll published an essay anonymously in The Comic Times called “Photography Extraordinary” that spoofed this new invention of photography. (It’s worth noting that Carroll later became an accomplished portrait photographer himself.) You can read the full text here, as part of the Morgan Library’s online exhibition, which is really fantastic in its own right. The premise was that this new machine could capture the idea of a dunce and, through further development, make it sound brilliant. He then suggests that the same mechanism be applied to the speeches of Parliament. Ha!
As I started thinking about this idea of repetition leading to full development, I started seeing it in John Tenniel’s illustrations for Wonderland as well as the work of many other artists. For instance, The White Rabbit, shown above, appeared repeatedly on sketches throughout the collection. Little details like the lines around his eyes or the length of his ears would change but his essence was always there. (For the record, of all the rabbits, the sketch above was decidedly my favorite.)
Much like an artist, the chef works out the flaws of a knife technique as they become more comfortable with the practice. A musician works out the nuance of a piece as they become more in tune with the placement of actions and the rhythm. The truth and meaning come out as the writer employs different ways of stating their opinion. And perhaps your mother was right: Practice does make perfect.
Friday morning, we flew to NYC for the menswear show. Remember whenwe came to Mrket in January? This trip has been a lot of fun and oh-so busy! James will be working Mrket for the next few days, and I’ll be visiting it as well as a couple other shows while we’re in the city. I’ll blog a full report but here are a couple of shots I took yesterday before things were up & running.
This trip, I’m trying to pay more attention to the details. One way I’m doing that is: less pictures, more doodles. I’ve been thinking a lot about memory since I read this article in the NY Times about some performance art Oliver Jeffers has been doing.
What we see as individuals is so interesting because it’s often different from what others see. What our brains remember is a totally different story that’s even more exclusive. Fascinating, right?
But there’s one place k haven’t been able to resist the urge to take more than a few photos. We’ve gotten to take a couple of boat rides, including one that went all the way around Manhattan and right by Lady Liberty. Thus, the rad views in the photos below…
As i said on Instagram, we did pose for some photos, but somehow this felt more realistic 😉
Today, we want to share some pictures with you of Rivermont when we bought her. The first time we walked through, I believe the only thing I photographed was a doorknob (seen here). We were both so overwhelmed by the house. She has quite the presence, and this is only a smattering of rooms. In fact, my favorite rooms aren’t included. We’ll look at those at another time!
We are pretty in love with the green, which is good… because it’s everywhere!
2 words: China Closet. I will post a detail of this wallpaper on instagram, but it is amazing! It’s yellow with gold (dare I say glitter?) and practically perfect in every way.
The kitchen needs some love, and I don’t really want to talk about the brown sinks. (Was that really a thing in the 80s?) As I’ve mentioned, the only room I miss from our Nobel Street home is the kitchen. But I made Husband take a picture of me hugging our old fridge before we moved out–so there’s that.
These are not my favorite bedrooms, but you can see the wood floors and the beautiful built-ins. So. Many. Built-ins!
Worth noting: There’s a bell in the top of that building on the right that guests ring when they arrive. It’s one of my new favorite things!
Isn’t she grand? I can’t wait to share the history and some of the stories we’ve learned. More to come soon!
First a little disclaimer: This is a life lesson post not a gardening post. In fact, I really know nothing about raising roses, but there happens to be a rose bush right outside our backdoor with the prettiest pale pink blooms!
My father-in-law and I were walking around the yard the other day, and he was identifying a few of our plants for me. When we stopped by the rose bush, he pointed out that some of the branches had dead ends. “Trim these off,” he said. Apparently the plant will just waste energy trying to get rid of the dead itself instead of concentrating that energy on growing. But the gardener can help the plant refocus its energy and get the air and room it needs to grow stronger simply by trimming it up.
So while sipping coffee on Saturday, I took a sharp pair of garden scissors out and trimmed our roses. And as I was doing so, I started thinking about what a great metaphor this was.
The need to drop dead weight is seen everywhere in nature. In fact, as we grow our brains actually do something similar. Synaptic pruning is a process that happens during childhood in which our brains drop superfluous cell connections while the important connections become a lot stronger.
So here’s the question: does your life need a little pruning? Are you wasting too much energy dealing with dead weight? We make so many choices every day about where to set our focus and what will occupy our brain space—whether it’s deciding how to spend our free time or worrying about something we cannot change. But are we picking the things that will give us what we need to grow stronger?
