We love the month of November! Here in New England, the leaves are just finishing their brilliant color show, our sweaters are pulled out of storage and we’re wrapping ourselves in our favorite scarves. The crisp air signals something in our bones…a recognition that it’s time to prepare for the end of the year. For us that means reflecting on all there is to be thankful for in 2013 and getting ready to celebrate our connections with family and friends over the holidays.
We are really excited to have offered our Cozy Box this month! The artists we’ve worked with have created items that represent what “cozy” feels like to us. Elissa Starosto’s yarn and metal necklace is the perfect piece of jewelry to take you from fall to winter. Its long chain allows it to hang beautifully over a sweater and the modern colors combined with the softness of the yarn makes a statement for any fashionista (whether you take that moniker seriously or not!). The blood orange and pomegranate candle, hand poured and scented by Liz Frazier, has been lighting up our living rooms this month. We’ve also kept it at our workspaces so that we can enjoy it even when we aren’t curled up with a book. And Mara Minuzzo’s art block has been happily sitting on our mantels (or bookcases, since we don’t have fireplaces)! We love its reference to vintage paint-by-numbers pieces and the scene with pheasants and birch trees brings the color and feel of fall into our homes.
Our favorite activities this month have been our soup exchange party; learning a new way to make bread from scratch that’s so easy and do-able, even for anyone with a busy life; putting together a cluster of terrariums to use as a centerpiece for Thanksgiving; and making a fabric basket to hold all the blankets we’ll be grabbing when we go to curl up on the couch with a cup of tea.
Believe it or not, tomorrow is the start of December and we’ll be offering a new way to shop with Little Yellow Couch in time for the holidays. We’ll also be offering some deals on shipping, so be sure to check it out! December 1st also means we’ll have a new calendar for your computer’s desktop so If you’d like to access the link, simply join our mailing list and you can have a new one starting tomorrow and every month thereafter!
Looking forward to see you in December!
Cheers,
Zandra and Karen June
When Karen and I were working on content for this month’s theme, I immediately thought of my mom. She taught me the value of buying items that were well made so that they would last. High quality also meant that whatever we bought would do what it was expected to do: the tool would work properly, the furniture would withstand repeated use and the dress would hang gracefully in all the right places. Growing up, we didn’t have extra money to spend on luxuries but my mom was always aspirational.
Photo Credit: Little Yellow Couch
When I was in high school, my mom took me to New York City a few times and we would get standing-room-only tickets to Broadway musicals. These were the least expensive and meant you’d stand for the entire show. Not very civilized but we were both a lot younger and were just happy to be there. Now, my mother and I meet in New York City every year to attend the American Ballet Theatre’s Opening Gala. And we do it in style.
Photo Credit: Jason Paris
Photo Credit: Little Yellow Couch
It’s a very posh event and from the start, my mother decided we would treat ourselves accordingly. Instead of rushing through dinner at an overcrowded, overpriced nearby greasy spoon, we have a leisurely, elegant and luxurious dinner right there at the Met, sitting in the refined but stunning setting of the Grand Tier Restaurant, beneath an enormous original painting by Marc Chagall.
Photo Credit: Little Yellow Couch
Photo Credit: The Grand Tier Restaurant
Photo Credit: The Grand Tier Restaurant
There’s no rushing to get to the theatre. There are no subways to ride or even cabs to hail. Our feet aren’t killing us from running through the city streets in heels. Instead, we’re seated by the large windows where you can see the Lincoln Center fountain, relaxing with champagne and savoring our meal.
Photo Credit: Jason Paris
For even more civility, we place our coffee and desert order after dinner so that it’s ready for us at intermission. No haggling for a spot at the small bar in the lobby and gulping your drink down before you go back into the theater. It’s an annual treat that I look forward to and feel immensely lucky to experience. And thanks to my mom, at least once I year I feel we are being "Oh So Civilized!"
What’s the most luxurious tradition you have where you feel extremely civilized, taking you out of the everyday, run-around-rut? We’d love to hear about it!
xoxo Zandra
Well, friends, this has been a whirlwind month for us! We’ve launched our website, promoted three artisans through the sale of our first box and posted something every Monday through Friday: DIYs, articles, interviews, printables, etc. We are on Cloud 9 and going to sleep each night exhausted but exhilarated. And a little nudge: there are only a few more September boxes left! Order one of the last of our inaugural boxes here.
We are so excited about moving forward into next month! Tomorrow we’ll be revealing our theme, three new artists, and their handcrafted products made especially for Little Yellow Couch. It’s going to be a juicy one so we hope you check back with us regularly. You can sign up for our newsletter to receive exclusive news and offers, follow us on social media, pin our photos on your boards, send us an email or maybe a note by carrier pigeon. (If you can figure that out, we would definitely throw you a party).
At Little Yellow Couch, our goal is to encourage your desire (we know you have it!) to live a life connected to the people, places and things that are meaningful to you. We’re all busy, sometimes frazzled, and often tired. But we believe that trying to do and have it all leaves us feeling empty. We end up consuming things (objects, food, experiences) simply because they’re put right in front of us and it feels easier to just snap them up and keep going. And then, one day, you look around and you realize you’ve accumulated a lot of stuff that you don’t care about, you don’t have room for and doesn’t reflect your personal style. (We’re not trying to preach here….we fall into this habit, too!). We’re taking a step back and really figuring out what it is we want to drive our spending choices. Defining our aesthetic, discovering what excites us about a particular flavor, color, pattern, smell, and connecting to the story behind a product…these are questions that drive us. How about you?
We are so pleased to meet you this month at Little Yellow Couch! Here are a few little bits about me ... I'd love to hear about you!
Also, don't forget about our September Box ... just a few more left! Check out our exclusive items from Lucends, La Bonne Vie Designs & Up in the Air Somewhere.
xoxo Karen June
Top 10 (Mostly) Useless facts about Karen June
1. The only thing I’ve ever intentionally stolen was interior design samples from my pre-school craft bin. (clearly none of the other kids understood the aesthetic value of these).
2. I adore Valentine’s Day ... the kitschier the better! Remember how people used to place ads in the newspaper for their sweethearts? I used to pour over those on the 14th wishing one was for me.
3. I’ve grown gladiolas competitively ... but really who hasn’t?
4. I’m terrified of change ... from moving furniture to traveling abroad, so I do both constantly to keep me on my toes.
5. I’ve always wanted a pet goat since childhood friends had one that was allowed in their house.
6. Strangers constantly tell me their problems or think I work at stores I’m shopping in. I still think its important to smile at people.
7. There is nothing better than clean sheet day. (Did you know Oprah’s staff changes her sheets every other day for optimum crispy clean-sheetness? Is that a word?)
8. I toured the world as a teenager with a touring orchestra playing violin and cello.
9. I’ve modeled my handmade clothing as a mannequin model.
10. I’ve always wanted a house with a dumb waiter. My Great Aunts Mary & Harriet lived in a huge old house with a dumb waiter and missed out on its inherent possibilities by insisting on using their stairs.
My dad loved paintings and when I was a kid, he bought this game called Masterpiece. I don’t remember what the rules were but we basically just used it as a trivia game. Each card showed a famous painting and then we had to guess the artist, title, country and date. For whatever geeky reason, I LOVED it. When I was in college I had to take an art history course to fulfill some kind of required credit…I don’t think I cared much what it would be. But as the teacher was going through the works of Northern Renaissance masters and describing all of the hidden symbolism, I was hooked. One of our assignments was to go into Manhattan (I went to college about 45 minutes outside the city) and check out specific paintings at The Met. The cool thing was, I had NO IDEA what awaited me as I walked up those steps that lead to the grand foyer.
I must have had some preconceived idea in my head about what a museum would look like (I’m sure I’d been to museums before). But upon walking through the entrance, I lost my breath for a few moments. The soaring ceiling and grand staircase, the sculptures you could start to see peeking out from the rooms ahead, and then the great expanse of the collection, holding…you guessed it…the real-life originals of those famous works I had seen on the little game cards from my youth. I’ve since become an avid visual arts lover and my husband and I are (very) amateur collectors. But there was something so visceral and transformative about that first visit I made to one of the best museums in the world. I haven’t really experienced it the same way since. It’s what I continue to hope for whenever I go to a museum for the first time...that moment of awe when a room opens up and holds something unexpected and yet, profoundly meaningful to you, personally. What are your favorite museum experiences? Leave a comment below...we'd love to try them out for ourselves!
xoxo Zandra
