Friday, April 29, 2011

The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge

I'm still cooing over all the wedding madness from this morning! I woke up right on time, poured an extra large cup of my favorite coffee (Texas Pecan) and settled in for the festivities. I even endured a little good natured teasing from my father in law who called to check in with me around 8:30 this morning. And of course I discussed the dress with Mamere an hour later. We both just happened to notice the similarities between my dress and Kate's. I'm not saying she was inspired by my wedding *giggles* but I did wear something similar seven years and one week ago!  (yes our anniversary was last week and yes I'm still working on that post!)

Anywho, enough about me.

Here are some fabulous pictures from this morning. I have to give almost all the credit for the photos to My Royal Blog.








I was tickled to see them drive off on their own. What a fun surprise! Here are a couple of pictures and a great video of the happy couple in Prince Charles' snazzy Aston Martin.







Cheers, 
Ouiser

Thursday, April 28, 2011

Royal Wedding Madness

Surely it comes as no surprise that I am over the top excited for the upcoming royal wedding of Prince William and Catherine Middleton. Or Wills and Kate if you will, cause we're tight, natch.

For the last few weeks I've been discussing the details, the fashions, the parties and the barrage of paparazzi pics with my twitter gals. The Daily Beast did a fabulous summary with pictures of the wedding details, here if you're new to all this wedding madness. And Art Info added some unique family and guest list details I hadn't heard in their summary, here.

I can hardly believe that the big day is finally upon us. Are you hosing a party? Attending one? Alas I'm not but have heard from several super creative fabulous ladies who are hosting their own. What a fabulous idea! In some cases they've made it a girls sleep over. I'm squealing on the inside for you and I just hope to get pictures from these fabulous soirees!

This is the one I had!
I am old enough to remember the epic wedding of Charles and Diana, though to be fair I was a very wee one and probably didn't notice anything more than Diana's amazing dress. In fact my favorite memory from the wedding were the Charles and Di paper dolls that I played with for ages and ages. I was tickled to see that they are in fact still making paper dolls and have created a William and Kate royal set! If I had a daughter I would totally justify purchasing them.

And speaking of royal wedding memorabilia, holy mother of marketing!! I couldn't believe how much was out there. I'll let you decide what is a "must have" and what is... well, tacky. So, whether you're sipping champagne, Pimm's or in my case a very strong cup of coffee (It'll be 5am people, seriously!) I hope you can giggle at a few of these preposterous items while ooohing and awwwhing at the fabulous fashions, fascinators and *fingers crossed* royal jewels!

I maybe kinda want this!


And they've even made a few things for those who may not be as excited as I am for the wedding! 




Cheers, 
Ouiser

Wednesday, April 20, 2011

A Few of My Favorite Easter Eggs

1907 Rose Trellis Egg
With Easter just around the corner I'm reminded of a beautiful December weekend in 1990 that Mamere (or Namma as she's been renamed by my boys) took me to the New Orleans Museum of Art's traveling exhibit of Faberge's Imperial Easter Eggs and other enameled creations.

It was my first trip to New Orleans and despite the fact that I was nearly a decade away from being 21 the city left an indelible impression on me, the food, the history, the architecture and most of all the people, but thats another post!

As I start to plan my own family's Easter Sunday I thought I'd share a few of these amazing and breathtaking creations.

Enjoy!
1894 Renaissance Egg

1896 Twelve Monogram Egg
1898 Lilies of the Valley Egg
The Surprise



















1901 Flower Basket Egg

Cheers, 
Ouiser



Monday, April 11, 2011

The National Gallery of Art

One of my oldest and dearest friends (not to mention one of the three people reading my blog) was in town last weekend with her adorable husband and his parents enjoying the famed cherry blossoms. While we were catching up over cocktails they mentioned they'd been to the National Gallery. Unable to contain my excitement I blathered on for the next 20 mins about how fabulous the museum was. Which led me to today's post.

Hands down The National Gallery of Art is my favorite museum in Washington DC. Their permanent collection is outstanding not to mention the sculpture garden next door is a frequent rest stop and lunch break for the boys and I.

Image: Canaletto, The Square of Saint Mark's, Venice, 1742/1744, Gift of Mrs. Barbara HuttonThere are two traveling exhibits that are really a must see, the first Venice: Canaletto and His Rivals was amazing. And I could go on and on about how much I enjoyed how the artists played with perspective and dimension but I really am trying to keep my posts brief! It will be on display until May 30th, 2011.

The second is Gaugin: Maker of Myth, which is on display until June 5, 2011. I haven't been yet but my friends went and really enjoyed his unique perspective. You may have even heard about the recent attack on one of the paintings in this exhibit. I am horrified by the act no matter the reasoning. Here is the painting, Two Tahitian Women that a woman attempted to destroy, luckily no damamge was done.

And lastly, my favorite exhibit is From Impressionism to Modernism: The Chester Dale Collection, on display through January 2, 2012. To be fair the collection was gifted to the museum by Chester & Maud Dale in 1962, however its the first time it has been presented as such in forty-five years. Needless to say it speaks volumes about their love and respect for art and the artists. Here are a few of my favorites. Oh and although the companion exhibit, Ex Libris: Chester Dale is closed you can view the gallery of highlights here. It is an amazing look at his relationship with so many artists including photographs of their home and personal sketches artists created for the Dales.



Hope these make your Monday a little brighter, enjoy!

Image:
Eugene Boudin, The Beach at Villerville, 1864

Image:
Mary Cassatt, The Boating Party, 1893-94

Image:
Claude Monet, The Houses of Parliament, Sunset, 1903

Image:
Henri Matisse, The Plumed Hat, 1919

Cheers, 
Ouiser

Tuesday, April 5, 2011

A Few of My Favorite Things

Are you familiar with tumblr? I just recently discovered this endless world of photography, art, celebrity, creative writing and well just about anything you can think of. Basically its blogspot with attention deficit disorder.

Oh and speaking of social media outlets, I'm on twitter, (@NicoleAlon). Please do stop by and say hey!

Here are a few of my favorites from last week...

saving this for inspiration!
ilovemicurves:

I don’t think I’d ever get out of bed!
sallynstuff:

Most amazing bedroom ever.

I want. I love. Paging @flubbles & @xoEMC

These two are filed under things I would like one day!

gorgeous shades of blue
worldpaintings:

Édouard Manet
Venice, the Grand Canal (Blue Venice), 1874, oil on canvas, 54 x 65 cm, Shelburne Museum, Vermont.
In the autumn of 1874 Manet spent a couple of months in Italy, where, according to  artist Mary Cassatt, “he was thoroughly discouraged and depressed at his  inability to paint anything to satisfaction”. However, in the painting we can see how the artist’s  variety of colors and dense interplay of  strokes does bring some  three-dimensionality to nearly motionless  water.  In her conversation with well known art collector Louisine  Havemeyer, whose husband had recently purchased Venice, The Grand Canal (Blue Venice), Cassatt claimed that Manet painted the piece en plein air on his final afternoon in Venice.

Édouard Manet
Venice, the Grand Canal (Blue Venice)1874, oil on canvas, 54 x 65 cm, Shelburne Museum, Vermont.


I'm blown away by the art I've found here. This is just one example of a new favorite!


always reblog Grace… always. 
theniftyfifties:

Grace Kelly by Loomis Dean, 1950s.

theniftyfifties:

Grace Kelly and Jean-Pierre Aumont in Cannes, 1955

I love any picture of Grace but the second one is also ... well its just utterly romantic!

Cheers, 
Ouiser

Friday, April 1, 2011

Fangirling over Le Bernardin

At a request that came in today from my blog's biggest fan... Yes, I'm referring to my mother... I'm back for a followup to my cliff hanger of a post last fall. Mr. O and I did spend a fantastic weekend in New York. We ate and ate and ate and then boarded the train at least 5 pounds heavier but also... as they say fat and happy!

The culinary highlight of our trip was a phenomenal dinner at Eric Ripert's Le Bernardin. The food was amazing and I'll get to that that in a moment but I have to say, I was very impressed with the staff. Everyone from the charming woman at coat check to Monsieur Ripert himself was friendly, welcoming and utterly unpretentious. You never know what the "stuffiness" level of a fine dining restaurant will be. While I love to experience the creativity of a chef's menu, I don't want to feel uncomfortable in my surroundings. That includes the furniture as well as the staff. This was an ideal experience. 

I can't continue with our raving about the artwork displayed around the restaurant. I loved the enormous painting along the wall of the bar. You can just get a glimpse of the mostly blue boating painting, La Barca Verde in this photo. You can also go here to see the restaurant art gallery, just click on gallery, natch. 


I DID take a few pictures of the fabulous tasting courses but somehow they're gone... not on my camera or my computer. I don't know what happened. Surrry Mamere!! but I did find this one online. this is the tuna carpaccio which was our first course, I think. It was my favorite! 


On top of having a fabulous meal, divine cocktails and heavenly service about midway through dinner the sweetest most soft spoken person came out to our table to greet us. Yep, the utterly adorable and handsome Chef Eric Ripert came by our table to say hello and give us his latest cookbook and even signed it, including a note to li'l ol me! Yes, Eric knows my name! {commence teen girl squeal} The whole encounter lasted about 60 seconds but he couldn't have been sweeter. It was really just the icing on the cupcake of an already memorable evening. 

First and foremost, Mamere, thank you thank you thank you for one of my most favorite birthdays!

Cheers, 
Ouiser

P.S. I could do an ENTIRE other post on our lunch at Momofuko Noodle Bar. Trust. Go. Order the Steamed Pork Buns and thank me later! Also the momofuko ramen and the chilled spicy noodles were both were divine!