Category Archives: Sun Valley Home

White Water Glafting

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Thanks so much again to all of you who contributed book suggestions to the previous post. I’m really looking forward to going over all your comments again and compiling a list when I get home.

In the meantime,

I’m off White Water Glafting for a few days.  You heard me.

Glafting is the new Glamping.

 Sure, I know what you’re thinking…Slim- you don’t strike me as the sporty type, but believe it or not, I live for danger.

 Besides, I’ve done this before, although the river wasn’t as high the last time

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and the apparel ante has been seriously UPPED on this trip…

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Resulting in some agonizing chapeau editing

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Love these OMO nylon pants, but $1,700??

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The adventure includes yoga, fishing, great food and drink, and most importantly, a glamorous toilet (nicknamed “The Groover”) precedes the party to each campsite.

 Happiness is a well guarded Groover :)

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Nothing like a friendly game of Bananagrams after a day battling the elements

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Did I mention the river is high where we’re going??

We’ve been told hiking alongside the river is also an option,

however the concern that lunch will be devoured by the Rafters before the Hikers arrive at camp has already crossed my mind.

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So just in case, I’m bringing giant marshmallows for fireside toasting

The days are warm but the nights are still cold

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Have you seen these? They’re about 3 times the size of regular marshmallows- Now that’s my idea of multi-tasking.

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So off I go into the wild blue yonder

Wish me luck & I’ll

See you in a few days.

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No “Deliverance” jokes please :)

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Home Sweet Mountain Home

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Wild flowers gathered for my front door.

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Greetings from Sun Valley.  I’m so blissed out to be here!

In just a few short hours the weather will run the gamut of  brilliant sunshine, billowing white clouds, a dark horizon, a burst of quick rain and back to glorious sunshine again.

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The sunlight paints the mountains a multitude of greens after a quick rain shower

The town is buzzing with sporty types all looking very fit and rather chuffed with themselves, having just completed a long bike ride, a strenuous hike or perhaps just a delicious brunch at Christina’s. Being of the “first gear persuasion” myself, I enjoyed a leisurely stroll this afternoon, stopping by some of my regular haunts, including The Iconoclast bookshop (do you think I could remember the name of the book I was looking for??)  and of course the obligatory visit to Chateau Drugs.  Quel horror! A change of ownership without me being consulted?! This is the shop that our friends and I (we?? yikes-altitude, gin & tonic) used to joke that you could find anything- not no more…(just testing)  Change is good, but not always.

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Riotous Lupines by the side of the road

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On the up side, as I’m in vacay mode I feel freed up to be as sloth-like as I care to be, which is pretty darn sloth-like.  I finished an entire book yesterday; “The Dignified Guest” by Sue Miller. It started off so promising and then sort of petered out for me.  Quite honestly, I’m in the market for a great book with  characters I can actually fall in love with, or at least admire.   I’m on a dry streak of books inhabited by people I’d rather punch than go to lunch with.  I’d be thankful for any of your suggestions.

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Looking north from my deck this morning.

The river is running fast and high.  I’m not able to catch it with my camera but the sky is filled with fluffy white Cottonwood seeds, (you can just see a fine blur in the right side of the photo) It’s almost like snow drifting through the air. They catch in your hair, on screen doors, in spiderwebs, a fine downy layer coating everything with the promise of thousands of new Cottonwoods next Spring.

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Look at these funny little flowers growing in my garden. I don’t know what they’re called but they look like pink Water Buffalos!

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Well, whether it’s the altitude, the sun or just the pure mountain air- I’m knackered.

I’m looking forward to falling asleep to the sound of the river

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Wishing you a great rest of the weekend

and for those of you in L.A.- I hope you’re surviving “Car-mageddon” without too much inconvenience :)

xx

Here’s Mud In Your Eye

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A muddled raspberry, cointreau & vodka cocktail at the Four Seasons Biltmore, Santa Barbara


“Cocktail-making is an adoration of the beautiful among the sordid facts of everyday existence.  It inculcates purity and harmony.  The mystery of mutual charity, the romanticism of the social order.”  From BonAppetit 2008

Um- ya…what they said.  Plus, they’re just really, really good :)

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What the sunset looked like after  the cocktails :)

Happiness is the cocktail hour isn’t it?!

A post in honor of delicious libations and the places from which they are dispensed…

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A little Sinatra with your drink? please click here;

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Greece

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This is, without a doubt, my #1 Favourite Cocktail mixing book ever.  Published in 1939, it is an absolute delight; an armchair trip back to seductively slower times when One lazed around in rattan Planter’s chairs, the kind with those swivel arms for ankles to drape over in the breeze, ceiling fans whirring quietly overhead, drinking muddled gimlets into the night while reading month old New Yorker magazines and gossiping about Somerset Maugham.  Ahhh- The  ‘Slow Movement’ at it’s finest.   Sadly, the book is  very difficult to find.  At the moment, I can only see a few available online- ranging from $200 for “Good Used” condition to $999 for “Collectible- Like New”.   Word to the wise would be whenever you find yourself in an old bookshop always ask if they have a copy.  Ya never know.

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Gin Fizz

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Excerpt from the Forward.

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Cocktails and a cigar at the Amansara hotel, Siem Reap, Cambodia

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“One comfortable fact gleaned from travel in far countries was that regardless of race, creed or inner metabolisms, mankind has always created varying forms of stimulant liquid-each after his own kind. Prohibitions and nations and kings depart, but origin of such pleasant fluid finds constant source.” Charles H. Baker, Jr.



On my Champagne Bucket List of places I’d like to go; The Pegu Club in NYC

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Perhaps when NY Son turns 21 we will go there together for his VERY FIRST DRINK!!  :)

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A few more cool NYC Watering Holes:

Milk n’ Honey

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Apotheke NYC

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Painkiller – an old fashioned Tiki bar with supreme drinks, so I’ve been told.

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Are purported to be exquisite.

In Long Island City. (where is that?!)

You know what? I’m going to find out, in April. Personally, I’ve always loved the Dutch.

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An Emergency Martini Station in my living room

Southern Comfort…ish

The “Impractically Comfortable” side chair

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Biggest Best martinis in LA?   Lola’s on Fairfax.  Do NOT forget your Designated Driver!

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Most generous martinis in Santa Barbara-  Lucky’s in Montecito  (also,  fair to medium possibility of Josh Holloway sighting)

Hey, wait! come back, at least finish reading my post!)

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Make your own spritzers and many other fun concoctions with

Iso Twist ‘n Sparkle  available at Williams & Sonoma

I want to get one of these! Looks like fun

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Evening sun sets on the portable bar in my den/TV room

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If you really want to make cocktails like a pro, you might want to consider investing in these ice ball molds. Spheres of ice are preferred by serious on the rocks drinkers because the reduced surface size causes the ice to melt at a slower pace.  I bought plastic molds but my ice balls looked like Tootsie Pops with berets on- sort of cute, but nothing like the one above. Made by Taisin $169

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credit unknown

What a gorgeous wine cellar- not quite sure how you get down there, or even more importantly, how you’d get back up, but it sure is gorgeous

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Nice Kitchen bar via Food & Wine Magazine

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Have you tried these “Instant Wine Breather” machines?  My brother bought us one- they work- You can really taste the difference.

Also available at Williams & Sonoma or on Amazon


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Emergency Libations Station in the library (regular readers might recognize; also home of the drunken Christmas Tree Angel)


I saw these at BEVMO which we now have in Santa Barbara.

There is a God.

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Beer at BEVMO

Strangely, I’ve even come to enjoy the occasional beer in the last couple of years.  To be honest, I think I enjoy trying to pick them, as much as drinking them

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Kitchen drink caddy this Christmas

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Probably the most infamously Enthusiastic Cocktail Hour Couple…

Nick & Nora Charles Have  a Drink…or 10 Please click  :)

unless, of course it was

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Have I missed any obvious ones??

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Love a good Girl’s Reunion

Name YOUR poison

Bottoms up my Lovelies :)

xx

SP

Cabin Fever

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We’re having our first cloudy and very windy day here in almost two weeks- oh! I just looked out the window and it has started to pour! Still, not complaining- compared to what’s going on in other parts of the country, we are blessed indeed.  In any case, it’s the perfect day to take a visit to some snowy scenes and cozy hearths, I’d say.   (and may we have just a moment here? There is NO FOOTBALL today!! I don’t know what happened, but I’m not saying anything…the peace is heavenly :) )

Something beautiful to listen to while you stroll; 


(Is that a voice, or what?!)

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My kitchen is Sun Valley

One counter is zinc with an integrated sink, the others are Absolute Black granite honed.  The lower cabinetry and floors are all reclaimed wood. The island is 3/4 wood and 1/4 granite for chopping by the stove. I always like to put a hidden plug on kitchen islands to place a lamp- it feels homey :)   Also, please note my “Butler’s Bells” above the zinc counter, a la “Downton Abbey”!

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There is only one small overhead cabinet in the kitchen, which you see to the right of the fireplace- and I don’t even fill it. All our dishes are kept in the antique armoire to the left of the fridge. Now that TV’s are flat, there’s a lot of armoires out there out of a job!   The dish towel rack is a vintage heated towel bar that mounts to the floor and the wall.  Don’t look at how messy my pots are.

Inside the armoire

Who does ” Chic Rustic Cabin” better than Ralph Lauren?

Fendi, Dolce & Gabanna, and Max Mara

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Sun Valley

Nothing better than a fireplace in the bedroom- although now I’m looking at this photo, I’m wondering who stole the ottoman…

photo Mercia De Vries

From one of my son’s old books “Teddy’s World”

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Mandatory Cabin Libation

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The metal fireplace surround in the Sun Valley dining room my genius Iron monger made (he made all the log holders too)

Fireplace by AK-47

I think this is so cool! When not being used, it has a cover so it can also be a coffee table.

via Marie-Claire

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A cozy lean-to at The Point, in the Adirondacks

The Point

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Sunlight streams in over one of the built in beds in the boy’s room, Sun Valley

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The boy’s bathroom in Sun Valley. It was hard to take a good photo as the skylight was covered in snow

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Junya Watanbe Men’s Fall 2011

My Front Door, Sun Valley

Chanel Boots

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My friend brought me this from a shop in Paris. She said she saw it and instantly thought of me. It’s a pre-measured  rice pudding with caramel and hazelnut concoction. If you’re ever in Paris, you must look for this shop- she said it’s beautiful and amazing.

Note to self;  Make sure to remove all the wraps from caramels before dumping into milk next time :(

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Yum!!

A wonderful Christmas present- a set of these adorable mini Le Creuset crock pots in aubergine.

D & G and Martin Margiela

A Definite on MY BUCKET LIST:

WHITE POD, Switzerland

All photos via White Pod.  Please check out the video link at the bottom of the page.

and now, back to Sun Valley;

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a nice afternoon walk in the ‘garden’

J.W. Anderson SS11 “Festival Boots” with Swarovski crystal toes. Made in England.

The Ultimate Snow Boots!!  I can’t help it- I love them!!

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Then a nice long bath

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Grab a book from the mezzanine

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and curl up to watch the sun go down…

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Happiness is a pile of old books

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Recording of Robert Frost reciting his poem “Stopping By Woods on a Snowy Evening”; 


WHITE POD LINK

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Cheers!

XX

Bed & Breakfast

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I found this vintage toaster at an antique show and I thought it was so pretty that I decided to collect them.

That was about 10 years ago.  So far, this is the extent of my collection, but I’m working on it.

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A very inviting “Come back to bed” in the English country side

Are you a morning person?  Pas moi.  Do you love breakfast? Not me.  I find breakfast to be the most boriiinng meal of the day; so few choices and usually accompanied by bad hair & make-up.  That being said, one of my semi-resolutions for the New Year (and I say “semi” very loosely, as I just made this resolution last week, is that I’m going to try and eat healthier breakfasts and drink freshly squeezed fruit & vegetable juices.

Don’t get me wrong…I love a good fry-up just as much as the next guy, but some effort will be made to Go Greener this month year.

Behold The Old Me;


Slim Paley Photo of an old Simpson’s  menu

Be still my cholesterol challenged heart  (well, truth be told, I could have lived without the lamb bits)  Simpson’s In-The-Strand on Piccadilly St. in London used to be my favourite place to go for a good old fashioned English Fry-up, with lashings of good strong tea on the side.  Sadly, this breakfast is no longer with us (I’m probably the last remaining survivor)

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This morning’s breakfast included bacon and eggs with white truffle salt, fried toast and fresh squeezed apple & carrot juice

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Technically, this should have been garnished with a slice of green apple but I thought if I used cucumber I could recycle the photo as a Bloody Mary, so if you see it tagged as such in a later post, just play along

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All Slim Paley photos

Gorgeous mushrooms

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Tomatoes roasting over my kitchen fire in Sun Valley.

My iron monger made the iron ‘roaster’ for me. It swings in and out on a hinged arm.

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My small & cozy Sun Valley bedroom

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After a Sunday breakfast like the one above, climbing back into bed is pretty much mandatory.

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A well rounded breakfast is always served at our friend’s glorious home in Greece

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Via Flickr

Do you prefer a healthy herbal tea in the morning?

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Chamomile and stone bench in my Santa Barbara garden

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A regular cuppa tea?

(PG Tips or Marks & Spencers are my personal favourites, as are these Tea Cup pigs, as long time readers know. Check out her little pinky held up!!)

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A big fat capp?

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A delicious fresh berry smoothie?

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Or something a wee bit naughtier?!

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And Now, Behold; The New Me;

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The breakfast table will always be set like this

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Photo via Simply Breakfast

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Have you tried the “Granola Snack” mix from Costco?  It’s delicious!! Although it says snack on the box, I pour milk over it and eat as cereal. It has tons of nuts and dried fruit.

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This photo is also via Simply Breakfast

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Another very inviting bedroom (credit unknown)

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Yum- that Greek yoghurt is soooo delicious with fresh honey, berries & figs picked off the trees

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Morten Holtum

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Breakfast in Bangkok

Bring on the Mangosteens!

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I love these little egg shapers from Williams & Sonoma

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via Food & Wine

Sure, once and a while there will be the occasional slip up, when the boys all want to go to IHOP and I can’t resist the cheese blintzes smothered in sour cream and strawberry jam. I’m no angel.

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Speaking of jams…

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This is only a partial selection of the jams available at Fortnum & Mason in London

Vons- Hang your head in shame

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This will be the next toaster I buy -  For the Collection!

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Now Don’t Forget; Breakfast is the Most Important Meal of the Day!

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And…

photo J. Schlabotnik

If I make it into the Final 6 in “The Homie” awards…

Tangerine Mimosas For Everybody!!

Lastly,

It would really make my day if you would listen to this.  I just hate to cry alone.

“Atticus”

Click here

How can anything this short, and without any visuals have so much of an emotional impact?  I’m a complete puddle on the floor now.

Hope you are too – In the best possible way, of course :)

xx