Recently, I made my first-ever trip to the Meadowlands after a close friend scored tickets to the Jets-Redskins pre-season game. Now, although I’m an avid college football fan, hence aformentioned bleeding of orange and blue for the Florida Gators, professional football really isn’t my thing. I really wanted to go to see the behemoth stadium that’s been abuzz this summer. So I gladly accepted the offer and trucked out via New Jersey Transit to get a peak at the spectacular complex. The $1.6 billion dollar complex can house nearly 83,000 screaming Jets and Giants fans and is set to be…

This week, I got on the lovely (and free!) shuttle bus at Forty One Madison, and went on down to the Gift Show for a sneak peek at the latest, greatest and strangest in tableware, doodads, accessories, housewares and other gifts. I oogled luxe bedding, sniffed myriad scented candles and admired modernist kids furniture (this time, i got a closer look at the Brinca Dada dollhouse in person- I must have it!) I checked out enough glittery, bespangled ornaments and thingies to choke even the most ambitious Christmas tree. You know I love glitter.  I also have a strange fascination…

Two of my favorite obsessions sound suspiciously alike: I adore sample sales (common in our neck of the woods) as well as salesman’s samples, which are a bit harder to find. In the 19th and early-twentieth centuries, salesmen needed to show prospective clients their wares without lugging stoves, furnishings, scientific equipment, canoes, and tractors around the country. The salesman’s sample was a practical way to solve the problem, allowing customers to examine the goods in detail, and leaving us with some fabulously fun, collectible items to enjoy now. These unintentionally adorable miniatures caught my attention a few years ago, when…

In an article in yesterday’s New York Times, I read that the annual international kite design competition has returned for a second year. Whoa! Cool, right? Submissions were accepted for donation to FlyNY and will be presented later this month at a public kite flying showcase on Pier I at 70th Street. The project was organized by the NYC office of Architecture for Humanity, the NYC Department of Parks & Recreation, as well as our friends at Architizer. I think this is brilliant! Sadly, I missed the boat on submitting an original Josh Schoenfelder design (the deadline was Tuesday)…but had…

I haven’t been on a search for buried treasure since my middle school days, when I was obsessed with The Goonies…unless you count last week’s quest for loose change under my couch. Well, following  Monday’s story in The New York Times, “The Pirates Are Puppets, but the Treasure (They Say) Is Real,” I decided I need another adventure filled with pirates, clues, buried treasure, and Baby Ruths. (Everyone knows you can’t go on a treasure hunt without a Baby Ruth!) According to the article, two anonymous artists created a series of pirate-themed videos that share clues as to where they…

Last week, I ventured out to Sin City for my first Coverings 2011 promotional trip. Next year, the tile + stone show will make its first appearance there, and I’m tasked with working with the A+D associations in the area. I know….. such a rough life! Anyhow, enough about my fabulosity. Here are a few fun out takes from the trip. Things started a little rocky. After my plane got a flat tire (I kid you not) and my baggage was temporarily misplaced, I missed my lunchtime meeting. Thankfully, I stumbled across one of my favorite restaurants– which I first…

I’m a New Yorker through and through, but i spent a few years (mostly pining for my hometown) in our fair neighbor to the south, Philadelphia. Though Philly’s lovely, I wasn’t in love with it- except for the gorgeous murals that cover so many of its buildings. The profusion of murals is no coincidence. Philadelphia’s Mural Arts Program was founded in 1984 to help wipe out what was, at that time, a graffiti crisis. The concept is simple- if you engage inner city youth in beautifying neighboring buildings, they are less likely to deface them. And it works, too. By…

Before college, the most “international” experiences I had in South Dakota were probably my summers working as a tour guide at the Laura Ingalls Wilder Memorial Society (Laura still has fans, truly, from all over the world.)  Now that I live in NYC, every day is like being front-row at the Olympics, and I was reminded of this blessing last week when I took a walk with men from 99 different countries…sort of. Returning home from Brooklyn’s IKEA (for its Swedish meatballs, I should add,) I found myself strolling next to Maya Barkai’s “99 Men,” a 500-foot-long art installation highlighting…

Here are three things that have me convinced our country is in trouble. 1. You can no longer use the word “peacock.” Childrens’ books and kindergarten teachers and even Wikipedia are redirecting us to a more politically (and, it turns out, technically) correct term, the gender-neutral peafowl. Type peacock into Wiki and see what happens, friends. 2. Friendly’s new 2,300-calorie macaroni and cheese quesadilla kids meal. That is just unnecessary. 3. The decline of the handwritten letter. Particularly thank you notes. Maybe it’s because I’m the child of a calligrapher. Or maybe it’s because I love the thrill of opening…

This week V+P was lucky enough to attend the opening night of House Beautiful’s Kitchen of the Year project in Rockefeller Center. This year, the designer was Jeff Lewis, Bravo’s lovable and eccentric Flipping Out star. (For those of you who may not be obsessed with reality shows… Flipping Out follows Jeff’s trials and tribulations while “flipping” houses in the Los Angeles area.) Since our client Benjamin Moore provided Aura for the interior and exterior of the kitchen structure as well as Arborcoat stain for the 1,000 square-foot deck, V+P got to hob-knob with Jeff and his entourage, a few…