New Year's, New York

Before moving on from the holidays, I can't not also share with you our first family visit back to New York for New Year's. I wasn't sure about choosing New York as our vacation at first. I really wanted to relax after the bustle of a full on English Christmas, and I knew NYC would be loads of fun, but would it be relaxing?? My answer came when our friend Miranda asked us to house sit in Brooklyn while she and her family went off to Colorado. I can't tell you how much I enjoyed staying in their beautiful country-fied house in Boerum Hill, which you can see for yourself in January's Vogue. The house is so cozy and well loved and visually inspiring - you could wander around for hours just looking at all the books, pictures and hand screened wallpapers. It was the perfect retreat after a busy city day.

The trip could not have been more successful. The kids got to see all the friends and family they had hoped to, we ate at all our favorite restaurants, and we came back satisfied and happy to be home.

With bunnies and dress up clothes, Coco felt immediately at home in Brooklyn.

The living room of Miranda and Bastien's Brooklyn home. Isn't it heaven?

When living in New York I never had to time to look at all the things people posted on the streets. I love this jingle I saw on West 22nd Street.

The bunny hutch on Miranda's roof where Coco and Zach spent countless hours visiting Peter and BunBun.

BunBun and Peter up close. My kids are so used to being around animals now that these two made them feel more at home. 

We couldn't go to New York and not visit Freeman's for a meal. It is the closest we could get to home. Literally. It is in the ground floor of our building (where our apartment is rented out)!

Poppy's magical bedroom where Coco stayed. 

For sure the highlight of my trip was seeing Coldplay and Jay Z on New Year's Eve at the Barclay Center. I felt so lucky to be there, and it exceeded my expectations even with jetlag! My favorite parts were when Chris Martin dedicated "Yellow" to Gwyneth Paltrow and "Us Against the World" to his kids. He is the cutest.

At midnight, Jay Z, Chris Martin, Gwyneth Paltrow and their kids all came onstage to celebrate. It was awesome.

Caliban, our furry roommate for the week.

Here I am in Brooklyn mode, hanging out at VanLeeuwen drinking coffee. I fell in love with Brooklyn on this trip. It's like the suburbs, only cooler. 

I was so compelled to be in this lovely room I had to have two baths every day.

As long as Zach can find a bookstore, he is happy. Here he is at BookCourt on Smith Street - an excellent one. On this trip he told me that when he dies he wants to be buried in the graphic novel section of his old school library!

The garden at Miranda's, in greener months.

Caliban is just so damn photogenic - I couldn't stop taking pictures of her.

One of our best welcome homes was coming up from the F train on Bleecker Street and being greeted by our good friend Leo Villareal's incredible light sculpture.

Life on the farm: Christmas

Hi everyone. Happy New Year to you all!

Well, we have a lot to catch up on. My kids had 4 weeks (!) off school for the holidays and I don't have a nanny so its been hard to post. This past week, Zach went back to school on Wednesday, and on Thursday Coco flew to France with her class of 10 girls to live and study in a chateau for 12 weeks! The packing - not to mention the emotional preparation - for her leaving for that long was endless. I managed not to cry at the airport (although Coco gave me permission to do so as long as I wasn't the first one!), but I collapsed into my bed the next day, and, at long last, today is my first day back in action.

So where should we start? Oh yeah. Christmas.

My mom arrived on the 10th of December in time to see the kids sing at the carol service on their last day of school. It was the cutest thing ever. The entire school (60 in total) learned a dozen carols and sang them by candlelight at the local church. Mom and I both had a lump in our throats. They then left school at the end of the day by gathering on the main steps in Santa hats and singing one last carol, the English version of "We Wish You a Merry Christmas." So effing adorable.

The next day Mom and I treated each other to a day of holiday cooking lessons at the Daylesford Cookery School. Daylesford is an organic farmshop galore down the road from our farm, and I'd been wanting to take a class there for years. We made a roast turkey with all the trimmings, a pheasant confit and traditional Christmas Pudding with brandy butter. We left there stuffed and satisfied with a few new recipes in our repertoires. P.S. The boots were Mom's Christmas present to me - they are made by Le Chameau and are the perfect winter walking boot. P.P.S. And the coat came from the thrift store for £100!

Doesn't this kitchen (at Daylesford) make you want to cook? Every student gets their own mini-kitchen station. 

Does anyone recognise this door? It's from my favourite restaurant in London, The Wolseley. The whole interior reminds me of a more masculine and more minimal version of Coco Chanel's apartment. Mom and I took the kids to London for ice skating, and we had a festive lunch here. A must do in London if you haven't already.

How chic is it that you can buy postage on your way to the bathroom at The Wolseley?

This is my Christmas jacket. It is 80's Oscar de la Renta, and I wear it every year at least once. It is a hand-me-down from my mom. I so clearly remember her wearing it to a New Year's Eve party in Palm Beach when I was a kid. W magazine once published a picture of me wearing it next to a picture of my mom wearing it way back when, and Oscar saw it and rang me up to ask if he could have it for his archives in exchange for anything I wanted from his store. There are so many things I love in his store, but nothing had the sentimental value, or guaranteed lasting appeal as I know this does, so I kept it. Phew!

This Celine sweater (bought at the outlet for just £100) was my Christmas present to myself. If you look closely you can see that it's actually just a dickey - the sleeves are a part of a thinner sweater I was wearing underneath. This dickey functions so well in my life - I throw it on under my winter coat and it gives me all the warmth of a thick turtleneck sweater without the bulk. Only Phoebe could be so clever.

Every year I look forward to my Christmas present from Diane Von Furstenberg, who I have known since I was 18. This year it was her new fairytale book "The Empress' New Clothes" written with Camilla Morton, and I so enjoyed reading it with my daughter. Thank you DVF!

All the neighbouring farms have a tradition of putting on a pheasant shoot the week before Christmas. This is the first time we were here for it, and I loved seeing all the customs associated with it, especially this custom bar built into the back of a friend's Range Rover.

The bonfire everyone gathers around at "elevenses" (snack time) to warm up and recharge.

Our neighbours on the shoot.

Most people in our neck of the woods go out to hunting meets at Christmas, regardless of whether you plan to get on a horse or not. Zach just enjoys going to play with the hounds.

On the 23rd of December our friends and neighbours all gathered at a friends' house for carols in their chapel. It was very moving. I haven't sang carols properly like that in a church since I was a child.

Our cat Dizzy watching the fireplace on Christmas Eve.

On Christmas Day we started a new family tradition of going for a ride between present opening and lunch. Family, friends and neighbours all join us on horses, bikes and foot for a loop around our farm. Coco led the charge in her new riding jacket.

My Christmas day riding attire. 

The biggest meet of the year takes place on Boxing Day in our local town Chipping Norton. The whole town fills up with people cheering on the hunt. Everyone looks beautifully turned out while hunting, but I still love the red coats (the call them "pinks" don't ask me why) the best.

The hounds line up in town ready to follow the huntsman out into the countryside.

Later in the day, the hunt passed through our farm and Zach and I held the gates for them and watched them pass through. The whole scene looked from another time. 

Coco, settled in with her new iPad mini (a generous gift from her grandmother) on Boxing Day.

Life on the farm: The first hard frost

I experienced my first English hard frost last week. I have rarely, if ever, seen this in America.

I was on my way to pick up my mom at the airport, and as this is her first visit to England since we've been living here, I was crossing my fingers for good weather. On the afternoon of her arrival, it was supposed to be very cold but sunny so I planned for us to go on a good long walk around the farm. I had woken up to thick fog that morning and figured it would clear by lunchtime. Instead of clearing, the fog only got soupier throughout the day. It was kind of amazing for our walk, but I was actually scared to drive to pick the kids up from school in the fading light. It was the slowest I have ever driven. Slightly bummed that the weather had not cooperated, I went to bed hoping for a better day that followed.

The next morning, the sky was clear, the sun was just rising and, at first it looked like it had snowed. Everything was white. I went outside in my pyjamas to take a picture of the garden, and couldn't stop myself there. I wandered down the bridle path to the horse field and then all the way back up the hill to the view from the pillars at the old entrance to the farm. The difference, as far as I could tell, between the frost and a snowfall is that snow just dumps down leaving a heavy blanket over the land, whereas the frost gently and delicately just lines everything in white. Every blade of grass and leaf on every tree is visible, yet frozen and shimmering. It turns out that the humidity in the air from the fog had settled into the landscape and then frozen over night. Mom and I agreed it was one of the most beautiful things we have ever seen.

 

I ♥ Your American Style: Nancy Reagan

I've been wanting to do a post on Nancy Reagan for some time, and as we are now in the season for wearing red, it seems like a good moment to do so. I LOVE Nancy Reagan's style. To me it's very Marc Jacobs - happy, American, not overtly sexy, decorative, sweet and chic. And don't let her dated hairstyle put you off - it's not about the hair. It's about a pussycat bow, a floral print, a covered chest, a ruffle, a Chanel-inspired Adolfo jacket, and of course, the color red.