HAPPY “COW BELL RINGING NAKED BABY” NEW YEAR!!!!!
Nick Wooster is a fashion god.
If you haven’t heard of this particular god before, don’t panic, it’s probably because you aren’t a men’s fashion insider.
(When I’m not pecking away in front of this little screen, or photographing enchiladas in my garage, I work for a pretty big global fashion house.)
Mr. Wooster has worked as a menswear buyer and fashion director for several men’s fashion heavyweights. Bergdorf Goodman, Barneys, Thom Brown, J.C. Penny, and Gilt Groupe to name just a few. He is the darling subject of the sartorial street photographers, usually pictured scurrying from one high-profile fashion event to the next….and almost always in a jaunty combination of camouflage, cashmere and pattern that only he could combine. Currently, he’s part owner and creative director of Artium NYC….a select boutique where average Joes can purchase menswear pieces the Wooster would proudly slap on his own body. Like sequined fleece harem pants.
Found his Christopher St. apartment featured on High Snobiety recently,
Yes, yes, yes, it’s all a little more austere than I would usually like. Why is there nothing hanging on any of those greige walls? And where are the rugs and throw pillows?
But the whole place just exudes masculinity.
No kitchen? Pretty sure that he doesn’t cook, or eat, anyway. Towers of books each crowned with a vintage globe….like an adult game of chance, just daring you to pull one from the middle, or better yet, the very bottom. The leather tray filled with stainless steel gazing balls on that weathered metal cabinet. Boots on display……(yeah, we sort of do that too). Love that Stephen Kenn couch with cushions made from repurposed and untreated WWII military fabric. The kind they used to make tents and duffel bags. Really dig the kudu skull too.
His home is exactly like his razor-sharp ensembles. Sensible, masculine, – never overly detailed or embellished – and perfectly tailored just for him.
All photos by Robert Wunsch
…and no, Adam, there weren’t any of his closet.
MERRY CHRISTMAS, Y’ALL
When my mother was in High School, not to give away anyone’s age, but let’s just say that it was sometime in the 60’s, she took a class field trip to New York City USA. Quite the adventure for a small town Ohio girl. As part of the organized field trip, the kids had a chance to see a real life Broadway musical. They had 2 top shows to choose from. The first one was a cavalcade of big name Broadway stars…Orson Bean, Sydney Chaplin, Carol Lawrence, Gordon Connell, Grayson Hall, Phyllis Newman……that my young Mother just couldn’t pass up.
So she saw Subways are For Sleeping.
Subways are for Sleeping?
I know, I’d never heard of it before either…..
So I did what anybody my age would do…..and Googled it…..
Subways are for Sleeping is a musical with book by Betty Comden/Adolph Green and music by Jule Styne. The original Broadway production ran for 205 performances from 1961-1962 (Oops, how did those years slip in there?)
Here’s the plot:
Angie McKay is a magazine writer assigned to write a story about a group of well-dressed homeless people sleeping in the New York subway system. Their leader is Tom Bailey, a one-man employment agency who finds other drifters odd jobs (Street-corner Santas, mostly) and sleeping quarters. To help research her story, Angie goes undercover and pretends to be a stranded girl from out-of-town. Trouble/Hilarity ensues when Tom discovers her real identity.
The entire musical was inspired on an article about New York’s homeless population in the March 1956 issue of Harper’s written by Edmund G. Love, who actually slept on subway trains throughout the 1950s. Love had a bizarre hobby of eating at every restaurant in the Manhattan Yellow Pages in the exact alphabetical order in witch they were listed.
Subways Are for Sleeping opened to mostly negative reviews. The show lacked publicity, mainly because the New York Transit Authority refused to post any advertisements for fear of vagrants misunderstanding the adds as an actual invitation to sleep in the subways.
Producer David Merrick had the brilliant idea to invite individuals with the same names as prominent theater critics (such as Walter Kerr, Richard Watts, Jr and Howard Taubman) to the show and then print their favorable comments in print adds. Unfortunately for them, the adds also had photo accompaniments, and the picture of well-known critic Richard Watts was not a black man. It was this cleverly publicised stunt that gave the show the little traffic it needed to survive for a few months on Broadway.
Phyllis Newman, writer Green’s wife, won a Tony for Best Featured Actress in a Musical, despite – or possibly assisted by – the fact that her costume was only a towel.
And just what was the other Broadway show that she could have chosen?….
She thinks it was some musical about 7 Austrian children whose Governess/Nun leads them over the Swiss Alps to flee the Nazis,
She can’t recall what the name of that show was.
In the previous years, we’ve slowly documented all the decorating that we feverishly do in the short time between Thanksgiving and Christmas Day.
But this year, thought it might be nice to do a “House Tour” of sorts.
Enjoy…..
Merry Christmas Everybody!!!
Grabbed a couple of these terracotta pots from the Home Depot.
The rings look exactly like one of my very favorite things on earth, Bauer ringware pots.
Like this one:
They will look even more like Bauer after a few coats of paint.
Yes, you can paint terracotta.
Start with a primer. I used KILZ 2, latex. (latex means that any drips will wash off easily…NOT that I drip)
Then a few layers of white semi-gloss latex. This is just the leftover garage cabinet paint.
Pretty easy really……
And very similar to the Bauer pots,……..but, only about $235 cheaper.
EACH!
We also grabbed 2 flat leaf cedars from the Home Depot.
Add some white B-lights and some red pearl lights…….and here we have it …….
There was supposed to be one on each side of the front door, but it was kinda tight…..
so one by the door, one by the front steps…..
That should do it……
I’m not extravagant. Honestly I’m not,
I’m currently sitting on everything I could ever need.
I have a Jeep – almost paid for – that I guarantee you I will drive until it falls apart. (Anyone who knows me personally can confirm this). I still wear 10-year-old jeans. My shoe of choice are Converse Chuck Taylors….think I have about 10 pair in varying states of wear and tear. They cost about 30 bucks a pair at the outlet.
I’m lucky to have a decent job and live inside my means.
20 years ago, not so much.
20 years ago, spending big bucks for a Christmas ornament was just outrageous.
OUTRAGEOUS!
Christopher Radko was still new on the Christmas ornament scene then, and only the fanciest of stores sold his delicate hand-blown, hand-painted glass ornaments.
It was at the very fanciest of all the fancy stores in Dallas, Neiman Marcus, that I first saw this guy.
(insert sound of angels playing trumpets here)
“Injun Joe”, from Tom Sawyer I assumed.
He was created in a vintage mold that hadn’t been used in about 50 years until Mr. Radko revived the Eastern European tradition of hand-crafted glass ornaments. Each one takes about a week to make.
“..and his price?” you ask.
20 dollars
Might as well have been 2,000 dollars, because I didn’t have that kind of money to spend on a 3 inch glass ornament.
Enter my dear friend Lenny, the minute he saw this ornament, he could think of only one person who would truly appreciate it…..me.
Of course I would, it was everything that I love – Christmas, Indians, Neiman Marcus – all wrapped up in one fragile little item.
He gave it to me in a used Tiffany gift box, which he quickly reclaimed, (my gift was the ornament, not the box)
The very next December, at Neiman Marcus of course, I met with this man – Christopher Radko – and he signed my Indian.
My very first Radko glass ornament.
And so the dice were cast……..
For those of you that don’t know, the Radko company started with a crash.
A BIG crash.
The new tree stand that young Christopher Radko had bought for his family’s Christmas tree snapped under the weight of the decades worth of heirloom blown glass ornaments and sent the collection to the ground. Young Mr. Radko immediately started an attempt to replace his family’s cherished collection, only to find that “new” ornaments were mostly cheap and plastic. On a personal holiday in Poland, he found some blown glass bottles in a shop, and asked if it were possible for the artisans to also make glass ornaments, like the ones his family had lost. It was, and he brought a handful back to the U.S. But they never made it to his family tree. They were immediately snatched up by his fiends who were looking for the same link to their Christmas’s past.
……..and so a brand was born.
That was 1985,
The 10 year anniversary in 1995 saw the debut of the Radko collection in a table top book.
Now, I know which ones I’m still missing.
Little did Lenny know, or Mr. Radko, or myself for that matter, that that little indian ornament would snowball into an almost 20 year collection of Radko ornaments.
I have so many now that the tree is almost completely covered.
I just hate to see any bare spots.
Mostly Indians, and cowboys, and snowmen, and Santas, and Mickey Mouse, and a myriad of storybook characters…..here are just a few of my favorites (there are way to many favorites to photo every one)
I mostly find them online. The ones from the mid 90’s are my favorites and pretty reasonably priced on eBay.
Sometimes, I pick up a newer one that really calls to me in a store.
But most of them are gifts from family and friends.
And my friend Lenny, yeah, he’s given me quite a few more over the years.
I almost have enough…….
……not too many bare spots left.
Looks even better with a layer of tinsel icicles,
I just hate to see any green on a Christmas tree.
…and the Indian that started it all?
Same place every year.
He’s right there near the top.
So I can see him from the couch…….
William Joyce is an American artist, illustrator, and film maker who wrote his first book in the 4th grade.
Since then he has written and illustrated over fifty children’s books including George Shrinks, Santa Calls, Dinosaur Bob and his Adventures with the Family Lazardo, Rolie Polie Olie, The Leaf Men and the Brave Good Bugs , A Day with Wilbur Robinson and the Guardians of Childhood series.
He did character developement for Pixar Films Toy Story and A Bug’s Life. While collaborating with director Chris Wedge to develop his book Santa Calls into a full-length movie, they accidentally came up with the idea for the film Robots. Several movies came after that; Meet the Robinsons*, Rise of the Guardians, and Epic. His animated short film The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore earned him an Oscar just last year.
When I was working at Sak’s Fifth Avenue in 1995, William Joyce designed the company’s holiday windows and interiors.
and I was introduced to his book Santa Calls.
In the book, Art Atchinson Aimesworth — inventor, crime fighter, and all-around whiz kid-journeys to the north pole with his sister, Esther, and pal, Spaulding, by special invitation from Santa himself.
Charming book, absolutely charming……buy one here at Amazon. Or buy 2.
So you have one to keep for yourself and one to give away.
There were even ornaments of Joyce’s vested Santa designed by Christopher Radko.
I dug around in the hoard and found that I still had this Saks Fifth Avenue in-store poster of Santa ice-skating in Rockefeller Center.
No clue as to what I’ll ever do with it, but I have it none the less.
Joyce’s elegant, gentlemanly version of Santa Claus has even graced the cover of the New Yorker a few times.
In 1994,
…and again in 2001.
William Joyce takes style influence from the best illustrators—Winsor McCay, Maurice Sendak, Robert Lawson, Maxfield Parrish, Beatrix Potter, and N. C. Wyeth, and mixes them with the sublime—Stuart Little, The Borrowers, and Winnie-the-Pooh—and even the ridiculous—Bugs Bunny, Little Orphan Annie, and Mad Magazine.
Yep, it’s all in there……
*(Side note here, on my first date with Jamie, we impulsively caught a showing of Meet the Robinsons, and I knew right then that any grown man who would see an animated feature movie with me at 9 o’clock on a Tuesday night would be around for the long haul…………..and I was right)
This is one of the Pinterest projects that I’ve wanted to try for a couple of years now.
Hot glueing candy on a styrofoam wreath? What could be easier?
I started with a 5 pound bag of Starlight Peppermints from Amazon. (I used about half of that for one wreath)
The white styrofoam wreath I picked up from the craft store. This one is a 16 inch circle. I thnk it was about 6 bucks.
I started by glueing on the top ring of mints first.
I tried to keep the mints as close together as I could.
I added the next mints as close to the first as possible.
Don’t worry about spacing. It’s impossible to do this perfectly.
Let go and just except that it will have some gaps.
I keept adding mints as far down as they would go on each side.
And here’s my finished peppermint candy wreath. (maybe 45 minutes total. Most of the time was spent unwraping mints)
The candy remains pretty hard, but too long in the humid garage and it started to get sticky.
So, I brought it in the house…..
…and hung it on the lockers in the den.
The plain pine wreath sets it off against the red lockers just nicely. Don’t ‘cha think?
Last year we gave a tutorials for making the pine wreaths and the Garland.
So easy and so cheap. I use the free clippings from the home depot.
What are ya waiting for?
Go make some wreaths.
Lately I’ve been spending some time in Denver, Colorado.
I had no idea that Hammond’s Candy was founded, and still made entirely by hand, there…
…..until I saw this great old delivery van in the factory parking lot.
Attached to the factory is the retail store.
Y’all know that I love a vintage sign…and this glorious piece of neon used to hang outside the original Hammond’s candy factory before they moved.
Now it hovers over the bulk jelly beans.
The store is just packed to the brim with sweet, sweet goodness.
The Hammond’s chocolate bars are out of this world.
Peanut Butter Cup, Chipotle Chocolate, Salted Caramel, Double Truffle, PB & J, and …..OOOOOH MY LORD…..Pig’s N’ Taters (chocolate covered bacon and potato chips).
But what most people know Hammond’s for is their big, beautiful, hand-made candy canes.
They are rolled, twisted, cut, shaped and bagged entirely by hand……I should know, I saw them do all those things on the factory tour.
They come in flavors like apple pie, butterscotch, pumpkin pie, root beer, cherry and clove.
Ohh, and standard peppermint. If you’re into that sort of thing.
Only $2.50 each?
I loaded up on big ol’ candy canes just to tie on Christmas gifts and “Style” into our stockings.
Aren’t they just beautiful?
What can you do if you’re nowhere near Denver, Colorado? You can shop on the Hammond’s Candies website, of course.
But if you do get the chance…..
Drop by the Hammond’s factory and take the free 30 minute tour, (that’s where I got the cool hat in the first photo).
I highly recommend it.
THE CAVENDER DIARY 