Traveling Over the Holidays

Away from Home
There is always the excitement of going somewhere away from home, even with the fatigue of travel by air or road or sea. For us this time of year, it is a trip to Victoria and Vancouver, both in British Colombia, Canada. We often travel through Seattle, stay overnight, often to listen to jazz and have a nice dinner, a good night's sleep, and then by boat to Victoria. It is the leisure mixed with the rigor of travel that is a secret of living well.* Do you agree?

*That plan went well, though we have to say an overnight flight from Honolulu to San Francisco is never my favorite but I try to eat well before the trip, eat moderately on the plane, even in first class. All went well, but in Seattle it was cold and rainy so we chose to skip the jazz and have an early dinner. Sharing a main course at the well known gourmet group of restaurants (whose initials at this downtown Seattle location are PK) and each having an appetizer was a good idea, not too heavy, though the main course of butternut squash ravioli with cream sauce was just too rich, would have been better with beurre noisette, a lightly browned butter sauce, but that becomes an inspiration for cooking at home.
New Year's Resolutions: Food as Art
There was a time when I made resolutions and was successful at keeping them too. Now I focus on the same resolutions but with variations on a theme, so make effort to keep them even before the new year. Eating well is part of my French heritage so this evening it was a nice onion soup, with frozen organic green beans mixed with the onion slices sauteed to a slight golden color. I removed about 3/4 of the green beans with some of the cooked onions for another day, then used organic chicken stock in a carton, strained after simmered with the onion cuttings including the onion skin which add a nice flavor and coloring.
A few thin slices of Gruyere cheese to float on top of each filled soup bowl, with a bagel crouton made a fine main course, after a simple appetizer of pickled carrots (just put small baby carrots into the remaining brine from a jar of pickles or pickled vegetables), a few vegetables, and a plump green olive. A tart, acidic appetizer stimulates the appetite, a nice secret to remember as well.
So it is the combination of heavier celebration food balanced by simple but delicious home cooking, or at times food preparations found in small restaurants, that makes for a wonderful holiday season.
For New Year's Eve, we are celebrating at the Union Club in Victoria, with formal attire and what is sure to be a wonderful dinner and champagne celebration. (I always think of the nifty books by Mireille Guiliano, French Women for All Seasons and French Women Don't Get Fat,
when I think of champagne and celebrating by balanced eating and exercise).
The Simple and the Intricate
Whether its food or furnishings, there is something wonderful about combining natural parts with sophisticated aspects. More on the design part of this in future reports. We wish you a Happy and Healthy New Year in Living Well.

Living Well

A New Beginning: Shared Ideas for Living Well

This is a start of an open journal, a notebook really, to be shared, with ideas on living well. That is really what our 30 plus year business in interior design, in Carmel, California, Las Vegas, Nevada, Seattle, Washington, and now for 10 years in Hawaii, is all about: Living Well and Creating Homes with Harmony and Beauty for our Clients, where they can relax, entertain, find harmony, and live well.

Expression of Thanks
At this time of year, it is expressing thanks for friendships, family, faith, and freedom. In this new year of 2008, we will explore ways that we have developed to entertain with style and ease, design the interior and gardens of homes with sophistication.

Our professional and personal desire is to share the secrets of living well that we have developed. We are grateful for the inspiration, advise, and creativity of our many interior design clients who have added to our own lives and creativity.

So, here is to 2008 as a year of sharing goodwill, good spirit, thoughtfulness and in a manner expressive for each of us in living well, with creativity and thankfulness for life.

Eventful Lives
Excuse delays and irregular entries, for we are working with projects in early January in
Canada, then visiting with family in Newport Beach, then returning to Hawaii to create the homes that our clients dream about -- their retreats and social spaces, their homes in Hawaii.
For a preview, take a look at our design website: http://www.furnishingsllc.com/ which features homes throughout Hawaii.