In iSimple Pleasures of the Home, Susannah Seton urges readers to nurture the place that nurtures them. For anyone with the desire to enhance their surroundings - from accomplished decorators to those who simply enjoy a little domestic downtime - this book celebrates the ordinary and extraordinary moments of everyday life at home. Organized room by room, the book includes illustrations, dozens of simple activities for bringing the family together, creative ideas for pampering oneself and loved ones, easy-to-follow instructions for making aromatherapy products, tips on candlemaking, and recipes for comfort foods such as biscuits, apple pie, and chocolate pudding.
In the best tradition of Tessa Hadley, Kazuo Ishiguro, and Ann Patchett—an astonishing, keenly observed period piece about an ordinary British woman in the 1950s whose dutiful life takes a sudden turn into a pitched battle between propriety and unexpected passion. "With wit and dry humor...quietly affecting in unexpected ways. Chambers' language is beautiful, achieving what only the most skilled writers can: big pleasure wrought from small details."--The New York Times LONGLISTED FOR THE WOMEN'S PRIZE FOR FICTION 1957: Jean Swinney is a feature writer on a local paper in the southeast suburbs of London. Clever but with limited career opportunities and on the brink of forty, Jean lives a dreary existence that includes caring for her demanding widowed mother, who rarely leaves the house. It’s a small life with little joy and no likelihood of escape. That all changes when a young woman, Gretchen Tilbury, contacts the paper to claim that her daughter is the result of a virgin birth. Jean seizes onto the bizarre story and sets out to discover whether Gretchen is a miracle or a fraud. But the more Jean investigates, the more her life becomes strangely (and not unpleasantly) intertwined with that of the Tilburys, including Gretchen’s gentle and thoughtful husband Howard, who mostly believes his wife, and their quirky and charming daughter Margaret, who becomes a sort of surrogate child for Jean. Gretchen, too, becomes a much-needed friend in an otherwise empty social life. Jean cannot bring herself to discard what seems like her one chance at happiness, even as the story that she is researching starts to send dark ripples across all their lives…with unimaginable consequences. Both a mystery and a love story, Small Pleasures is a literary tour-de-force in the style of The Remains of the Day, about conflict between personal fulfillment and duty; a novel that celebrates the beauty and potential for joy in all things plain and unfashionable.
This book is all about simple-to-prepare foods, "real food," from two big families: one is an Italian family in Brooklyn and the other a food-loving Spanish family in northern Spain...with some All-American classics included.
Little birds pause to sing or spread their elegant wings in this collection of ten embroidery patterns, suitable for all kinds of embroidery like redwork.
Slow down and enjoy life’s special moments! Moments of Comfort: Embracing the Joy in Life’s Simple Pleasures is a beautifully illustrated book that delivers the little moments of warmth, reassurance, hope, and optimism that every so often, is just what you need to get through the day. The perfect antidote to a difficult day or a long week, Moments of Comfort explains why the small pleasures and shots of joy are so important and offers advice, perspectives, insights, and ideas into how you can include them in your everyday life. In this book, you’ll get: Practical ideas and insights into how you can take advantage of more of life’s simple pleasures Guidance on how you can find more peace, encouragement, and connection in the world around you Advice on finding the strength to keep going through the difficulties, challenges and tough times in life Ideal for anyone looking for some encouragement and enjoyment in their life, Moments of Comfort is a perfect gift for someone you know who might need some support and reassurance, inspiration and hope right now. And of course, that someone could be you!
Daughter of fashion icon C. Z. Guest and Winston Frederick Churchill Guest, polo champion and heir to the Phipps steel fortune, Cornelia Guest resisted eating animal products from childhood because of her passion for “critters.” When her mother became ill, her research compelled her to take the leap to eat cruelty-free. In Cornelia Guest's Simple Pleasures, she reveals the secrets of understated elegance she learned from her parents and the family's extraordinary friends. Her favorite simple recipes are so delicious, even the most fervent carnivores do not miss the meat, and her tips on entertaining take the stress out of any event. Her ulterior motive is to inspire readers to have fun experimenting with healthy alternatives and to change the way they think about food. She shows readers how to incorporate affordable, cruelty-free eating into their daily lives and how to serve that wholesome food to friends. Organized by season, each section begins with a luscious meal—a light spring lunch of chilled asparagus soup and quinoa salad, an alfresco summer dinner of veggie carpaccio and stuffed squash blossoms, a fall breakfast buffet of pecan waffles, faux buttermilk pancakes, and raspberry muffins, and a cozy winter's dinner of shepherd's pie with a chocolate tart for dessert. Each season contains recipes for beverages, soups, salads, pasta, side dishes, main courses, and an abundance of desserts that everyone will love. Special sections feature recipes for grains, greens, and beans. Her favorite chefs, doctors, a veterinarian, and other health experts have contributed sidebars with tips, advice, and eye-opening information. Dismissing fussy food and pretention, she believes the key to entertaining well is simplicity. Cornelia Guest's Simple Pleasures is filled with advice on how to set a lively and original table, how to bring nature inside, even how to stay calm in the face of entertaining disasters. She shows how a little thought and effort makes it a snap to create a relaxed, warm atmosphere and fabulous food free of animal products that will not only please family and friends but will also allow you to enjoy your own party. Richly illustrated with photographs of personal memorabilia and of Templeton, her legendary home, the book captures the feeling of a well-lived life. Cheerful, colorful, and unpretentious, Simple Pleasures will give readers all they need to know to cook in the most nutritious way possible and to serve it up with great style.
Simple Pleasures presents the first major critical assessment of works by the artist Doris Lee (1904-1983). Lee was one of the most recognized artists in America during the 1930s and 40s, and was a leading figure in the Woodstock Artist's Colony. Her oeuvre reveals a remarkable ability to merge the reduction of abstraction with the appeal of the everyday. In so doing, she offers one of the very rare examples of a coherent visual identity that successfully bridged the various artistic "camps" that formed with the shift in the art world in the post-World War II era. Doris Lee exploded onto the national scene in 1935 when her painting Thanksgiving was awarded the Art Institute of Chicago's Logan Prize and instigated the Sanity in Art movement in protest. Two years later, her painting Catastrophe was purchased by the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Simple Pleasures explores this initial national recognition in the 1930s within the context of American Scene painting, and traces the artist's thematic interest in the simple objects and scenes of the everyday through her career. It also examines the influence of the rise in abstraction during the late 1940s and 1950s, and the particular way in which this abstraction found resonance with Lee's long-held interest in, and collections of, folk and non-western art. During this post-war period, Lee, like many of her American Scene colleagues, found lucrative work in the heyday of commercial advertising. Lee's commercial commissions for patrons such as American Tobacco Company, Life magazine, Abbott Laboratories, and Associated American Artists are especially compelling in both their populist accessibility and in their deceptively sophisticated abstraction. Sixty-five works by the artist span the 1930s through the 1960s and are comprised of paintings, drawings, prints, and commissioned commercial designs in fabric and pottery. Included are advertisements by companies that commissioned images from Lee, and photographs that contextualize the artist's work within the Woodstock artist's community.
Every once in a while, during the course of a busy everyday day, there occurs a moment when we stop to appreciate one of life's seemingly ordinary, often underappreciated, wonders: cookies and milk; sitting by the fire on a winter afternoon; the first whiff of coffee in the morning; listening to the waves of the ocean; homemade ice cream on a hot summer evening; the first snow of winter. As the world and our lives become more and more complicated, these simple pleasures always bring us back down to earth -- and they're often the things that make it all seem worthwhile. In this warmhearted little book, with its pleasurable thoughts and comforting recipes, John Hadamuscin shares 101 of these wonderful moments of escape, a chance to feel the warmth of spring in the dead of winter, to dunk cookies in milk with a childlike innocence, to savor a favorite food with those we love, or to merely relax and enjoy a few solitary moments of contentment. So, as John says in his foreword, "Here are a few thoughts, a few pictures, and even a few recipes for some of my own simple pleasures, and I'd guess, some of yours, too. And if something here sparks off a memory of a simple pleasure or two of your own, all the better."
From the author of NETFLIX SENSATION ANATOMY OF A SCANDAL There are many reasons to bake: to feed; to impress; and, sometimes, it has to be said, to perfect. In 1966, Kathleen Eaden published The Art of Baking, her guide to nurturing a family by creating the most exquisite pastries. Now, five amateur bakers are competing to become the New Mrs Eaden. There's Jenny, facing an empty nest; Claire, who has sacrificed her dreams; Mike, trying to parent after his wife's death; Vicki, who has dropped everything to be with her baby boy; and perfect Karen, who knows what it's like to have nothing and is determined her façade shouldn't slip. As unlikely alliances are forged, making the choicest choux bun seems the least of the contestants' problems. For they will learn - as Mrs Eaden did before them - that while perfection is possible in the kitchen, it's very much harder in life. 'Delicious . . . Friendship, rivalry and exposed secrets, all gorgeously told' - Elle 'Clever and compelling. I loved this' Nina Stibbe
