Who Will Be 50,000? Are You A Comment Queen? (How To Leave A Comment), And Happy Weekend!

This photo from Wag Reflex
A nice site for pet lovers

Do numbers mean anything to you?
My little counter says that I am nearing 50.000 viewings.
I guess it's a milestone of sorts, so to celebrate I'm giving a gift to the visitor who is number 50K!
I don't know exactly know how to determine this, but if you go to the bottom of the right hand margin of the blog, you'll see the little counter thingee. Drop me an e-mail, and tell me what number it was on when you stopped by. It's the honor system, so let's do our best ha ha!
The prize will be ONE Majolica pitcher from my collection.

One pitcher from this
collection will be the prize for
Visual Vamp visitor #50,000

Also some of you are having trouble leaving comments. It's really simple.

• At the bottom of a post, click on "comments"
• Write your comment in the little screen with the comment box, and scroll down
  
• If you are not a Google member the screen will ask for your User Name, which will be your screen name (like Visual Vamp)
• It will ask for your e-mail
• It will ask for a password that you make up
• If you are a Google member just type in your user name and password after you write your comment, and click on "publish your comment"

That's it!
Once you do that you can comment on any blog in the blogspot system.
Word Press (another blog publisher) has a similar procedure.
It's not that hard, so please give it a try.
While being a comment collector is fruitless, it still is nice to hear from readers.
And you can always drop me an e-mail at mizvtheb@yahoo.com

Merry Majolica Christmas and How To Make New Orleans Cafe Brulot

The colorful Majolica in my kitchen always looks festive, and this year I put the little kitchen tree in my favorite pitcher.I'm kind of corny in that I spread a little Christmas decor around the house. And even more corny in the kitchen where I have fruit ornaments on a vintage feather style tree.
The stockings are kind of corny too. My dear friend Miss Anne made two of them, and gave me the third. I can never part with them for more sophisticated ones. I fill them with little toys and English crackers. I strung the fruit garland years ago.
This is last year's version.
I have decluttered the mantle quite a bit this year, and also cleared and painted the second wall filled with majolica and the rooster plaques. The chairs also got recovered.
I'll get out the antique Limoges plates with the crawfish on them, and the Cafe Brulot cups too, to set the table for Christmas breakfast.

Cafe Brulot

Ingredients:

• 1 orange peel, cut into 1 by 1/8-inch strips, plus 1 orange, peel cut into 1 long, intact spiral
• 1 lemon peel, cut into 1 by 1/8-inch strips
• 4 sugar cubes
• 6 whole cloves
• 1 (2-inch) cinnamon stick
• 1/2 cup orange flavored liqueur
• 2 cups hot, freshly brewed, strong black coffee

Directions:

Light the burner under a brulot bowl or chafing dish and adjust the flame to low. Into the bowl place the orange and lemon peels, sugar, cloves, cinnamon stick and orange liqueur. Cook for 1 to 2 minutes, stirring constantly with a long-handled ladle, to dissolve the sugar and warm the ingredients.

When the mixture is warm, stir in the hot coffee, and ignite with a match.

Quickly, while the mixture is still flaming, hold the spiraled orange peel with the prongs of a fork over the bowl, and ladle the flaming coffee mixture down the peel several times into the bowl for a spectacular presentation.

Ladle the Cafe Brulot into brulot or demi-tasse cups, being careful to leave the flavorings (peels, cloves, cinnamon) in the bowl. Serve immediately while hot.

The coffee is prepared in and served from a special decorative bowl positioned over a flame, and the finale consists of the flaming coffee being ladled down a long spiral of orange peel back into the bowl. A Brulot ladle is specially designed with a small strainer at the end so that the bits of peel, cloves and cinnamon do not get served to guests. The finished beverage is served in tall, thin, footed mugs, often decorated with a full-length portrait of the devil, reference to the drink's other name, "Cafe Diabolique" or "Devil's Coffee," perhaps so named for the punch it packs!

My Brulot Pot and Ladle and Cups

Stop by and I'll make you a cup!

Am I Blue? Kitchen Edit Part Two

If you read my blog, you know I have been revamping things around the house. The most recent addition are dining chairs and the kitchen edit.
After I rearranged things, I thought about adding a different color to an accent wall. This swatch of chintz is the fabric my kitchen, dining area, and office curtains are made of. So this was the starting point in the paint department. In the store the blue colors in the fabric looked more green than blue, and the best match was a color called Milky Jade.
To me it was more green than I wanted, because I was also pulling the accent wall color from the Majolica plates and one spectacular Majolica pitcher, and also from one stripe of blue in a painting, and also from the blue of a Bombay Sapphire Gin bottle. Can you guess which color I chose? Those of you who I have already told are not eligible for this guessing game ha ha.
The paint chips I considered were: Milky Jade; Wading Pool; Vintage Aqua; Atonement; Arcadian Blue; Always Aqua; Blue Bottle; Forstoria Glass, and Saltwater (wouldn't you love to have the job of naming paint colors!).
Other color inspiration included a blue box from Tiffany's, and the color of the new Domino book.

Now

Then

Here is a view from the breakfast area looking into a side entry hall, and into my office (that was once the dining room). The chintz curtains are in the red room as well as the kitchen, including a small panel over the transom of the side door.

You can also see the aqua blue streaked lamp, and the Majolica plates (with touches of the same aqua as the ones hanging over the fireplace) hanging over my desk from the kitchen. Even though I use alot of color in my house, the colors repeat in some form in another room, so that the effect is unifying.
Here's a view of the fireplace. There used to be one in every room when this house was built over 100 years ago, and they were the main heating sources in winter. This is the only one left, perhaps not a room one would prefer to have a fireplace be in. I find it charming to have it in the kitchen.
You also can get a good view of all the color inspirations for the accent wall. Do you see the blue stripe of color in the Michalopoulos painting?
Do you see the blue glass of the gin bottle on the little bar in the corner?
I love the folk art painting perched on the bar. The tango dancers are Alberto and me, done by Charles Gillam and given to me on my birthday by the hubs.
Here you can really see all the aqua blues in the Majolica plates.
Some of you ask how I can just up and change things so quickly. It comes from my days as a stylist, when you had to make something happen to get the shot that day, in fact many shots in one day. The clock was always ticking, and the budget might have only allowed for that day's photo shoot. I always had to improvise on the spur of the moment, and this carries over to decorating. Once I get an idea, I can usually execute it quickly.
Paint is the easiest and cheapest quick change. And doing an accent wall is pretty easy.
I have mixed feelings about accents walls, but when they work, they work. My mother used to do them all the time, either painted or by using wall paper. What do you think of accent walls?
Jane Seymour used to do a commercial for Clairol Hair Color. She would quip in a perky continental accent "It's just a little box of hair color..." whilst trying to sell the idea to women to just take the plunge and color their hair. Well that's how I feel about paint (and hair color). If it doesn't work out, you can change it right away.

Jane Seymour as the Bond girl
Solitaire, in Live And Let Live

I'm pretty happy with the accent wall color. I think the newly reupholstered faux white leather settee and chairs are so fresh looking that they needed a fresh infusion of color to enhance them.
Here's a close up of the fireplace. I used the flash, so you could see the Majolica tiles, and the details on the hearth panel, especially the Fleur de lis. There are a few tiles missing, and I 'm always on the look out for them.
We only lighted this fireplace once. It was Christmas Day and it snowed in New Orleans! This is extremely rare in this sub tropical climate, and it hadn't happened in 25 years.
Alberto tells the story that when it snows again in Buenos Aires (which has very much the same climate as New Orleans), another Carlos Gardel (a very famous iconic tango singer and super star who died in the 1930's, and is revered and loved like a saint) will be born again.
We thought perhaps on this snowy day in New Orleans, another Louis Armstrong might have been born.
We haven't ever lighted the fireplace again. Katrina blew a few bricks off the chimney, and if it wasn't a fire hazard before, it certainly must be now, so we won't chance it. The fireplace remains a charming piece of decor that we enjoy very much.