Giving Thanks

 

from Abby M. Interiors and Pinterest.

We’re happily up to our eyeballs in all things Thanksgiving at Huff Harrington.  The big upcoming turkey day holiday is keeping us super busy helping clients fluff, prep and pretty up their homes for this Super Bowl of entertaining.  Linens, serving pieces, centerpieces, placemats, candles and hostess gifts are flying off the shelves as the frenzy builds.  We’re loving every minute of it.

The Huffingtons are brimming with their usual good ideas at the store – and Ann and I love the festive, fun and chic turkey-inspired tablescapes and vignettes the girls have set up.  As usual, it’s all about the mix and it’s wonderful to see the goodies we bought months ago all unpacked and merchandised so beautifully.

This is such a great time of year to set a table for an al fresco lunch, dinner or holiday celebration.  Lucky for us here in Atlanta, the days are usually mild and the evenings chilly – perfect for entertaining outdoors on the porch or patio and in front of a roaring fire.

 What could be lovlier than feasting and thanking outdoors? From Pinterest.

And when it comes to setting the perfect Thanksgiving table, we’re all about our HHH mantra:  elegant, organic and comfortable:

 

 From My Design Chic and Martha Stewart, more Thanksgiving style.

We feel strongly that a little touch of glitz and gold never hurt the table, either:

 

 We love the elegant simplicity of this Design Chic/Colin Cowie table setting. Just pour the bubbly and enjoy…

We love looking in the backyard – or grocery store aisles – for the most humble of inspiration.  Here, fall fruits and walnuts take center stage in the most stylish way. (From DesignChic and Pinterest.)

We’ll be closed Thanksgiving Day, of course, for a little respite and downtime before the big Christmas rush hits us.  We’ll be cooking up a storm with friends and family and probably popping the cork on a bottle of bubbly or two.  We’re big on Huffington traditions, so we thought it would be fun to quiz the girls about some of their holiday favorites:

 

 Alva

Alva: our traditions seem to revolve around food. Always turkey and cornbread dressing made by my mother (from my grandmother’s recipe). We have pan gravy and mashed potatoes. The green veggies change from year to year but the desserts are always pecan pie and pumpkin pie. The best tradition is that family is together!

 Allison

Allison:  I will take a Louisiana chocolate pecan pie over cake every birthday! My mom always found the best pecan pie recipes in the Junior League Cookbooks - River Roads, Cotton Country, and Stop and Smell the Rosemary; and all of my recipes for turkey dinner are from these amazing cookbooks!

 Gena Knox’s Southern My Way has been flying out of the store.

There's a new cookbook at Huff Harrington Home that has caught my eye: Gena Knox’s Southern My Way. I am very tempted to change things up a bit and try the Maple Brined Turkey with Pomegranate Roasting Glaze. Sounds so Southern and yummy!

 Barbara

Barbara: One of my and my husband Bill’s favorite and fun Thanksgiving traditions is making Old Fashioned cocktails to have before our dinner. Thanksgiving is the only time we have them all year – they just seem the perfect way to start our celebration. The Bourbon Old Fashioned was supposedly first made at the Pendennis Club in Louisville, Ky (my home town), in the late 1800′s. I would love to share our recipe:

In the bottom of a beautiful, Old-Fashioned glass, mix:

1/2 teaspoon sugar

1 teaspoon water

3 dashes Angostura bitters

1 orange slice

Muddle until sugar is incorporated

Fill glass with ice

Add 2-3 oz great Kentucky bourbon

Stir and garnish with an orange slice and cherry

Enjoy!

 

 

 A lovely start to the Thanksgiving feast. From Pinterest.

 Emily

Emily: It all starts with us waking up to the Macy’s Thanksgiving parade while my mom begins her magic in the kitchen. Seeing the mittened spectators in New York City is about as close as we get to a gust of cold air in Boca Raton, Florida. We always have family in town so our dinners tend to be quite boisterous & fun. Never missing are mashed potatoes, gravy, baguettes & pies to accompany the turkey.

The piece de resistance? My mom’s famous fresh cranberry sauce with orange zest. The feast is served buffet style on the dining room table & the adults eat in the living room. My cousins and I (the youngest is now 17) still eat at the “childrens’ table”; the best seat in the house! We finish the evening by watching ‘It’s a Wonderful Life’ and retire to bed stuffed & thankful!

 Babs

Babs: All our kids and kids-in-law do a drawing for their Secret Santa on Thanksgiving and then the 9 of them really go all out to get the perfect – or perfectly funny – gift for their Secret Santa receipient. (we bet that makes for a lot of laughs, Babs!)

 Mackenzie

Mackenzie: We always cook this delish pumpkin cheesecake recipe that was passed down from my grandmother.  My grandparents owned this little restaurant that became a landmark in Bloomington, Il for 20 years and would cook the same recipe for customers every Thanksgiving.

For place settings we gather tiny pumpkins and paint them for each guest (my mom is one of 5, so our Thanksgiving table is always overflowing with family members).  We also tie little bows on little boxes of Godiva chocolates to pair with the pumpkins. The night usually ends with a massive tripoli tournament by the fireplace, and a lot of times going to the movies beforehand.

 

 A festive and fall-y centerpiece for the table. From Pinterest.

 

 Linda

Linda:  we love to go to our lakehouse at Lake Keowee in S.C. for Thanksgiving.  We invite all of our family on both sides, so the make up is different every year.

My favorite thing to do is to get up and start cooking!  My favorite recipes include a sweet potato and Grand Marnier soufflé, full on bread stuffing with oysters, and a green bean casserole that we have been making for more years than I can count!

When the Macy’s Thanksgiving day parade comes on I love to open up a bottle of Veuve Clicquot, and continue cooking as I wait for my beloved Rockettes to perform.  I had always wanted to be one, but alas I was too short!  Imagine that!   After our meal (consisting of two turkeys – one roasted and one deep fried) we settle in for our annual viewing of Chevy Chase’s “Christmas Vacation”.   Somehow it seems to get funnier every year.  Although Thanksgiving will never be the same after the loss of my mother in 2012, we give thanks for each other and for our many blessings and the time we spend together.

 

 We can totally picture Linda being a Rockette.

 Sam

Sam:  I don’t have any…..really!  (note from Meg and Ann: Sam is the busiest little Huffington bee and never sits for one minute, so her answer didn’t completely surprise us. We’re pretty sure she’ll be up on every new movie release by the end of the weekend, though, and will surprise us with the fifty million things she’s accomplished while we’re working our way through six courses.)

 Colleen

Colleen: my favorite Thanksgiving tradition as a kid growing up was all of our aunt and uncles and cousins coming in town and all packing into our house which was already packed with 5 kids, and I was in heaven having everyone around.  

Probably out of necessity, my mom and aunts wanted all of us kids the heck out of the house, so my uncles and dad came up with a great diversion. They would pick teams and we’d have our own Turkey Bowl football game in the front yard.  My brothers would give me plays on their stomach, 5 and out, every time. Every time I did not do that. I remember laughing until we cried and having the best time… and then it was time to eat! My mom and aunts are the best cooks ever. Still trying to live up to them!

Ann: For years, we have gone to our family’s summer house in Maine, where there have been as many as 28 relatives gathered for the Thanksgiving holiday.  Year after year, the traditions are plentiful, but my favorite is when we all write down on a little piece of paper something that we’re thankful for, then fold it up and put it into a bowl.  Between courses, we pass the bowl and take turns reading the little words of thanks  — and of course trying to guess who wrote each one.  Some are serious and some are funny, but the point is well made that we all have so much to be thankful for!

 

 The prettiest setting from Home Sweet.

Meg: first of all, I’m making a new rule that Barbara’s Old Fashioneds become a new family tradition.  My family is from New York and Scott’s is from Texas…and we live in the South, so it’s a little battle of the Mason Dixon line. We’ve got cornbread dressing sitting next to creamed onions and a deep-fried turkey sitting next to roasted parsnips.  We get a big fire going on the porch, put the footballs games on mute (but visible) and the family teenagers squish on the porch sofa for a good gossip-fest.  There’s bubbly, lots of laughs and movie-watching when the feast is finished.

 We love this rustic chic Thanksgiving table from Home Sweet.

Wherever the holiday weekend takes you, we wish you a safe and happy time with plenty of friends, family and loved ones. We’ll be right here, feeling full and as always, ever so thankful.

Ta ta.

A Passion for Pairings

Fred and Ginger: The Perfect Pair

We started thinking about Perfect Pairings when we introduced all new works from Melissa Payne Baker and Liz Barber at our most recent show, “Abstracted.”  There was no doubt that their work played beautifully together, and that one made the other sing!

 Melissa’s Diva 40 x 40

 

Hung beautifully in our “Abstracted” show with Liz’s Summer’s Grace, 30 x 40

And then, as the week passed and the abstracted work started to fly off the walls, we rushed to fill the gaping holes with our other artists’ work, and were awed and inspired to see how well the show’s “abstracted” work played with the other gallery artists.

 

 Amy Sullivan’s Cinderblock Barn, 60 x 48

Paired Beautifully With Laura Lacambra Shubert’s Cote d’Azur, 36 x 48

 

Or paired with Laura Fontaine’s majestic “Peace” 48 x 48

 These beautiful, unexpected and accidental pairings are what we call “Aha Moments” and they are the bulk and the backbone of what we love best at Huff Harrington Fine Art and Huff Harrington Home.  Our very simple mantra is:   if you buy what you love, it will pair up well with what you already own.  If you buy an abstract painting, it will enhance your traditional collection.  If you marry a crusty console with a gilded Louis mirror, the two will bring out the best in each other.  If you pair a 20^th century modern leather and steel chair with an 18^th century Belgian bleached oak console, it will be a most beautiful marriage.

 

We love pairing a mid-century modern leather and aluminum chair …

… with a crusty, ornate 18th century venetian gold mirror!

 

The perfect pairing of abstract and traditional art, gilded mirror with contemporary sconces, crusty console and leopard skin rug … and that other perfect pair (see below).

Our proof is in the pudding: that magical concoction of perfect pairings that includes Fred and Ginger, Oysters and Champagne, A little black dress with a string of pearls … and precious paintings that find their perfect pairings.

With a  nod to another perfect pairing, Rogers and Hammerstein, these are a few of our favorites things, from our own collections and from others …

Like this great combo of contemporary rug with traditional mirror, from Asmara Inc rug on Pinterest

 

Or the fabulous bold painting above the Louis XVI dresser in this Pinterest image from Beautiful Habitat.

We love combining traditional crystal chandeliers, like this one hanging at our Huff Harrington Home store …

… with our favorite Mongolian wool bench, that makes everything around it sing!

We love how Lisa Sherry Interiors pairs casual contemporary lighting reflected in a gorgeous Louis Philippe gilded mirror.

Or how “Miss Design” (from Pinterest) marries an edgy rug with a formal chandie in a beautiful antique setting …

 

Or how “Archi Things” (from Pinterest) pairs textures and styles so effortlessly.

And sometimes a perfect pair is just that: A perfect pair!

Speaking of perfect pairs, I can’t think of a better example than the two of us – Madame Huff and Madame Harrington, who have been paired down to the simpler moniker:  Huffingtons!  With one of us right now running around France, looking for the next perfect pair of treasures, and the other one running the pair of businesses in Atlanta, I feel so fortunate to have found my perfect business partner pair (of course I am the lucky one running around France right now!).

 

 The two Madames: a Perfect Pair!

Even if all that glitter and glam is just for show, for better and for worse, we’re still the perfect pair!

The no-rest-for-the-weary,  no-worse-for-wear pair.  Perfect.

Ta ta,

HH

Huff Harrington Heroes

 

 Our "Huffington" Heroes

As we prepare to celebrate our 2^nd anniversary at Huff Harrington Home on Sunday and as we reflect upon the joy ride that this adventure has taken us on, there are two groups of people we absolutely want to thank:  Our wonderful, faithful and supportive customers (for whom we plan a little birthday happy on Sunday) and our precious peeps – our little family of employees, who are the backbone of our company.  You may have seen their cute picture in a couple of publications recently, but with this little celebratory occasion, we’d like to formally introduce them to you:

Allison

We call Allison our boss: that beautiful, cool headed, calm voice of reason who never gets flustered, always has a solution to every problem and is as good with customers as she is with vendors, tirelessly, relentlessly whipping through every project that she raises her hand for. She also comes to us with years of retail experience, and, with a killer eye and taste to match, lives, breathes and sleeps for finding the greatest products to fill our shelves. If we just do what Allison tells us, we know we’ll be fine — and have fun doing it too!

 

Alva

We thank our lucky stars each day that Alva, our other boss, walked in to our store, a little more than a year ago, and demurely told us she’d like to work there.  In her quiet, polite and gently forceful, little way, Alva has quite frankly, just told us what to do – and when she speaks, we listen!  With oodles of wonderful retail experience under her belt, she is the queen of wisdom, and as long as we follow her lead, we know we’re on the right path.  The good news for us is that Alva loves her job here too and claims she’s never had so much fun.  Lucky us!

 Barbara

It was another lucky day for us when we heard about Barbara.  A true retail pro, she wins our customers’ hearts everyday with her elegant and helpful ways. She’s the first one to dive into a new shipment of goodies and we love the way she artfully merchandises our wares. We’re delighted to have her with us.

 "Babs" aka Barbara

Since we already had a Barbara, this one got a new nickname:  Babs.  And how can we count the ways we adore Babs? Her tireless philanthropic efforts in Atlanta? Check. Her bright smile and sweet nature? Check. Her “get-down-to-business” attitude? Check. More friends in Buckhead than we can count? Check. This is a lady who gets it done (and done right!) and will go above and beyond to be sure our clients are properly taken care of. And possibly her greatest gift of all? Her darling daughter, Colleen (see below)!

 

 Colleen

 Young, bright, sassy and full of ideas, it’s pretty hard not to adore this budding interior designer. We’re so lucky to have this Atlanta native here with us and it’s a blast to watch her in action. She’ll move furniture, re-arrange vignettes, plump pillows, re-merchandise the goodies and go get lunch for everyone… all before noon! She’s the originator of our favorite saying which is: “I can do that!”

 Emily

We are crazy about our Emily, who has lived in South America, loves design and cheers us every day with her can-do attitude and funny sense of humor. Emily is our marketing guru extraordinaire, managing our social media and website (no small task!) and known to lob out some brilliant marketing strategies, in between quietly keeping us organized, focused and efficient. The smile behind the tweets and the cleverness in every Facebook, Pinterest and Instagram entry is recognizably pure Emily.

 Sam

We were told by mutual friends that if you leave Sam alone in your room for a few minutes, she will rearrange all the furniture and make you fall in love with it all over again.  As part of our design duo with Colleen (nicknamed Design Divas!), that is precisely what she does, every day, for dozens of our clients.  With her discriminating eye, her plethora of marketing ideas, her clever sense of humor and her friendly personality, this talented Renaissance woman has helped dozens of our clients who just need a little help making their homes more comfortable, inviting and up-to-date.  We hear from people over and over again, that Sam has changed their lives. She’s changed ours (yes Sam, in a good way) and we’re not sure what we’d ever do without her!

 

 Linda

We’ve known our gallery manager, Linda, since before we opened our Art Gallery and it’s thanks to this talented, wonderful and personable lady that we were able to open Huff Harrington Home two years ago.  As our Huff Harrington Fine Art gallery manager, Linda never ceases to amaze us with her positive, upbeat and sparkling personality, her excellent eye and her fabulous rapport with clients and artists.  Linda shares with us all a deep love for all things French (especially French flea markets and Veuve Cliquot champagne) and always brightens our days with her joie de vivre.

 Mackenzie

We call her MacDaddy, and it’s a little nickname that has stuck to our newest family member at Huff Harrington Fine Art.  This lovely young lady is a tireless and hard-working dynamo who loves art and enjoys working with our clients. She’s also a techie wizard, who happens to have a great eye, and has become one of the most important cogs in our rapidly moving gallery wheel.

 

 Hilarious Huffingtons!

So that’s our little team — our hilarious, hardworking Huffington heroes — who define “joie de vivre” for us every day!

Ta ta,

HH