March Beach Walk

A walk along the beach never requires good reason or a destination but today's just happened to be...seals.  It's the right time of year to see them here on Long Island and this morning's tide was perfect.  But the seals must have been off swimming, fishing or lounging on rocks off some other beach because they were not here.  Its about a 2 mile walk to get to them but with so much  beauty along the way, disappointment was as absent as the seals today.

Buoys on Driftwood

A path to the beach

A lone, simple shell

Beach dog, tracking deer prints on the beach...thus the sand on his nose

Driftwood

Conch Shell

Ruining my shot!

Seaside horses

Where the seals should have been, instead we found...

a lone Seagull and...

...a pair of Brandt ducks

Jingle shells

Crazy dog, swimming in March!

A purple sea urchin...1st time I have seen any sea urchin on Long Island

Favorite driftwood of the day, love the rock embedded in the wood.

Valentines Day

The Shell was a gift; I did not find it. It is unusual on the island. One does not often come across such a perfect double- sunrise shell. Both halves of this delicate bivalve are exactly matched. Each side, like the wing of a butterfly, is marked with the same pattern;translucent white.except for three rosy rays that fan out from the golden hinge binding two together.

Anne Morrow Lindbergh
"Gifts From The Sea"

2012 Dans Papers Literary Contest

This past summer Krishtia received an invitation to attend the first literary award ceremony at Guild Hall in East Hampton, L.I.
A few months prior she submitted her short story to "Dans Papers", whose weekly publication is graced by a different artist. Unknown artist to the likes of Andy Warhole have drawn people to pick up a free copy and wonder whats inside...and whats inside is wonderful!


Krishtia at Guild Hall



Dan Rattiner who founded "Dans Papers", over forty years ago while in college is known for his white fedora with wisps of his Alpine hair flipping up from the edges. He is the Author of "In the Hampton's", and "Still in the Hampton's". His satirical articles about the comings and goings of life on the East End of Long Island make you wonder...do I love "Dans Papers" for the beautiful covers, the articles, the storys about the celebrities who share their summer place with the Shinnecock Indian? Or all of the above? We think its all of the above.

 Grabbing a copy to read at the beach in summer or with a cup of tea in winter is a short vacation. Krishtia's love of "Dans Papers" is what lured her out of her writers closet to enter. Four hundred applicants submitted their non fiction short story's about a real experience that took place on the East End. The winner would have a cash prize and their story read by the actress and daughter of Grace Kelly, Pia Lindstrom.



 A Shinnecock Indian named James was the winner. He wrote about the handmade shirt that he wears when he performs their traditional dance. A well deserved winner and a terrific story!







View from our table at B. Smiths Restaurant



Celebrating witha delicious lunch! Yum!



 All four hundred story's we have heard may soon be published! It was a fun late summer's day at Guild Hall.Afterwards we celebrated at B. Smiths dockside restaurant. I would like to share with you Krishtia's story. I'll wait while you make a cup of tea..... ready?











A Tale of Two Lights



Montauk Light House  Photo by Steven Lindgren









For Christmas this year, my husband gave me a good quality 35mm camera, one worth getting out of bed in the wee hours of a frigid January morning to drive out to Montauk and photograph the sunrise.  I hadn't been up this early in awhile and sadly, I'd forgotten how rewarding it is.  Truth be told, it was my brother who inspired me to go.  He’s a talented photographer and was planning to spend the day after New Years getting some shots of Montauk at daybreak.  I’m always down for a good adventure and I knew it would be a great opportunity to use my brand new toy.  Though a sunrise was reason enough to go, we had also heard reports of harbor seals on the rocks off the end of the Seal Haulout Trail in Block Island Sound.  My husband and my big, brown dog were also feeling up for a road trip, so the four of us packed up our truck in the wintry frost and headed East into the darkness.









We first catch a glimpse of a seasonally vacant Memory Motel about an hour before sunrise.   Montauk and its inhabitants lie dormant as we pass the traffic circle and continue straightaway down Montauk Highway.   We arrive at Montauk Point amid deer and dedicated surfers beginning to stir in the pre-dawn light.  Salty air seeps through the exposed skin on my face.  Today, Mother Nature kindly blesses us with soft winds.  Dignified and noble, stands the lighthouse upon the hill.  I briefly take notice of the light atop it.  But what I am enchanted by is a dimmer, demure light about one hundred feet below the famed one.  A lamp glowing softly in one of the lighthouse windows.  “Someone lives there?” I quietly think to myself.  Beyond the bounds of possibility says the cynic in me.  “A lighthouse keeper?”  My nostalgic heart skips a beat at the thought.  



A lighthouse keeper is really there quietly watching over a two hundred year old beacon still guiding mariners in our modern world of GPS and iPhones.





I am grateful for things like this in life.   That automation and technology did not replace the lighthouse keeper and her gigantic black Newfoundland is one redeeming point in the plus column for the human race.  Awestruck, I stand there in the parking lot for quite some time imagining the interior space in which she lives.  A perfectly frayed quilt strewn across a rocking chair next to an old, wooden table with a book or two and that softly glowing lamp upon it.  Beside it, her dog cozily curled up on an oval-shaped, braided rug.   Perhaps a pot of coffee brewing in a homey, no-frills kitchen.  Faded black and white photographs of past lighthouse keepers hanging on the walls of the hallway.  











Inspired before the sun even comes up, we walk Paumanok Path down to Turtle Cove just West of the fabled lighthouse.  Quiet solitude gives way to the roaring waves of the Atlantic crashing into shore.  The sunrise does not disappoint, it never does.  The seals are awesome too.  Later that day, we head back into town for pancakes, though I won’t say where.  The debate over the better of the two pancake proprietors in town is a heated one that I prefer to watch from afar.  Besides, we get a better taste of Montauk’s quirky, rural flavor watching a portly pot-bellied pig take his belly-dragging morning walk down S. Etna Ave.  This makes for some great photographs though the most haunting image of the day is still that lamp in the window.  I never photographed it, I never even thought to.  It remains etched in my mind, a romantic beacon of hope.  Hope for a new day’s sunrise, a new year’s promise.  Hope that some simple good things don’t go away in time.





































2012 Christmas Decorating at the Vanderbilt Mansion

Our Christmas decorating project at the Vanderbilt Mansion, Eagles Nest is complete!  It was our second year working on this wonderful project and we were thrilled to be invited back.  Our El Morocco room was such a hit last year, that we were asked to re-create it again this year.  This room will once again host the mansion's holiday dinner on December 8th, 2012.  We were interviewed by the Vanderbilt staff for their press release and this is what they had to say.

"Mary Schlotter and her daughter, Krishtia Lindgren, who operate the design firm Harbor Homestead & Co. in Centerport, have recreated a piece of the famous Manhattan nightclub El Morocco in the Northport Porch. The Vanderbilts socialized with their famous friends at El Morocco in the 1930s and 1940s. 

Schlotter –one of the designers invited to decorate The White House in 2009 and 2010 – made Art Deco white-paper palm trees and decorated them with silver ornament balls. Using the nightclub‘s navy, white and silver colors, she created an El Morocco banquette and reproduced the club‘s sign and distinctive lettering. Seated at the banquette are William K. Vanderbilt II and his wife, Rosamund – in a life-size enlargement of a vintage newspaper photo of them, taken in El Morocco. 

Schlotter smiled and said, "When people attend the museum‘s annual holiday dinner, they can dine with the Vanderbilts."  To complete the atmosphere, Schlotter‘s selection of Christmas songs from the 1930s and '40s plays during tours."

See this blog post for details on the El Morocco room Christmas At The Vanderbilt Part II

We made these 8' tall white palms and the El Morocco sign,
Both reminiscent of the original nightclub's decor.

Willie K. & Rosamond Vanderbilt sit at their navy & white striped zebra banquette.

The table is set with vintage champagne glasses, a milk glass ash tray, silver mint-julep cup, a jewel-encrusted cigarette holder and a vintage beaded evening bag and gloves.  Of course, Willie K. has given Rosamond a trinket from Tiffany's, her favorite.

Palm fronds adorn the massive iron sconces that flank the doorway to the room.

The El Morocco tree was decorated with vintage black and white photos of celebrities that frequented the nightspot back in the day such as:
 Marlene Dietrich, Frank Sinatra and Humphrey Bogart.

The second room we decorated this year was the Lancaster Room.  This room will be used to serve dessert at the holiday dinner.  The primary component of the decorating here was vintage Summer 2012 dried hydrangea's.  We saved tons of them and used them everywhere in the room.  They were used in the mantle, tree topper and wreaths and adorned with chocolate brown and Tiffany blue decorations.  Some vintage some new. Here are the photos:

The ornately carved door leading to the Lancaster Room

The Lancaster Room Tree
Decorated with Tiffany boxes (Mrs. Vanderbilt's favorite), handmade paper cones filled with dried hydrangea, berries and pears and chocolate and Tiffany blue vintage-inspired ornaments

Handmade hydrangea wreaths hung with taffeta ribbon grace the 4 French doors in the room.

The gorgeous chocolate brown marble fireplace is topped with a hydrangea garland dripping with ribbons, ornaments and berries.

The copper, chocolate brown and aqua blue tones are a nod to the colors in the hydrangea's and the drape's in the room.

The spectacular results charm hundreds of visitors between Thanksgiving and New Year’s Eve. The Vanderbilt offers its very popular twilight mansion tours, scheduled this year on the evenings of Wednesday-Friday, December 26-28, 7:00 to 9:00 p.m. Admission: $10 for adults, $9 for students and seniors (62 and older), and $5 for children 12 and under. Hot chocolate and cookies are included. 

Holiday season hours: Open 12:00-4:00 on December 22-23 and 26-30. Closed: Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day.