Herbes de Provence is a traditional blend of aromatic herbs that flourish in the south of France, and is used to flavor a wide variety of foods (try rubbing it onto meat before roasting or tossing some into a pizza sauce). It also makes a lovely gift if packaged in little terracotta jars (the traditional way they’re packaged) or muslin bags (buy them here).

While lots of different combinations of herbs can be used to create herbes de Provence, this is a nice, basic recipe from Oldfashionedliving.com:

1 tablespoon dried basil

1 tablespoon marjoram

Just got a request from reader Olivia asking how to make your own drawer liners, as they can be pretty expensive to purchase from stores. At your service! 

DIY DRAWER LINERS

1. Cut acid-free copy paper or inexpensive wallpaper to fit drawers.

2. Spritz the underside of the paper with linen water (you can make it yourself to save even more money).

Friday evening’s table setting, with lavender roses courtesy of Kendrick in a Vera Wang vase that Parisa and Tim gave us when we got married, Z Gallerie bamboo placemats that I bought years ago in California, and our wedding-registry Kate Spade china. I kept the settings simple - no chargers, no side plates, not even any knives or spoons, because they weren’t needed for this meal - and used paper napkins. For a casual dinner at home, less is more.

I know the air conditioner isn’t pretty, but I tried to cover it - yeah, I know it didn’t really work - with my refurbished lamp. Also, in this picture you can see that I deliberately matched the lamp’s base to my candlesticks - a detail that I am excessively proud of.

My purchase from Juan Rosado Antiques & Collectibles, in Cold Spring: a perfect-condition 1950s tablecloth for only $32! I am not a huge fan of our Formica dining room table (which came with the apartment), and think this is a perfect fix, as well as a nice alternative to the lace tablecloth our table usually sports.

(Kendrick bought me those lavender roses the other night when he got home from the studio at 3AM, just so they’d be there when I woke up. Heart flutter.)