The recent cold snap in New York is having a devastating effect on the spring buds and blooms. I’m afraid this might not be the prettiest or mildest spring so I’ve put together a lot of things to do and watch inside until it fully warms up.

If you are a member at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, there are previews next week of the new exhibition Winslow Homer Crosscurrents. This exhibition, curated by my Instagram friend Stephanie Herdrich, “reconsiders Homer’s work through the lens of conflict, a theme that crosses his prolific career. A persistent fascination with struggle permeates his art—from emblematic images of the Civil War and Reconstruction that examine the effects of the conflict on the landscape, soldiers, and formerly enslaved people to dramatic scenes of rescue and hunting as well as monumental seascapes and dazzling tropical works painted throughout the Atlantic world. The centerpiece of the exhibition is Homer’s iconic The Gulf Stream, a painting that reveals his lifelong engagement with charged subjects of race, geopolitics, and the environment. Featuring 88 oils and watercolors, Crosscurrents represents the largest critical overview of Homer’s art and life in more than a quarter of a century.” It opens to the public on April 11 and runs through July 31, 2022.

Three Lives & Company bookstore will be moving back to their newly renovated former home at 154 West 10th Street on Thursday, April 7, 2022. Stop by and welcome them back and buy a few new books to cozy up with until spring really arrives.

The Julia Child documentary, Julia, was a huge hit. Time will tell is the new seven-part series Julia on HBOMax will also win audiences over but it’s already has positive reviews from the critics. It stars Sarah Lancaster as Julia Child and Davi Hyde Pierce as Paul Child while the rest of the cast includes Bebe Neuwirth, Isabella Rossellini, Judith Light, and James Cromwell, among others, so it sounds like the acting will be top rate. Why don’t you make Julia’s Boeuf Bourguignon before you sit down to watch this weekend.

Filmmaker Ken Burns has turned his lens on Benjamin Franklin, one of the 18th century’s most consequential figures. The four-hour documentary will premier on PBS on April 4, 2022 and will examine the revolutionary life of Benjamin Franklin whose work and words unlocked the mystery of electricity and helped create the United States.

I’ve been excitedly waiting for the new thriller series Slow Horses which premiers on Apple TV on Friday, April 1, 2022. It stars Gary Oldman as a faded spay Jackson Lamb, who heads up a team of British intelligence agents who serve in the dumping ground department of MI5, Slough House, due to their career-ending mistakes. Life in Slough House is defined by drudgery until the slow horses become entangled in a dangerous gambit by Regent’s Park. The series also Kristen Scott Thomas, Jack Lowden, and Jonathan Pryce, so you can see why I am excited to watch although episodes will air the old school way which is once a week.

When will streaming services realize that they can’t give us binging and then take it away. It’s hard to build and sustain excitement for shows when people forget to watch them every week unless they are on HBO on Sunday nights at 9:00pm.

I don’t love Ansel Elgort as an actor and was nonplussed to hear he was starring in the new series Tokyo Vice on HBOMax that debuts on April 7, 2022. That was until I watched the trailer. Elgort plays Jake Adelstein, an American journalist, plugs into the Tokyo Vice police squad and descends into the neon underbelly of Tokyo. It’s based on the book Tokyo Vice: An American Reporter on the Police Beat in Japan by Adelstein who was “the only American journalist ever to have been admitted to the insular Tokyo Metropolitan Police Press Club, where for twelve years he covered the dark side of Japan: extortion, murder, human trafficking, fiscal corruption, and of course, the yakuza.” 

The Hubert de Givenchy Collectionneur auction traveling exhibition makes a stop in Christies New York from April 8-12, 2022. On view will be highlights from the sale that will take place in Paris from June 8-24, 2022.

I received a copy of the lovely new book Billy Cotton: Interior and Design Work this week. I always thought Billy’s work was more contemporary but the book was a lovely mix of interiors, many of which are a modern take on traditional design. I really liked it.

I almost put this book, The Magnificent Lives of Marjorie Post, in my last weekend post but decided to save it. Then I saw two people post it on Instagram so I can say that people are enjoying this historical fiction look into the life of Marjorie Merriweather Post that “began gluing cereal boxes in her father’s barn as a young girl. No one could have predicted that C. W. Post’s Cereal Company would grow into the General Foods empire and reshape the American way of life, with Marjorie as its heiress and leading lady.” v

I’ve been on a dress buying binge in preparation for summer. These two just arrived today. The blue Structured Shirt Dress runs one, if not two, sizes small but they style and material are lovely. Lightweight but not see-through. I took one size down from my regular size in the white Relaxed Linen Shirt Dress and it’s perfect. If you’re tall, you will love it but I’ve already pinned it for my tailor. I bought it for an exotic trip that I’m supposed to take later this year but it’s also perfect for hot humid days. I just ordered it in navy as well.

I missed out on the Birkenstock x Manolo Blahnik collaboration so I consoled myself with this black pair of Birkenstock 1774 Arizona Mock-Croc Dual-Buckle Sandals. They were selling out so I’m glad I got my size. They’re a little stiffer than the canvas slides but will be perfect with black day dresses this summer.

I used to wear Warby Parker glasses but I’ve been converted to a Caddis fan. The Miklos reading glasses I bought are such better quality and have blue light blocking lenses. They also offer progressives and sunglasses and I just received an email alerting me that they will soon be offering Caddis RX which will let you get prescription lenses in your favorite Caddis frames. You can sign up for early access here. I especially like their glasses because they list the model name and lens magnification on one of the arms so you can tell your pairs apart if you order the same color frames in different magnifications.

Bon week-end!

XOXO,

HC