vintage thanksgiving menus

From the early 1900’s

These sweet vintage menus offer great insight to how our past generations celebrated Thanksgiving. Some traditional menu items haven’t changed much, but there are some sort of old-school goodies that one keeps seeing on these old menus, like french peas, mincemeat pie, oyster dressing, olives and turtle soup! Hmmm, interesting! What’s your favorite Thanksgiving menu fare? 

Thanksgiving menu 1905, illustrated by George Elbert Burr

Civilian Conservation Corps Thanksgiving, 1968

Alcatraz Island, California 1927

The Hotel Normandie, Detroit, Michigan 1905

Sturtevant House, New York 1899

The Waldorf Austoria, New York 1956

The Windsor New York 1896

The Park Avenue Hotel, 1900

René & Jean, Los Angeles 1938

Eaton’s,  1938

Thanksgiving dinner at the Plaza Hotel, 1899

Grand Hotel in Walla Walla, Washington, 1949

ciao! fabiana

menus courtesy of 

Buzz Feed & Ephemeral New York

home style with the new york housewives

“Word on the street” is that the Real Housewives of New York have already been busy filming season 10 and not only that, but a few of them have been busy redecorating their homes and getting their homes ready for the holidays. The best news of all for me is that the entire season 9 cast is back this year!  

So let's get started...

Firstly, I have to apologize for this being a bit of a long post today, but there's a lot to cover! These women have been busy!

One of my favorite things about watching the Real Housewives is checking out their homes, and my all-time favorites are New York and Beverly Hills! 

I also love that most of them own more than one home.

In addition to their city apartments, lofts or townhouses, several of the NY gals have homes in the Hamptons. And then of course, there’s Dorinda with her fabulous Berkshires mansion! 

Luann’s Hamptons home has recently appeared in Architectural Digest so we can take a sneak peek at its recently zhushed-up interior.

As you can see, Luann replaced the red patchwork cow head in her kitchen with one of her antique mirrors.

This really is a favorite spot for her to pose,

isn’t it?

Here’s a little real action in the kitchen with Sonja,

during filming and seen on Instagram.

Here’s Luann, her son and her niece out on the front porch of her Sag Harbor home. This 19th century Greek Revival house is quite a little gem!  

Do you recognize the kitchen from the show? 

I love how bright and airy it is!

Yum, Yum!

Did they take one of these dining room mirrors

into the kitchen just for the AD photo shoot?

Maybe...

Here’s Lu singing and partying with Sonja

in her dining room, possibly during filming of RHONY…  

A peaceful view out back.

Here’s where she sat with Andy Cohen

for her post-divorce interview.

Sonja and Lu single and ready to mingle!

This little sign is so funny after what happened

 last season to Luann in Mexico!

Here's another pretty view of the back of Luann's home.

And now on to Dorinda...

She's been super busy promoting Home Goods 

and with all the excitement of the holidays,

I don't blame her!

Who would turn down getting your whole apartment

decked out for Christmas courtesy of Home Goods?

If you follow Dorinda on Instagram,

you’ve probably seen all of her fun

Home Goods insta-stories and posts.

Don’t you just love her?

Her tree does look very pretty…

Here’s Dorinda’s dining room in the city, but what I really can’t wait to see is her Berkshires dining room. I hope all the ladies get to spend lots of time there this season.

Shopping at Home Goods is always a good time!

Bethenny has great style too, and news broke just this week that she purchased a second home in the Hamptons. She’s becoming quite a real estate mogul as well as Skinny Girl mogul. 

Don’t forget she has a new real estate show coming to Bravo soon with Fredrik Eklund. (BTW, Fredrik and his husband just welcomed twins into the world this week, a boy and a girl!)

Simple holiday décor is the best way to go in Bethenny’s New York apartment. Don't you just love the white tree and fluffy stockings? 

Fabulous “Skinny Girl" red highlights Bethenny’s front door and it also plays a big part in accenting the rest of her Hamptons home.

 Such charm in the Hamptons!

Here’s the front of Bethenny’s new Hampton’s home, not far from her other weekend home. This former bed and breakfast may be a new business venture for her.

I can’t wait to see how she renovates, decorates and designs the inside of this home.

How about making this a vacation home for wayward housewives? Lol.

Bethenny’s a big fan of TJ Maxx and Home Goods too, so I hope she shares some of her decorating tips with all of us!

And we can’t forget about Ramona (and her contractor Mario)… She just renovated her lower east side apartment last season and it was a HUGE improvement. Now she’s working on updating her Hamptons home. This is a little peek she just shared on Instagram.

Carole is always on top of the most fabulous design trends and her home also recently appeared in Architectural Digest.

Tinsley recently moved into her own place after breaking up with boyfriend, Scott and finally moving out of Sonja’s townhouse. We’ll have to see what her place looks like!

I hope you enjoyed this little bit of RHONY. The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills starts up again on December 19th, and until then, I’ll anxiously be awaiting the latest design updates from the BH gals!  Who are your BH  housewives faves? 

ciao! fabiana

photo credit:

Architectural Digest, People, Instagram

christina on the coast in newport beach

It’s already Thursday, and that means my DVR is set for the final episode of “Christina on the Coast”. As some of you know, Christina is my neighbor. She lives just around the corner from me and several of my girlfriends.

Heather is only about three houses away from her, Caran is just up the street and Amy, Brenda and I are all about a minute away, so we’ve all been intrigued the last few months about what’s going on at Christina’s house. (and did I mention that Tarek lives only a couple of blocks away?) 😉

In December, there were tons of cars on the street for a big party at Christina’s house which turned out to be her surprise wedding. Since then, we’ve all been on alert for Christina sightings.

I saw her months ago at the local health food store, and my husband actually stopped and talked to Christina and her husband while they were out for a walk.

Anyhow, every Thursday, I’m sure to check in on “Christina on the Coast” for any fun neighborhood sightings and news.  

I’m quite familiar with Christina’s new house that she showcases on her show, and so are many of us here in Newport. You see it was featured on the Newport Harbor Home Tour a few years back and in several magazines.

Here’s the before and after of the kitchen. As you can see, Christina got rid of most of the open shelving, reconfigured the bar, and went with white cabinetry in most of the kitchen. To me it's a less dramatic look, but probably more efficient and has more storage.

According to last week's episode, she also closed off a door to the right of the fridge for more kitchen space. What do you think about the transformation?  

Christina’s new home office

To be honest, I was a little disappointed with last week’s episode that was supposed to be the “big reveal” of her newly designed home. You see, back in December, Christina and local designer Raili Clasen (pronounced Riley) both posted the finished look of Christina’s new hip coastal-inspired home on Instagram.

Raili’s the one who actually chose the décor for Christina’s new home. She was the brainchild behind this whole project. So where was Raili (or mention of Raili) in the last episode?

ZIP! Nothing, nada, not a word. We were all led to believe that Christina did it all. And you know what? I totally get it. I’m sure the producers made the call to not mention that another designer had to be called in to actually design these spaces, but I was a little disappointed.

Christina and her husband Ant, don’t hide the fact that Raili designed the home of their dreams, as seen on Instagram.   

Raili's fabric choices 

Christina's instagram 

Raili's a total rock star of design and is a huge supporter of the Newport Harbor Home Tour. She's had a home featured on the home tour just about every year since she debuted her own adorable little farmhouse back in 2013. 

Everyone loved it so much, that she began her design business shortly after that!  

It seems that Christina’s been all over the press lately with her new marriage, her new show, and now her pregnancy. Here’s a little peek at her adorable baby shower that took place at the Balboa Bay Resort, or as we locals call it, The Bay Club.

Incidentally, the Bay Club is where the Newport Harbor Home Tour’s breakfast reception took place for a couple of years, so some of you may be familiar with it!

I love the flowers!

I'll always and forever love a pretty peacock chair!

One thing I really did enjoy about Christina’s show is seeing the local sights they featured. Many of them are favorite restaurants of ours, like Zinqué, above, a fun place for breakfast on the water in beautiful Lido Marina Village.

And here they are at another one of my favorite waterfront restaurants, Bluewater Grill. They have amazing seafood and chowder, and even a New England Lobster Clambake! Ramona would be thrilled! 😁

Speaking of Ramona, who's watching the Real Housewives of New York Reunion tonight? I can't wait!

I wonder if Christina will reveal her new nursery décor tonight on the show.

I guess this final episode is focusing on the “reimagination” of the pool and backyard, which is huge, by the way.  

You can get a peek of it here at a backyard party Christina hosted a few weeks back and in this selfie.

You can see how true it looks compared to this rendering of how it was imagined.

Will you be watching tonight? I sure will be!

ciao! fabiana

By the way, this amazing book Contemporary Cottages features Christina’s current home as it was seen on the Newport Harbor Home tour designed by Shannon Wilkins and it also features a really cool beach house designed by Raili Clasen.

In fact, this new book features several homes by some of my favorite local designers. Check it out here:

photo credit: ChardPhoto, Christina Anstead, & People