We had a great Thanksgiving holiday, despite each of us falling ill with the same vague cough and sinus malady at the end – just enough to make us not want to do anything but lie around. Thursday we picked up turkey and dinner from Doughboys (I made the family dressing and holiday sweet potatoes), Alfred and Stella joined us, and a lot of football was viewed. We managed to erect the Christmas tree – sort of – we have a leaning problem, but all the ornaments are unpacked and it’s all fairly orderly until we do the straightening. Straightening requires that we drag out the big ladder. We were all fully sick and cranky by this point of the execution of the weekend, so I called it a mulligan until we feel better.

When I’m sick I have to watch programs that inspire me creatively, or else I will feel like the world is ending. I was really excited to see that Iris, the biography of style doyenne Iris Apfel was just added to Netflix, so that was the first stop on my bingefest. I loved finding out more about this enduring talent who has crossed back and forth over the rivers of interior and fashion design. She has designed textiles for one of the finest fabric design houses in my contact list, curated costume collections for the Met, certifiably curated one of the finest personal collections of fashion and costume jewelry on earth, and even has a line on QVC. I die for her apartment of carefully curated bibelots and jouallerie in her whack sophisticate style. As a designer I am validated by her process which is so similar to mine, in which she shops high and low – she exclaims that she’d gets more of a charge finding a cheap bauble to love in a import knock off store than a bauble from Harry Winston! I know that buzz -may she live even longer to enjoy it. Viva Iris!

Critter and I agreed that the new “time traveling talk show” Mr Peabody and Sherman is the zingiest! I LOVE the aesthetic of the animation – it has that nostalgia inducing atomic age look of the Mr Peabody of my childhood, but with better color and storylines. The characterizations of historic figures such as Mozart and Napoleon are laugh out loud funny for kids and the grownups in the room, and the Sherm may even teach some actual history. I may not be able to breathe right now without blowing my nose, but between Iris and Mr Peabody & Sherman, I have lots of fresh thoughts when I go back to my drawing board.

I totally heart Netflix and being a #StreamTeam member!