Adding to the "Garden"

This Saturday Geoff and I shot a wedding for Joel & Kim Barbosa. They are super cute. We've been following each other's blogs and had become "blog friends" prior to the wedding, discovering we had a lot in common.....love of photography, NYC, cheese, honeymooning in Italy (at least in part). Their theme for their wedding was, "Our Love Grows". Lots of greens and browns and natural, organic themes. Their table assignment cards were a little seed packet. With a seed inside (of course). Super cute.


So, on Sunday, after brunch, one of the only things we did that day was walk over to Home Depot to pick up a planter for our new addition to the "garden". And by "garden", I clearly mean, "kitchen windowsill". On the way over, we passed a ton of what I think were hydrangea bushes, growing in a number of yards and gardens. But Geoff pointed out, some of them may have been rhododendrons. I dunno, I thought they all pretty much looked like hydrangeas to me. Then he said,

"Well, I mean I don't know for sure...I'm not an herbivore."

At which point, we looked at each other and both BURST out laughing. It was one of those things you know is wrong as soon as it comes out of your mouth. But, coincidentally, it also happens to be true. As he said with a smirk, "I'm not an herbivore. I don't like salads." (which also made me laugh hysterically). In addition to not being an herbivore, he also is not a...horticulturalist (which is perhaps what he meant to say in the first place)? Man, that made me laugh.

Home Depot didn't have a ton of planter options that I liked, but we settled on one. Geoff was about DONE with shopping for planters - he lasted about 5 minutes. I couldn't blame him. He'd had a crazy long week (working until 1am or 2am most nights) and was compeltely exhausted, and had been a good sport about attempting to shop in the first place. I should talk....I went shopping after work on Friday and made it less than 90 minutes before I was ready to PASS OUT. I barely made it home. Why is shopping so exhausing? I've never understood that. It's not like you're breaking a sweat. But it really wears me right out.

Anyway, we came back home and after a big nap for Geoff and a mini-nap & some reading for me (Lauren Bacall's "By Myself and Then Some" - really enjoying it), I did some "gardening".


I have no idea what the seed will turn into, by the way. Zero. Anyone know what it is? It looked kind of like a black and white striped pumpkin seed, but smelled like flowers. It will be kind of fun to be surprised. 'Course, I suppose it would be helpful to know how much sun & water it needs.... Well, we're pretty fly-by-the seat-of-our-pants in this family, so Plant #3 will either have to learn to be cool with that, or not.

We shall see how the new addition fares...

Testing

I am attempting to blog from my iPhone. If this works it could be really awesome.

Just finished up what will hopefully be the last round of auditions for Bye Bye Birdie (knock on wood it will stay cast this time. We cast it all in may and then lost 4 people) and am heading downtown to see my friend Amanda in her show, Shafrika, The White Girl.

Happy almost Friday!

More Adventures in Cooking

Since we're growing basil constantly in our kitchen windowsill, I've needed to trim back the plants several times. A few weeks ago I trimmed one and made bruschetta. Yum. Well this weekend, I trimmed the other one and made my first attempt at homemade pesto. Also Yum.


Couple of things we learned along the way:
1) Better to roast the garlic first, as the raw garlic will give you breath of fire.

2) Although some websites say making it in a blender makes it smoother, there are drawbacks. Pouring the olive oil in while the blender is ON (and the lid is OFF) made for a very basil-spattered wall. And spattered pictures on said wall. And spattered me. And spattered fridge (which is actually on the other side of the kitchen - slightly amazing that it ended up there too).

3) Better to get a food processor and make it in there, so that the blender won't have hints of garlic in it when you make your morning protein shake.

4) I need small dip-sized Tupperware containers. I have none and therefore no great way to store the leftovers

All in all though, it was tasty. Will try some tonight and see just how much more potent the garlic is after a day of "marinating" in itself, so to speak.

Hm... Or maybe I'll bring it to the office tomorrow and let my co-workers finish it off.....

I made this up

Geoff was on another shoot on Saturday and I had yet ANOTHER day to myself. (Lovely. Am getting spoiled.) I made up a slightly random dinner. Even though I rarely cook, it is mostly because I never have the time. When I do have time, I actually enjoy it.

Poured myself a glass of wine, and put on some country music (going back to my roots a lil' bit - it makes me happy) and decided on zucchini, yellow squash and red onion, sauteed with olive oil and garlic. Again, chick food that I wouldn't really make if Geoff was here, but it's one of my summer favorites.


Also got pretty proud of myself for this additional feat of engineering. You know how when you are prepping food for cooking, you end up with trash - ends of veggies you don't use, onion & garlic skins, trimmed meat fat etc.... Well I turned my (unplugged) blender into a mini, temporary, counter top trash can. Way easier than negotiating getting things properly into a plastic bag when your hands are messy. Probably everyone else has thought of this already, but....I was still pleased with myself for getting the idea. That blender lives on the butcher block anyway - might as well make it multi-functional.


I'd bought a roasted chicken from the grocery store (which Geoff hates the smell of....I think because we had it a little too often on summer salads last year...overdid it a bit). I threw that in the pan too to warm it up a little. Put it all in a bowl and added a little salt and pepper and some crumbled feta cheese on top.


Kind of random to have all that in a bowl together. As opposed to: chicken with a side of squash & zucchini. But tasty. I would make it again.

Take Your Pick

I have been commissioned (and I use that term loosely) by my mom to pick some Cape Cod themed photos for the guest bathroom at our house at the Cape. She wants three 8x10s hung on one wall in a horizontal row. And the bathroom has just been painted a lovely shade of blue. And as of now I'm planning to use photos that have already been taken, so that we can bring prints up there when we go for the 4th of July. Mom, here are some choices....I don't have as many of boats on the water as I'd like. And if none of these work, we can always try to take some that weekend and mail them asap.

I think this might be my first choice as a set of three...(and in this order, horizontally across the wall from L-R)




Alternates...you could strategically replace any of the above three with one of these two (though the order may need to be changed):




OR - an alternative set - but clearly shot in the fall/winter (from Thanksgiving), and I wonder if we'd prefer to have a "summery" theme, since that's when renters are there. But the golden sunset tones might be a nice contrast to the blue walls? Again, these are in order, so imagine them L-R...




Alternates for "winter/fall" sequence:



Thoughts? Opinions? I think its kind of hard to get a sense of what they'd look like horizontally (with the second picture being the center picture) when they are stacked vertically on the blog. But I don't know how to make them go horizontally on this blog, so....there you have it.

And mom if you don't like any of these combos, I have some more options. They may not fit in as well with a "sequence", but we can play with it. Like, this is kind of a cool wide angle shot, but I'm not sure what other shots to pair it with...



Whatchu think...?

Seen: On the Streets of NYC

We are loving street photography these days....And of course, NYC provides plenty of material....


Carrying a chair home for his wife...


Pigeon walks down the street...


Taking care of her baby...


Motorcycle Man asking Vintage Chick about her cool set of wheels...


Wonder what they are looking at across the street (and i of course just love their dogs -which is actually what caught my eye in the first place)....


This guy rules...


So does this guy...


Fro-yo break...


As good a place as any...


How cool and James Dean is this guy? Geoff got this shot as we were walking past him and I think its totally amazing....


This guy on the other hand....not AS cool. No idea...


Smoke break...


Standard Bride on the street shot....


And oh the treasures you find at a...


Big money...literally


What's more fun than this?

One Whole Year

It is officially our one year anniversary today. Woohoo! It's completely bizarre to me that a YEAR, a whole YEAR has gone by. What? How?? It was so fast!

We have had a great first year, I think. We've grown a lot together and I feel like I am enjoying Geoff even more now than I did a year ago. We've had some standard first-year-of-marriage conflicts, as most do, but (thanks to Geoff) I am learning that conflict doesn't have to be scary or threatening. And we like our life together. We like to be together. Doing exciting things, or boring things. It truly doesn't matter. He makes me smile. A hug from him usually solves most problems. We are good for each other. He listens to me (at least when I tell him to). These are all good things I think.

We had a great anniversary today. The ONE day in like 2 weeks it hasn't been cold and rainy....we had a lovely outdoor brunch at Quaint, our favorite neighborhood spot. Gorgeous and lovely time on their patio just chatting over mimosas, goat cheese omelets and challah french toast. Yes please.

Then we headed home, got a little cleaned up and hopped in the car to head into the city. We would have set off on bikes, except that my chest cold hasn't fully cleared, so I was worried about my breathing, and Geoff had a 12 hour shoot yesterday, so we took the car instead. Got this cool shot from the passenger seat heading over the Queensboro Bridge....


We ended up in the West Village and just happened to park on Hudson Street in front of an open house. So.....we ventured in just for fun. And lo and behold, discovered our dream house.

OK, so most New Yorkers at one point or another, dream of owning a building with space for a shop on the first floor and an apartment to live in upstairs. Alison would have a coffee shop (featuring her amazing baked goods and perhaps with a knitting and/or live music focus, I feel), Stephen would have a restaurant, and Geoff and I would have a photography/video studio. A place to meet clients, have an office and hold photography shoots. FOUND IT!


Here is our future studio space...


How amazing is that? It was previously a children's clothing store, but before that, it was a children's bookstore. The very children's bookstore that inspired the one Meg Ryan ran in You've Got Mail. I know. So cool. And you can sort of see there's a little outdoor garden space out back. Also very cool. So picture, sort of a living room set up in the front for meeting with clients maybe...completely with flat screen TV to view film samples. And the back would be a photography studio set up. Not sure where we'd fit the actual desks and office space, but DO NOT WORRY, I will figure it out.

Then we ventured upstairs to the 2 bedroom apartment. And were not disappointed. This is our future living room/dining room space.


And get ready for my new kitchen. Look at that sunlight!!


Headed upstairs....which were narrow, but I'm not thinking about any problems with the place. We will just lose weight and shrink our furniture if it, or we, don't fit.


Second bedroom. Small, yes. But lets face it, who will really be staying in here? Alison maybe when she comes to visit from whatever whirlwind tour or film set she's been on? She's small. She can fit. A baby someday? Yes. But again, babies are small. Mom and Dad? They are used to cozy spaces. I think it will work just fine.


2nd floor bathroom. Nearly bigger than the second bedroom.


And the master.... Come on....amazing.


And the icing on the cake..... There is an outdoor terrace on the top floor. Please. Can you stand it?


So yes, you are all welcome to come over as often as you want. We will be doing much entertaining. The neighborhood is amazing. Hello, it's the West Village. And there is a Le Pain Quotidien on the opposite corner, right across the street. Restaurants, coffee shops, dry cleaning, sushi, playground, shopping....it basically has it all. The only tiny sticky part is the $3.5 million price tag. Just ever so slightly out of our budget. So, should any of you have that kind of budget floating around, go ahead and snatch this little gem up, and in lieu of a finder's fee, Geoff and I will gladly just live and work there. Sound good?

After finally tearing ourselves away from our dream house, we came upon a bazaar on Bleeker street, which apparently only happens once a year. Bought some cool magnets. It took me nearly 15 minutes to select the perfect three. In case you did not know this about me, I am slow to make decisions.


Found this awesome stand that was selling super cool hats. So we had a mini-fashion show...


Love this one....

If you'll notice, in nearly every picture I have to hold the hat on my head. This is because my head is ginormous and no hats ever fit me.



I clearly do not look as good in this one. I can't actually pull off a beret. And here I am laughing at myself for trying.


Possibly the most beautiful dress I've ever seen. Definately the prettiest one at a street fair.


Come on, this would totally win a Project Runway challenge. It's gorgeous. I think that's the designer, in the yellow plaid dress in the tent.


A Friend waiting to cross the street...


Dreaming of bags....


If you look closely, you can see us posing in the reflection...


On our first real date we went to this restaurant in SoHo called KinKao. Really amazing Indian food. It has since moved locations, and the old location is now a Tapas bar, but we took a picture of it when we passed it. I like this shot, even though it's blurry...


And after KinKao on our first date, we went and sat on a bench and talked for a while. Well, we found the actual bench. I hadn't realized it was so close to where we ended up having dinner tonight, but Geoff did, so we sat and watched NYC go by. He even remembered which of three benches it was. Impressive!


After dinner at Barolo, this Italian place with a lovely outdoor garden/courtyard, we wandered over to Little Italy for some gelato....as a tribute to having been in actual Italy for our honeymoon a year ago. I wonder if Little Italy knows it doesn't actually look anything like Actual Italy?


While in Little Italy, we passed a restaurant making this boast:


So Geoff took them up on their challenge and bought one. Here, allegedly, is the best cannoli on the planet.


It of course was not. So....shame on them, I guess. For lying. And shame on us for buying into their marketing ploy.

All in all, a lovely anniversary....good food, finding our dream home, and basically a visit to Europe. Not too shabby. Happy Anniversary to us!!