Accidental Purchases

Geoff and I had a lovely day of browsing yesterday. Which turned into a lovely day of shopping. We went to West Elm, which was heaven. Ended up with a pseudo bedding set and several accessories. We decided we're going to return the bedspread (not pictured, but matches the shams), as it seemed to be from another dye lot and didn't quite match. But the shams (on sale for $9.99 each) and throws matched our current bedspread and sheets quite well.

The pillow on the left we already had...the other two are new.


We also bought new (MATCHING) bedside lamps, thanks to Uncle Jon & Aunt Paula's Crate & Barrel gift card from the wedding that we had YET to use. We love them! Their arms swing....closer or farther, whichever you like.


Geoff also bought me these vases....which I loved, but was hesitating on. I heart them. Also heart the $10 lilys we bought from our local florist this morning.


All in all....totally digging our room right now.


Just have to get a slipcover for that yellow chair, stain the TV stand to match the rest of the furniture and maybe swap the TV out for a sleeker (flat screen) model. And maybe actually get my shoes out of that basket and into the closet-appropriate rack I bought over 6 months ago (which is still in the box), and maybe also swap out the photography (those warm colors don't really match anymore and besides, Robert Norman gave us a huge print of us in Florence). Then we will be Martha Stewart-ready....

Friday Confessions

TRUTH: I have not even begun to fight on those pictures from the July 4th weekend. I've worked on them every spare moment I've had (which hasn't been a ton this week) but I'm not even half done. Truth be told, I was a bit disappointed in them. Some decent ones for sure but....not amazing. Therefore the blog post is not done. Barely started. My goal is to get it done this weekend. We'll see....

TRUTH: I think there is a serious lack of good gazpacho available. In general. But also specifically in the area around my office. It's what I want for lunch in the summer. Hale and Hearty Soups - eh. Metro Cafe - Way too spicy. Pret A Manger - Boring. The only gazpacho i liked - and I used to get every day last summer was from Wholesome Wraps. And they closed.

TRUTH: I am bored by the movies that are out currently. I'm sure the Harry Potter will be good next weekend, but the rest have seemed....blah.

TRUTH: I am leaving work early today. "Summer hours" are supposed to start at 2pm. Here it is nearly 4pm and I'm considering myself lucky to be getting out. Might go sit in the park and read. Might go window shop for things I can't afford. Hard to say. Would like to go home and blog with my slightly-less-than-4 free hours I have before our dinner plans. But....Half hour home - It's 430pm, then 2-ish hours at home and back into the city. Eh....would just make me tired. And 2 hours is not nearly enough.

TRUTH: I wish I had a garden. Our windowsill is getting mighty crowded and there are more things I want to plant and dunno how to make it work.

TRUTH: My house is a disaster. Needs to be cleaned, laundry needs to be done, and I need to finish unpacking from last weekend. We will tackle at least a little of this this weekend.

TRUTH: Sometimes I have a hard time letting go of things. If I get hurt or worried or stressed, it can be tough to have it not affect me for a decent amount of time. I can tell myself to take a deep breath, relax and remember what I can control and can't. The Serenity Prayer does actually come in handy.

TRUTH: I REALLY want a big chalkboard for our kitchen wall, but Geoff says our walls are so old and weak and stupid, it's hard to hang remotely heavy things on there. I still want one though. Like, a lot.

TRUTH: I cried three times during Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants 2.

TRUTH: I wish I liked to exercises. I wish I could make myself be one of those people. I like biking and tennis and swimming. That's it. Tennis and Swimming you can't just do on your own....needing a tennis court and a swimming pool to actually facilitate those activities. Biking is all I've got. But even then, sometimes I'd rather just sit outside with a book. Hopefully I will feel like it this weekend... we'll see.

TRUTH: I love baskets. Not baskets with handles that are grandma-ish, but cool, mostly square and rectangle baskets that you can put on your bookshelf/coffee table/entertainment unit to hide the stuff you need on hand, but is ugly to look at.

TRUTH: I consistently misspell the same words. Rhythmn. Excercise. Disappointed. Specifically. That is how I always spell them. I may never learn. Thank God for spell check or I would look like an idiot.

TRUTH: I would almost always choose a salty snack over a sweet one.

TRUTH: I am now heading to the Upper West Side where I will window shop at Crate and Barrel for furniture have no space for, pop into the container store and potentially buy some baskets, and then maybe go to Central Park and read my book before dinner with friends. I may even break with the norm and get a Pinkberry to enjoy. Look at me, I am full of surprises.

Happy Friday!

Speedy Sunflower

Well, well, well....

We arrived home on Sunday night at 2:30am from our big weekend at the Cape (more to come on that soon - once I sort through the 750 pictures we took!) and WHAT did I find awaiting me?

This guy -


He is so tall and so fast to grow! There was NOTHING growing out of that pot when we left Wednesday night. Then we go away for 4 days and all of a sudden he's practically a teenage sunflower! I was shocked. Shocked/Nervous that he will outgrow our kitchen windowsill garden faster than I thought. Geoff took this picture yesterday afternoon and we think it was even taller by last night. Um.... yikes.

More to come on the 4th of July weekend soon...

Cape Cod bound

We are sooo outta here.

Tonight we are packing up the car with bags, bikes, Bokas, Alison and her dog Rupert and driving up to Cape Cod for the long weekend. I'm beyond excited. It will likely be our only chance to get there this summer. Mom and Dad are there already. Clay is coming tomorrow. In fact, Clay is the reason for the whole sha-bang. He will be turning 30 years young on Friday. And he is throwing himself quite the bash. And we will be just a few of the guests in attendance. He sheepishly admitted to Mom that, "there might be tents". Mom is attempting to remain very calm. QUITE the soiree. And tons of his fun Boston friends are coming, most of whom I've yet to meet. He bought a condo there, is now driving a BMW and is all kinds of fabulous.

We do milestone birthdays prety well in our family I think. For my 30th, Mom and Dad came to surprise me, Clay flew in all the way from California, which was also a huge surprise (that made me cry), we rented out a martini bar in Hells Kitchen for the party and Geoff proposed. Not too shabby. For Dad's 60th, Clay and Geoff and Uncle Chuck and I all came to the Cape to surprise him. Clay apparently didn't trust us to do him justice, so it took it upon himself to plan his own party.

AND, this party has a theme. Inspired by Nantucket Reds, the Cape Cod lifestyle, and the below video.



We are all expected to come dressed appropriately. I've been working on my outfit all week. Not as easy to find in NYC, but as Tim Gunn says, I will be making it work.

Oh, there will be MANY photos to come....

Happy July 4th holiday weekend!

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?