Brunch

For Christmas, one of my grandmothers always sends Seth and I a Brunch on her! Today is the day to enjoy our brunch on her! Seth and I used to be pretty regular about our weekend brunches, but lately we've been more regular about eating crepes at the little crepe and coffee place down the street.
So excited for the last brunch of 2011!

Photo

Saturday morning

I've spent the whole week not feeling well, and even took off one day (when I should have taken 3). And I'm still not feeling well. So here I am, Saturday morning, drinking warmed milk with honey, cinamon, ground clove, and ground ginger. It's a nice replacement for the 8 mugs of chamomile I drank yesterday. (I'm also thinking it's a great replacement for coffee...)

Our First Live Christmas Tree

Seth and I have never had a live Christmas tree before. We actually haven't often had a Christmas tree at all... Maybe our senior year of college? I'm not HUGE on Christmas. Personally, I feel the holiday is a consumer trap... I always feel guilty when people give me gifts, because most likely, they aren't getting one. Picking out gifts for others is a quite stressful thing for me to do (First it's: What to get people - I should know, they are family, right!?! Next is when to get it? How to get it mailed (considering my work hours)? How to get it mailed on time?... etc. etc. It's stressing me just thinking about it!) The positive thing that comes from the holiday is the family time (minus the fact that Seth and I don't actually travel home for the holiday... but in the past, that has been the up point of the holiday).

Seth and I have been talking about the holiday and how we'll celebrate it when we have children... Right now, we have opposing opinions about it, but since we don't currently have kids, I guess we have time to come to a compromise.

Anyway, as we were walking through the neighborhood yesterday, Seth mentioned wanting to get a tree, but bahumbug me said no! (That would be the point in which he started calling me Ebenezer.) Last night, when we had our friends over to celebrate Seth's 30th, he was graced with a gift of a Christmas tree from our dear friends, Scott & Sarafina. He's so lucky! And what a gift to hit the nail on the head for Seth! I do have to say it smells amazing, and as I was telling a co-working, the lights on the tree do give the room a relaxing glow that I've always loved!

And just a note, I'm not completely bahumbug, I've decorated the tree with a few homemade ornaments. I need to find the rest of my ornaments (ones my grandma made me) to hang on the tree too.

Seth's 30th

Seth celebrated his 30th birthday earlier this week! Last night we had a little get-together with friends and family, which included homemade pizzas, the game LIEbrary, a slide show of photos of Seth from his birth to now ;), and 80s music in honor of the decade Seth was born in!


The above photos is a pano photo shot by one of our friends of the banner I hung for him. I like the banner so much I want to leave it up :) ... Maybe I'll make a new banner to hang when we take his birthday one down.

Below is the cookie cake I made for Seth - I'm surprised it turned out, considering how impatient I can get when baking desserts!

a few of my very favorite people

 sweet baby zia

and phoenix and tristan

Lines

How Much Longer Will It Last??

I'm afraid that I only have a week left to enjoy the beautiful fall colors. We are heading home for the holiday, and I'm thinking the trees will be quite bare when we return at the end of November as they greet December with bare branches. Siiiigghhh. New York, how I love thee in Fall.

Four & Twenty Blackbirds

If you love pie (like I do), you must check out Four & Twenty Blackbirds. It is a place that makes it VERY difficult to share a piece of pie with your honey (although, Seth and I somehow managed to do it on our first visit - I doubt it will happen on our next!)

 Salted Caramel Apple with whipped cream + 2 forks = Yummmmmm.

Teee heee.

Beautiful Colors Danced Across the Sky

A sunset shot from Dumbo, Brooklyn (the BQE is blurred out just under half-way up from the bottom of the pic). The photo doesn't do the colors TRUE justice - they are bright pinks and blues and purples. In the original, they actually looked fake, too saturated. 

Pumpkin Pie Charm Making

Tonight I attended Etsy's craft night in Dumbo after work. We were making little charms using polymore clay - pumpkin pies in honor of the upcoming holiday. This pumpkin pie was quite easy to make, and it inspires me to want to make some more things with clay (not sure what I really need or want with these little clay things though... maybe I can hold my inspiration for my future children & make things with them ;) 

Photographic Journey

I just found this inspiring link. It makes me want to take a road trip in and capture the journey through photos. It reminds me of some other famous photographers, whose mission was to capture the journey and not rush to the destination. Someday, when we have kids, I'd love to take them on road trips where we can stop along the way and capture the moments it took to get us where ever we are heading.

Sunday Morning Creations

There is something about having an extra long weekend and a clean house... It gives my mind some clarity and my spirit a little motivation. I've been painting (nothing absolutely fantastic... mostly just simple things that anyone could do -- like the mermaid fins below). I've attempted a painting inspired by a de Kooning technique (create an abstract using the lines of letters to create the lines...) I want to redo my de Kooning technique using acrylic on a small canvas (whenever I make it to the art store to stock up on supplies). 

This morning, I was inspired to try to print some of my photos right onto pages from an old dictionary. This one got stuck in the printer and didn't go all the way through, but I was able to use it despite it not coming out complete. I just added our wedding date and a line from the song that was played during our ceremony.

You can't see, but I printed this one the "lifetime" page... 

I'm thinking of taking these in to get them custom framed.... or maybe I'll adhere them to a canvas... Hmmmm... They are kind of an awkward size. Any suggestions?

Fall in Brooklyn

it's breath-taking. i've said it before. i can't find any other way to explain it. and yes, baby, i am using one of the photos of the two of us on my blog (but only because i love the way you love me).

 i was surprised to find this hedge apple. they remind me of home. they remind me of this memory from my childhood... that seems so distant - maybe i only know it from hearing it... (dear mother and father, can you confirm this??) i faintly remember filling someone's car with these... did we really do this dad? driving the country roads, did we pick up as many of these things as we could to fill someone's back seat? i wouldn't put it past us (you!)... hmm... where did this hedge apple come from? it was obviously NOT from any tree close by in the park. seth wasn't as interested in knowing where this thing came from (his stomach was growling too much).

Current Knitting Projects

Last night I started another knitting class with my teacher, Berta. She started us on socks and taught us how the knit in the magic loop (can't wait to try my hand at arm warmers and leg warmers and, eventually, mittens using the magic loop). You can see the start to my first sock in blue - I still have a ways to go. The next project I started this morning was the white hat. I hope to finish it today. My other project that I've been working on for about a week and a half is the orange scarf. I'm almost through my first skein (which means I'm about half way done). 

I am not going to lie, I've been knitting MOST of the day today (my butt hurts from sitting in the same spot for 4 hours!)... I'm going to attempt to force myself to take a break and finish cleaning the house, doing the laundry, and run and get groceries for dinner tonight (we are hosting Family Game Night tonight!) On the way to get groceries, I need to take some photos of fall! It's in its prime right now!! The colors are bold and wonderful! I LOVE AUTUMN!