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!

Good Morning Sunshine

I don't love the darker evenings that come with the recent time change, but I can tell you that I doooooo love seeing the sunrise on my way to work!!! Isn't this morning's sunrise breath-taking!?

Manhattan Bridge

Dear Manhattan Bridge, 

You always make me stop and stare. Monday night was no different. You, standing there so stunning. Me, tired, but seeing you. I do love you majestic Manhattan Bridge. 

xo,

A

It REALLY is FALL HERE!

This weekend Seth and I plan to head upstate to take in more of these BEAUTIFUL colors! Hopefully the weather is as wonderful this weekend as it has been the last few days!!! 

Inspired by this NYC Video

*Wiping the tears out of my eyes right now...

You must go watch this video called A Year In New York. It inspired me (hopefully enough to make me act on it) to take photos of NYC. This might be my last year here, and although I have thousands and thousands (probably a million) (I'm not kidding) photos of NYC, seeing it for the last time will make me see it differently. I hope the next place I live opens my eyes and my soul like NYC has.

My silent cheer to myself will start now:
I'm not as tired as I feel. I'm not to tired to see the place where I live. I'm not to tired to live in the moment and capture that moment, or any moment, from my day. I'm not to tired to be inspired. I'm not to tired to hold fast to that inspiration (that I usually feel when I'm not so tired). 


Notice a trend. I've been really tired lately ;) BUT I'M NOT TOO TIRED TO CAPTURE MY LAST YEAR!

Way Back

My desktop runs through photos from my computer as its screen saver. All too often it's a walk down memory lane. This one made me go searching. Look how young Seth looks. This was almost 7 years ago. At this point, Seth and I hadn't even been dating 6 months! We were in Colorado on a huge group snowboarding trip. You can see the photograph (a friend, not me) caught at least 2 of the 3 of them with funny expressions on their faces!

PS: Seth, I posted this before you go home because I knew if you saw me doing it you'd tell me to STOP!! ;) love you xoxox

Art Cups

 The bottom floor, north point of the Flatiron Building has been turned into an art exhibit. Artist Gwyneth Leech uses cups from her coffee and tea to create her pieces of art. According to this write-up, she records the date of drinking the contents on the bottom of the cup.

The website also said the artist would be working in the space Tuesday-Saturday from 11 a.m. until 2 p.m. until the end of December. I must get the chance to go watch her work before the exhibit ends.

inspired by the mural

midtown mural.

Would You Rather Be Afraid of the Dark or of Zombies?

As I admitted the other day to a bunch of kids, I'm quite scared of the dark. My imagination, as of lately, has gotten a little away from me. I'm always worried about the worst and when something bad happens, it's a pretty permanent part of my brain and worries.

Today. Didn't. Help.

I don't know if I was ever a huge fan of Halloween (ok, maybe when I was a kid with a bag full of candy)... but costumes are too much work and this partying in the costume just never suited me. I'm not a dress up kind of person.

Then, I moved to NYC and happened to be working in a horrible, scary neighborhood (scarier than the dark. And zombies.) My perceptions of Halloween changed. For the worse. I hated it, but more than anything, it scared the living daylights out of me. I would travel hours out of the way to get home because I was so scared. I contemplated calling into work sick, because I was so scared. But last year, it changed. I worked in a neighborhood that wasn't scary. And I don't much remember have my fears of Halloween last year.

Today, though, brought it all back. Within 10 minutes of leaving the building and making the way to the car (because I knew I was leaving with a co-worker who drives as soon as we could possibly leave), there were shots fired across the street. 3 of them. The first one fired, and I actually stood there dumbly. Maybe I was asking myself what I should do in a situation like this. Maybe I was asking myself if this was really truly happening. Maybe I was just trying to figure out if the shot that was fired had harmed anyone. The other two weren't heard because I headed back into work, where they put our building on lock-down and held us until we had the clear from the police (who don't much make a presence in our neighborhood, despite a recent drive-by, murder, and now THIS. Let's just say NYPD isn't on my favorites list lately.)

So. Today it is so. Halloween is not a good holiday. My future children may be punished by the paranoia that NYC is giving me about the holiday as a whole. They'll be lucky if I even let them out of the house. Breathe.

Today was also a day that NYC and I didn't end on good terms. Not only is the holiday messed up, my fears are now skyrocketing into space, the NYPD is surprisingly missing from the scene, BUT my metrocard stopped working (for the 2nd time in 4 months -- FU MTA -- All because of an MTA bus machine f*ing up the magnetic strip on my card). Today was a day that I do NOT love NYC. Today was a day where I wished I were anywhere BUT NYC.

Except for the sign above. It made me smile, because I love ZOMBIES! Maybe that will be the stipulation... my future children can celebrate Halloween ONLY if we get the be a family of ZOMBIES!! :)

Hope your Halloween was sweeter than mine!

city sunset

someday i will miss this.

me & my new scarf

love this new scarf. it's soooooooo warm.

What We've Been Up to Lately...

It's been a while since I have posted... Quite a bit going on here in NYC.

Work and crazy scary stuff happening in my work neighborhood - including a murder/robbery & lots of news crews + a drive by shooting... I love my job, but I'm getting a little unsure about putting my own safety at risk... no more walking by myself, and I'm going to be getting rides as much as I can with co-workers.

An overnight trip upstate at the end of this last week - I'll post a few photos if I get the chance! The trees are beautiful, but it wasn't just fall for us, we actually got about 1 inch of snow while we were up there!

I'm learning to knit. I took a class in midtown. My first scarf has been completed and now I'm working on my first hat! It was supposed to be for Seth, but it's a bit teeny... I think I'm going to take another class with my teacher (she's an amazing knitter) to learn how to knit socks :) I can't wait!

We've been cheering on our college team in an awesome season - 7-0 so far! We were filmed by ESPN last week and even made it on a Game Day clip this morning. Check it out HERE! You'll see me between Seth and his brother, Ian, cheering on the K-State Wildcats at the Australian (love that bar!)

Today, Seth and I are relaxing at home & hoping to catch the K-State game in our neighborhood + IT'S SNOWING!!!

This is a shot from when the snow first started... now we've got a nice blanket of white forming!

Seth - Take Me on a Date to this Place

Tuesday night, at the last minute, I attended a class showing how to do acrylic transfers (can't wait to try these out in some of my art). It was at the Brooklyn Art Library (a part of the Art House Coop). If you don't know about the Art House Coop, you totally have to check them out! 

One of their projects is the Sketchbook Project. Has anyone done it? There are 10,000 sketchbooks along this wall! I am thinking about signing up for the 2012 Sketchbook project. I have to sign up by Oct. 31st! I was talking to someone who works at the library about how intimidated I was, and she was helpful in calming my fears about it! :) 

Now I just have to go back to the library when the sketchbooks are available for checkout so I can get inspired by the creativity!!!

I also love the place for all the vintage things they have there!!

Knitting

A friend from work had been talking about Groupon off and on last year, sharing some of the deals she's found. I didn't actually think it sounded like anything I was interested in... until I checked it out this summer and found CLASSES on there! In September, I took a sewing class (now I just need a sewing machine!) The other day, she came to work and told me that knitting & crocheting classes had been posted! We both bought the Groupon - she's taking a crocheting class & I'm taking the knitting class (just what I was waiting to see posted!) 

The class is 3 sessions. The first one, we started a simple scarf - which I have to complete by this Monday (Eeek! I'm not even through one roll of my yarn & I have to do all 3!!! Weekend Homework!)

***Colors might be off... Photos were taken with my iPhone.

In the next session, we are learning to purl (I think), and in the last session, we'll learn to knit on a round! I can't wait & I'm excited to feel some success with it so far, even though I have a ways to go before I complete the scarf!

I Should Be a Nanny

Monday, on my day off, I spent a few hours practicing my other calling as a Nanny :) Sweet baby C (the one I shared photos of a couple weeks ago) spent his first hours away from his momma... He was pretty chill about it. Momma, on the other hand, text not long after leaving (I can't imagine), but we sent her a photo to show her that her sweet baby was fine! I hung out with him in the middle of his mid-day nap. He woke for a short time to eat, get his diaper changed, and fall back asleep (although, he was trying hard not to). 

dear city sunset,

boating in central park