Today's Craft!

This morning, Barney made masks, so we did too!

Who knew you could do so much with a paper bag from Whole Foods?

Add some paint...

Add some ribbon for a tie and you're done! Hi-Ho Silver!

I can't explain it

but I have a Steak and Shake craving. Unfortunately, according to their website there isn't one within a 100 mile radius. Damn!

Shoes, Italian Shoes

Tonight I finally wore my Chanel ballet flats. They've been sitting, in my closet, since January 26th 2008 (I still had the receipt). They're beautiful shoes-- black leather with black patent leather toe caps with a tiny leather bow on each and the trademark interlocking double C logo. They're made in Italy and are a size 37.5. Why have they been in my closet for two years? First because time passes too quickly and second, wouldn't you be hesitant to take a pair of $550 shoes out of the house for the first time??

The first pair of expensive shoes I bought were a pair of black Gucci loafers when I was a first year associate. Do you remember George Bush's $300 tax rebate? It got me $50 away from Gucci loafers. Gucci Loafers, Chanel Flats and most other fancy sounding shoes are often made in Italy. Italians can make very beautiful shoes. Unfortunately, however, they can't necessarily make two very beautiful shoes that are actually the same size.

When I was looking for the loafers I had to try on multiple pairs. I bought one pair at Saks, and still not completely convinced that they were the most comfortable, well fit shoes in the world, bought another identical pair at Bergdorf. At the end of the day, in order to make a pair which actually fit both feet properly, I ended up with one shoe from Saks and one from Bergdorf (I returned the other pair-- while still technically a pair, but of mixed heritage--to Saks... it was closer to my apartment).

It took me weeks to finally take the plunge and wear them out of the house. Looking back on it, I probably should have gone with the more classic leather soled version (I chose a lug-sole... very early-aughts, I know). I figured I walked to work-- these shoes were practically the equivilent of a car!

When I got to my office and stepped into the elevator, a woman colleague noted--"are those Gucci?" Why yes. Sure, I should have put that $300 from the government in the bank or in a tax-free municipal bond or something, but instead I bought shoes. (Which I may say, I still have, in my closet and since thankfully my feet finally reverted to their original size after pregnancy, I can still actually wear them).

The ballet flats? Fit both feet properly and are wonderful.

OMG!

Today was a day! We woke up and found our snow blower had been stolen out of our front yard.

Later in the day? I'm eating a Quaker Oats Granola Bar and I feel/hear that awful, gnarly sound of a tooth crunching. Yup... a granola bar cracked out a crown. Have you ever actually spit out a tooth? It's creepy. It was one of those things where all of a sudden you're lightheaded and it's like: Oh, my god. That's my tooth! The damn thing was half of a molar. Ugh.

Redbox, Score!

It's 12:30pm and I just managed to snag both "Up in the Air" and "Where the Wild Things Are" from Redbox!

Quilts!

Here are two baby quilts that I recently made.

This one is with Amy Butler Midwest Modern quilt squares together with quilter's batiks from the Pennington Quilt Works. At each of the four corners I added in ribbon tags (like those "taggies" blankets and dolls for babies).



This quilt is larger, in primary colors using Dick and Jane quilt squares.

The Chocolate Room

Today we went to Brooklyn to take part in a chocolate tasting at The Chocolate Room.

The Chocolate Room has two locations in Brooklyn, owned by Jon and Naomi. Jon lead our lecture and tasting, hitting up the high points of cacao bean production, processing and manufacture.


We sampled about 6 different chocolates-- most of which were dark. The Husband and I have a bit of a difference of opinion on chocolate. I'm a milk chocolate person myself, while he likes dark chocolate. I thought that 5 of the 6 chocolates tasted like baking chocolate, but the Husband really liked them!
(My plate is the one with all of the leftover chocolate on it....)


While we were there we saw some of the other great desserts that The Chocolate Room features, such as milk shakes and some killer looking banana splits!







They also have a wide selection of chocolate bars
and chocolate candy. We took home some candies, including one with a Grand Marnier filling and one with a Turkish coffee filing-- they were *very* good.




The interior of the shop is pretty neat too-- it has a lot of vintage signage, after all... who doesn't love Yoo-Hoo?

If you're in Brooklyn and you've got a sweet tooth, you should totally check out The Chocolate Room!

Books!

Today we visited the West Windsor Library Booksale. If you're in the area and a book sale fan you should check it out! Its going on through Sunday. Saturday is half-price day and Sunday is bag and box day!

Today we got some great Oxford books including the Oxford Dictionary of Quotations, an Oxford Concise Dictionary, an Oxford book on English Useage and an Oxford Edition of Pride and Prejudice. We also got some first editions, including a first edition Daphne Du Maurier and Thorton Wilder. We got Winnie the Pooh in Latin and in the craft section I got some neat stencil books and a Rowan knitting pattern book. Best of all, though, was finding a nice hardcover copy of Kipper's Toybox!

Great.

It would appear that now we have even less time in a day. Does that mean we're aging faster now, too??

Whirlwind Weekend

So we had quite a weekend. Things started on Saturday with a trip to the Met. They were having a music and lecture series for families showcasing Poulenc's "Babar the Little Elephant" performed by the New York Chamber Soloists. It was a lovely performance (though I have to say that Miss B. fell asleep during the musical lecture part, and only woke up after Babar was over...)
We also had a great lunch at the Petrie Cafe and Wine Bar inside the museum. I had this terrific poached pear, proscuitto and gorgonzola creme appetizer and a fabulous eggplant, tomato and mozzarella tart. The Husband had a puree of celeriac soup and farfalle bolognese. Miss B. got her standard pasta with butter and cheese and all were happy and well fed.


















On Sunday we took a drive down to Philadelphia to see Ringling Brothers' new circus tour: Funundrum!!
It was at the Wachovia Center and it was a great show. Of course, no trip to the circus can be complete without loads of nasty circus food including hot dogs, cotton candy and popcorn. Miss B. had never actually had popcorn before but she was insistent from days before even arriving at the circus that she had to try some. Let's just say the popcorn went over better than the cotton candy. (After all, cotton candy is really just like colorful dryer lint).

We got tickets in the "Circus Celebrity" section so we got to sit on the floor during part of the show which was pretty neat.
Over all, Miss B.'s favorite part was the elephants. (And yes, as with lots of junk food, no trip to the circus would also be complete without a half-hearted PETA protest outside of the arena... all they could muster was a few posters).

In Like a Lion...

Check out my new project and my new blog! My Month by Martha!

Help for Haiti 2

Laura at the Shore House is hosting another auction for Haiti! I'm going to be adding in as a bonus item a tissue holder, sunglass/eyeglass case and pancake mix! (A random assortment, I know...) anyway, you should totally check it out!

Leggo my....

oh, whatever, the damn Eggo Waffles are still in short supply!

The Reader

So I didn't see this movie when it was it out in the theaters. But I did finally watch it last night. Now I have to say, Kate Winslet did a great job. She really nailed the German accent and she did age thirty years or so throughout the course of the movie.... and it was a Ralph Fiennes movie, so it's got to get extra points for that... but it kind of left me with mixed feelings.

First off, you've got the relationship between the Kate Winslet character, who at the time is supposed to be 35 and a 15 year old boy. So that's creepy enough... but then we've got the whole thing where she was a guard at Auschwitz and she was among a group of guards who were responsible for the deaths of three hundred people. She's on trial and she basically takes the rap for the rest of the guards because she doesn't want to admit that she can't read or write.

The Ralph Fiennes character (Michael) knows her secret and could tell the court but decides not to. Kate Winslet's Hanna is then sentenced to life in prison. While she is serving her sentence Michael then goes on about sending her taped readings of books that he had read to her during their affair. She uses the tapes, together with books she's taken out from the prison library, to learn how to read.

Illiteracy is certainly a pressing issue, but trying to weave that story in with a holocaust participant? Trying to suggest that her shame at not being able to read was greater than her shame for murder... isn't that a little bit of a stretch?

I can't quite explain it, but I certainly wouldn't have made it into a movie, that's for sure!

I vote for Coco Before Chanel, if you're looking for Euro-tinged historical dramas.

The September Issue

I watched this documentary today and it was very interesting. If you liked the Devil Wears Prada you should check it out, to see Anna Wintour behind the scenes.

OMG

In time for Valentine's Day, I started on a project. The Husband has been asking for a wedding album for nothing short of eight years. It's a long story but our wedding photographer wasn't the best in the world. Needless to say we never had the wedding photographer do an album, opting instead to take our negatives and get half of our money back. What can I say, that's what happens when they fail to get some traditional pictures like the first kiss and first dance.

Anyway... after all of these years I still hadn't made an album. I had thought before about having prints and enlargements done and putting them in an album or scrap book format, but never did it.

Then, I thought about doing a Kodak Gallery type of thing. Finally, after I worked on the Blurb book for my Mom I was intrigued by the photo coffeetable books they show on the website.

So, I finally decided to have our negatives scanned in (together with some negatives from photos taken by friends and relatives-- who actually WERE able to get some of the missing images, like first kiss and first dance...) and digitized. It cost about $120 for the negatives to be scanned and a CD created. I chose for high resolution scanning so that way I could crop the pictures. Good thing I did, because I ended up picking 72 photos and out of the 72 I had to alter 70 of them--- the only two that weren't cropped were pictures that our photographer didn't take!

With the photos done I was then able to upload them to Blurb and using Blurb's software and tools I put together a beautiful photo album complete with dust jacket.

The book, with overnight shipping, came to $65.00. If you have any albums you need to make you should really think about using blurb. The cost of the album itself (outside of shipping) wasn't much more than what Kodak charges but the quality is really a step up.

Below are some of the photos!

What Should I Make With This?

I just got in the mail 72 four inch squares of different Kaffe Fassett fabrics in reds and pinks!

They're really neat colors and patterns. The Mom got me a book on "fat quarter" projects, so I'm thinking I may see if I can use these for one of those projects... but let me know your thoughts!

Long Overdue Crafts!

So I had this great Jennifer Pudney needlepoint kit for the longest time. Then I started it while I was pregnant. Flashforward two and a half years later and I've finally finished it! Granted, it has actually been complete for quite some time, I just never got around to fully outlining the fairy godmother... anyhoo I finished her off today and put it in a little frame. What do you think? Better late than never! (ps. I did change the design around ever-so-slightly from the original... the kit called for the fairy godmother to be a blonde ;)

Westminster!

Yes, it's that time of year again... when we go with Thisbe and the Wee Kraken to see the Westminster Kennel Club dog show! This year was the fourth year in a row that we've made the pilgrimage! This time we were also joined by Melanie, Andrew and Thisbe's friend Jason.






We saw the English Springer Spaniels...

And Siberian Huskies
Airdales.... and

a nun!

Afterwards, a Happy meal.

Crazy Crafting

Since 10:30pm this evening I've: (i) hot-glued wooden letters spelling out Miss B.'s name onto a kid-sized wooden step stool, (ii) finished one Kolo baby scrap book (pregnancy through christening), (iii) finished a second Kolo baby scrap book (christening through second birthday), (iv) brought third Kolo baby scrap book up-to-date (second birthday to the present), and (v) sorted and chronologically organized photos from trip to Paris and then put them into an album.

It was that or making one of two baby quilts or working on one of two long overdue knitting projects.

Alas, those will have to wait for another day. For now? Sleep!

NPR!!!

Okay, so how cool is this? The Husband told me about the NPR app for iPods/iPhones/Droids. It's neat, you can read current stories, etc... But I looked at it more closely tonight and found that you can have access not only NPR news stories, but also radio broadcasts including "Wait, wait, don't tell me"! and Fresh Air and obviously, All Things Considered. You can even search for broadcast stations that are airing certain shows now, and then you can live stream the audio feed!

And let's not even talk about Pandora!

Today we went to a great Valentine's brunch at Elements in Princeton. It's a lovely space and they have neat modern art up on the walls. Upon sitting down and looking around Miss B said: "Nice painting!"

Music!

The other night I was listening to Studio 360 on WNYC and I heard a performance by Malaysia's number one ukulele player. Only on public radio right? Well her name is Zee Avi and you can find her debut alb on iTunes. She's a singer songwriter and she sings kind of in a similar style to Zooey Deschanel (She and Him).

Also, this week's People magazine recommended Colbie Callait's acoustic version of "I Want You Back" for download and I have to say it's not bad.

Rounding out our latest downloads? "Rapper's Delight"... Always ecclectic, we try to be.

We've had a weird fumey kind of smell in the house since yesterday, after the Husband used the snowblower outside. It's kind of a mix of exhaust fume and gasoline. Mostly it's in the family room and it also can kind of collect in the stairway between the first and second floors. While I was doing some housecleaning yesterday evening I opened the windows on the second floor and got some good cross-ventilation going and the smell seemed to dissipate. The Husband opened up the garage door, the back sliding door and then febreezed the heck out of the garage and family room where the smell had been concentrated (you see, we hosted a playdate today and didn't want to have the whole play area smell like gasoline, I'm sure you can understand!)

This morning, the stairway was clear and the family room was okay-- we also kept some of the windows open a smidge. Then, this evening the smell started to build up again. So, I called the fire department. I used the police non-emergency number and asked whether they thought the fire department should come or if I should call PSEG. The dispatcher voted for fire department and we waited.

Next thing you know we've got two fire trucks, an ambulance, the fire chief's truck, another truck with other fire department personnel in it and lastly, a police car. Why is there a police car? Because one of the ladder trucks knocked the side view mirror off of a car sitting in traffic while the truck was turning onto our street!

According to the Husband this set off a discussion between the police officer and the driver of the car to the effect of "it's minor, do you really need to report it?" and between the police officer and the fire department "do we really need to do a drug/alcohol screen, or can't everyone just tell that you took the turn too wide?") and between the fire department and the driver of the car to the effect of "we can get you $500 out of petty cash..."

Of course we have virtually no driveway to speak of so all of these vehicles were lined up on our street out in front of our house and in front of the neighbor's to the left and right. The smell? Unclear. The fire guys (in all of their gear) used their high tech equipment to determine that there was a higher level of "combustible fumes" at a localized spot in our garage. However, there is no evidence of a gas spill or otherwise. Their advice? Empty out the garage and do a scrub down.

Random!

But, look at the chain of odd events we set in motion. Sorry to the guy who's one side mirror short!

Luge

Am I the only one who thinks there is something wrong with how the Olympics is handling the death of the Georgian luger?

The track looks clearly unsafe. Shouldn't the IOC and/or the representatives from certain teams (such as the US) halt further use of the track at least until the area of the track where the accident occurred is re-tooled? Had the walls of the track at that particular stretch been higher the athlete wouldn't have been launched out of the track.

Olympic Fashion

So, normally I'd say we love Ralph Lauren... but really? This year's Team USA outfits? Ralph, are you kidding? It's clearly just stuff recycled from his Polo line... so much so that even the hats say "POLO" on them... and do we really need the Ralph Lauren signature polo horse mascot emblazoned on the front of the down puffy coat? Hi, you're designing for the olympic team... shouldn't that be honor enough? Do we need to turn it in to a worldwide marketing event while we're at it? Ugh. And, Ralph, you of all people should know you can't pull off white pants after Labor Day.

We love our PR!

Icebat Goes Missing!?!

Sadly, Miss B.'s mid-sized Icebat (you see, we have three different Icebats-- key chain sized, medium and Large) was left behind at the Stowe Mountain Lodge (NEVER leave a man behind!)

Ivan in loss prevention found him. Icebat has proved popular with the people in Stowe, having been adopted and formally deputized as part of the loss prevention team.

However, lately he's been lonely, looking out the window of the office there, hoping for our return.

Today his adventure will begin again as he is carefully packaged and shipped off to home.

And From the World of Completely Random Job Descriptions...

Grant Wilfley Casting is seeking caucasian males with facial scars for work on the HBO series "Boardwalk Empire." Email a recent photo to boardwalk@gwcnyc.com w/ [Facial Scars] in the subject line.

Shutter Island

So I finished it. In a day and a half. That's usually a good sign. It was fast paced and a good read. I was a bit disappointed in the ending. Passing the paperback on to the Mom... I'm still going to see the movie though. I always love Scorsese and Leo.

I Promise, This is the Last Post About Stowe, at least for now...

On to the food!

If you're in Stowe and in need of a good bagel, you must check out "The Bagel" at 394 Mountain Road. When we had brunch at Norma's at Topnotch the Husband got the "NY Deli Bagel" and it was a great bagel... so we asked where it came from and were told that Topnotch gets their bagels from a shop in town. We hit up the shop and the joint was jumping. I bought a half dozen to take home and they were really good! They even had a "cinnamon sugar" bagel. How neat!

By the way, Norma's? Was really good. I got the "Vermont Country Breakfast" (2 eggs, potatoes, toast and bacon), the Husband got the aforementioned NY Deli Bagel and Irish Oatmeal and Miss B. got french toast. B. won the breakfast challenge by far-- while everything was tasty, the French Toast (with real Vermont maple syrup) was outstanding.

We also went to Solstice, at the Lodge. Solstice specializes in farm-to-table artisnal cuisine. We had a terrific Vermont cheese platter, Rhode Island calamari, the Husband had lamb and gnocchi and I had truffled macaroni and cheese. Baby had a slider and fries.

Then, in addition to the samples at the Ben & Jerry's factory tour, I also got some great cheese samples at the Cabot Cheese Annex in Waterbury. Mostly, we just ate a lot.