MV 2010

So we went to Martha's Vineyard for a week. More photos and stories to follow...

Random Thoughts...

We just finished watching "The Road". Okay, totally depressing. But I have to say, much better than 2012. That being said, we are now watching Casino Royale. Obviously, much better than both The Road and 2012, despite the fact that its on USA, with commercials. (Ugh).

Next? Next is an observation: Why is it that in order to purchase all of the various food items I need for the fam for a week I have to visit at least two (but usually three) different grocery stores? I can understand why I might need to go to both Wegmans and Whole Foods (since generally, Whole Foods has fresher meats/produce and they don't carry normal things like soda and oreos.... though they do have "Newman-O's"). But really, should I also have to throw in Shop-Rite or Stop n'Shop (or Target) into the mix? Why is it that Wegman's can't seem to carry Yellow Rice??? Or Newman's Own Lemonade/Iced Tea? Let's not even get started on the Newman's Own frozen pizzas. Those only seem to be at Target and Stop n'Shop. Stop n'Shop and Shop Rite are also home to the Stella D'Oro 100 calorie pack chocolate "S" cookies that are favorites of the Husband and Baby. Then there's Rye Bread by "The Baker". Again-- only Stop n'Shop... oddly, Whole Foods carries other breads by "The Baker", but not Rye bread. Aqua Panna in plastic bottles? Stop n'Shop. Unfortunately, Stop n'Shop (while convienently located near our house) is generally a scary shopping experience with 9 items out of 10 being close to or actually expired. Not to mention that it has weird hours and the people who work there love to close off one of the entrances well before closing time which is annoying since that's the door right next to the "self-check out". One other observation-- when I'm doing self-check out, I'd really appreiciate it if the folks who work at the store would refrain from bagging my groceries. If I'd wanted assistance bagging, I'd have gone through a manned-check out lane. I chose to self-check out because I don't want anyone else touching my stuff!

Otherwise not much else is going on.

I have started reading "The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest".... so far so good. Thoughts?

Oh, one last thing. Got to love the local dry cleaner. I brought in a suede Banana Republic Skirt (which I recently got for $5.29.... same place as the vintage Missoni) and asked how much it would be to have it cleaned. (It doesn't actually need a cleaning based on looks, but I always have "vintage" stuff dry cleaned.... yeah. $45.00 (?) $45.00??? That's 9 times what I paid. So needless to say I'll be looking for some other dry cleaning options!

$5.29

is what I paid today for a vintage Missoni top.

Score!

Pictures to follow...

Check out all that extra room!

Yup, I pretty much think I could park that car anywhere...

Samurai!

Here's a picture of the wacky samurai figures I scored at the Rummage Sale!

The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest....

is out on May 25th!!!!!

By the way, is it just me or is Mikael Blomkvist TOTALLY Stellan Skarsgaard???

It's that Time Again....

for the twice yearly VNA Rummage Sale! You might recall that we visited the sale in the Fall when the Mom and Dad were in town and we made a delightful score at bag and box day. Well, this year I went on Friday with Miss B. (it was a full price day) and got a bunch of neat fabrics from the Dry Goods tent, a wacky oil painting, a J. McLaughlin silk jersey button down (the style is the same as shown in the link but the pattern is different), a bunch of books including a first edition of Toni Morrison's Beloved, a really cool print of a detail of a Greek Vase from the Met for the Husband and a bunch of other goodies.

Today, for Mother's Day, the Husband and baby took me back to the sale for the infamous "bag and box" extravaganza!

I started off strong by sprinting to the "Bon-Ton" tent where I had spied some really cool Samurai looking porcelain figures on Friday. They were originally $18 each and I wasn't up for paying that kind of cash for them, so I wanted to see if they were still around. Sadly, the small portraits of George and Martha Washington ($28) and the Longhorn Skull ($150) were already taken.... but my samurai were there! Unfortunately, though, there was a limit of 19 shoppers in the Bon-Ton barn at any one time and there was an elderly woman seated at the door acting as a "bouncer" and she was taking her job very seriously. Thus, I had to wait in line. However, it mostly went quick and once inside I not only got my guys but I also got a Westmoreland piece of milk glass for the Mom. I saw the same piece on Ebay for $79.95... I paid $9!

Then it was on to the "Dry Goods" tent. (This is my favorite haunt... for $10 you can pack a grocery bag full of goodies-- whatever you can stuff!) I got tons and tons of wacky fabric remnants, craft projects, hook rug canvases and my favorite find of all-- a partially completed needlepoint of The Blue Boy! (The Blue Boy has sentimental significance from back when the Mom was a decorator...) I am probably one of the few people on the planet who love half-completed needlepoints... but that's part of my charm.

Finally, I also got a nifty hat for Miss B. (she does, after all, love her hats) and three books! (Two John Grisham first editions and a book about some kind of zen meditation for knitters...)

Afterwards, we also hit up the Trenton Kennel Club Dog Show. It was pretty windy out. The Husband was rather disappointed (as was I) that by the time we got there the folks with the Italian Sausage and Pepper concession were packing it in for the day. But we did get to see a good number of dogs and Miss B. petted some very adorable English Springer Spaniel puppies. Very exciting!

Marathon Man just came on... why does this always happen at 2 am?

Mini Me!

Hi there! We got a new car yesterday!

Thanks to the help of the good folks at Otto's Mini in West Chester, PA we are now the proud owners of a Mini Clubman S... how cool is that?

Alas, the wagon's day had come and now we're all Mini'd up.

I have to send a shout out to the Dad for insisting all those years ago on having my first car be a manual transmission. At the time he bought it (a Jeep Wrangler Sahara) I couldn't drive a manual, but as the Dad noted... once you learn then you'll be able to drive anything! This has been proven many times in the past including: i) when I drove a borrowed 5-speed pick-up truck to pick up a pig for roasting in college, ii) when I drove a rented Penske truck in Chicago when we were working on moving the Husband out of his apartment and iii) when I have driven various European rental cars.... including that one Ford Mondeo that I just happened to scrape the whole side of while trying to park it in Rome.

As for the Mini... we test drove the automatics and while they are convenient, they're not nearly as much fun to drive. So we're off! (Oh, and let's not forget the whole much, much better gas mileage thing, that's pretty cool too... and there's also the fact that it has an integrated iPod system, so I no longer have to have my iPod broadcasting through the radio. It's been three years since I've had static free stereo... woo-hoo!

Earth Day!

BFQ: The Final Product

Here it is! (It needs a good ironing and I have lots of threads that I need to clip...)

Ever Have One of "Those" Days?

Update!

BFQ completed! Photos to follow!! Last night I had finished the top panel, tonight I sewed it together and did top stitching... Woo-hoo! I also did some work on the large batik quilt that I am making for myself. I'm using small squares ( so it is taking a long time) and it is in a rainbow color palette.

In other craft news, I also finally began doing the needlepoint work on a canvas bag (with needlepoint panel) that I've had FOREVER!! The panel has some goofy looking sea grass type print on it, so instead I took a pink sharpie marker and made my own needlepoint design.. Nothing too complex or creative, just my name and a heart ( I have light pink yarn, so I thought the heart was appropriate). I've already finished doing my name, now I just have to fill in the heart and do the background in navy blue. I love tote bags and I love needlepoint, so I'm excited about the final product.

What else did we do today? Watched two episodes of Top Chef Masters (not loving it... Why does it seem more boring than the regular competition?) and then I watched Duplicity. Still not crazy about that movie, but this time around I found the soundtrack less distracting and more enjoyable than it was the first time. I also liked the scene in Rome near the Pantheon, since when we were there we also sat at a cafe at that same spot just like Clive Owen does. The scene really captures the light of Rome.

In other Italian set film news I saw a commercial for Letters to Juliette. As I informed the Husband, it looks like a movie I will have to see, not because of Amanda Seyfried or whoever the young guy is in it, but because Vanessa Redgrave is in it and it's set in Italy. ( Something is telling me I am in a rare demographic) but, A Month by the Lake is one of my favorite movies and the commercial kind of reminded me of it.

Lastly, in dining news, it should be known that the Mom and Dad recently sent me Giada di Laurentiis' newest cookbook and we've been making some of the recipes out of it. I did the Pasta Ponza ( but added little sweet peppers in Addition to the roasted tomatoes), gorgonzola and porcici risotto (but I used prosecco instead of white wine and gorgonzola dolce) ane her sundried tomato turkey meatloaf ( which was great, just as written!)

BFQ

I just finished a really big quilt! At least it is big in realtive terms! It is 10 five inch squares wide by 11five inch squares long! It's in pinks and oranges and features Amy Butler's Midwest Modern line of fabrics plus two solid color quilters batiks.

Big Brother Is Watching... and Helping with Heart Burn...

Yesterday I went to Target at the end of a long day and a string of random errands. It was getting late in the day and I was picking up a frozen pizza for dinner. I was also starving and really didn't want to wait to eat until I got home, so in addition to the pizza I picked up a bottle of soda, a Kit Kat bar (and a bag of Gummi Bears for the Husband).

Do you ever notice how when you buy something at Target, they always give you a coupon for something?

Well, yesterday's coupon was for $1 off of TUMS.

Hmpf.

So Target has developed semi-sentient cash registers that can determine that my overload of junk food will result in a need for antacid? Scary!

Crafts!

Here are some crafts that we've been working on lately....

I just finished another baby quilt! This one was "commissioned" by the mom of a friend of mine!

I also embellished a onesie with a design from one of the quilt blocks... (I saw this idea at my local quilt shop, Pennington Quilt Works)

Yay! I like the patterns that I found for it-- I think they will complement nicely the crib bedding that the recipient has chosen!

I'm also working on a quilt for Miss B. (though the patterns are much more modern... in fact I've used Amy Butler's "Midwest Modern" line of quilt fabrics! Photos to come...

In other quilt news, I've also signed up for a class at the Quilt Works. It's to make the "Fabulous II" quilt from the book Stratavarious Quilts. I have chosen a bunch of Kaffe Fasset Fat Quarters in blues/grays/purples. Some of them were a bit hard to find, but in the process I found a great Etsy shop for quilt supplies: Mountain of the Dragon ... if you like fun fabrics, you should check it out!

In other craft news... here's an idea for easy wall art for your child's room.... do you have any dust jackets from their favorite books? As Miss B. is getting older, we're starting to read more picture books, rather than board books. I find that a lot of them come with very decorative dust jackets... but unfortunately, with little hands, the dust jackets tend to get removed quickly and then folded/torn, etc. In these days of "wrapped" covers, I'm not quite sure why book makers are still making dust jackets for kids books, but since they are let's use that to our advantage! Madeline has become one of our favorite stories, so before the dust jacket got completely destroyed, I removed it from the book and framed it!

(Check out the frame that was all of $3.99 at Michaels!)

Then, to go with it, I also framed a colorful bit of Miss B.'s own art work. (Frame from IKEA). Not bad, if I may say so myself!

Check This Out....

So, sometime last year I was at Filene's up in Hackensack (I know I go to Hackensack way too often)... and I picked up a pair of Stella McCartney jeans. It turns out the jeans I found are the same as the ones shown here. Except, on that website the jeans retail for $230.00. I paid $17.00. How cool is that? Now I just have to shorten them, since clearly they are long enough to fit a 6'5 amazon!

New York Auto Show!

This weekend we visited the New York International Auto Show!

As I told the Husband, I went often to auto shows as a kid with my dad... I especially remember actually visiting the Delorean display at the Auto Show in Ft. Lauderdale that one year that Delorean actually produced cars!


I also remembered the days of neat giveaways, gift bags and all sorts of "swag".... alas, there is limited swag these days... but the folks at Mercedes did actually send me a coupon for $1,000 off the purchase of a new Mercedes, so I guess that's good.

I was really impressed that the show is open until 10:30pm most nights!

There were beautiful cars, including the new Porsche Panamera... their sedan. So what if the top of the line model is $160K? That's in the budget, right?

Miss B. was especially taken by the Fiat display... I guess it's the Italian in her.

BMW!

Gull wing Mercedes...

Who even knew they were still making SAABs let alone displaying them at the auto show???

I think this was a camaro.... but leave it to Chevy to have a bright green car!

All I have to say is...

Gerard Butler on the cover of Architectural Digest? It's like porn, but for women!

Interesting Friday on Television...

I just caught the end of Blade Runner. (Which I did not appreiciate when it was in theaters, but have been wanting to see it again, from the beginning for a while). Doubt I'll like it much more, but love Rutger Hauer!

And, now I'm watching Aida on Great Performances.