At the end of January, my friend, Lila Freeman, had a show of her drawings in Soho.
It was packed--Everyone had a great time and her work looked wonderful.
Her drawings are available for sale, so if you see any you like on Flickr, don't hesitate to ask!
Thanksgiving turned out to be pretty wonderful. In fact, I noticed myself musing about next year's, with all the same people, and what everyone would bring, and what we would do (perhaps actually take a group picture?!)...when, really, it probably won't happen next year. Or at least it won't be the same group. Which is why I'm so grateful for this year's.
Our guest list started out rather small (which of course would have been fine!) but then happily grew. We're so lucky our good friends Henry and Mandy came, and got to bring along the lovely Miss Dot. My brother Sam flew in from Utah as a surprise guest. My sister and husband came despite terribly busy schedules.
At some point during Getting Ready for Everyone, I realized that we had the easiest group of people coming for dinner. It made me happy to know that if we absolutely ruined the turkey Griswolds'-style, everyone would just laugh it off and have more of the stuffing. We never worried if everyone would get along. We knew they would. And they did. Despite blending two families, plus friends, our apartment was filled with laughter and chatting for hours. So I'm truly thankful for that. What a blessing (as my parents would say) to have such easy-going, happy people in your life.
The Mister and I asked everyone to write down what they were thankful for on slips of paper which were then placed in a bowl. After dinner everyone picked one and we all went around the table reading each others. They were funny and sweet. My mother's said something about "Thank you for Firsts." And I agree.
But I still can't help but hope it was first of many.
I drove out to Rehoboth last night, where my friend Jane lives, and we went to go pick up our turkey. Its funny to drive 20 minutes out of Providence and be in this little, sweet farming community. Well, it used to be mostly farms, but it sounds like its quickly becoming just a suburb, with lots of sprawling developments. Anyhow it looked like the country, and it was so close. Sunny Meadow Farms is technically the fenced in field behind Linda and Richard King's house. They used to have sheep as well, but afore mentioned housing developments have encroached on that, so now they just raise turkeys:
Our turkeys are raised on the finest grains, and receive no medication or Hormones or any other additives... We have raised turkeys at this location since 1980 as a 4 H project for our youngest daughter Jaimie. The love for fine food free to additives has kept us raising them ever since.
After welcoming us into their house and giving us lots of cooking advice (much needed!) they hefted over my 25 pound turkey, who was "walking around earlier" that morning.
I love this. After being a vegetarian for ten years, I try to remember to not take eating meat lightly. I think this is one of the best ways to do it: Supporting your community farmer, who takes good care of the animal. Obviously, I haven't even tried yet, but the King's were so friendly and helpful, I'm sure I'll be going back to them for all my other turkey needs.
The mister and I got up early (ish) to salt it. Oh man, those spices smelled amazing...
Yikes its been a little crazy around here. ...Which is nothing new, apparently. Let's do some catching up:
The We Are Wizards Theatrical Release was so much fun! It played at Cinema Village in New York, so we got to take a trip "home" and see everybody.
First we went to a Reading/Book Signing at Barnes & Noble for Melissa's Harry, a History (--which is on the New York Times Bestseller's List!!) She had us come up afterwards and answer questions about the film. She even led a group over to one of the screenings, which was pretty sweet of her. We raced back for the first Q and A, then got to have drinks with friends and family. (That part of the evening could have used more planning-- we ended up in a pretty dive-y bar in the east village with both our moms. Ah well. They didn't seem to mind.) Then raced back for the second Q and A. And then out again for more fun. Then sleep. Finally.
Anyhow, WAW played all week, ( and got a New York Times review!) and now the DVD's are available for Pre-Order! Yay!
We spent the rest of the week at home catching up on work and planning for our Thanksgiving dinner. Plates, check. Turkey, check. platters to put food on... uh...
We spent last weekend with old friends. Mostly cooking and eating. The best way to spend a weekend.
And now we're back, trying to get it all together for Thanksgiving for real. Hang up art, rearrange furniture, do some cooking ahead of time, pick up the turkey (from the Turkey Farm!) tonight, clean up, make our apartment pretty! yada yada.
In the midst of all this, the Mister and Saulie, aka The Possessed One, got to have some quiet time together:
They actually sat like this for a good 45 minutes before she tried to bite anyone.
We're getting there.
I completely forgot about my fondness for maple syrup until yesterday. The mister and I went out for brunch and I ordered french toast. Three huge, thick pieces and a little bowl full of syrup. I keep picking at the leftovers. gah. We had such a fun weekend! It started on Friday with a free screening of Kid Blue at the weekly Cinematheque Film Series at Brown, run by our new friend Colleen (who was accompanied by the talented painter, Buck.) Then a late dinner and drinks with said new friends, where it was discovered that during their time at RISD they lived in the building where I was born?! What the--?
Magically, after little sleep, we managed to get ourselves over to the farmer's market before it closed. And then to the gym. Also magic. Then a yummy lunch with my parents followed by Mad Men episodes, crocheting and not much of anything else.
Sunday, we resolved to hang up some art work. We promise to do this every weekend and it gets eclipsed by laundry, or dishes, or watching The Office. We procrastinated by going to brunch (where I got the afore mentioned delicious french toast.)
While waiting outside for our table, I absentmindedly pointed out a large dog walking by (we have a serious case of large-dog envy.) It, insanely, happened to belong to one of my very best friends from grade school who I haven't seen in years. She just got married! To a chef! She has a huge dog! And she lives two blocks away! After exchanging numbers, she had to run, but I spent the whole day grinning about it.
We did get around to hanging up art, mostly in the living room.
Its coming along.
Plus, we even did laundry. But left the dishes till today. Actually they're probably still waiting for me.
I know I missed the last Cricket Thursday. With all the election excitement I failed to take the photographs early and then Thursday was filled with rain. --Making it a very dark and icky day for photo-taking. It'll be back this week!
We had such a good time trick-or-treating! The night began with a pre-halloween Adoption Day Anniversary Party, which meant, among other things, a humongous, delicious cake! Matilda sized, it was noted. I felt so lucky to be there and to get to see such a happy family.
Then, all sugared up, they scrambled into their costumes. I really tried to get cute photos, but mysteriously no one could hold still. And we were out the door!
Our friends' neighborhood is apparently a trick-or-treating hot spot. People were arriving in cars! Needless to say, there were some very impressive decorations. This photo does not do this house justice:
Then it was back home to admire the piles of candy.
Everybody ready to vote tomorrow....?
Happy Halloween everybody! Its our first Halloween in Providence and we're gonna keep it pretty quiet.
Aren't these photos pretty? They're from our trip to Vermont last weekend. It poured the first day, but then looked like this the rest of the time. Amazing...
Anyhow, we're out the door to go trick or treating with my friends kids! Hope everyone has as much fun as we will!
It so pains me that my camera is MIA. I have so many things to show you!-- my lovely garden, the crocheted scarf that not only did I finish, but also looks good! various yummy dinners, various fun gatherings. Its killing me that none of it is being documented. Well, with pictures anyway. On a recommendation from the wonderful photographer Julia, I'm looking into getting the new panasonic. But this means coughing up hundreds of dollars. Last week I wasn't desperate enough, but its starting to be more and more tempting. Anyhow, in leiu of all those other photos, happily I have all these fun photos from my dear sister's wedding. My brother Sam was the official photographer and so most of these are his. He did an amazing job. There were hundreds and hundreds of photos, and so here are just a fun few...
I'm back in Brooklyn, finally. And its good to be back...? Well, its wonderful to see my kitties, who were so happy to see me again they practically licked my arm off. But it is hot here in Brooklyn. And that's a little ugh. And a little sticky.
So I was very lucky to have spent the last two weeks in Vermont! The first preparing for a wedding and the second enjoying it. My sister, the lovely Faith, and her lovely husband-of-one-year, Bruno, finally got around to actually having a wedding! And it was absolutely wonderful and amazing.
On the work front things have been great. I finished character designs for an animated web-game and got to do an illustration of Hillary and Barack (yep, we're on a first name basis.) It seems I have more political illustrations coming up. I really enjoy doing portraits, so I'm happy about that. I also have a couple of flash animations for teenwire.com in the works. This lady is keeping busy! Which is how I like it. Anyhow I'll post images here once I get the go ahead.
On a very sad note, amidst the festivities I seem to have lost my camera. This is certainly going to put a kink in things. I'm hoping it will turn up still. But if not, I'll have to cut my losses and just get a new one. ugh.
This past week I made cheesecake twice. Which is funny because I'd only made it once before a few years ago. And though it was pretty well received, and not too, too scary, I've shied away from it since. But to comply with a birthday request I made it again. I used this Gingersnap-Pear Cheesecake recipe from Real Simple and didn't stray too much from it. It was so easy and was completely delicious! (The only annoying part was making the gingersnap crust. --Which wouldn't be a big deal but I don't have a food processor. I know; it's sad. ) It was enjoyed by all and the best end to a birthday meal of pork loin, curried apples with barley, mashed sweet potatoes and salad.
We also had a cheese course before hand. Yikes. The birthday boy said it was like Thanksgiving. Such compliments! We all rolled home.
Anyhow it was so easy that we decided to have another one the other night. It was Valentine's Day so we deserved another one. I used low fat cream cheese, which was basically just to make me feel better mentally, as I'm sure it didn't make much of a dent calorie-wise. We used the same recipe, but this time made a chocolate one. --Basically just added powered baking cocoa. It probably would have been better with a graham cracker crust, but there weren't any crackers, so gingersnaps with more powdered baking cocoa ended up doing the trick:
So I'm not a fan of fast food chains, but a friend sent me this: [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JSUGPbIt30w&rel=1]I completely love it despite it being all about Burger King. yuck. But then I look back at the drawings and think if Burger King actually ran ads like this I could probably be persuaded to ignore their many, many faults.
Regardless, I know a certain someone who will appreciate that clip to its full extent. Man, those burgers look like they are having such a good time. Did you catch the bacon necklace?
Last weekend we went up to Providence. Not only is it so nice to get out of Brooklyn every once and a while, but Providence is such a nice destination. But we were no slackers on our "vacation" weekend that's for sure. We packed in visits with friends, an afternoon at the Atheneum Library, a screening of Juno, lots of food outings, a cookout and even a trip to the YMCA.
One of the highlights was getting to explore Nina's textile studio at RISD, which also involved a trip to the "yarn room":
It was amazing. Colors and textures everywhere. Fabric and string and buttons and looms. The best part was we got to touch everything. Almost everything. I even got some fluffy silver yarn from Nina's stash.
Did I mention we ate really well that weekend? Besides the dinner we made at my parents house, which was pretty impressive-- hamburgers, hotdogs, assorted veggies grilled outside, plus salads etc--and the bagel and lox brunch we had with Alissa and Gretchen, and the Meeting Street Cafe cookies Gerald and Skip picked up for us, we went to two great restaurants. The first was this little place on Benefit Street, Solomon's Korean Market, and the other was far down Atwells Ave, west side territory, called Chilangos. Both were pretty cheap, the food was great and you got tons of it. And on the way to catch the bus home, my Dad was kind enough to wait in the car while we ran into Geoff's, the sandwich eatery of my childhood. I'm happy to report that not much has changed, though the pickles seemed smaller and the staff considerably nicer.
Oh Providence, you are so good to me. Sigh....
I’m sorry I’m not there in little Rhody with you! Eat some clam cakes for me and I’ll light a sparkler here for you.
Have a wonderful birthday. I love you!
