Working late with Ang Lee

I've been working way into the wee hours lately and so have been taking full advantage of hulu.com's selection of films to keep me going.  Even if it does take a bit longer to get something done, I figure its worth it, as I'm actually doing it.  Having a movie going on in the background allows for working through the night.  Anyhow, I stumbled across Ang Lee's Sense and Sensibility last night.  Its so lovely.  I love Jane Austen.   If you haven't seen it in a while and like those sorts of things, you should definitely check this one out again. Besides the amazing cast and the expected wit, its just wonderfully weepy and wrenching, with the dependable happy ending.  Which one appreciates at 2 am.  

One random thing that really caught my eye was their posture. Its out of control.  

  

See? Even there as they're sitting casually in the grass...

I also was really drooling over the millions of pleats in their simple empire waste dresses.  I love pleats...

Ok back to work! I'm off to a screening tonight in Newport, RI of We Are Wizards, so I've got to get stuff done.

Warm Colors and the Exorcist

     I've been thinking about the Exorcist a lot.  Mostly because our newest kitty  tends to act possessed in kind of a scary way.  I think she must be a big fan of that film, as she spends lots of her time perfecting satan-spawn growls.  Though, to her credit (and assumedly ours,) they are becoming less and less frequent.  

Anyhow, thinking about the Exorcist, led me to thinking about Fall colors.  (The first part of the film has the loveliest colors in it. )  I looked to see if I could find any stills from that part of the film--you know, sans drooling little girl.  But no one seems to be interested in that part, at least visually.  Which is too bad.  So I looked up some fall 70's photos on Flickr.  

    

I think they'll make really great color sources.  I get stuck with color a lot and I forget that using images like this is a good way to figure it out.  

Blending

I haven't mentioned it, but we have a newcomer in our house.  Due to circumstances involving exgirlfriends and pounds, we now have a new kitty to add to our ever growing feline family.   So now there are three.  

It has occurred to me that this now means we're crazy cat people.  But after complaining about this, The Mister assured me that once we get a dog, we'll just be crazy animal people.  Which sounds better to both of us.  Needless to say welcoming a new dog will have to be put off until our current growing pains simmer down.  This might take a while.  Our new little lady is the prickly type.  

In related crazy cat people news, we put up cat shelves!

     

What else were we going to do with those high ceilings?  Its almost like a kitty habitrail...

You may have noticed that we put up the shelves before any other decorating.  And its true-- it looks a little sparse.  But we're working on it.

Weekend Reminisce

We had such a good weekend.  Well, Sunday anyway.  Saturday was a lot of cleaning and putting away.  (Yes, still.) But Sunday:  Yummy (though a bit monochromatic) breakfast!  Homemade playdough! A walk through a seaside bird sanctuary! Antique stores!  Then home to a yummy dinner, the beginnings a crocheted necklace and some Coupling watching!  Such a good day.

The playdough is part of a gift package I'm working on for two little girls back in Brooklyn, who I miss miss miss.

    

 I took the advice of several of the comments on the Apartment Therapy site and used boiling water instead of cooking the whole thing on the stove.  My water to flour measurements may have been off-- I wasn't being too careful-- but it was too wet at first.  But this was solved by micro-waving batches for a minute at a time. ( Still probably easier than cooking the whole thing on the stove?)  Then as they cooled I kneaded in the colors.  The other tip was adding lotion!  Sounds weird, but surely this was the secret ingredient.  And make sure to add more than you think-- ie 5 Tablespoons was not going overboard.  Not only does my playdough smell lovely, but it stays soft for hours-- I know, I left an extra bit out all day.

My camera died a few steps  into the bird sanctuary walk, but I got a few shots in.  

    

Man, it was so gorgeous.  This is one of the things I want to take advantage of while living here.  Its hard to believe this spot is just 20 minutes away from our Providence neighborhood. 

    

 I can't wait to find more lovely spots like this one.

A Very Merry Un-birthday to Sammy!

My lovely brother Sam's birthday was a few weeks ago in August. I didn't have it together then to do any posts at all, but it wasn't until after posting about my sister's birthday last week, I realized I missed his!

Happy Birthday Sam! Happy Golden Birthday: 23 on the 23rd!

 

Sam is an amazing photographer, among other things. He shot our sister's wedding and these photos are his as well. You can see more of his work at Flickr.

Cookies!

I probably should have posted about these before the conventions...But...I didn't.  Never-the-less: the drawings I did of the Presidential Candidates for Eleni's bakery in New York, are now on sale as cookies!

          

For the last six Oscar seasons, I've done drawings of the Best Actor/Actress nominees for their "Conversation Series" cookies.  This is one of my favorite jobs to do every year, so it was really fun to get to do these as well!

I always send my grandmother a box of them, and I think she was excited to have these for the convention.  The cookies themselves, besides their obvious novelty factor, are quite tasty--perfect little sugar cookies, with the images printed on sugar paper, which melts in your mouth...

So head on over and pick out your favorite candidate, or maybe his rival?-- Then you can really bite into them!  Yum!

 

Looking for Fall

Last night, while putting away my clothes in my new bureau, straight from my parent's attic, (thanks guys!) I noticed that I own five pairs of black tights. Five. This is funny for a few reasons--1. I own a million dresses and skirts just waiting to be paired with black tights, and almost every day find myself in a pair of jeans. 2. I've decided that this fall I will be rocking all those skirts, with said black tights, and boots. 3. Its ridiculous to have five pairs though, right? Anyhow, I just ordered this pencil skirt from Liinok. I know, you may think from the above statement that the last thing I need is another skirt.  But I'm really excited about it. She makes each one to order. Its denim, it has pleats and a wide waist band.

I can't wait for it to get here.  Its just thing to turn me into a skirt-wearing, Providence-living lady.

Happy Birthday Ms Faith!

Happy birthday dear sister!   Not only are we both magically on the same coast, we're only an hour away from each other!  I'm so glad. Lady, this has been a big year for you.  Have a wonderful birthday!!

 

We Made It!

    We're here!  At first I really didn't think we could fill this place up-- I mean after living in relatively tiny Brooklyn apartments (give or take those few lofts) for the last 11 years-- how much stuff could we have?  But after today's trip to Lowes, Kmart and my parent's attic and basement, I've decided I'm never moving again.  Seriously.  If I have to lug one more heavy piece of awkward furniture up that flight of stairs...  

The unpacking is still going on.  And the settling in. But its getting there. 

Things I like about my new neighborhood:

• There's a park!  (With a dog park where I can bring my imaginary dog. and a farmer's market!!) 

• The little store around the corner has great sandwiches, and the New York Times, and is helping with the Brooklyn bodega withdrawl.

• There are TREES!  My desk faces a window now and I keep looking out into leaves...

• We have a huge apartment and happily that translates into a huge studio/workspace for me!

• There's a window seat!

• There's a community garden next door!

Things I don't like so much...

• Where is the subway? Driving is a pain.  Though having a humongous mini van to borrow did come in handy today .

• Did you know that the Sunday NY Times does not have the NY real estate section?? Whaa? But why not?? I found myself sputtering.  Surely it is not only the New Yorkers actually in the city that find all those stories fascinating.  There must be other displaced New Yorkers who mysteriously are attached to that section as well?  very upsetting.  

• I can't really get a fix on how safe this neighborhood is.  Its certainly prettier than I'm used to...There have been conflicting comments from neighbors as to the safety of walking around at night.  Can you do that by yourself?  I think feeling this out is kind of part of settling in and becoming more familiar with everything.

• Our apartment is riddled with screws and left over nails from the last tenants.  On the other hand, I guess that means I can add as many as I want of my own.

• The back and front stairwells of the house badly need vacuuming.  Frankly, there are a bunch of little things like that.  Its an old house, the owner isn't here, the "super" seems to be really busy.  None of it is a huge problem, more just basic upkeep.  Is this the sort of thing we do ourselves? Or just let go? Or actually be those people who complain about a lot of (albeit warranted) stuff right after they move in? sigh...

I'll post some apartment pics soon.

Packing

In preparation for my move this Saturday, I'm now surrounded by an apartment that looks like this:

To my surprise, the kitties are mostly just having lots of fun with the new piles of boxes everywhere.  Hudson has co-opted this one in particular:

 

Watch out.  His new favorite game involves sneaking around ( in/with the box in tow) and swiping at unsuspecting ankles:

           

Its very hard work, but the holes provide a perfect kitty nose-rest.

I'm still off to get Rescue Remedy to help smooth over the upcoming, unprecedented, car ride. Not too mention a whole new home.

The other day they both decided to pack themselves:

 

Thanks guys, very helpful.

Letters and Gardens

  I got a letter from my grandmother today.  I love letters! I always forget how fun it is to get one in the mail, until I actually do. And its so nice.  She told me about working in her garden (apparently she uses a tabasco recipe to keep the deer away!) and the painting classes she's going to start.  She's a master gardener.  For real.  People used to tour her garden at her old house-- the rose garden, the sunken garden, the front yard.  It was huge and had all these different parts.  Now she lives in a retirement community, and does most of her gardening in her plot of a shared garden.  I told her how our new neighborhood has a community garden across the street from us, and she wrote back saying that community gardens are so fun because of all the people you meet and all the new things you learn.

Pretty soon, the cats and I will have to say goodbye to our little roof garden.  It turned out to be a nice little spot...Do you see that one red tomato in the photo below? I got to pick it yesterday!

Illustration Friday: Poof

So I was at the gym listening to Jay-Z...

And came up with this, instead of the fashion-y, poofy dress idea I had sketched out earlier.  Which is good, as I think part of the fun of Illustration Friday is to do something unexpected with the subject.

I like how a lot of parts of this came out, but now that I'm looking at it-- his eyes should be looking at us. Not off to the side. darn.

Regardless, its nice to just bang something out and not be too neurotic about it. You know?

Nest Update

I think I've redeemed my Nest project.  It wasn't going so well.  But I found this pattern on CrochetMe.com, which I love.  And its actually looking good.  Its basically a paper chain you used to make when you were a kid, but with yarn.  And because I'm using such bulky yarn, it looks more like a braid than a chain.  I love that.  I'm really excited about it.

Whoops! I wrote that in the middle of July and thought I posted it.  I was probably waiting until I had some images to go along with it.  And now I do!

Anyhow.  I finished it:

 

And I think it looks great.  Its too short to tie, ( its a scarf-lette after all,) but you just take one end and tuck it through one of the loops and you're all set to go.  Actually I think its nice its not too long-- this way it keeps you warm without getting in the way.  I hope it makes someone happy.  I'm going to try my hand at a cowl hood again and then send them off to Nest.

The pattern is by torirot design.  Besides this one, she has lots of other great patterns on Ralvery-- check out those lizard mittens!

Best Vegan Magician

         Hey look!  My cousin Jesse got a great write up in the San Francisco Bay Guardian's "Best of the Bay" guide.  As a personal chef, he's listed as the "Best Vegan Magician"!  

...Enter Jesse Miner, a personal chef who, for about the price of a meal at a fancy restaurant, will make meat-, egg-, and dairy-free meals for families and groups. With 15 years of experience, a degree in natural foods from Bauman College, and an internship at Millennium under his belt, he's also adept at adjusting menus for other food restrictions, including wheat intolerance, diabetes, and raw food diets. And by the way, don't miss his peanut butter squares and ginger snaps...

So if you're in the area, and you and your family need some yummy dinners pronto-- or if you're looking for a lesson or two-- you should definitely check him out! You won't be disappointed.   

Family lore has it he sends his awesome wife Erin off to work every day with a hand packed lunch! Some girls have all the luck...

A New Camera!

I'm going to bite the bullet and buy this camera tomorrow:

A Panasonic Lumix that has a fancy Leica lense.  Best Buy has one with 8 mega pixels for under $200 so I'm gonna go for it. Starting tomorrow, hopefully, I can have pretty pictures on here again. yay.

Just in time for...packing.

Yep, me and the mister are headed back to my homeland, Providence RI.  But I'll be back to Brooklyn so much I figure it will be more like splitting our time between the two cities, rather than hunkering down and never leaving Rhody.  Its just that now my home base will be A. bigger, and B. cheaper. I cannot wait for an actual --gasp-- office space of my own.

Like Buttah

One of the fun parts about my sister's wedding was that I got to get a new dress! After trying on many dresses we decided on the Signature Wrap Dress by Butter by Nadia. It. is. fabulous. Its pretty simple really: a blue green jersey circle skirt to the knees, with two long, wide pieces attached to the top. But the exciting part is that you can wrap those two pieces all different ways, and so potentially could wear a different dress every time!

I actually tried it on first with my mom at Calypso, but ended up buying it months later at Neda in Cobble Hill, Brooklyn.  After trying one on in the store, they let me look through some swatches and pick out a different color.  The order came to the store a few days later.  Its not cheap, but the dress really looks amazing on.  Its one of those pieces that can look great on almost any body.

They come in jersey and satin material, and in a long and short length.  And in all different colors-- there're are even some striped ones now.  There are some ridiculously cute tutorial videos on the site to help you figure out how to wrap it.  Though once you get the hang of it, its pretty simple.  

I was a bit worried about being a bit too boob-alicious for the wedding.  Many of the styles have an open back which isn't so conducive to bra wearing.  Normally I wouldn't have worried much about that, but this was a daytime wedding afterall.  I ended up wrapping it the first way, slapped on a NuBra (it sticks to you, so no straps) (it was surprisingly comfortable, but that's a different post,) and was ready to go.  I had about 7 minutes to get ready and this dress didn't fail me.  It was a bit boob-alicious, but what can you do? I changed it up for the reception later on-- more of a halter top.

Apparently a Butter by Nadia store is coming soon to Brooklyn!  Yay!

Delicious Wedding Photos

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...