11.02.09
Posted in Crafts, New York Life at 9:17 am by rachel
On Friday my friend Curran and I were audience members of the Martha Stewart Show’s Halloween special. We were told to wear home-made animal masks or dress up as an animal in honor of the Where the Wild Things Are theme, and our masks were no competition for some of the creations we saw. There was some amazing stuff, especially a couple of full-body felt owl costumes. Among the highlights of the show were a black vodka cocktail, furry masks, and Jimmy Fallon having his hand put in a bowl of meal worms.
If you missed it, there should be clips in the next few days found here, and there are already photos on Martha’s blog.
I’m a pheasant and didn’t realize the birds had such a weird face until I googled an image of one. They really look like this, I swear!
The feathers coming out of my hair in the back were the bird’s “body.”
**Squint** Can you see me in the back row? I’m visible just to the right of the woman with the horns.
I’m in this photo, too, but far, far away!
I’m the fourth person to the left of the bunny ears.
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10.22.09
Posted in Family, New York Life, Wedding at 12:36 pm by rachel
We had a fabulous weekend in Milwaukee for a dear friend’s baby shower. What a wonderful occasion to catch up! Jax and I successfully traveled alone, though upgrading to business class definitely made the experience go more smoothly than expected {thank you, Air Tran, for the affordable option!}. Here’s some other stuff going on:
~ Laura and Corey are in Bangkok! Follow their adventures here. We are desperate to figure out how to visit them at some point during their 6-month south-east Asian adventure. Can we swing it with a toddler? This post about a dad traveling with his little girl in India is somewhat promising.
~ I am going to be an audience member on the Martha Stewart show next Friday and need to make a wild-animal mask of some sort. Shall I delve into papier maché? That is the big craft question of the week. I may just go the easy route and be a pheasant (most feathers you can buy in craft stores are pheasant ones). Monday is my deadline.
~ Yesterday was picture day at preschool and Jax was apparently all smiles. Can’t wait to see his first school pictures!
~ Oh yeah, did I mention I am working on my third dissertation chapter? Woot! When the choice is writing about 19th-century studies of hysteria and blogging, I’ve had to choose the former, but it’s been interesting. I have been slowly collecting house pictures, however, to give you all a virtual tour in my next post.
In the mean time, some snapshots of what we’ve been up to:
We made pudding together.
We went to a wedding in Brooklyn via train and subway.
We tried on a Halloween costume.
We played in the backyard leaves.
And yesterday, had quite an artistic experience with paint!
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10.06.09
Posted in Crafts, Family, Kids Crafts, New York Life at 10:31 am by rachel
Autumn is in full swing here, but some beautiful summer-like weather on Sunday meant we could partake in fall’s activities under a warm sun. We decided it’d be a day to take advantage of one of the benefits of living in Westchester County: its proximity to some family farm fun. This one-year-old thought it was a fabulous idea!
We started the day with a pumpkin craft: I cut a piece of finger painting paper into the shape of a pumpkin, taped it to Jax’s highchair, and then put two little blobs of paint onto it. Remembering what my mom learned in a young children’s art workshop, I stuck only to primary colors to have Jax discover the result of mixing all by himself. So with a red blob and a yellow blog and lots of messy play, he made orange! I then used a leaf-shaped paper puncher to punch out colorful paper leaves in yellow, red, and orange, and added those to the mix. The result:
After some delicious bagels at our neighbors’ (we have the nicest people living all around us!), we headed out to Stuart’s farm to see the real thing and pick our own apples.
Try as Seth did to show him how to do pick apples, Jax mostly just studied the technique rather than try it himself.
He knew all about tasting them, though.
When our bag was full, we headed over to the pumpkin field and let Jax crawl all around.
Then we finally found the perfect pumpkin to take home:
So Jax waved good-bye as he crawled away:
On our way out I took some shots of the random vestiges of farming’s past (Stuart’s Farm has been around since 1828):
as well as its present day:
That building to the right is the bakery, where we tasted a freshly-made doughnut. It was a totally new species of pastry to me.
On our way out I snapped some photos of the autumn colors in their many forms.
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06.13.09
Posted in Family, New York Life at 9:17 pm by rachel
Here’s a little SAT prep for today: Paris is to France as Coney Island is to _________________.
the world! of course.
We had lunch and spent the afternoon in Coney Island today, stopping by the New York Aquarium for the first time. It was a great day, although we still miss the batting cages that have been razed in preparation for some sort of yet-to-be-revealed development. Other institutions like Nathan’s hot dogs and the “Shoot the Freak” game were still thriving, so all was not lost!
What? no dog?
Only in Coney Island do aquarium inscriptions include the word “jackass.”
There’s a photo of this snack bar currently being sold at CB2 in SoHo.
Not sure if we’ll make it back for the Mermaid parade, but we’re glad we trekked out before moving from the city.
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06.03.09
Posted in Baby, Family, New York Life at 11:22 pm by rachel
Here are some things we’ve been up to as May has turned into June:
“Signing” thank-you cards to babysitters.
Lounging
Asparagus Quiche
Washington Square Toddler Park
Hair do
Central Park
Wreaking havoc
Reading on a new yard-sale quilt.
Pulling up and pushing (no “walking” yet – the feet stay put)
Pasta
Broccoli
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05.21.09
Posted in Family, New York Life at 11:24 pm by rachel
It’s ours! I’m sorry I’ve been so secretive: in today’s market, I felt like buying this house wasn’t a sure thing until closing day, yesterday. We won’t be moving in until mid-June, so we still have 3 weeks of city life. We are so excited to begin this new chapter!
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05.13.09
Posted in Cuisine, Family, New York Life at 9:53 pm by rachel
What a wonderful day! Thai food lunch with Seth and Corry (who’s visiting from Paris), then dessert at Magnolia bakery:
Then a trip to the Lion Brand Yarn Studio (where I picked up some bamboo yarn):
Then some afternoon shopping, a wonderful experience with a friend who will open doors, push the stroller, and entertain a cranky baby… Thanks Corry!
I was in the mood for French food for dinner, so we scoped out a couple of restaurants yesterday. We decided on Jean-Claude. It’s literally just down the street, incredibly reasonably priced, and authentic. I had: a salad of haricots verts & walnuts & bleu cheese, Steak-frites and a glass of Côtes du Rhone, tiramisu and a decaf cappuccino. Seth had onion soup, mussels (moules) and fries, some of the tiramisu and most of the wine.
A fantastic day. And of course I’m reminded of my 30th birthday, when I saw this just before hopping on a train from Paris to London:
and what he looked like in the park yesterday:
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05.11.09
Posted in Family, New York Life, Wedding at 10:37 am by rachel
Congratulations to Laurie and Matt, who threw the party of the year!
The story of this fabulous day, in pictures:
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05.09.09
Posted in Family, New York Life at 12:26 am by rachel
It’s officially summer. I turned in my grades, packed up the stroller and we took a huge walk to DUMBO (Down Under the Manhattan Bridge Overpass), a fun Brooklyn neighborhood near our friends Meg and Steve’s place. We met up with said friends, as well as visiting friends from Portland and Paris. It was so, so awesome to see everyone, I’m too excited to sleep. Have I been up at 1:30am recently, and I mean without tending to a baby?
It’s wedding weekend, so tomorrow we are off to New Jersey to dress in our finest and party with locals. This is going to be great.
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04.27.09
Posted in Baby, Family, New York Life at 6:21 am by rachel
One more week of teaching to go (I am counting the hours! My classes are great, but Jax is still having trouble with me leaving…), and this was just the Monday morning surprise I needed: the preview shots from our photo shoot are up on Jason Angelini’s blog! Quick, head on over!
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