Artsy Fartsy

A Walk in the Woods

November 18, 2009 at 11:02 pm | In Molly, Photos | 1 Comment

I was excused from jury duty today (thank the gods of justice, also the Thanksgiving holiday next week) and took advantage of my few hours of lovely afternoon weather.

The sun was warm and there was a slight nip in the air, the geese were flying overhead and the fall colors were glowing. (Are you gagging yet on my sappy ode to fall? Just wait till I break out on song…)

I can’t help it, it was just such a beautiful afternoon after a frosty, gray morning that looked like it could snow at any moment. Plus I’m in love with my new zoom lens.

Also somebody got a haircut today with a professional skunk wash to try to get rid of the stink once and for all, so there’s something else to be happy about.

Placemat Pillowcases

November 16, 2009 at 7:15 am | In Artsy Fartsy, Crafts, House and Home, Photos | 2 Comments

My sister recently got new living room furniture and I had this idea that I wanted to give her the perfect patterned pillows as the best new couch-warming present ever.

I wanted a good quality fabric with a fun pattern and I know she likes circles and dots, but none of the fabrics I came across were just right. Disappointed, I left the fabric store and went to Pier 1 for a completely unrelated reason (to buy myself something shiny) and a spotlight shone down, angels sang and these placemats fell off the shelf and onto my feet. They were, and are, perfect. Also on sale.

Why did I not think of this before? Placemats are essentially pillowcases sewn shut. All I did was cut off the stitching around the edges, trimmed them to size, sewed them back together, and voila! The most perfect pillows for my sister’s new living room. Just don’t tell her — I’m giving them to her tonight.

My Wish For You

November 13, 2009 at 7:15 am | In Molly, Photos | 1 Comment

May you find a way to relax as much as my dog this weekend. Enjoy it like Molly would – make yourself comfortable, take frequent naps, hog the couch, do whatever makes you happy. Have a great weekend!

Handwritten

November 11, 2009 at 5:21 pm | In Artsy Fartsy, Crafts, Photos | 1 Comment

My cousin emailed me to ask for instructions on making the little Snowkids I make every winter, and as I was writing out the steps for her, I was reminded of She Likes Purple and her handwritten post last week. I loved that idea so much, I decided, since I’m in such a good mood today, to give you two fun things all rolled in to one. Not only do you get instructions for making your own adorable Snowkids (or baby sock snowmen, if you prefer), but you also get them handwritten and illustrated by me. Sorry, my penmanship used to be MUCH better, but this will have to do. Enjoy!

snowmen1

snowmen2

snowmen3

If you’d like to print the instructions for later, click here for the PDF instructions.

Done.

November 10, 2009 at 10:39 am | In Photos, Whiney | 4 Comments

You may have been aware (from my near constant whining) that I was putting together a gigantic project at work: a week-long lecture and panel discussion symposium leading up to a giant exhibition and artist and fancy people-filled opening reception. This project — I was told after I was five weeks of 10-hour days into it — has been organized in the past by the person in my position and a part time assistant hired for the project. OH THANK YOU. After most of the work has been done and everything has been set into motion, I’m told that I should have hired some help.

Anyhow… lots of work, lots of stress and long days, and I left in the middle for a week-long vacation to St. Martin which was incredibly difficult but so completely necessary. I have been dreading and looking forward to the opening for so long and this past Friday it happened. Oh boy did it happen. Record-breaking crowds, many happy faces, and it all went off without a hitch. I worked from 8:30am to 10:30 pm on Friday and by the time I got home my feet were so sore, I wasn’t sure if I’d be able to walk ever again. I was able to take a couple of days off to rest and recuperate, and I’m wondering what will fill my every waking second of thought now that the opening is over. What did I do before this exhibition came into my life? What was it like to actually have a lunch break? I don’t remember, but I look forward to trying it out again.

A Danger to Myself

November 1, 2009 at 11:14 am | In Whiney | 3 Comments
Tags: broken bones, clumsy ox

Two weeks after breaking my own nose in St. Martin, it finally feels like it’s back to normal, the swelling is gone, and the breeze blowing across the bridge of my nose doesn’t make me want to cry. So what else would you expect me to do now that I’m pain free? Break a toe, of course. Yesterday, I made a “fancy” move falling off the tailgate of Luke’s truck at the dump and felt an unfortunate crack in my foot. This morning I have a stylish limp and a big, purple swollen toe. Fantastic. Everyone should probably keep their distance, I seem to be a one-person wrecking ball these days. I’m now off to search ebay for a protective bubble in which to hide.

Boo!

October 30, 2009 at 5:21 pm | In Celebrations, Photos | Leave a Comment
Tags: costume party, halloween

I posted this picture on Facebook this morning, but for the benefit of those not of the FB persuasion, please enjoy this most glorious glimpse of my mom, my sister, and me in our Halloween garb. This picture kills me. As does the image I have in my head of Andrea nearly falling on the floor and needing the table to hold herself up – so hard was she laughing when she saw my mom get out of the car in this gypsy wig. Now, this wasn’t just another crazy Sunday with my family, believe it or not. This was Cameron and Alex’s very first Halloween costume party.

My sister did an amazing job with the party planning. I couldn’t help her, I had gotten back from St. martin less than 48hours before the party kicked off, but she obviously doesn’t need any Halloween party help from me! There was creepy food, scary haunted houses to build, an over/under pass-the-pumpkin relay, scary storytelling, and a great alternative to musical chairs with Halloween themed mats to step on instead of chairs.

Here’s the whole creepy crew. Ninjas were popular this year, I see. I love Scooby Doo down there at the bottom. That’s my cousin’s son Hunter who played every game on all fours and ran as fast as the other kids on his hands and knees. I did manage to help out a teensy bit with the party by making my favorite Oreo balls into creepy mice for the party.

I used Golden Oreos so I could add a bunch of food coloring and make them gross and red inside when you bit them. They were a success. I only wish I’d given them creepy red eyes. Maybe next time. Andrea made very cute eyeballs out of white chocolate-dipped donut holes served on a fork – how clever was that?

And one last picture to delight and horrify you. Christian was dressed as a vampire – which isn’t a stretch since he draws blood all day long at work (as a phlebotomist) – but when the party was over and Andrea and my mom were taking off their costumes, Christian became… well I’m not really sure what he is, but man is it scary.

Happy Halloween!!

The St. Martin Story I Owe You

October 27, 2009 at 7:34 pm | In Photos | 3 Comments
Tags: Sint Maarten, St. Martin, vacation

It was gorgeous. The end.

Seriously, that pretty much sums it up. Of the nearly 300 pictures on my camera, here’s what about 90% of them are:

Morning…

Night…

Morning…

Night…

Gorgeous, right? End of story.

OK, OK, I know you want details… let me consult Twitter so I can remember what we did.

A smooth, easy three hours and fifty minutes from JFK Airport and we went from this:

To this:

I highly recommend traveling with friends who are familiar with the place you are visiting. It couldn’t have been easier following the two of them around and having our own personal driver and tour guides. It didn’t take long for us to fall into a lazy routine.

Here’s a typical St. Martin day: Most mornings my internal alarm clock woke me around 6:30 and I’d get up and leave the world’s most comfortable king-sized bed with Luke still happily asleep in it. I’d take my camera and my iPod and go walking around the grounds of the Royal Palm, where we were staying. I’d check my email with the free wi-fi at the pool, brag about the weather on Facebook, take some pictures of the gorgeous views, grab a coffee at the nearby deli, and then around 8:30 or so, make my way back to the room where the sleepyheads were waking up and we were ready for breakfast.

We’d mull over which nearby breakfast place to visit, go have a leisurely breakfast with fresh fruit and pastries and fresh-squeezed juices, then return to the hotel room to change into our swimsuits and decide which beach to visit that day. We’d pack up the car and make our way to the beach where we’d bob in the water, lay under a sun umbrella, and generally laze around all day.

We’d leave the beach in the late afternoon and head back to the hotel to shower and change, then head out for dinner. After dinner we might go back to the favorite bar across from the hotel, The Lady C, or the awesome piano bar up the road, The Red Piano. We’d head back home, go to bed and start all over the next day. It was lazy, it was relaxing, and it was exactly what we all needed.

A couple of days we went to Dawn Beach where the waves were gentle and the water was warm.

One day we went to Orient Beach where the waves were raging and I came close to breaking my (still swollen and sore) nose by grasping for my sunglasses a bit too aggressively as I was being taken down by a wave.

And one strangely overcast day we went to Baie Rouge. There were times during that day where the sun was making my skin burn while, at the same time the raindrops fell and soaked my book. So strange. We had stopped at Baie Rouge earlier in the week as we were driving home from Orient Beach and I have to say that it might just be the prettiest beach on St. Martin. Don’t you agree?

One night we took advantage of the resort’s sunset catamaran cruise and enjoyed free rum punch and this gorgeous view:

A couple of days we went to the shopping town of Philipsburg to price out camera lenses and perfume. Check and check. One super sweet deal on a 70-300 zoom lens, a good price on Light Blue, and I was a happy girl. We even got to check out the town without any other shoppers when we went on Sunday, not realizing that all of the shops would be closed.

Other than that, it was just a lot of relaxing, a little gelato, some hanging by the pool, a bit of snorkeling, and a whole lot of amazing views of this beautiful island. Sigh…

So I heard it was snowing while I was gone…

Want to see more pictures of Paradise? The whole Flickr set is here: St. Martin/St. Maarten 2009

Gone

October 15, 2009 at 11:54 am | In Photos | 3 Comments

I’m at the point in my pre-vacation hysteria that I’m not sure I can even write coherent sentences. I’ve been so busy being busy that I haven’t been able to tell you about my crazy trip preparations; or the fact that Luke switched positions at work and is now working second shift driving tractor trailers; or that I decided I needed to paint my bathroom before we left for vacation. INSANITY.

Add to that fun, the delightful gift from Molly last night: a thorough skunking. Repeatedly bathing my dog with vinegar (which really works and doesn’t turn your poor dog pink, although does make her smell like a salad) was not at all what I had planned to do last night. Waking up smelling — and I swear tasting — skunk is not what I was hoping for this morning. I can smell skunk in my clothes, in my car, in my office at work — I think I’m going to grab my passport and my snorkel gear, set fire to the house and all of my skunky clothes, and head straight for St. Martin.

If you miss me next week, feel free to check on me over at Twitter. I hear that our resort has free wi-fi so I think I might use Twitter as a lazy travel journal. That way, in a week or so when we come home, where undoubtedly it will be cold and possibly snowing, I can look back on tweets like “spent all day on the beach” or “can’t believe it’s 85 degrees and sunny EVERY DAY here” and cry.

Have a great week everyone, I will bombard you with photos and stories of the tropical paradise of St. Martin when I return!

Let’s Talk About TV

October 7, 2009 at 1:28 pm | In TV, Books, Movies, and Music | 1 Comment

My mom called last night. She was worried that I hadn’t been blogging and I’d been so busy lately with work that I hadn’t even returned her emails. I admit, I’ve been bad. But work has been so head spinningly, panic attack-inducingly INSANE for the past couple of weeks. Add to that the cold that wouldn’t go away and the thought that I’ll be leaving in a jetplane in oh, nine days… aaah!

But I’m good. The cold is finally gone. If you ask Dr. Google, I had H1N1. All the symptoms were there except for the fever. Let’s just call it a nasty two-week cold and leave it at that. So with long days of exhausting work and a lousy splitting headache, what else can you do at night but watch TV? Luckily the new shows have been starting up and I have to say I’ve become hooked on a couple.

Dancing With the Stars, of course. DWTS just finished week three and my favorites so far are Kelly Osbourne, Louie the snowboarder, and Mya. I don’t want to admit that I like Donny Osmond, but honestly he’s doing great and he gave Bruno a big fake kiss on the mouth this week so I think I have to like him.

The Middle. I never expected to like anything Patricia Heaton acted in, so deep was my hatred for anything Everybody Loves Raymond (I have the same problem with Seinfeld and Julia Louis-Dreyfus), but I watched the first episode last week and I love this crazy family. From the moment the sulking, sarcastic teen-aged son came into the kitchen to complain about something and Heaton’s character, Frankie said “I can’t hear you if you’re not wearing pants” I was hooked. The sarcasm and love and twisted disfunctionality – I just love it. I can’t wait to park myself on the couch tonight to see the next episode.

Glee. Let’s see… cute, sassy people with incredible voices singing Journey and Bonnie Tyler and Kanye West songs in a high school glee club and an a capella group called “The Acafellas”? You had me at Journey. Last week there was even a guest spot by Kristin Chenoweth. How could it get any better? There’s a new episode on tonight. I think I missed an episode, maybe the first or second one? I’m not sure, but once things calm down I’m going to go online and catch up.

Eastwick. I love this show and I am more than certain that it will be canceled, which makes me sad. I love Eastwick for the same reasons I loved Pushing Daisies and we all know how well that went. It’s lovely and funny and magical and a pure delight for my very tired brain. Based on the movie The Witches of Eastwick, Eastwick the show is set in a small New England town where three very different women come together via some strange and mysterious circumstances that all seem to surround the arrival of the handsome stranger Daryl van Horne. It stars Lindsay Price from another canceled favorite Lipstick Jungle, and Rebecca Romijn and I am just praying that it won’t be canceled right away. Give me a full season, at least. Please, ABC. Another new episode is on tonight if I can stay up late enough to watch.

Other than DWTS on Mondays, it looks like all the shows I like are on Wednesday. That makes it easier to remember what days to tune in. And three of the four are on ABC. Way to go ABC. So tell me, what are your favorite shows?