Home Again Home Again

We're back, and we're tired. Even Lu, just back from the Bradly B&B, is tired. Pictures and commentary to follow sometime soon.

Happy Birthday, Leah!

Leah celebrated her birthday last weekend in cute downtown Plano, just down the road from her newly purchased house. We went to Upper Crust and showed that pizza who was boss. Then we went upstairs to their bar and rooftop patio. FYI, some people like to party in an apron. And some people like to party with a framed picture of their dog. That's just the way some people roll. Get used to it.

Beasties... I mean besties.

Lu and Sophie, hanging out, being cool, doing what cousins do.

Everyone loves him.

This is my sister and her son. I have caught a little grief over not posting about how great he is. In this first photo, he and Lu are having a contest to see who can be the cutest and thereby accrue pepperoni from the pepperoni distributor. So far, it's a tie, but I'm pretty sure they both ended up winners in the end.


Little nephew loves anything mechanical, anything with hinges, anything with buttons or screws or bolts. He will take it in his hands and pull it up close to his blinking eyes and move it and figure it out. Here, he is about to attack my phone and get really upset that I want to take his picture instead of just handing it over for his entertainment. Dooon't be distracted by this piece of random toilet paper or my fuuunky hair. Just hand over the black shiny phone to me, and everyone leaves happy.



A couple weekends ago, Sis and I went back to Palestine for a shower. Nephew is a champion traveler, and for the most part, was a happy happy little man for our four hours in the car. He did take his lemonade and try to get a party started by shaking it all over his face and the back seat. What are you going to do? Sometimes you just need to party.


Parties can be exhausting.


I caught him chewing on the face of his stuffed duck, and Sis told me he was trying to chew the eyes off. I keep telling Sis he's just like Lu, but she doesn't seem to like that idea. I don't get it. It's a compliment, right?

Old News

These pictures are actually from a few months ago, but I kept forgetting my phone cord and just haven't gotten around to getting them off my phone and onto the computer until now.


I got Hub what I thought were great Cowboys tickets for his birthday. I quickly realized after his understated/anti-climatic reaction to his gift that I had, in fact, purchased pre-season tickets, which apparently aren't very exciting. I mean it's essentially a scrimmage. I get it. We went anyway and enjoyed ourselves... sorta. Hub insisted that there's nothing impressive about the new stadium. Obviously, he has discriminating tastes in sports venues.



His thought bubble says, "Boring... I'm so not impressed."

A Few Etsy Scarves

Tickled Pink Knits


Sparrow Nest Knits


Mireilles


Kanokwalee


Crrysstall

Currently

The Shame

I think this clip explains in part why I disassociate myself from A&M. As if the football team wasn't embarrassing enough, now this.

Days 6 & 7

Wednesday we're potentially hitting the Met and the Guggenheim in the morning, but we'll see if we're up to it. I have a feeling we'll just make it to one, but you never know.

That afternoon, I'm excited to say, we'll be doing a little Rockefeller ice skating and maybe taking in the views from the Top of the Rock.



Early that evening, we're eating at Blue Hill, Dan Barber's restaurant, where he grows his own everything on his own farm.



Then all four of us are going to see Hamlet... unless (sigh) someone can get reasonably priced Yankee playoff tickets b/c he has been given permission (sigh) to break off our plans for a really nice night out b/c (sigh) this would be a once in a lifetime experience and that if I didn't let him go he would "force us to go to counseling when we got back." I know vacations are give and take, but it's Hamlet...so everyone please pray that the Yankees don't go to the World Series.

Sadly, Thursday morning we leave to fly back home. The End.

Day 5

On Thursday of our trip, we're breakfasting at Balthazar, and then moving on to a tour of some variety. I haven't reserved a spot anywhere. I can't really make up my mind about what kind of tour we should do, and to be frank, I usually get annoyed with tours, tour guides, and most especially tourists. Tours make me feel trapped and antsy. What if the guide is boring? What our fellow tourists are loud and slow and ask a lot of silly questions? (These worries and inclinations are further proof of my black black heart and hardened hate towards the world at large. There, I said it.) If this is how it goes down, then I've wasted our money and our valuable vacation hours. This is my solution:


I just ordered The Beat Generation in New York: a Walking Tour of Jack Kerouac's City on Amazon. It's a walking tour that we lead ourselves. We get choose our own pace and destinations! Plus, the book is much less of an investment than an actual tour would have been.


When we finish our tour, we'll stop by Zabar's to select a few picnic supplies, head over to Central Park, and lunch in style. I'm mildly nervous that it'll be too cold to really enjoy our picnic, but I'm sure we can find alternatives if we're not in the mood. I do want to spend significant time walking/biking around the park that afternoon. This could be us... except in coats. Who doesn't look good in a bicycle helmet? Who?


That evening, we'll go back to the hotel, I'll don my Elphaba costume, and then we're ready to hit the town.


After Jen and I take in Wicked, I'm hoping we head over to Chickalicious... it's a dessert restaurant. They have a four course dessert dinner. Can you believe this?

How to Look Good in Leather

If I were a girl sofa, I would want to date this very rugged, yet sharp and refined, strong and masculine sofa. Just saying.

Wouldn't this Jayson sofa strike just the right mood in the same house as with that totally unattainable Anthropologie dining room table I posted about a few days ago?

Day 4

Hub and I want to spend the morning at the Museum of Modern Art.


We have lunch reservations at Le Bernardin... I'm trying to slow my speech and racing heart b/c this is unequivocally the best part of the whole trip and possibly my life... just kidding, it'll be like the second best. I like to think of it as a pilgrimage. Even thinking about it right now, it makes me a little star-struck. We certainly can't afford dinner here, but lunch, well, that's slightly more realistic.


Late that afternoon, I'd like to walk from Ground Zero...


across the Brooklyn Bridge...


to wander the Brooklyn Heights Promenade, have dinner, and finally end up at Beer Table, which will be a mecca of sorts for Hub. (In case that sounds like an insanely long trek, I google mapped the path and it's only 2.5 miles. So not too bad.)

A Little Boo in our Menu

I'm helping host a baby shower brunch with a few friends. Our menu will include the following:

1. Brown Sugar Bacon (protein)
2. Butternut Squash and Apple Bisque (veg... close enough anyway)
3. Pumpkin Spice Scones with a Maple Drizzle (starch)
4. Herbed Parmesan Frittata (savory entree)
5. Bananas Foster French Toast (sweet entree)
6. Oh, and the very controversial Pumpkin Cake Bites that caused quite the debate between the hostesses

As far as beverages go, we'll have coffee, mimosas, mom-osas (replacing the Champagne with some other effervescent liquid), friendship tea (a notorious favorite of the guest of honor), and hot chocolate with ghost-y peeps (featured below) instead of marshmallows! Yeah for fall-themed parties!

Day 3

After our weekend in Cooperstown, we'll head back down to NYC Sunday afternoon, turn in the car, check into the hotel and get loco.


Our hotel is close to the Empire State Building, but I'm hoping to spend a little time late that afternoon wandering around SoHo, the Village, or Chelsea.



I visited NYC with a couple of friends about six years ago, had a great trip, and saw the sites I wanted to see, so this time I'd like to avoid the Today Show, Statue of Liberty, Times Square, the top of the Empire State Building, and really, if possible, anything of that nature.

I might do some site seeing here though.


Carter and I have reservations at (psst, they have a Michelin star) Public's experimental Sunday Supper that night. We anticipate great things. Check out their website and menu.


All pictures stolen without mercy or remorse.

October Travels

Rather than merely scanning my neatly-charted vacation itinerary here for your perusal, I'm going to prolong my own enjoyment (and stoke my already obnoxious excitement) by drawing it out and breaking it down into several vacation-themed bloggy installments. Are you ready b/c I AM SO READY!

Day 1 is a fairly uninteresting day of flight, connecting flight, car rental, and the four hour drive that will eventually get us to Cooperstown, New York, the land of New England fall colors and baseball and bed & breakfasts. FYI, Cooperstown is named after James Fenimore Cooper, author of Last of the Mohicans and The Pathfinder, the second of which I read my junior year of high school and was, at best, only mildly fond.


We're staying at this inn because 1) it's really cute and 2) even more significantly, they have a Bed & Brew Package. Not only does Cooperstown house the Baseball Hall of Fame but also the moderately well-known Ommegang Brewery.


Day 2--I know. I know. You are so jealous that I get to spend my vacation brushing up on Sandy Koufax and oddly flavored microbrews, but just you wait, my pretties.


It is something of a consolation that we'll be sitting in front of that fire and walking around in the midst of this.


I'm also looking forward to the cute downtown and the "sumptuous dinner and more!!" at the brewery, where they have four courses with accompanying beer pairings planned. And maybe reading on the inn's front porch. Plus, there's even better stuff coming.

Perfect

This is the perfect table for our dining room. It's all roughed up like outdoor boots. It's 9.75 feet long, and therefore capable of seating the following: Mom, Dad, Sis, her Hub, Lil Nephew, MIL, FIL, Hub's bro, Mo-Weezy, Hub, and me. At the same time. It's refectory/trestle style so appropriate to snug up next to a linen banquette (so everyone could scooch in easily). It has a strong-looking iron bar running underneath the length of it, satisfying the need for something slightly "industrial-looking."

Alas, it is from Anthropologie and, naturally, eye-crossingly expensive.

Let me introduce you...

This is Riley. One of my oldest hometown friends belongs to Riley. As she chauffeured him to his lake house, he decided that this very small bowl would make the perfect, cozy bed. He is naturally a very, uh... svelte dog, but it really does look like some kind of illusion or Photoshopping expertise in this picture. I can't believe he folded his chicken legs in there.

Carter showed Lu this picture on my phone, and I asked her if she remembered her playful buddy Riley, and she licked the phone. That's an affirmative.

House Pictures--Master Bath

The so-called grand finale is our bathroom. I should have taken another picture to show Carter's sink and vanity, but I was being rushed. You don't need to see his side anyway--it's just a spray bottle of Febreeze and some toenail clippers.

This shot just shows the bathtub and a hint of my sink. I saw picture in Domino (maybe?) a long time ago that featured a shower curtain track on the ceiling, and so in an effort to copy, I just stuck my cheapie shower curtain rod as close to ceiling as I could get. Hub gets nervous when I stand on things. He tried to "spot" me when I was huffing and puffing, trying to get it installed up there.



Something like this might be nice. You know, instead of sticky-feeling linoleum and formica. I'm not crazy about everything in the shot below, but I appreciate white and gray. I really like hexagonal tiles on the floor... which this bath doesn't feature, but I do like the marble, and I do like the open shelving, and I do like glossy white cabinetry.

House Pictures--Master Bedroom

Introducing our bedroom. This shot is looking from the doorway. I'm pretty satisfied in here. A lamp here or there, some curtains and respective hardware, and that's that.


This is the top of my dresser. Do you like that picture of Hub? It's one of my favorites of him. We were escaping our wedding reception.


Still the bedroom, but this time looking from the opposite corner.

P.S. Lu loves velvet. Every morning after going outside, she sleeps between the folds of that comforter at the foot of the bed. She prefers for the velvet to surround her, rather than have it just on top of her. She tries to dig her way in, but it's pretty heavy, and she's not the strongest of beasts. One time she was getting so frustrated, trying to get in, that she gave up and came into the bathroom to get me, so that I could lift it open and tuck her in. Most of the time when I come home for lunch, she's still tucked into the blanket. She'll peek her sleepy eyes up as I come in the door, and her muzzle will be sweet and pink from napping so warmly.

Anticipation and Preparation

In preparation for our NYC trip (Count 'em--16 days!), I started reading Wicked last night. (Thanks, Mo-Weezy!) I'm attempting to maximize my enjoyment of the musical. Get my money's worth, if you will. (I better have a basic understanding of the story line b/c we are sitting in the "rear mezz" as they say. I think that's equivalent to what we used to call the way way back in my parents old Suburban. We dubbed the various seats: the front seat, the back seat, the way back seat, and the way way back, which wasn't really a seat at all. And that's as far back as it goes. Once, on the way up to or back from Colorado, I gave Sara a black eye by knocking her into some latch or hook or something back there. I like to say it was an accident... but well, you know. Little ones can't bait and aggravate too much or, well, consequences happen. As my dad liked to say, "You mess with the bull. You get the horn." I've taken it as a guiding tenet of sorts. It's the law of the wild... and the law of the way way back.) Let's hope things don't get so crazy at the in the rear mezz.

House Pictures--Powder Room

It's pretty nondescript now, but someday, it will develop a snappy attitude. Just wait. I have been encouraged by several people in the know to wallpaper it in grasscloth...


but Schumacher also has this chic little girl. I put the celadon and white combo on here to show the pattern a little better, but I think I'd choose the wheat and ivory if I were in a position to choose.


Since we're discussing Schumacher, I'll offer up this linen loverliness, as well. Thanks to Lu, I have a half-shredded orange chair and ottoman sitting in the living room that's begging to be reupholstered in fat neutral stripes. I'd be happy to oblige. I'm just trying to help stimulate the economy by giving my upholstery girl, Raquel, a little business. Shout out to Raquel.