Kurt’s been making this awesome bread lately, but he’s being rather cruel, just leaving it sitting on the counter, smelling delicious. I just want to walk over to it, slice open the crusty outside, slather butter all over the soft, warm inside and eat it aaaaaaaaaaaaaall.
But he’s told me I have to wait, that it’s really for dinner tonight. :(
This is utter torture.
On the up side, now I know dinner will be awesome! (who cares what else we have with the bread!)
Posted in about me“A bayberry candle burned to the socket, puts luck in the home, food in the larder, and gold in the pocket.”
At the National Heritage Museum, Kurt and I bought Bayberry candles to light on Christmas Eve and New Year’s Eve. After burning our candles to the socket on Christmas Eve, we received word that Kurt was granted a month-long artist in residence position in Dinan, France! So this time next year, we’ll be spending December 2009 in France. Isn’t that fantastic?! I can hardly wait. I have exactly one year to learn French!!
So now we’re burning our second set of Bayberry candles. I wonder what great gift these will bring us…
Happy New Year. I wish you nothing but the best in 2009.
Posted in about me, christmas
My husband and I have been together for half our lives now. We’re only in our early thirties, so many people find this shocking and something they could never imagine doing, but it’s actually been amazing. I’m very thankful for having found the right person so quickly and for having spent the last 15 years (10 of those married) incredibly happy. We never argue or disrespect each other. I’ve never “sent him to sleep on the couch” as you see in the movies or gone to bed angry. I’ve never once thought that being married has been a hindrance of any kind, but rather the chance to be with someone with whom you can share all the great things in life with. We’ve traveled, lived in several different U.S. cities and a foreign country, helped each other accomplish our goals (he worked while I was in grad school and now I’m working while he launches his amazing art career), and our most recent adventure, we’ve adopted a very sleepy puppy called Whiskey.
Every year, since our very first Christmas together, Kurt buys me an ornament. After several years of receiving one, it became the one present I very much look forward to, especially because it usually reflects something we are experiencing at the time. This year was the first time I was actually present while Kurt chose this Christmas ornament. We were at a little seasonal shop in Gloucester called PRESENT. Since this is the first Christmas we’re spending here in Gloucester, a fishing town, Kurt found the perfect ornament with a maritime theme.
It’s an old fishing buoy that’s been carved and decked out to look like Santa Claus. He’s wonderful. As soon as I saw him I knew we couldn’t go home without him. He’s quite heavy, so we won’t be able to put him on the tree, but that’s okay. He’s hanging quite contently on our front door.
Isn’t he just perfect?
Thanks, baby.
Posted in about me, christmas…was a blast. We had great weather, great friends, great food, and great wine. What more can you ask for?
Just a couple weeks ago, I left my 9-5 to freelance full time. I worked with so many wonderful people that it was really hard to leave without feeling a bit choked up. The people on my floor gave me these beautiful flowers
and the staff I supervised (whom I miss terribly) gave me this gorgeous 3-year old bonsai tree
complete with a little Buddha.
Their reasoning behind the tree? They said that bonsai trees represent tranquility, love, luck, hope, and success and they couldn’t think of a better way to express their wishes for me and my new endeavor. Can you think of anything more touching than that? Now every time I look at it I think of them and how truly wonderful they are. I can’t think of a better gift.
Thank you.
Posted in about me, flowers, friends
We took Whiskey over to Good Harbor Beach yesterday and she had a blast! It was a beautiful evening with a gorgeous sunset.
She plays this game where she runs to Kurt and then runs back to me and then runs back to Kurt. She just flies towards you at this incredible speed. She’s so cute! I think I captured just how silly she looks. She doesn’t even have one paw on the ground!
She played with a bunch of other dogs and people, while Kurt and I enjoyed the beautiful evening.
Isn’t this view just spectacular?
Last Friday was our 10th wedding anniversary. To celebrate, we decided to treat ourselves to a trip to New York City!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Did I remember to take the camera? Of course not! Why would I do that?? :( But we had an phenomenal time nonetheless.
We arrived on Friday about midday and shopped at the Taschen store, where I got a bunch of cool style books like this one. We also went to the Anna Sui store and to Purl Soho, which was so cool! I finally got to see the physical store. We also went to their sister store, Purl Patchwork, which has what I really love: fabrics. I got a couple cute bag handles and a book called Zakka Sewing which has tons of cute Japanese sewing projects.
After that we had some bad Japanese food at a little restaurant and then kicked ourselves because right in the Theater District there were a bunch of Japanese restaurants catering to the Japanese tourists, so we made plans to go there the next day. That evening, we went to see Chicago the Musical and it was really excellent. We were able to get half price tickets online and we were in the second row!!!!!!!!! We were so close we could see the sweat on the performers’ brows! It was amazing!! Now we want to see the movie version again so we can compare them.
We had a snack and a drink after the show at a little Irish pub, which was OK, but not the greatest, and then took the long and tortured train route (three trains, 30 minutes on one platform, and finally a taxi) back to the hotel. We thought we’d save money being across the river, but with the time and money spent on the trains/taxi, we might as well have stayed in town.
On Saturday, we decided to have breakfast at the hotel, since we knew that the train would be a long ride in, so we had a cold breakfast bar, with lukewarm eggs, sausage and some muffins and stuff. Blech. In the city, we went to the Frick Collection, which was amazing: Titian, Giorgione, Holbein, Vermeer, Ingres, tons of great art. I’ve never been so impressed with a small collection before. And the building (Henry Clay Frick’s former residence) was pretty damn impressive as well.
Kurt and I were also drooling over his collection of books in the library. Every one of them leather-bound gigantic editions of classic books. And they were bound in dark-colored leather so they blended right in to the decor (dark wood paneling). It was beautiful. Then we went to have lunch at the ramen place we saw on Friday, and that was great. I can’t believe it had been 7 years since we had good miso ramen! We then went to Kinokuniya, to continue the Japanese theme, and I got some Japanese craft books. Then we hopped on the subway and caught the wrong train, so we had to double back after heading all the way up to the top of Central Park, near Harlem. We got off at the right stop and walked up to the Met, where we only had a little time. All of the exhibits having to do with textiles and fabric were closed (evidently they have an amazing costume collection) which was such a disappointment! We got up to the 19/20th century paintings a little late (and in my case a little pissed because of the costumes), but they had Whistler, Mucha, Bougereau, Sargent, Van Dyck, all sorts of excellent work. But by the time we got up there, we only had about a half an hour, and we were both so tired that we really couldn’t make the most of it. We went back down to the theatre district by bus, and we found a pub/restaurant there where we had a reverse dinner. (We had drinks and a dessert first, then realized we were more hungry than we thought, so we ordered some food.) And we took the train back again. I kind of liked the reverse dinner. You get to eat the dessert when you can savor it most. :)
Sunday, we decided to sleep in a bit because we couldn’t really get in to town early enough to make it worthwhile, so we left around 11, stopped in Stamford Connecticut for breakfast at a greasy spoon, and continued on to New Haven, where we visited the Yale campus and saw their art collection. We also stopped at some of the little shops, where I saw some earrings that I loved but didn’t buy (idiot that I am) and some glass bangles which I did buy.
We got back home at about 7 and picked up little Whiskey. (I missed her so much!) Bob and Susie, who dog-sat for us while we were away, said they didn’t want her to leave because she had been so good! We were relieved that she had been such a lovable pup. Whiskey now has about 5 new toys. They really did spoil her. :)
Now we’re back at work and wishing we could spend more time in the City. My friend Alex will be moving there in a while for a whole year, so guess who’s going to be crashing at her place every chance she gets? :) My next Broadway show: Billy Elliot.
Posted in about me
Little Whiskey is on the left. :) Isn’t she ADORABLE??????????????? We pick her up on Saturday. Can’t wait!
Remember how Kurt and I were hoping for a Bedlington Terrier puppy last year? Well….This is the little girl we’ll be picking up next month. Isn’t she adorable??? We’re thinking of the name Whiskey. What do you think? Any name ideas?
My husband spent all last week taking a really great Master Class on painting at Amherst College. His last day was on Sunday, so I went up a day early to check out the town and campus.
I visited all the cute little shops on the main drag (got this awesome wooden bracelet - I’ll have to get a picture of it), had a yummy breakfast at one of the cafes, treated myself to some very nice Riesling at a restaurant called La Tabella, and saw a movie at their tiny little theatre (I saw And Then She Found Me, which was not what I expected and totally depressing - you’ve been warned).
The campus is absolutely breathtaking. There are mountains in the distance, beautiful green fields, ridiculously gorgeous architecture, and even a perfect sledding hill! 
That weekend was also the Taste of Amherst festival. I had some pork and leek dumplings which were amazing. I also wanted to get on this cool trampoline meets bungee jumping contraption, but we got rained out! (You can see the ominous clouds in the above picture). I was so bummed!
It’s definitely a place I want to go back to for a day trip. I’d love to go hiking while I’m there too. If you have any suggestions on things to do in Amherst, let me know!