Paul Newman: 1925-2008

 

 

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.