Mortgages and Ice Cream

Went up to Beacon, NY today - I'm house-hunting up there so I've been making a lot of trips lately. Today we looked at 7 or 8 houses. I liked three of them - all different styles - built in 1900, 1920, and 1965 so it was an interesting mix. Abe hated the 1965 house, but I thought it could be very Brady Bunch, which I'm totally into. I ended up putting an offer on the 1900 house and now I'm in a bidding war with someone and it's very stressful.

The 1920 house (did not put an offer in on this one...yet) had amazing woodwork - I actually screamed when I went upstairs because I couldn't believe how beautiful all the wood looked.

After a long ride home we ended up getting stuck on the Pulaski Bridge.

Stopped at Brooklyn Ice Cream Factory and split a pint of chocolate chocolate chunk - which we ate in one sitting. It was sooooo good and a nice reward for a day of difficult decisions.

Ceramics: Fennec Fox

I'm back in the ceramics studio and working on a new mask. This one is of a fennec fox - my animal obsession of 2009. Last year it was the Iberian lynx and my first ceramics project [click to view post]was born. [ed. note: the mask now has a full set of whiskers and Abe is no longer disturbed by them - he actually sets aside the whiskers he finds while sweeping. It's very sweet.]

Lynx mask

My fennec fox is moving along now that I'm a more experienced hand-builder. I think I finally have the ears done and can move onto the eyes and mouth. Looking at the photos it doesn't seem too elaborate, but those ears were difficult!

Things I See With My iPhone

Is it true? A real, live public bathroom in the middle of Manhattan?! It's like an alien space ship landed in Madison Sq. Park.

Use the self-cleaning facilities yourself the next time you visit Shake Shack.

I like this font. Good job, Michael.

You ol' wackadoodle.

New Pillows Added!

I just added two new colors to the honeysuckle pillow collection on wickedmint.etsy.com.

Many thanks to my mom who patiently sat in the room with me and watched Sex and the City while I sewed this weekend.

Meredith's 30th Birthday

After cocktails [see previous post] we sat down to a large 17 person dinner party. Rob, Genevieve and Alexandra brought up cured meats, eggplant Parmesan, and bread. Charlie and Nicole brought sausages and homemade tomato sauce from Vermont, and Margot and Matt grilled corn on the cob to make roasted corn salad.

Nothing says "I love you" more to Meredith than a red velvet cake from Magnolia Bakery.

We put Piper in her crib when she got fussy, but all she needed was her bottle of baby wine.