Merry Christmas to all!

Best wishes for a happy, healthy, and FUN holiday filled with lots of love!

Nighttime Fairies

I've been working on a "shadow" book for the last couple weeks. Are you familiar with "shadow books"? You shine a flashlight through the acetate window in the book, and the image appears on the wall or ceiling as you read the story. My sister, created the adorable illustrations, and I can't help but seeing the resemblance between this fairy, and my cousin's daughter Kendall...can you? I wonder if it was a coincidence. I keep forgetting to ask her, but maybe she'll let us know when she reads my blog!

I had fun writing the text for the book...about the magic fairies scatter in the night while you're sleeping. It was great to see my words come to life as my sister illustrated it. I'll post an image of the cover soon. It just went into production yesterday, so should be out early next summer!

Are you tired too?

Such a fun weekend with family visitors, and so much to be thankful for. And I'm tired!
I hope you had fun too!

Print found here.

Black Out

During a recent freak snowstorm in our area that left us w/o power for FIVE LONG NIGHTS (poor pilgrims!), my husband was convinced we had an animal in our house. I told him it was a miniature pony. Naturally, he didn't believe me. But, when the power came back on, look what I found in our bedroom:

And guess who was hanging out in the kitchen?

InstaCharleston

Last weekend, to celebrate my husband's (big) birthday, we jetted off to Charleston for the weekend. We had grand plans while planning this trip, which involved Turkey or Prague. As if! On the way to the airport (and our flight which had already been cancelled) and sadly leaving Jake behind, all we could think was, "Thank goodness we're not going to Turkey!" As much as I would love to go, it would just be waayyy too stressful at this point in our lives, and I'm glad we kept it simple.

Charleston is great. I decided to be super-hip and use my husband's iPhone to take Instagram photos. Probably admitting how difficult it was for me to get them off his phone makes me a little less hip, but anyway, here are a few shots of our fun-filled weekend.

One cool filter Instagram has is to make the photo look like it was taken in 1977. I had Rich take a photo of me, and added this filter to see if I looked like my mom in 1977. I don't.

And, I love making this weird face in coffee shops. So wistful, like I'm thinking deep thoughts, right? I'm really drinking tea, and trying not to laugh. I don't think anyone else thinks it's as funny as I do. You can see what two different filters do...

We had lunch at Jestine's Kitchen, took a Civil War history tour, and a historic home tour, went for a sail, ate a lot, ate pralines, bought a Bozo the Clown blow-up punching bag thing for Jake, and went to a fancy brunch with my pretty cousin and her two beautiful daughters, who are absolutely great. I'd like my cousin and one of my best friends, Melinda to write a book together about how to raise lovely, smart, interesting children. The world needs this book. Their children are a breath of fresh air.

Of course, I was smitten with the houses in Charleston, and we immediately started envisioning what our lives would be like if we lived there. How cool would it be to actually live in your own house in a city, with a garden, and walk to yummy restaurants, and cool shops? Pretty nice, right? Here are some charmers I took photos of.

Actually, this one's mine...(don't I look good in front of it?)

I owe a HUGE thanks to my sister, and her daughter Avery for playing with Jake while we were away all weekend. He had a great time, and keeps telling me stories about all the things they did. So, now we're back. It's been a busy week, and up until this point at home, I can't say I've managed to do anything more than recharge my phone, and play with Jake. I have my priorities...the suitcase can wait!

I've never had so much fun in a box!

Today was a Jake and Mommy Day (my favorite), and we started Christmas shopping in attempt to avoid pre-Christmas angst which usually sets in the Monday after Thanksgiving. I can't stand the shopping pressure, and the endless to-do list on top of everything else I already have to do. I'm no grinch. I love Christmas, and really like to buy/make gifts for friends and family, BUT, you know how it gets... I try to avoid the last minute stress every year, and perhaps this year I will succeed. I'm convinced it's all about organization and condensing errands. Except, when I enter a store, I become overwhelmed, and having Jake along today, I realized that I'd be buying at least two of any gift I got. Which, is how we ended up with the most awesome toy ever...

This cool, recyclable, color-yourself toy house is beyond great. We got it at JC Penney, and it's on sale for $15.  It's fun to color, (Jake told me he was "decorating"...wonder where he got THAT from?) VERY large...big enough for both of us to cuddle up in and read books, and fight bad guys, which we did all afternoon. So, I recommend getting two. One for you, and one for whoever else you have to get a toy for under the age of 6. For $15, the fun factor can't be beat!

And, speaking of beating, it did withstand several whacks with the sword from this pirate costume which we also had to get today. It's adorable, and so is Jake, but as soon as we got home, he put his Spiderman costume back on, and morphed into a sword-carrying super hero. Ironically, he got the pirate costume for completing his "No Hitting" chart (which has only taken us about 2 months to complete the 10 days necessary to get a prize, and I think we cheated).

P.S. That's not me in the photo, and these aren't my children!

Testing the Infrastructure

My niece is turning 12 tomorrow, and she had a biiigggg sleepover party last night. My sister sent me this cartoon she did of the event. Pretty funny!

This is a picture of her on her 4th birthday...a fun Dora treasure hunt party. I was Swiper. It really does go by so fast!

Happy Birthday B!

Halloween Countdown...

I feel like Halloween is actually a month and a half long holiday around here. September and October are my favorite months in Westchester... I'm no longer craving the beach, I'm energized by personal projects, the weather is still nice, AND there are many fun things to do in the area which we've been taking advantage of. Last Friday night was the second time we've been to see the jack-o-lantern extravaganza, BLAZE at Van Cortlandt Manor, one of the historic hudson homes. Talented carvers, and dedicated volunteers carve over 4,000 pumpkins, and illuminate them each night throughout the grounds. It takes them a few hours to light the pumpkins each night. Can you imagine? I think my carving limit might top out at about 5! It's truly amazing to see. Here are some shots from our fun night in the land of the Legend of Sleepy Hollow.

Our own pumpkin decorating was far less ambitious, but really fun. We're going with glittery, disco pumpkins this year! I'll probably carve them next weekend so we can light them up for the kajillion trick-or-treaters we get each year, but I think Jake is still a little squeamish about scooping pumpkin goo.

(Note: these photos were taken on the very rare occasion that Jake wasn't wearing his Spiderman costume...these moments are few and far between these days, but he IS wearing his self-created baseball uniform!)

Casual Dining

I've had this dining room image (from online Rue Magazine?) saved on my desktop for awhile. I like the casual coziness of it, and I think it's a good example of how you can pull a room together without having it "perfect", yet perfectly appealing. To me, it seems more indicative of how a room is actually lived in, rather than a formally elegant staged dining room that you're apt to see in most magazines.

Our handyman was over the other day in a first attempt to hang the new pendant light that we bought for our dining room. The old chandelier was really not centered in the room in anyway, and once we started trying to figure out where it really should go, we started realizing how the whole room is actually a little "off". If we centered it "correctly" in the room, it would create a very tight space around the dining room table, and the room is also a passageway into the living room. It also has doors that lead to a patio out back. After much deliberation, we decided it was best to just put the light and table somewhat uncentered, and keep the room so that if Jake and various friends decide to run around the room, they'll have space to do that. That's the way we live, and it's silly to try to pretend otherwise.

I also had our handyman install these wall sconces from Shades of Light. They look great, and are a much improved version to what was originally there. I LOVE them. I get so excited when my home design projects work out. As a graphic designer, it's very easy to delete things you don't like with the stroke of a key...I wish it was that easy for home design mistakes! It would definitely take the pressure off, wouldn't it?