new years in new york

Before I forget, celebrating the new year in NYC was full of more fun with kids. My friend David is an opera singer and we spent many late nights together up to no good in college. He and his wife Nicole hosted a small gathering of friends and neighbours. His daughter Sophia helped us ring in the new year with her purple tutu - she is adorable and speaks in very sophisticated full sentences - she's 2.

We played a very silly game involving descriptions, charades and one word clues, sometimes called "celebrity" which I had only ever played the previous year, on new years day. David and another friend from college and I were on the same team. We won with my clue of Ciccone (for Madonna of course).

The next afternoon found Emi, her husband Andrea and I hanging out in the meat-packing district.

First at Pastis for brunch ...

Then we went for a walk along the High Line. NYC has taken a derelict railroad and turned it into a really cool park. I wish I had actually taken some pictures of it, but the views were very distracting ...

Frank Gehry's "Iceberg" ...

and the first day of the year was glorious!

you are your own home

Elsa Mora has inspired me in many ways so far this year.

 Especially with this idea.

Marcel likes soup

Time to make some more!

what I did on my christmas vacation

Visions of gingerbread houses danced in my head ...

a kitten waited for Santa to come down the chimney ...

Santa did not disappoint ...

in fact, I think Santa may have gone a little crazy ...

but no one complained ...

although there was some gunfire ...

no one was injured ...

 

more friends joined us for fun in Central Park ...

skating was magical ...

the giant squid continued to attack a whale at the Natural History Museum ...

girls researched how to connect their hair to horsies after seeing Avatar - in 3D ...

and very little sleep was had ...

but we sure had lots of fun!

I heart New York.

double celery soup

I did it ... I cooked!!

I give you super yummy double celery soup!

2010 goal - learn to cook

Ok, so I can sorta cook (it's a bit like the sewing). I even taught my sister how to make perfect fluffy scrambled eggs when we were in NYC. But the reperatoire is miniscule and I'm not such a fan of doing it. Funny cause since I redecorated the kitchen it is my favourite room in the house.

Perhaps I just need some incentive ...

like an excuse to wear this darling apron from perdoozy on etsy made from Nicey Jane fabric!

I'm hoping to be inspired to make this lovely "green soup with ginger" cause I think I'm getting a cold ...

Tomio is 9 and a half

Tomio and I decided to create a tradition for my NYC visits. This was Tomio in April:

This was Tomio in October:

This was Tomio last week:

Let's be clear, I am not as short as a 9 and a half year old - he is tall!!

Ceciley has gone back to Lala-land

Marcel got lots of lovin while my sister was here.

He was very happy!

Now it's just Marcel & me again. We're going to watch some Pushing Daisies and go to bed early tonight.

I can has new tablecloth?

Marcel loves sales at Anthropologie!

welcome home homer & mccoy!

I had all my ebays sent to NYC and now they are home sweet home - yay!

Happy New Year!!

I went skating with the kids in Central Park yesterday. It was wonderful fun! Can't download the photos right now so here is a pic of Nathan Phillips square looking fabulously festive.

Happy New Year - I can't wait to see what 2010 has in store!

holidays in New York!

Tomorrow night I will be singing along with Louis Armstrong’s “Christmas Night in Harlem”, because that’s where I’ll be!! My sister Ceciley and me, along with my friend handy-man Matt & his girlfriend are driving to NYC tomorrow to spend the holidays with these two darling children: Tomio & Julia.

Their mother Emi, is my best friend from college – we met in a Women’s Studies class at the University of Michigan in 1990 and have had many adventures together since. She is a born & bred Manhattanite, and I try to visit twice a year to spend time with the kids. I’ve watched these little babies grow up and at 9 years old Tomio is almost as tall as me!

I usually visit in the spring and fall, and the summer Julia was an infant I was there for almost a month, but we’ve never spent Christmas together and they don’t know I’m coming. I can’t wait to see their faces when I walk in the door!

I was just there in October and we had lots of silliness and pillow-fights. This is my job when I am there - having fun with my little goofballs!

So for Christmas I ordered them a vintage Chinese Checkers set on ebay (ahem), but I seriously need to look up the rules because I don’t remember how to play.

Tomio wants a baby brother for Christmas. That’s not in the cards but this was also on his wish list. I got him two of these, because I’m pretty sure I’m going to need to be able to defend myself once he opens it.

Julia wants to have a wedding and has decided that she will marry her cat Mackerel. I think this is an awesome and hilarious idea so of course I want to help.

Apparently she already has a dress! but she wants a few other things to have a “real” wedding, so I bought this for the cat:

and these for Julia:

I can’t wait to play wedding photographer at the “ceremony”!