More of New York

This was the view out the window of my hotel room. It took forever to get a good pic since the window only opened a crack otherwise it was me in the glare of the glass. Not such a good pic. I took it after having walked the neighborhood early in the morning. We stayed at the Soho Grand on W Broadway which was fabulous! My only complaint was that the windows didn't open enough and the air didn't work so it was incredibly stuffy for someone like me who likes it cold enough to hang meat in the house at night. Seriously though, this room was gorgeous and super comfy.



Lovely sign on the wall I saw when out for my walk. The color was amazing.



Couldn't resist!



Little piece of home in neon. I didn't try it since I had eaten nor did I want to be incredibly let down. I was still stuffed on gnocco, pizza and pasta from Gnocco. Truly out of this world. If you go just for the gnocco appetizer it's completely worth the airfare.



At the giant Toys 'R' Us in Times Square. Pretty cool.




Finally, if you ever wondered what I thought heaven would be like it's this. French bistro with super close seating and shared favorites with nearby diners. Fantastic hard cider (yep, check me out with the hard stuff), organic salmon, frittes, cheesy polenta and profiteroles... seriously, heaven. I actually had visiting here on the list of things to do before checking out the pearly gates so checked it of the list and plan to visit next week for girls weekend.



Tonight I'm working on finishing up a necklace I started this weekend. Tomorrow, packing for mini-road trip to Santa Fe for long weekend. It's cold with chance of snow! Woo hoo.

For those folks related to us quick Maya update. She's doing much better with the shots and starting to be up running around like her old puppy self. She's back up to giving regular kisses and demanding pets.

Vegetarians Don't Look!

We made a bigger Sunday dinner than we usually do at our house. It's been cold and we don't typically do any kind of holiday meal so we decided to go for it with Sunday supper. I made hashbrown casserole (a la Cracker Barrel) and baked beans (Mother-in-law has tastiest recipe... super easy but you'll have to ask her for it :) ).



Rolland made a smoked turkey in the smoker that ended up being super easy and incredibly tasty. He did his home work though and brined it (Alton Brown) prior to smoking and it made all the difference. Most moist turkey ever. I'm already thinking about the yummy turkey sandwiches to come.



And it's no wonder we got this tastiness made with help like this attached to us at the hip.



Next week, Beef bourguignon via the Barefoot Contessa which I've made before and is heaven. I think this Sunday supper thing might take hold for the new year.

Bathroom before and after... day 1 of demo!

Before and after pics as the demo got under way today. I hope it's clear which are which! :)

On the Maya front, she is back to her regular puppy self demanding pets and lots of crying if she can't get us all herded in the right direction. We still made an appoint for the puppy neurologist next Thursday so we'll get the fully skinny then. Hopefully. For now, we're glad to have her back to herself.

Stay tuned for more fun bathroom progress pics. Now, I'm going to bed because I'm beat. I know it's 10pm but I get up early. :)

Never without drama

We came home on Friday and opened the door just as Maya, our Akita, was having a seizure. Thank God Rolland's a nurse and handled it while I willed the vet to say something useful. She had another one on Sat after having gone to the vet and getting blood work then she's just been sluggish for the last day. Tonight we heard back blood work's normal and they gave us a prescription. She's much more herself tonight after having slept all day and so far so good. Apparently they can just develop this problem and it's not always a sign of worse things. I've still put in an email to the puppy neurologist though.

In the meantime, we stuck close to home and I played in my art room. This is the page, front and back, I did for Michelle's Marie book. Kecia graciously hosted a swap for us to do for Marie books but this time we all bought books with ring bindings and did a mass send out of the pages so you just complete a page and send it off. We talked about doing it at Art Nest but never got around to it so I'm glad to finally put my book to good use. It's also helping me work through my girly goody stash in the ribbon and sundries box! The idea is to be over the top with the ribbons, beads, baubles, etc.

I'm still working on going through all of my Chicago pics but here's a link to the New Orleans photos since I can't remember if I posted it previously! I have thrown in a couple of Chicago pics, just to tied you over. :)

Demo on the bathroom starts tomorrow along with all the tweet and before/after updates. Going to be a busy few weeks.

Mid-Afternoon Update

I decided I didn't have enough projects going so I'm starting on a necklace I've had in my mind for a while. This pic shows the madness that is my desk this afternoon. Clearly I thrive in chaos! :) My new favorite thing is peeking through which is my sigg bottle. This one is my favorite for home. I've really tried to give up the bottled water and filtered water in these bottles is actually pretty yummy.

I had to run an errand this morning and was able to listen to the Diane Rehm show. Today's show was about a guy who raised Akitas in Japan. As the owner of an akita I was hooked! This book sounds awesome and it's definitely being sent in the next round of Amazon purchases. Checkout her show online if you've got a chance. I've included a pic of Maya in case you need some inspiration. She's just too sweet - I'm not bias at all!

Happy Thanksgiving

Everyone needs one of these for their studio. Maya is super cute and only one of the many things I'm grateful for this day. I hope you are surrounded by people that love you and you too have lots of good things for which to be grateful.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Up, up and away!

A couple of weeks back this was the site greeting us on our commute home. I took this from our open sun roof. There was a balloon festival in Plano and the sky was filled with balloons. It was especially troubling to Maya, our akita, because she's not having anything to do with the hot air balloons. Normally she's completely laid back and sweet (photo showing evidence of said sweetness). She does demand pets but willing to give plenty of kisses in return but with the hot air balloons across the skies she was on full alert barking her ferocious bark and standing on the wall straining towards the balloons - seriously, I think she's sure if she could reach just a little higher she'd get herself a balloon. Apparently, even puppies dream big!

New items on Etsy

Today was a rough day at work but we're due for sleet and a serious cold front so I'm hoping for a snow day... Maya has a bad infection and we need to up her allergy shots so my husband is trying to sweet talk her into taking her antibiotics and steroids. It's not working but it's kinda funny to watch. She's the sweetest dog on the planet but not a good pill taker. On the human front, I'm due for allergy testing Monday so Maya should be happy that I'll have to do it to although it should be slightly less traumatic for me since I won't have to be knocked out for it, although my husband might prefer it!

Anyway, I'm working on a couple of new projects that I should have pics to post tomorrow and I've added a couple of new pendants to my ETSY store. One of which is this one. She's one of my favorites since I picture her as one of the really sassy WWII women that I think helped keep America running, and extremely interesting, during an unbelievably difficult time.

Say hi to Maya

So I had to go to the dr's office today for a routine med check... basic stuff. But I gave her a little bit off an update on how I feel and now I have to have a glucose tolerance test (drink sickly sweet sugary stuff and get blood drawn after each dose.... 6 times) and an upper GI (drink the icky chalky stuff while they move you around to see, via x-ray, how the liquid moves). I know this isn't a huge deal and that lots of people are way worse off but sometimes it just feels like a lot and I really think it's okay to whine a little about getting blood drawn 6 times in a row within a few hours and I'm guessing only from my right arm since my left has no veins worth sticking so this is me being not happy with little art to show for my troubles.

I am however, posting a picture of one of our puppies, Maya who may be one of the sweetest beings on the planet. Abby is adorable but at her core, she's her own puppy but Maya, Maya wants nothing more than to make you happy and give lots of kisses... and this is how you know it's going to be okay.