deck the halls..

 

.. with boughs of various discarded tree clippings collected from a nearby park. i wish i could capture the true loveliness on camera, it really feels like a stark winter wood in our little place. chip is the visionary. in fact, i had nothing to do with it- while i was at the grocery store he and the girls gathered, carried and hung the branches with ribbon. lovely. and free. and earth-friendly.

the girls are very happy with all the "holiday and christmas day decorations" they begin each morning by turning on every strand of lights and then choosing two ornaments each to hang around their ears as earrings, as any and every super fancy christmas lady should. then, after the earring play is through, eve asks (about sixty times) how many days and sleeps are left until the big day. now that the counting is down to one hand the excitement is palpable. even little charlie is feeling it, there is nothing he wants more than to get his hands- and mouth- all over the christmas gifts under the tree.

this gingerbread house is a product of the enviable talent of our good friend, abby. two years ago she mailed out a modern gingerbread house kit as her christmas card, complete with pattern pieces and recipes. so smart and so very fun. 

also, if you don't have a wonderful aunt ann of your own to send you beautiful candy horses replete with childhood memories and christmas nostalgia, you can order your own from startup candies. 

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a christmas miracle may occur this week; i may get all the gifts finished and express mailed by tuesday and i may come back to report a little bit more about a few projects and happenings. but i may not. if i don't (and sadly, i probably won't) merry christmas! hope your halls are decked and you enjoy your holiday every bit as much as we plan to enjoy ours! 

recovering

do you have those moments (or days) when you feel like you've done some serious reverse-maturing? lately i've been reminding myself of college me: doing anything and everything i can think of besides the one thing i really need to do. honestly, i'm always functioning a little like that, but almost dysfunctionally so in college. and here i am again, finding all kinds of things to do besides actually preparing for the major thing i have coming up: baby. this week's unhealthy procrastination has resulted in several projects, the first two involving some re-making and re-covering. not thrilling, but at least useful.

new stroller seat. the other was hideous but i held out on making a replacement until i had a legitimate reason. when it ripped apart i finally had it. keeping the plastic belt snaps from the other stroller seat, using it as a pattern for the new and using some fabric and ribbon on hand, it was done. i may have to do some major reinforcing; the girls love to sit in it and push each other around (dolls are rarely allowed in). . . i'm pretty sure i've already heard stitches popping.

ironing board cover. why haven't i done this sooner? before the burn and water marks our last cover was fine- just natural canvas- but we have had some terrible covers in the past. always in the worst shades of baby blue. no more. i used the old cover as a template, finished the edges with some double fold bias tape and fed the re-used string (but you could use elastic too) through, put on board, tightened and secured with the holder/clamp. done.

ha! this might be the most boring project report of all time. but it makes me feel like i've been slightly productive, even though i really haven't.

the real excitement begins tomorrow; we've got eve's very first fashion show! i can't wait. she'll be walking in the parson's school of design junior fashion show. the theme (at least for the children's wear class) is "street wear, hong kong 1995" and the outfit that esther (design student) made for her is so so fantastic. i imagine eve will end up covering her eyes (her shy/ i'm overwhelmed reaction) for at least a little bit of the walk but for now is insisting "i'm going to be so brave of the fashion show." on the very same stage used in project runway, we'll see how she handles the big time.

++ and there's some excitement over at brooklyn bean. head over there and get in the mix to win one of alysha's handmade goods. i consider this a real act of selflessness (i really like winning) so take advantage, blog or no.

eggs and cabbage

for the last six years i've been dyeing my eggs with vegetables and spices. i continue to love the process and the results. aren't those colors amazing? totally worth the combined stink of boiled cabbage, turmeric and beets looming in my apartment for a day or so. . . and apparently filling the hallways of our building, based on the amount of air freshener that a neighbor sprayed outside my door yesterday. sorry neighbors. i'm just here to spread easter cheer.

there are two ways to dye your eggs. the first is boiling/simmering your eggs in the dye. this generally results in really saturated, even colors for 30 minutes. the second is "cold-dipping" them in strained very warm to room temperature dye, anywhere from 5 seconds to hours depending on the desired color. this results in more translucence and subtlety and also requires regular rotation of the eggs if you want even coloring.

the general ratio for making the dye is 1 cup of vegetable (chopped if necessary) to 1 cup of water. for turmeric, add 3Tbs to every quart of water. bring to a boil and simmer for 30 minutes. add about 2tsp (i never measure) vinegar in the dye after about 20 minutes.

this is what can result- with a billion variations in between.

onion skins. (from left to right) first egg cold-dipped for about 30 minutes. second boiled in dye for 30 minutes. third rubbed with vinegar, wrapped in onion skins (while raw) then wrapped and tied in cheesecloth and boiled for 30 minutes. i love the marbling. the colors that come just from onion skins always surprise me.

red cabbage. first egg cold dipped in warm dye for 20 minutes. royal blue left in dye for an hour or so. marbly egg boiled with the cabbage leaves in the pot for 30 minutes.

turmeric. middle egg boiled for 30 minutes. other two left in warm/hot dye for about 15 minutes. i had some lovely and subtle yellow shades that i had just cold dipped, but ended up dipping them into other colors.

turmeric and cabbage. various combinations, various lengths. since these two dyes are the quickest and most obvious, i played a lot with them last night as i was teaching some ladies at church the glory of natural dyeing.

beets. first cold dipped for about two hours. second boiled in beet dye for about 40 minutes. third cold dipped for about an hour. beets are always a little disappointing, but i like having some sort of pink-ish in the mix.

coffee. first time using coffee and probably my last. i was hoping for a really dark brown but ended up with this after nearly an hour of simmering and another hour sitting in the dye. the lighter was about 40 minutes in the hot dye. perhaps the coffee i made was too weak? it looked really really dark to me but i have no idea what i'm doing with coffee. chip had to ask the editing studio he was working at that day for the stuff i used. . .

so now we have a lot of beautiful colors to look at, some dye i'm considering using for fabric and two dozen hard boiled eggs i'm hoping to find a use for.

today

watching the rain melt yesterday's snow.

putting together valentines for school tomorrow.

playing house in the closeted hamper. sporadically shouting (at me), "hey! you! get out of our backyard!"

making plans for the next quilt. this one will take awhile.

relaxing on the pillows i finished up on monday, courtesy of some sukie tea towels bought for cheap over a year ago.

completing final stages of potty training.

christmas 2007 retrospective: the build-up

i'm starting to feel bogged down by my report of christmas. like it's a history paper i should have turned in last week, this is quickly falling into the chore category. but, i want this christmas documented, so i've just got to do it. and quickly, if i can make myself sit down in front of my computer long enough to sift through all the pictures and write something, anything, that makes sense. here goes.

church program. i wish i had a recording of the choir. the music selected was much more traditional than the usual fare; old basque, german and french carols. so lovely and the tiniest bit complicated, adding to the interest. i sang a solo in "the angel gabriel from heaven came" and shockingly, managed to not sound like a goat. in fact i was really happy with my performance. and that's rare. the best part of this program was the timing. held on december 9th, i got thinking about what christmas really is early in the month, and there was plenty of time for the excitement to really build. the worst part was the complete break down the girls had during the entire thing. apparently they're no fans of me being up on the stand while chip sits with them in the pew (a complete reversal of the usual church experience). chip was able to hear about 1/16th of the whole thing. but honestly, it was really nice watching the freak outs and not having to deal with them myself.

decorations. chip is the christmas decoration master around here. this is his doing and to his credit. except for the crowd around baby jesus. eve took care of that.

lights at grand army. our neighborhood is certainly rough on the edges, but the location is ridiculously great. the museum, the botanic gardens, the library, the park all within three blocks. and around christmas time it is grand army plaza that we love to visit at night. the tree that changes colors and lights up the arch fascinates for all of us, and eve does a strangely good job of guessing the color the tree will be when we first come down the street to see it.

kid's work party. eve now thinks that everyday chip goes to a place where cotton candy is readily available, pigs in a blanket and chocolate milk are continuously supplied, photobooths hang out for your enjoyment, movies about santa and reindeer play on fancy t.v.s and all conference room tables are covered with countless sugar cookies. before this visit eve was convinced chip worked on the train, so at least she understands there's a building involved now.

rockefeller center. started out walking from chip's work, got really lazy really fast and so decided to hop into a pedi cab. worth every dollar. eve waved to the people walking by, the "driver" drove them by the american girl superstore which they had little interest in, and we all hopped out at the huge tree. rockefeller center is an annoying place to be during the holidays- always so crowded- but we managed to have fun seeing the tree and watching the ice skaters. except for ruth. she did not like the ice skaters dressed up as oompa-loompas. something about painted faces and white gloves. a terrifying combination for her. i should probably avoid the circus for awhile.

church party. ruth's first up-close experience with santa. not a fan. eve, however, summoned all her courage and was able to sit on his lap and tell him what she wanted without completely wilting. "i was kinda a little bit nervous, but so i did it anyway."

christmas eve. all our pictures from the event are useless, but nights like this make me think i want to live here forever. the palmers, beans, and jeppesens. such great friends with all our kids gathered together in a brooklyn apartment. of course they won't all stay, but for now it is almost magical being together on nights like this. excellent food, great laughter, a lot of singing (accompanied by guitar and violin- how great is that?) and a ton of dancing by the kids. the nativity acting was so sweet. ruth was primed to be mary but lost focus moments before we started and ended up being a lone, mostly naked, wanderer. but eve was a solid shepherd; her character of choice. the white elephant gift exchange was entertaining. we gave the sad earless and armless sock monkey to the beans and we scored a can of spam from the palmers. i'm calling it food storage.

after leaving around 10pm, eve shouted her "very christmas!" cheers to everyone and we made our way home. we dressed the floppy girls in their christmas pajamas, put out a cookie and egg nog for santa (despite ruthie's protesting that he come into our house) and watched them fall asleep within seconds of their heads hitting the pillows. chip and i set to finishing the wrapping, filling the stockings and getting everything just right for the morning. with the tree lights still glowing we got cozy in bed around 2am, and i fell asleep feeling more excited and giddy than i have in years.

open house

this is our place during the renovation just over two years ago. scary. even scarier knowing it was gutted only two days after closing because i was pregnant and impatient. but completely without a contractor or plan. i'm smart like that.

for a more thourough look at our place, check out our friend's recently launched website; renovation voyeur. you can read chip's report of our renovation, see some before and after shots, and even rate and criticize.

++

ours is the apartment labelled "chip and katie, brooklyn, ny" (just in case).

honestly

since when does "stay in the bath, wash all that soap off and then we'll eat some lunch" mean "hop out, get the hummus from the fridge and wipe it all over your clean bodies. oh, and while you're at it, get the floor, the counter and the chairs too."? i normally leave these things to ruthie, but today eve decided to join in. and that explains the hummus all over ruth's back.

crafts of love: mary

chip's mother, mary, made this quilt for eve when she was brand new. i love this quilt. it reminds me of the magic that filled our lives when our very first little baby, our little eve, joined our family. it reminds me of the strange and incredible understanding i had of who she was as i carried her those nine months. i knew she would have the attitude and smile she has, i knew what she would look like and how she would remind me so much of myself. . . i just knew her. and each time i pull this out to sit under with eve, i remember that time and i appreciate the little magical girl just a little more.

i also appreciate the magic behind the quilt. this quilt began years and years ago as mary had the foresight and creativity to save all those shirts of chip's and his dad's. all those great shirts from the 80s that were unabashedly full of pink. i'm sure there were moments when she thought of tossing them, wondering if they were really worth the space they consumed in her ultra organized home (mary's homekeeping skills will put anyone to shame). but i'm so glad she didn't. i love looking at the little squares of strips and imagining pink-shirted chip running around with his mullet, knobby knees and a walkman twice the size of our video camera hooked onto his shorts. i love thinking of bob, chip's dad, on his casual day, sporting a pink plaid button up and maybe grilling some burgers. i love the bits of history that are preserved in this blanket. all the time bob put into working to pay for them, the time pre-adolescent chip spent checking out his triceps in the mirror while wearing them, and the time mary spent laundering and caring for them. i love imagining her as she cut them up years later. remembering those pink-shirt times, what her joys and worries were and reflecting on all the change and new life that has come to her little family. and then knowing the care and patience she took as she planned, arranged, pieced and bound. all to give something to this newest little life, to let the tiny baby know that she is welcome. that she is a part of a family that loved her long before we met.

maybe i am over-romanticizing all of this, but isn't that part of the glory of homemade? the thoughts, ideas, reflections and, ultimately, the love that is given through these things? these things we make and are made for us, or even better, for our children? i love it. i celebrate it. and today i celebrate mary for the many ways she loves us; her worry, her conversation, her heralding, her generosity, her intensity, her sympathy, her unquestionable care, and most of all (today at least) the time she gave to the blanket that warmed my first little baby girl. the blanket that serves as a continual reminder of who eve is, because it reminds her of who she came from.

happy birthday mary. i love you.

here is a little movie chip put together of the out-takes that happened this morning as we tried to record the girls singing the happy birthday song to their grammie. for some unknown reason, eve bawls at the end of this, no matter how many times she has seen it. it makes me want to bawl too. where did that tiny baby go?

our weekend. brought to you by the letter "C"

Cucumbers. grown right on the science barge. i took a tour friday. such a smart idea and great tool for educating. if new york made use of its rooftops for hydroponic greenhouses and green-roof gardening, we would be able to grow enough food to feed the entire city, if not most of the metro area. incredible. complete space efficiency and no importing!

the barge and its components are constructed almost completely of re-used or recycled materials and operates on the power its solar array panels and wind turbines collect. no pesticides, no chemical treatments, just vitamins and minerals fed to the plants through the recirculating hydroponic system. the water they use is a combination of collected rainwater and water pumped strait up from the hudson, which they filter using a reverse osmosis system. the whole thing was amazing and exciting. the tour guide was british and used the word "reckon" which made me love that little barge even more. the tomatoes, butter lettuce and cucumbers grown right there on the barge (and graciously given to our little group) made a great salad with friday night's home-made pizza.

Cape. eve's good friend turned three on saturday, so i made him a reversible cape. one side is superman while the other is personalized for said friend, whose name happens to begin with a "C." i was inspired by the reversible superman/batman cape my mother-in-law gave eve on her third birthday, which is worn daily around here. this was a lot of fun to make. i love felt. i love cutting through it. i love sewing on it. and i love love love superheroes, especially when they're three years old.

eve was adorable during the process, "you working on my friend's superman cape, mom? you workin hard. ooh, i love dat cape mommy. so special!" she also loved trying it on and testing it out before it was wrapped up and given away.

Cheesecake. happy father's day chip. since you are one of the skinnier men i've ever known, let me try to fatten you up by making you this unbelievably good cheesesake that just happens to have 514 grams of fat packed into it's pretty little cakey body. 514!! FIVE bars of cream cheese, 1/4cup heavy cream, one PINT of sour cream, SEVEN eggs, some butter and some graham crackers and you've got 514 fat grams begging to be consumed and double the size of my love handles, while adding nothing to chip. but, it is really, really good, and i fool myself into thinking it isn't so bad for me if i have a few fresh raspberries with it.

no picture with this one. after all the revealing of its fat contents i'm too emabarassed (and horrified) to show how much we've eaten in just two days.

Console. oh, fine, it's a desk. we've been planning to have the desk stretch from wall to wall since we moved in a year and a half ago. this weekend it finally happened. one and a three-quarter solid-core doors painted and joined together. a chair for the computer and a chair for the sewing machine. now chip and i won't have to breathe down each other's necks asking "are you finished? are you almost done? so, how much longer are you going to be working here? . . ." every other minute when one of us is in the chair and the other wants to sit and work. it's no craft room (sigh) but it feels good. . . almost as good as when we got our couch and realized we could both lay down, fully stretched out without having to touch each other. now we just need to find a way to upgrade the double bed. . .

the weekend. there it is, or at least the "c" parts. you're missing out on the tantrums, the general destruction and the drawing everywhere with pen and marker, but i'm going to pretend that none of that ever happened.