Author: lizbeth

I have been a big fan of Boris Bally’s work for a while. If you aren’t familiar with his work, you should check it out. He works mainly with recycled street signs, procured legally of course. He turns them into everything from key chains to wall art to coasters and the most recent addition seems to be house numbers. What a fabulous idea! Visible during the day because of the bright colors and visible with a little light at night because of the reflective nature of signs. I can’t wait to have a house to put some numbers on. A funny little fact is he was one of my husbands professors at CMU art school and he like one of M’s projects so much that he kept it. The project is a shoe horn with a sadistic series of spikes and barbs.

I reading a book right now called “A Piece of Cake” by a woman called Cupcake Brown. If I were to judge this book by its cover, I would like it was a saccharin sweet tale of fiction with a princess or something like that. It is absolutely not that at all. This is the autobiography of Cupcake, a girl who at a very very young age found herself bounced around the foster care system and how that shaped her whole life. I can’t put it down. On the jacket of the book you see that Ms. Brown is now an attorney so you know at some point things turn for her, but there is an awful lot of awful stuff that happens to this woman on her way through life.

People, we have plants! And not just one or two plants. Hanging plants, flowering plants and of course herbs. We have a plant that M rescued from the fire escape and nursed back to health. We have no idea what this plant is, but it is green and leafy and I love it. I have always wanted to have lots of plants, but I do not have a green thumb. Just the opposite really. If you give me a plant, I will almost assuredly kill it. But my husband on the other hand is some sort of plant wiz. It is fantastic! By the way, if you are like me and have trouble with keeping plants alive, I recommend basil. That is one tough and delicious weed. I have trimmed it to within an inch of its life and it still produces a crop of leaves just perfect for pesto. In fact the next pack of seeds we get for the Aerogarden will be international basil so I can feel like I am contributing to the plant life around the apartment instead of just staying out of the way so things have a chance to live.

Soccer has ramped up lately and I have been playing at least twice a week. The last two games I played left me feeling a lot like a kid again. What about playing soccer could bring me back to my youth? It is really the circumstances surrounding the games more than the games themselves. Last week I had my first game in the pouring rain. I don’t know about you, but as an adult I don’t often just let myself get soaked on purpose. It was liberating… and very chilly and soggy on the subway ride home, but you have to take the good with the bad, right? Sunday started out looking like it was going to be more playing in the rain. Instead the clouds gave way to a beautiful blue sky with a nice cool breeze. I was playing in a round robin of sorts so I had play time and then rest time. During rest time I was nestled into a rounded out portion of the chain link fence that made the perfect seat. I tell you it is moments like that where I almost don’t feel like I need a backyard… almost. Actually I would kill for a backyard. No, not literally. At least as far as I will admit to the world through this blog.

M has been coming home every so often with chocolate sweets from Jacques Torres. This past time he came home with one of our favorite chocolate covered almonds with a dusting of powdered chocolate AND dark chocolate PB pretzels. Goodness! You might be a little shocked by the price tag, but take it from me, you can’t eat that many at a time. They are just too rich.

I am a lucky girl when it comes to hand-me-downs. My step mom has terrific taste and very generously will pass things like purses and clothes down to me when she is done with them. In every case I get a ton of compliments on the new item. I love it. M loves it too. I feel like I get something new without having to actually go out and but it. Thanks D!

I am bad. I don’t get my mother gifts for mother’s day, her birthday, Christmas… in fact I have actually talked to her on her birthday and forgot to say happy birthday! And she still loves me! What is my problem? I am lazy. She lives far away and if I can’t hand deliver a gift, I don’t usually get one. Bad, I know. I need to do something to make up for it. I don’t know what yet, but if any of you have an idea, let me know. BTW, she reads this, so it won’t be a surprise that I am going to be doing something. Hi Mom. Thanks for everything! Love you.

I received another picture with Hugo and Bob. I am going to have to get on making more toys.

When I knit I don’t always re-ball my yarn and it almost always leaves me cursing my laziness when I have to spend forever untangling the mess that inevitably develops. I just found a link detailing how to hand wind a center pull ball. It seems easy enough to follow. Maybe this will help me spend more time knitting and less time cursing the day I learned to knit.

I recently came across Amy Helfand’s work while reading about Brooklyn Designs on Apartment Therapy. I did not attend the show so I am loving the highlights. Amy’s rugs are wonderful. Nice design beautiful colors. I love color. I love it so much that I have to be careful how I use it otherwise my apartment would look like a rainbow threw up all over it. Luckily M is there is reign me back in and remind me that all the colors I am picking up won’t necessarily look all that great once I get them home.