An Overnight in NYC

My friend Peg managed to get tickets to a Martha Stewart show, so we planned an overnight to the big apple last week. We had to be at the studio at 8:30 Wednesday morning, so thought it best to go the day before.

Peg also invited Sandi and her daughter Katie, and on the train ride into the city, they presented us with gift bags for the event. Sandi made us each a necklace and a couple of charms, and she and Katie created some decadent chocolate and fruit goodies, one made with white chocolate, one with milk and one with dark. We all agreed that fruit goes good with ANY kind of chocolate! Don't they look yummy!

We wandered into Time Square Tuesday evening, dined at Sophia's, and returned back to our hotel fairly early. Four women with one bathroom meant we had to get an early start on Wednesday!

Which we did. We were hailing a cab on 9th before 8 a.m. and were in the first half of the line waiting outside Martha's studios.

The whole process was fun, entertaining and informative. The show was taped live, and during the commercial breaks they played loud and upbeat music. Joey entertained us with his quick wit, which is much more evident when you're in the audience, than the bits you get to see of him on the actual show. He's a pretty funny guy!

(Audience questions following the show)

No cameras during the show and cell phones had to be turned off before we even entered the studio. Martha's guests were Deborah-Lee Furness, Hugh Jackman's wife, who did a craft with her, and the Lee brothers, who prepared a few dishes featuring buttermilk, using recipes from their new cook book.
There were a couple of giveaways. A cook book, and a google book. Better than a jar of mustard! After a stop at Macy's and lunch, we picked up our bags at the hotel and headed to Penn Station for the train home. And started planning our next getaway.

Can't wait for the next one!

52 Lists for 2010 - List 4

I had so many bitty scraps left from the composition book journals we did for Martin Luther King Day last week, so I just covered a piece of cardboard with those. The labels were leftover too.

I left some space in case I think of any more. Now I'm assuming that if I can try these professions, I would be properly trained first and be perfectly capable. At least for something like piloting a plane!

Rainy Days & Mondays

Are the theme for the day here. We awoke to a torrential downpour and the winds picked up through the day, causing the usual flying debris, falling branches, downed trees, and widespread power outages. And of course flooding. When you grow up in the prairies, flash flooding isn't common. Here in hilly PA it happens frequently. It was nice to be home this morning, cozy and warm, though I did have to venture out later. The Sandy Run Creek had risen to the top of it's banks and I wasn't sure I was taking the same route home.

.It was soggy front & back.

No birds nibbling and no kids cycling. Well, OK, the kids were at school!

I heard a couple of things on the evening news today. First, it's national bubble wrap day, or celebrate bubble wrap day, or something like that. I figure the best way to celebrate bubble wrap is to pop it -- not the itty bitty ones, but the nice big fat ones that you can jump on and they sound like firecrackers going off. That's my kind of fun! Something else they mentioned was today, the last Monday in January, is the biggest day for depression. ?? And the happiest day is June 25th -- that's a little ways away.

I figure that this really applies to the northern hemisphere. It's summer in the southern hemisphere. Tomorrow, or today actually, as it's already tomorrow there, is Australia Day. What could they have to be depressed about there ?!

The rain has stopped and the forecast is rain free for the next few days. So let's all cheer up northern hemisphere residents and wish our Australian friends and family -- Pier, Nathan, Kai & Hailey!! --

a Happy Australia Day!!

Evidence

Evidence that Marc has returned from his 9 days in PR:

He always returns from his travels with a variety of toilet articles -- soap, shampoo and conditioner are the most common. We haven't bought a bar of soap in years! And there are always groups collecting these types of items, for soldiers, shelters, so we can put to good use these many-more-than-we-will-ever-use!

Evidence that Nick came out to cheer Gaby on at one of her basketball games:

A bit easier when the start time is 11:30! But we did go to Lowes for 10 and built a tic tac toe game, and then joined the Blankemeyers at our new favourite, The Corner Bakery. Nick was actually up first on Saturday morning, the only day he could sleep in this week! It always seems to happen that way.

Evidence, that Gaby played basketball this weekend:

In the first photo her form is rather impressive, but she didn't sink that shot. She did sink a couple of others. Can't say that they won. No scorekeeping in this league. The teams were evenly matched and both played well. Gaby went home with her friend Ashton for the afternoon. I swapped out kids, as after picking up Gab and having dinner, Nick was off to the School of Rock for the Southern Rock show. They finished their evening at Friendly's, where they order ice cream year round. Even in January, when the weather is below zero. Ooops, I should say below freezing! Below zero here IS cold!

We're so happy to have Dad home!

December Daily 2009 Done!

Done, photographed, uploaded to Flickr and DD 09 group. So I'm really done!

I do love doing an album like this. Last year's was a kit, which was great, but I loved drawing from my stash to complete this year's book. If you want to take a look at the entire completed book, check it out here

And check out my fancy photo studio set up.

I tried several times to photograph the finished book indoors, and just couldn't get it right. So I dragged two leaves from the dining room table into the 33 F mid morning weather, and snapped away. Better light.

Gaby and I spent tonight (Friday) at her school's Family Fun Night Beach Party. She loved it. Quite a few of her friends were there. Nick and his friends started up their Fiesta Fridays once again, after a lengthy hiatus. And Marc is still enjoying the golf weather in PR.

I stayed up to catch the last episode of Conan hosting The Tonight Show. He spoke quite eloquently, from the heart. I'm definitely a fan of Conan the man. And who knew he was also a rock star?!

52 Lists for 2010 More Mini Art Journalling

Now that I'm blogging, I've got to get caught up with one of my reasons for blogging -- posting prompts for this year's challenge.

I participated in Emily Falconbridge's 52Q challenge last year and loved it. Still have the last 4 to go, but I plan to finish them up. It was so much fun, creating art and answers for the questions she would pose each week. Sharing them in the flickr group she set up here was even more fun. It was a place to be inspired and make new friends. Emily and her family made a big move last year, and a third babe joined their family, so we didn't expect her to continue with another challenge for the new year.

At the same time, I started thinking about what to do for 2010. Last year, I picked up a couple of Listography books for Gaby and myself. They are awesome! Check them out  here  Instead of just filling out my book, I thought it would be fun to start a weekly art journalling project with friends, using these list ideas as our starting point. But I couldn't figure out how we could possibly all get together every week. So why not start another group online for the new year? I checked with Emily, as I didn't want to do something so similar without her OK. And I emailed Lisa Nola, the author of the Listography books. Both were fine with the idea, and so here we are with 52 Lists for 2010.

It was past the beginning of the new year, and the first Monday of the year, before I got started. Late and blogless, I set up the Flickr group 52 Lists for 2010 More mini art journalling, emailed a few friends, and posted prompts on FB. Now that I have a home for the prompts I can get caught up here.

Check back for a new list prompt on Mondays.

List 1 Your happy list for 2010

List 2 The things you'd save if your home was on fire

List 3 The countries you've visited

It's a good day to become a blogger

And so I have.

Usually, I can't remember what I was doing a year ago on any given day, but today, I do. I was glued to the television most of the day, as it was the inauguration of President Barack Obama. I was also catching up on my 52Q for 2009. Starting it, actually, 3 weeks late. The news today is all about Obama, analyzing his first year in office.

I figured it was a good day to start blogging, as we had a weekend worth writing about. Now, we think all of our weekends are worth writing about, but this one is worth sharing. At least with family! Which is one of the reasons that I've started blogging. So the Grandmas can keep up with what's going on here, oh so far away.

The other reason is that I'll now have a more proper place to post my weekly list challenges for 2010, that up til now I've been posting only on FlickR and FB.

But first, the weekend. It was busy with Nick's Classic Rock show at the School of Rock.

The shows were Friday and Saturday nights, and with Marc away, Gaby and I were left with trying to figure out how to both video and photograph the night. We certainly didn't get it figured out the first night! Gaby had trouble with my camera, and when I thought I was zooming in and out with the video camera, I was actually turning it off and on. The photos from Friday night weren't bad, and we had the chance to redo the video Saturday night. Nick said he was more concerned about the audio than the video. Good thing, cuz it sounded fine, but anyone who suffers from motion sickness might have trouble viewing it! I really enjoyed this show. Much more than his last, I must confess! The last show was Thrash, which is just not my thing! This show was awesome. Those kids rocked it!

Since it was Gaby's birthday last week, this was also the weekend for her to celebrate with her friends. She pared it down a lot from parties past, and we both liked it much better. Two girlfriends, an afternoon of swimming, dinner at Bertucci's and a sleepover. Much better!



Our long weekend wrapped up at CLC. Philly's 15th annual Martin Luther King Jr Day of Service. CLC's 8th. The Pelletier's 7th. It starts at noon with a lunch for everyone, followed with a movie or video, which gives us time to set up our activities. This year, we baked dog biscuits for a local animal shelter, made tissue paper flowers for residents at a local nursing home, wrote letters and coloured pictures for troops serving overseas, made scarves for the homeless at Project H.O.M.E., made valentines for the residents of Paul's Run, and made journals for the teens of Covenant House. The journals were my baby, and I prepped paper strips and labels for 50 composition books. Thankful for paper trimmers and my Sizzix! It was a fun afternoon and a great way to wrap up a fun filled weekend.

So Grandmas, can you spot your granddaughter?! You won't find Nick, as he helped set up, and then was off to rehearse with his friends. The life of an aspiring rock star.