My super talented friend Natalie has been working on a photo project of same-sex married couples for the past 5 years, photographing some of the thousands of same-sex couples who have married since it's become legal in a handful of states. She photographs the couples in their homes, with their kids, snuggling on their sofas, sitting in their gardens, doing all of the everyday things that any couple does, regardless of sexual orientation. The portraits are personal and intimate and really beautiful. 

She has a show coming up this summer at Yellow Preril Gallery in Providence, RI and has started a kickstarter page to help cover the expense of printing and framing all the work for the show. Have a look and visit her site and spread the news.   

Little r got this lovely set of blocks for her birthday from my parents. They are really, really gorgeous and I am so pleased every time r asks to pull them out and start building. Not only is it great to see her practicing her stacking skills, I can't help but admire her good taste.

I decided to pull out my sewing machine the other day and finally get started on some little summer things I've been meaning to make for R. I have a small collection of vintage kids clothes sewing patterns and I have to remind myself that the reason I have them is to use them, and if I don't use them now, for little R, then when? I am so used the weeks-long knitting timeline that the speed of this project - finished in a matter of a few stollen hours here and there - amazed me. I now have no excuse not to make more.

I worked off of this romper pattern, using a Liberty "Nina" print I had in my stash. I was nervous about just going for it with such a nice bit of fabric and almost did a sample out of a scrap fabric first, but I knew I'd probably finish that one and never get around to the final. I'm glad I took the risk. 

The whole thing came out a little bigger than I had hoped, so to help ease the fit I added a little tuck in the front and back, right at the neckline. This made it fit a little better around the shoulders and I think helped "girl" it up a bit. I made a new pattern with that and a couple other adjustments and am going to try and whip up another one this week or next. . . stay tuned!

I got this sweater second hand from a friend of mine a few months ago. It's a light weight linen, so it will be perfect for layering this summer, and I love the red stripes. In fact, I loved almost everything about it (right down to the bold, way-to-state-the-obvious label). Everything but the buttons. They were white enamel on metal and were way to heavy. Luckily I had just enough of these vintage wooden buttons stashed away to make a replacement. Roll on summer.

I worked on this tie-dye project a little while ago, but just had a chance to take some photos this week. I used rubber bands and Rit dye to do the simple rosette and bulls-eye patterns & got all my cotton dye-ables from Dharma Trading. It was way easier than I expected, and really fun. 

The newest member of our family is also my new desk mate. Meet Mr. MaxFish. We've had him for 3 days now and are really hoping he'll survive the week.

Have you seen these new "Forever" stamps at the post office? So pretty, I had to buy one of each.

  

It's a rainy, cloudy, but very green afternoon here in NY.  It's like magic the way the dull skies and wet weather can make greens so bright and vibrant.

My sister asked for it, so here it is: the completed shower curtain. The bathroom gets no natural light, so getting a good photo in there is next to impossible, but I give you the best I could do. It's just a plain white linen, but as you can see from the tile and the tub (yes, that's a blue tub), our bathroom doesn't need any more color.

It's officially official. I have added the blog to my business cards. Let's do this.

 

As I get older, my perfect birthday plans have gotten pretty mellow. Dinner at home (takeout, of course) with E & a good friend, followed by cake and ice cream (some things never change). This year, I decided to re-instate another family birthday tradition: the chocolate cake. For all the birthdays I can remember, my mom always made the same cake for us: a chocolate cake layered with canned cherries and whipped cream frosting, always with the same signature red heart on top. My sister made the same cake for E's birthday when she was visiting last month and it inspired me to make it for myself. At my sister's recommendation, I replaced the canned cherry layer with a spread of jam mixed with fresh strawberries and used the same strawberries for the iconic red heart. No matter how old you get, I think there should always be at least one birthday treat that makes you feel like a kid again.

Celebrating today by taking it easy and baking a cake.

It's been a long time since I've seen Manhattan at night. These photos are giving me the fix I need. Found here, via here. What an amazing trove of images.

I'm afraid the closest thing to a tip I can offer is this peek inside R's travel bag.
Despite being a frequent flyer and her young age (with family all over the map, it's hard not to be), R is not good on planes. She gets way too exhausted to play nice and way too riled up to fall asleep. On almost every flight we've taken, I've been the embarrassed mom in the back of the plane trying desperately to get my little beast to stop crying. I don't know why I haven't figured out the magic to getting her to relax -- it is magic, right? It seems to be the only possible explanation as I've tried everything else. The one thing I have learned is how to make an awesome travel bag. Her favorite thing is the pom-pom fringe, but the sock comes in a close second.

Did I say I'd have tips?? Hardly. But I do have a couple more shots.

We stayed two nights in Old San Juan, but really only had one full day to explore. The old colonial architecture and pastel painted buildings were as beautiful as I had heard, but sadly the parts of the neighborhood we walked around felt more like a touristy mall than the caribbean paradise we were hoping for. I would say 98% of the people we walked past were tourists, probably 75% of them had just gotten off one of the cruise ships docked up the street.

We ended up spending most of our time exploring the old forts & city walls lining the shoreline, and I'm glad we did. The buildings were really amazing - I had never seen that kind of Spanish Colonial Architecture in person and loved it! I felt like I was walking around the set of Bizet's Carmen. You would think that, because I liked it so much, I would have taken loads of pictures, right? Wrong. Mostly I just shot Ruth looking grumpy, and became kind of obsessed with this one look out room covered in modern, "I wuz here" style graffiti. It was the only part of the whole place that was defaced, but man did people go wild in there. 

After two nights, we took a small prop plane to the island of Culebra. You can also take a ferry, but we had heard the ride was REALLY rocky and I am so glad we opted for the flight. There were only 5 of us on the 6 seater (including the pilot) and the views were incredible. You could see all of San Juan as you left the main island and then, as we flew over the ocean, the water was so clear you could practically see the fish swimming under the surface. Someone we spoke to claimed he actually saw turtles from the window. It felt like the type of plane ride island tours I imagine millionaires take, but the tickets were pretty cheap and it was really very practical.
And then, the beach. Flamenco beach is advertised as one of the top 3 most beautiful beaches in the world, and it measured up pretty well. Unfortunately, R was not impressed. She was not really interested in the sand and the waves of the ocean totally freaked her out. The only thing that got us through the week was that she LOVED the pool back at the hotel. So, she's going to be one of those types of travelers. . . We should have just booked her on the cruise ship when we had a chance in Old San Juan.