I am very excited about my summer shoes. A pair of Owl Print Eleanor Grosch Keds (she's a rock poster artist!) and a pair of Rocket Dogs.
I think they are called "skimmers". They look equally cute with jeans or capris or skirts.
I would have liked an Eleanor pair in every pattern!
I heard Martha mention her Michael's craft line a few weeks ago. We have lots of Michael's in Rochester so I was pretty excited. When I went and saw an entire aisle of Martha Crafts I was estatic.
The craft supplies are great and the packaging is amazing. I had to get a few things, my favorite of which is a bone folder. She uses one all the time, but I was never able to find one. I am sure it is going to make all the difference for my crafts.
We decided to tile our kitchen floor this weekend. As we were tearing up the kitchen we thought "Hey, let's paint!".
One trip to the paint store later and we have a gallon of "Butter Up" to match our new brown ceramic tile. This is how home projects go for us.
We will be living with our stove and fridge in the dining room for awhile.
We got tickets to a Rochester Rhinos game this evening and it was our first time at the new Paetec Park. It was so much fun and I am sure we will be back this summer.
It's Flower City Days at the Public Market.
We found Raindance Harvest there and got some really cool organic heirloom tomato plants for our garden this year.
This year we are growing Cherokee Chocolate, New Zealand Pink Pear and Mr. Stripey heirloom tomatoes.
Aaron is really excited about the Transformers movie opening July 4. He has been talking about Optimus Prime and Autobots whenever he has a chance.
When I was a kid I watched Transformers once in awhile when Smurfs was a rerun... but not enough to know as much as he does. But there is one character that I think is interesting.
Back in the day the Transformer Bumblebee was a robot transformed from a VW beetle. For some reason however, for the movie VW did not let them use the beetle. I thought that sounded crazy. So Bumblebee is going to be a Chevy Camaro instead. What a bummer.
I am completely obsessed with my customized google page. I have tabs for news, blogs, tools... you name it.
The gadgets you can customize are so cool! You can send invites to friends to add your gadget to their google page.
I made this one to give updates on my daily status. You can try clicking here to see if you can add it to your google page. Let me know if it works!
I took the bus to work today.
For years I meant to take the bus, but I aways had an excuse. It wasn't convenient, it took too long, blah blah blah. But gas has hit an all time high and the earth is heating up... I am out of excuses. I left the bug at home and rode the bus.
It was actually really great. I greeted my neighbors walking their dogs while I waited, boarded the bus, popped on the new Maroon 5 on my iPod, sat back and enjoyed the ride. It was actually quite relaxing.
I want a pin or something that says "I took the bus!".
I just added a post to Rocha-chatter about Martha and the Dancing Festival Guy at the Lilac Festival. Turns out there is more to the Dancing Festival Guy than I guessed.
Our mall got a Forever 21, but I had never gone in it. Then I read this article in the NY Times and was more interested. Tina and I stopped in and I found a cupcake tank top I went crazy for. After Aprille got me a cupcake t-shirt for my birthday I want cupcake everything.
They may even replace last year's skull phase.
So our yardsale yesterday was pretty successful. I even found time to walk around and visit other people's yard sales. I found these vintage tablecloths for $1.50 each!
Nice condition with lilies of of the valley.
I liked the pink of this one.
This one is square and too small for my dining table, but it was too cute to leave behind.
I just read about a wedding tradition called Trash the Dress. The idea is after the wedding you pose for pictures in spots that will completely ruin your wedding dress. "Trash it. Get it dirty. Get it wet. Roll around in the mud. Drench it in the ocean. Totally trash it."
I don't think I could trash my wedding dress... my mom made it for me, but some of the pictures are amazing and they look like fun.
A couple "across the table" pictures and one "under the table" picture.
Paola's Burrito Place on Cinco de Mayo and CiBon on Park Ave at sunset.
Oscar begging for brie and honey.
I was stumbling around this morning when I heard on the local news that GM's new Chevy Sequel was heading out on a 300 mile drive. This is great because the Chevy Sequel is the first fuel cell powered vehicle to travel 300 miles on one tank of hydrogen. The Sequel is like an electric car, with no transmisison and zero emissions. The only byproduct is water.
I think this is really exciting. The semi-secret GM Fuel Cell Center is in Honeoye Falls and I have read a lot about the EV1's that I used to see driving around that area.
If you live in NYC, Wash DC or Southern California you can sign up to test drive a Sequel Fall 2007. I am really bummed they aren't doing it in Rochester... with the Fuel Cell Center nearby wouldn't it make sense? Pooh.
After I got to meet Martha almost a year ago, I thought "Whelp, that's it."
Well, I didn't get to talk to her, but I did get to see her again since she was back in town for an Ad Council luncheon and to film the lilacs at Highland Park. (of course Tina and I hot footed it from the luncheon to the park to trail behind her and peek from behind the bushes at her and her film crew)
She just left all her lilac bushes at her recently sold Turkey Hill home, so they gave her several to take back with her. The mayor also declared today Martha Stewart Day. AND there is a lilac variety named after her.
The lilac segment will air on her show on Thursday.
Even though I only have furry children, I get to celebrate Mother's Day.
For breakfast Aaron made me a Dutch Baby with whipped cream and berries. It was buttery-licious!
Oscar and Stewie pooled their pennies together and bought me two Japanese Maples for the front yard. We went to our local Oriental Garden Supply where they have greenhouse after greenhouse of Japanese Maples to choose from. I picked a lacy red variety.
To end the day we went to the Lilac Festival to sniff the lilacs and eat vast quantities of kettle korn.
A good day for a puppy and kitty mom.
As part of my birthday weekend we went to the New York Wine & Culinary Center for a wine and food pairing class and lunch. The center is a place to learn more about New York State food and wine. In the picture above I am actually tasting different kinds of New York fruit juices.
At the center you can take cooking classes, taste wines or eat at the restaurant. There are classes for different kinds of pesto, strawberry and chocolate, baking with berries...
I think we will be back.
Today was my birthday and I got to spend it at my alma mater watching a movie about a typeface.
I was pretty excited when I heard Helvetica was coming to RIT on my birthday. There was the movie, a question and answer session with the director, a panel with RIT instructors and Hermann Zapf signing books.
The movie was great and I was in design geek heaven.
H E L V E T I C A spelled out in rice crispy treat was brilliant.
There are so many big movies opening this summer! We already saw Spiderman 3 (the day it opened of course). Also looking forward to Shrek 3, Pirates of the Caribbean 3, Harry Potter 5, Oceans 13 (3), Fantastic Four (2), The Bourne Ultimatum (3)... whew! A lot of sequels.
But there is one little movie that I am really looking forward to. Underdog. It's too cute. I can hardly stand it. We may have to see it at a drive in so we can take Oscar!
Have you ever had a Kool-Aid Pickle? I haven't, but apparently they are gaining in popularity in down south.
All you have to do is “... pull the pickles from the jar, cut them in halves, make double-strength Kool-Aid, add a pound of sugar, shake and let it sit — best in the refrigerator — for about a week."
I must say I am intrigued. This joins the ranks of such food oddities as turducken, deep fried oreos and oh hey... deep fried pickles. What is it about pickles that make people want to take them to the next level? What about ice tea pickles? Coca Cola pickles... oooooh!
I have started making a frog amigurumi (Japanese art of crocheting ridiculously cute stuffed animals) at Sit & Knit.
This is his head.
Aaron thought I was making banister finial cozies.
Tina, Shruti and I went to a ginormous neighborhood yard sale today. I hit the jackpot with a Pyrex Pink Gooseberry Cinderella Large Mixing Bowl, a Pyrex 1.5 Qt Divided Cinderella Oval Casserole, a vintage aluminum cake carrier, and a gravy boat.
I really needed a gravy boat.
I really didn't need another cake carrier. Hah.
The George Eastman House is going to have an Ansel Adams exhibit this month. To kick it off they had a black and white party where attendees were encourage to wear black and white and bring their black and white pets.
Oscar is more tan-ish so we stuffed him in a black t-shirt and took him. He had a good time sniffing all the black and white critters.
Yesterday... Tina, Shruti and I volunteered for the United Way Day of Caring. We spent the day weeding and painting at the St. Johns Home. It was nice to be outside and I think the garden area will be really nice for the elders.
Being there made me think I should take Oscar and Stewie in as therapy pets. They would have to go through training but I think they would brighten some elder's days.
This evening I was puttering around the house when Aaron came running inside. He was supposed to be at scooter club (Negative Image Scooter Club)... and he was... he just brought them all to our house.
I hopped on and we were off. If you think you get some stares zipping along on a scooter... try it with a gang of 15 scooters.
It was so much fun. I shot some more videos... this one and a couple more here.
I am looking forward to going to Sit & Knit this week. Between traveling and concerts I haven't been in awhile.
Since Aaron usually comes with me I like to encourage him to do something crafty too. He did make a stupid sock creature a bit ago.
I think he should try knitting too. And I saw just the book for him. Men Who Knit & the Dogs Who Love Them. Could that be anymore perfect? I totally think he and Oscar need matchy matchy knitted sweaters!
