Now?

Every summer I think to myself, "Maybe I'll get my blog going again", and ever summer I write (and do not publish) exactly one unfinished post.  Maybe this will be the year...

...and maybe it won't.  Let's find out.

americana

 

Is there anything better than a hometown parade?  Not if you ask me.  

My home town of Niskayuna, New York celebrates its founding every year in the quintessential style of small town America. A throw-back, someone with want for nostalgia might say.

Yes, I speak of Niska-Day. Barbecues, neighbors, block parties, potato salad, water balloons, radios, pie. The smell of hot mud in the sun, craft vendors, filtered light through white circus tents.  Goldfish in plastic bags.  Highschoolers in polyester tuxedos on a flat-bed stage singing show tunes (I was one).  Grade-school art, matted, on display.  Fireworks, sparklers. Family.  Home. Children on the verge of catch a glimpse of freedom, community comes together, wanderers are drawn back.

All this magic ushers in summer each May,  but stays with me all season long.

introductions are in order

Asa Edward was born on April 3, 2012.

Welcome, baby boy!

where we started

Chad and I both come from the North.  Nowhere rustic or off the beaten path, but with easy access to the great outdoors and opportunity to explore wilderness.  This is something our new little addition will not be privileged with (at least not as first), so we decide to bring a touch of yonder to him in Brooklyn by creating in his nursery a woodland retreat to inspire his imagination.

Still, we likely will not always live here, and with that in mind, I couldn't help to snatch up one of Lena Corwin's beautiful prints of our current home.  When Little is big and lives far away from his origins, he will be able to look back at this symbol of where we started.

my 2 dads

In our on-going series of nesting projects in preparation for baby, we decided to clear up some space in the living room/dining room/kitchen by eliminating the dining table (!) and replacing it with a kitchen island.  In my search for counter stools to accompany it, I came across these beauts...

...and Chad found these...

...which reminded us a bit of this:

Chad's father, Dane, is a very talented carpenter and furniture builder, yet in our home, we had nothing that he has made.  Also, my father, David, a retired teacher and amateur historian, has experience with the traditional shaker craft of chair taping.  And so, and idea was born...

 

Photos of the finished product to follow shortly :)

snow day

I took my large self for a walk today and thought about this time last year, and this time next year, and what a wonderful time I am in now; this whole wide world laid out before me.

raw/cooked

 

Kristof Wickman's exhibit closes this week on November 27.  
He is the first artist featured in the Raw/Cooked series at the Brooklyn Museum.