Hello New York City

Got people?

Got glamour? Elegance? Style?

Got Christmas?

This weekend included a whirlwind trip to the city that never sleeps to see the Radio City Music Hall Christmas Spectacular. Before we leapt into parenthood, the Man and I took several trips to NYC and I'd also visited there as a kid. Central Park. The Empire State Building. The Twin Towers. Ellis Island. The Statue of Liberty. Rockefeller Center. Battery Park. The Metropolitan Museum of Modern Art. Broadway.

On one of our trips, we'd toured Radio City Music Hall and saw the annual Christmas Spectacular, which was indeed spectacular. Magical. Amazing. Memorable. To see a show like that is to understand why NY is the theatre capital of America.

A few years ago, a wealthy client of mine from London was going to be spending a week in New York at Christmas with his wife and asked me for recommendations of things to do and see. They were staying at the Waldorf Astoria on Park Avenue, and I told them to see if the concierge there could get them tickets to the sold-out Christmas Spectacular.  After making the recommendation, I wondered if I'd done the right thing. They were sophisticated people. Would they consider it gauche?  I shouldn't have worried. After the holidays, the client sent me a note thanking me and telling me how much they had enjoyed the show, how entertaining and impressive it was.

The Man and I were happy to finally take our kids to the city to see the Christmas Spectacular on its opening weekend. I was a good grrrl and did not take any photos during the show, and my small point-and-shoot camera wasn't up to the task of capturing the grandeur of Radio City Music Hall, especially the scintillating sparkle of the biggest and most beautiful chandelier I have ever seen.  A visit to the Web site gives a hint of what the show is like, but videos of the performances don't begin to convey the live experience. If you ever have an opportunity to see it, do it! A special experience for people of all ages.

The view from here

November is such a gray month, but I like the way the landscape transitions from rich colors to soft sepia tones. The days curl into the nights in this quiet space between the glory of fall and the spare lines of winter.

We're in our second day of steady rain and dark skies, a nor'easter. Here's the corner of my deck at noon, taken as I stood in the rain:

I found this shot on the camera. I think it was taken by the Girl on Halloween. "Fall diamonds."

 

Hope you're finding beauty in your corner of the world.

Holiday cards

Over the weekend I grabbed a little time in the studio and made a few simple holiday cards. I wanted to break away from the usual Christmas color combinations and try something a bit fresh. The resulting cards were surprisingly elegant.

The center of this card is embossed in gold and the background papers are black mounted on a white card. The white card "disappeared" during the scan. Oops. You'll have to imagine the white border.

This one also has a gold embossed center panel. The yellow cardstock is an unexpected choice. The stag looks almost royal set against the rich red paper.

The holly branch is embossed a shiny silver on this one. I love how its curves echo the lines of the floral background paper, which is charcoal gray with Wedgewood blue. Aren't the snowflakes pretty? They give the card a wintry touch.

I don't make all my holiday cards, but I do make some. I try to make all my thank you notes. During the coming weeks, I'll be experimenting with more looks and styles. 

The domino effect

Off and on all weekend, I worked on decluttering my studio and the kids' craft storage area. We were drowning in markers, crayons, paints, and supplies. I carefully sorted what we had, tossing out the items that were past their prime and putting all the excess into plastic storage boxes to donate to a local shelter.

Once I'd done that, I decided to move all the remaining kid craft supplies into my studio so that we'd consolidate all art activity and storage into one room. This meant, of course, that I had to rearrange things there as well. I finally took the time to organize all my patterned paper by color, and I hung some projects that have been on the floor for far too long. Once I started hanging art, I began weeding through the bric-a-brac sitting on various shelves and flat surfaces, trying to clean things up visually.

Once I got started, it was hard to stop (except for an occasional nap, ha ha). Before it was all over, I ventured into my closet to thin out my wardrobe (again!) and headed into the garage and tagged some bulky items (my Reebok Step, an electric keyboard, a high chair, a scooter) to donate to Goodwill. I can hardly wait to get it all out of the house.

Last year I had vastly reduced the number of holiday decorations I had, but I plan to go even further. We're replacing our giant Christmas tree with a smaller one that better fits in this house, and I'm ditching nearly all the Halloween and fall decorations. I'm also going to be digging through the kitchen pantry, trying to get everything arranged better.

This urge to de-junk my spaces always hits me in the spring and the fall. By the end of the week, the house should have a fresher look and some breathing space, and we'll be ready to do a deep cleaning before hosting family for Thanksgiving and launching into the Christmas season.

Does anyone else clean and organize in the fall?

Now

by Greg Watson

I told you once when we were young that
we would someday meet again.
Now, the years flown past, the letters
unwritten, I am not so certain.

It is autumn. There are toothaches hidden
in this wind, there are those determined
to bring forth winter at any cost.
I am resigned to dark blonde shadows

at stoplights, lost in the roadmaps of leaves
which point in every direction at once.
But I am wearing the shirt you stitched
two separate lifetimes ago. It is old

and falling to ash, yet every button blooms
the flowers of your design. I think of this
and I am happy, to have kissed
your mouth with the force of language,

to have spoken your name at all.