Food. Week 19-52

I have been dreading the "food" theme.  Taking good photos of food intimidates me completely.  So instead I just decided to take pictures of everything I ate all week.  Of course I forgot about breakfast and lunch.  But most dinners I remembered.  Not that anyone cares but this is what I ate!

Monday night: Cinco de mayo leftovers... fajitas and Monday night margaritas

Tuesday night - Birthday dinner at a tapas bar: scallops, lamb meatballs, seared tuna, chocolate cake

Wednesday night. Grilled shrimp salad on placemats from home...

Friday lunch (I guess I forgot Thursday dinner): Random mix of salads with crab cake and spicy chicken.

Friday night: finally i found a decent pizza  in our town. Thin crust with perfect ratio of sauce/cheese.  Real cheese.  Not that kind of goopy cheese grease that you find at most pizzerias. Of course I also tried the divine grilled octopus. yum.

Then we all (reindeer included) went out for icecream.  I'm stuffed.

Reflections. Week 18 - 52

Hi!  Here I am in the reflecting glass of some rather peculiar (and filthy) sunglasses.

This goose was chilling out at the fish hatchery.  Clearly hoping to get fed.  The water was so perfectly still that reflections were easy to come by.  Week 17 already?  This year is starting to fly by.

Home. Week 17 -52

Real estate in New York is not for the faint of heart.  Today I came across the birdhouse market - masses of houses (all rent-free) right outside my daughters school.    So many to choose from but each with their own issues..

 Too red.

 Too Thatched.

 Too decorated.

 Too bee-hivey

Too jail-like

I finally found where the birds chose to make their home...

This little one came out from where the straw is...

 This little guy came out of the gap/hole below him.  I guess home is where the heart is...

Private. Week 16-52

I can't tell you what's behind this locked gate... it's private.
I must confess I took this picture a few weeks ago.  This week I just didn't have it in me to take many photos.  The Boston tragedy sort of overwhelmed me. I love that town.  #Bostonstrong.

Yellow. Week 15-52

Little flashes of yellow just keep popping into my life in the strangest places.  I had to peel all the labels off these little bottles so my five year old could do her science experiment at kindergarten.  She did about 3 of them and I did the other 22.

I love the traffic light but mainly I just like the pigeons on the rooftop in the distance.

Lemon yellow. Yellow lemon

Love how these chairs were all set up.  And the bright pop of yellow amidst all that grey.

I spend a lot of my work day talking about food labels and nutrition.  So I got a kick out of this label.

Numbers. Week 14-52

I had a lazy morning in New York.  I could have taken a million pictures of great New York scenes but for some reason I just decided to focus on Numbers this week.  These are pretty typical if you live in the city.
This is the number to an apartment.

You have to have good eyesight to  locate your mail box in a large building

Check for good numbers on the price tags of city fruit

And know your subway lines...

But right now I just care about the number on the thermometer and hope my little munchkin feels better in the morning.

Happy Easter

The squirrels decimated the chocolate eggs on the lawn... but thankfully there were some plastic eggs and hardboiled eggs that they left behind.  The squirrels had a very good easter this year.  And yes, the girls picked out their own outfits...

Blue. Week 13-52

I try to keep my camera with me at all times because you just never know when inspiration might hit.  I was on my way home from a random work assignment and passed by a storage place.  It had the brightest blue doors, one after the other for about 200 metres.  Then all of a sudden there was a little flash of yellow.  I stopped the car, asked the owner if I could take pictures of the garage-type doors.  He looked at me like I was mad... but he said yes.

Spring (again). Week 12 - 52

This little crocus sprouted up in the garden this week giving me hope... spring really is on its way.

I fell in love with Tammy's daffodil/prop/mirror picture this week so I couldn't resist buying myself some mini daffodils at the store yesterday.  Set against the sunny spring sky they made me smile.  It also made me realise I am turning into my mum (which is no bad thing) as she is obsessed with her daffodils.

And of course we set about dyeing eggs for Easter.  Charlotte had so much fun and I have to admit I kind of enjoyed it myself, especially the tie-dye ones.

Happy Spring everyone!

Spring. Week 12 - 52

It's cold outside.  There are still small piles of snow scattered around but it is the first day of spring and I am going to post a spring picture if it kills me. Seb started planting seeds for the vegetable garden and some of them started sprouting within days.  Looks like it will be a good year for cucumbers and squash.

 

I also just had to throw something colourful in here for spring.  Here are some pretty hyacinths that friends brought over to dinner last week.

Off Center. Week 11 - 52

Feels like my universe has been a little off center this week so this was a good theme to work on.  Right now my face is a little off center thanks to a fight with a brick step (brick won) in the pouring rain.  But I did learn two important lessons this week.  The first is don't run in the rain even if you are running late.  The second is that if you ever find yourself in the ER and the nurse asks "do you want plastics?" that she is referring to a plastic surgeon and your answer should be yes.  Unfortunately the surgeon only worked on the gash and didn't throw in any extra free work.  Shame.  Don't worry, I am fine but I've been milking this for all the attention I can possibly get and my friends have not let me down.  It's almost worth slipping in the rain.  Almost.  This is a little craft that Annabelle made at daycare.  She is ever so proud of it.

Play. Week 10 -52

I found it hard figuring out which theme I wanted to work on this week.  I spent so much time just "playing" with my camera that I didn't focus.  But I looked through some pictures and realized that playing was probably the theme of the week (and month... and year).  This picture was actually taken a couple of weeks ago at the Berkshire museum in Massachusetts.  They had an entire room dedicated to "child directed play" where they literally just filled up a room with cardboard boxes, egg cartons, tape, cling film (saran wrap), and all kinds of other non-toy toys.  It was awesome.  Some of the adults in our group might have had as much fun as the kids.  Here is Charlotte totally proud of the houses she built with her big-kid friends...

Sometimes playing just involves the simplest ideas.  This week both girls had so much fun building a lego tower with the goal of making it taller than themselves.  Yes, it did fall on her head seconds after I took the picture...

Play in our house involves a lots of arts and crafts.  The floor usually looks like this.

And just because I can't dedicate an entire post to just Charlotte... here is Annabelle playing peekaboo/peepo on our swingset outside.

A tree grows in Brooklyn

I enjoyed a girls night out in the city last night.  Then I stayed over at a friends house in Brooklyn.  A sensible person would have relished a morning sleeping late and not having to entertain toddlers.  But a camera obsessed fool, such as myself, decided that a walk around the neighbourhood, in spite of a headache, would obviously be the best possible way to spend a few kid-free hours.  This little tree grows right outside their front steps.  I love the hanging lantern.  

I headed over to the Barclays center and passed by the subway.  In the bright sunshine the train numbers looked so fun and colourful.

The architecture of the Barclays center was actually pretty unique and I loved the reflections in the glass panels of the main entrance

Of course nothing says New York City quite like the iron grates in the sidewalk, old chewing gum stains and a bit of trash... that just happened to have NYC printed on it.

This is a community garden that I passed.  I love the vibrant sign.  The garden itself looked pretty sad but hopefully things will turn around in the spring.

Brooklyn is full of contrasts... on one side of the street was this chain link fence with barbed wire and old plastic bags....

and across the street was the entrance to pretty brownstones.

A morning well spent!