sarah in nyc

My friend Racheley lived in Boston between fifth and seventh grade while her father was getting a graduate degree. Bother of her parents taught in my school and we became close during those years. After Racheley and her family returned to Israel we lost touch. We may have exchanged a few aerogrammes but perhaps not. Racheley and I reconnected on Facebook a few years ago, and we got to visit in person in 2018. We have reconnected as if there wasn't a break of decades. The one thing that Racheley has mentioned missing is the color of New England autumn. I totally understand that longing for the deep reds and oranges of the leaves in the Boston fall. Living in Manhattan there are years when my eyes don't get enough fall foliage. each year that happens it feels like a loss. I NEED that color the same way that a body NEEDS enough vitamin C to survive. So for the past several years, every autumn I search out color to send to Racheley. This past Sunday, our friends Alfie and Judy sugg...

  This wonderful coffee-drinking, newspaper-reading skeleton has been installed in front of a local Georgian coffee shop around the corner from my house. The people who own the coffee shop have been enjoying setting up the skeleton in various amusing poses. I am between commissions right now (two are beginning any minute) and my draggy cold seems to be thinking about leaving my body (finally!). So, I have been tackling some tasks that have been on my "tuit" list for a while. "Tuit" is a term I have learned from some of my sewing buddies---the things that eventually one will get to it. Dyeing my sad grey boots red was one of those tasks. The other was tending to my purple cotton sweater. Years ago, I found a lovely heavy cotton sweater with pretty covered and embroidered buttons in a local thrift store and I thought that it would be perfect for my mother. It was perfect for her and she wore it for a few years until she died.  The sweater was made by Evie. a mid-rang...

 I have terrible feet. I discovered several years ago, that my feet are happiest in men's cowboy boots. I buy most of my boots at online auctions. Several months ago I purchased an almost new pair of boots. They are incredibly comfortable. My feet feel good every time I put them on. Unfortunately, I really hate the color. The grey/white leather reminds me of the pretend boots that my neighborhood friends used to wear over their shoes on Halloween when they were dressing up as drum majorettes. Majorette costume .  I lived in a Catholic neighborhood and my friends were  generally the fifth or eight or eleventh child in their family so the white plastic spats that covered their shoes when they showed up on Halloween were grey, dirty and cracked. My boots felt good  but every time I wore them I thought about Meggie or Beth Ann or Ann Marie or Mary in their sad majorette spats. A while back I discovered the wonders of  Tarrago self shine shoe polish  which also ...