sarah in nyc

 Today is my husband's birthday. I guess one of the things about feeling a full blown adult is that you are better equipped to deal with the imperfect. We had planned to do a celebration with family and some friends last Sunday but the blizzard put an end to those plans. Our daughter was supposed to join us tonight for dinner in person but she is under the weather. What can you do? I have made a nice dinner. One of the cranberry chickens that I cooked last week is making an appearance ( after a week in the freezer. To make the meal feel more festive I made meatballs--not quite as fabulous as the lamb Lulya we were planning to eat last Sunday in Rego Park. I also made something that tastes like love to my husband. One of his favorite childhood foods was boxed mashed potatoes. Above is a cauliflower puree which is known around our table as Blobbo-taters. For my husband this tastes like love...so I made it. I even made dessert... Inspired by a YouTube cooking video in Italian where th...

 Well, we finally had a real snow. Once again I am grateful that the task of shoveling didn't  fall to me. According to city laws shopkeepers are legally responsible to clear the sidewalks in front of their stores.   This hard working employee of the health food store across the street had to come out every hour or so to re-shovel the sidewalk. It was also bitterly cold. The snow piled up on my window frame. The next day this gentleman tried to free his car from the snowbank using only his bare hands and his cane, He was successful but hasn't yet moved his car. I haven't just been hanging out by my living room window. I even got a bit of work done. I first met Darone right after I moved to New York. I was just barely an adult and he was one of the kids in the afterschool aftercare room that I ran. Now I am fully an adult and so is he. A couple of years ago I talked Darone through the process of designing needlepoint tallit bags for his twin sons who ere about to have thei...

 I was introduced to the concept of a "Tuit list" by my sewing friends. A tuit list is the stuff that you think "I will get to it when I have the time". I am between big projects and so I have gotten to some of those things. After my mother died I, inherited two similar buy not identical ceramic lamps from her. The lamps used to live on our porch. One of these lamps now lives in our living room. I hated the shade. It looked dingy and it looked completely disconnected from the ceramic lamp. I have thought about what I need to do to improve the shade for the past ten years.  I have thought about various solutions to the sad lampshade and have watched more than my fair share of lampshade DIY videos on YouTube. Last night my husband and a friend got together for a beer. I got to work on the lampshade. First I painted the interior gold with acrylic paint. Then I painted the outside of the lamp with black acrylic paint so the lamp was at least having a conversation with t...