sarah in nyc

  I didn't get out much this week. I was sick with SOMETHING that wasn't COVID but had me on the couch napping on and off for most of the week. I inherited a batch of  1940s and 50s printed tablecloths from my late mother-in-law.  They all have the kind of wild and hopeful prints that in those days were called gay. I have used those cloths regularly over the past more than thirty years. One of my favorites is this one  with a vaguely Hawaiian print---the border is actually a motif used on Hawaiian quilts. My friend Anne owns the same cloth but printed in Christmas colors. Anyway, after eighty or so years of use the cloth has needed some mends in the interior. I had noticed the last time that I ironed the cloth that the edges were getting frayed.  I thought about a variety of solutions, binding the cloth with a contrasting fabric, serging off the grotty bits and then re-hemming or even tossing the cloth in the rag pile. Instead, inspired by Nancy Sullivan who se...

For a little while, it had seemed like autumn would just last forever.   Over the past week or so  fewer and fewer leave have been hanging on to the trees.   The low sun in the afternoon sky glowing through the leaves is  just a joy. But since I took those photos last week, it has turned into winter. I cleaned the wax off of all of the Chanukiyot and put them all away until next year. Our table will be filled this Shabbat. We are feeding our guests the contents of our crock pot. I am not including a photo of the pinkie finger that I sliced in the making of dinner, nor a photo of my husband who hates the sight of blood bandaging me up. We are now passing through to the other side of the darkest part of the year. Shabbat Shalom!

    Just a little while ago, my husband and I lit the last candles of Chanukah. They candles are still burning as I type. Last night our kids joined us for dinner ( many latkes in three varieties--batata, carrot and zucchini) and candle lighting and singing and the exchange of gifts. It was wonderful to be together. Tomorrow I will clean the wax and the oil from all of our chanukiyot. But before I do that I want to share two Chanukah thoughts. As I wrote in my last post, this year I used wicks that I made by twisting the weft threads from an old rag. The wicks are thin.   The resulting light isn't  hearty flames but rather teeny pinpricks of light against the darkness. Of course it brought this song to mind. The song talks about chasing away the darkness with light and how our small lights join together to create a mighty one. Looking at these tiny points of light also has me thinking about needing to make a teeny bit of oil last for a long time, perhaps the ori...

 Last night we lit the first candles of Chanukah. We were joined by our dear friends Alfie and Judy. My husband met them during his college years. I am new to the game since we have only been friends since 1982. I made latkes, lots of them. I took the opportunity to use last night as a dry run for the latke dinner with our kids later in the week. Our kids are eaters. My my original plan was to make the latkes in the air  fryer but I realized that it would take too long to do the many small batches needed. Instead I baked the latkes in a hot oven with lots of oil on my baking sheets. I made potato latkes. As a kindness to my husband I did the blasphemy of leaving out the onions. I did add shredded carrots for texture and lots of smoked paprika and black pepper for flavor. I made carrot, apple and dill latkes. I also made summer squash latkes with amba powder and sumac. Unfortunately I had baked them at 350 and not 400 which I discovered is the sweet spot for crispy oven baked l...

Usually when I post about work I take photos all along the way and then take you, my dear readers, along the journey. Well, I failed as a blogger this times so please forgive me. Our dear friends Art and Kathy are both pretty big deals in the Jewish world and they both are serious collectors of American antiques. Kathy died a few years back. But at some point, perhaps in the 1970s Kathy made a bargello tallit bag for Art with a matching t'fillin bag. Kathy's bargello needlepoint was inspired by the needlework done by American women in the 18th century to replicate expensive Jacquard tapestry work. I am not going to talk about Kathy's deliberate  choice to use old American needlecrafts to create Jewish ritual objects but I will leave you to write that little essay in your own head During a visit with Art this summer he pulled out his t'fillin bag and asked me to repair it. We spoke for a bit about how fond Kathy and I were of one another. We also spoke about our shared l...

 Saturday night my husband and I did something we haven't done in a long, long time. We went to a juried craft show. A juried craft show will often show work that sits on that fence between art and craft. A good show is filled with work that just gives you joy because it is beautiful, often a rethinking of everything that comes before it and gives you a bit of the shock of the new. The show we went to was called Crafts at the Cathedral and is organized by the shop An American Craftsman. In this post I am going to focus on fiber artists, Actually, I am going to narrow that a bit more. There was a fair amount of work  that you would have seen if you have attended any  good craft shows since the  1990s. I'm limiting my discussion to work that felt new. The scarves by  Catherine Joseph  are part of her larger menswear collection. They are the sort of classic but interesting garments that an architect in a movie might wear. The fabrics are all a delight to the...

 Forgive me. I haven't posted in a while.  I have been thinking a great deal about how holidays and rituals can often serve as a link between the past and the present. About how food can serve as a link between the living and those that are no longer living. During my dear friend Shawna's Shiva just before Rosh HaShanah I suggested to her husband that perhaps he should think about our continuing to do Thanksgiving at his home just as we have for so many years. I knew that it was just too early to bring up the topic. I also thought about the little kid who piped up at the Shiva for a baby who was beloved in our community. This tiny child sat in the grieving mother's lap and said, " I think that you need to have another baby. Now!" The tiny child was actually right and said what no adult could think of saying out loud. I told Shawna's husband that he shouldn't answer me yet but should let the thought percolate.  a few weeks later he agreed. We created Thanks...