Day 2 of 16: Unicorns

The story of unicorns interweaving in my life. As a girl who loved horses growing up, the mystical unicorn was something I used to draw often. Being a child of the 80’s who loved horses also meant I loved My Little Ponies (hey they’re back!). Skip forward to being a teenager taking AP Art History and I discover the Unicorn Tapestries. Who knew they’d be housed only an hour from where I grew up at the Cloisters. In 1998, Craig and I were engaged, and he introduced me to the Cloisters and I introduced him to all of the art that had been in my Jansen’s Art History book, including those tapestries. Recently we started rewatching the Harry Potter series, well there on the wall of Gryffindor’s “dorm” is the Unicorn tapestries. Finalizing all of this unicorn lore in my life is attending NEWDcamp in […]

Dad's Ornament

Day 1 of 16: Dad’s Ornament

This ornament is one of the most important to me. As a kid I could not have cared less. My Dad fussed about this, always making sure it had a safe place on the tree. As a teenager I finally asked, what’s the story with those beads? My Dad being the locked vault he usually was, did not tell me right away. Eventually I discovered they were an ornament he grew up with on their meager Christmas tree as a kid. The story, as it was conveyed to me, was someone in the family, or friends with the family made these. They were one of the very few things to survive from his childhood. Every year I make sure they get a safe and visible place on the tree. It’s amazing they’ve survived this long considering how delicate the beads are, […]

Christmas Tree

16 Days of Ornaments

As we decorated our Christmas tree this year, I realized we don’t have a theme. While we both like design and could do one in a certain style, our ornaments are not about that, each one has a story. When I pull them out of the boxes they are stored in and hang them on the tree, I am reminded of a moment, a person or a place. It’s where we’ve been, where we are, and where we are going. I haven’t blogged in quite a while and thought it might be a good time to start again, sharing the stories behind the ornaments.

Big Chino

Big Sky Country

We escaped the snow and headed to the southwest to visit my Mom and family. We moved them out there in June 2012 and was happy to escape back to the cool of the Northeast. This year though it was a welcome relief to get away from the bustle of the NYC metro area, and only hear the sound of tractors, birds and the wind. It was great to find roads with no one around, the photo above is only a minute from my Mom’s place.

Cadillac Mountain Sunset

Sunset on Cadillac Mountain

We reached the summit in drizzle, but I was determined to get a shot of the sunset. As we waited for the sunset, people started to arrive and also wait hopefully. As the sun made the descent to the horizon line the clouds parted and for everyone who had a camera, great pictures were for the taking. Just as fast it became a great sunset, it was gone and back to a dark gray drizzly day.

Day 1: Pennsylvania and Death Defying Feats.

Alarms went off at 4am. We had to be in Danbury at 5am to load up the kitties and head over to Denny’s for breakfast. After a late start we hit the road at 7am. New York went by quick. Craig and I were the follow car; reporting back about any swaying issues with the trailer and acting as guides to when it was safe to switch lanes. All was going pretty well. Then we entered Pennsylvania. Where do I begin…carnage is a good start. I don’t think I’ve ever seen so much road kill consistently along the side. Construction, holy crap they closed a lane every 30 minutes or so. First, drunken cone placement. They were all over, never actually on the white line. Tractor trailers kept knocking them over and sometimes they’d flip back into traffic. One proceeded […]