Back to work...

Happy Monday!

I'm on the 7 am bus back to New York this morning, heading straight to the office. I hope you all had a relaxing and wonderful long weekend with family and friends. W and I have both been fighting colds/flu, so we've been sleeping in, and cuddling up around a fire. There have been homemade cookies, french toast at sunset, and the rest we both needed.  We've been less sparkles and glamour and more flannel and hot tea the last few days, but it was a wonderful few days to let everything go, and I'm feeling reinvigorated to tackle the holiday rush of the next few weeks.

This has been me the last few days...

Wishing you more of this...

...and of course this! Happy Holidays!

Poster Cabaret

It's raining and gray here in Boston- a great time for some hot tea and online shopping! Have you checked out Poster Cabaret? It features "gig posters" and a few prints from "the top artists of the underground poster scene". Here are a few of my favorites at the moment... I seem to be drawn to red, taupe, and black right now.

Jenny Lewis by Travis Bone

The Shins by Jaimes Cervantes

Pumpkin Cookies

Last weekend W and I tried a Pumpkin Cookies recipe I found here. There was initially a typo in the recipe, which combined with my misreading it lead to a couple of "uh oh" moments. But in the end we were happy with our improvised cookies, and wouldn't change a thing. They are light and cakey- you could actually make them as muffins, as they aren't particularily sweet. The icing is a nice couterpart to the cookie base, but it is sweet, so frost sparingly.

These cookies made their debut with friends, coworkers, and even my doorman last week, and were a big hit all around. (I'll admit I even ate them for breakfast before I gave them all away).

I'm writing from the Peter Pan bus this evening, on my way up to Boston. We were planning a road trip up to Vermont for our second Thanksgiving, but W has come down with the flu, and in the interest of not infecting friends or their small children, we're going to be having a re-thought, quieter holiday in town.

Whatever your plans, big or small, fancy or quiet, I wish you all a merry merry Thanksgiving!

(The complete recipe is after the jump!)

Feeling Orange...

I'm already missing warm weather and flip flops- when shorter days, gray skies, and the winter sniffles get me down, a little dose of bright orange always helps to cheer me up. Here are a few things spotted around the web this week that made me smile.

This is the Leica M7 Hermes edition. Only 200 will be made in orange.

What a showstopper. Sigh. Details here, via Whorange.

Sunshine on my shoulders Makes Me Happy. Soo true. And on my nose. So it feels tight when you wrinkle it up like a bunny rabbit. Oh Summer.
From Olympia Community Print.

This rabbit is made of carrots. A lot of carrots. He is such a serious looking rabbit, doesn't he make you giggle a little bit? It's an ad by Gavin Martin Associates showcasing their new vegetable inks. By Magpie Studio, details here. via Swiss Miss.

One Month in...

It's been one month since I started Peanut Butter and Poetry. Just over a month ago my coffee table was covered with pink sticky notes as I agonized over finding the right name for this project. At times blogging has come easily, at times it has been hard work. I've learned about feeds, and rss, and even started remembering a little of that html I learned in college. I'm still finding my footing, feeling out a direction for this fledgling blog.

The past couple of weeks have been filled with planning. From coordinating the shipping and swapping of Christmas presents, to hostess gifts and buses and this town or that town and who will be where on what day. I've also been planning a work trip, so when I close my eyes I see little calendar pages floating back and forth. It looks like I will be celebrating Thanksgiving in Vermont, Christmas in Connecticut, New Years in Boston, and then be in Lisbon, London and Paris in January. Whew. All good things, but dizzying to think about.

The Christmas lights have gone up in our building lobby, the ice skating rink is open. For the rest of the week, I'm taking a break from planning, and focusing on enjoying the crisp air and the growing holiday spirit.  (Photo above from here)

Thanksgiving

My family likes to celebrate Thanksgiving a few weeks earlier than most Americans. It has become a bit of a tradition-we avoid the holiday traffic, and generally avoid snowstorms. So today there will be thirteen of us dressing up, giving thanks, and digging into turkey, mashed potatoes, and biscuits. There will also be sweet potatoes, cranberry sauce, and tomato aspic. Tomato aspic, if you are unfamiliar, involves tomato juice, Jell-o, and little veggie bits set in a mold and dressed with blue cheese, watercress, and hearts of palm. I'm not a fan, but my mother and aunts adore it.

Doesn't this dress put you in the mood for holiday parties? I imagine effortlessly throwing my hair into a bouffant and sashaying slowly around a ballroom, martini glass in hand.

This print is by Yasmine Surovec, and is available from The Working Proof, with a percentage of profits going to the Kids In Need Foundation.

Cityscapes

I have a love/hate relationship with New York City. Having grown up in the country, I detest the noise and the crowds. I hate the smells emanating from the cement in the summer, and the slow tourists clogging up the sidewalks. But slowly over the last five years, the city has seduced me. Plying me with its endless restaurants of every variety. Cajoling with it's subway system that runs all night, and it's stores that stay open late. Somewhere along the way the very grittiness of city became part of its charm.

Marc Yankus' cityscapes diffuse all the chaos and noise into the softness of a summer rain. The glare of the buildings become like sparkling Christmas lights, and we feel like we're wrapped in an old memory that's just starting to fade.  With a little bit of the grime thrown back in here or there of course...  
Discovered via P at What Possessed Me.

The Lorax

Check out this typographic Lorax poster!  I love the "Q" in Lorax!

Illustrates a quote from the 1971 book by Dr. Suess. A limited edition of 20, you can buy it here. Printed in a community print shop, using reclaimed paper and soy inks. Discovered via Design Crush.

Color in the Slope

Some images from around Park Slope as we drift through a few unusually warm days...

Stores In The Slope

Empty storefronts have started multiplying here in Park Slope. Some are newer niche stores- a yarn store, tucked just off Seventh Avenue. Others have been here for years- a Thai restuarant, a frozen yogurt store, a green grocer. The place with the handmade chocolate pudding. That gift store just down the block.

As I start my Christmas shopping, I'll be doing my best to shop at local stores. I may do my research online, but I'll bring my book list into the Community Bookstore, and have them order what they don't carry. It's the carved wooden place, right next to the wine store, you know, the one with cats and the blue-haired woman behind the counter. Because there are already too many empty store windows.

Six Months

Today marks six months since W and I first met, and had lunch together. We went to Bartley's, which has the best burgers and shakes in Cambridge. The burgers are all named after different celebrities- I used to love the Tiger Woods- but they've since updated their menu, and now you can choose from the Barack Obama, the A-Rod, or the Tom Brady among others.

In the last six months W and I have traveled endless miles between Boston and New York, and spent countless hours on the phone. We've watched the Fourth of July fireworks from the Charles, road-tripped to Vermont, and gone apple picking in Ipswich. We've walked the Brooklyn Bridge, jogged through Prospect Park, and taken the ferry to Ikea. We've been to the Top of the Rock, and toured Seattle's Underground.

W supports me in endless ways, from his patience when I'm hungry and I can't think straight, to encouraging me to start Peanut Butter and Poetry. When I need to talk, I know he'll listen with patience, logic, and wisdom. We are still learning about each other, handing over little bits of ourselves. A favorite song, a scar from hitting that pothole over there, a story about that old friend I hope you'll get to meet.

The last six months have been a wonderful adventure, and I look forward to seeing what the future will bring. The photo below is from my birthday dinner at Palisade.

A Brooklyn Weekend

We spent Saturday in Red Hook, where I finally got to try the goodies at Baked. They are known for their Red Velvet Cupcakes, so of course we had to try one. The buttercream frosting was delicious, but we were both bigger fans of the Coffee Crisp Bar. Yum. I got my sugar fix, and W got to relax with a cup of coffee and an architecture magazine.

Sunday morning we met friends in Fort Greene to cheer on the runners in the NYC Marathon. When I think of the marathon I picture the elite runners at the front of the pack, but we had a great time cheering on all the everyday folks in the race. There was a large international contingent, and quite a few costumes.  Most of all we clapped our hands raw and yelled out encouragement to whatever names were crawled across the nearest t-shirts. We followed up the marathon with brunch at Beast. The food is tasty, the wait is short, and there is always an old black and white movie playing above the bar.

Fall is quickly slipping into winter. My thoughts are turning to the holidays, to cold hands on hot mugs of tea, to hot baths that smell like lavender, to wool socks, and to cozy evenings at home.