spooky sneak peek!

Here's a little peek at the spoonflower order I just received:



It's one yard, printed with fabric panels that will become part of Emily's Halloween Costume! She has a costume party next weekend, so I may actually try and start this in the next day or two. We'll see.

I am super-pleased with the fabric - not just our design which came out exactly like I'd planned, but the fabric itself. I had it printed on the sateen and it is so much nicer than the quilting-quality cotton. More expensive, yes, but really it is that much nicer. They also somehow got this to me in mere days! I didn't expect it for at least another week, maybe longer. But boom! here it is. (Also included - a swatch of the new silk crepe de chine, which is lovely lovely lovely, but what on earth would I ever use it for?)

Can't wait to get started on Halloween!! And maybe some year I'll sew costumes for myself again!

cleaning the coastline

Yesterday was the 25th International Coastal Cleanup day - we went down to pitch in, and with just 4 Daisy scouts (plus a sister) and their adult helpers, cleared 40 lbs of garbage off the beach in about 45 minutes. (We had to check off every item they bagged for a survey being done at that beach - it definitely slowed the process down but hopefully the results will be helpful). A bunch of teams were at our beach, and hopefully teams were at every beach yesterday -- supposedly 500,000 volunteers cleaned beaches worldwide! I was surprised at how quickly we were filling our bags - and there was some creepy stuff too. Behold:



Yes, that's a great big kitchen knife. Yikes! Right on the beach! true, it's not a swimmable beach, but still.

Emily asked if we can take garbage bags back and clean more. After seeing what was still there after all the teams left (that knife, for example!), I said yes. Actually I think I said something like "hell, yeah, omigod I can't believe all this garbage!" Poor beach!

Note: no little Daisy Scouts were allowed near that knife - don't worry!

equal time for grandmas

This is my other grandmother, she's a teenager here although I'm not sure how old exactly. She died when I was just 4. So I knew her just through photos, really. (The exact opposite of the situation with my other grandmother!) Posting photos of one made me think of photos of the other. I have a copy of this one framed, I like it so much.

farewell, Nana

If you follow me on Twitter, you know that a few weeks ago my grandmother died. It was not a shock (she had just turned 88, and she was ill) but it was a surprise (she had just had a good birthday and seemed to have at least a few months left). What was a shock was that I found out from a facebook update. Yes, really. My brother saw a family member's update, and called me up to find out what was going on. I had no idea! We didn't think anyone would post that if it wasn't true....but we also didn't think it would be on facebook before anyone called us. But it was.

The lesson to be learned here: if you have a rather large family and you are working through the tree to let everyone know, ask everyone to keep their mouths shut until everyone can be notified. (Really, can you not wait a few hours to update your facebook friends?) Or, if you know who has the itchy fingers, tell them last. It was so surreal, we got....a bit giddy, I guess. Hysterical, even. We were just like "this can't really be happening! what's next, video wills on YouTube for the whole world to see?" (Actually, I bet someone's done that by now.)

That was the bad. The good? She died peacefully, before she became very ill, and she'd just had a very good birthday. Emily and I made her a photocard - Emily spelled out "Happy Birthday Nana" with her old fridge letters and posed in front of her message -- and we know that she saw it and that it made her happy. I think it made Emily very happy to know she'd connected with her Nana (who she had met, but doesn't remember) and I know it made me happy, too.

Photos I have never seen in my life began surfacing before the funeral, and it was truly bittersweet to see them. On the one hand, every new batch of photos was so wonderful to see. On the other....it was like this door was swinging open for one quick second to give me a peek at a person that it's too late to know. I mean, I knew my grandmother of course...but why was this all like, a secret history? Families are so weird. In any case, here are two of my favorites:



The 1940s My Space shot - it's not a good photo, but I love it anyway!


And this one, from before she met my grandfather. She's on the left, no idea who that is on the right. She must be very young here.



Farewell!

windfall tomatoes

Aren't those lovely? The recent tornado storm craziness we had here in NYC knocked a load of heirloom tomatoes off our friends' vines, and we got a small bag -- no idea what these guys are, but after adding some olive oil, basil and pecorino they were delicious. I've got a big one of these that's begging to be sliced up tonight!