Sunday Snapshot: Cupboard Envy

Whenever we visit our friends Jim and Dan, I make sure to remind at least one of them that I will one day figure out a way to make off with the magnificent cupboard that is the centerpiece of their kitchen.  

It is an enormous thing, far too large for an average-sized room or home ... fully eight feet high and almost as wide, with a superb original painted finish in a fantastic, indescribable greenish-greyish-smoky ocher color.  Those of us who paint furniture can only hope to create a surface with this much character.

For yesterday's luncheon, with 70 people in attendance, "my" cupboard held a secret (that you may have already noticed, since I neglected to close the cupboard's door before I snapped the lousy iPhone photo that began this post) ... the cupboard was completely chock-full of pies!

Jim makes a grand performance of having an unsuspecting first-time guest throw open the doors of the cupboard at the beginning of the entree course (yes, the luncheon is done in courses!).  He does this to remind everyone to save room for dessert ... and what a dessert it was!!!

As we were preparing to leave, and were thanking Jim and Dan for their hospitality, Jim said the magic words ... "Would you like to take a Doggie Bag home with you?"

And we did!

Have a happy Sunday, Everyone.

Typical Days Around Here

With real live winter weather and temperatures here in Hartwood for the past few days, there hasn't been too much going on to talk about.  I wanted to work in the basement for a while, to get my workshop cleared out so I can work on projects a little easier, but it was 57 degrees down there ... too chilly to work comfortably.  I passed my time working on more exciting things, like laundry.  Woo hoo!  (insert sarcastic smirk)

To figure out how I spent my time, I turned to the photos on my iPad.  Let me share with you some examples of things that I photographed over the past few days.

1.  Here are Alice and Dorothy snuggling and sleeping beside me on the sofa, in a space that seemed to be much too small to be occupied by two cats.  

2.  Cold weather causes me to have an uncontrollable urge to simmer things on the stove.  The other day, I discovered a package of 15-bean soup beans in the pantry.  Using these as a starting point, and after I simmered the beans for a couple of hours, I added chicken broth, tomatoes, onions, carrots and celery, and some other stuff.  It was delicious as dinner, and I took some next door to the neighbors for their dinner.  The remainder joined the other frozen containers of various left-over soups that reside in the freezer.  (Ham and white bean, chili, chicken vegetable, black bean and pumpkin, etc.)

3.  The other day, I walked past the window in the family room ... like I have done a thousand times since we bought this place in 2002.  The sunlight perfectly illuminated the growth rings in the heartpine of the sill, and I was strangely drawn to count them.  124.  The tree that gave the wood that was used to make this sill was at least this old when our house was built in 1848.  Takes us back to 1724 or earlier, when that tree sprouted.  (I think about this stuff sometimes.)

4.  Our 2-year-old grandson stayed with us the other day.  It was a very active day, keeping a toddler entertained all day ... too cold to go outside, so we did things indoors.

Watching Dora with Granddad and Ruby.

Napping on the couch in the sunshine.

Dorothy says, "how about paying a little bit of attention to me?"

5.  I stopped working on my crocheted looper rug for now, because I have another project to finish.  The cats are helping.

Alice keeps my lap warm, while sleeping in her Super Kitty position.

Maggie, you shouldn't be laying on that!  

Today is the second of two rainy, icky days.  There's no staying at home today, though.  The Husband and I will soon be hitting the road for a two-hour drive to Maryland, for an annual luncheon for hordes of horticulture and nursery people at our friends Jim and Dan's house.    

I expect this to be a fabulous Sunday.  I hope yours is, too.

Real New York Subway Tile

One of the things that fascinated me while we were in New York last month was the tile work in the subway stations.  Real "in-the-subway" subway tile showed exactly how those little 3 x 6 white tiles got their name.  Just for the record, there are also 4 x 4 and 6 x 6 square tiles, as well as fantastic, colorful mosaics.

As I sat there on the train, accidentally going to Brooklyn because the stop we needed on the R train wasn't active on the weekend schedule, I had a lot of time to ponder and appreciate the artistry of the borders and station signs that were worked into colorful mosaics.

I was most thrilled to see a real, live subway outside corner executed exactly the way I devised while I was laying tile for the outside corner in our kitchen backsplash.  I can't tell you how many hours I must have spent in the planning process, googling and surfing to find any sort of image or photo of a subway tile outside corner that didn't use 2 x 6 border tiles.  I finally just jumped in and made it up as I went along, weaving the corner using tiles that had a bullnose on the short edge.  

My kitchen tile project, in process.

Here is an example of the corners that I found in the NY subway ... executed exactly the way I did it in our kitchen!  I almost did a little happy dance right there on the platform when I saw it.

Want to know more about New York's subway mosaics?  I found THIS web site, and it's fascinating!

To help other people who may be stuck in my same tiling situation, scratching their heads trying to figure out how to tile an outside corner with subway tile, I created a photo tutorial to show how I did it.  (Click HERE to go to the tutorial)  It is one of my most popular posts, getting hits from Google every week, so I guess there was a definite need.

Christmas Week in New York

This year, we made time in our pre-Christmas plans to get away to Manhattan for a long weekend.  Spending time in NYC at Christmas time has been a bucket list item for the The Husband, and this was the year that we made it happen. 

We left early on Friday morning, along with four of our friends, taking the train from downtown Fredericksburg to Penn Station, landing in the heart of everything in Manhattan ... and only a few blocks from our hotel.

There are only two tracks at the station in Fredericksburg, Track 2 and Track 3 ... weird.

After checking in and stashing our bags, we set out to see some of the sights.

View of the Chrysler Building, as seen from an intersection while we were crossing the street.

One of the famous lions in front of the NY Public Library.

I bought this blue coat specifically for this trip ... doing what I could to prepare for what should have been frigid Christmas week weather in New York.  (It is a wonderfully warm Woolrich coat, bought at Goodwill for $8.99)  Who would have thought that we would be treated to record-breaking warm temperatures for our trip?  Friday evening was the last time the blue coat saw the outside of our hotel room.

The time and temperature display in the window at NBC's Today Show studio window at Rockefeller Plaza.

Rockefeller Center.

The Christmas Tree!!

Not-so-flattering photo of us, in front of the tree.

Our next stop, after surviving the hordes of people at Rockefeller Center, was the Empire State Building.  Along the way, we were approached by street vendors offering premier access tickets to the Empire State Building's observation deck for an astronomical price.  My Public Service Announcement for the day is this:  Do NOT believe the street vendors.  Go to the regular ticket line, pay the real price (which is a whole lot less), and enjoy the satisfaction of not having been taken advantage of by conmen.

The observation deck is on the 86th floor!

The top of the Empire State Building, all lit with Christmas colors.

What a view!

The purplish area at the bottom of this view is the ice rink at Rockefeller Center.

We also stopped at Saint Patrick's Cathedral, which is undergoing an extensive restoration and is covered inside and outside in scaffolding.  Even with most of the cathedral sheathed like that, it was still beautiful and awe-inspiring.

As we walked back to our hotel, we enjoyed some of the store windows, which NY is famous for at Christmas.

Saturday morning, we had 10:30 entry tickets to see the 9/11 Memorial.  This was a must-see for our friend, who once had clients and weekly meetings in Tower Two of the World Trade Center, and lost two friends when the towers went down.  

I was unprepared for the emotion and serenity of this place, even with the crowds that were there.  The simple pools with falling water, which are in the footprints of the original towers, mask the city noise.  It's a very powerful place.

The new Freedom Tower.

The Survivor Tree, a Callery Pear, was the last living thing that was removed as crews cleared the debris from the site.  It was nursed back to health, and stored at a local nursery, and replanted in a place of honor. 

We grabbed a quick lunch nearby.  The pizza was delicious!

Next stop was Trinity Church, with its beautiful architecture and graveyard, where Alexander Hamilton and many others are buried.  (You already know how much I love to spend time in a good cemetery ... this one is fantastic!)

One of the spires of Trinity Church, as seen from Wall Street.

Next, we wandered on Wall Street.

Stock Exchange

The view from the George Washington statue in front of Federal Hall (which was closed).

We also did a bit of shopping at Tiffany's, to buy a Christmas present for our daughter.

At this point, it was time for us to return to the hotel to get cleaned up and spiffy for our evening activities ... delicious dinner at this restaurant ...

and a show!

After the show, we walked down Broadway to our hotel, passing through Times Square and seeing some more store windows ... these were at Macy's. 

Sunday, we only had until lunchtime before we had to head to the train station to go home.  We passed the time by wandering through Macy's, shopping and soaking in the atmosphere.

There's the Empire State Building.

Beautiful lighted swags hanging from the ceiling just inside the door at Macy's.

Old wooden escalator, still in service on one of the upper floors of Macy's.

More beautiful windows!

Bye bye, Macy's.  The clock says that it's time for us to go.

We walked back to our hotel, collected our belongings, stopped into this French bakery in Korea Town to pick up sandwiches and pastry to eat on the train.

This trip was such a whirlwind, and I loved every minute of it.  We spent quality time with great friends, got turned around on the subway, were treated to the world's scariest taxi ride (which included a right-hand turn through a red light across three lanes of traffic.)  There is so much to see and do in NYC, so a return trip (or two or three) are definitely in order.