Pink Touches

The Puppy and I went to the Farmers' Market this morning and came home with flowers.  I specifically picked the hydrangeas with the slightest touch of pink, but all the flowers have some of that today!

Hydrangeas:

Tuberose:

Gladiolas - much more than a blush, of course:

Ominous Clouds

After several days of perfect weather, it may rain tomorrow.  I had a feeling this perfect weather would not last when I looked up this afternoon and saw this:

Washington Square Park This Evening

The Puppy and I walked in Washington Square Park this evening.  It's always a good place to watch people and dogs.  In good weather, there is also some good music to enjoy.  Sometimes, there are different performances on different sides of the park.  The Puppy likes to sit and listen to the pianist on the grand piano.

Here's a quick picture:

Watching the Skies

The Puppy and I spent the day with our friend, J, who was visiting from out of town.  It was a lovely day spent walking around, enjoying the city and the perfect weather.  Gorgeous blues skies and interesting clouds.

In Midtown late morning, two views from the same corner:

In the West Village, evening:

Evening Walk

It was a perfect summer evening when The Puppy and I went for our walk.  Here are a couple of pictures.

Church, trees, a bit of flare:

Clear blue sky and the Empire State Building in the distance:

The light in the trees:

A visit to cookbook heaven (more in a later post):

The Puppy, up for more adventures:

Flare

I love a bit of flare in my photos.  Here are a few from my iPhoto.

Driving around in Los Angeles:

On the way to Malibu:

The market in Bangkok:

Flowers at home:

And outside:

Tea & Sympathy

I loved seeing the bunting still up in front the restaurant and shop today.  On Monday, there were television trucks parked along Greenwich Avenue ready to report on the birth of Royal Baby Cambridge.  Of course, Tea & Sympathy would have been the perfect place to celebrate the happy news.  Royal occasions aside, this really is the place for a really good Full English Breakfast on weekend mornings, perfect Bangers and Mash anytime and sublime Treacle pudding when one is feeling indulgent.

Tea & Sympathy
108 Greenwich Avenue
Between 12th & 13th Streets
(212) 807 8329
teaandsympathynewyork.com

Evening Light

The sun was quite low when I walked home this evening.  The light is just really pretty in New York City on some summer evenings:

I really liked the long shadows in Washington Square Park:

And the contrast between light and shadow:

Finished

This was so much fun, I want to make another one soon.

Seen While Walking

On 16th Street this afternoon:

In Union Square:

It was something of a gloomy, chilly day today, but it was a nice contrast to the heatwave we had last week.

Sparklers

Having an odd case of the "blahs" today.  So I'll just share some photos of the windows of A La Veille Russie, from this spring:

Mandala

Tonight in watercolour class, we worked on making mandalas.  My first one was very loose:

The second one got much tighter.  Still a work in progress:

I have no idea where it's going to go, but that's the point of the exercise: not to have a plan or a design.  I love that I'm not supposed to think too much when I'm making this.

Arcimboldo Watercolour

For watercolour class last week, we started making Arcimboldo watercolours and the homework assignment was to complete them.  So a large part of today was taken up with this:

The instructor brought in an assortment of fruits and vegetables (and some pasta) for us to turn into a face:

Reconstructed on the dining table:

A few hours later, I finished with this:

It's been a really lovely, inspiring class.  I don't know that I would ever have taken the time and energy to pull together and make a painting which required relatively close detail work - I was making abstract work by the time I graduated from art school.  So I love that I am made to attempt this sort of work.  Also, I always look forward to seeing everyone else's work.  It's a talented group of people I am in class with.

Gluten Free Donuts

One of the first things I noticed when I had to give up gluten, was that the opportunities for randomly eating all manner of desserts, cakes and pastries were severely diminished.  For someone with a sweet tooth, curtailing my sugar intake was not a bad thing.  Also, I felt so much better - less bloated, better digestion, much less exhausted in general - that giving up gluten was a small-ish price to pay.

Nowadays, the gluten free options available are really quite plentiful.  Many food shops in the city have gluten free sections and restaurants have separate gluten free menus.  Not everything tastes as good as the gluten laden original, however.  So I had pretty much given up hope that I would be eating really good donuts again.

A couple of weeks ago, the ladies on the Lunch Studio blog wrote about the Carpe Donut truck and I suddenly started missing donuts terribly.  (The last time I had eaten donuts was a little over a year ago at The Donut Plant.  It was glorious.  I must have eaten five - yes, five - donuts in one sitting.  Of course, my system paid for it.  So much so that I concluded that I would not be eating donuts again for a long, long time.)  When I chanced upon the Carpe Donut truck, I bought The Husband a couple of the donuts.  He gave them his seal of approval.  He was not especially impressed by the first one, but the next day, he said that the texture of the second donut was perfect and he understood what the fuss was about.  I felt quite smug that I managed to resist said donuts sitting on the kitchen counter.

Then that weekend, I found myself at Elm Health.  I decided to investigate their gluten free frozen food section.  I vaguely remember donuts...  And there they were:  Kinnikinnick Foods, Cinnamon Sugar Donuts.  I hemmed and hawed before putting the box in my basket.  Life is too short.  Sometimes, a girl just needs her donuts.

By the time I got home after all the errands, the donuts had thawed sufficiently to try one.  IT WAS GOOD!!!  What was even better, was when The Husband ate half the donut and declared the texture to be as good as the one he had had from Carpe Donut.

Now I will have to try the Maple Glazed ones.  Then again, sometimes finding really good substitutes for the foods we have to eat less of may not be so good...  For the waistline.

Elm Health
56 7th Avenue
Between 13th & 14th Streets
(212) 255 6300
elmhealth.net

www.kinnikinnick.com

Museum Going

The Husband and I went to see the James Turrell show at the Guggenheim Museum yesterday.  I love the artist's work, but I have very mixed feelings about the show - something for another post altogether. I took a lot of pictures on the iPhone.  Some of them turned out better than I expected...

Another Heatwave Day

Photo by The Husband

Yes.  It WAS 100° F today and "[felt] like 108° F.  What does one wear in heat and humidity so thick one is not so much walking outside, as wading through soup?

Since we were going to walk in and out of air-conditioning uptown, I thought I'd try to make an effort.  So a Mayle oldie, but goodie came out.

Somehow, it felt like the - unintentionally - right dress to wear to see the "Koloman Moser: Designing Modern Vienna 1897-1907" show at The Neue Galerie.

Along West 4th Street

It's no wonder so many people want to live in the West Village.  In a city with a lot of concrete, being able to look up and see this sort of view is very highly valued.

Cooling Off

The lobby of our apartment building is tiled.  On these very hot days, The Puppy immediately splays himself across the air conditioned tiles as soon as we re-enter our building after a walk.  I empathise completely.

Golden Summer

The thick of summer, or rather, the middle of a heatwave seems like a good time to blog about golden hues and a bit of shimmer.

As I assembled the little collection for the image, I realised that I bought all these items in the middle of  cold weather.  I can't properly remember when the gold Chanel blush came into my life, but I would seriously think twice about putting it on my cheeks now, it's been so long.  It looked fine on the back of my hand.  So it will make a good shimmery highlight for my collarbones.  The Chanel nail varnish, Curieux, was bought at Christmas in London well over ten years ago!  The Shu Uemura was bought at Thanksgiving in London well over ten years ago as well!  More recently, the RMS Solar eyeshadow was bought probably within the last couple of years, as was the Nuxe Huile Prodigieuse Or.

As is evidenced in the image, I am very sparing with my make up use.  Some of it is habit - I don't wear make up in my everyday life - and some of it is just sheer laziness.  I always think I will present a more polished face to the world, but I wonder about the point when I am just running off to pick up a carton of almond milk and a bunch of bananas.  (I once read an interview with Estee Lauder in which she demonstrated that she sold her make up based on the premise that one should always be prepared, i.e. wearing make up, for romance to appear any time.  But she had never been to my local Whole Foods.)

Lately I have been using Nuxe Huile Prodigieuse Or after my showers.  I love how it glides on my skin and sinks in.  It has a lovely soft scent.  I'm a little ambivalent about the shimmer, however.  It goes EVERYWHERE.  There's a fine coating of shimmer on my pillow and, I'm sure, on my side of the bed now.  I am thinking of the Huile Prodigieuse without the Or the next time around.  For a change, I may go for the Nars Monoi Body Shimmer, again without the shimmer.  (I used this many years ago and that bottle lasted for AGES.)

Mini product review aside, I know I get these sorts of items in the midst of winter because I long for warmer, longer, brighter days and see whatever little pot of "sunshine" as a sign of hope those days will come.  I order the little bit of hope, coo over it loving when it arrives, admire it and look forward to the summer days when the stuff will look perfect on my summer complexion.  Then months and months go by.  By the time summer arrives and my brain has frozen many time over before thawing and then melting, and...  I find the items a couple of years later for a blog post.

Work In Progress

The assignment was to make a postcard.  I'm wondering if I should leave the text as is or give it a colour...