six in paris

Last night we went to the beautifully restored Detroit Film Theater at the Detroit Institute of Art to see the film Six in Paris (Paris Vu Par).  Made in 1965, it's a collection of 6 short films by leading French directors of the French New Wave taking place in different neighborhoods in Paris and telling tales that were in turn funny, romantic, and tragic.  

I got totally distracted because several times during the film characters drank instant coffee out of bowls and I just couldn't stop thinking, "Parisians in the 60's drank instant coffee out of bowls?!?!"  

Despite having a husband (and son) who makes a great cup of coffee and living most of her adult life in Milan where the best cup of coffee you've ever had is never more than 100 yards away, Steven's mom loves instant coffee (Nestle, to be specific) so much we had to buy it for her when she visited.  I always thought that was a Belgian thing (she's Belgian) but maybe it is more of a generational thing.  

tonight, pink appetizers (shrimp?!?) and cocktails for the Avon's Breast Cancer Walk, and the grand reopening of University of Michigan Art Museum.  Tomorrow, New York! (I jumped the gun saying I might not post anything until Wednesday, didn't I?) 

once more with feeling

After having to cancel our trip a little while ago, we are finally off to New York for the weekend to see Chiara and Jackson.  Can't wait!  

I may post a few things here and there, but I'll be back on Wednesday so have a good weekend!

photo here.

think pink

A friend of mine is going to do Avon's Walk for Breast Cancer this year.  I know a couple of people who have done it and rave about how great it was, so I am really excited for her.  

She is having a cocktail party to raise some money and asked me to bring a pink appetizer, which has me stumped.  

Pink dessert? no problem!  Pink appetizer? um, what? 

Does smoked salmon count as pink?

is borscht an appetizer?

I have a couple days to think about it, so if anyone has any ideas, please help!

stick it to me

I want this sticker making kit!  (and would have wanted it even more when I was a kid.)  Do little girls still play with stickers?  Maybe I should get it for my niece Riley.  

She's only one year old, but she's very advanced.

available here.

map quest

I like maps.  My dad collects them, Steven's brain is like one, I like looking at them and I like making them.  so I was delighted when I found Strange Maps.  

a small sampling.

cloud Britain

Naan USA

olympic medals in 04

east meets west.

check it out.  

  

good wishes

please send thoughts and prayers for a swift recovery to Chiara.  She is recovering from surgery to treat an appendicitis while 5 months pregnant!  

She's out of the hospital and home safe and sound, but has her adorable toddler Jackson to run after and a bouncing baby boy in her belly so she needs to get well very, very soon.  

And we love them all very, very much.  

you cannot be serious

Have you ever agreed to do a favor for someone against your better judgement, and then as time went on all the reasons why you were uncomfortable to begin with become more and more of a problem, and when you finally say, "hey, I am still willing to do this for you but you've crossed a line and we need to work a few things out," the person you were bending over backwards to help out throws a tantrum worthy of John McEnroe circa 1985 because your generosity just isn't generous enough?  

Yeah, well, that's been my day, and it's making me cranky.  Mostly I'm just mad at myself because we didn't say no to begin with and avoid the whole problem.  

can you believe tennis players ever wore shorts that short?  

image here.  

I think I need a cup of hot chocolate (and wish I remembered where I found this image).  I think heart shaped marshmallows and sugar rush would cheer me right up. 

blooming

I think I need to plant more crocuses.  

photo here.

let me entertain you

we're being quite the hosts this weekend.  

tonight we're having a whole bunch of our neighbors (12 adults, 9 children) over for "pizza night". Every month or so one family invites all the other families over and orders pizza.  People bring salad and drinks and hosting duties rotate around the neighborhood.  Neither of us had much experience knowing our neighbors since we were kids, so when we first heard about it when we moved in it felt kind of weird. Over the past couple years though, we've grown to really like it. 

Because I am a crazy person, I decided that we would order a cheese pizza in case some kids are picky and make pizza for everyone else.  I made the dough last night.    

 

Tomorrow we're having friends (10 adults, a toddler, and a dog) over for brunch.  Steven's going to make waffles (he grew up in Italy, but he is Belgian and uses his family recipe that I'll post later) and bacon and I am going to make a vegetable strata that my mom makes for New Years morning, home fries, fruit salad and homemade english muffins.  

then, tomorrow afternoon I am going to take a nap.  

image from life

hiatus, hischmatus

I'm sticking to it, but I really, really want to put the spending hiatus on hiatus so I can buy this dress.  It's a spring day in fabric, and I love it.  

via unruly-things

make things!

I love this tee shirt!

via notcot

first day

it's officially the first day of spring and for the first time since I have lived in Michigan it actually feels like spring on the this day!  Birds are chirping, bulbs are sprouting, and dogs are running around like crazy. 

I spent the day in the garden again, pruning trees clearing things out. When Steven came home he found me half way up our London Plane tree with a saw.  

I need a taller ladder.   

victory garden

Alice Waters' dream has come true! This Friday Michelle Obama is planting a vegetable garden on the White House lawn, similar to Eleanor Roosevelt's Victory Garden during WWII. Kids from a local school will help plant the 55 kinds of vegetables, berries and herbs and all the Obamas (President included) will be pulling weeds.

They are even going to have bees!

more info at The Washington Post.

image (not the White House lawn) here.

Friday update: here's Michelle and the kids digging it in!

more photos of the garden, the kids and Michelle's fabulous sweater here.

hint, hint

My garden shed obsession continues.  

Heather Cameron's husband built her this lovely little greenhouse/garden shed as a wedding present.  more info and photos here.

have I mentioned that our anniversary and my birthday is coming up in a couple months?

green thumb

I was feeling pretty good about my plant growing skills because my orchids are getting ready to rebloom soon.  (I ignore them, forget to water them, and don't even understand what it would mean to "feed" them as some recommend, and they reward me by reblooming year after year!)

until I saw photos of the New York Botanical Garden's orchid show on The Martha Blog.

more amazing photos here.   

(that's Gus in the pink chair. Isn't he cute?)

day dream

even though it still won't happen for awhile, I day dream about and look at fittings and fixtures for our planned bathroom remodel.  I love these wall lights from Ochre,

and think it would look great in a bathroom like this one (which I want.) 

image from location works.  

wallpaper

I am thinking of wallpapering our 3' x 6' powder room.  do you think such a bold pattern would be too much in such a small space?

from Farrow and Ball.

the beach was too sandy

I just read this hilarious list  of 20 complaints English travelers made to their travel agents when they returned home.  (one complaint was that "the beach was too sandy")

my two favorites are:

"No one told us there would be fish in the sea.  The children were startled."

"On my holiday to Goa in India, I was disgusted to find that almost every restaurant served curry.  I do not like spicy food at all."

whole list here.

otis

the Otis Historical Archives of the National Museum of Health and Medicine has begun putting images of its archives online.

It's an amazing collection of photos, including an x-ray of a soldier in Vietnam with a grenade embedded in his forehead.

warnings about Malaria and lots of other things. Some of the images are gross, many are sad, all are interesting.  more not for the squeamish images here.  

via wired

hydrangea

I worked in the garden yesterday clearing leaves and dead things out, checking out what is sprouting up.  

I can't believe how much is growing, that groundhog was so wrong!  

As I pruned some dead wood off the hydrangeas I remembered how much I love these earrings by John Iversen.  (I also love these.)

available on twist.

beautiful decay

I saw Yves Marchand and Roman Meffre heartbreakingly beautiful photographs of  Detroit in Time (above), and they made me think of the Detroit Institute of Arts "Detroit's Sacred Places" photo contest (below).  

A photo of tree growing in rotting paper in a book warehouse won first prize last year.

I like this one of the old Michigan Theater (it's now a parking lot).  

you can check out more of the photographers and photos and find links to stories about what happened in these places on flickr.

I am not sure why I am posting something so sad on this warm and sunshiny day, but there it is.  

erin go bragh

the Irish half of me says Happy St. Patrick's Day! and the other half does too.

apfelbaum

I love the part painting, part installation, part sculpture work of Polly Apfelbaum. 

 

see more here.

cake walk

Instead of making cookies for the potluck last night, I made one of the cakes I wrote about a couple weeks ago. When we walked in to the party one of my friends said it was so pretty it he wanted to wear it as a hat, and after eating it my other friend said it was the best cake he'd had in 10 years!

It was a bit time consuming to make, but worth it. At least I think so, it went so fast I didn't even get to taste it. I'll have to be more speedy next time.

recipe here.

blue lagoon

Steven is about 2 months past needing a haircut and currently looks like the guy from Blue Lagoon. 

holi

I left college and went off to live in Nepal for awhile when I was 19. (It sounds far more rebellious and crazy than it really was.)  One of my favorite memories of my time there is of the Hindu festival of Holi.  It celebrates the end of winter and the start of spring and for days and days people throw brightly colored powder on each other. 

I saw these and other wonderful photos of this year's festival here and it brought back memories so strong I could almost smell them.  

garden shed

now that it feels like spring is really coming, I am obsessed with tearing down our ugly garage and replacing it with a lovely little garden shed.  I should say reobsessed (except that's not a word) because I was pretty obsessed last summer too.

We never put the car in the garage, even in the winter, and everything else that's in there could easily fit in a lovely little shed.  Except maybe Steven's motorcycle.

Does a person who lives in Michigan really need a motorcycle?  (I'm kidding, Steven!)

images from shedstyle

When Ricky met Elmo

In the out takes for his upcoming Sesame Street appearance, Ricky Gervais and Elmo discuss why Elmo wears pajamas to bed but is naked the rest of the day, charity, and what topics are not suitable for Sesame Street (drugs, child abuse, the holocaust) and it's just about the funniest thing I have ever seen.

kitchen garden

more of our seeds are sprouting! yay!

I can't wait until we have a great garden going. I day dream about having one like this one day.

ok, that's a kitchen garden at a castle in Switzerland, and we live in a dutch colonial on something like an eighth of acre, so that's more pipe dream day dream, but isn't it pretty?