life | summer vacation, hurricane

worried about how the pretty trees & gardens would deal with the wind & torrential rain from hurricane irene.

even the fish shack was boarded up and people used a lot of masking tape and duct tape on their windows. i hope it comes off easily and these two clearly have an ocd-issue with the straight lines.

people partied on and sweetleaf cafe put out a typical new york-style welcome mat for hurricane irene while serving up mighty good coffee. check out this photo of the flat iron building.

runs on bread, milk and haagen daz (?) were the norm. we stocked up on things like batteries and seemed to be constantly re-charging our electronics, social teas, water that was put into the freezer and bumble bee tuna salad in a can with crackers in case the power went out. now, i'll have to eat it anyway.

just a few fallen branches and leaves everywhere, but i'm relived most of the sycamores made it through the storm because without them our neighborhood is ordinary. this suv looks worse than it is, i think. it didn't seem to be damaged, but more like it was camouflaged.

well hello! i seem to have taken an unplanned, unapproved blog break for a one-week summer vacation. scott was off last week and there was quite a bit going on. did you hear about the hurricane? it was scary, but after watching the news almost non-stop for several days, i think that can be expected. we were pretty much spared a lot of damage here in nyc, but new jersey and new england were not so lucky. i still can't believe all the flooding in vermont!

prior to the hurricane, we went to a new beach town, spiffed up our kitchen which is still being tweaked, took charlie to the doctor a few times, got my camera back and rearranged all of our inspiration boards (oy!), so i've gone in reverse with some before and after hurricane pics from around our neck of the woods. hope you all are well.

xo, cindy

ps i loved hearing mayor bloomberg speak spanish about the hurricane. the thing is he would go on in english for around ten minutes and then the spanish version would last about one.

home | improvise

after we renovated our bathroom last summer the plan was to do the kitchen this year. but, the economy is crazy and we're reluctant to do a gut renovation, so we're giving it a minor face lift. carefully primed walls to correct the rough patches, pretty blue-gray paint, a new light fixture, new door pulls and then we'll see how it looks. i hope it's good because i would love to do a little bit more - talking to you floor.

the tomatoes are numbers 13 & 14 from our garden and we're doing a cost-benefit analysis to see if all of our hard work is worth the effort. so far, scott thinks so and he's the one that eats them. they have some decent lighting because i moved the brown floral curtains from the kitchen to the front room. i've also been moving other things around, which seems like the easiest, most affordable way to redecorate :)!

xo, cindy

ps have you heard the new song richie and ruben from fountains of wayne? it's pretty good.

garden | pink roses

some pink roses from spring for a summer day. actually, i hit publish before writing this post, so it's short and sweet (i hope).

xo, cindy

pics | evening time

taking photos in the evening is not something that comes naturally for me because i'm just plain tired by then. but, scott takes a walk every evening and the other day i went with him looking for the porch i posted about in july. we managed to find it and that porch was so cozy. they had some old time music playing on the radio or phonograph(?) and it was like being transported to another time. i wonder what the inside of the home looks like? enjoy your weekend!

xo, cindy

ps we recently removed the footboard on our bed and it is like a whole new room. finally, our feet (mostly scotts) are free with no bars for them to go through. it's taking some getting used to for us & our dining room because that's where it is now ;).

garden | peace & tranquility

the world seems like it could use a time-out right about now and spending time by a water garden might provide a good respite for calm. an afternoon with the kings of convenience might be nice, too.

xo, cindy

nyc | cool stuff

the truck traveled from maine to park avenue & the modern secret garden was added to a building in the meat-packing district that was probably built around 100 years ago or so. cool.

enjoy your weekend!

xo, cindy

ps many of the songs i've been mentioning will ultimately end up in an online summer playlist to be enjoyed by all. i just hope i can finish it by the end of the summer. two matchsticks by the wooden birds is a goodie.

pics | restraint of view, trois

i've been lamenting the lack of a viewfinder on our point & shoot camera quite a bit, particularly outdoors in the sunlight. you just can't see very much in bright light and things aren't always composed properly in the frame.

but, a pleasant surprise has to do with the photos for our shop (items with the pink rose & blue background). the image stabilizer on the camera is great, so i haven't used a tripod as a result. i suppose there is a silver-lining to the snafu and i should consider no longer tagging my photos in flickr with - 'my dslr is broken' ;).

xo, cindy

ps i find a lot of new music through noisetrade, including laura jansen. beautiful!