COUNTRY | PINK TREE PEONIES

these pics were taken at the new york botanical garden the day after i went to the emergency room for the first time ever because i was suddenly seeing spots and lightening flashes out of the side of my left eye. the flashes seem to be gone, but not the spots. apparently, it's part of the aging process associated with nearsightedness, and i say a hearty ugh, although i'd rather say something that rhymes with yuck. enjoy your weekend!

xo, cindy

TOWN | CENTRAL PARK

over the past two months we've had one weekend of pure fun and it started by spending friday the 13th with jen on her birthday. it was a lucky day filled with beautiful sunny skies as we took a photo crawl through northern central park and the conservancy followed by a nice lunch. i'm looking forward to doing more fun things again as we finish packing up charlie's apartment and get ready to turn over the keys this week, which is bittersweet for sure.

xo, cindy

ps i've always thought twitter + instagram = blog killer and now that i've experienced both it kind of seems to be true. it's so easy to take a photo with a camera phone and then upload/tweet about it, but using my 'real' camera is still the best and finding a way to use both without being repetitive is the goal.

LIFE | SWEET INDULGENCE

i've wanted a vintage sterling silver loving cup for a long time, but they're hard to find or large or banged up or expensive. last week, after having the routine medical test i've been putting off since last fall, i saw this tiny one awarded to the winner of a tennis tournament in england in the 1940s and could not resist bringing it home. it's not something i need at all, but life's too short not to indulge oneself from time to time, right?

enjoy your weekend!

xo, cindy

ps the little white book contains charlie & helen's wedding photos. it is so sweet and quite modest compared to what people do today.

LIFE | CHANGE THE DISPLAY

i've always thought of personal blogging as a two way street. i say hi from our bloghouse and we chat. then, i visit yours and we chat some more. as hard as i try lately, it's become hard to do both, but i wanted to at least change the window dressing around our place.

when i feel lonely and too isolated, i check in over on twitter and recently got a new iphone, so i'm also playing with instagram, which is very addicting.

xo, cindy

ps the bottles are from charlie's collection and were picked up for auction this weekend. we are so grateful he had someone working with him on downsizing his collection because even now it is quite substantial. the cobalt blue is from helen's collection and we're struggling to find a home for all 200 pieces of it minus these two. i suppose you could say we've got the blues in more ways than one.

COUNTRY | TROPICS & DESERT

thank you for your loving comments and emails regarding our dear charlie. although this part of life is hard, we don't feel so alone knowing we have friends who cared about him and us. i just wanted to end the week with some photos taken earlier this year in the conservatory at the new york botanical garden, which always provides us with some peace & tranquility in this hectic city. enjoy your weekend.

xo, cindy

LIFE | OUR LOSS

Charlie Krikawa | 1923-2012

i'm sorry to say that after a week in the hospital, scott's dad charlie passed away last weekend from congestive heart failure. people at the wake said he was never the same after helen passed away a few years ago and it does seem as though he died of a broken heart.

with no offense to our own parents, my brother and i considered charlie to be our favorite in many ways. he thought we were very talented and always encouraged us. my brother is great at taking things apart and putting them back together again and charlie loved to hear about his latest projects. he's the one who always said i should have a shop, although i'm sure he meant it in the traditional sense.

although he retired long ago, charlie had a furniture store in his neighborhood for many years and people remembered him. they would stop him on the street to tell him they still had pieces purchased in his store 25+ years ago. so many people, including the cutest gray-haired ladies, have been telling us what a wonderful guy he was and with heavy hearts we agree.

xo, cindy