park : let's play!

video : fun boat behind from kings of convenience

the new union square playground is really cool. if you speak into the orange funnel the person across the playground can hear you from the other end. so old-fashioned! the disk above wobbles around if you lie on it, which i didn't do.



pretty nice view from underneath the slide i'd say.



you can spin and bounce and spiral until you're dizzy. i love the patchwork rubber ground covering, which is soooo cushiony. man, where was that when i was a kid? my poor gravel-embedded knees want to know. enjoy your weekend!

xo, cindy

ps happy birthday to michelle. hope it's great!

project : this & that

video : innocent by stereophonics. hubba hubba, kelly jones.

jamie of small expectations has started a new project called 'this + this = that'. each week she will post two inspirational images and the task, should you choose to accept it, is to come up with your own photo, sketch, poem, whatever.

the first week's inspiration was an alpine sledder + a jeongyun chandelier. it sounded pretty hard to me, but i thought about it, and had a couple of images i've never used before. the lena corwin chandelier photo was taken at brooklyn flea a few months ago and the hilly-bench in long island city when we had the snow storm.

although i can get totally distracted by projects created by other people, i find them to be really good creative exercises. think about doing it, too. you can read more details here.

xo, cindy

ps that bench also reminds me of humps and it's wednesday. happy hump day!

life : early love

song : halo by beyonce from hope for haiti now
for dear joyce - kelly, we can see your halo.

i know it's early, but i'm looking forward to valentine's day this year. it's the love part. enjoy your week. hope it's lovely.

xo, cindy

ps we made pot roast this weekend with homemade croutons & noodles using this real simple recipe. we added some carrots and couldn't wait to take a picture of it. maybe the leftovers?

pps the darling clementine mouse is from soto softies and the love note twig by stephanie congdon barnes. the mouse will be back.

home : nice gestures

song : heaven right here by jeb loy nichols

thank you for your sweet comments on our last post. they were special because at the end of the day i think i'm just a regular girl and anyone could do what i do. so, reading your nice words means a lot to me.

transitioning between posts can be tricky. it's strange to me when a blogger writes about a stressful experience. then, everyone pours their hearts out with sympathy or advice in the comments and the blogger never references it again. or, they're suddenly over it and write about the next new fantastic event. this week has been strange. haiti, a cured husband, new babies, and a friend's loss. where do i go from here? mmm ... let's go home.

scott realizes that I don't always eat breakfast, especially on my days off. so, sometimes, he tries to give me a jump start by putting out bread + butter for toast before he leaves for work. he also makes the coffee. last week, i thought i could do a little bit more.

thomas' toasting bread with butter & vermont maple sugar, delicious liberte mediterranee yogurt and honest juice one day. a heart shaped egg the next. well, sort of, the egg was supposed to show a heart design in the center, but i had too much egg. that's fine, waste not want not. i saw the idea in instyle magazine of all places. here's how to make it -

- cut a shape in the center of your bread. a heart is nice, but scott likes a car.
- melt 1 tbsp of butter in a non-stick skillet. i butter the bread so it browns evenly.
- cook both pieces about 3 minutes over a medium-low heat or until golden.
- with a spatula, flip each piece over. break the egg in the center of the cut out. season with salt & pepper. cover and cook for 2-3 minutes or until the egg is set.
- they say serve with love, which sounds like the best part and reminds me of the movie women on top with penelope cruz. scott loooves her.

making that little heart toast reminded me of the homemade croutons my mom would serve with her pot roast & noodles. i really want to make pot roast, but her recipe is packed away someplace in my brother's attic - my fault. if you have any recipes, i'd love to know about them. enjoy your weekend!

xo, cindy

life & loss

i knew grace was about to give birth to her son any day. on monday morning, i checked my reader and saw she had a post about her first contractions starting. i also knew deb's father, nate, was ill. i saw she had a post and went there next. sadly, her dad passed away late last week. i'm sure it's a coincidence, but strange how these things happen. it's not the first time.

as you know, music is really important to me. i really look for the meaning in lyrics. when my mom passed away a few years ago, the company i worked for closed a couple of months later. it was hard. i discovered keane's under the iron sea, which is a beautiful album although a bit dark. my insomnia was raging at the time and i would listen to it at all hours - 2 pm to 2 am. there are still songs on that album that can make me cry as they feel so personal.

i wanted to find something special for deb and have two songs. the first, one tree hill by u2, which was written about the death of someone close to the band. it's a heavy song. the other one is blue sky by kaisercartel and much gentler. i made the heart this morning. i'm not sure, but i believe trees and stones are significant to deb's traditions. i hope so.

xo, cindy

life : pretty baby

song : baby mine by alison krauss.

i've been getting back to photo-styling recently. i really enjoy it (challenging) and it takes practice to get things just so. we've been collecting for years, so finally many of our tchotchkes are being put to good use and dusted off. this set is all about baby things and dedicated to grace who is about to deliver her baby any minute now & julia who has a few more months to go.



the corgi car is from scott's childhood collection and definitely for grace as she is going to have a boy. julia remains to be seen. the lamb is from stephanie congdon barnes, print by jessica gonacha swift, flower from tinsel trading, trees made by me and wallpaper from craft vintage dry goods.



these vintage baby accessories include the humpty dumpty mug i used as a kid. the collage i made includes paper quilling of a mama duck and her ducklings. i loved doing this series and wish grace & julia all the best in the next chapter of their lives. they're going to be great moms! hope you all had a nice weekend. thank you for the sweet comments on our last post :).

xo, cindy

ps the pop-up card says -

to you and the new baby
heard the line's busy at your house -
heard you don't mind one bit,
'cause you're so in love
with the darlin'
who's responsible for it!