election night '08

and so d (for decision) day finally arrived. i felt a bit out of it as new yorkers trundled off to the polls; i had voted ages ago via absentee ballot. after work, i headed over to an election party being held in katonah.


on the way, i spied this pumpkin which filled me with hope


nervous neighbors filled the couch and surrounding chairs as minute by minute the votes were tallied


of course, a lot of what went on was just mumbo-jumbo from talking heads like this one


the kids in attendance were excited by the task of coloring in the map as each state was called for the blue or red team


i was happiest when a bit of channel surfing during a dull moment landed on a brief glimpse of my favorite newsmen, stephen colbert & jon stewart


posters were festooned about the screening room with inspiring statements like change, hope, progress


a few of the kids couldn't quite stay awake until the big moment...


...but they likely woke up when jeanne jumped up to do her victory dance when the election was called for obama seconds after the west coast polls closed

i wanted to stay to celebrate but had to tear myself away from the festivities shortly after the awesome announcement. i had a train to catch down to my new place in pleasantville; without much pomp or circumstance, i had moved there just a week ago. once i was on board the train, a conductor noticed my headphones and inquired if i had heard anything conclusive. i didn't actually have radio reception but did confirm the results. he hollered them up and down the car and there was much joyful whooping in response. what an amazing day for america!

halloween 2008 on terrace frights!

to say that halloween is taken rather seriously in the north would be an understatement. when living in the bible belt, i watched trick-or-treating shrink in numbers year by year as ridiculous conservative christian organizations discouraged celebrations tied to this pagan holiday.

therefore, i think it's wonderful that peter, a preacher's kid himself and regular church-goer, puts on a grand show for the neighborhood and beyond. over 1500 visitors came to know & love the antics happening at eight terrace frights on this special night...

this bed-robed jack-o-lantern scarecrow points to one of the new additions to creepy pete's graveyard in katonah, new york


art director by day, master pumpkin carver on halloween, laurent stands proudly with his pumpkin patch zombies


this guy's tombstone reads, 'here lies gourdy; he got squashed'; har! har! but watch out, 'cause now he's coming to take his revenge on the bad jokester!


jack here has just managed to get his head above ground but i expect it won't be long until we see more of him


the grave marker behind this threatening dude says, 'born 1876; carved 1876'; i think he wasn't too pleased with having such a short life...


here's the emcee himself putting the finishing touches on a sign marking the escape route out of the serpentine graveyard


come one, come all to creepy pete and mad marlene's graveyard...


...as 'folks is just dying to get in here'!


these foam tentacles probably won't make to next year so i had to honor them one last time in an arrangement around a headstone reading, 'you don't wanna know'


my other assigned task was setting up the quaint scene of 'the newlydeads' who had been 'just buried'


please note the bottle on the table which states, 'O positivo: because life is too short to drink bad blood'


the giant purple spider has been hanging out on the balcony for a few years but this year he managed to ensnare someone--oh no!


although his captor is much smaller, this child-sized prey does not look like he is much longer for this world...


creepy pete also has a tradition of carving a giant pumpkin and this year, it seems that one has eaten another


there was also a party going on inside the house where jonah showed off some freshly decorated eyeball cupcakes


then, he snatched the bunny mask (recently purchased at sheep & wool) off my face which saved me from modelling it


friend of the family lisa had dressed her dog as an angel; altogether now, 'how sweet!'


once darkness began to descend, the gravel avenue was closed to all but pedestrians


the lawn decoration game had caught on with these neighbors displaying a headstone that read, 'RIP: last year's trick-or-treaters'--GULP!


back at creepy pete's, this rattling grave always manages to draw a few laughs with its prattling persistence


my flash could not really reach to capture the long line of kids and accompanying parents patiently heading towards the ultimate destination...


...a few minutes in the presence of his creepiness happily entertaining the masses for hours on end


meanwhile, the local kids headed out to knock on other doors; here's aria brandishing her sword as a valiant maiden


friend of the family alexander made a scene upon the lawn surprising many folks with his lack of a head!


lady mica had dressed as knight ready to do battle with sword and shield emblazoned with a white wolf


jonah turned into a jellyfish with this creative homemade costume; his buddy owen was the perfect trick-or-treating companion as mr. bones!


our neighbors decided to join the fun whole-heartedly with an alien theme that spared no one from a pumpkin...


...to even their sweet black lab fern, transformed for the evening into a pooch from outer space!


they would not break character upon being greeted at the door and begged all visitors for help to return to their home planet


to add to the scene, there was indeed a crashed spacecraft emitting eerie music in their yard and it drew quite a crowd


i've saved the best for last: laurent masquerading as creepy pete's sister, latrina


be sure to note the lampshade hat and the curtain as dress with rod still intact!

so i hope you enjoyed this visual recount of halloween 2008. check back in a year for coverage on 2009. i'm sure it will be spooktacular as always!

sheep & wow 2008

three years ago, i was living locally and therefore able to experience the wonder that is the new york state sheep & wool festival in rhinebeck. since that time, i have pined to return every third weekend in october that found me not here (although i was admittedly in some pretty amazing places).  the second it was clear that i would be moving up to new york, i wrote the dates of this year's festival into my diary. as my working life rearranged itself twice over the past few months, i tenuously held on to the plans to be well and truly off for this particular weekend. and so it finally arrived.


thankfully, the linzes were as excited as me about the annual event so we all rode up to rhinebeck together including mica and lamby practicing her knitting skills in the backseat


sheep & wool is best described as a gigantic yarn/fiber store meeting a 4H convention thus plenty of live animals are present


there are also a variety of entertainments for the kiddie-winks such as this hay maze, obviously much simpler than the corn one we struggled through earlier this week


i was pleased that jonah selected his birthday sweater as appropriate attire for the festival and further thankful that i had knitted it from washable yarn after his adventures in the maze


the girls plus playmate julia had fun at a crafts table where they learnt how to make cornhusk dolls


in the stalls, i spied this pair of alpaca, a south american llama-like animal treasured for its ultra-soft and ultra-warm wool


the sensitive souls that the girls are, they loved petting the animals like this lamb that mica met alongside her dad; note, they are both wearing gorgeous hats knit by marlene


jonah cracked me up with his fascination with a patch of shearling


i was charmed by this ribbon-bedecked poster on proud display over one of the stalls


though a surprising brown, this sheep drew many pats with his super soft wool


here's an interesting subject to depict in stained glass!


what a beautiful cushion in the seat of this rocker; i would hesitate to set my arse upon it!


jonah was over the moon when granted permission to dig into this sweettooth's dream-come-true


mica posed prettily alongside the sheep & wool mascot, modelled after a blackface breed


there are sheep, alpaca, and yes, even these fluffy angora bunnies from whom delicate wool can be spun

amongst all this woolly watching, i spent ALL of saturday visiting every vendor and making careful notes of what i would most like to add to my collection. i had the special opportunity to sleep on all of my decisions as i met up with an old knitting pal jenny in the evening. she lives in lagrangeville which is not exactly next door to rhinebeck but closer than katonah. we had fun catching up and then without much arm-twisting, i dragged her to the festival this morning.


today, the authors of the mason-dixon knitting books were present to sign their new volume; featured in it, is this amazing sweater with knitted-in quotes


i vow that i will conquer this technique one day though i predict that my chosen text will be less profound, and more likely something cheeky!


2 1/2 weeks until the election, this hat was a sight for sore eyes; what an awesome advertisement!


i'm sure parents and babysitters get a big kick out of this silly sign


last but certainly not least, i fell in love with this intricately patterned sock; of course, the kit had not surprisingly sold out on saturday but i eagerly placed a special order for it

my other most exciting purchase was not of a woolly nature but definitely still appropriate to the festival. i found one vendor who was a potter selling his clay creations that his wife festoons with wonderful scenes. a special mug & bowl set had been designed just for this event with ghoulish halloween creatures intermingling with sheep! i'm on the cusp of moving to my own place and honestly have little tableware so i decided that though it was an unexpected splurge it was a worthy one. i have no visual aids at the moment so i will direct you to the westcote bell pottery studio website until i remedy this omission.

so, now the questions hang in the air. did the festival live up to its memory? was it worth taking not one, but two, unpaid days off from work? will i be back on 17 & 18 october 2009? YES, YES, YES! i'm already counting down the days... 364 days until the sheep & wool 2009!

cats & colors

i tend to be a one-project-at-a-time knitter which is rare among my fellow crafters. i really do like to see each thing i create through to completion and unlike most knitters, i strangely have no secret, hidden basket of UFOs (unfinished objects). 

still, some projects require so much time that i cannot knit them from start to finish in one fell swoop. such was the case with this afghan that i started sometime in july. at the point, my knitting docket was relatively empty and i had lots of hours on the train when commuting to the city in which work up the individual squares. 

they were set aside in august so i could churn out a variety of gifts (all of which were highlighted in previous posts) and then picked up again more recently to be arduously crocheted together. i am happy to say that as a result of the finishing work, i have finally conquered crochet. i don't particularly enjoy it (my hand tends to knot up into a gnarled position that when maintained proves to be most painful to unkink) but i can do it. 

anyway, i am happy to have just shipped this long overdue piece to my aunt martha in south carolina. some years ago, we had proposed a craft trade. she then seemingly whipped out a quilt using some of my most cherished t-shirts. i vowed to return the favor but it just took me a while. i purchased this cat afghan kit from herrschner's and sadly, toted it round in my stash for too many moons. now, without further adieu, behold the feline fantasia!


for a woman who presently takes care of 21 cats, there really is no more perfect present!


note the cleverly designed border of stripes and scurrying mice that edge the blanket


i actually ran out of one yarn (darn inadequate kits!) and had to venture into that evil land of mismatching dye lots but i don't think you can tell, so there!

while i am on a subject that relates to colors, i thought i would also share these pretty images that along with an afghan pooling in my lap and keeping the chill away, remind me to look up & out to behold the glory of fall in new york.


this is a variety of the wondrous shades currently regaling the ridge in katonah


and here is a close-up on some local branches bursting with yellows & oranges

just two days until sheep & wool... my needles are clicking away in eager anticipation!

columbus day

while it is often a toss-up to have a holiday fall on a monday (one half of my split weekend), today it was to my advantage as i got to join the family on a columbus day excursion to a local orchard in dutchess county.


the main reason we went to this particular orchard was that we had been told of its amazing corn maze


here's jonah measuring up to almost four feet at age six; i wonder how many years before he passes by me at 5' 2"?


marlene & i could not help but mock peter for his amusedly focused pattern making on the children's worksheet; he may never forgive us


the corn maze was definitely a challenge to navigate... looking up, i began to ponder if we would spend the rest of our lives here!


finally, we reached the center lookout tower where i was distracted by a brief glimpse of pretty fall foliage in the distance

in need of a protein-based sustenance, we abandoned further exploration of the maze, taking a specially marked emergency shortcut route out to corn-free pastures. the rest of the afternoon was spent at a variety of amusements on the acres and acres of farmland.


jonah surprisingly did not lose his lunch as he went hogwild in the bouncy castle


he was also thrilled to join peter on a trip around the pedal car track


the girls climbed to the top of a massive rock positioned in the middle of a stone-lined labyrinth


there were lots of apple trees on the grounds as well and anyone could reach up to grab one for a snack


of course, i had to cajole the family into posing in this cute cut-out


a second one suited them even more (n.b. 2008 coverage of creepy pete's comin' soon!)


the day ended at an awesome wooden playground where jones ran all of his energy out...


...whilst hamming it up big time for his doting sitter and her camera


geronimo! look out below!


peekaboo!


then whilst peter & the girls braved the haunted house, marlene & i kept jonah happily occupied with some gem mining


this was the bag of booty that he scored after much shaking and rinsing


before we left, jones convinced me to hand over the camera so i could be captured with the monster crew

we returned to katonah exhausted but pleased by the day's adventures. i look forward to the next time that monday & a holiday meet and wonder what mischief will be made then!

from chairs to chips

i had not been to the city in over a month and that is just too long for this manhattan-lovin' miss so today i merged a bunch of different needs into a mish-mash of errands and headed south.


on the way, i stopped in pleasantville, for the first time, where i was charmed by the chairs permanently positioned on their train platform and waiting room


functional public art: i love it... well, i do wish that these chairs were as comfy as they look but in order to last forever they are fashioned from metal


after shoe shopping on the lower east side, i made a pit stop at rice to riches for a sweet treat of decadent rice pudding, drenched in chocolate!


then i met up with my former work colleague sheila (still presently enslaved at the yarn shop) and dragged her off to see more public art, the nyc waterfalls


early one morning in july, i had taken a east river harbor cruise to get upclose to the falls but before the exhibit closed in 3 days, i really wanted to see them in a different light


the ship resting in pier 17 now always makes me think of woody allen because he shot a scene of vicky, cristina, barcelona in this very spot


christo & jeanne-claude's gates project in central park led me to construct an orange 'gated' scarf; i wonder what olafur eliasson's piece will inspire my fingers to knit?


the background noise is irrelevant here, i just wanted a moving picture of the waterfalls in motion to take with me


during the evening, sheila had confessed her adoration of chips so i had to immediately introduce her to a salt & battery in greenwich village

so, today was a grand day out and i hope it won't be long until i can venture along on another one.

muppet movie meeting

children of the 70s & 80s: the muppets are coming back--hurrah! over the past few weeks, peter has frequently been going to the city for shoots on rooftops and in old brownstones as a christmas special starring kermit and the gang is shot all over town. 

a few weeks ago, we attempted to head over to brooklyn one friday evening for a studio visit but hit such horrible traffic that we had to abandon our plans. it was a big disappointment until today materialized as another opportunity for us to try our trip again. i was thankfully able to secure an early departure from work and took the navigator's seat directing marlene safely to the studio.


somewhere on the bqe, we flew past this nice backdrop of the city skyline with a graveyard in the foreground


several turns in a hasidic neighborhood of brooklyn led to the steiner studios where interior work was being done on the production


shortly after our arrival, jonah was 'gobbled up' by a postal monster muppet!; unfortunately, the stunt happened so fast that i didn't have time to turn my camera to the video function


the puppet was operated by peter & tyler and the impromptu silliness drew a laughing crowd


mica (l) and aria (r) had a great time on the set and especially enjoyed meeting a kiwi costumer who had several friends that had worked on the lord of the rings films


here's jonah posing by a north pole pole being stored in a prop section until the winter wonderland is created


i have no idea why aria is striking this pose... perhaps she was so happy to be eating a hotdog?!?

of course, i would've liked to have sneaked some shots of the set but ultimately chose not to because i did not want to risk upsetting the management. i can tell you that during our visit, we watched a scene being filmed in the post office with special guest star, jesse l. martin. he was outside later on a break and struck me as being a very nice, down-to-earth guy. 

just before we left, peter called me onto the set and i sat beside jonah on a low bench. i was in total awe as i looked up and witnessed peter operating miss piggy alongside longtime puppeteers dave goelz (gonzo), steve whitmire (kermit), and bill barretta (pepe). now, i'm just counting down the days until the special will air on nbc in mid-december. until then, here's a teaser video.