New baby!

No, not the squishy human kind but the electronic kind. Greg's and my contract with T-Mobil was set to expire in May so Greg had been researching our options for a very long time. Then a couple weeks before going to block island my Blackberry stopped functioning altogether. It wouldn't hold a charge and couldn't accept calls, emails or texts. It was like that for over a week and then started working again. So frusterating. Greg's phone had been on deaths door for a long long time so the combination of the two forced our hand a little. Instead of waiting for the new Palm phones like we had intended we decided to switch to ATT and get iphones. Well, we are in love with our new babies. The best thing about them are of course all the applications you can buy. I have been loving the apps that track my weight watcher points, graph my weight loss, my "lady" calendar, tip calculator, to-do list maker, and games among others. Yesterday I took the day off from work to go shopping with the girls at the outlet mall in Riverhead. At one point I found 2 dresses that I loved that would both work for a wedding I am going to in August but I couldn't decide. So I had my friend Marcela use my phone to take photos of the dresses so I could look at them and think about the decision while I shopped. I even emailed them to Greg to get his opinion at work. I have never had a phone with a camera before. So cool! I chose the brown one by the way! Then after shopping we decided to have dinner before the drive back to NYC. I used the "AroundMe" app to find all restaurants in the area, then I used the google maps app to get directions in real time to drive there. So cool! Then after dinner I used my tip calculator to determine how much to pay.
I am loving my new phone!

Block Island

Last week Greg and I took a mini vacation to celebrate my one week off from school before summer term starts. We headed up to Rhode Island to visit Block Island for a few days. Block Island is 16 miles off the coast of Rhode Island accessible only by ferry from Port Judith (or Long Island, NY in the summer). We got a great package deal because it is still the off season on Block Island which kicks off its tourist season Memorial Day weekend. That was perfect for us since we were looking for rest and relaxation. It takes about 3 and half hours to drive to Port Judith where we ditched the car in long term parking and hopped on the ferry. It was an hour ride on the ferry and then a short walk from the dock to our hotel. We stayed at the Hotel Manesses which, like many of the buildings on the island, is an original dating back to the 1800s. The furnishings and decor are all antique. Our room had no TV or internet connection. We didn't even have a phone. No problem since we were happy to get away from technology for a few days. It was very quiet. In fact the hotel was unstaffed! We actually checked in and had our daily breakfast up the road at the 1661 Inn, another property owned by the same group. We rarely saw anyone else in our hotel though there were some other guests staying there. It was a little creepy at first especially since we are rarely "alone" in NYC with people living and making noise all around us. Here is the rooster who was hanging around our hotel and was kind enough to crow in the morning. He had 2 hens following him around most of the time, such a playa. The first night we explored Old Harbor a little, walked on the beach, and then enjoyed a nice dinner at the hotel restaurant. The Manesses Restaurant is the fanciest restaurant on the island and had just re-opened for business the week before. It was pretty busy which is kind of nuts since the hotel above it was so empty and unstaffed. We were given a $100 gift certificate to the restaurant in our room package. With a bottle of wine and 3 courses we didn't even manage to spend it all. One of the perks of eating vegetarian is that your entre is usually the cheapest on the menu! It was a very nice meal and it was great to sit and catch up with eachother. Then we settled into our room and turned in early. Because it was the off season many of the shops in town were closed. Not a problem for us though because we decided for our second day we would rent mopeds and do some exploring. The Island is only 10 square miles but it has lots and lots of trails for walking or biking. We rented 2 mopeds for the day and motored all around the island. Starting with a stop at the local grocery store to pick up fixins for a picnic lunch. We drove out to settlers rock to park our bikes and walked along the beach to the North Lighthouse. It was closed for construction but we enjoyed sitting out on the beach and having our lunch in the sand. Next we hoped back on our bikes and drove out to the Clayhead Trail. A short hike through the forest brought us back to the beach but this time a beach down below the bluffs. We spent a while hanging out on the beach enjoying the sun (though it was a bit chilly) and the peacefullness of it. Then it was back onto the mopeds to visit the great salt lake and the basin. The great salt lake isn't really a lake, but an ocean inlet (hence the salt) and is the location of New Harbor (they are really creative with the names there!). We drove through on the way to the basin. The Basin is a low area that was carved out by a glacier and is filled with vegetation that happened to be in bloom while we were there. We hiked a loop trail to the lookout spot. It is hard to tell from the photos because some dark clouds had rolled in but it was very pretty up there with the scrub brush in bloom with white flowers and we could see the ocean as well. Greg dropped our map at one point and we got off the trail somehow and had to double back (and found the map on the way) so we ended up walking the loop twice! Then it was back on the mopeds to complete our tour of the island at South Lighthouse. This lighthouse was also closed but we could at least get right up to it. It is fully functional and recently restored. Can't get away from technology completely!Then it was back onto the mopeds to head into Old Harbor to turn them in. Just in time too since the sun was going down and it was really chilly riding at 25 mph. Our 6 hour tour was over and we were pretty exhausted. We enjoyed dinner at a pub in town and recounted our day. We also noticed at that point that we had gotten a little too much sun. We both had red noses and poor Greg had a mild burn on his whole face and neck. Oops! Easy to forget that it doesn't have to be hot to get a sunburn. The next day was spent enjoying a long breakfast, checking out of the hotel and heading home. We had a great time and though the Island was REALLY quiet, almost too quiet we were really glad to have gone on the off season. They say the population swells from 1,000 full time residents to 15,000 tourists during the summer and I can't imagine we would have had such a nice time dodging mopeds on the road and people on all the trails and beaches. If you are ever in the RI area, check out block island. I think it would make a really great day trip no matter what time of year!

Mother's Day

Now that my mom has gotten her Mother's Day gift it is safe to share some photos. First are a pair of earrings I made for her using a few of my favorite things.First I took some Czech glass flower beads in turquoise (one of my favorite colors right now). Then I used rhinestone headpins that I recently found at Michael's and did a simple wire wrap. Lastly I hung them on kidney shaped earwires, my new favorite ear wire shape. Totally simple to make but so so cute. In fact I made myself a pair too. I love that the flowers have a little diamond stamen.

Then both my mom and Greg's mom got a purse hook for Mother's Day. This is another of my new favorite items. I have seen them for sale on Etsy and other places for about $15. That is a little overpriced for me so I found some plain metals ones on Etsy for a fraction of the cost. I punched out my own pretty patterned paper, glued it on to the center section and covered it all in diamond glaze. Step 1: You keep the hook in your purse. Step 2: When you're out in a restaurant you pull it out, unwrap and twist the hook. Step 3: Place the disk on the edge of the table with the hook hanging down, Step 4: Hang your purse on the hook. It hangs just below the table out of the way.This way you don't have to put your cute purse down on the dirty ground or on the back of a chair where someone can snatch it, spill on it, or bang into it. I have been using mine for about a month and love it. Plus the hook is really small and light so it doesn't take up much room in my bag.

Mother's Day

Almost 33 years ago Diane Virginia Howard became a mother. Here she is with a 6 week old Baby Lexie (ME!). And a few years later she became a mother again, and my poor dad was outnumbered 3 to 1. Here we are getting ready to leave for church in our shawls. In this cute photo we were all sick with a cold so mom spread out blankets in the backyard so we could lay out and watch dad work in the garden (I love this funny picture, especially baby Rachel!).

I love you mom! Thank you for being such an awesome and fun mom! Happy Mother's Day!!

More floating heads

I think I have found my decorating niche. We had another going away party for a co-worker who has graduated with his Master's and is moving into industry. He took a job at Bloomberg as a programmer. I found a photo of Mike Bloomberg (our Mayor) and cut out his head and made a cake topper out of it. Jonathan really liked it. Jonathan is a lot of fun to have around as well as a hard worker. We are going to miss him and his quircky personality a great deal. My least favorite part of working in academia is the high turnover. We will have lost 5 great employees by the end of the summer. It is very sad for me since we have had such a good team over the last couple years, but I am excited for them all and the next steps in their careers.

Home Decor

I am taking a little break from studying for my last final of the semester. I am so close to being done yet, I have a really long night ahead of me to finish all the practice problems, reading, and note taking I need to do.

I realize I have not posted on the old blog in a while so I snapped a few photos around the living room to show you some of the handy work my mother-in-law and I did while she was here. I have lots of decor items that I have collected over the years or have recieved as gifts but I am REALLY bad at displaying them. They tend to end up all lined up in a row on the 1 or 2 surfaces I have. Greg's mom is really good at styling things and creating little vinettes around her house (she used to run a gift shop where this talent was very useful) so while she was here I asked if she could help me group and display some of my things. Here are the results:

This is the area to the left of the TV on the TV stand. First of all the clock was a gift that Greg's mom and dad brought with them. Originally when they gave it to us I stashed it upstairs because I had no clue what I was going to do with a clock shaped like a sardine can. The main focus here was the giant vase that is really a lab flask. Greg had brought it home from work and we both like it but we could never figure out what to do with it. It has had rocks in it before but mostly it just sat empty. Marcia suggested faux flowers and and we picked out this grass at Michael's. She also suggested anchoring it with rocks which we got at Michael's too. After they had gone Greg brought down the clock and stuck it on top of the TV (just to drive me crazy because I hate stuff up there usually) and I thought, why not move it down with the grass. You know, for some reason I like it there a lot and it is nice to have a clock. It also makes a lot of noise as the fish swings back and forth and I like that rhythmic sound too. I put a few extra rocks in the tea light holder and called it done.

Next I had this votive holder that Greg had gotten for Christmas from his boss. It sat on the buffet for a long time. It had these ugly glass marbels in the bottom of the tray that came with it and I didn't really like them. So I used the extra rocks from the grass vase in here and think it is much cuter. BUT what Marcia did that was so cool is she removed a couple of the votive holders and put the little pots of faux succulents in the empty spaces. I had the little pots in a cabinet. How cute is that! I would never have thought of it. And I wouldn't have thought to put it next to the couch in front of photo frames because I would have thought it was "in the way" but actually it has been great.

On to the table. I had a great grean bowl that Suzan had given me as my secret Santa. At Christmas it had held holiday stuff but I didn't know what to do with it during the rest of the year (and didn't have room to store it with the decorations) so it had been holding napkins. Marcia put it in the middle of the table because she agreed it was a great bowl, filled it with black stones that had been in the bottom of my umbrella stand and stuck this tall grass in the middle (that had been in the bathroom on the shelf). Then she added my candle sticks and my cute salt and pepper shakers as well as the little glass bird. I later used the bird as a weight to hold down some pretty paper napkins from IKEA. I think this turned out great too and again I thought, oh that is too much stuff on the table, it will get in the way. NO IT DOESN'T! We still use the table a lot and in fact the decorations encourage me to clean it off regularly so I can enjoy them. Very scandinavian feel which is cool too. The bird is Finnish, IKEA is swedish, and the candlesticks remind me of danish modern. We even tuck our dice under the bowl out of site until we want to play over dinner.

Next is the buffet. This was where everything ended up in a little row like soldiers standing at attention waiting for an inspection. Marcia helped me make 2 groupings with a generous space between them. The space makes it look intentional and not like a jumbled mess. The first is this grouping of a metal tree, another set of candle sticks, and a couple birds to the left. The second is a grouping of pictures. The poster is new, in my accent color orange, and very appropriate slogan for Greg's and my life right now. "Keep calm and carry on". The poster was designed during world war II in England. Then there are a few smaller pieces that we have found that are kind of funny. We have a running joke in our house that Greg is afraid of squirrels. It is a long story but the imporant thing is that it is true. Greg found this woodcut print at an art show. In his mind all squirrel's look this viccious and mean. And I found this altered photo of two mischivious squirrel brothers from yesteryear on Etsy. And maybe you will recognize this little guy from TV. He is "hungry" from the Weight Watchers ads. They are selling these little plush dolls at our meetings and he was too cute to pass up.

On to the bathroom. You may remember that we had a leak in our bathroom a while ago and water had been running down the inside of one wall. The water weakened the wall board and my little shelf came crashing down and broke almost everything that had been sitting on it. I lost a potted faux orchid and a few small things. The wall was fixed, the shelf rehung and it sat empty. Marcia to the rescue. While at Michael's we picked up these cute puffy flowers and she arranged it in this little bud vase that looks like grass that I had recieved for Christmas and didn't know how to use because it was so small. Then I added a little plate I got for free from Paloma's Nest. They make custom little pieces stamped with words that you can find on Etsy. It is hard to see in the photo but this one says "I Love You". I added a couple stones for a trio. Then there are two little pots from our friend Jin who's father is dabbling in pottery. They are actually candle holders. Everything filled out really nicely on the shelf. The flowers make me smile every time I go in there. Not bad for under an hours worth of work. Thanks Marcia!