Archives for September 2011

I can’t not share

September 15, 2011

sorry for having an extra sucky blog this week. I just work… it’s a little after. So far this week I have worked just over 52 hours of work this week… and I still have 8 hours tomorrow. Thankfully this is very unusual, but this is impacted my overall sleeping, eating, dressing (I can wear yoga pants to work right?), and blogging. Thank gawd for OT.

That being said, I wanted to share these photos that I had tweeted on Saturday. I went to get new brakes early Sat morning and while waiting this woman walked in. With a dog. In a stroller.

Hmmm please make your dog stop barking. It’s 8am. Good, stuff it’s face with dog treats.

Okay, well now that you have gotten up your dog has gotten out of it’s stroller.

Ah yes, my favorite picture. Love that she is giving her dog a drink of water from the cup. Best is the reaction from the woman sitting over there.

I think she caught on to me taking photos so she moved to the side table, set up her laptop and held the dog like a baby while typing.

People never cease to amaze me.

ZORBING!!!!!!!!

September 14, 2011

Well I get to cross that off the to-do list!

Emily and I have talked about going Zorbing for years. At first it seemed like it would be something that would be ‘planned and planned’ but in reality the first place we knew of to have Zorbing was in Kentucky. But thankfully we discovered they actually have Zorbing in MA! They call it OGO at Amesbury Sports Park. Whatev’s.

Well, it finally all came together when our friend Essa organized a group outing up to Amesbury. 8 of us met there for a fun filled afternoon of summer water tubing and Zorbing. Price and I went wet Zorbing, where they put cold hose water in the ball with you, and everyone else went dry, where they strap you into a seat in the ball. Besides getting soaking wet in one and not in the other, the difference between them is that you stay level to the ground in the wet one, but you spin with the ball when you are strapped in. Basically you are a hamster in an exercise ball.

I highly suggest going here because when you aren’t having fun outside you can enjoy a beer inside while a group of guys post rugby game relax while Britney Spears in being blasted on the jukebox. HA!

I hope that we can get another group of us together to go back in the winter when they have tubing. That is a reason for me to actually get suited up and be outside!

565 Days

September 13, 2011

give or take

what’s the countdown?

how many more projected days for this project.

let’s hope that I can avoid hitting one of the office cleaning ladies with the (solid) side door as she comes in and I go out (for a pee break… TMI) in that period of time. I shrieked, she laughed nervously.

Experiencing that precious moment once is more than enough.

Not according to plan

September 12, 2011

Refer to the picture above.

It’s 9.30 now and I am surrounded by drawings. I don’t expect leaving before 11 tonight.

That is why I have not yet finished editing the hilarious videos from Saturday. Hoping Tuesday will be less demanding so I can post at night.

Hope you had a good Monday night. Did you do anything fun? What did you eat? I stole my coworkers pita chips and now I’m having a lollipop.

TTYL

9.11 Never Forget

September 11, 2011

I try to be the type of person who let’s things go. If I stayed fixated on all the horrible things that have happened in my life, or to people around me, I would not get out of bed in the morning. Or talk to my grandmother, but that is a whole other story.

Today is 9.11’s 10th anniversary so I remind myself to let my guard down a bit and remember all that has happened in the past 10 years. A lot of great things have happened, and a lot of sad things. It was a major turning point for America. While I don’t agree with a lot of things that happened in the name of 9.11 I do agree that it did make people stop for a moment and become more compassionate, caring, understanding, and more united.

I have to admit that I often have a hard time relating to people on the news talking about how it was for them when they say they were in CA and it was horrible waking up to the news. I try not to be cynical because I’m sure that it was scary waking up to it. But I my proximity to New York had a big impact on me, at least I believe it did.

-WTC<>Greenwich-

I was in high school at the time. all 35 miles away. I remember a teacher calling our teacher out of the room. A few minutes later she came back in and we announced that a plane had hit the World Trade Center. The class buzzed with questions. “How could this happen?” “How big was the plane?” “Were the towers still up?” With little info she tried to get us to focus and continue calmly. A little bit later class was interrupted again saying that another plane had hit the tower. I was sitting next to my friend AJ and at this point we discussed that something serious was going on and this was not an accident.

Class ended and everyone rushed out to the student center and we were dicsussing what was going on. I had to go to Spanish class next and I remember it was chaos in there. I think the teacher just gave up on teaching and more or less tried to keep everyone calm. I asked him if I could use my phone outside to make a call. I gave me permission so I called my mom and with her link to the outside world she informed me about everything that was going on, at that point, and told me to get Greg, my long term boyfriend at the time, and go back to his house to stay with his mom there. No, she did not think that something would happen to Greenwich, but she just wanted to know where we were as cell service was being more and more spotty.

So we left school and watched the news all day at his house. It was really intense. We would flip through the channels and just see 9.11 coverage. If there wasn’t new coverage, there was announcement that all normal broadcasting was canceled for the day. I remember sitting on the kitchen counter, my normal perch in the house, and watching the news about WTC, the field in PA, and the Pentagon. It was endless and heartbreaking.

I remember thinking to myself that it was impossible that the towers were gone. I had just taking Greg’s younger brother on out my boat 2 weeks prior. It was a clear day and I showed him the Towers. And yet, I knew instantly that once I heard they were jet liners that the towers would fall. It was awful to see it actually happen. To know there were so many innocent people inside.

-ground zero 2010-

The worst part for us was that my mom’s best friend ALWAYS had a Tuesday morning meeting at WTC. She works in construction with a focus on concrete and concrete repair. She would travel from central CT to New York every Tuesday to meet with the Port Authority, who owned the buildings. Thankfully, Monica came down with a strong case of food poisoning and did not go down that Tuesday morning. When we found that out we were very relieved. Sadly, she lost a lot of friends on that day. After the attack, she spent a lot of time sleeping over on our couch since she was frequently in NYC dealing with structural issues to the site and it’s surrounding areas.

As 9.11 became 9.12 and then 9.13 we moved on with our lives with caution. Some people in HS lost parents in the loss of the Towers. It was hard to move forward without doing anything when there were people digging through the rubble trying to find survivors. On that Saturday that my mom and I created bags of snacks like granola bars, power bars, chips, and bottles of water. I put a note in every bag prior to bringing them to the large synagogue in town. They were compiling bags like this to bring down to WTC to pass out to the people working down there.

I’m grateful for my proximity to New York and how that gave me many fun opportunities to go experience The City. But for it’s perspective on 9.11. I’m crushed that the skyline has forever been changed, but I am looking forward to see the Freedom Tower rise and mark that we can rebuild and become taller, stronger.

Never Forget.

Sunset

September 10, 2011

I had planned on editing a lot of video tonight of our day tubing and zorbing but I can barely keep my eyes open. Yeah so, it’s 9.15…. Shut up!

So I promise I’ll edit embarrassing videos tomorrow of me screaming while tubing and zorbing. No shame.

Good night!!

Insalata Caprese

September 9, 2011

I will be the first to admit that I really hated tomatoes as a kid. I did not like the taste or texture and when my older brother announced he hated them I knew I would hate them too. Logical, no? I do distinctly remember once pulling off a cherry tomato from my uncle’s garden and eating it on a dare. I think the dare part hyped it all up and I made a big deal about it further.

But things started to change as I got older and I realized that tomatoes were not Satan’s trick on a large berry. I began to accept it in salsa and then bruschetta. Little pieces of heavily seasoned tomato… okay! Things really changed when I started to date Price. He made a big to do about not liking fish (umm communist!) and I liked to make fun of him for it. But not being able to be a hypocrite, I had to give a little back and start to eat tomatoes. Guess what… I discovered there amazing, intense, tangy taste and how I loved it.

I can still be picky about tomatoes, but it mostly is a texture thing and I have a lot of issues with textures so that is not surprising. Moving on… I have happily gotten to the point there I can slice tomatoes, sprinkle them with salt and eat them just like that. Taking a bite into a firm, sweet tomato melts everything else away. I can be busy in the kitchen making dinner, struggling to keep up with the timing of things, and if I just take a tiny moment to have a wedge of tomato sprinkled with salt, I start to center again and continue with dinner.

I think that Insalata Caprese, salad in the style from Capri, is a simple dish that makes for a great appetizer, or entree when you are too hot to cook. Because this dish it so simple it requires the best ingredients you can get your hands on. You can’t build a base with a watery tomato, or you can’t top a great tomato slice with a store brand plastic coated mozzarella log. Now is this time to skip and use a run of the mill olive oil. You really need an oil that is so golden that it is almost green. Go ahead, treat yourself… you deserve it!

Insalata Caprese

-serves 4-6-

Ingredients

4 vine-ripe tomatoes
1 pound fresh mozzarella, buffalo is preferred
1 cup of pesto
balsamic vinegar
handful of basil leaves
Extra-virgin olive oil, for drizzling
Coarse salt and pepper

Steps

Cut the tomatoes and mozzarella into 1/4″ thick slices.
Lay out slices of tomato on a serving platter. Cover each tomato slice with a slice of mozzarella.
Put a heaving spoonful of pesto on half the slices of mozzarella.
On the remaining slices, cover with a drizzle of balsamic vinegar. Top each slice with a piece of torn basil.
Lightly, drizzle the Extra-virgin olive oil over all the slices.
Season with salt and pepper.

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Happy Birthday Mom

September 8, 2011

Blueberry Lemonade

September 7, 2011

As much as I love to curl up with my favorite mug in the winter with hot tea or hot chocolate, I love the refreshing drinks that go hand in hand with summer. I don’t count Labor Day as the end of summer. I enjoy every summer sip and bite until the first day of fall. I don’t necessarily wear summer things until then- I wore a long sleeve shirt and sweater today- but I will fill my stomach with summer’s last bit of produce.

If you are like you realize that you have 15 days until the first day of fall. That includes 2 full weekends for you to kick back and relax with a lemonade before the full onslaught of pumpkins, cider, and Halloween candy. Don’t even get my started on how I keep seeing CHRISTMAS candy in the stories!!

The combination of blueberries and lemons go together very well. I love them in desserts so in a drink the same would be true, right? Correct! The blueberries add a nice naturally sweet flavor to offset the tart lemons.

I decided to incorporate the blueberries into the lemonade by making blueberry puree ice cubes. I love when making an icy cold drink and making ice cubes part of the drink, not just something that keeps the drink cold. Also, I don’t want to use just regular ice cubes that will water down the drink. The blueberry ice cubes came out very well, but one thing that I noticed was that they broke apart very quickly. This was fine since I was drinking the lemonade right away. If you plan on letting the drink hang around for a bit, I suggest that you make the ice cubes out of store bought blueberry juice and adding some frozen blueberries to the glass.

edit– right after I tweeted this post I got a tweet mentioning that vodka should accompany this lemonade. Umm, how did I forget to mention that? Well, obviously, vodka would make this blueberry lemonade even more delightful. Plus it gives you options… a regular vodka or you can get creative and use a flavored one. have fun and enjoy.

Blueberry Lemonade

Serves 8

Ingredients

1 pint of fresh blueberries
7 lemons
2 cups sugar
7 cups of water

Steps

Blend the blueberries and then strain the puree. Pour the puree into an ice cube tray and freeze until solid.
Squeeze all the lemons.
Combine the sugar and the lemons into a large pitcher.
Add water to pitcher and mix well.
Serve the glass of lemonade with blueberry ice cubes and a slice of lemon.

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The Fourth on the 3rd- Studio Calico 7/10 Sunday Sketch

September 5, 2011

Everything came together perfectly for this layout. I loved this Sunday Sketch once I saw it. I loved my instant photos. I loved the Studio Calico ‘Boardwalk’ kit when it arrived. I saw that paper and my heart skipped a beat. The hexagon/honeycomb gets me every time.

Scrapbooking these instant photos reminds me that I need to order more since they were my last 2 photos. Must put that on the to do list.

I made a mistake when I was writing the jouraling. I, as usual, had a ‘Nicole has shitty handwriting and you can’t read that word’ error so I had to make the choice of starting completely over or to grab another piece of paper and fix that one bit. Since I was in no mood to look for that olive green in my scraps bin, I picked a different green and made it work by mixing it into the journaling.

Boardwalk is still available. Buy it. Love it. Scrap it.

How to: Photo Collage

September 4, 2011

Since moving in June, Price and I have been putting effort into our apartment to make it ‘ours’. Not just our apartment, but ‘our’ apartment. You see, the apartment that we just moved from was a weird layout so it limited furniture placement, had a giant old (ugly) sofa in it that had to stay (my best friend Emily named it The ‘Cos), and was painted obscenely bright colors that could not change (until it flooded and we were able to talk sense into the landlords). And most importantly, I lived there prior to Price moving in with basically no furniture so it didn’t appear that Price actually lived there.

One of the things that we wanted to show off were our fun times that we have captured in photos. A way to feature these photos is with photo collages. I love that they capture a variety of photos in a fun gathering of frames. I attempted to have them in our old place but our cray cray landlord thought it was a brilliant idea to have dark purple walls (in a basement), so I had to settle on collage frames since I could not have a ton of holes in the walls. I got so disinterested in them that I just gave up and left a few spots empty. See below:

So with the opportunity to have fun with this place we set out having a wall feature an assembly of photo frames. Price and I scoured the web for inspiration. I used Pinterest a lot- esp my “New Apartment” board- for gathering different decorating ideas, including the collages.

Price and I agree on nearly nothing when it comes to ~~pretty much anything~~ decorating, so it it was not shocking that I finally got the photo collage up today… 3 months after moving in. We bounced around questions relating to… black frames? white frames? what colors are the mats? sizes? frames styles?

We finally settled on black and white frames. We decided not to limit ourselves with a particular frame style or brand. The black frames would have a white mat, while white frames would have a mix of white and map mats. Sizes would range from a 4×6 to 8×10.

How to put up a photo collage:

1) Layout your photos on a piece of craft paper (even the back of wrapping paper could work).

2) Outline all frames with a marker.

3) Put you craft paper layout on wall with painter’s tape. Locate where you want your collage to be located. If you anticipate your collage growing, like we do, locate it where you will have enough room to allow outward expansion.