Three Things to Love about March

Picturebooks galore! This is a sample page of my own experiment in picturebook creation...thinking about shapes and colors turned out to be more fun than I thought and dealing with a gluestick far, far less fun.



Shelf City...This tiny, handmade village is a birthday gift from Sumanth. The eensy houses remind me of the dollhouse exhibit at the museum of fine arts this winter that I loved so much. I rearrange them from time to time, while imagining the tiny ovens and rugs that must be inside...From the looks of this picture, I should spend less time imagining and more time cleaning my windowsill, yuck.



Bread from Clear Flour Bakery. It is our newest and possibly best Boston discovery. If anyone wants me to send some morning buns from here let me know, they are a Clear Flour specialty.

Three Things to Love about February

Early Valentine vases (with itsy bitsy fresh flowers. aren't tiny ones so sweet?)



Melting snow (which I went for a jog through the other day and wound up feeling like a bumbling, melting snowman with each step because my feet couldn't find a hard place to land.)



Children's books galore (the semester is in full swing and last weekend I got to visit the library that houses the personal correspondence of the author of this dear book.)

Things to love about January

Steamy peppermint tea on frosty mornings



Blue skies on snowy days (this is where I get off of the train in the mornings)



New winter boots with fuzzy insides

There is, of course, an accompanying list of things to hate about January--which would include: weather forecasts like this morning's that declare "Northeast Misery", umbrellas that blow inside out during a freezing rain storm, and waiting for the T to come with windblown groceries in hand, but I won't include photographs of them:)

Snowy South End Buttery

First, a few words about the pictures Sumanth posted on Tuesday night (he's not as big on explanations). The Christmas tree salad was a yummy, tree-shaped concoction he came up with in about five minutes after he asked my mom if she had any extra salad ingredients around the house and she gave him tomatoes, feta cheese, an avacado and an onion. The jalepenos and oreos were both for appetizers he made for Jodi's family when they came over--he stuffed the jalepenos with cream cheese and wrapped them with bacon and he ground the oreos up to make crusts for mini-chese cakes. Yep, his love for cooking is ever growing and yielded him many chef-related Christmas presents including a ravioli stamp and multiple thermometers.



This is a picture of the bakery we went to today to use a Christmas gift certificate on cupcakes and coffee. It was in the south end, this neighborhood full of little stores that have signs that say, "Please don't let the dog out, when you open the door." The funny thing is that the shops are all boutique-y and full of small glass vases and spoons and ornaments and the dogs in them are HUGE Saint Bernards and it is so sweet to see them moseying around among all of the glassware miniatures, not breaking a thing. The funnier thing is that it awoke in me a desire for a pet. A desire where there is usually repulsion and which I haven't had since I was about 9 years old and wanted a mouse to keep in my pocket. It will probably pass soon, especially because we can't comfortably house a Saint Bernard in our 650 sq. feet, even if he/she was miraculously trained.

Christmas tree salad, mingling jalepenos, carpet of oreos

Papers are in. Presents are wrapped. Snow storm is coming.

Rachel Whiteread's Village

...My blog is quiet lately as I try to save each and every typed word for my final papers, but I had to post about this dollhouse village we saw at the museum of fine arts this afternoon. We had snow for the first time today and it was really pretty, flaky snow but it was also really, really cold and the trains didn't seem to come on time and my throat felt sore and tired and I just wanted to be home. I needed to get a book from my school library, and while I was there Sumanth went to the art museum, which is next door. After I studied for a little while, I went to meet Sumanth so we could catch the train and go home to warm showers and hot chocolates and fuzzy socks, etc...Sumanth said that there was just one exhibit he wanted to show me. Oh, my goodness, I had no idea I would be so glad that we went to see it. To get to this exhibit of dollhouses, we had to go through dark curtains to get to a room with a little neighborhood of two hundred doll houses, all lit up inside. It was so, so fun to be in there and feel like we were in a tiny city about to curl up for tiny naps on tiny rugs (the houses weren't really furnished.) I actually forgot about the cold, grey skies outside and the mammoth papers that awaited at home...I guess now that we're home, I better start to remember at least the papers.

Our Little Christmas Tree...

Well, I felt the urge tonight to put the planned homework aside, get out the step stool and reach up for the little box of Christmas decorations we have. It's not much...some white lights, felt stockings, and small ornaments, but I really love each thing in there and since we were moving last year during December, I hadn't seen them in awhile. Sumanth planted this tiny tree a few weeks ago (it's a spruce--can you tell?) and it is sprouting before our eyes. I wish that I had ornaments wee enough for its scrawny limbs but, alas.




And these are the paper stockings my mom made for us last year...


And here is our manger scene that has found a home next to the tree itself...


I'm glad we splurged at Sears for the 28 foot white lights, because, with the first plug-in tonight I thought of the centerpiece we had when I was little with golden angels that circled above lit white candles and the taste of Christmas eve cheese fondue and December 23rd ballet recitals and waking up to blurry twinkly lights before I put my contacts in and my brother carefully nailing lights up around every crook and corner of my room. And even though getting them up took up my homework time tonight, maybe I'll wake up really early tomorrow and work by their glow.

Falling Leaves and Gingerbread for Breakfast

Even though I'm up to my ear lobes in homework this semester there are so many things to enjoy. These leaves are on my favorite tree that I walk under every day on my way to work school and this is the steamy gingerbread Sumanth made on Sunday.

I've also seen so many dear kids lately. I was studying at a cafe nearby last week when a father came in with his two little daughters, one probably three and a half years old and one two. He bought a pistachio gelato and a strawberry gelato and I think that the process of helping them both eat it was harder than he had imagined. While scooping up some pistachio for the younger daughter, the older daughter would be trying to wield the spoon like an ice pick, and then when he'd help her, the little one would put her fingers in it and cry because they were so cold. There was one magical moment, though, when both little mouths were full of sweet frozen creaminess. The father immediately asked, "C'est bon?" and they both shouted, "Oui! Papa! Oui!" And they were so excited and so happy that that one second seemed to last a long time.

And then I was on a train crowded with Red Sox fans last week when this little eleven year old chubster in full Red Sox garb who had talked the whole time about how this was his first game ever and how he just "couldn't believe how his sisters could ever like the yankees" asked if I wanted to take his seat. Right away his dad was like, "Ah, real nice son, wait until you're going to get off and then offer your seat," and the little boy's face just crumpled as he put his hands up in the air and said, "Well, it is only my second time on the train... I'll know what to do next time," and then offered up a tiny grin. I've never cared much about baseball, but that night I was sad when the Red Sox lost.

Three nice things about the cooler temperatures...

Smoothing the duvet out over the bed.

Reading in my robe.

Homemade almond lattes.