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Never. Going. Back. To. L.A. Do you think anyone would notice if we just pitched a tent here and never went home?

How dreamy are these beaches? Jason & Kim are spoiling us rotten and let us come and crash with them for a few days on their Cape get-away.

Chris & Jason went on a chartered fishing trip with the legendary Bucky Burrows on Tuesday and yesterday we jumped on the ferry over to Martha’s Vineyard for a great  day of lunch, shopping & relaxation.

This is the cute house that Jason & Kim rented. It had everything and was so kid-friendly. They even had little adirondak chairs which we threw in the car & took to the beach for some pic’s of Ethan & Henry.

I went to this Thrift Shop in on old church in downtown Hyannis:

It was a good thrift shop where stuff really was such a great deal. I got these great dessert dishes for only  .30 cents a piece! Yes, I already have (2) sets of dessert dishes, but none that are as miniature as these! They are perfect for one scoop of ice cream!

My other favorite find was these:

I found these on Martha’s Vineyard at a little shop that sold jewelry and vintage goods. I was/am so thrilled to find these. They belonged to someone on the island and are missing a few pieces, but I love them all the same. You are supposed to wrap them in wax paper and then bake them in a cake. Each charm represents your fortune, so if you get the engagment ring in your piece of cake, it means you will soon get married!  We are still wondering what the wheelbarrow means… maybe you’ll grow up to be a gardener? The pieces look just like they are from a Monopoly game.

Here are lots more pic’s from this week! Enjoy~

The Salvation Army was very good to me this week. I found this luggage/trunk on Tuesday and after much deliberation decided that I would purchase it for $20 and  not think about how on earth I was going to get it home.

The earliest markings that I found are dated June 14th, 1924. At some point it belonged to Archibald Johnstone who was taking a trip with his wife on the Queen Elizabeth Ship from New York to London on Sept 2, 1953. There are a few "British Railways" stickers along with "Luggage to Leeds" tags on the back. One sticker says:

"Mr & Mrs A.J. Johnstone

C/o Hotel Bonnaugham (hard to read the writing)

London, England"

There are also a few "Hendrickson Transfer NY" stickers. The luggage alone has to weigh about 35 lbs and there was another sticker that had the weight at 106 (after it was packed of course!)

I am so curious about the owners and all the exotic places that this luggage has been to. The inside is very cool- a creme background with a black print. Anyway- just wanted to share my wonderful new treasure!

I LOVE TODAY. It has been the most perfect day. It’s overcast, it’s sweater-weather and we went Apple Picking (and I’m nibbling on candy corn as I type this). We are such lucky ducks. We (Me, Chris, Henry, Kimberly & Ethan- who are our dear, sweet friends that we are staying with) went to "Lookout Farms" which according to their sign, has been growing apples since 1652. Can you imagine? I can’t wipe the smile off my face. I love it here. Kim says it doesn’t take much to please me. She is right. Henry LOVED pulling the apples off the trees and putting them in the bag. They were small trees so he was able to pull them off himself. I am in heaven. Lookout Farms is huge. You have to get on a train, that makes 4 stops, to get into the orchards. They even had grapevines growing which made these wonderful walkways (see pics). They also had the most beautiful asian pears, peaches & nectarines. Not to mention the petting zoo!

How fun is this and how great are these names? Spunky, Bella, Ola, Georgie & Zig-Zag. Any of you pregnant women out there looking for baby names, look no further. Actually, one of the goats looked to be very pregnant, so I’m sure we’ll see some new signs posted soon. It feels very much like Fall here in Boston and I’m not taking  a second of it for granted. More pic’s of todays festivities can be found here. Happy Fall!

The link for the pics of NYC are posted at the bottom of the previous post along with 2 more great places to try if you happen to be going! Enjoy~

I love the Empire State Buillding. I think it is one of the most romantic buildings in the world. So is the Chrysler building, but I love the Empire more. Maybe I have watched too many movies. "I’ll meet you on top of the Empire State Building on Valentines Day."  It has been so fun being back in NYC even if it was only for a weekend. Poor Henry, in one weeks time he’s been in Utah, LA for 2 days, Boston, NYC now back to Boston. Eigh-yi-yi. He seems like he’s doing okay. He’s only shouting out occasionally in the car…

We came into the city on Friday night after a great day at Brimfield. My old high-school friend Patricia is always so gracious to let us stay at her place. (Thanks for the cooshy digs, Trish!) AND she had an amazing Indian meal, Naan included, waiting for us when we arrived.  She moved to NYC right before we moved out to Boston and over the years we’d take turns coming to eachothers places (although I think we crashed at her pad about 10x more than she came up to Boston). Thanks, again Trish!

If there’s one thing I never tire of in New York, it’s Central Park. I could spend days and days there (at the MET, too which is located in the Park). It is so beautiful and I love just wandering around on all the swirly paths, in and out of gardens and admiring all the wonderful old architecture. The bridges in the park are so amazing. We’ve spent lots of time here over the years…  ice skating, leef peeping, bench sitting, people watching. It never gets old. How could a place that looks  like this get old? On this particular trip to the park, we went to  Belvedere Castle and through the Shakespeare Garden (while waiting to meet friends at the Natural History Museum). Henry got a chance to run around like a wild man, so that was good. He tumbled and a nice Indian man helped him to get up and then sort of just never let him go. Stood there holding him and then turned to his friend to have him take a picture of the two of them. Hmm. Never know what you are gonna get at Central Park.

You can’t go to New York without stopping at Magnolia Bakery, right? So we did. I am a sucker for cupcakes. There was a line around the building and a nice gentleman at the door only letting a limited ammount of people in at a time to avoid over-crowding. Kind of takes away from the whole cupcake experience, but what can you do, it’s Magnolia Bakery.  They have it set up inside as a ‘self-serve’ so grab a box (if you want more than one, which we did- we HAD to take some back to Trish!) and load them up yourself.

Now, soon after I had moved from Boston, I read about another bakery that I had anxiously been wanting to try out in Chelsea:

Enter: Billy’s Bakery

 

It was the most darling little shop and exactly how mine would be if I were to open a bakery.  It was all vintage-y inside and they had the most fabulous wallpaper and even though it was tight on space, they had 2 lovely tables with a flower on each.

I love seeing small businesses thrive. Especially quaint and beautiful ones like this. The ambiance was wonderful and no one at the door to monitor how many people could go in at once. I’m not saying don’t go to Magnolia’s. All I am saying is, definately give Billy’s a shot. You won’t be disappointed. (And no telling about the enormous ammount of cupcakes purchased at said bakerys. What happens in New York, STAYS in New York).

It was great seeing some of my favorite old shops. If in New York, you must check out the following:

Dean & Deluca go to the location in SoHo on Prince Street and Broadway. They have a wonderful selection of food and lots of baking & cooking items as well. If you go to this location you can pop over across the street to Kates Paperie. They have the most amazing selection of paper and everything in there is just beautiful. If it’s food your after, definately head to the Upper West Side to Popover Cafe or  Sarabeths. Both have wonderful brunch/lunch menu’s and the Popovers are to die for (they come with the most wonderful strawberry butter). There is a darling little shop attached to Popovers that you must pop in to if you have time.
I must stop there. I could name places all night long. I’ll upload the photos from the weekend tomorrow. Hope everyone had a wonderful one!

EDITED:

Here are the pics from the trip.

Jill was the first to introduce us "Sylvia’s". She was in NYC recently and said we absolutely had to go next time we were in the city. So we went. It’s apparently "Home of Soul Food" and is located in Harlem. You are supposed to order fried chicken & waffles. So we did. I was first opposed to eating fried chicken before noon (we were going to go for ‘brunch’) but we were held up and didn’t get there until 12:30 which makes it all okay. Well as okay as fried chicken & waffles can be when eaten together. Chris ventured out and ate a piece of chicken AND waffle at the same time. "How is it Chris?" "I didn’t hate it." The place was actually pretty nice. We sat next to photos of Magic Johnson, Regis Philbin & Raven Simone.  Henry gobbled up the waffles and I’d have to say it was the best (and only) "soul food" I’ve ever had.

I neglected to mention one of the best places in NYC if you want to get a hot dog. When in the mood, you must go to "Gray’s Papaya" on the West Side. This place is great. Get the "Recession Special". It’s $2.75 and includes 2 hot dogs and an exotic drink of your choice. We had pina colada.

It is sooo good to be back in Boston! We flew in last night and I was waxing nostaligic looking down into the city from the airplane…The Prudential, The South Shore….I’ve missed Boston, and being here makes me miss it even more!

We headed out West today to Brimfield for some treasure hunting on our way down to NYC for the weekend. We stayed longer than we had planned, but Brimfield doesn’t disappoint. It was a really great day.  Is it wrong to say a little prayer that I would find wicked awesome stuff at the flea market? Because I did AND I did.

If you are new to Boston terminology, than just know this: EVERYTHING is Wicked fill-in-the-blank. It’s wicked retarded, wicked good, wicked hot, you get the point (oh yes, and it needs to be said like a true Bostonian "Wicked Ree-tarhh-did"). So you can imagine my ammusement upon seeing this great sign. Of course we had to stop to get some of our own "Velma’s Wicked Delicious Kettle Corn"and let me tell you. It was wicked good. I miss Boston wicked bad.

So back to Brimfield… I actually made out okay. I had to be careful about what I purchased (it basically had to fit in my suitcase) which meant no furniture, glassware, etc.,. I did get a great 1940’s apron pattern, a darling little pillow (which I’ll post pic’s of later,) a tin sign and some small pieces of fabric. But I’m thinking we might be stopping on our way back up to Boston. We were there for hours and didn’t even scratch the surface. Henry was a great little flea market finder as well!
He saw this beauty and sat down and made himself right at home. But like any experienced flea-marketeer knows, ya gotta test out any potential purchases. So he sat. He rocked. He got up and walked away. He thought deeply about the rocker. He walked back. He looked at it longingly. He sat. He rocked, again. (His smiles getting increasingly larger each time he rocked). Yes, those big brown eyes looked up at me longingly as if they were saying "Mama,  I must have this rocker. It ROCKS!" That’s all it took.  Okay, darling Henry. We will buy you the rocker. We will have to ship it home, but it will be the best $20 that we have ever spent on you. And it will always remind us of your first trip to the Brimfield Flea Market.

Wow- it’s been almost 2 weeks since my last post… We went up to Utah for my Aunts wedding and just got back on Monday night (very late) just long enough to unpack everything, wash it and re-pak it for our 8:30 a.m. flight to Boston on Thursday.

Utah was so much fun. We went up to Jennies family cabin and had such a great time. Old friends, lots of catching up and lots and lots of laughs. We even got to ride the horses, which was great because it was soo beautiful up there. Rob & Mandy were in town from Minnesota and of course, the fabulous Jill was there (wouldn’t be a party without her…miss you already, Jill!)

Utah was very beautiful as always and we had lots of fun days at the park and at grandma & grandpa’s house. Henry loved this little car and just kept opening and closing the doors. He’s just about completely healed from the broken collar-bone and is a walking maniac. We are now trying to rack our brains for what he is going to be for Halloween… I know, it’s still practically 2 months away…but a gal’s gotta plan!

So it’s officially September and I am so itchy for Fall. I was thrilled to hear that the weather in Boston has been cold & rainy. I have’nt pulled out a sweater in ages and was so excited to pack them. While we were in Utah it started to feel a little like Fall and it made me want to whip out Nat King Cole’s "Autumn Leaves", sip  some cider, go apple picking, you know- the works! I’ll admit it- I bought some candy corn today. I’m convinced that I am the only one who likes that stuff or furthermore eats that stuff! I only allow it a few times a year! Anyway, I am so excited to go to Brimfield. It’s one of the largest flea market/antique shows on the East coast and only happens 3 times a year. It’s been going on all week and so we are got to pop in on Friday on our way down to NYC for the weekend. I think I went at least once a year for the almost 6 years that I lived in Boston. I’m keeping my fingers crossed for lots of great treasures!

So there is a new addition to the Moore household… today I picked up a MacBook. Those people at Apple are great. We even got a free iPod Nano AND Printer out of it (I guess there are some perks to having a hubby who is a student!). I’m not sure I am sold….yet. But it’s only been a bout 12 hours… for beginners, I don’t like typing on a laptop and I really miss having a mouse. I might just have to get  wireless one… its going to take some adjusting so I’ll have to get back to you in another month to see if I like it or not.

Here are more pic’s from our trip! Sorry if some are sideways (it’s after midnight and I’m tired of trying to figure out how to flip them! I am taking this beauty with me on my trip so I’ll be sure to post often! Happy September!!

 

We had such a great time last night here for Heidi’s shower.  She just looks beautiful.. I love that glow women get when they are pregnant. Their faces are all bright and I don’t know what it is, they just look great. Luckily for me, not all 50 people came (that could have proven to be disasterous given my small living space). We had about 20-25 and it was perfect. These little boxes were the prizes for the winners of the game we played (there are some smart cookies out there!) It was an animal name game and the winner received a box of animal cookies, wrapped in these craft boxes. (Thanks, Meggies!)

We had lots of yummy food- Cucumber Dill toasts, Strawberry Poppyseed Salad, Coconut Cake, Fruit & Cheese tray, cupcakes & cookies… so so good. I think I have found a new favorite recipe: Lemonade Mint Slush. I served it last night and it was to die for. Since I am going out of town this evening and won’t be back until the 5th, I’m going to post it as this weeks recipe. I don’t actually expect you to only have this for dinner, silly. But it’s a perfect end of summer drink.

I imagine myself drinking it on my imaginary wrap-around porch on a hot summer night. Watching Henry run around in the cool night air on our imaginary lawn. Not a care in the world.

Lemonade Mint Slush

In a blender, blend:

1 can lemonade with one can water
7 mint leaves

Remove and add the rest of the water as called for on the can. Pour into a large double ziplock bag and place in the freezer. This will take approx 6-8 hours to freeze. You will need to "smush" it every 2-3 hours in the freezer to keep it slushy. Serve in a punch bowl with ginger ale poured on top.

That line reminds me of a quote from "Waiting for Guffman" and describes accurately the demise of said blanket pictured at left. The actual quote is:

• "I wanted the audience to feel the heat from the fire, the fear, because people don’t like fire, poked, poked in their noses, you know when you get a cinder from a barbeque right on the end of your nose and you kind of make that face, you know, that’s not a good thing, and I wanted them to have the sense memory of that."

What I don’t want you to have is a memory of that blanket. Teaches me one lesson that’s for sure. No sewing after midnight. Blanket was done, ready to be shipped to a brand new baby in Boston, thought I’d just lightly go over the corners with a warm iron…and ‘ssssss’ melted the binding right off. Urrghhhhhh now I’ll need to rip it out and re-do it. Henry described my feelings perfectly:

Ever since he started walking (only this past week) he’s been obsessed with putting his feet into Chris’ shoes. Of course, they are so heavy that he can’t actually walk or move in them (yes, evidence of disasterous blanket making is under the shoes) but he puts his feet in them at least several times a day. It’s adorable. I’m gushing.

Lots going on this week. I am throwing a baby shower tomorrow for a dear friend from Boston who lives here in LA now. 50 invites went out and I’m not quite sure how many are coming… should be a hoot. Heidi is having a girl, but isn’t so fond of pink or the fru-fru type of girly stuff (she registered for some camflouge pants in the boys department claiming "hey I’d put those on my girl!" and zapped it into the hand-held registry machine) She is AWESOME! So I am trying to have a girl themed shower, sans the pink. She loves green & yellow so I’ve opted for green and am doing black & white polka-dots with it…. we’ll see how it turns out. Will post pictures later.

We went to Disneyland on Monday and it was great. The great thing about having passes to a place like that is that you can go and ride one ride and leave if you want (yes, we actually did that once before). We never seem to get out of Adventure Land. That’s hands-down where the best rides are… Tiki Room (okay not technically a ride, but very cool none the less), Tom Sawyer River Boat (my Dad thinks this is the most useless ride in Disneyland- but we love it), Pirates of the Caribbean, The Haunted Mansion, the Jungle Cruise… and of course these animals. This picture cracks me up. What is with the cow tongue? I love the look on Henrys face. He looks so concerned while at the same time a bit confused…’that thing is ga-ross!’

Thanks for the Mickey outfit, Grandma & Grandpa. All in all, a great day. Can’t wait to go back.  Hope everyone is enjoying the end of summer… I can already feel Fall just around the corner.  I spotted the Halloween Peeps at the fabric store today and my heart got all a-flutter! Just love Halloween…will post more on that later.

Also if you are interested in curling up to a good movie and absolutely laughing your head off, rent "Waiting for Guffman" it’s hi-larious and so brilliantly improvised. Chris’ insider connection to the film industry says that Christopher Guests new movie "For your Consideration" is hitting the film festivals next month and should be in theatres soon!

"It’s like in a Hitchcock movie, you know, where they tie you up in a rubber bag and throw you in the trunk of a car. You find people."

Enjoy!!

Edited to say Chris just walked in the door with a passion fruit boba shake for me. If you’ve never had a boba before… you just absolutely must give one a whirl. We went to Korea-town last week and I had the most amazing lemon & honey one. The boba are the purple balls at the bottom of the shake. They are these gelatinous (is that a word) balls of goodness and the straws are actually big enough so you can suck them up with the rest of the drink. I highly reccommed trying one.

The first Monte Cristo sandwich I ever had was at Disneyland at the Blue Bayou. The Blue Bayou is the restaurant inside of the Pirates of the Caribbean ride.  The sammys there are good- but a traditional Monte Cristo is deep fried and you usually can only make it through about 4 or 5 bites before you feel like you’ve hit your annual grease limit.  This is another take on the same sandwich. Monte Cristo’s are a mix between french toast and a grilled ham & cheese sandwich.  Definately falls into the ‘comfort food’ category. Since we are going to Disneyland tomorrow we thought it was only fitting to pay homage to the ‘Cristo’s tonight. This was served with a cheese tortellini pasta salad (thanks for the delicious salad Stephenie & Jared!) Hope you enjoy!

Monte Cristo Sandwich- serves 4

• 8 Slices of Texas Toast Bread (the thick, square slices)
• 4 Slices of Virgina Baked Ham
• 4 Slices of Turkey
• 4 Slices of Swiss Cheese
• Mustard
• 2 Eggs
• 1 1/2 Cups Milk
• 1 tsp Nutmeg/Cinnamon or a Apple Pie Spice Mix
• Raspberry Preserves
• Powdered Sugar

Directions:

• Spread mustard on 4 slices of the bread
• Layer slices of the following: cheese, turkey, ham
• Place bread on top to make sandwich
• Combine eggs, milk & spices in a bowl & mix.
• Dip the entire sandwich in the mixture (you’ll need to turn over the sandwich to make sure both sides are covered)
• Grill in a grill pan lightly sprayed with pam to prevent sticking
• Give the sandwich a sprinkle of powdered sugar & a dollup of raspberry jam