Greetings earthlings

Yes, it has been a long time since I posted an entry here. The explanation for my absence is that we took a long vacation back to NYC for Christmas and then down to Florida for Harlan to meet my 95 year old grandparents.

Since our return I have made a new year's resolution to get my time management under control, and to prioritize what I spend my non-Harlan time doing. This blog has been bumped down a notch, along with reading my favorite blogs, because right now I am under a deadline for the launching of the new Rose & Duke site and so I'm spending whatever time I have working on samples of the 2008 designs to photograph. I also made it a new year's resolution to make more time to work on personal craft projects for my home and my family. It seems like I used to spend a ton of free time making cute outfits for Harlan and other nifty creations, but sadly that free time got all eaten up by work obligations, and suddenly what began as a fun way to make money without leaving the house became a very full time job. I am going to try and find balance this year my friends.

Without further ado I present the highlights of the past month:
Harlan enjoyed opening a ton of Christmas gifts at his grandma "Mimi's" apartment. It was so bittersweet to be home (Joe wonders how long it will be until we call Texas "home") and see all our family and friends. We miss everyone a lot but at the same time our peers with toddlers are stressing about finding places to live where a second child could fit, and getting their toddlers into pre-school. As many of you may know the pre-school scene in NYC is super competitive and expensive. These are two adjectives I'm not so thrilled with, and our trip basically reaffirmed that we made the right move to Austin.
Our trip to Flordia was ironically freezing cold. The local news seemed to have around the clock coverage of the local citrus growers and how they were trying to salvage their crops. Harlan enjoyed meeting his great grandparents, but let's just say they had forgotten how two year olds act and seemed to think that I had let a wild gorilla loose in their condo. Above is a photo of a house that had a crocheted gaslight cap. I really wanted to get up on the lawn and get a close up shot for the blog, but I was too chicken to get out of the car with my camera. There were a LOT of crocheted gaslight caps, all in green, white, and red for the holiday season (or because everyone in Florida is Italian, but I tend to think the holidays had more to do with it).
This photos was taken at a recent turkey fry potluck party that my friends Kevin and Jenifer hosted at their home here in Austin. The Jackalope that Harlan is posing on was made by Kevin at his amazing business Blue Genie Art. By the way, if you have never tasted a deep-fried turkey before you are seriously missing out. I went to the party thinking it would taste just like turkey except with a fried skin on the outside. Instead it turns out that frying a turkey seals in all the juices and flavors that end up pouring out of the meat when you bake it in an oven. D-licious. Below is a shot of Kevin deep frying some Twinkies. I didn't try these, but I heard they were pretty F'ing good too.

I've been oot and aboot

What a flaky blogger I have been, although to be fair the past month has been extremely un-computer friendly to me. We spent a week up at lake Muskoka at Joe's family's lake house that has been in the family for generations. While packing for the trip Joe recommended that I bring along some of my craft projects since there was going to be so much time to relax. Being the know-it-all that I can't help but be, I did not pack anything recreational other than a pile of New Yorkers that I have not had the opportunity to read. This was wise. While all of the family members at the house with us lounged on the dock and rode around in sail boats and Kayaks, Joe and I pretty much did what we do on a daily basis; we took care of Harlan. At twenty months the big lug has only been really walking about three months, and all of it has been on solid cement ground. The rocky steep ground on this Canadian island was not familiar turf, and so we spent a lot of time running around the porch and playing with grandpa's plastic clogs. Luckily grandpa was a good sport and enjoyed having a charming toddler take his shoes on and off repeatedly, and occasionally offer them to his cousin if she happened to be passing through. Not a lot of spare time to work on crafting, but it was certainly relaxing and always great to get away from Brooklyn in the summer. And did I even mention that they sell English candy in Canada? Yup. I got to go to the Cadbury outlet store. What could be better than that? The truck stop availability of maple or cinnamon Kit Kats? Perhaps. The abundance at the supermarket of those crazy English potato chip flavors like dill pickle and ketchup? Maybe. But as anyone knows, it's hard to beat the English Cadbury. I went to the outlet store in desperate search of the chocolate spread that Dottie Angel is hoarding over on the west coast. Alas, they did not have any, but I did leave with a shopping bag full of candy. I hope they have a good dentist in Austin.

Right now I am getting in my beach time at my mother's house in Long Island. The apartment is half packed and we move out on the twenty fourth. As you can imagine, not a whole lot of crafting going on these days. P.S. Check out this shot of Harlan in Canada with what we called "boat face" on. He loved riding in the boat, but always got this super serious face while the boat was actually in motion.