Cool Art I would like

Odd and wonderful.


Brooklyn Art!

"Meeting to feed the birds"... cute.


A squid attacks the BK Bridge on a tee shirt.

That's all.

A very NY experience.

Tonight I'm going to a friend's book opening party at a bookstore in Carroll Gardens. I am psyched to see her photography and the book and maybe get some free wine...?

I am BROKE. I don't even have quarters. I had to spend my paycheck on averting a small financial disaster and now have no money whatsoever. It will all work out in the end (hopefully) but for the moment I am... how you say? Cash poor.

I will meet friends at this opening and have a wonderful time, I'm sure, congratulating my friend and looking around at the Brooklyn Literary Elite and then come home to my lovely condo and eat cereal.

I have both lean and lush times in my life and I'm sure this will continue - but tonight is an oh-so NYC experience. Maybe someday I will not only live here, but flourish financially... THAT would be a coup.

Addendum to Preparing to Party - i.e., re-upholstering chairs.

I posted something about wanting to re-upholster my chairs and make new pillow cases before our housewarming party last weekend and - shocker - it didn't happen in time. I went to Mood in NYC to check out the lovely magenta damask that we'd chosen online and it didn't look right in person.

So it was back to the drawing board, so to speak, and I found a more modern fabric that I'm about to buy that is the "pop of color" we were looking for, should wear well and has a great design.

Richloom Trendsetter Mosaic

I also like Richloom Trendsetter Manhattan, but this won't supply the pop of color.

Fabric.com is a great place to shop for all kinds of ... well, fabric. I quilt and sew and love this website.

Ok - on to other projects like lunch.

Steam Clean Your Furniture - It Is Amazing!

Rug Doctor (a potentially x-rated sounding name... yes, I had to go there) is a miracle worker.

My husband and I have 3 cats and thus our furniture tends to look a bit ragged. We have some great pieces that have steadily gotten beat to shit over the last 4-5 years. I have a light yellowy-green chair upholstered in faux suede that I love but gets dirty... and it's gross. I have been embarrassed to have people over and notice that the arms and back are gray with dirt from my darling felines positioning themselves perfectly for snuggles and scraps of food.

My husband being the savvy person that he is, suggested that we rent a Rug Doctor. I was like, "Rent a what? You can do that?" Why yes... yes, you can.

This is THE BEST idea in the world. You can go to their website:

Rug Doctor Website

and click on "Rent Rug Doctor", put in your zip, et voila! We rented from Key Foods in Brooklyn and it cost $30/day. And you have to purchase the detergent yourself. I, of course, being the last-minute-Lucy that I am decided to do this the morning of our housewarming party and steam the back and arms of our couch (which is light blue) and my yellowish chair. We SOAKED them with the solution and vacuumed up the liquid as best we could and they dried within 4 hours? And looked AMAZING. All the stains on the sofa and chair were gone and they looked like new! No more embarrassment! No more sighing when I looked at them after regular vacuuming and wondering how people kept their furniture clean!

Now I know the secret... Rug Doctor. I'm going to rent it again soon to do our rugs and sofa cushions (didn't have time for those and you can see the difference between them and the frame which is clean).

Things to know: It will take a long time. You have to move slowly and really soak and vacuum the places with dirt and stains. And allow several hours to dry. However - it works. I am once again, a happy domestic weirdo.

Happy Steaming!

Cool!

THIS piece of art is super cool and very NYC looking.

I would like it.

So is THIS one. It tells a story.

Oooh! And Coney Island brings back Summer memories.

I love shopping for art. I have a lot of it but one can never have too many pieces of art, I guess. At least that's my working theory.

Preparing to party.

My husband and I are having our housewarming party in 2 weeks (as we planned about 6 weeks in advance) and I'm starting to realize that even though we are MOSTLY unpacked, there is still crap everywhere that needs to be sorted. We have four perfectly good dining room chairs with slipcovers that have been trashed by our cats. So I have decided to sew new slipcovers and coordinating pillow case covers for the pillows on our couch in time to display them all at our party. We have a lot of white, gray, dark browns in our home and we want a "splash of color".

So I was shopping on Mood's website and found this garnet damask fabric that might work and I'm really excited about it.

I'm thinking simple slipcovers (I hope I can copy the ones we have now by dissecting them and recreating them exactly... ahem) and a couple of pillow cases that use some of this fabric in them as well. Our home is very modern looking and I like the idea of throwing in some vintage style fabric to offset the cool, sleek colors and lines of our furniture. I love cool and sleek, but I also like a bit of character and quirkiness. Luckily, my husband is really interested in the style of our home as well, so I always consult him and he also liked this fabric the best. Lucky me!

Now I'm off to clean and eat something and go to the nursery for a lemon tree and move more stuff into our storage space. SO. MUCH. STUFF. (And yes, we've weeded out like 5 times.)

Vamos!

Colonoscopy.

I just had my first. Fear not, all is well.

The prep for those is DISGUSTING. Drinking that shite was one of the least pleasant tasks of this year so far... it tastes AWFUL. I finally realized that putting ice cubes in the glass (you're supposed to drink one 8-oz glass every ten minutes until the fluid is gone) and interspersing with sips of ginger beer/ale really helps. I actually threw it up at first it was so gross.

Moving on, once I got through that and the frequent trips to the bathroom (sorry, but this is the deal), it was just suffering through a day and a half of no solid foods and then nothing at all until the procedure. Not even water. That was hard.

But I had heard that the drugs they give you as anesthesia rock. And BOY do they. You only get to feel it for about 60 seconds before you're under... so as the anesthesiologist said, "I injected a small amount of medication to flush out your vein... you're going to feel it in a few seconds" I lay back and monitored my body. Sure enough, a few seconds later the warmest, most relaxing feeling in the world spread up my whole body. I said, "Cool. I can see why people are heroin addicts." He said, "Yeah... I've actually never had this." I said, "Really? Is it an opiate?" (Stupid question - I was high, people.) He said, "No, it's __________ [a long technical name I could never hope to remember]." I said, "NOT that I care about drugs" and could feel my consciousness beginning to fade. He looked down at me and said, "Here you go..." and I passed out.

I woke up what seemed like a second later in another room still feeling drowsy and cozy and one of the nurses was standing over me saying, "Hi there. You awake?" I said, "Is it over?" and she said yes, it was. She said, "You talked a lot" and smiled. I said, "Oh god, what did I say?" and thankfully they couldn't understand me. Then she offered me Oreos and apple juice and I grinned... FOOD! She said, "I thought you'd like that."

They couldn't have been nicer there and my dr was cool and sweet and clear. So all in all, it could have been worse. But if you have to suffer through one - get a ton of apple juice, ginger ale and have ice on hand. It will help.