Urban Glass

October is also the time of year for Open House New York.  This year we decided to check out Urban Glass in Brooklyn.  A space in the city for glass artists to work!  Very cool.  We were sad to find out, upon our arrival, that the facility was only doing events for Sunday's Open House New York, but they did agree to give us a tour and spent a lot of time with us. 

First we had to don special safety glasses!

We felt the WHITE HOT heat from the oven where they store the molten glass.  When an artist starts a project, they dip their long steel rod into this oven to pick up some glass.

After a project is complete, it is stored in this container to cool down.  It can take several days to be cool enough to handle with your bare hands.

Steel rods waiting to be used- this oven keeps them hot.

The woman sitting was a visiting artist from California.  She comes several times a year to use this facility.  She is wearing a special protective covering on her arm to prevent any burns.  And the woman in the blue is the "gaffer"- the assistant who does whatever the artist needs help with.  It is extremely difficult to blow glass by yourself.  You must have a gaffer.

Tools on the wall for cutting & shaping.

I wish I had some photos of finished works, but if you've ever seen hand blown glass, it's really an amazing and beautiful creation.

The Whitney

Back at the beginning of October we made our first visit to the Whitney Musuem for their family day activities.  There's a Georgia O'Keefe exhibit right now, so there were many plant-based activities to celebrate her plant-inspired paintings.  We got to plant a seedling in a recycled container complete with a fancy water pump made entirely from recycled materials (but since we have black thumbs in this household, they both withered and died shortly thereafter).  We also got to listen to the roots of plants!  Did you know they talk?  We had to wear stethoscopes & put them up against the planter box to listen in on the conversations of the flowers & plants.  They said things like, "I think I need to relocate- my apartment just doesn't get enough light" and "I think you might be the root of that problem."  It was pretty cute.

Plant doctors were on hand to help us out:

Alexis also took part in a tour of the O'Keefe exhibit and spent some time drawing (in the gallery where she could be inspired by O'Keefe) her own versions of a place she had been (the beach in North Carolina).

Medieval Festival

Every year at the beginning of October there is a Medieval Festival in Ft. Tryon Park, not far from our new home. This was the first year we actually attended- it is a very popular event!

We saw people working on looms & spinning wheels:


A pottery wheel & artisan:


A view of Matt's school (the cupola in between the large buildings)


Some falcons:




And a JOUST!

Yankees in 6!

Here's hoping the Yanks can claim their 27th World Series tonight right here at home in the Bronx.

Halloween

Ella participates in a little playschool class on Mondays.  The Monday before Halloween the kids all dressed up for class.  Ella wanted to be Cinderella.

After tripping over her dress multiple times, I decided I didn't really want to deal with her in that Cinderella dress all day long on Saturday.  Alexis chose to be Dorothy from the Wizard of Oz, and so I thought maybe I'd dress Ella up in all black, top her off with a witches hat & maybe paint her cheeks green to allude to the Wicked Witch of the West, who we all know is really not so wicked after all (well, you know that if you've seen Wicked).  But when we were getting dressed, she refused to wear the hat and said to me, "Ella no wear hat. Ella be tat."  So we pulled out the cat ears & tail from the dress up box, painted her face and away we went- Dorothy & a black cat.  And I just noticed (after posting all the photos) there isn't really a good one of Alexis's whole outfit- red ruby slippers, and little dog Toto and all.  Guess we'll just have to dress her up again. (wink wink)

We first participated in a Trick-or-Treat Parade in Inwood- visiting businesses for candy!  And ultimately the Fire House.

Home for a nap then back out to the church for a Halloween Party where more candy was acquired and a good time had by all.  There were some good costumes there that night!

Costume Parade at Church Party

Uncle Sam & a Bald Eagle

High School Musical people (I have to admit, I've never seen this movie, so I'm not sure of the characters)

Super Mario & Princess & Mushroom

Me as Rosie the Riveter.  We Can Do It!

Lighthouse Festival

No pictures of the Little Red Lighthouse, but we did in fact venture down to the festival again this year.  Once again, we missed the celebrity reading of the tale, and missed the chance to climb the lighthouse (but that's fine since we've done it before!).  We did get to enjoy all the other activities going on this year- I think this was the best festival yet!  Hay rides, face painting, crafts, food, live music, free giveaways, clowns, live animals, & fishing gear to fish in the Hudson!

Mmmmmm, Donuts!

Headed down to the Lower East Side to check out the Doughnut Plant with our friends Malesa & Aubrey.  These donuts are so delicious- way way better than your average Dunkin' Donut.  They are all made fresh daily, and all jams & fillings are made from scratch at the Plant.  They have seasonal donuts, as well as several regulars.  My personal favorite: The Peanut Butter & Jelly Donut.

Don't those donuts look awesome?

PB&J!- chopped peanuts on top, and filled with homemade jam- not too much, not too little!  It is square shaped, too (with a hole in the middle) and the jam is evenly distributed throughout the donut instead of just in one giant glop in the middle.

Aubrey & Ella- they opted for wheat thins and goldfish over donuts!  More for us! :)

We also picked up some awesome kosher pickles from the Pickle Guy.  And then walked through some of SoHo where we ended up at Balthazar's and purchased some of their delicious bakery treats as well (potato-zucchini foccacia, anyone?)

First Day of School! Kindergarten edition

Alexis started Kindergarten this year.  She's in a full day program (because there isn't really anything less than a full day program around here) and is in a Gifted and Talented program.  I don't really know exactly what that means, except that she had to test into it, so I'm fairly confident that all the other kids in her class are bright, too, and that she might actually be challenged by them as well.  I really felt that last year school was very easy for her and that she was way ahead of many of the kids.  I do find it a little crazy that they are so focused on academics- they are reading and writing most of the time.  But she also gets a good dose of the arts- she's learning to play the cello in orchestra!  And she has a drama class, art class & chorus class as well.

Shame on me for not taking an official first day photo.  I forgot the camera.  And then on day 2, I forgot the camera.  On day 3, I only had my cell phone with me, but felt I couldn't keep putting off her first day photo.  So here she is just outside her classroom:

And then sitting on the mat in the classroom:

Annual Chili Cook-off

Last month we had our ward's annual chili cook off again.  I have entered it several times before (but only blogged about it last year), and placed every time, but the title of Best Chili has always eluded me.  I decided to try out a new recipe this year, which I thought was pretty good.  But then, it doesn't matter much what I think, does it now?

I'll admit that I might be a bit more competitive than is healthy for a church event.  But I really enjoy winning.  I'm a bit of a sore loser, in fact.  Anyway, there were several awards- like for the spiciest (congrats Hannah!), and the most original (congrats, Heather!) and for the Youth's favorite- oh, that went to me!  It was exciting to get an award, but part of me, admittedly, was a little sad that it was only the Youth's favorite, and not everyone's favorite.  

 

Anticipating the announcement of winners:

But.... wait for it..... turns out it was everyone's favorite!  And I won First Place as well!  And got to take home The Golden Spoon (which is a new tradition they started this year- I have to bring it back next year and defend my title- so don't think I'm sharing my recipe with you.)  Alexis was so excited that I won!  She jumped up on me and latched onto my neck.  She couldn't wait to get her hands on my golden spoon and just kept shouting "You won, Mommy! You won!"  Nice to have a cheering section.

(some of Lexi's facepaint came off on my nose&chin, in case you were wondering)

HONESTLY, I did NOT expect to win two prizes! Aren't those kitchen towels great?!

I'd like to thank my mother, for teaching me how to cook and blessing me with good-cook-genes.  And my sister for eating/testing out my recipes.  And Matt (not pictured) for putting up with my ambitions. Oh, and eating my food on a daily basis.  Thanks for the love and support!