snow, snow & more snow

After hours of snowfall and strong winds, NY awoke to a heavy blanket of white covering everything in sight. I love snow and feel it transforms everything. This light and fluffy snow managed to cover each branch-making for sculpture like forms.

Visit with friends

We had a wonderful weekend visit with friends for the M.L.K. Day weekend .

The adventure with friends involved a visit to a comedy club where the jokes ranged from "putting the family dog down is very funny" (really?) to "marriage as men see it" to a novel twist on N.Y.C.'s "if you see something, say something" terrorist alert to classic NYC language barrier jokes.

Then there was the Brooklyn Flea Market, held at the stunning One Hanson Place bank building. Go for the building alone-it is beautiful and if you like mosaics and vaults, ornate lighting and artistic windows (in an odd way reminiscent of what is now at the old Limelight.) this is the place for you. There are interesting flea market finds and food to be had and if you are like me , you'll find items that will take you straight back to your childhood, your grandparents house and so on.

Finally, the weekend ended with a Knicks game. They lost but we had fun & we hope to have more adventures-soon-with Michelle & Mark.

On a night like tonight

On a night like tonight - cold and snowy - one could use a little rock salt.

Holiday decor central

In the outer boroughs of NYC there are many wonderful holidays scenes to behold each holiday season. I visited several streets in Dyker Heights this year -front yards filled with inflatable lawn ornaments, tons of lights and even several "live" Santa Clauses (how does a parent explain all those Santa Clauses?) It seems like this is actually a business and several of the homes sport signs advertising the companies that do this type of work. While the artist in me would to do this sort of thing-on such a grand scale-I currently work somewhat smaller-call it holiday office decor. If you are too busy to put up decorations this year -or just find that you are not in the mood-contact me and I will do it all for you! Attached are 2 examples of my most recent work:

Chanukah in retrospect

The last of the menorahs and candels have been packed away until next year. The Christmas ornaments & lights have taken their place in our home, fend off the long, dark &helping to cold nights.

Here are som final scenes from this year's Hanukkah & one photograph depicting what I like to call the Hanukkah aftermath=lots of wax everywhere

Each year I am left with just one question : How do you spell "Hanukkah"?

night 2,3,4,5

Today brought our first snow flurries.
Here is a photo tour of the neighborhood menorahs. One stands in Station Square. The other in Mac Donald Park and the others , from our collection.

Night one of eight

Last night was the first night of Hanukkah & in celebration I dusted off the menorah. This one was given to me by my mom & dad -perhaps for my first Hanukkah 7 or so years ago. I love it for it's simplicity -it's so clean and the design gives you all kinds of nice options. I also love it because it is so easy to clean. The vast majority of menorahs are awful in this respect.

My husband's family does not really celebrate this holiday and seems not to have transmitted any traditions from one generation to the next so I have been left on my own when it comes to Hanukkah. I do like to exchange small gifts each of the nights and include the associated fried foods (It can be hard to find a good potato pancake-I am going with Trader Joe's this year) .

Last year I ran out into the cold dark night to find jelly donuts -finally striking gold at the local Dunkin Donuts. One of my favorite Hanukkah memories involves a hospital I used to be the Artist-In-Residence at. Throughout the day they had announced on their PA that they would be holding a celebration in their lobby .Staff, patients and family gathered for song, food and celebration. It was very impromptu, more folks showed up than expected and there was something very warming about coming together with strangers who might not otherwise have had the opportunity to stop and celebrate for a few moments.