Solstice Tree

I am finally feeling better after my 4 day long stomach flu, I have eaten a meal, yay!
To celebrate we went out to get our Tree today.
Here it is looking pretty in our living room, although it has only 'practice' ornaments on it for now until we see how the kitties react. I don't want to come home to my favorite glass ornaments shattered all over the floor. No one has tried to climb it yet, but it's only been up for about 2 hours so far. I'll have to take another one when it gets dark so the lights will be twinkling.

Because we had some requests for pictures of the house I took on of the kitchen too, it's not super tidy, but you get the idea. Yes the cabinets are purple, we painted them! The lower right cabinets will be getting doors on them sometime soon thanks to my very talented husband.

Gnocchi

This weekend I was lucky enough to join my cousins Franca and Cristina and my Zia Teresa, my Nonna's sister, in making gnocchi at Franca's house in Brooklyn. Here are some images from the gnocchi fest! I have some great video clips that I'll put up soon as well. I'll include the ingredients so this will serve as a tutorial in making gnocchi the Val Nure way.

Mmmm.... fluffy pillows of deliciousness.


Boil the potatoes and make the tomato and porcini sauce.

Halloween at the Museum

Birthday Presents!

Ok, maybe these are more pictures of the kittens...
But I love my new jewelry box!
We'll take better pictures to do it justice once it's painted.
I love homemade presents...

Get your own knuckles at the knuckle tattoo gun.

We Survived!

The Study Day was a success!
Phew, and a lot of work, but we pulled it off.
Yay Team!

Justina and John's Wedding at Lemon Hill

As the ceremony finished we could hear strains of Bruce Springsteen singing on the Parkway.

Carol and Chris clowning in the Oval Parlor.

Wings and Sweetheart Wings!

We croqueted into the night in the shadow of the skyline.

Kiss!

It was a beautiful night and a beautiful wedding for two of our favorite people.
The memory will certainly abide!

German Cabaret with Sophia

Sophia visited from Germany at the beginning of October. It was so nice to have her as a house guest and spend time with her. We had a great birthday party at Flying Saucer and got to see a German Cabaret at Art After Five, which Sophia introduced.
Great pictures taken by Chris!

Dita and Violet's present from Nonna

They Love It!!!

Misplaced Historic Preservation

We visited Carpenter's Hall this weekend and I was mortified to see the caption for an aerial photo in one of the display cases. The image is from 1953, it shows Carpenter's Hall as well as an amazing Frank Furness building (a bank I think). The caption proudly states this is an image of the area just before Carpenter's Hall Park was created. Read: Look at all the buildings we knocked down so tourists could walk around and pretend to be in Colonial times! I thought we were at a point where we understood that the 20th Century drive to colonialize and de-victorianize the city was a mistake and should at least be something to feel sheepish about! Here is the park system still celebrating those destructive efforts!

Ok, I know I've said this is just a picture blog and not a place where I would spout opinions, but I could not help myself here.

Cousin Visit

Cristina and Seth came to visit this weekend. We are so happy they made the trip, we had a wonderful time. They even wanted to visit the historic sites with us! Fellow nerds are perfect house guests. So glad they got to know Chris and I got to know Seth better. Looking forward to more fun together.

More kitten pictures!

We really do love our kittens, they're the cutest, don't you agree?

Visit to the City

We went up to the Met to examine their cabinet, it's truly an amazing piece of furniture. Now if we can just figure out what it was made for!



Koons on the Roof, looks like a big Perugina egg. Mmmm... chocolate...



Edward met us at Cipriani in Grand Central for a drink. It was so nice to hang out with him and be in one of our favorite places in the world!

Juliana

Wednesday night we managed to drag ourselves over to the World Cafe Live to see Juliana Hatfield. We had a really nice time, she rocks! Sadly I forgot the camera, but soon I'll have a fancy cell phone camera so I'll always have it with me.