Sunday, February 9, 2014

Lost in the Blogosphere



It's time to face the music. It seems without pastries, classic monuments, European travel destinations, Georgian architecture or weird British people I lack blogspiration.

It doesn't help, frankly, that my life is nuts. I'm working much more than I thought I would be, shuttling my overprogrammed elder child to four or five after-school activities a week and doing god-knows-what with my weekends. I seem to see a lot of the insides of Target, Costco and the library, and not as much as I would like of the gym. Hugo's school is lovely and he's doing fantastically, but I spend almost as long getting him physically and emotionally prepared to go as he spends there.

Back home with familiar traditions and expected rituals, the holidays also lacked what I'd come to rely on for fantastic blogging material.  Josie performed in her first Christmas/Chanukah/Kwanzaa concert and ballet recital, and lovely times were had with family and friends at various Port Huron and Detroit eateries and locales (actually, that's a great post idea -- all the great stuff we did and found in the Motor City). Still, sadly missing were the blasphemous nursery nativities, lighting festivals hosted by drunken once-famous radio personalities, old French biddies hollering at me for underdressing my child in the frigid 46-degree weather and generally being a worthless, style-less, tasteless American. I miss being a worthless American!

Look, I've tried to get inspired. For a brief period I used this blog as a poor man's Young House Love, fancying i could wow friends near and far with my paint choices, wallpaper fetish and bargain furniture finds.

And well, I mean, as long as we're on the topic, I CAN show you my latest before and afters, as we did finally get the Great Room done:
Before: Big Apple Hunting Lodge?

After: Bright and Beautiful

 
 Before: Purplicious

After: Guest-ready!


 Before: Lime in the Coconut


 After: Soothing Slumber

 Anyway, so now that my house is 90% finished and Jeff has frozen my Amex, what to blog about?

I confess I got totally inspired by the seemingly barftastic new Gwyneth Paltrow cookbook, It's All Good, which admittedly does require one to purchase weird and expensive ingredients (thank god for our new Fairway!) while flinging pasta out of one's home like the devil's handiwork it is. Still, it's interesting reading, gorgeously photographed, and I got really jazzed about cooking and eating a whole new way.

Damn you, Gwynnie! First the haircut, now the kale, I just can't stop 
wanting to be you as hard as I try.

So I thought very seriously about cooking and blogging with Gwynnie a la Julie and Julia. I even started casting about for names. I briefly considered "Poop" (a take on GP's look-how-fantastic-my-life-is-now-drop-the-Doritos-and-get-out-of-those-sweatpants-from-college lifestyle blog "Goop") but that blogspot address was taken, as was "Itsallpoop," "POOG," etc.

Also, everything I've cooked out of the book is freaking fantastic, so I didn't even have any stinging remarks to make about Gwyn. Turns out millet IS just as good as couscous with more nutrients, raw honey and coconut oil are delicious, and almond milk is a great substitute in just about anything from pancakes to oatmeal to after-school smoothies.

So where does that leave us? Back where we started in 2007, with predictable photos of my offspring. Thankfully they're pretty wicked cute.

Josie in front of twig-and-berry Macy's at the Holiday Trains Show at the Brooklyn Botanical Garden. So amazing -- go next year! We'll never miss another one!


Hugo....just Hugo.

Look, Josie is learning guitar! Thanks Papa for the amazing photo

Finally, it doesn't help that we've barely left the house in weeks due to unrelenting snow and the resulting "Snow Days," which as a child you loved beyond belief and as an adult, it turns out, you loathe beyond compare. Jeff lasted one day before proclaiming, "I need to get back to the office... this place is just too stressful an environment for work."  OH reaaaaaalllllllyyyyyyy.....


Chanukah in our own house was amazing

Gastronomic bucket list item - Marcus Saumelsson's Red Rooster for my 41st. And look....more snow.

Usual fun taking the family Christmas picture

So hopefully in the coming months I'll have more to share.... there will be flowers, one hopes, and maybe new deer repellent methods, trips to the National Parks and Martha's Vineyard, as well as a girls' weekend in New York City.

Otherwise, I'll have to hang up the blog and get an Instagram account.


One last furniture find... 
how amazing is this 1890s breakfront from Nyack Antiques?