Hannah and I braved the cold and went into Manhattan for the day today. I kind of hemmed and hawed about it this morning because a) Hannah woke up at 1am in hysterical tears, no idea why and b) I had planned on meeting up with Kathy but didn’t have her Christmas and birthday presents ready yet. Somehow these things, combined with the cold, just felt too insurmountable. But, I dragged myself out of bed at 8:30 this morning and got us out of the house.

I’m so glad we went! I had such a wonderful day with Baby Girl!

We were going to the February meeting of the NYCMMQG, and even though we were half an hour late I had a great time. I’m always so shy at these guild meetings, and I don’t know. Everyone is so friendly and welcoming, but I just feel tongue-tied and self conscious. Maybe it’s because I look at work like this

and this

and I just feel a little awestruck by the skills and creativity. Let’s not forget our president, Victoria Findlay Wolfe of Bumble Beans Quilts, who was invited to create this pair of shoes for an upcoming auction:

Insanely cool. And then there’s our guest speaker Linda Lum DeBono, who brought projects from her book Sew Merry and Bright (which I ordered on my phone from the meeting).

Obviously I love this Advent calendar:

And this little Russian dolls ornament is so clever, I love it!

So yes, I feel like I have a long way to go with my craftiness to catch up to these folks. But I always get so much inspiration from them, and I love going when I can. I’m also the Charity Chair for the guild, and I have done absolutely zero in that role…this also makes me feel awkward when I go. But Victoria runs her own very successful charity organization, Bumble Beans Basics, and so the charity work seems to run itself through her.

After talking to a couple of other ladies there who’ve had babies recently, Hannah and I headed from Midtown to Chelsea, where we spent a couple of hours walking all over having a great time. We went to City Quilter and then walked passed a Marimekko store I didn’t even know was over there (I’ve only been to the tiny Uptown store). It was amazing.

Gorgeous fabric everywhere I looked, but so pricey; it was $53/yd. I came very close to buying some but decided until I have something specific in mind to use it for it would just sit in my stash being way too precious to cut. Sometimes that depresses me a little, so I’ve put it in the back of my mind for when the perfect project comes up.

And then there was this raincoat in Hannah’s size. The absolute quintessential print in a baby raincoat, I was so tempted. But again, it was pricey ($68). I may still go back for this, though. I really loved it. I tried to make a smooth getaway from the store after drooling over stuff for half an hour, but Hannah and I got stuck in the glass doors on our way out and had to be rescued. I move like a gazelle, I’m telling you.

We walked the Union Square Market.

We bought baked goods for Adam.

We bought baked goods for me at Baked by Melissa. Our last stop was Books of Wonder, where I read some of this year’s Caldecott books to Hannah. I have one left to track down, and then I can post about them all. She was particularly excited about Creepy Carrots; Peter Brown’s illustrations made her giggle and smile.

We headed home from there sufficiently pooped and exhilarated. I needed a day like this to recharge, I’ve been sleep deprived and a little stressed out since…well, since I went back to work, really. I realized today that we’ve just passed the halfway point of the school year, so from here to summer it’s a downhill slope! I can’t wait to hang out with Hannah every day and have more adventures, but today was wonderful for reminding me how many adventures we can have even when I’m working. She’s such a great little lady, so sweet and happy to go with the flow.

My fabulous and amazing mentor Dee sent this out today, and I love it. Zazzle is now selling prints, tees, bumper stickers with this Burning Through Pages graphic (in addition to some other equally outstanding book nerd goodies). I support everything about this.

My mom, Hannah, and I went back to the Metropolitan Museum of Art on Monday. I was off for Rosh Hashanah, and the museum was closed. So Meredith took us around for another couple of hours to see some more things and get some fun photos of Hannah.

They were tending to a lot of things when we there, so we still didn’t make it to William the hippo. And the Arms and Armor room, always one of my favorites, was also tricky to get to. But we saw lots of sculpture, European paintings, and I made lots of docents and guards nervous when I spread Hannah out on the floor to take some photos. I mean, how many kids get pictures of themselves in the empty Met? I’m pretty sure I was horribly embarrassing, and my mother told me my mission for the day was clear–Hannah photos. I swear we looked at art, and that’s why we went, but I’m also all about preserving cool memories. So here are my favorite photos from the whole day. The Hannah photos are towards the bottom, I really did appreciate the art.

As close as we could get to the Arms and Armor.

But still very cool from above.

(more…)

Hannah, my mom, and I packed into the car and headed into Manhattan to the Metropolitan Museum of Art today. It’s the first Meredith Monday of summer 2012, and I plan on taking complete advantage of Mere’s access this year, mwah ha ha. There are rumors that the Met will start opening 7 days a week later this year, and if that’s the case this will be the last summer that we can take over the museum together when it’s closed. So Hannah and I will definitely be going again (and I think my mom is on board for another round, too).

This is second only to watching the Thanksgiving parade balloons blown up as my favorite New York City thing to do. I even took my fancy camera and borrowed Adam’s favorite lens. I’ve been to the Met when it’s closed a few times now, once or twice in grad school when I took a class there and then a couple of times with Meredith. And she is by far my favorite buddy for this kind of stuff. An empty museum, time with a great friend, and lots of art. It’s like being in From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler but without the hiding and pesky brother.

We took it easy today since it was Hannah’s first visit, and I think we got it down to a science. At the museum by 12 & out of the museum by 2, we avoided traffic on each end and basically avoided an overtired baby. And we didn’t keep Meredith away from her office TOO much. We went through the Costume Institute’s Schiaparelli and Prada: Impossible Conversations. Baz Luhrmann directed several vignettes starring Miuccia Prada (as herself) and Judy Davis as Elsa Schiaparelli, just talking to each other about fashion. I loved the juxtaposition of their philosophies and Schiaparelli’s clear influence on Prada’s clothes. Very cool, and of course my mom commented several times, “I bet I could make a knockoff of that!” No photos allowed there, but Hannah loved the clothes. Or she loved getting out of the stroller while Meredith carried her, not sure which. Either way, this exhibit was incredible.

(more…)

These ladies are so inspirational. I hadn’t been to a meeting since last June, and it was great to pick up where I’d left off. Now I have lots of ideas to fuel my summer creativity, but I didn’t take notes on who did what. That’s here at the official post on the meeting. These are just the photos I shot while I was inspired.

(more…)