Tuesday, August 30, 2011

Relish (ing)


Angry Irene sky. We got seriously dumped on rain wise in Clintondale but the wind didn't kick as hard as we thought. James and I had power all Sunday long and I sprinted out of bed in the morning and started prepping THE MOVE.

We've been going back and forth on the yellow wall. I had the paint, Farrow and Ball's Citron, a recommendation from an interior design friend, the lovely Polly of Lewis Interiors.


I guess we just didn't know if it was going to be right. But we got brave. Well, I got brave, this is actually Zombie-James who is under my control painting. (He loves the wall now but would never admit it to the dudes...)


After this was dry we took the bed apart and moved it.


I just stopped by IKEA on my way to work today and picked up two of these night stands:



Next was the dresser and closets.


Hers.


And his.

And as on cue around 6.30pm - the power went out. We were well prepared and had been nursing romantic notions of card playing by candle light but when an invite came in via text to go hang out with the neighbors we jumped at the opportunity. They had power and booze.

Saturday night was our first night in the SUITE. It felt like sleeping in a hotel. I've lived in some small apartments but I've still never been this close to the bathroom. Wow. And the bathroom. OH MY the bathroom. 


It's so big and so sexy and so close to my bed and sosososo DONE! 


Mr Bones is here to make you feel good about yourself every morning when you look in the mirror and wonder how you  managed to age ten years overnight. AT LEAST you're in better shape than him.

Next up were drapes and shades. Rosemary had 3 pairs of these draperies so we used 2 pairs as is for this wall. 


And from the 3rd pair and for the east wall she sewed these gorgeous Roman shades. Peeeerfect.


We'll be putting the finishing touches on this room here and there but it feels pretty much done already. It's our new bedroom. It's been over 1 1/2 years in the making. Since James first put that sledgehammer through that green wall on New Years eve with guests arriving in an hour. Just a quick reminder...


The only "problem" now is that we have TOO much space. Rooms galore. When James comes in the house and calls "where are you" I don't know what to answer him anymore. 

Finishing the upstairs is giving a superboost to getting the downstairs done as well. Blue room is next!!! And then on to the outside.

Speaking of outside... We took breaks here and there to enjoy the crazy gorgeous post hurricane weather on Monday and at one point we had 4 humming birds buzzing around the feeder. 


These three ladies were fighting over one poor dude. I think he ended up leaving first. 


I've had it with these pushy broads. I'm going home to mom.



The trumpet vine is still blooming and is still attracting hungry hummers.









Sunday, August 28, 2011

...and mustard

My sister has been asking for the mustard and here it finally is!


It got so very busy and somehow I haven't been up to Clintondale in over a month. Apparently is was very hot the last time I was here. This picture of cold cucumber dill soup has been hanging around my desktop since then. 



And I must have become temporarily possessed by a housewife from the 50's because there is also a picture of home baked WHITE BREAD lingering on the desktop. Hmmmm...



I managed to have only 2 days off between then and now and those were spent trying to relax in the city. Where we also have a life and a home. Sometimes we forget and then a day off there seems like a vacation. We go to the movies - Tree of Life finally. Pure flippin poetry! (The bad reviews of this movie are amazing entertainment though. Stories of people walking out during the birth of the world sequence... Either you are a fundamentalist idiot with blinders or you hate beautiful things (????). But on the other hand non spiritualists also hate this movie for being too preachy... Make up your minds, people. Or let's just all agree on the fact that you were bored and YOU DIDN'T get it! EVERYTHING is in there. Love, loss, redemption, forgiveness... and almost without saying a word. Go on Mr. Malick. Go on.) And eat Korean BBQ. And quiche and baguette and Croque Monsieur at a happenstance French joint in the Lower East Side, La French Diner. And get a haircut. By a kinda scary but sweet hairdresser named Honey, who was from Yemen. She could talk!!!





But she could also cut hair! I LOVE IT!!!


So quickly - what HAVE I been doing with my time? When I last left here I had just come back from an awesome crazy cool week in Schenectady. What, you say? That is not possible. Well, if you are working on Derek Cianfrance's new movie you will say differently. Not a dull moment, ladies and gents. It's Ryan Gosling's playground and he will surprise you!



This is me in ONE of the moving vehicles from that week. An ATV with the camera rigged on it that was going VERY FAST through the woods following a stunt motorcycle. Sometimes. I love my job.

Then off to Wisconsin for more B roll for Alex Gibney's new project.

Somewhere in the middle I shot a dance film with my friend Rich. He's a choreographer with a lot of great vision and we had 2 intense days of shooting. 


Screen capture from our Central Park day. Amy and Andrea are our talented dancers!


Then some futuristic madness about robots taking over the world for the Discovery Channel. This lovely photo of our minimal crew was taken by Amie LeeKing.

Then I quit coffee and I feel like a million bucks.


AND THEN. Out of the blue, my good friend Kate hooked me up with my dream job. I am doing stills on an untitled movie starring Guy Pearce (who needs NO introduction in my book) and Amy Ryan. (We know her as Beadie from the Wire, but you may know her as Holly Flax from The Office, either way she's flippin dynamite!). At the helm is director Drake Doremus, who's last film Like Crazy did muy bueno at this year's Sundance. Check out the trailer! It doesn't feel like a job to have to take pictures of Guy Pearce all day long but it is. And it's mine! 


12 days in to the movie we had already filmed through an earthquake and now here is IRENE! There was just no filming through Irene. She was going to put us all on hold. I feel bad of course, but on the hush hush I couldn't be more thrilled about a 3 day weekend. While I've been cuckoooo crazy with work James has been finishing up the bedroom and bathroom and this weekend it's finally here!!! Power or no power.




We came up yesterday morning, both mega mega tired, but before sleep - prepare for the worst. James hooked up the genny and I went food shopping. We filled up water buckets and got the flash lights out. Secretly we are wishing for a power outage. We haven't used that genny yet (since we bought it in the winter storm of 2010) and playing cards by candle light and eating PB and J's sounds aaaaaaaallright in my book. 

Woke up Sunday morning and the downpour IS ON! I checked the basement and there is minimal wetness right now. I'm sorry to say our neighbors are not as lucky. And I shouldn't speak too soon, the rain is showing NO SIGN of slowing down. So far the wind, which is our worst enemy with all of our old trees, has not been so bad yet.





The first fatality. There goes my flip flop.



Truck passing by Tom's house on Maple Ave.




The project with burying our power lines is done, the landscaping is another story (I'm just gonna say that Irene will turn our yard in to the greatest most spectacular mud wrestling field in the Hudson Valley. Come on over!!!)  but talk about superb timing! We've sat and watched our trees sway over the lines in the tiniest gusts and Irene will have no mercy when it comes to old gran daddy Sugar Maple. 



Brave little bugger in the rain!


I fell off the wagon this morning and had a cup of coffee so now the only real hurricane is me and here I go. MOVING DAY!!! 


To be continued...