New York Trip

Here are some pictures from the trip. Hey there is also another post with a great video below.

We're Off (I think I've used this title before)

Almost two years ago this is what it was like to get to New York for a visit. In contrast tomorrow morning Alder and I will pack the car, fill it with gas and drive the four hours to the city. Still visiting is exciting, and there is always more I want to do than we have time for. Besides, this gives Kevin a little space to get some of his projects done (both of the work and creative variety).

Our main reason for visiting is to see Kate, Alder's god mama, who is in town from Colorado for a few days. Kate and I grew up together being city kids in the '80s. Since it is the holiday season I think we are going to do a few things from our childhood with Alder like this which my mother used to take us to every year. Since Alder is train obsessed we are going to check out this exhibit with Grandma, since it's near her office.

We've been talking about our trip for a few days now and the three things he is most excited to do are see Dad's house (grandpa), go on a train, and go to coffee shops. I couldn't help laughing at the last one, he seemed a little concerned that being in New York we might not be able to go to any coffee shops, he is after all my son.

I have no idea if I am going to be posting while I'm gone, I usually do but if not I hope you all have a good week.

New York

It was supposed to be a Zoo trip but the weather had other plans so we went to a children's museum on Saturday and wandered around town on Sunday. Every time I go to New York I ask myself if I could move back there. And for a while I think I could, except then I start to think about the stuff that I really value in our life and time and freedom are two of the most important things to me. In New York we would loose access to the natural world. But the biggest issue for me is the cost of the city. I know our financial situation has a lot of work needed. But if we were in the city we would have to be making even more money to just get by. I like the fact that even though we have a little way to go until we are stable, it isn't years away only a little while. New York would mean making too many changes to out life. But really in the end I am lucky, I can live here in Vermont and go visit when ever I want because of my family. I don't think I would want to change anything.

Update part 2

After a very long week in New York with Alder I am happy to say that Kevin is getting here tomorrow in time for Passover dinner with the family. Most of this week was spent just Alder and I checking out different neighborhoods and their playgrounds. In fact until today we were doing two playgrounds a day plus a lot of walking. Today we spent the afternoon with my cousin "aunt Amanda" and she and I got hair cuts and had a nice stroll in Central Park.

Sunday we're heading out on our adventure north to Maine.

Many many pictures when we return.

New Article Published

See New York, Make Art

A Visit to Etsy Open Lab Night

By Stacey Bloomfield

It is a Monday evening in New York and I find myself on the subway heading to Brooklyn. The car is filled with young people with laptops and messenger bags heading home from work. They don’t look like they work in offices but the occasional building pass gives them away. At DeKalb Avenue I get off the train and walk over to Gold Street to the Clock Tower Building.

To read more go to here

The New York Pictures

After such a tough week life is looking better, camera and computer are home and Kevin is taking me (w/ Alder) to Lake Placid tomorrow for some winter fun. Here are some of the New York pictures.
Alder Helps Mama at the Train Station

The Restroom at the New Museum

Street Art

Blue

Purl Soho

Etsy Labs

Back from the City (lots of links no photos)

So here is a teaser post about the trip. It's only a teaser since I have to wait until the wonderful people at the Etsy Labs mail me back my camera and journal that I left at their open craft night.

General Outline of trip:

Miss intended train because we miscalculated how far the station was.

Take train an hour later.

Great trip, lots of journaling and thinking about life from a larger perspective.

Sleep at parents house in warm room in a bed by myself (these are treats).

Lazy breakfast with parents by window.

Disappointing visit to the New Museum, their exhibit Unmonumental was exactly that not worth seeing. Too much I am an artist so what ever statement I make is profound, it doesn't actually need to be, .

Great lunch at little restaurant in Lower East Side. However the lower East side is something different than I remember. Growing up it was the place to go on Sundays to get your clothing, sheets, or towels. Now Orchard street is blocked off for a few shops but none of the necessities were there.

Wander around Soho and Greenwich Village, stopping at Cafe Angelique for cappuccino and chocolate ganache cheese cake (yum!).

Spending an uninterrupted hour choosing a book at the Biography Bookstore. Ended up with the Windup Bird Chronicles.

Stay up late reading book.

Wake up early and read some.

Head to the Garment District for supply gathering. While I enjoyed the orgasmic choices at B and J Fabrics (imagine being to able to actually see all that Japanese fabric you swoon for online) some of the most interesting, and best price stuff was at the little side street shops. (separate entry with this story).

Lunch at Ben's Delicatessen, pastrami, new pickles and a black cherry soda of course.

Lug an incredibly heavy amount of fabric home on subway to Da's house.

Nap.

Head to Williamsburg Brooklyn to hang out in coffee shops and wander until my cousin gets off work.

Find myself at a table in the Blackbird Parlour eerily similar to St. Marks in Denver, talking to a guy who homeschools his son with his wife who is studying to be an acupuncturist.

Meet up with cousin and head to the Etsy Labs open craft studio night. Interview staff and get tour for a Travels article. Make something. End up leaving camera and journal on table as we are shooed out at the end of the night.

Yummy Thai food and conversation.

Head to Irish pub with an acoustic band playing, however mainly there for conversation.

Long subway ride home.

Sleep.

8am Train Ride home, beautiful ride along the Hudson river the entire way. I saw 2 bald eagles, tons of ducks, some hawks, and something that looked like a loon although that's probably wrong.

Now I am back and rejuvenated. Back to inventory I'll write about the fabric shop experience later.

heading to New York, with a new bag

So I'm off to New York after work today for a few solo days in the city to relax and do some work. Given work means I have to go to a few museums and fabric stores as well as lots of other stores for gathering ideas. I assume that there will be many coffee stops along the way (New York can be really cold in the winter).

I think I have caught the bag bug, I needed a new bag to go to New York with so I spent a lot of time this week trying to design and make one. I'm not going to share some of the earlier versions yet. They were perfectly good bags, but not for me.

So this is what I came up with:





By the way thank you all for your suggestions about lining the bags. I tried some interfacing and fusible fleece and finally went with Amy Karol's idea from Bend the Rules Sewing to add a layer of flannel between the outer fabric and the lining. There are a few things I am going to change on the next one of these bags but I love mine.

Flea Market Thoughts

We spent the weekend in New York, a party (over whleming), connecting with an old friend (haven't seen since tenth grade), lots of food. Alder and I went to the flea market Sunday. When I was a kid I would go almost every week, at that point I was into suit jackets and old maps of Portugal and New York. My taste has changed but being there hasn't. I spent $3 on a little cut paper picture of peaches on the branch (will have to wait for picture) it now hangs happily at the bottom of our stairs.

What I love best at the flea market is taking it all in. Even if I'm not interested I end up looking at each booth. My favorite part is inside the cafeteria, the market takes place at a middle school, where all the old jewelry, coin and ephemera dealers are. As I fingered costume jewelry and dressing table mirrors and young orthodox guy haggled with the coin dealer and a Korean mother and daughter browsed the movie paraphernalia. The room smelt like school food and old paper. In the dim lights I felt like I could be fifteen again.

Stone Barn Farm

The first weekend that Alder and I were in New York we took a trip up river to the Stone Barns Center for Food and Agriculture. This is where we had a little confusion identifying a pig. In fact before we were close enough to it's wooded enclosure we had thought it was a dog (chocolate lab) and a cow. The center is beautiful and interesting, however you can tell that it is just out side of New York City. While it is free to visit the ground the restaurant that is very pricey. The less expensive cafe is still outrageous it cost almost three dollars for a bottle of water (we were in great need for more water after our hike). However the hikes are beautiful and what they are doing with the farm is interesting so it is worth the trip, as long as you bring your own picnic.

On the Playground

The other day I took Alder to a New York City playground. It was a Saturday afternoon and it was teeming with kids of different ages. Alder was the smallest one who was out wandering, it seems that most parents think that non walkers should be held at the park. Anyway, the park was alive with activity, there was a hula girl birthday party, all the Orthodox boys were playing cops and robbers (I was corrected by one when I said it was tag)after temple and lots more kids were roaming around. It was a great scene, kids from all over we calling to each other in different languages while parents had casual conversations.

What I found most striking about the whole thing was how it was evident that most of these children had spent their lives at this playground. The older ones played with the younger ones (one three or four year old kept catching leaves for Alder to catch in the 'stream') or even if they were doing something for 'big' kids they would gently move the younger ones to someplace more safe. The boys involved in cops and robbers ran around the park at full speed intent on their game but they didn't once step on or bump on of the smaller children.

When I take Alder to the playgrounds in Denver it is different. The children aren't regulars, they don't have an innate understanding of where other bodies are as they play. They stay to themselves or with the children they already know. The exception to this is the babies and toddlers who find each other bump noses like dogs and climb over each other on their way somewhere.

The other thing missing in Denver is the sprinklers. I don''t mean the sort that water the grass but the ones that water the children. Growing up ours was a glorified shower head but now the park has a flower like sprinkler whose water flows down a pretend Hudson River that even has the towns noted on the sides.

It is easy to understand the difference, the children in Denver don't need their playgrounds, most of them have yards and play equipment of their own, the park is an after thought. In New York where families live in apartments with no yards the playgrounds and the parks are their yards. If I had to choose I am happy to have a yard, but the life in the playground is one of the few parts of growing up in New York that I wish Alder could experience.

The View From New York

The View From New York
Originally uploaded by Ink Spots

This is the view I'll be looking at tomorrow night. For now I am sitting in the chaos of packing a family of three. If the picture isn't obvious we are heading to New York. I have my 15th high school reunion this weekend and then we are off to explore Vermont towns as future homes.

The trip is going to be exciting but right now I am too caught up in the realities of packing for thirteen days and the idea of sitting on the plane for three hours with a squirming child.

That's not completely true. I am especially looking forward to Friday when Alder and I have the day to ourselves in New York (Kevin isn't showing up until Sunday). With no friends or family scheduled wee can go on an adventure of some sort. I think it might involve the ocean.

As for the reunion I have no idea what to expect. It is a random group of people from my class who are coming, none who I have seen since a college. We were a small graduating class and all got along pretty well. Now we have kids and jobs it should be interesting.

I should get back to packing....

Hannah Brandt Riegelhaupt

From Hannah Brandt...

Hannah Brandt in 1916

I spent today scanning photos from my Dad's photo album. The photos start in 1901 and I made it through part of the 1920's. For a while I felt as though I was sitting on the stoop at 264 E Broadway, watching as everyone had there pictures taken. Or up in Riverside Park with the sailors who picked up my grandma and some friends during fleet week in 1919. Having been to the building I know what the stone feels like, the place has depth.

From Hannah Brandt...

264 E Broadway

Sadly many of the pictures are fading. Many that I remember being clear when I was younger now are faint contrasts of ochres. This is way I took the album back to Denver last month. If I don't do this no one will and then all the pictures will fade. Then the only place these people's faces will be clear will be in my Dad's head.

From Hannah Brandt...

1901

They were a stylish bunch the Brandts. Especially my Grandma Hannah. Before she was married she was a bag designer. Part of her job was to window shop at the big department stores and see what was already out there and figure out what to come up with next. She stopped working in the 1920's but she was always still conscious of design and fashion.

From Hannah Brandt...

Both Grandma Rose (left) and Grandma Hannah (right) with my dad on his wedding day.

From Hannah Brandt...

Grandpa Lou and Hannah with me on my 3rd birthday

Reaching Towards Change

Well unless the earth is found to be flat, or rental rates are well out of budget we have decided to move to Hudson NY! Kevin has decided that he is willing to move out there site unseen as long as I do a bunch of leg work when I go out for my 15th High School reunion. The ease and comfort which we reached this decision with has the same feeling as many of the good choices we have made in the past. Like moving into this house instead of tying to buy that other place there is an obviousness about it that feels right.

The choice has to do with economics of the community, how the city is laid out, connivance to New York City and Plainfield as well as being very close to the Gunks and not too far from the Adirondacks (I can finally finish my 46er's.) This sounds so dry written like this but I'm sure over the next few months I'll elaborate.

For me making this choice, really any choice, is good. I don't feel like I'm just hanging on loose strands of cob web waiting for the spider to come along and attach me. There is a next step to our lives one that I can start to organize and daydream about.

It is important to note to those of you who doubt his feelings about this move to know that Kevin is the one who came up with this idea. Not to think about Hudson but to actually move there without spending so much time wandering about the general region trying to find a place. He likes big things in life to be simple (details can be elaborate). My description and pictures from my and Amanda's visit as well as showing him things on the web helped. To be honest I think one of the big draws to him is the proximity to the Gunks with all their climbing.

What does this mean practically? Well I can now really start to carefully plan the business. By knowing where we are going to be I can find out specific city and state requirement as well as start pricing what things would will cost there (I was not looking forward to writing up three different plans for three different states). I can also start actually contacting people about rentals for the business and a home. I am such a planning geek.

The other thing this effects is the Eli and Hannah story. I am going to have to do all Colorado research in the next few months, especially work on the writing of the places. Oh darn I guess that means I'll have to take a trip out to the western slope soon, research ya know.

Who would have ever thought that I'd go back to being a New Yorker?

Brooklyn

Brooklyn with Alder in Jan 2006

When I'm going out for the day in a city, be it Denver, New York or someplace I don't know as well I prefer to just get started and then figure out where I'm going. It seems that otherwise planning ends up taking most of the morning. With that in mind Alder and I boarded a 1 train this morning. We decided to go to the Brooklyn Museum to see the Annie Leibovizt exhibit.
I never thought that her photos were exceptionally artful but a lot of people had been talking about the exhibit. I was surprised that when you got past the Rollingstone cover art her work was great. I would have liked to stay longer and look at one wall that was covered with snapshot sized pictures, a time line of her work but Alder was more interested in the larger work, I don't think he can really conceptually grasp photos when they are that small yet. But we did spend a half hour in the exhibit which is pretty long for a baby. Of course most of the time he spent flirting with women who had come to see the exhibit.

The other special exhibit was Ron Mueck's sculptures. I had seen a small one before but this exhibit had both small and huge. I'm not sure I liked them as art work but I loved the disconcerting feeling I had being around these life like sculptures that seem to be in mid-movement. I expected to see them exhale or move slightly. The rest of the museum was disappointing, but I don't regret paying to see the Annie Leibovitz show and the Ron Mueck one also.

After the museum we walked through Prospect Park to Park Slope to wander a bit. In high school a lot of my friends lived there and I love wandering around there, but I haven't been in fifteen years so it was all new to me. The last time I was there it was still a little rough around the edges. Now it's like the Upper West Side was in the early eighties.

The park itself was great, the trails were more wandering than those in Central Park or City Park even though all three were designed by Olmstead. There is even the last remaining forest in Brooklyn in part of it. More than either of the other parks this one has hills and winding paths, much of it reminded me of the Brambles in Central Park. Alder's opinion of the park probably focuses on the swing in the play ground and the fact that I stopped him from eating the rubber mats that cover the ground (some how eating the playground itself seemed like a bad idea).
The Park Slope neighborhood felt so comfortable to me. Not that we could afford it but all these different areas of Brooklyn that I've been to lately is making me think that I might add Brooklyn to the list of possible places to move to. I'm not sure what Kevin would say but I can at least put it on the list.

Dinner 1

On a side note Iris Amanda and Dan came over for Vietnamese food tonight. This was the first time Dan has seen his nephew.

Stacey

New York Day 1

New York Trip Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday

Amanda and I took Alder on a long wander on Tuesday. We took the subway down to Canal Street and wandered through China Town and the East Village. We had high hopes of finding some funny junk to pass along to friends but we talked so much and only glanced at the street stalls. We did eat some great Indian food. Alder had his first saag and nan, he loved both of them.

That evening we left Alder in the hands of Grandma and Grandpa and headed to Brooklyn for a cousins dinner at the Good Fork. Ethan and Dan's loft in Willamsburg reminded me of a college dorm. It's in an area where most of the buildings are either artists studios or factories. You can smell the wantons being baked from their door step.

The Good Fork was amazing. The food was amazing and the space is great. Everyone kept saying that you felt like you were in a boat it does feel that way except the wood glows in a way that makes you feel as though you are out in the sunlight. There are details to the building that make me know that it's Ben's handy work. In the bathroom the door is weighted with roped wine bottle, it reminds me of the 'talking tube' he and their upstairs neighbor had growing up.
As for the food it is as good as the reviews. I had the duck but I could of had anything else on the menu. Dinner was filled with a few extras that Ben brought out. It felt really good to be some place that amazing and to know the people who are making it happen.

Talking with Sarah, Ethan, Amanda and Dan is so comfortable. We are all doing such different things but still we connect. Of course there was a lot of joking around and drinking of wine. Pictures will be posted soon.

Stacey

Travel Day

What a long day getting to New York yesterday was. I didn't want to get stuck in traffic so we left at 7:15 in the morning. Kevin pulled away from DIA at eight in the morning. I figured we had about an hour and a half until we loaded. HA! The plane didn't load until after 11am. Alder and I got to know a certain patch of carpet by the windows.

Rather than asking for all parents with young children first they called me by name, Alder was the only baby on the flight. He was great, first he slept for the first half of the flight and then we just played for the rest. There was a brief period as we flew over Lake Erie that he was cranky but that soon turned into swells of happiness. I feel bad for the woman in front of us whose seat he kept kicking. When we got off the plane we were given many compliments about what a good baby he had been.

Grandpa met us at the baggage claim and we were out of there in a half hour from the time I landed, impressive since we waited until everyone was off the plane to get up. Usually on the ride in from La Guardia I love watching everything roll by but with my Dad and Alder in the car I was focused on what was going on in the cab. Arriving on our usually windy block I almost took the door off of the taxi getting out. I forgot that our block is one on the windiest in the city, it had been windy all the way in so I should have expected the way Alder almost was lifted from my arms. I'm sad to say that the elevators were changed in the building (more on a different post).
Pat and Cynthia stole Alder as soon as we walked in the front door. It's only been a month since Pat has seen him but Cynthia has never met Alder (more later on this too). While they played, cooed and observed I wandered the house like a drone, making sure everything was still there, supposedly I used to do this when I was just crawling every time we went away for a weekend.

Alder is bored so I'll finish this later.

Stacey

On being a nervous mother tonight

I used to get stressed out the night before I traveled anywhere. I'd stay up all night organizing and doing random stuff. Luckily I got over that when I moved out here and started driving across the country. Except now I have the same nervous energy now that I'm going with Alder. While I'll miss Kevin while I'm gone that isn't what is making me nervous. It's the flight. Three and a half hours in a seat with Alder is a long time. We've practiced a little, we sat for an hour and a half in a chair the other day. But this is tighter and who knows who will be next to us. I'm also worried about his ears on the accent and decent. I know he should be sucking on something which shouldn't be to difficult to get him to do, but what if it isn't enough.

Jeeze! I sound like a nervous mother... oh wait I am one, at least at this moment.

Stacey