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.

Sunday

Heading HERE to go to THIS to help HER with her stuff. Have a good day!

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.

bonus entry New Article published

Heading to the desert is a craving for me, as the sun begins to return but the days are still filled with snow I start to crave the feel of sandstone under my fingers and the smell of new sage. This want for land that is both scrubbed clean and busy with life has been with me always, but until I met the desert I did not know what it was. . .

Read the rest at Travels in Paradise.

Article Published

I have a new article at Travels in Paradise.

Enjoy your holidays....

What I Did with my Morning

That's where I spent my morning. My other job, Travels in Paradise, is relaunching the website tomorrow and they wanted another article. So I ducked out to a coffee shop a few towns away to write. It's exciting, this new site is focused on the articles and we've removed the gear reviews. I think we're planning on have new articles up on th 15th and 30 every month.

I think it's amazing how things are coming together like they are. Right now working consists of writing, making things, and interacting with some amazing women who are making the products that we are going to sell. Amanda, Julie, Zoe, Eva, Kwan, Natalie, Julia, Cheryl, Erin, Cheryl, Lori, Carol, Marissa, Bettina, and Valerie. So far we have actually used etsy to find most of our producers.

Sore

Kevin explained to me last night that my body hurt because there are micro-tears in my muscles and they have more lactate acid. In other words I am sore sore sore. Of course I knew I would be sore, I took a 24 mile bike ride yesterday. It was southern Washington County NY's Tour de Farm. It was a great three hour trip around to three different farms whose land is part of the local land trust. Land trust programs like the one in New York State are part of a larger movement, the American Farmland Trust is a good place to learn about it.

Sure I hadn't ridden my bike since July and I've only ever done 17 miles at most, but I made it, and I came in only a half hour after the first riders. So now I am sore sore sore.

On a side note the camera will be back this weekend! Even if it's broken it still takes pictures.

Hermit's Island

What a trip! I'm not even sure how to describe it. We arrived a day late due to rain and after five hours of driving. [Note: Hermit's Island in tent and truck camping only no trailers or RVs] We landed in a beautiful camp site with an old old birch tree and only one other couple on the whole loop of sites. The site itself was so nice that we spent hours there. Of course there was one whole day when Alder and I just spent on a beach that we had to ourselves. He got to be the little naked-man he is and didn't wear clothes until the ride back. According to Kevin there were other people on the beach when he joined us but I never saw any.

The third night we walked down to the camp store and bought two pounds of fresh clams. After sitting them to purge in fresh water for an hour we steamed them. They were delicate, everything but the strip melted in your mouth a salty/sweet mix of sun and ocean. Their flavor was delicate and simple a truly one of the greatest mouth sensations I have had.

Saturday morning we woke up early to rain, a good ending to a stay on a mythical island. Quickly packing we drove a misty route 1 to Portland for breakfast. To cheer me as we drove out of the city this crow appeared.

On Hermit's Island

First you walk through an enchanted forest.


And you arrive at a rocky shore.


Don't fret there is sand there too.


And seaweed to play with.


Walking in sand is strange at first.


Of course there is always time to check out what Mama's reading.


But mainly the day is for sand.


And shells.


Phew! What a day. Luckily the camel was there to carry me home!

THE BIG ROAD TRIP

Just to clarify for all of you who have been confused about the plans this August. Kevin and I are renting a 17' truck and driving it and the car across the country and we are camping out along the way. We are willing to pay one one way ticket for someone to help us, anyone else who wants to come along is welcome but should know that we can't afford their plane ticket. We are not staying in motels because after being in the car all day we look forward to camping out. We are not towing the car because there isn't a place for Alder in the truck. We are planning on picnicking and cooking our own meals, except one special diner meal. And most of all we are not in any way shape or form hiring movers.

Our plan right now is to drive rt 34 most of the way across the country rather than the interstate since we aren't going to be moving that fast and there is more to see on 34.

Quick Note

So we are off in the middle of our trip. Life has been full. There will be more pictures of things, like Coney Island, the Stone Barns Organic Farm, more Hudson River moments and more. Lots of stories, including The Pig that was a Dog that was a Cow.

To occupy you here are some links:

Stone Barn

Coney Island

Farmers Markets

Flea Markets

and since we are on the Hudson River

The Clearwater

Pete Seeger

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....

Day 5: What Falls into Your Lap

While Kevin went off to work on cars with his dad on Saturday Alder and I spent a good chunk of the day at Bongo Billy's Cafe. Where he spent his time crawling around making all sorts of friends while I wrote. It was the first time that I realized that I can write with him there. I have been writing very little lately because I spend most of my time with Alder. Until now I have always looked at writing as something that I needed to be in an isolated environment to do. But I seemed to be writing fine while he was happily babbling to himself and others.

I think I might have been using him as an excuse not to try harder to write more often. But really the brief interruptions of collecting him from places he should not be only allowed my brain to fine tune the next thing I was thinking of putting on the paper. There will be times that he needs more attention and then the writing won't be as easy but I've just opened up a whole lot more time to write in.

So while we were there at Bongo Billy's I noticed a program for a poetry festival. That was going on this weekend right there. Not only at the cafe but at places all over town. Including a reading at the Steam Plant Theater that night. The Sparrows Poetry Festival is a spoken poetry festival that was started in Salida seven years before to break up winter's isolation. I don't know much about it but I liked the poets that we ended up seeing that night.

Going to the theater for a poetry reading was a perfect end to the vacation. Kevin loves poetry and I could tell that he was enjoying himself when he got his special smile on his face that seems to say I know the secret that makes the world go. It was good to be able to include some of his favorite art form in a week of visual arts.

We both agreed that Rhonda Cleaver- McCormick's poems were the ones that we connected to the most. She spoke about family and the spirit of people living on in her. She also had the most engaging style of reading of the poets.

On the opposite side of the poets was Don McIver who was the only real slam poet of the evening. I don't think Kevin had ever actually heard any slam other than on Public Radio. Anyway we both liked his rhythm and style. One of his poems Cool really got me laughing, it was both sides of the seventh grade student teacher divide.

I'm not going to list all the other poets but I will say that they were all good writers and performers. I'm glad that I found that program on the table at the cafe.

Day 4

The drive back to Salida the next day was uneventful. We saw a few interesting murals but only got pictures of one.

From Spring Break ...

We ate a an awful Mexican restaurant in Alamosa, all of our food swam in what they called chili except that the only difference between the red and the green was that the green was pink. Neither had any actually chilies or substance and it just soaked our food until it was mush. the most frightening part of the meal were my rellenos which had been wrapped in something like white bread before being fried. The building had been so promising, oh well just more proof that there is no good reason to stop in Alamosa for anything except gas.

The drive up the San Luis Valley was beautiful.

From Spring Break ...

The mix of clouds and blue sky made for depth and the winter browns put the mountains on a separate plane.

From Spring Break ...

From Spring Break ...

We were all happy to be done driving when we got back to the house.

Cafe Pasqual

When ever I travel I try to have at least one amazing meal. I had been hearing about Cafe Pasqual for over ten years but it did not seem to fit in our trip plans. But after a day of Museums Mary was tired and offered to watch Alder so we could go have dinner.

It was very cold. No it was very very cold and windy. But we decided that we should walk a little before eating. That only made the restaurant seem warmer and more friendly when we entered. Cafe Pasqual is small with art on the walls as well as Mexican streamers crossing the ceiling, but it doesn't fell crowded. There is a certain air of a restaurant that people are regulars at. I know that it is known all over the world for it's food but we showed up in the same stuff we had been wearing all day and fit right in.

Getting there at 6pm was lucky, since we did not have a reservation. But even if we had been later there is a community table that fills the center of the room where we could have shared a meal with others. Instead we had a table for two.

I caught myself looking down where a stroller would be only to remember that Alder was with his grandma. It felt like such a treat to be sitting there just the two of us enjoying a meal that did not involve breaking small pieces of food up for Alder.

Kevin ordered the chicken mole enchiladas which were sweet, spicy and dark. I had a bowl of slow cooked pork in orange and (I am forgetting the name it is a seed from the Yucatan that has an earthy taste). It was one of those meals that I will remember for a long time the food was amazing, coming in from the frigid air made the restaurant seem even more wonderful, and it was the first dinner date Kevin and I have had since Alder was born.

It was too cold for wine besides the food for all it's amazing flavor was not fancy. Instead we had Mexican hot chocolate and lemonade. I would have done better to have the hot chocolate too which was filled with spice and flavor.

But the dinner did not end there. Since we had not had wine we decided to get dessert. We couldn't decide so we got the chef's plate which had a small piece each of: Tangerine Flan, Chocolate Pecan Pie, Triple Mousse Cake, homemade Coffee ice cream and pieces of chocolate bark that was all over the plate. All of it was great, I'm not a tangerine fan but Kevin happily devoured the flan. But the chocolate pecan pie, eaten with bites of the ice cream, enamored me the most. I am an avowed pecan pie hater, I don't like the gelatinous sweet filling and find that the crusts are usually dry. But this was on a different planet, imagine replacing the guck of the evil version with a not too sweet chocolate. I do try to remember all parts of desserts that I like so I can try to imitate them at home but I admit that I don't even remember the crust only that it was perfect. So by the time we were done eating we were in a state of food-gasm.

I only regret that we did not get to try a breakfast there (yet.)

Day 3: Museums

From Spring Break ...

Santa Fe must be a great town to bike around when it is warm enough. As it was the weather had turned cold and windy after lunch but we decided to walk up the hill to the museums. Some of the museums in Santa Fe are in a complex called Museum Hill, this also includes two research facilities.

While Mary went to the Museum of Spanish Colonial Art we went over to what we thought was going to be an anthropological museum. That building ended up being a research center. I wished I had had something to research. The idea of sitting along the windows deep in reading some text thrilled me. Unfortunately Alder is not quite into long library stints unless there are a lot of board books to chew on.

So we went to the Museum of Indian Arts and Culture. It was interesting but the whole thing was low lit and it made both Alder and I squirmy after the first hour. Luckily we found a great children's exploration room filled with lots of foam blocks made to look like adobe. While Alder enjoyed himself climbing through piles I imagined being there with an older Alder, wondering what his interests would be at four, seven even sixteen. Kevin was enthralled by the exhibits that covered history and daily life.

On an amusing side note the bags of flour they used for the exhibit were from the mill in Cortez where we used to get our flour. I still have one of the Blue Bird bags waiting to find a use for it.

Our next museum was the International Museum of Folk Art. This was the best part of the trip to me. The permanent collection of work was a little overwhelming. There were hundreds and thousands of pieces from all over the world especially many miniature figures of religious ceremonies and village events. A great deal of this collection was Mexican and the bright colors were a welcome contrast from the low light of the first museum.

The exhibit that I really connected with was called Variations. It grouped items not by country but by what they were. This meant that you could look at twenty different masks from all over the world and see the continuity of the human experience. The exhibit got me thinking about the artists in this country who use the vocabulary of these other cultures to make their art. Rather than acknowledging that there could be an American culture they go outside to find a cultural form to use. I understand the draw of this, the Mexican colors or Japanese starkness are both intoxicating. But these artists not only take the methods but the experiences as well.

These artists may be having fun playing in these forms but I do not think that they are really making art from the soul or heart. Yes the folk process involves taking elements from others but they should be taken and incorporated into the artists own experience. It should be form that is "borrowed" not experience.

The exhibit itself only fueled my want to work on my print making. I am trying to use images that I am finding in an old family photo album as a starting point to make art that is about me and what I have experienced in life. Who knows where it will all go.