Oh christmas tree!

It's no Rockefeller Center tree, but it's all ours. This year it's white lights with red balls and a skull & crossbone topper. It feels like christmas in our cozy home. (But we miss everyone in Seattle...)

Advent Calendar: Dec 11th

Caution: Man at Work

Advent Calendar: Dec 9th and 10th

The 9th we got a construction guy with a jack-hammer...


...and today he got a wheel-barrow and some tools!

Advent Calendar: Dec 6th, 7th & 8th

Dec 6th: A thief! (with skillsaw)



Dec 7th: A safe!



Dec 8th: He should have no problem getting into that safe with a torch!

Advent Ketchup

So here are a few of the guys we opened when we got back:


Sunday the 4th (Happy birthday, Dad!)


Monday the 5th our Police guy got a dog and a barricade!

Time out for Disneyland

Riff and I spent most of the week in California at Disneyland celebrating his dad's birthday. We had tons of fun seeing Mickey and the gang and riding Pirates of the Caribbean, Space Mountain, the Matterhorn and a bunch more. When we got back to cold, snowy Brooklyn we got right to work on the Advent photo shoot. We will have an update of the missed days posted very soon with lots of exciting new characters and toys. We will also have more pics from the Magic Kingdom, so stay tuned.

Advent Calendar: Dec 3rd

Look what arrived in today's box:



Here's how he likes it so far:

Advent Calendar: Dec 2nd

December 2nd brought some exciting new duds for our first lego city dude. He got a fire hydrant, an oxygen tank and a firehose, WITH WATER!

The countdown begins!

That's right, Lego Advent Calendar! Have fun counting down the days until Christmas as you build a tiny lego city scene.



Here's the first guy who was behind Door #1. Check out his cool shades:

x-mas time in new york!

Naomi & Melissa at the Rockefeller Center Christmas tree. Aren't we just so cute?

Brooklyn Botanic Gardens

I went to the Brooklyn Botanic Gardens with Mom and Auntie Charlotte earlier this week. This place is amazing! Absolutely beautiful even at this time of year. We only managed to see about 1/2 of the area before mom's knee started complaining. I believe the garden is open year round and admission is a paltry 5 bucks. ($3 with valid student ID) There are various greenhouse rooms with different climates represented, hence the orchid and cactus shots. The Japanese hill and garden section was beautiful and we also went through an herb garden. I saw a plant there that I've never seen before: the Patchouli herb. I rubbed my fingers on the leaves and the scent of the hippie was released!

I've posted a set of photos onto my new flickr account. Check it out!

Brooklyn Botanic Garden Pics at Flickr

Coney Island

The one, the only, The Cyclone!

It's Official

visitors, sightseeing, halloween...

Betsy is here! Verizon forgot to give us the internet! We saw some art! And took a ride on the ferry! And stuff!

From the Metropolitan Museum of Art:
Monet or Manet? I always forget.

Hmm...What's this?

Modern!

Flag

Sexy Renoirs

Sculptures in the hall.

Riff and Andy.


Meanwhile on the other side of the park...

The Dakota:


Betsy at Imagine:


Starbucks great pumpkin caper:

ALL of our stuff

Last weekend we moved ALL of our stuff -and let me tell you, we have way too much stuff- from Melissa's parents house in PA. Uncle David and Marcus finished the bed and it looks great. Uncle Roddy was kind enough to lend us his time and chipper truck to move everything in. The drive got a little hairy in Jersey as we were re-routed to the Lincoln Tunnel, as the Holland Tunnel does not allow large trucks. Then we had to navigate from midtown to the Manhattan Bridge as the Williamsburg Bridge does not allow trucks... Brother Mark and William showed up to help unload and we got it done in no time and sent Roddy on his way back to PA. The pictures here are how the place looks now.. Very cozy!


The Bedroom


Livingroom


Kitchen


and Dining Room


Marta likes it up in the bed

Marta is a doorstop

Painting Part 2: The Living Room

It's a Tree! And a UFO! And a Jet Plane!

superbed part 2

Well its done! I think Tom put it best when he said "If David's built it, it will support a pair of mating rhinos." Now it gets sprayed with a clear coat, disassembled and trucked to Brooklyn. Yea!!!!!!!!

superbed

After acquiring the apartment in Brooklyn, it became increasingly apparent to us we would need to save space. With just about 400 sq. feet, a loft bed seemed the best idea. Looking at Ikea and browsing craigslist we realized that most loft beds were either too high, too rickety or didn't come in a queen size.

Luckily Melissa's Uncle David is a carpenter and offered his help, so for the past week and a half, I've been helping him construct a custom loft bed out of oak, I call it -SUPERBED, and we've got a nice pillow-top queen size mattress to go with it. David and I have almost finished it, unfortunately I haven't taken as many pictures of the process as I wanted to, but I've been working on it too so I have an excuse....

pics from the Manhattan bridge