Halloween - My Favorite Holiday

My obsession with the Nightmare Before Xmas and Matt's obsession with the Misfits manifest themselves in this year's pumpkins. We carved them last weekend...they are starting to go. Luckily tonight is Halloween!!! I will be dressing up as Pippi Longstocking. Pictures tomorrow.

My Natural Habitat

Oh I was in Heaven last week! We went to Topsail Island, NC with Matt's family for a few days. The beach is my true home. Everything else in the world falls away when I am near the ocean. The incessant stream of thoughts of what I am going to do with my life stops, and I am able to just be there. This is why I love going to the beach so much, and why I want to travel to every beach in the world!

The house they rented was right on the beach. We had sliding glass doors in our room that opened up onto a deck overlooking the sand. At night, we kept the doors open and fell asleep to the most soothing sound in the world - the waves crashing on the shore.

The first day was so warm we were able to go into the ocean and boogie board!! Quite possibly my favorite thing to do in the entire world. The next few days were cooler, so we rode bikes to the fishing pier, the longest fishing pier on the east coast! They were catching skate like crazy. I asked if I could take a photo...



I am not sure if I can ever eat skate again. I heard that it was flat like a ray, but I didn't know it looked exactly like a stingray!! Yikes.

The last day was rainy, so we had a major crafternoon. Peggy and I made greeting cards with all kinds of craft supplies, and Matt and Myron put together a 1000 piece puzzle in a matter of hours. Good clean fun.

Apple Pie

A few weeks ago, Matt said he wanted to go apple-picking and then bake an apple pie from scratch. It sounded like a good idea to me. We went to Connecticut to visit my oldest brother and his partner, and they took us to a nearby orchard. We had a wonderful afternoon of apple-picking, and we got a few pumpkins to boot! The best part was the homemade apple cinnamon doughnuts at the orchard. Our camera was broken at that time, so unfortunately we have no photos from that day. We picked a bushel and 1/2 of 3 or 4 different kinds of apples, including some delicious Japanese green apples.

Matt's mom is a master baker, so we knew we could get a recipe from her. We got everything we needed for pie baking right here in Williamsburg, Brooklyn at The Brooklyn Kitchen on Lorimer St. We purchased a pie pan, a rolling pin, and a pastry blender...items I never thought I would own. It was great to be able to buy everything in our own neighborhood, and not have to go into the city.



The recipe looked fairly simple, as all delicious things are. I was nervous though, because I haven't done a lot of baking in my life. Matt had grown up watching his mom bake all sorts of things, so he remembered a lot. It turned out to be pretty easy. The house was filled with a warm, wonderful aroma. We could hardly wait for it to cool. It was amazing!! I couldn't believe we made a pie from scratch with apples that we picked from the trees ourselves!

The Great Outdoors

If anyone is reading this, sorry I haven't written in so long. September was a long, hard month for me. I was not very leisurely. I forgot what that meant for the month. I started to worry a lot about what I am doing with my life. I tend to do that a lot...worry about stuff instead of doing it. One great thing that came out of it, though, was that I learned how important and healing Nature is for me. I could feel the need to be among the trees, far away from concrete sidewalks and the noise of construction and neighbors.

I escaped Brooklyn twice in September - once I went to West Cornwall, CT to my dad and step-mom's house. They live on a big hill surrounded by woods. One day I sat in the front yard on a lawn chair and watched the wind blow through the trees for a few hours. I also did a few crossword puzzles. That's all.

Another weekend, Matt and I went camping near Bear Mountain, upstate a little in NY. That was lovely. We cooked and ate our meals outside. We slept in a tent. One day we hiked to the top of Bear Mountain. That was kind of hard, but we did it! It was quiet in the woods. We were on a part of the Appalachian Trail. It got pretty cold at night.

I felt more like myself again after I spent those few days in the great outdoors. It was like pressing the reset button in my brain. I forgot all my petty cares. I am trying not to think so much about what I am doing with my life, and just live it.

Leisure Society the company is slowly coming together. I have a new idea that feels more "me", and I hope to get the ball rolling next week. I am planning to make a few different shapes/sizes of throw pillows using these vintage fabrics I have been collecting. I am also thinking of doing some hand embroidery on them myself to give them a bit more surface interest and humor. I really like the idea of the embroidery because it is very leisurely, in a Jane Austen sort of way.

Not Being Very Leisurely

Even I, a self-proclaimed lady of leisure, have trouble remembering to take it easy sometimes. The notion that work makes you a good person, and therefore not working makes you a bad person, is so ingrained in me. I am still plagued with thoughts of "What have I done today? What have I accomplished today?" I get sucked in by the critics in my brain that tell me I am lazy, that I haven't done enough each day, you know the stuff.

I've been trying to fit in some "being" time each day, trying to allow some time to just check in with myself and be present. Yesterday, it was so beautiful outside. I had been putting off making this excel spreadhseet for a possible vendor for 2 days. I decided I would just start it, just do a little bit. That's a problem I struggle with, getting things started. I make things into huge insurmountable tasks and then I'm terrified to even begin. So I got the music cranking, started it, and ended up finishing it before I knew it! Then I realized I haven't really been practicing what I preach, I hadn't been doing anything that brought me enjoyment.

I picked up my little folding beach chair and headed out to East River Park, a little gem of a park that has a spectacular view of the majestic City. I bought a good book - The Day I Ate Whatever I Wanted by Elizabeth Berg - and made myself comfortable. I took breaks from reading to just look at the City. It looks small and quiet from across the water. It felt good to be outside it, instead of trapped on the island in an office or fighting my way through the 34th Street area. I could admire it from afar. I also looked at the clouds alot. There was a pattern in them that reminded me of the leather used on my beloved handbag. It is really wrinkley and textural. It's skin, OK, what do you want. It reminds me of a rhinoceros's hide, and that's what the clouds looked like yesterday at East River Park. After about an hour and 1/2, I headed home and I felt much better about life.

Progress

Leisure Society the company is still a work in progress. I know this, I want to encourage people to live life well. It's not all about working. It can't be! That is so boring. I am freelancing for a company I really like, and still it's a struggle to go to an office every day after working at home for so long. Ugh.

Scott's Lake House

2 weekends ago, I went to Scott's Lake House resort in the Catskills with my best friends. We all stayed in an old farmhouse on the property, and it was the most fun I've had in a long time. Amy and I went tubing, where you get pulled by a motorboat around the lake, and I was so happy! Look at the picture of me in the water above. It was taken right after the tube ride. I felt free. No worries about business or money or family. I was totally in the moment, and it was exhilarating!

The place was so inspiring for Leisure Society, because it was basically a turn-of-the-century vacation compound. Every morning, Matt and I went for peaceful canoe rides around the lake. We all jumped from the high dive, which was a bit scary I have to admit. But I didn't think about it, I just went for it. I thought to myself, I'm going to have to remember all of this and try to bring a little of it into my every day living. At night we played charades in the living room and I laughed harder than I've laughed in years. It felt so good to be with my friends, and to just be myself. No computers, no TV, no phones, just nature and good friends.

If you'd like to see the whole slide-show of the weekend, click here.