the home stretch...

if you don't understand this card

you don't have kids in their junior year of high school

lucky you.

engagement cards...

yesterday it was anniversary cards, today engagement cards, tomorrow happy divorce cards?

what i really wanted to post today was a catalog sheet i recently completed (finally) that i've been sending around to greeting card distributors. the catalog sheet is a neat and tidy way for me to show a variety of my cards. i love the way the sheet came out and huge thanks to a very old friend who re-art directed all my cards giving them a really fresh and cheeky look. i am working on getting this document in a format this blog can read...ugh,,,,this is the stuff i hate.

to be continued.

anniversary cards....

i've been married since 1988.

fortunately my husband's got a really good sense of humor.

and i really like to laugh.

are we there yet?

sam and zoe are in the final stretch of junior year.

what a year it's been: sat's/act's, subject tests, ap's, driver's ed, college counseling, papers, papers, and more papers.

it's been a grind.

there have been many ups, a few downs and a lot of in between. but come thursday they are done with classes and even though they'll still have a few papers and exams, they will leave school on thursday knowing that they have just come from the other side of something they may not actually be able to articulate.

happy graduation

i walked by a card store today and saw a wall of graduation cards that were all pretty bad.

they were all so awful...it really got me thinking about when i graduated college and what that felt like.

it definitely wasn't a schmaltzy hallmark moment. it was actually a pretty confusing and stressful time.

so i did a graduation card today. the kind i think i would've liked to have gotten.

dating 2.0

relationships---are they easier or harder with all the ways we have to communicate with one another?

are relationships ever easy?

maybe that's the place to start.

be different...

this is a card/coaster/party napkin i am recycling.

it's been raining for days and i am feeling really uninspired.

i just want the sun to shine for like two straight days.

that was weird.. my blog disappeared for awhile..

it's back so i guess all is well.

anyway this photo reminds me of what i love so much about nyc. you never know what you will see when you're out and about on your daily run around the neighborhood.

like yesterday. i was walking lola along the same stretch i've walked her for oh 4 years. i don't know why but i stopped and looked at this plaque that sits on a gorgeous memorial on 89th and riverside in riverside park. turns out that right smack in the middle of the upper west side, across the street from a yeshiva and in full view of new jersey, is a war memorial commemorating all those that fought in the civil war and defended the union.

it was pretty amazing to realize what this monument stood for and it sort of put walking the dog on a whole other level. at least for that minute.

a real woman speaks...

i've always liked maria shriver.

and now she's posted this youtube video. wow.

as everyone in the universe knows she and her husband have separated and she's going through a period of transition. in this video she talks about transition and how difficult it is. she says the most stressful part about transitioning is not knowing what you are going to transition to---yeah, exactly.

she asks the public to share their stories about how they've transitioned.

it's not often that women are honest with one another. particularly when it comes to speaking about things that are difficult.
women lie all the time about how hard it can be to work and raise children and be a good life partner. so, i love that maria reaches out in a investigative yet really personal way to get to the bottom of this.

coming soon...

um, i've been busy...

wow, today was one of those really busy days.

i can't exactly account for every waking minute but i can tell you:

sammy got her driver's license today! a stellar 3-point turn, a flawless parallel parking job and an unwillingness to cross
a double yellow line and new york state gave her the big thumbs up in the form of a driver's license.

way to go sammy.

happy birthday sammy and zoe!

it's funny.

i can't remember what i just said but i remember with absolute clarity the morning of may 6, 1994. i remember what i had for
breakfast, what i wore, the color of the sky.

when you are pregnant you know your life is about to change, you're just not exactly sure how and whether it will be mostly for the better or worse.

and then 17 years comes and goes. somehow you figure out how to bathe two babies at once. how to live on almost no sleep. how to stop a toddler from choking on a half eaten bagel. thank goodness for all the photos of the girls at every stage of their life otherwise i would find it completely unlikely that they've got better taste in shoes and music than me. and they can now buy their own R-rated movie tickets.

happy birthday girls. love ya.

banana bread

as i said i've been baking. it's so relaxing. i don't even mind the clean-up.

a friend sent me this recipe and i normally don't go for banana bread but the addition of chocolate chips sounded really good.
plus i had a bunch of bananas lying around.

this cake was really easy and came out really gooey and decadent. i.e. great.

the antidote to everything...

i saw these cookies on my friend's tumblr and immediately hunted down the recipe. an oreo stuffed chocolate chip cookie---sounded genius to me.

these cookies are easy to bake and i love the way they look when you cut them in half.

i have been baking up a storm lately... i am really hoping there's a correlation between stress reduction and something yummy coming out of the oven. i know it's a reach but when you've got two kids finishing up junior year, you'll try anything.