Halloween & DIY Costume Ideas

Love, Love, Love Halloween! Over the years, I've made several of my own costumes  - taking pride in creating something and not spending a ridiculous amount of money at a costume store. Some of my creations (which you may see pictured below) include Lara Croft of Tomb Raider, Holly Golightly of Breakfast at Tiffany's, Alex of a Clockwork Orange (one of my favorite movies of all time), Carmen Miranda, Poison Ivy, a basketball and net/back board (when I was preggo ;-) and last year I dressed as Alan from The Hangover. I've continued the tradition with my son Liam and last year (his first Halloween) we dressed him as Pepe Le Pew. I've always liked the idea of playing classic and whimsical characters from movies - and because Sam and I have talked about dressing up as a duo this Halloween, we plan on taking the role of Mary Poppins and Bert (hopeful that we will find the right attire at a thrift store).

             Here is a photo of me dressed as Alex from A Clockwork Orange

    and below is an image of the real Alex from the movie. 

         My pregnant belly painted as a basketball - equipped with a net and a  backboard. This was a really fun costume to work on!

  from last year dressed as the Alan from the Hangover (with Liam playing found baby). 

Below is the movie poster with Alan and baby.

Sam and I are trying to decide which look we will try to achieve as Mary Poppins and Bert - which of the two below do you like best?

In doing some research for other DIY adult and baby costume ideas, I came across a few that I thought were clever and cute. These were taken from the Martha Stewart website and Woman's Day Magazine website. 

 Beehive Costume

Chicken Costume

Goldfish Costume

Adult Jellyfish Costume

Are you working on a creative costume this Halloween? I'd love to hear about it!

HAVE A HAPPY AND SAFE HALLOWEEN! 

-Alby & Sam

Autumn & Apples

The fall is our favorite time of year! We love when October rolls around and offers it's cool breeze and beautiful foliage in autumn shades of browns, yellows and reds. The colors always provide for plenty of DIY inspiration...and as the weather becomes colder, stay at home days offer more time to get creative (as an FYI, we as a family do not watch more than 1 hour of TV a week!).  Halloween happens to be one of our favorite holidays - pumpkin carving followed by a warm pumpkin pie and seeds that have been baked to crunchy, toasty perfection? Yes, please! Pardon me if I sound too Martha Stewart-ish. 

To take advantage of the wonderful weather we had last weekend, my family and I made a trip up to Warwick, NY to go Apple picking at Pennings Orchard. Applefest was also happening in the downtown area so we stopped in to check that out as well and enjoyed delicious greasy burgers, Jamaican Oxtail and Goat and Funnel cake - sounds like a pretty interesting combination, does it not? lol We had a great time, particularly exploring all the different type of apple breeds that we were not familiar with .  Our experimental apple sauce for the week was a great success with a mixture of Jonagold, Honey Crisps, Ginger Golds, Galas, Romes, Cortlands, Golden Delicious and Braeburns. 

Here are a few photos from our visit: 

      Liam snacked on quite a few apples - stretching that $25 minimum for the bag we had to purchase!

 Liam with Grandma Lisa and Grandpa Julio

Liam & Sam 

Sam & Albelisa 

a pretty little bee that decided to munch on my apple

In the end, we realized the bag of apples weighed more than Liam so they had a ride in his new stroller

If you haven't planned an apple pickin' adventure this fall, what are you waiting for?

Thanks for reading! Alby & Sam 

Seeds n Sprouts baby food - Our exciting new venture!

Sam and I have been MIA on the blog front for quite some time now. It's all due to our diligent work with a new start-up venture we have embarked on - a baby/toddler food business! All of the baby food is prepared using produce purchased from the local Farmer's Market (Union Square or Inwood) and some of the ingredients are organic. Our food has no preservatives, dyes or fillers.

I don't recall exactly how we came to pick the name Seeds n Sprouts but I know it had something to do with the natural process in which fruits and vegetables grow - it starts with a seed that is planted, and up sprouts a tasty meal! The name also served as a metaphor for babies and their development. Getting this business off the ground has proven to be a challenge beyond what we expected - from deciding what our menu should consist of (which was mainly Liam approved meals), to the packaging, the logo, passing a food protection course and exam, the permits with the NYC Department of Health & other state agencies, insurance, legal issues, marketing and the toughest endeavor of all, finding a NYC restaurant that would allow us to rent their commercial  kitchen space for a few hours a week and take on the liability of a third party (us).  To date, we have made significant progress on several of these matters - but lingering is the contract with a restaurant and the inspection by the city so that we can actually sell our food!!!I met with a the Owner of The Greentree  http://greentree.com/gt_home.html (a local Riverdale restaurant) last week and he agreed to allow us to rent his kitchen space a few early hours on weekends. We are trying to work out the legal kinks but hoping to be up and running by sometime in November.

Now, for the fun stuff...this is what our logo looks like - what do you think?

In order to help get the word out about our business we had a photoshoot in our home and invited a few of our friends who have young babies. The babies wore Seeds n Sprouts onesies or t-shirts that were made by my father who owns a silk-screening business and they (along with the parents) all got a sampling of our food! Here are a few of my favorite shots...

This is baby Alice - eating our Super Smash n Spinach

                              and this is baby Carly, eating our Apple Sauce; Applause!

                                      This is baby Kal-El eating our Mini Muffines

                                          baby Michael eating our Squished Squash

and this is our son Liam eating Musical Chairs (bean salad)

For additional photos of our event  (including fabulous photos of our food) please visit our website, www.seedsnsprouts.com

or our Facebook page http://www.facebook.com/pages/Seeds-n-Sprouts-baby-food/135004843202238?ref=ts

Recently, we hosted our first (of many) baby food tasting parties - these are some of my favorite shots 

We will continue to keep you posted on our progress! Thanks for reading and if you know parents who may be interested in our food, please refer them to us! 

Thanks much! Alby, Sam and baby Liam <3 

Harlem - a Green building, a salvage yard heaven and "The Theresa"

On Tuesday, Sam and I, accompanied by our friend Yessica, took part in a tour organized by the Urban Green Council  (NY Chapter of the USGBC) of a newly constructed building in east Harlem. The developers chose the name Tapestry; perhaps because its core and shell are products of a collaborative effort by city agencies, developers, architects, engineers, environmental consultants and the likes, weaved together to create a different kind of building. There is an interesting story to be told. Tapestry is pursuing LEED Gold designation via it's incorporation of on-site rain water retention tanks, green roofs and terraces, high efficiency mechanical systems, heat recovery, triple-glazed & low-E windows, dual flush toilets, low flow water fixtures, Energy Star appliances and the list goes on and on. During the tour we learned that furnishings, carpets, wood flooring were mostly recycled and locally sourced and that all residents were provided with a 6 month supply of environmentally friendly cleaning products free of charge. The units of the Tapestry are a mix of low income, middle income and market rate apartments rents range from $600 to over $3,600 a month ("market rate" units are ridiculously priced). The apartments do have an appeal, especially the ones with expansive terraces that almost double your living space. The marketing information that was given to us certainly attempted to sell the property for its green efforts (which I admire) and community connectivity but I just wasn't convinced that its construction would aide the people of Harlem or encourage environmental responsibility to its residents. We shall see if upon gaining a LEED designation the building follows through with its promise and delivers.
For more info on the Tapestry, you can visit their website http://tapestry124.com/ and for more information of the Urban Green Council and upcoming events, visit http://www.urbangreencouncil.org/

Here are some photos taken - Sam and I standing in the common terrace area

A paved walkway for workers to access planted setback green roof area

Vegetated green roof at setback terrace

Interior shot of apartment - Yessica checking out the furnishings

panoramic shot of the view from one of the apartment terraces

After the Tapestry tour was over, Sam, Yessica and I visited a very enchanting forest of salvaged goods know as The Demolition Depot http://demolitiondepot.com/vo/demo/. In their 4 story masonry structure and yard they house an abundance of unique and vintage architectural period pieces - from wall sconces, to decorative stone fireplace mantels,  iron fencing, doors, stained glass windows and so much more....

Following our walk down architectural memory lane at the depot, Sam and I had to begin our pilgrimage to the west side. On our cross-town walk, we looked up at the beauty  that sits on the corner of 125th street and Adam Clayton Powell Jr. Blvd. If you know the rich history of Harlem and its Renaissance movement, you know this gem of a building - the famous "Hotel Theresa". This was the place to be when black talent and creativity were synonymous with Harlem. In it's hay day, the Hotel Theresa was visited by an array of prominent leaders from all disciplines; to name a few - Josephine Baker, Duke Ellington, Malcolm X Muhammed Ali and Fidel Castro (hotel allowed his stay in 1960 after numerous other hotels denied him). The building is made of white glazed brick and decorative white terra cotta. The firm I work for, Rand Engineering & Architecture, PC recently completed a facade restoration project on the building. Here is the Theresa post restoration...

When I first inspected this building a couple of years back, this entire balcony section was missing. What a fantastic job of manufacturing replacement pieces - the molds were made identical to the originals!

There is a book that talks about the buildings' history titled "Meet Me at the Theresa" some chapters are an interesting read....

Hope this wasn't too long of a post and that you enjoyed reading! Sam, Liam and I are off on vacation this week - I'm sure we will have plenty of photos and adventures to share of our trip when we return - stay tuned!

The Kennedy's lived here....

Since it's been a while since our last posting, we thought it a good idea to give some updates on our whereabouts and activities. Although we started this blog with the intent of documenting our design efforts together, we haven't yet had an opportunity to start the stain glass window we planned as our first project (see window on floor below in 1st photo). You see, Sam and I have been busy with our own personal endeavors, spending quality time with our little man and a soon-to-be-announced business venture we are embarking on (so exciting!).  During our down time, we have had an opportunity to work on some creative individual projects throughout our home - some of which we will share photos of...

This is our still in progress craft room. We decided to paint vertical stripes in two shades of orange and one horizontal stripe in a dark brown. I love spending time in this room; it almost brightens my mood instantly. When Sam and I started working on it he thought it resembled a circus tent - but we've come to be quite happy with the results.

An old school mac from my college days still works perfectly...it's kind of amazing. 

On this pretty little hutch I purchase at my favorite thrift store, I store paints, brushes, markers, colored pencils, ribbon, yarn, paper and more....glues and other adhesives are organized in a egg carton and some of my favorite stamp collections are displayed in the back portion cork board. The beautiful feathered peacock pens on the right corner were made by Sam as a birthday present (in their own custom made gift boxes!). 

We use old juice and milk cartons as vases in this room - it adds so much character to the space!

I purchase Newman's Own on a regular...

Two weekends ago I salvaged this pretty little table from being dumped onto NYC streets. Someone in my building left it by the garbage disposal area. I felt like I'd hit the lotto.  It had so much charm!

I then re-discovered an old wood miniature perfume display case  that I had purchased ions ago...a few screw in hooks and I had myself a jewelry hanging rack. I thought of combining these two items together to create a jewelry display area in my bedroom and spray painted the table and the rack a glossy white - this was the result....

and of course, I should have known better - 3 minutes after I was done and ready to snap a photo...here comes little man to play with his new "toys"....

Another hobby of mine is making custom gift baskets for family and friends. I've made Thanksgiving gift baskets for my parents for years now...i'm thinking about starting a tradition to make some for christmas as well. I will find any excuse to make a basket nowindays. Below is one that I made for a very special delivery that my family is expecting in August.

 

Several weeks ago I picked up a vintage Speedaway wood and metal sled that was sitting outside of a fancy home here in Riverdale. Good thing I keep my construction gloves in my purse - they always come in handy - I picked that baby up and hauled it home! It was like I could see it's history just by looking at it's rusty decaying parts. A few days later I went to the hardware store to get  metal chains and a few heavy duty hook screws  (this thing weighs a ton!)....and VUALA! - I hung it from the soffit in our livingroom. It was really difficult to set the sled perfectly parallel to the soffit since it weighs more on one end than the other. One of the chains has all the tension while the other just hangs there awkwardly slanted. Oh well...

 I started to develop this wall with a playful school house theme but am still searching for more items to compliment what I've started...perhaps a blackboard where I can write comical lesson plans?Hmmmm...

So far, I have a cute litlle ABC's board I picked up from TJ max, a letter, a symbol and a photo i picked up from a vintage shop of a 1951 classroom in Yonkers, NY (this photo always puts a smile on my face).

Last night I was looking through photos taken during my visit to England and France last summer. I found this image which I just had to share - it was taken in  my favorite city - Bath, England. The gardens and parks there are to die for.

and lastly, I know some of you may we wondering what's with the title of this post - "The Kennedy's lived here" - Well, here it is. Sam and I live in the area of the Bronx known as Riverdale. Its a really beautiful neighborhood and within the past couple of weeks Sam and I have been doing alot of walkin/exploring and have discovered some very interesting Riverdale facts. Alot of influential people have lived in Riverdale, including the Kennedy's. Here is a shot of their old home - directly across the street from the entrance to the gorgeous Wave Hill Park.

Sam and I will give our best effort to update the blog regularly. We have a vacation to Puerto Rico coming up in July which we are super excited about because it will be Sam's first visit to my homeland!hehehe

Thanks for reading!

-Alby