My Baby Shower: Part I

I just got around to uploading photos from my baby shower, which was held in September! My mom threw the shower along with my aunt, and with help from some good friends.

Before & After: Rocking Chair with Stool

One of the final projects for the baby's nursery was to reupholster my old rocking chair and stool. The rocking chair has been around the block, but it's always been one of my favorite pieces of furniture. My parents had it in their college apartment and I grew up with it in my house (with a denim patchwork seat). Years ago, when I brought it to my Brooklyn apartment, I reupholstered the seat with recycled green leather. Now I'll be using it when I'm nursing the baby I decided I had to up the comfort level a little bit while coordinating with the nursery.

I added a big down pillow covered with Michael Miller Sorbet Spa Geo Coral fabric to lean on when nursing or rocking the baby (I also have a nursing pillow), and draped over the back of the chair a faux-sheep skin rug I got on clearance at Target.  I've always wanted a sheep skin rug, but I always felt gross when I saw the big bin of them at Ikea, so I was psyched to find an animal-free version for $20.

The stool I got for $4 at a yard sale about two years ago. It's been sitting in the basement since then waiting to be cleaned and re-laced. Buying new twill tape was expensive (I bought 22 yards, used about 20), but worth it to get the exact colors I wanted. I sanded the frame and stained it with a teak colored stain/polyurethane.

Leaf Peeping

This weekend we tried to fit in a little upstate foliage action by hitting the Walkway Over the Hudson. My pace is pretty slow these days at 37 weeks pregnant, but we managed to cross most of the bridge before I had to turn around and hit the bathroom.

The dog peeping was also pretty great, Lily got to sniff some very interesting dogs (her words, not mine) and she zonked out in the backseat as soon as we started driving home.

Shop: Holiday Tea Towels are Here

All tea towels are approximately 18" x 24" and made from 55% linen and 45% combed cotton.

Multi-Colored Christmas Tree Ornaments

Pretty Ribbons in Pink, Red and Green

Holiday Folk Flower

Blackbirds Baked in a Pie

Hobnobbing in New York City

On Monday my bestie, Meredith, reached out to our crew and asked if anyone wanted to go to a taping of Watch What Happens Live! with Andy Cohen.  The show tapes at 11pm, which is a solid two hours past my bedtime at this point in my pregnancy, but I decided to suck it up (and take a nap after work) so we could gawk at some celebrities together.  Meredith and I have been watching reality television together for almost 10 years and WWHL hits our sweet spot.

Cyndi Lauper walked by us in the lobby as we waited to go into the studio. Sometimes celebrities look different in person, but Cyndi Lauper looks like Cyndi Lauper, and Cyndi Lauper looks awesome.

This is not Cyndi Lauper. This is me, 7 mos pregnant, on the set of Watch What Happens Live!The guests of the show were Cloris Leachman and Jeff Lewis.  Cloris stole the show with her long-winded, bizarre stories and her requests to repeatedly kiss Jeff and Andy.  Towards the end of the show the fire alarm started going off and they just plowed through since it's a live show.  Normally there would be an after-show taping, but we had to cut it short as we were evacuated from the studio because of a fire!

Cloris comparing kisses from Jeff and Andy.But here is when Meredith climbed the ranks to #1 Best Friend in the Entire World: she had an invite for a press event at Martha Stewart's offices for a cooking lesson with Martha to promote her new show, "Martha Stewart's Cooking School", which will debut on PBS this fall. The show sounds great - something for every home cook no matter your skill level.

Since I was sleeping over, and Meredith knows how much I love Martha Stewart, she managed to snag me an invite as well. So Wednesday morning we hiked over to the west side, ate an amazing breakfast (eggs from Martha's farm and with homemade fruit jams made by Martha), and then sat down for a cooking lesson with Martha. 

If you want to read more about the event you can visit Martha's blog (and find me in photos 5 & 7)

And here is something awesome Martha demonstrated - how to peel garlic in ten seconds (video not of Martha):

How to Peel a Head of Garlic in Less Than 10 Seconds from SAVEUR.com on Vimeo.