Things I'll miss...

Even though I am so happy about heading back to New York, there are definitely things I will miss about Cambridge.
Little things, like seeing this church on my way home each evening:

...which also houses a ballet theater and has this beautiful statue (that makes me want to dance) out front. 

The weather has been so dreamy lately (this city really is so beautiful in the summertime) and I am realizing how quickly this chapter is coming to a close....that I won't be walking these Cambridge streets for much longer. Feeling a tad nostalgic these days about it all. 

(but then I think of last winter, and reconsider :)

June.

Cambridge is pretty in June

Can't believe June has come and (almost) gone. And you know what else is hard to believe?? It's been about one year exactly since we moved here! Wow...that just dawned on me this week. Last year at this time we were going through a huge transition, embarking on a completely new and unknown journey. And here we are, one year later, about to do the same thing again! Baby, of course, and...well, more....but I can't share quite yet! (such a tease, I know). I just don't want to speak too soon -- would love for things to be a tad more solidified before spilling the beans. And on that note....off to bed! 

(more later :) 

Tips for Keeping Warm in the Great Tundra*

frozen Harvard Square

1) Convince your husband (who had the good fortune of no class on this particular day) to bake chocolate chip cookies. Eat them immediately, piping hot.

2) Keep your cozy, lounge-y clothes on. All day.

3) Even though it costs precious, hard-earned dough, keep that gas stove fire "roaring"**

4) Work from beneath a fluffy, navy blue blanket.***

5) Don't, under any circumstances, go outside.****

*Cambridge, MA, that is

**a gas stove fire doesn't really "roar," per se

***there is a fine line between "working" and "sleeping" when under the fluffy, navy blue blanket (the temptation was great, my friends, but don't worry...i didn't actually sleep. i was a good little worker bee!)

**** I managed to adhere to this rule quite well yesterday, but alas, today rehearsal called

hipstamatic snow.

 Cambridge snow ~ 1/13/11 ~ hipstamtic app

Boston Blizzard of 2011

  So the blizzard did NOT disappoint. Just take a look :)

*

walking through snowy Cambridge...

 

on the way to Harvard Square...

  

then onto campus -- which looked absolutely magical...

 

all the frolicking undergrads in Harvard Yard reminded me of my snowy college days (but can actually only recall 2x that it snowed at mary wash), playing like kids, sledding & snowball fights. so fun.

 and then my camera died. :( 

so the end. 

(boo!)

Have a lovely (cozy) weekend.

looking south on Broadway

Last New York picture of the week, my friends. Hope you have a fantastic weekend (and stay warm...it's frigid and winter-like here in Cambridge tonight. 33 degrees, no joke)!  

p.s.: we saw social network tonight, which i found fascinating. and not just b/c of all the harvard footage and the fact that sean parker (heavily featured in the movie) allegedly went to school with me. just a good story, good flick. recommended. 

Apartment tour!

Last week we hosted a small dinner party for some of Dan's classmates, which was just the motivation I needed to get those last few boxes unpacked (or shoved in closets), pictures hung, and shelves de-cluttered. Thankfully, I remembered to snap a few pictures while it was all still clean & shiny. So here it is, at long last -- our Cambridge apartment tour! Click on images for hidden notes & random info :) (everything looks very yellow/orange in these pictures. granted, most of the walls are painted yellow or orange (what they call "provencal"), but it doesn't feel so yellow/orange living in it as it does looking at it). Anyway. Onward


hallway to the kitchen. we have a hallway! with built-in bookshelves! so grown-up :)


a close-up of those built-ins (which I spent hours arranging and rearranging, using every HGTV design trick in the book)


my favorite room in the apartment ~ the kitchen (seen before here)


right off the kitchen is the guest bedroom/Dan's study nook (his desk is tucked back in the corner)


our bedroom, which we still need to work on making more cozy/pretty


our cozy living room ~ terrible lighting, my apologies


more built-ins and HGTV stylings, located in the living room adjacent to the couch


my "studio" (aka the art nook) which sits right behind the couch in the living room area ~ not so easy to keep this area clean


a close-up of my art desk, in all it's cluttered glory

And that's all folks! Thanks for joining me :)

Happy Fall!

a pretty store in Harvard Square
Finally, the day I've been waiting for, September 21st*, the first day of Fall, hallelujah! (I love Fall).

But instead of feeling free & full of possibility at the start of this season, I felt a little lost, unsettled, sad.

This changing your life and moving to a new city thing can be pretty rough, people. I keep waiting for it to *not* be rough, and there are certainly moments of non-roughness, but there are also lots of moments of the aforementioned lostness/unsettledness/sadness.

Thank goodness for Dan, who, though buried in books much of the time, is my rock, my bff, my sanity.

And thank goodness for Anthropologie, which is just a brisk 15 minute walk away in the heart of Harvard Square (a multi-leveled glass cube of goodness that I couldn't quite get a good photo of today). It's new in town & I'm happy she's here. I want this:

Wild Bramble Tote
You know what else helps? A new season of Glee. Hooray!

And one last thing that helps (see? this is helping, talking about what's helping): our apartment. Which I have finally gotten cleaned up, decorated & photographed. So tomorrow I'll share some pics. Sound good? :) See you then....

*I've always had it in my brain that Sept. 21 is the first day of Fall, but I just checked my calendar for verification & it says Sept. 23. And some internet sources say Sept. 22. Hmmmm. Anyone know?

No words.

good ole Harvard Square (which is filled to the brim with students now)
late, late night with dan and his classmates + karaoke = bedtime and no words.

'night...

Randomness on a Monday.

Boston sky
Not much time for writing today (and my computer is not behaving, making everything I try to do on here ten times harder) but a quick post to say we all arrived safe & sound back in Boston on Saturday! Have been busy little bees ever since showing mom the sights & sounds of our new city, sorta half-diving back into artwork & Etsy-ing (me), and "shopping" for classes (which is sort of like previewing) in preparation for Harvard Kennedy's Fall semester (Dan)...among other things.

AND, some random exciting-ness, tonight I play my very first Boston show! Okay, well it's not really my show, per se, but rather an open mic, so I will be contributing only 10 minutes of music to the night. BUT it's also a competition (a very competitive one, apparently, because I had to sign up four weeks in advance), and if I win *then* I get my own show! Or share the stage with past winners. Or something like that. But it's a start! And this is what I did (open mics, competitions, etc.) when I moved to New York, and that turned out pretty well. So I am excited! If you are reading this and live in the Cambridge area (though I really don't think I have any Cambridge readers. Do I?) then come on out to Lizard Lounge this evening at 8pm!

Wish me luck :)

Mr. Bartley's

Harvard Square's famous burger Joint ~ Mr. Bartley's
We've passed by this place a bunch of times over the last month or so (have we really been here that long?), always marveling at the constant line out the door...and so yesterday (after a rather long and tiresome sort of day), we decided to finally check it out. (my (internet) sources tell me that it's been a Harvard Square institution since 1961. which is nothing to sneeze at).

So we went. And I am sad to report that I was a little bit underwhelmed. I wish that I was as impressed as so many others out there seem to be, but I just wasn't. Well, that's not totally true. I did love the sweet potato fries. And the menu (which contains 25+ inventively named burgers like The Jersey Shore and The Bill Clinton). But the burgers themselves? Eh. They were okay, but didn't blow my mind. I'd take Five Napkin Burger (NYC) over Mr. Bartley's any day (sorry, Boston). (have you ever tried the Italian Turkey Burger at 5 Napkin? oh. my. gosh.).

For my next time at Bartley's -- and yes, I plan to try it again, it's only fair -- I think I will do a turkey burger and/or a milkshake.

And that's all I have to say about that.

Cocooning.

on our walk through Cambridge yesterday evening
So after all that talk yesterday about getting out more, connecting to my city, etc., etc., I have to admit that, although I haven't ventured far from home in the last couple of days, I've had two perfectly lovely and content sort of days. I mean, not to contradict myself, but sometimes it's nice to not be out and about all the time. Sometimes it's nice just to be home, cocooning a bit, you know?

Anyhoo, yesterday and today were two very good days in which I worked hard and long hours on my art (and did some writing as well), then took a walk with Dan around our charming New England neighborhood before dinner, came home, made dinner, then Etsy-posted my recent work and blogged with mindless tv on in the background. Both days. The same thing. And I have to say, it was very nice :)

I guess I'm trying to find the balance between connecting to this place while also enjoying this time of creativity and cocooning (cocoonment?).

And in other news, Dan's brain is melting from Econ Overload.

Goodnight, world.

An observation...

on our walk to Inman Square tonight
There is a lot of ivy in Cambridge. Which makes everything look quite magical.

That's all. Have a good weekend...!

A good night (& goodnight).

Harvard Sqaure
It's been a full & lovely evening spent in Harvard Square with Dan's classmates. I am really loving all of the various social outings that are happening through his program and all of the incredible people we are meeting. Looks like it is going to be an incredible year overall...! (that's what everyone keeps telling us anyway :)

'Night...

Yesterday.

a purdy building in Central Square
Yesterday I:
~finally got out & explored a new area, Central Square (in Cambridge, just east of Harvard Sq.) & found a place with yum turkey burgers.
~started working on something new: New York-themed ornaments! more on that later.
~participated in a very strange karaoke contest in the back room of a random chinese restaurant in a random small town south of here. there were dragons on the walls. it was weird. (this was me "trying to put myself out there" and "taking any and all singing/musical opportunities I can get." which is hard. and sometimes depressing. but has to be done (and is exactly what I did when I moved to New York). you live & learn, people).

*sorry I missed my post yesterday. the weird chinese karaoking kept us out late & sapped all of my creative energy.
*notice I haven't yet changed my blogger bio to reflect my new location? I keep meaning to. and then I don't. not ready, I guess. not yet.

A good day...

my kitchen!
It was a good, good day here in Cambridge, Mass. (that, after typing it all up here, sounds quite mundane & boring. so read at your own risk!).

Remember the very part-time job up here that I mentioned last month? That began this morning, but it was quite fun & creative work, involving meeting new people & taking photographs(!). I definitely like having a little bit of 'structured' work to do outside of my own work, yet it is something that is so much more free than being stuck behind a desk in an office.

Then there was a welcome picnic over at the Harvard Kennedy School for all of the MPA students and their families, and so I got to meet some of Dan's new classmates (all of whom were incredibly nice & interesting). It made me feel more connected to our new community here.

From there we walked home in drizzly rain that then turned into POURING rain, which made for a most perfect environment in which to nap & bake (in that order). Bizarrely, I woke up from my nap absolutely craving baked goods! I had all of the ingredients for Toll House cookies, except just half the amount of butter. So after a bit of googling, I found this recipe -- and perfect! (I added the nuts back in & then a half a cup of coconut. mmmmmm.....so. good).

I had a little moment of total joy and contentment as I stood in my amazingkitchenthatIlove (see above - isn't she pretty??) mixing cookie batter. The back door was open and I could hear & smell the rain (I've been living on top floors of apartments for years so this idea of having a "back door" and a little porch still makes me giddy) and I just felt so happy to be here. Happy to be having this experience of living in New England for the year in this cute, colorful apartment with my husband. It was a good & welcome feeling, especially after a week of roller coaster emotions & New York nostalgia.

But how can you not feel happy in a sunny space like this?

my little nook by the back door. i love my nook.

Art & Work.

a church in Cambridge
Thanks for voting, friends! I'll post answers later & divulge all the juicy tidbits from the trip (like: we saw a bear! and elk! which was all Dan really wanted the whole trip :)

Yesterday was a big day in these parts. Dan started school, and so therefore I declared it my first day of work (and by work, I mean ART and all that it entails. yesterday it entailed getting back on track with my Etsy shop and making new work). I read a little bit of Steven Pressfield's War of Art the day before in preparation (a book I would *highly* recommend to any artist out there trying to make their craft their "real" job...or as Pressfield says: going pro).

Interestingly, in the days leading up to my first day of work I had all kinds of feelings of dread and negativity, fears that I would fail somehow, or be too lonely working from home, or bored, or not productive enough, etc. This book deals with all of those things (and our biggest enemy in the creative process: Resistance) and gives helpful tips on how to kick Resistance to the curb. One huge thing is treating your craft like an actual JOB, as you would any other job. Getting up early, getting ready, showing up and sticking it out all day. Sleeping late and working in jammies doesn't do anyone any favors (okay, maybe once in awhile it's kinda fun). But I found this one piece of advice to be incredibly helpful. I got up early, showered, dressed, had breakfast & coffee, then got to work. Worked through the morning, took an hour lunch break like I used to at my old Day Job, then got back to work again until about 5:30. And it really seemed to work! By treating my art like a job, I took it (and myself) more seriously and was therefore more productive.

Another interesting point Pressfield makes in his book: "The more Resistance you experience, the more important your unmanifested art/project/enterprise is to you - and the more gratification you will feel when you finally do it." Which explains the adverse reaction & apathy I was experiencing earlier this week -- I have been dreaming of doing this for years!

Anyway, day one was a success. We'll see how it goes from here. I'll keep ya posted!

Hello, Harvard!

Harvard building
Tonight we took a stroll around campus, which was pretty dreamy. Such a beautiful place. I still can't believe we are here...that we live here.

And now we are watching Love Story (which takes place in Cambridge & New York City), in order to really get into the Harvard spirit :)

(Oh & turns out our new neighbors one block over are (were) those Russian spies that are all over the news. Welcome to the neighborhood!)

We're here! And have internet!

Charles River ~ taken during our last visit to Boston
Just a quick post to let you know we have arrived safe and sound in Cambridge. And...so far, so good! No major meltdowns, no intense bouts of homesickness, just working hard to get the apartment organized and ready. This is actually one of our first breaks since getting here -- we've been unpackin' fools! But now we are relaxing a bit, sitting in our newly put-together living room (which looks awesome, thanks to Dan) sipping wine and watching The Bachelorette (he is filling in for my NY friends who used to stop by & watch with me. sigh...).

There have been some emotional moments, for sure, especially pulling away from our apartment on Saturday morning. That was hard. But overall, this transition has been easier than I thought it would be (so far, that is -- I do realize it's only been 2 days!). For starters, I LOVE our apartment. Seriously love it. Coming from several years of tiny, old Manhattan apartments (that were charming, yes, but OLD), this apartment is a nice and welcome change. (And the years before that included: living in the attic of an old house outside of Newark, New Jersey; sharing a crumbling, old house in Ann Arbor, Michigan with four other girls (one shower); and living with multiple roommates in an old, former U.S. Air Force dormitory during my time in Lakeside, Montana. The theme here: OLD). So yeah, this is great :) Not to mention there is more cabinet & closet space than I have ever had in my adult life! Wahoo!

I would like to be able to post city photos each day this week, but not sure that it will happen. So far we haven't gotten out much to explore, just quick errands here & there, and we are trying to get as much done as possible before we leave for vacation next week. But I will try!

So until next time....