Holiday -- Celebrate!

The holidays are long gone, but here is a recap of the fun days we had! 

Christmas Eve dinner at the Vollono's 

Stephen and baby Eric

Chris and Jess

Sophia - such a little ham

Chris, Stephen, Steve & Scott

Family pic! Chris, Steve, Scott, Sue (holding Audrianna), 

Laurel (holding Eric), Nama, Big Steve, Sophia

Steamers!

Love.

For Christmas, we all brought our gifts for Nama and Auntie Dee over, and on Christmas Eve, after they went to bed - we snuck down and put everything under their tree. They woke up in the AM and Santa had come! 

This elephant has made the rounds in the family. 

Most recently - he lived in Auntie Sue's garden! 

Oz is not amused that I put a bow on his head

Rudy and Tucker - tired after opening presents

Christmas Day we went to my parents, had dinner and hung out. 

I gave Heather a fabulous gift - Woodrow Poodgerow - the ring. 

Heather, Mom and Grandma looking at the books Heather and Erik gave out for gifts. Picture books of their wedding!

Woodrow Poodgerow surfs the net. 

Merry Christmas! 

Yale Art Gallery

Last weekend, Scott and I visited the Yale Art Gallery. Unbeknownst to me, it was FREE to the public! Whoo hoo! 

Beautiful Yale architecture

Buddha in the Chinese art section 

 Art I like and need to figure out the names of: 

Caesar! 

Chinese figurines - frogs

Salvador Dali 

Chinese sculptures: Dog

Van Gogh - Night Cafe (I need a copy of this!) 

Yale windows

Chinese sculpture 

Cutie Pups

Last weekend, Laurel's (scott's mom) friend Deanna visited with her adorably sweet pups Izzy and Sunny. These Australian Shepherds were so nice, and so loving! It makes me wish Scott and I could have more dogs! 

Rudy (pictured), Sunny and Izzy took a hike with Laurel, Deanna and Auntie Sue and her dogs (Olivia, Bella and Bear - all Goldens. Fun Fact: Bella is Rudy's mom! ) Rudy was all tuckered out after the 2 hr hike and passed out when they got home. 

Izzy trying to stay awake and visit

3 Aussies! so cute

Izzy and Sunny

Sunny - exhausted and not wanting to miss a second of the love ! 

Relaxing Sunday - 1/27

The best Sunday tradition is when Scott and I can walk to Archie's in CT. We visit our favorite bartenders Jackie & Tom, eat delicious wings and drink beer. 

On the way to the bar, we walked past this sign outside a church. I'm not very religious, but this is a great piece of life advice. 

Fabulous Sunday mix. Wings and Harpoon. 

New York, New York

I was just in NYC for work for about a week. Really it was Wednesday, Thurs, Fri. - then Monday PM - Thursday AM. We had 4 shoot days, 1x12 hr, 3x 13 hr. , but we got so much done! 

View through CT to NYC

I got to the studio on Wednesday 1/23 and saw this! So excited to learn MJ Fox is filming at Silvercup starting in March. I love him and would LOVE to meet him! 

Typically at a shoot we are in the client area set up on leather couches. There were so many of us that we relocated to the conference room and brought the TV in to view the shots. so much easier to get stuff done w/ a desk v. a couch!

All day long there is a ridiculous spread of food. After a (Catered) breakfast we have chips, cookies, crackers, candy, etc. til lunch. Then the spread comes back out with cheese an crackers, etc. so bad for overall eating. So delicious.

Gorgeous view of NYC from Queens! To the right is the Triborough bridge, and masked in snow/fog is Manhattan

On Monday - I left CT for a few more days in NY. Watch the Gap in New Haven to get the commuter rail back to the city.

Clearer view of NYC -- the bridge would be to the right, but it got cut off. This is the view from the studio! 

1/31 - train at 6:20 a back to Boston. Somewhere between New Haven and New London there is a pot of gold! ha. 

A place for everything

I've always been the messy one. Stuffed animals in a pile, books scattered on the floor, clothes everywhere, unmade bed. Once, my mom promised I could eat malted easter eggs while watching Muppets Take Manhattan - which was the perfect combo in my world - *IF* I cleaned my room. Really cleaned it - not shoving it all under the bed or in the closet. 

The closet was really the worst offender. That nook could handle so much of my junk crammed into the corners and piled high.  Even as I got older, and the sweaters and shoes replaced toys and books and my closet has resembled something like the image below on and off for the past few years. 

*Not my actual closet, but close to what it looked like * 

The mess was getting the better of my sanity so I went to Bed, Bath and Beyond to check out the organization tools that would work in my space. 

I ended up with two new items: 
Real Simple Shoe and Boot organizer
Brown Z Cart /Drawers 

And weeded things out of my current stock:
Over the door shoe rack
Bookcase/bins for sports stuff (bike shoes, helmet, etc.) 
Plastic bins (nail polish, health and beauty supplies, electronics)

And ended up with the cleanest closet I have ever had! I Love the Real Simple organizer -- only $20 and fits so much. I can't believe I have empty space! That might be my new go-to for organizational products. 

365project

I can't remember how I found this site, but I'm hoping it will encourage me to take out my camera more often and find some cool shots. Missing a few days so I need to play catch up this weekend! 


http://365project.org/kmead/365

bowl - a - rama

This week was our quarterly team meeting, and in every quarter there is a team dinner/event. We've been to Dave and Busters, casino night, and Boston harbor boat cruises  but this time, we went to Kings  and had friendly bowling competitions. I never claimed to be a good bowler, but Tuesday night I reached a whole new level. In round 1, I bowled a 36. I had 18 points, got 3 gutterballs and found a way to break 30. The ball would go almost all the way down the lane, then veer left or right. It was hilarious, and my teammates were more amused than anything - likely because we were not playing for prizes or glory. hah! At least I got up to 71 in round 2, but I feel as though I have NEVER been this bad bowling before!  Hope Scott's up for some practice rounds!