life after Z

November 18, 2015

It's been a while! Having a newborn means I never get to update my blog anymore, I guess. I sat down a few times and promptly got distracted by something (i.e. fell asleep mid-sentence). But I took all these lovely photos recently and wanted to share them, so here I am posting from my iPhone.

After Z came, we were pretty much in a daze and now, 12 weeks in, I still spend my days primarily changing diapers, entertaining the baby, and being a human milk machine (ugh). But we also headed upstate twice for a change of scene and to enjoy the great autumnal outdoors. It's seriously the best time to visit the Hudson Valley!

The first time, we hiked a couple trails, including up to the Mohonk Mountain House. It's a strange place. Grand and ramble-y, an old timey resort that looks like it's frozen in time, but there are some pretty glorious views of the Shawgunk Ridge on the way up.

We stayed in High Falls, a small town to the west of the Hudson River. Our AirBnB was amazing! Check it out:

We also went up to Tivoli to visit a friend, and walked around the Bard campus for a while. It's gorgeous, sprawling, and right on the river. But being as lazy as I am, all I could think was how I would so not enjoying having to walk so far between classes.

A few weeks later, we went upstate again and stayed in a little red cabin in Red Hook.

We hiked some more trails, and went to the top of Burger Hill. After being indoors for most of September and October, it felt so good to be out of the apartment and the city.

And in case you were wondering, here he is. Presenting #babyZ!

rearranging the living room

August 18, 2015

as you may or may not know, we recently had a leak in our living room that damaged the floors. this necessitated a move, plumbers, hvac technicians, and finally, new maple planks. after weeks (unbearably long when you are already very pregnant and wanting to hang nursery prints rather than deal with stripped concrete floors), we are finally moving everything back this week. hhh and i contemplated a new arrangement for the living room, but i'm not totally sold on it. here are some photos:

just as a reminder, this is what it used to look like:

what do you think? should we stick with the tried-and-true or embrace the change?

a sunday in greenpoint

May 18, 2015

I'm almost packed for another trip to Asia...Hong Kong and Taiwan this time. I'm going to eat a ton of dim sum, Din Tai Fung, and mangoes. Can't wait! Before I go, I thought I should post these photos from last weekend in Greenpoint, where Julie and I checked out BKLYN Design 2015 at the Greenpoint Expo Center. Last year, I went to the stalls at Industry City and saw some great locally-made furniture and accessories. Here are some of the displays from the 2015 event:

I wandered around a bit after and found some fun secondhand shops, and this adorable coffee shop+florist place called Homecoming.

And of course, I never go to Greenpoint without dropping into Bakeri, where I snagged the last apple cider flower (like a financier, but flower-shaped!). Those things are soooo good.

working from home

March 29, 2015

i usually work from home. there is bottomless coffee (and the good kind, too!), an ergonomic chair for my creaky back, and willa sunning herself somewhere nearby. all my books and papers are here, and i can stay in my pajamas. for all these reasons, i'm usually pretty happy here, and productive. but there are also distractions: like when i decide to photograph my workspace for my blog instead of actually using it, or when i decide that all the rugs need a good vacuuming because i have no idea what words are supposed to come next in the dissertation. (note that these procrastinations only happen when i'm dissertating and never when i'm doing actual paid work, for some reason....)

there are of course those days where i end up in a coffee shop, but it doesn't happen very often. i realized that i spend a lot of time in this space, but haven't yet talked about it here! so here are a few photos...it's still pretty cluttered but much tidier than it usually is. (especially the desk area.)

the office has been rearranged a couple of times...initially, the shared desk was in the middle of the room, since we thought we might also use it for dinner parties. (no photos, unfortunately.) that never really happened, so we eventually moved it off to the side of the room by the window, so that there was room for a living area with a sofa and a coffee table. this is what it looked like for for a year and a half or so:

when we got hhh a campus place in poughkeepsie, we moved most of the furniture in the photo above to that apartment. i also took the opportunity to acquire a new, lovely sea foam green couch. the white shelves are elfa, and that midcentury credenza was a move-in splurge from circa60. hhh got the hsieh teching on the wall at a charity auction hosted by the now shut exit art. we saw a hsieh exhibit at the moma on our epic 8-hour long second date, so it's a nice reminder of the early days. :p (even though frankly, i find it a little depressing, given that it's of tally marks on a cell wall to mark off the days of self-imprisonment.)