Naked New York

Shots from the last few weeks in NYC totally naked and untouched by iphone apps or iphoto touchups of any kind. No dressy frames or color accessories. This is New York.

Brooklyn Sunset

Andy

Wine Shop

Union Square

Brooklyn Thrift Store

The Mother Ship

a.k.a. NYC Library

Chelsea Music Store

New York's Finest

Heaven

a.k.a. Bryant Park

If you ever get the chance to visit New York City, don't pass it up. Everything seems more alive here. People are working, playing, crying, begging, selling, buying, walking, biking, singing, yelling, sitting, watching, throwing, catching, drinking...you get the idea.

Thrift Store Bonus Round

Pictures for the Parlour 

My First Pyrex

(and only $3)

My sister's body is refusing to let the baby come out already so we walked around Greenpoint and Williamsburg to a few thrift stores today. She found the best pictures for her awesome parlour walls and I found my first affordable piece of Pyrex to take home with me. If there's a Pyrex treasure hunter club, I'm pretty sure I should be a new member. This bowl is that classic olive green with white flowers. Makes me feel like I could be sitting in my Grandma's kitchen watching her cook with Wheel of Fortune playing in the background. 

Random Wheel of Fortune Facts for you!

• Since its debut in 1983, Wheel of Fortune has awarded more than $190 million in cash and prizes to its contestants.
• In 1992, the "Guinness Book of World Records" listed Vanna White as the world's most frequent clapper. Vanna puts her hands together for contestants some 28,080 times a season - an average of 720 times per show.
• In 1992, the "Guinness Book of World Records" listed Vanna White as the world's most frequent clapper. Vanna puts her hands together for contestants some 28,080 times a season - an average of 720 times per show.
• Wheel of Fortune has been the #1 show in syndication since its debut in 1983.
• Wheel of Fortune's original name was "Shoppers Bazaar" and included a wheel that was much bigger and featured carnival sound effects.

Baby Steps

I'm not that good at patience. Most of us have been told that the best things are worth waiting for and we've learned that waiting is the hardest part. Yes Mr. Petty, but I don't like waiting! I'm sitting here in Brooklyn, NYC counting down the days before I have to fly back to that other coast.  Why do I count? Other than my OCD, the reason this time is my new nephew Henry is supposed to be born while I'm here. I'm not one to place bets or do any real gambling so I figured a ticket that spanned three weeks would give him ample time to make his grand appearance. I'm beginning to think I was wrong.  He may be the most stubborn in our family to date...and I really didn't think I could be beat in that department.  

All this to say that my blog attention is elsewhere. My days revolve around my sister's belly. Is there any extra pressure? Maybe a slight contraction? Is Henry hiccuping AGAIN? Can he just come out and hiccup while I hold him? Oh Henry, I do not want to be taken to the airport next week by a pregnant sister. 

In the meantime, I'm just falling more and more madly in love with Brooklyn and Manhattan both. Yesterday I had the chance to walk from Union Square to Bryant Park via Fifth Ave and back down Madison. Heaven. 

Dear Amazon

Dear Amazon,

I love you. I really do. You're always there when I need you and you provide all the things my sister needs here in the city. She just doesn't have the energy to go walk around for hours looking for necessities!  She's very very pregnant you see.  When she couldn't find things like a dropper or a water temperature gauge for her new baby, she turned to you knowing you would have just what she needed and it would get to her within a day or two.  But Amazon, look at this giant box you used to send one tiny dropper! And I have many other examples of this packaging insanity! All you have to do is look at the broken down boxes outside my sister's door to see that something is not right here! Go ahead, take a peek I'll wait right here.  So? What do you have to say for yourself? Are you proud of the fact that an order of three things came to this address yesterday in three very large, very separate boxes? Maybe items are coming from different locations. I get it. Maybe there are laws you have to follow to get things safely to their new owners. I understand.  But do you think you could start looking at ways to condense and save on all the waste? I'm concerned that our relationship will have to end if we can't come to some sort of compromise.  Perhaps you could offer a much slower shipping speed in order to gather a customers items together for one big shipment rather than send each little thing as it becomes available? Some sort of recycling program for the multitude of boxes? 

Until we can come to some sort of resolution to this problem, I think you and I are going to be on a break. I'm sorry it has to be this way but I feel as though you won't take me seriously otherwise. 


Love,
ScrimpGirl

Breakfast on Your Facemask

Greetings from my sister's home in Brooklyn, NYC. I'm here for a few weeks anxiously awaiting the arrival of her first baby. While we wait for little Henry to show his face, we decided to pamper our own. My sister whipped us up a batch of her homemade Oatmeal Face Mask.  It's super easy! You probably already have most of the ingredients.  She used old fashioned oats, plain yogurt and honey.  This mask works best after a shower when your pores are all loose and needing a little nourishment.  My skin felt so soft after letting this concoction sit on my face for about 15 minutes.

Gather Ingredients:

Oats

Yogurt

Honey

Grind up about a 1/4 cup of oats in your coffee grinder.

Add a heaping tablespoon of yogurt.

Squirt in about a tablespoon of honey. 

Mix it up and smear it on.

Stephanie says to be creative! If it's good for you to eat, it's probably great to put on your skin as well. Use other things in your kitchen and throw those in (bananas, avocado, egg yolk for moisture, egg white for toning). Just try to use amounts that end up giving you a paste-like consistency that will stay on your face. Have fun with it and remember to pamper yourself before you pamper your baby. 

Pampering (not Pampers) is free and free is cheap.

This Week's Inspiration

    

      

      The Man Watching

      Rainer Maria Rilke

      I can tell by the way the trees beat, after

      so many dull days, on my worried windowpanes

      that a storm is coming,

      and I hear the far-off fields say things

      I can't bear without a friend,

      I can't love without a sister

   

      The storm, the shifter of shapes, drives on

      across the woods and across time,

      and the world looks as if it had no age:

      the landscape like a line in the psalm book,

      is seriousness and weight and eternity.

   

      What we choose to fight is so tiny!

      What fights us is so great!

      If only we would let ourselves be dominated

      as things do by some immense storm,

      we would become strong too, and not need names.

   

      When we win it's with small things,

      and the triumph itself makes us small.

      What is extraordinary and eternal

      does not want to be bent by us.

      I mean the Angel who appeared

      to the wrestlers of the Old Testament:

      when the wrestler's sinews

      grew long like metal strings,

      he felt them under his fingers

      like chords of deep music.

   

      Whoever was beaten by this Angel

      (who often simply declined the fight)

      went away proud and strengthened

      and great from that harsh hand,

      that kneaded him as if to change his shape.

      Winning does not tempt that man.

      This is how he grows: by being defeated, decisively,

      by constantly greater beings.

Making Love Out of Nothing At All

"And I Know the Roads to Riches"

You know that saying about building up your treasures in Heaven? Well, what if you're not quite sure you believe in Heaven? What if you think Hell was invented to get small children to obey their parents? Or maybe you believe we return over and over again in some other form. Where then should we be building up these treasures of goodness? It couldn't hurt to build them up in the souls around us. Love doesn't have to be expensive. You might send an email overflowing with encouragement to a friend you know is having a difficult time. You may offer to help someone move their furniture into a new home. Maybe you simply say the words "I love who you are". 

The best things in life are free. I'll say this a lot so get used to it. If I were forced to make a list of these freebies, love would be at the top. Love will always be free. Real love, romantic or otherwise, will never be up for sale. No department stores with a Love Boutique, no Love Restaurants...it all depends on you. 

What I would encourage is this, begin to shift your view of "riches" to one of internal fullness rather than financial security. Remind yourself everyday that the things that truly matter won't cost you anything. And love. Love above all else.  Love your partner, your family, your pet, the people you pass by daily without a thought. I've said it before and I'll say it again. Love is free and free is cheap.

P.S.

I love you