COMING HOME

We are here, finally.  I know that I haven't been around much on the blog lately, and I apologize.  Moving this family of mine ended up taking every ounce of time and energy that I had. But we did it. We are home.

Of course only about half of the boxes are unpacked, and we have yet to cook a proper meal in our new kitchen, but everything is coming along as best as it possibly can with an almost one-year-old {!!!} crawling around. She sets her own pace most of the time, this baby girl of mine, so we are working on a pretty strict schedule. We mostly install shelves and work on noisy projects between naps, and unpack after she turns in for the night. My oh my, how precious time becomes in the world of parenthood!

I must say that this apartment- I love. I love the quirky layout and the fact that you have to walk through some rooms to get to others. I love the old crown molding and the even older lopsided wooden beamed floors, and the multiple bay windows. I love that Biet will have memories of this home, with its funny old antique charm.  I often feel that physical spaces can give off strong energies, and the energy here is immensely creative and calm and positive. Its quite a nice change from our old place, which weirdly always felt gloomy even with its incredible natural light.  This feels like an artists' apartment, and I know that we will be happy here.

Gaby and I walked over here the day before the move to clean a bit and look around. Since I had initially found and viewed the apartment all on my own, this was actually the very first time that Gaby saw the space (I'm still amazed that my husband trusts my taste enough to agree to move into a new home solely on my word!). We went through the iron gate, opened the old wooden front door with its double brass knobs, and walked up and around the creaky wooden staircase. As we entered the space, our space, Gaby turned to me and grinned. We both felt it- we just knew that this was where we were meant to be. For the first time in a long time, we were home.

And then we took a few pictures in our empty new abode..

WHILE WE WERE PACKING..

We officially move in 4 days! For some reason, this time around, I feel extremely calm and optimistic about it all. I am so excited to start afresh that the notion of upheaving our entire lives and living out of boxes for a few days isn't really bothering me at all. As we pack the boxes one by one, I find myself pondering over old hats and scarves, photos, ticket stubs.. remnants of my many lives past- single life, married life, pregnant life, family life. I can't believe sometimes how much we've been through together, yet I know that the greatest adventures are yet to come.
I have been making a concerted effort lately to always have fresh flowers around the house. They always bring so much life and freshness into the atmosphere of our apartment, and I feel that we really need that now. We may not have a couch to sit on or a pot to cook in (with everything packed and stacked away), but we do have a beautiful bouquet on the table in the morning. I hope to make weekly fresh flowers a regular thing all through the summer.
Oh, and I am thrilled to have rediscovered this box of vintage children's patterns, an old gift from my sister, while rummaging through old boxes. Aren't they simply amazing?? {Why don't they make kids' clothes like that anymore?} I cannot wait to set up my sewing room in our new place and get to work on these.  Biet is going to have some pretty awesome summer dresses {and suspenders and nightgowns and capes!} in a couple of months, courtesy of her Mama.

THIS CITY MY CITY

Sometimes I dream about living in the country, of having a garden and a little mailbox out front and trees and fields and air; of getting away from it all and listening to silence for a while. Sometimes I dream about living in another country, maybe Argentina or Belgium or Italy; of living in an artist loft and creating all of the time, of going to the market each day and soaking in the history & colors & sounds of other cultures. Since I was little I've dreamt of living in the big city, of looking up at the buildings and sweating on the fire-escapes in the hot summer sun and being woven into the hustle and bustle of it all; of making a life in the majestic brick and concrete wonderland of noise and action; of seeing and doing and being anything that I wanted to.  I chose to make that one my reality when I moved to NYC ten years ago.

Gaby and I went out for a walk this evening through our "new" neighborhood (come May 1st). We went for a light dinner at a pretty {amazing} little restaurant, and ended up walking around with Nico and Biet for nearly four hours. The air had that perfect breezy warmth which arrives just before summer, and the Brooklyn sidewalks were just calling our names. We walked past the Victorian mansions and the pre-war brick apartment buildings, past the limestones and the brownstones and the free-standing houses, past the quaint restaurants and the dimly-lit bars and the Spanish delis and the coffee shops. We stalked our new block and our new building to get a feel for it at night (verdict= its a little off the main path and has a light sketch factor, but our overall feeling is pretty positive), and we walked until Nico was a happy dog and baby girl was fast asleep. 

At the end of our walk I got to thinking about the evolution of our city life. I realized that somehow, while we've been struggling to settle down and make a good home, a bit of each of my dreams has infiltrated my life. Here we are, living in NYC, but just enough out of the craziness to feel that little bit of peace and quiet. I'm looking forward to being able to plant a little garden in our new place, to growing that little piece of the country.  That elusive spacious artist space will also suddenly be ours.  I am so excited to finally have the space to build creative studios for both Gaby and I, so that we may work on our art and design and music from home.  And while we may not be in a foreign county, we will certainly be in a multi-cultural neighborhood. And we just discovered an unbelievable organic market down the street too! 

It seems like while I've been busy running around Manhattan (see photos above), the universe has sent me tiny pieces of each of my dreams. At the end of our walk this evening, Gaby and I were both feeling calm and optimistic and confident about our impending move. I think we are ready to try this Brooklyn thing one more time.

Another Move + Another Neighborhood

So.. about those major changes afoot which I mentioned last week... we're moving! (again!). Just as we opened and put away the last box, here we are turning around and packing everything back up.  Our books, clothes, toys, dishes, linens.. all back into boxes! Phew, here we go. I plan to begin packing in just a couple days even though we aren't moving for a few weeks yet. I don't want to feel rushed or panicked at the last minute, and, with a baby, always find it a good idea to give myself more time than I anticipate needing.  I am extremely excited about this change, but also can't believe that we are going to go through it all again. After setting up home in our current apartment not even six months ago, we slowly began to realize that the space just wasn't for us. As time went on and more problems arose, Gaby and I decided to set a deadline by which to be in a new home: May 1st.  Within days of coming to this decision, the perfect place all but fell into our laps.  It was uncanny.  Wooden floors, high ceilings, lots of light, bay windows, backyard, crown molding, dog-friendly.. a real dream! We will be living in a turn-of-the-century limestone in a cute Brooklyn neighborhood. I feel in my heart that it's going to be really good for us.

Little Biet is going to have lived in 3 different homes before her first birthday! If you had told me this while I was pregnant (when we had no plans of ever leaving our Manhattan apartment), I would have told you that you were nuts. But here we are: transitioning and growing and working on becoming a closer family through all of this upheaval. Because the one thing that all of this moving madness is teaching me is that no matter where we might be, when we're with each other, we are home.

Just a couple blocks away from out new place is a neighborhood which was coined "The Country in the City" when it was built over a century ago. It's kind of crazy beautiful, a historical little gem of a place buried in the heart of Brooklyn. As we walked around the Victorian mansions and manicured lawns, we couldn't believe that we were still in New York City. But then you turn a corner, and you're right back in a regular city neighborhood. And while our new place isn't anything close to these picturesque houses (although it is in a really pretty modest townhouse with fresh herbs growing out front!), it will be nice to take Nico on long walks through these peaceful grandiose blocks. Yes, this new chapter of our lives is going to be nice. I can feel it.

Good Morning Brooklyn

We have arrived. All four of us.  And we are safe and happy and exhausted and adjusting to new routines in our new neighborhood. Hello Brooklyn! You are quite something. You seem a bit rough and tumble from afar, but are so very different up close. You may not have as many skyscrapers as Manhattan, but your buildings are ancient and quaint (with nice BIG apartments inside). Your parks are lush, your streets narrow, your skyline expansive, your people loud, and your pride palpable. You have hustle and bustle, and quiet neighborhoods too. We landed somewhere right in the middle. You also have flea markets & farmers markets & horses & beaches & elevated subways & docks & every kind of food imaginable. I am just getting to know you, Brooklyn, but so far I think I like you.

Our short journey here from across the river was comically disastrous. Beginning with our belongings not fitting into the 17 foot truck we rented and ending with the elevator being broken upon our arrival.  In between, another moving truck smashed into us on the Bowery and shattered the window on me (luckily, baby girl and her Papa weren't riding with me), it started raining, and our new apartment wasn't quite finished being renovated. We are just now beginning to laugh at it all.  All I can say is THANK YOU DEAR FRIENDS. An army of our amazing friends showed up at our place on moving day morning, coffees in hand, and jumped right in. They carried all of our furniture and boxes, took care of Biet & Nico, and kept our spirits high through each unforeseen setback. We quite literally could not have done it without them. We are so grateful to have such an amazing family of friends in the city. 

Now we've been here a week. The apartment is slowly coming together, and the blog is back up and running (it was on hold for a while due to switching internet providers & losing/packing the computer charger).  My favorite thing about our new space, so far, is the sunlight. The sun pours in from the big Brooklyn sky into every room of our apartment. It makes me want to take photographs all day. And it is simply lovely to wake up to in the morning.  I think baby girl feels the same way.

Hanging Out

Hello! Oh don't mind me- I'm just hanging out here on the couch while my parents pack all our stuff into cardboard boxes for the big move..
Oh, and they put this weird disposable diaper thingy on me because I guess the cloth ones are being packed away. I miss my cloth!

These Days...

Apologies apologies! It's been awhile since I've updated the blog, so I do apologize. Life has been a bit hectic for the past couple of weeks. All of a sudden, our lives became about just one thing: moving. If you've ever had to move in New York City, you know what I'm talking about. Finding a new apartment is hard enough, finding a new apartment with a 4-month-old is, quite simply, a TON of work. We've been commuting every day for the past two weeks all around Brooklyn to see potential new homes (nursing on the subway and changing diapers on the floor of vacant apartments has become commonplace), dealing with a slew of brokers who handle said apartments, & collecting boxes from local businesses to pack up our home, all whilst both working full time & trying not to disrupt Biet's schedule. My apartment standards have raised so very much now that we have Biet. Now, a place must not only feel right to live and cook and sew and make music in, it must be worthy of my daughter. In each place we saw, I was acutely aware of the fact that this would be the place where Biet learns to crawl, to walk, and to communicate. The apartment we chose would become the backdrop of her very first memories. So we were picky.

And all the craziness and pickiness and stressfulness of the search for a new home paid off. Because today we signed a lease. We found it, and we are so grateful. It's a little scary- moving to a new neighborhood in a new borough with a new family, but also thrilling. I am utterly in love with our new apartment. Utterly. I can feel that it is the beginning of a new chapter of our lives. And just in time for this big change, the weather changed. A crisp chill blew into the city, letting us know that autumn is here. We're layering on sweaters and hats once again, and lacing up our fall boots. Biet has been alive for an entire season. She just turned 4 months old! And Gaby just turned a year older! We had a small gathering at home for his birthday with a delicious double chocolate cake made by yours truly.

Here are some photos of our life, these days. Many more will be coming shortly. Many more posts as well (because of course I have to post about our new apartment and the big move and Biet's new best friend and our adventures in the new neighborhood)..

The last picture is the outside door of our new (big+bright+hard-wood-floored) home (in 10 more days!!)..

The B

If (or shall I say when) we find our dream apartment in the park-side neighborhood we've discovered (and now LOVE), then our local subway will no longer be the F-train, but instead the B. This means that when she's a bit older, little Biet will learn how to ride the B train. I like the thought of that. I can almost see her, metrocard in hand, toddling through the turnstile eagerly & fearlessly. I'll tell her stories about the days when we used shiny tokens to get on the subway instead of cards. And she, a street-smart tiny New Yorker, will tell us how how the B stands for the Biet train. Oh, the adventures to come!
Here are some more photos of our little trip to Prospect Park by way of the B-train..

Prospects..

So we are definitely moving come October 1st. We have decided to try to end up within a couple blocks of a NYC park this time. If we're lucky enough to find a place in my neighborhood of choice (I'm keeping my fingers crossed and obsessively checking craigslist every day) then the name of our new park (aka front yard) will be Prospect Park! Prospect Park: the wild-eyed stepsister of Central Park, the tourist-free oasis in the middle of Brooklyn, the home of botanical gardens & The Prospect Park lake (part of which is dedicated as a dog swimming area- Nico will thank me one day) & museums & a 99-year-old carousel & horseback riding (yes please) & an ice-skating rink & and acres of forest and wilderness!

Gaby and baby girl and myself took the train out the other day to get a feel for the park. We walked around our potential new neighborhood, chatted with locals, & sat and daydreamed of what it might be like to wake up each day to such wondrous nature. In my daydream we were calm and joyful, more creative than we'd ever been, in the center of a vibrant neighborhood and in a home with abundant space (and hard-wood floors & a huge kitchen & lots of natural light- ok, my dream may have been a bit unrealistic, but maybe not) and Nico & Biet were happy to have the brightness & freedom of the park.

Now I just need to make it all happen.

The Block

I am truly and dearly in love with our block.  We live across the street from an ivy-covered cemetery and next door to a majestic church.  I often find myself staring out the window at the cemetery, with it's ancient tombstones & gated garden.  When I was pregnant with Biet, Gaby and I would walk through it and stop at each grave to read the dusty centuries-old engravings.  We were still trying to find a name for our little Poppyseed (Biet's in-utero moniker) and hoped to come across a long-forgotten gem. Every morning, I hear the birds who live in the cemetery trees chirping as they awake.  You could walk by this block a thousand times & never know it's serene charm until the day you turn the corner & walk down the street.  It feels like a quiet European side street, yet it is here in the center of Manhattan.

I love that we have the kind of neighbors who you really can borrow a cup of sugar from (not easy to find in this city).  I love that we also have the kind of neighbors who make music and art and laughter until the wee hours of the morning.  I love the smell of our block, especially when the seasons are changing.  I love the old beat-up seafoam-green 1970's Cadillac that's always parked outside of our building (I've never actually seen someone drive it- but it always changes the side of the street for street-sweeping).  I love each & every character of our small block; from the old man who sits under the shade of the big tree across the street and feeds the passing dogs peanuts, to the Priest of the church who always waves hello and blesses us, to Helen who brings her accordion in the mornings to play music for the birds.

But, more than anything, I love that this is the block on which Biet was born.

This was our first apartment that became a true home.  Gaby and I fixed up the place together, found all of our furniture second-hand, framed our family pictures and nailed them to the wall, and turned this little tenement railroad apartment into the beautiful eclectic home that it is today. In this apartment, here on this magical little block, I became a painter, an electrician, a woodworker, a seamstress, a designer, a blogger, a business-owner, and a mother.  We raised Nico from a puppy to a real dog here.  We birthed our daughter here. We became a family here.  And I have loved every moment of it.

And now it is time to move on.  Where to? We're not sure yet, but in a couple of months we will be rolling up our belongings and heading to a new block, in a new neighborhood, & possibly in a new borough (!). It is bittersweet.  I will miss our block with all of it's quirky charm. But there is a new space and a new landscape and new characters to meet, just waiting for us!  Now that we've built our home we can take it with us, wherever we please.

I will take Biet back to this block many times throughout her life.  I will introduce her to the neighbors who are still around.  We will sit in front of the cemetery and I'll point up at the second story window of the brick building across the street and say, "Honey Pie, see those two windows on the right? Those were the windows of our big, bright bedroom, where we laid with you on our bed when you were only minutes old.  Behind those windows, beyond the bedroom, is a long dark living room, where your Papa cut your cord.  And behind that is a pink-tiled kitchen, where you were born in a tub and took your first breath."

So even though we are leaving this block which I love so dearly, Biet will always be able to walk here and glance up at our building and feel at home.  In a way, this block will always be hers.