It's October.

And that means pumpkins!

And black kitties!

What does your Thursday look like?

xoxo, natty ❤

Scoops.

 

xoxo, natty ♥

A pool?!

Last week I realized something; there are pools in DC that are FREE to residents. I recognize that some may not be alright with this concept but those are my tax dollars at work and there is one a short mile walk from our apartment. 

So I went.

And it was hilarious. There were a lot of people there, but there were still some empty lounge chairs; the trick, I think, is going on a week day.

What I appreciated, beyond the water that felt glorious on a muggy day, was the mix of people; there was quite a variety.

I dipped myself several times, enjoyed some reading and people watching, and indulged in a McDonald's soft serve cone for my walk home. 

Win!

hopefully I'll make it over there in the next several weeks.
xoxo, natty ♥

Bells will be ringing.

This month's neighborhood window display: wedding bells because it's June.

 

Last's month's display: flowery circular things.

And because I love this stuff, here are: April, March, February, January, December/November.

I'm looking forward to getting shots of the remaining months to round out an entire year!

xoxo, natty ♥

What happens at dog park...

xoxo, natty ♥

Happy Easter!

Logan Circle style.

Embroidered Easter eggs. I'm beginning to believe that this person actually hand-makes these decorations.

xoxo, natty ♥

Social.

We had some friends over for a drink and then we all headed out to a restaurant in our neighborhood for dinner.

What was left over from our evening.

It's a nice perk of living in DC that we have people our age that we spend time with. It's not that there isn't anyone our age in San Jose but...I don't know what, there is no excuse; we're much more social in DC than we were in California. Maybe because we don't drive places? Ugh. Maybe we were just geriatric before our time. Maybe it's because our area of DC is full of people in our ten-year age range and also in similar life circumstances.

Anyway.

It's a Good Thing to be here.

On tomorrow's agenda, a handful of things, including corned beef & cabbage. 

xoxo, natty ♥ 

Snowquester 2013.

I'm going to milk that title as much as I can, not that I can take credit for it, but...still.

Everyone here in DC is gearing up/freaking out about the upcoming Snowquester but there are many things to be happy about today!!!

As a quick aside, I LOVE our Capital Weather Gang {they have a live blog for Snowquester!};  it's a blog of weather lovers {& experts, boy, do they know their stuff} at the Washington Post. I love love love them. Have I said that I think they're great? They adore weather and talk in detail about each day's forecast. They even provide a daily weather number, as in "today is a 4". Now that I've expounded on them I seem to recall having mentioned them before. Oh well, I'm not going to shy away from my weather emotions!

Other Good Things...

1} No joke, this is what our dog does on his own.

 

2} The neighborhood March window display is as seen below.

Where did this person get these window decorations? How did {s}he finagle getting three of each? Will I ever get a decent picture without glare? Read about the past few months HERE, HERE, and HERE.

3} Late winter skies and the red brick that is so prevalent in our neighborhood.

Is there a prettier thing at which to look up?

4} After a fierce internal battle {it comes to that these days...my running mojo is barely flowing} I got myself out the door for some miles and I am SO glad that I did.

5} I even got in a quick 20 minute yoga session thanks to YouTube...the next best thing to actually going to the Y or an actual studio.

What's going on in your week Reader? If you're a certain Minnesotan friend, I know that you'll appreciate the weather goings-on over here!
xoxo, natty ♥

Hearts afire.

Our neighborhood window display for the month of February.
I was not disappointed!
xoxo, natty ♥

Without further ado...

I present to you: January's window, theme courtesy of a name-less-neighbor.

Snowmen. 
Of course.

Now can we get some actual snow here? {After writing that and the thought of "famous last words; yadda yadda yadda", I take no responsibility if we're bowled over by some mega-blizzard}. 

Read about this window setting HERE.
xoxo, natty ♥

Galletas.

That means "cookies" in the Spanish. 
Monday night I made the dough for shortbread cookies. I tried to roll it out but it needed more butter. By virtue of being shortbread cookies, more butter was adding to an already high amount of butter in said dough, but butter is always better. I was using her recipe, by the way. Quick de-railing, a while back I needed some plain cookies and had kind of been thinking of sugar cookies, they being a nice back drop for accoutrement like Nutella. I was perusing PW's cookie recipes since her recipe collection is a go-to one for me and my mind saw "s" and "cookie" so these I made only several months later to realize that they weren't even sugar cookies but they sure are delicious! Yesterday morning I took the dough out of the fridge and tried to roll it out but it was cold, so I worked it a bit with my hands and then it was good but it turned out to be a BOOGER (only figuratively) of a dough to roll. It might have been the extra butter, who knows, but I had a horrible hard time getting the stuff not to stick on the rolling pin and the board I was rolling onto. 

Trouble

It was worth it though because oh-my-gawsh these were DECADENT, buttery, crispy, dreamy...all of the above. 

Getting ready!

They were SO good! 

Then I bagged them up

and we used them as bribes around the neighborhood for signatures of our neighbors so we can get hitched and party it up in their street. The wedding will actually be in the backyard but who's counting? We are so blessed to live with such great people. I already knew most people on the block and that they're so awesome, but our neighbors were so kind and interested last night that I was able to reaffirm my belief that people are good, patient and kind. What a fun way to announce something!
I also made another batch while I had the Kitchen Aid going 

Nom nom nom!

and I thought I'd try to make them hearts too, which wasn't so easy since they're drop-cookies; some came out ♥-like

and others, blob-like.

The post on niceness is tomorrow, get excited.

xoxo, natty ♥

Photographic Friday

Some images to end the work-week (though I'm not technically working...shhh...) and a Natty-style book review at the end:

The sadness at Trace, the burnt-down school. 

Today when I was running by they were bull-dozing the remains and in the past few days these signs have come up. They're pretty poignant to me. I kind of think that many children would, despite maybe liking school, choose a fun day with friends/at home/doing whatever instead of school, but the childrens' messages on these signs showing their sadness at the blow their school has taken was truly touching. I love seeing the support and love that the children/parents/teachers/random people have put up for all to see. There was also a nice "thank you" poster to the SJ Fire Department (individuals who always deserve great thanks). I have a fear of fire (Thanksgiving 2008, for those of you in the know) and really admire those who fight it...thanks all! As a teacher (or just a person), it is very sad to see destroyed what I know was so much love and work, not to mention the actual supplies and effort put into making classrooms classrooms with personality and emotion rather than just rooms. Once again, it is such a good thing that no one was injured and that the children will be able to return to the same location when the school year begins, though the landscape will be a bit different...

Last night I stayed up late to finish "Body Surfing" by Anita Shreve. I'm quietly hung up on Shreve's books. They mostly take place on the East Coast and revolve around the life style of WASPy folks from that area, so, in other words, they have nothing in common with my life, but I'm hooked. My favorite of hers is actually "Fortunes Rocks", though I'll save that for a later post ("Books I MUST read at least once annually", no joke). This one was a fairly quick read and once I was within an hour of finishing, it just had to be done (please tell me that other people have those sorts of nights- when you don't plan on staying up too late when you get into bed to read but end up getting too involved!?) It revolves around a house on the coast in New Hampshire that is actually in several of Shreve's other novels and is somewhat about a love triangle and the sticky mess that families can make. The book was actually pretty disturbing to me, but knowing me, I'll probably revisit it in a year or so.

I did a bad thing and accidentally read a real author's review of this novel and can't seem to shake what this writer says, namely that Shreve does a fantastic job of description and reader entrapment, but that her story lines are always a bit ideal...however, it is fiction and we (I) read fiction for a reason. Anyway, my next read is probably "Fortunes Rocks" (once again, I = compulsive re-reader...are there any more of you out there???!!! BTW, K.L., my dear friend, I have yet to read "Dead Before Dark", and I REALLY REALLY plan on it this summer!) for my yearly/6 monthly/whatever fix, hopefully followed by Alice Hoffman's (my one true literary love, no shame about it!) "Practical Magic" (also a favorite movie) which I oddly don't own but just keep checking out from the library.

Tomorrow's our sale, wish us luck =) Here are some pics of our preparations as well as some of tonight's activities...

Cookies to sell tomorrow...Funfetti cookies, can you imagine?!

Gouge-your-eyes-out-colored signs to lure in customers...

The tools of the trade...

What's on TV tonight...Miss Marple = my girl!

What some one's reading tonight...

What I'm reading tonight...for now tonight...

What some one's gnawing on tonight...