Future Momo Jewelry

New England excursion

Well, it looks like I went m.i.a. again.  The past month has been a whirlwind of job interviews and a trip back to New England to meet my dad's family for the first time.  I saw Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut and New Hampshire in a week.  My family somehow managed to live in just about every town from Hartford up to the border of Canada at Vermont along the 91 freeway through the area, so there was a lot to see. 

The trip was a spontaneous trip after a late invitation to a family reunion in Southampton, MA.  My dad's entire family stayed in the New England area, so we were the only ones flying in.  I had only met one or two of the family members before and it has been at least 20 years since I saw them last and a lot of the other family haven't seen me since I was a baby.  It was a very chaotic and interesting experience to say the least.  Because I've also been working on my family tree, we took the time to visit some of the old family houses and other related things too, so those were cool to see.

I got to see a few covered bridges...

Creamery bridge, Brattleboro, VT

Thompson Bridge, Swanzey, NH

Cresson Bridge, Swanzey, NH

And a lot of rivers Ashuelot River, NH

I ate in a diner made out of an old train car Chelsea Royal Diner, West Brattleboro, VT

 I got to see the houses my immigrant ancestors built Historic Deerfield, MA

Charlestown, NH

And some houses other family lived in

Charlestown, NH

Greenfield, MA

And who could resist going to the Yankee Candle Company flagship store? You can smell all the candles from the parking lot!  This place is so huge they hand out maps when you walk in.  After a minute you can't smell anything anymore.

The entire trip looked like this from the car I've never seen so many trees in my life.  You couldn't even tell that there were towns anywhere because of all the trees.

I also saw a lot of very New England-y thingsLike church steeples rising above the trees - Keene, NH

And town squares - Keene, NH

  And very old houses - Historic Deerfield, MA

And I got to eat at an inn and tavern than has been open since 1776, the Griswold Inn in Essex, CT.  This place was amazing.  It was like an enormous antique store and I wanted to take half of the things home.  (An old wagon is parked in front, sorry it's so dark) 

The whole historic section of Essex was adorable.  Many of the houses had signs stating the original owner and the year it was built. 

Isn't that a cute birdhouse?

 And of course there was a river

And we took a day trip to the Mystic Seaport, which is a "living history museum" - a recreation of a historic seaport, complete with a real whaling ship

The quarters in this ship were so tiny, I can't imagine a bunch of men living in them for months at a time!

There was also a recreation of the Amistad

A cooper

And lots of cool other things

Oh, and there were some real, historic ship figureheads too.  These were enormous.  Sorry the pics didn't turn out great.  It was really dark inside and the figureheads were mounted pretty high up on the wall.

I'm so happy that I got to go and see where my dad grew up and where the family still lives and meet most of them.  Hopefully I'll stay in touch with them and get to know them better. The heat wasn't even as bad as I was scared it would be.  Super fun trip and I am so glad I went!

I also got a job offer the day before I left, so I've been trying to get back into work mode.  Luckily, it's a good job at a good organization and the morale is very high.  So, I think I am going to like working there.  And of course, now I will have money to start buying craft supplies again!  (Now I just need to make time to make things...)

  

Erin go bragh

Happy St. Patrick's Day! 

I might be celebrating with a Jameson's and ginger later on tonight....

A couple of pics from my trip to Ireland in honor of today:

  

 

I also just finished reading Black Potatoes by Susan Campbell Bartoletti.

I think it's a young adult book, but it was written very well and not dumbed down at all.  It was a great introductory book into the history of the famine.   It's also a very fast read with lots of historical pictures.  Check it out if you're interested in the background of the potato famine!

I also made a couple of samples of shaving soap and gave them to people to try out.  So, as soon as I get their reactions, hopefully I can make some to post in my shop.

 

 

Montreal part 2

Okay, I'm back with a few more pictures!

One area that I really liked that I didn't get to explore enough was Plateau. 

 

It had great architecture and lots of great shops....

And great food!

It was such a hot day, a bit of gelato on the patio was just what we needed

With your choice of milk or dark chocolate with it too!  The gelato was from Suite 88 Chocolatier and both the gelato and chocolate were yummy!  I can't even remember what flavors I had, but they were good.

And of course there were lots of places selling maple goodies

I wish I could have taken everything in this display case home!

Isn't this the cutest bench?  It was outside of a kid's clothing shop in Plateau on rue Saint Denis

I loved this Metro entrance!  It was the only one like it that I saw, though.

 

The Queen was right across the street...

 

The beautiful Town Hall building, which was unfortunately under renovation so I couldn't see it all

Here's a pic from the official Town Hall website so you can see how pretty it really is!

 

Some street art in Old Town

Old Town was such a fun mix of old and modern

Along the Old Port, I spied

the Cirque du Soleil site

loved these lamp posts

 
I have no idea what this building is, but it was really interesting to me

We also visited Saint Joseph's Oratory

The oratory itself was.... skippable, but I really liked the curving staircases

 

After leaving the oratory, we stopped by this cute little farmer's market

I love the fruit baskets!  Somehow grapes look tastier in those baskets than the plastic bags we use here

We also visited the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, which was fantastic

They had a small exhibit on Napoleon, with some art from the time, plus some of his personal possessions, like his hat, pen holder, some clothes and even a locket of hair that was owned by George Sand. 

(from the Museum website)

They also had an amazing exhibit of a collection of jewelry that Cirque du Soleil and Boucheron collaborated on for Cirque du Soleil shows

 

This picture (from their website) does not do the jewelry justice!  It was all beautiful, but of course pics weren't allowed.  I wish they had had a book or something about the exhibit in the gift shop, but I couldn't find anything.

There were also beautiful paintings by Matisse, Picasso, Monet, Rembrandt and more.  

I spotted this graffiti piece about a block from the museum

 

I'm not usually into graffiti, but I thought it was interesting

Of course, I also visited the Jardin Botanique.  I never miss an opportunity to visit botanical gardens when I can!  

I'm crazy for orchids....

I wish I had a greenhouse so that I could grow more of them!
 

 

There were lots of other very cool plants in the greenhouses too

 

 

Unfortunately, it was the one day that It rained, so I didn't get to wander around the gardens very much, but it did clear up enough for me to visit the Chinese garden, which was nice

And saw some lily ponds

 

Admission to the Insectarium was included.  It was pretty

And creepy

All at once.  Remind me never to go to the remote parts of Asia, where rhino beetles get as big as your head.  Eek.

Anyway, Montreal was a beautiful city and I definitely didn't get to see as much as I wanted to see.  I would definitely go back, although if I go to Canada again soon, it might be to Churchill to go see the polar bears.  We'll see what life has in store next!

Montreal part 1

Well, I finally made it back from Montreal a few days ago, only to sadly find that a friend's father and another friend's husband died while I had been away, so I have been meaning to post some pictures from the trip, but got sidetracked.  It's been a bit surreal because I've been fortunate enough to have only had to go to two other funerals in my life and then suddenly had to go to two in just one day.  It has been a very crazy week.  Sorry to be depressing, but it's one of those periods in life that makes you reflect and everything is kind of happening at once and I can't wrap my brain around it. 

Anyway, I had a great time in Montreal and Quebec city.  I stayed about a block from Old Montreal and right around the corner from the beautiful Notre Dame Basilica.

(view from by the hotel, the building in the center)

 

 

The huge organ
 

a beautiful staircase

The basilica was actually designed by an Irish guy, which I think really shows in some of the decorations, which were really pretty

The Old Town was just like I had thought it would be.  I loved walking around and seeing the older buildings. 

 

There wasn't a lot of color that I saw, except for the occasional splash of color here and there

 

Rue Saint Paul was about as touristy as I expected, but I still loved it.  Early in the morning, the street was peaceful and I could explore without the crowds

My mom and I had a nice meal at La Sauvagnie on rue Saint Paul

 

 

right across the street from.....  poutine!
 
I didn't brave trying the poutine at Montreal Poutine, but I have a good excuse because I don't they make any vegetarian poutine!

A stop sign

 

Casa de Fajitas.... scary!  Somehow I didn't feel like trying Mexican food in Quebec...

 

Notre Dame de Bon Secours Chapel

The church had miniature ships hanging from the ceiling.  It is also known as the sailor's church from the sailors that came from the nearby port.

Pierre du Calvert - a beautiful inn/restaurant across from street from the Bon Secours church and one of the oldest buildings in Montreal.

 

Although the sign could use some work...

\

Fairyland!

 

Place Jacques Cartier was pretty

 

and had lots of horse drawn carriages!

More pictures soon!

San Juan Bautista

A couple of weeks ago, some friends and I went down to San Juan Bautista to visit a friend who recently moved down there.  None of us had ever been there before, so it was a bit of an adventure.  It's only about an hour and a half drive south of San Francisco, but it's a really cute small town of about 1,500ish people and has one of the original California Missions.

We had lunch at our friend Becky's house and we were all jealous that she has an actual house instead of an apartment, with a backyard, front yard and a patio.  After lunch, we walked around the town.  Parts of San Juan Bautista were featured in the movie Vertigo by Alfred Hitchcock.  

I think the most famous feature that made it into the movie was the actual mission and the tower. Apparently, the bell tower was a fake, but there is still a pretty um, bell wall there.

Almost a tower, but not quite.  Definitely no ledge for Jimmy Stewart to stand on.

 

 

I love this walkway alongside the mission

The mission was built in 1797 and is the 15th of the original 21st missions in California.

Unfortunately, they also built it right on top of the San Andreas fault!

 

Luckily, it's still standing! 

There's a teeny cemetery behind the church

 

I loved how these statues were all lined up

In the garden...

 

There were chickens walking around all over the place, seriously.  I have no idea where they all came from.

The beautiful Plaza Hotel on the plaza, across from the Mission.

After we walked around the mission and the historic area, we walked through the shopping district, full of "antique" shops, which were more like expensive thrift shops, but still cute.  We were almost back at Becky's house, when I fell like a moron inside one of the antique shops.  Luckily I didn't bang my head on any case or anything, but I did feel pretty stupid.  I am a bit of a klutz and I fall somewhat often (maybe once or twice a year) but usually not in front of people I know, so I was actually a little embarrassed this time.  I really have no idea why I actually fell all the way over instead of just tripping over that stupid chair, but I guess it could have been worse.  I'm still trying to fix a fractured ankle from a fall just over a year ago but thankfully I didn't make it worse.  I did, however, get really achy and sore and so I got delayed in blogging yet again, but I think it's a good excuse!  Crossing my fingers that it's my last fall for a very, very long time!  It also gave me a good excuse to watch the Olympics, which I love.  This year I got really into the skiing and snowboarding events more than the ice skating, but I did end up watching most of it still anyway.  I'm still sad that the US didn't beat Canada for the hockey gold, but silver is still good!

Wine tasting

I recently went wine lasting in Livermore, a farming community that is at the eastern edge of the Bay Area before it turns into the Central Valley.  I never knew that Livermore even had wineries until just a couple of months ago! 

We went to four or five different wineries in the area.  Only a couple actually charged for tastings and gave generous pours and lots of tastes for free or about $5, which is a great deal, especially when places like Napa charge up to $25 for tastings.

 

One fun place we visited was the Thomas Coyne Winery.

 They had a ton of great wines and I think I tried about 10 wines before giving up because I was getting too tipsy!

There was this funny sign by the tasting room-

It was a fun and surprisingly warm day!

Copenhagen

I can't believe it's been a year now since I visited Europe. The last place I visited was Copenhagen.  By the time I got there in late September, it was getting very cold and a bit rainy and the sun rarely came out from the clouds.  Still, it was a beautiful city with very delicious pastries (they're called danishes for a reason!).  I was feeling nostalgic and looking through my pictures this weekend.  Here's some of my favorites from Copenhagen.

As soon as I arrived in Copenhagen, I headed to Tivoli Gardens, an amusement park and so much more.  Luckily, it was the last week it was open before closing for the winter and it was half priced to get in!

Asian Station - where they served mostly sausages...

 

 

There are tons of lights and fountains at Tivoli

 

There was some sort of play going on...

 

The mermaid in front of the Hans Christian Andersen ride... It was a bit like It's a Small World, but with little scenes from Andersen's tales.  I tried to get pix inside, but it was too dark and the ride moved too quickly.

I also visited Nyhavn, the famous canal.  The sun kept flitting in and out behind the clouds, but it was a beautiful place, complete with typical Danish architecture.

There were other pretty canals and buildings too

Right by these buildings was a little flea market

Smurfs!

I also visited the Carlsberg Brewery.  You got to try 4 beers.  Unfortunately, I don't like beer very much, but I did meet a nice Swedish couple visiting from Malmo and we had a great conversation.

The giant Carlsberg elephants at the entrance.  It's hard to tell in the picture, but they're pretty huge.

 

One of the royal family's palaces.  There are 4, situated around a plaza.

A royal guard

The Round Tower (Rundetarn), built in 1642 as an astronomy tower

 

Rathaus, the city hall. It's across the street from Tivoli Gardens and on the entrance to the Stroget, a big shopping promenade

There were little statues all around the Rathaus and surrounding plaza

Rosenborg Palace.  This is where they keep the crown jewels, which are absolutely amazing.  Of course, you can't take pictures inside and there were a ton of heavily armed guards, so I didn't risk it!  It also functions as a museum now.

It was a bit rainy out, so I couldn't get a great picture of the outside, but it was very pretty.  Around it are the king's gardens.  The Royal Family are apparently pretty down to earth and can be seen around the city walking their dogs and things like that.

I also visited Christiania, a sort of city within the city.  Back in the 70s, some people took over an old military site and declared it Freetown Christiania.  They have a street called Pusher Street where you can buy drugs and other things.  It kind of reminded me of the Haight Ashbury neighborhood here, with dogs running around and people selling rasta stuff and other things.

   The entrance

The red with the 3 yellow dots is their logo

I would definitely visit Denmark again, but I have sooo many places on my travel wishlist that it may be awhile before I get back there!

Comic Con part 2

Barbe and I with the Coronado Bridge in the background.

We saw a bunch of famous people at Comic Con and it was funny to see them walking around with everyone and no one was bothering any of them. 

Lou Ferrigno

I used to love The Hulk when I was little!

Adam West

I think it was a bit mean of him to wear sunglasses a hat, considering his booth was for autograph signings and pictures.  Why not let the fans get a good picture of him?

Gene and Nick Simmons

R2D2

Okay, it's not really a famous person, but definitely a famous icon!

My Jane Wiedlin autograph

Tom Kenny, the voice of Spongebob and other talents

Barbe knows him and she ran into him at the Freberg panel and introduced us.  He seemed really nice and took the time to pose for pictures with fans and sign autographs. 

We sat in the hotel lobby to do some people watching on Saturday and met Nicholas Bishop from Past Life and he was very nice.  We also saw one of the Mythbuster guys, who live in San Francisco but I've never seen them up here.   We also saw Carrot Top, who looked like he was a bit addicted to spray tans, plastic surgery, or was wearing makeup, or all of the above!


Barbe, taking a picture of me taking a picture of her

The line to get in on Saturday was about a mile long...

It started at the top right of the above pic, zigzagged all the way around, went across the street and...

 

wrapped around the embarcardero!  It actually kept going past that too.  I am glad we didn't have to wait in that line!

We walked down to Seaport Village, which is a little outdoor mall that is pretty touristy but I loved it when I was a kid.  It hasn't changed much even though I haven't been there in 20 years and some of the same shops were even there!  I still thought it was cute. 

There was a guy with pretty rescued parrots too that we got to hold.
 

The weather was gorgeous, even though it was a bit too humid for my tastes, and we took advantage since it's so cold here in SF.  Downtown San Diego has changed a lot since I lived there and it of course didn't feel like the city I used to live in but still felt good to visit.  I'm still glad I moved back to San Francisco all those years ago, but I still like visiting San Diego and I am thinking of going back down to see old friends again sometime soon. 

 

Storm troopers on the embarcadero...

Mighty Boosh at Comic Con

Well, I am back from Comic Con in San Diego and I am exhausted!  It was a great whirlwind of a trip and I am so happy we got to see The Mighty Boosh in person!  There were three Boosh related events on Friday that Barbe and I set out to do - an autograph signing, a panel discussion, and a dj set at a club.   We landed in San Diego in the morning and headed over to our hotel that was right next to the convention center to drop off our bags.

(The line to get into the Disney panel. The hall fit 6000 people.)

There was so much traffic and blocked off streets that it took about 45 minutes to go a usually 10 minute drive.  We checked in and raced over to get our badges and get inside the exhibit hall.

As soon as we finally made it inside, we ran right into Jane Weidlin's autograph booth and got her autographs and a picture (pix soon) and she is even more adorable in person!  She's so tiny and her voice is so cute.  After that, we went into the exhibit hall and it was major sensory overload inside!  Almost all of the major movie theaters had giant booths there and there were toys and giveaways and people in costumes everywhere we looked. 

(Bumblebee from Transformers movie)

It was really overwhelming, and also crazy hot inside since there were about 100,000 people in there, so I got a bit dizzy while Barbe was over at the BBC America booth.  I didn't know almost anything at the convention because I don't read comics and I'm not into fantasy stuff.  While we were walking around shopping, Barbe spotted Kevin Sorbo and asked him what booth he was at, but we couldn't find it later.  The lines at all the booths that were selling things, like Giant Robot, were so long that we really didn't get very much.  We each only wanted to go to about five booths, but in the end hardly bought anything because of the huge crowds and most booths were only selling Comic Con exclusive items and not their full line of things. 

(The Twilight/Astro Boy booth.  Yes, I admit it, I like Twilight!)

After a break to get water, we headed over to the Adult Swim booth around 1 to get in line for the Mighty Boosh signing at 2.  Sadly, by the time we made it there about 1:30, the line was completely full and I heard they were only signing 100 autographs and there were about 300 people waiting in line.   We were just heartbroken because meeting them was pretty much the main reason to go to the con, and we both didn't think there would be as many people as there were waiting in line.  Their panel wasn't scheduled to start until 4:45, but after we realized we weren't going to get autographs, I got super type A and I insisted we head to their panel room to get seats immediately because I didn't want to miss the chance to get good seats, or none at all!  At Comic Con, they don't clear the rooms between panels and since nothing is guaranteed, you have to get in to the room of the panel you want to see way early.  So, we rushed up and got great seats, just in time.  Everyone who did get autographs and the others like us who realized they couldn't, came in right after us and the room filled up quick. 

Because it was so early, we had to sit through two panels before seeing the Boosh!   The first was for the pilot of a new show called Past Life which will start in January I think. We got to see the entire pilot and then they did a quick Q&A.  The show wasn't too bad and it's about past lives (duh) and trying to solve a murder that happened in one person's past life.

 

(Past Life cast)

The next panel was for Stan and Hunter Freberg.   Neither of us had heard of the Frebergs before, but Stan Freberg turned out to be a really famous voice actor and advertising voice from way back when and he and his wife told some really funny stories about "the industry", meeting Fritz Lang, and other stuff and it turned out to be a great panel.   I wasn't able to get pictures of them, but this is from the Comic Con site.

Next came The Mighty Boosh!  The room fit about 1000 people and everyone was screaming.  They jokingly said they were only expecting about 15 people and seemed really surprised and happy about their fans.  They talked awhile then did a Q&A.  Of course, some people asked some dumb questions but overall it was great and funny and I am soooo happy we were able to be there!  Barbe recorded the panel and I'll post the link when I get it from her.

After the panel, we were really tired and hungry so we found our hotel room and ate and got ready for the dj event at the club.  It said it started at 11, so we got there at 10.  Well, at 11:30 we were still standing in line on the street and getting really tired and impatient!  We finally made it inside by 11:45ish and then had to wait another 30 or 40 minutes for them to come onstage.   Instead of just a dj set, we were treated to a 45 minute Boosh show!  Tickets to their shows are like $70 and the club tickets were only $5, so we were so lucky.  They didn't allow pictures, so I don't have any to share, but it was pretty funny and so worth standing outside for 2 hours!  After the show, they did a dj set and we danced for awhile but it was hard because almost everyone just stood watching them dj instead of dancing for some reason. It ended at 2 and they all came out and did a couple of dances that they have done in their tv series and then left.  

Barbe was trying to get us backstage, but security wasn't letting hardly anybody back there, so we went around to the back door of the club.  When we first got back there, Julian Barrett was outside chatting with people, but went back in as soon as we walked up!  We stood there for a long time, but it was clear they weren't coming out until there were less people because a few idiots kept trying to rush the doors and get past security. 

(Julian Barrett's ear.  People knocked me out of the way!)

So we finally gave up and left and tried to get some sleep.  Even though we didn't get to meet them, it was such a great experience to get to see them live and they said they wanted to tour America, so hopefully they will be back soon for a full tour!  It was an incredibly tiring but great day and I am so happy we were able to get tickets for everything and see them.

NYC and Vancouver goodies

Well, apparently I didn't get rid of the computer virus, but I almost give up at this point and don't want to keep putting off blogging and updating my shops any longer!

My parents just got back from a quick trip to New York for my mom's birthday and they picked me up some very yummy truffles and hot chocolate mix from La Maison du Chocolat while there.

The truffles, um, didn't last very long, but in my defense there were only two!  I definitely savored them, though, and they were delicious!

I haven't tried the hot chocolate yet, but maybe tonight...

I also won this little pouch from bvann, a local San Franciscan who makes very pretty handbags


I also realized I never showed the stuff I bought in Vancouver.  It was mostly silly tourist stuff, like maple things.

Maple tea, ice wine tea and fancy hot chocolate


salmon jerky and maple cookies



And a half bottle of Canadian wine by Hester Creek and of course maple candy

I gave most of it away as gifts, but I picked up these pretty sea-inspired pieces for myself!