Riding in the Rain

The other day, Josh and I rented one of our mopeds to a friend for a video shoot.  A pretty cool set prop if you ask me!  Here's the story of an unexpected fun adventure :

I delivered the bike early in the morning for the crew to use and waited for a call later in the day to pick it up.  The end of the day rolled around and still no word.  Their shooting day lasted a bit longer than they expected, but it was no concern for me!  After I was finished working, I rode the second moped up to the set to meet Josh, planning ahead so that the both of us could ride the mopeds home.  By the time we got to their set, the shoot was still not yet wrapped.  Josh and I wasted some time grabbing a drink at a bar near the set - happend upon a trivial night which was a lot of fun - and finally their shoot was complete.

We picked up the rented bike and hopped on our mopeds to head home.  As soon as we got on the road home, it started pouring.  I'm talking buckets of rain, thunder, and lightning!  We had a few miles to ride in the rain before arriving at home - and we got drenched.  It was invigorating!  The rain was pounding against my face, chest, and legs as I rode 25mph through the storm.  Blinking as quick as I could to keep clear vision, I couldn't help but to feel every bump on the road, every drop of rain, every sensation possible throughout the entirety of the ride.

We made it home safe and sound and soaked to the core, but it was one of the best rides on the bikes so far!  It wasn't the easiest ride home, and I wouldn't necessarily ask for it again, but I am happy to have had that experience.

A kick in the senses was very much appreciated!

It's Been a While!

Hi friends.  For those who keep up with my blog (or used to), I apologize for being MIA over the past few months.  Spring busyness hit me hard, and I'm just now feeling like I'm catching my breath.  Over the past several weeks, I've had the pleasure of taking part in the following adventures :

- traveled with my husband to upstate NY, Vermont, Boston as his photo assistant
- traveled to Knoxville, TN to visit my family and sister who is in town from Nicaragua
- bought 2 vintage Mopeds (one gold, one green) and have put a few miles on those babies too
- supplied our wonderful friends Gary and Lisa with their very own special Homebrew for their wedding (check out the photos!!)
- spent the day on Coney Island in celebration of another friend's birthday - the great Lisa Elmaleh
- work, work, worked on our new photo studio TeaCup Studios

That's just the short list that comes to mind at the moment.  There have been many hours of accounting, taxes, producing, editing, business managing, playing, awwwwing at Ella, visiting with friends old and new, and very little relaxing.  I'm catching up on hang time over the next few weeks and plan to pick back up on my blog.

That's my update for now.  Hope you have a good one!

Anchor Space : Otis Redding

Currently fermenting in the bottles, our Anchor Space : Otis Redding Red Hop Amber Ale is just about ready to enjoy!  I recently designed these labels for the bottles and bottle caps.  It was a fun personal challenge and I'm very happy with the results!

Catching Up!

I'm not sure if the excuse of the strange last couple of weeks is enough of an excuse to justify the neglect of blogging I've done lately.  Eek!

Well - the good news is that there is a lot coming up on the horizon.  Inspiration, collaborations, work, and new progress.  I'll be sure to share more soon.

Spring Is A'Coming!

My goodness!  It's amazing what a little fresh spring air and some warm sunshine will do for the soul.  It has certainly helped cure my winter blues!

Hope you had as wonderful of a spring weekend as I did.  Cheers to a great week ahead.

Feeling Great on a Day Like Today!

What a beautiful Saturday in NYC.  The warm sun is out, the streets are a'bustlin', our windows are open, and the record player is on.  I started my morning with a great walk to the Grand Army Farmer's Market where I picked up some local, organic groceries, 2 new succulents, and some gorgeous flowers to brighten the day.

Brew Round Two + Brooklyn Wort Homebrew Competition

This past weekend was full of homebrew for us! Josh and I attended the Brooklyn Wort homebrew competition held at the Gowanus Studio and brewed our second bath of Anchor Space homebrew.  At Brooklyn Wort, we tasted 30 different homebrews and voted on our favorite.  One of the two we voted for received the Judges Choice award.  I think that means we're good brew tasters!

And a bit about our own homebrew : we went for a red hop ale and decided to call it the Anchor Space : Otis REDding.  It should be good!  We used a great blend of grains and chocolate for steeping, four different hops (aroma and bittering variations), and a lovely red malt to make a great hoppy red ale.  Plus it's already fermenting in the carboy!

Two weeks of carboy fermentation ahead, plus three more weeks of fermentation in the bottles until they are carbonated and have some alcohol, but we're already looking forward to the first taste!

Here are some of our weekend photos :

Last Day of February...

... and I've gotten so much accomplished!  This dreary, rainy day has got me reflecting on the beginning of 2011.  My how time has flown by.

I'm looking forward to March, warm weather, and tasting our new Anchor Space Otis REDding Red Hop Ale!  Goodbye February, helloooo March!

I Love Lamp

Lighting is key to making a home feel homey.  Recently, we were gifted a wonderful lamp for our dining / living room.  It's so simple, elegant, and gorgeous.  The clear hand-blown glass isn't the easiest to quickly photograph, so come on over to look in person!!  Our lamp with an Edison Bulb on a dimmer switch is perfect for all kinds of lighting moods.

To go along with my new lamp, I've found a couple other lamps I'd love to have around he house.

From Horne, here's the Cornet Clip Lamp and Cornet Pendant Lamp :

Also featured on Remodelista is the Laboratorio Lame from Anve :

Loving Weekends!

Boy-oh-boy do I love weekends!  I'm so excited for the weather to warm up so I can use my weekend time outdoors going on amazing adventures, but for now I've been spending my weekends mostly hibernating and really getting a lot of work done.

Last weekend though, my Mom and Keith were in town and we managed to really pack it all in.  We went bowling at the Gutter, played cards at the Brewery, went to the Brooklyn Homebrew store, ate baguettes and cheese, drank some Anchor Space Pale Ale homebrew, introduced them to my sister Bethany, found some amazing vintage gems while shopping in Williamsburg, dined at Brooklyn Bowl, Le Gamin, James, and Milk Bar, and even fit a nap in there somewhere.  It was very fun and very happy!

This weekend, Josh and I will be attending the Brooklyn Wort homebrew competition, brewing a 2nd batch of our own beer (stay tuned for the story of Anchor Space : Otis Redding red ale), shooting a music video, and working on some photo-business stuff.

It sure feels good to be successful with work and happy with life!

Valentine Friends

My friend Lisa and I celebrated Valentine's Day together this year.  Our significant others were in LA at the Grammy's with Danny Clinch, so we decided to make a friendship date out of it.  We played a killer game of i Spy - Valentine's edition - where we spotted 112 gifts on the streets of Manhattan, ate some delicious dinner with oh-so-yummy sake, then mad our way to The Lakeside Lounge for some photobooth action.  It was a very fun evening just us gals.

Cheers to good friends!

Breakfast for a Queen

My new favorite breakfast is inspired by my local coffee shop, Milk Bar.  So simple and delicious : Fruit+Nut granola topped with Greek honey-flavored yogurt and a few thin apple slices on top.  Paired with a fresh cup of coffee, this breakfast is an incredible way to start the day.  Eventually, I plan to make my own granola, but for now my store-bought version works quite well.

Revolutionary Resolutions 2011 in Reality

I think I'm gaining success on my 2011 resolutions with each day that passes.  I've been engulfed in reading, organizing, and creating lately.  It feels good.

A short list of my accomplishments :

- I've definitely been much more organized.  I've accomplished a ton of business know-how on taxes, S-Corps, 1099s, server organization, accounting methods, and more!

- My personal and business receipts are organized with a system in place for keeping track of them.  One book down, four in progress on the reading list... though some of them are business-related, I'm still expanding my brain by means of book reading.  This also means I'm watching less TV.  Win-win!

- I've been more creative lately : brewing beer, cooking new recipes, and still continuing to find new artwork that inspires me.  I've got 3 pieces of art in progress and a few project ideas for the hopper in my brain.  I wish I was more motivated after the sun goes down to work on them though - my how I struggle with that one.

- Knuckle popping... the habit is not yet broken, however I'm becoming aware of the popping "in action" which I think is Step One.

- I've also started a once-a-week workout session with my good friend Lisa.  It's a start!  I think I'll be more eager to get fit once it warms up above 30 degrees.


All in all, I'd say my 2011 resolution list is getting great action.  I'll continue to update as I progress.  Hope you've held true to your resolutions as well.

A Serene Scene in my Backyard this Morning

As much as I don't love winter, I do love a freshly fallen snow.  The dampened sound, the way the light gets spread so evenly all around, the inner-child urge to forget all adult demands and hit the park for an all day sledding adventure!  Unfortunately my husband has to make the trek into the city to work today... I have a little hope he can come home early to enjoy some sledding time.

This is what we woke up to this morning.  Nearly twenty inches of fresh snow.

Winter Happiness

Normally I avoid any outdoor activities during the winter because it's simply too miserable.  The extra clothes, freezing skin, black slush everywhere, lots of unintentional "ice skating", it's just really not all worth the payoff of a little outdoor fun.

But this weekend, we ventured out for a wonderful walk through the park.  And it was great!  The entire park was blissfully quiet from the snow's dampening effect (we still have several inches), lots of sledding and snow-football activities, many converging tracks from cross-country skiers, explorers, and even from sleds, and an overall beautiful glow from the sun.

What a great winter refresher.

Anchor Space Pale Ale : Bottling Day

Great news from Anchor Space homebrew.... we just bottled our first batch this weekend! After sanitizing all of our bottling equipment, bottles, and caps, we successfully filled almost 8 six-packs of our Anchor Space Pale Ale.  Now we wait again for more fermentation.  After a few weeks, we will test them out!

Don't worry, custom labels are on the way!

Sanitized bottles.

Sanitized bottle caps.

Anchor Space partner, Josh.

Siphoning into the bottling bucket.

First bottled brew!

Anchor Space Pale Ale : Homebrew-Style

Last weekend, Josh and I experimented with our joint Christmas present to each other : a starter homebrew kit from Brooklyn Homebrew.

As intimidating as we thought homebrewing would be, the process was rather simple and straightforward.  Quite enjoyable, actually.  It felt like we were the guides of our own science experiment, and were very excited when our brew began to foam indicating that we successfully began fermenting!

Here's a little overview of how we brewed our first batch of Anchor Space Pale Ale :

With a ton of unknown equipment spread out across the office floor, we explored "The Complete Joy of Homebrewing" book to familiarize ourselves with what we had and what we were supposed to do with it.  It's important to note that we followed an ingredient kit prepared by Brooklyn Homebrew to make our first round easy... we're really glad we did! After a half-hour introduction, we sanitized all of our equipment, and got a pot of water on the stove.  

We seeped our grain mixture in some water to infuse the water with all of its flavors.  We added some more water, brought it to a boil, added three different hop variations at different increments, and finally added the pre-made malt liquid to the boiling water.  This combined mixture is called wort.  Once the wort boiled for the proper amount of time, we used a copper tubing coil to chill the wort quickly.  Once chilled, we transfered the wort to our fermenting carboy, filled the carboy with more water to equal 5 gallons, and added the yeast.  

The next morning when we woke up, the yeast was doing it's job fermenting.  Success! Our brew will remain in the fermentation carboy for 7 - 14 days at which point we will add sugar, bottle the brew, and let it ferment once more in the bottle before enjoying the fruits of our labor.  All in all, we will have spent 8 hours brewing beer, 2 months allowing it to ferment properly, and will result in almost 9 six-packs of our own Anchor Space Pale Ale creation to enjoy.  Pretty good deal if you ask me!  

We're looking forward to making our next round of Anchor Space Brew in the near future.

Drinking brew while brewing

Here are a few photos of our process : 

Sanitized Equipment

Hops and malt

Rapid-cooling the wort

Adding the malt

Into the glass fermentation carboy

First day of fermentation : success!

Hello 2011!

Happy 2011 everyone!  I'm finally back from lots of family visiting in both Tulsa and Knoxville.  The trip couldn't have been better.

I'm another year older, and have a feeling that 26 will treat me well.

A few of my trip highlights include :

- Giving out my carefully selected holiday gifts to loved ones

- Visiting both my family in Knoxville and Josh's in Tulsa

- A tour of the fantastic Biltmore Mansion and estate in Ashville, NC
- Attending a University of Tennessee basketball game - and yes, they won!
- Taking it back a few years by playing video games at The Max in Tulsa
- Learning a little Tulsa history about the 1920's Race Riots, and visiting the location where it all began
- Making Keith's legendary homemade pizza
- Celebrating Christmas, my birthday, and New Year's with my wonderful husband - our first year as a married couple

Man, it was great!  Hope yours was too.

Today in the Studio

Listening to Christmas music on Pandora while working on a few prints and wrapping gifts.  Happy holidays!

Homemade Chinese Dumplings

Several days ago, Josh and I had another adventurous day in the kitchen.  We made Chinese dumplings from scratch!  They were oh-so-yummy with our hand-rolled dumpling skins, and small-batch fillings containing any of the following ingredients : shrimp, tofu, scallions, cilantro, ginger, garlic, onion, shredded carrots, shredded cabbage, and of course sesame and red pepper oils.  We made enough to have a couple of rounds of leftovers, but they didn't last long.  They were just THAT GOOD.

Here are some photos of our cooking adventure: