Happy Halloween!

Ok, its a day late, but whatever. Feliz Dia de Los Muertos!

We had our second annual Halloween party this last weekend, and despite the fact that hurricane Sandy was threatening, we actually were able to go without a major storm during the party (unlike last year's freak blizzard).

So this year we had people show up! Actually, we had a fantastic party and our new upstairs neighbors, who are young girls, had about 70 people walking through the door, which made the whole thing more lively.

Anyway, on to the photos...

The bats are back! 

The fruit plate before we put the creepy crawlies on it. 

Can you guess what they are?! 

Can you guess who we are?! 

Probably not. This is who we are 

Chiquita banana and her monkey pal! 

Our friends John and Mandy - as each other! So great 

Timmy is a Target employee! 

Maverick was there! 

We had some pretty amazing costumes, obviously. 

Just hoping next year's party isn't accompanied by a hurricane, blizzard or tornado. 

Nissa's Visit.... Finally!

That's finally for two reasons: 1) I haven't seen my friend Nissa in about two years, which is ridiculous and 2) Its ridiculous how long it took me to post these pictures as she left over a week ago!

But anyway, Nissa did come to visit me and Bill in our new home in Philly. (New to her, that is)
She actually came in the night of the exhibit and was the most amazing person the whole night. She just did little jobs when I needed her to as if she was getting paid to do it. She seriously made the night go smoothly for me.

Afterwards, we went out for a few drinks at Prohibition Tap Room with a fellow non-profit employee.


Their sign looks like this. Its pretty fun. (Photo courtesy of Veggiecurious.com)

The next day we headed towards Old City for a little boutique shopping, which ended up being book shopping, and First Friday's lineup of galleries and street artists.

But first, we headed to Franklin Fountain, Old City's retro soda shop for some root beer floats, followed by a trip to their sister store, Shane's Confectionery, which boosts a Victorian-era grab bag of goodies.

We bought a caramel apple that took us a week to finish!

We both ended up picking up some silly, old, sex how-to books and some vintage photographs before heading home for a little Mexican & Margarita night.

Bill spent the night in AC for a friends birthday, so that night was girly, and silly, and very pink, as you can see. 

The next day, Nissa and I went to Midtown Village's Fall Fest which was just an excuse to eat a lot of food and drink some spiked cider. 

Yummy bites from Barbuzzo and Jamonera! 

Look at that nice man looking over us all! He sort of looks like God with that halo of light. 

And here we are! We basically both wore these two scarves all week. 

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Nissa and I spent the rest of the week watching movies in our PJs, walking around downtown Philly in pursuit of warm food and drink and finding ourselves always a little out of time and money. But we did get to eat at some great places... 

Like Continental... 

...and Bistot La Minette, and Tria, and the Twisted Tail. 

We also went to the Mutter Museum, which is a museum of medical oddities, many very grotesque, and the Penn Museum for their Maya 2012 exhibit. Of course, the only pictures I was able to grab were of worry dolls at the end of the Maya 2012 exhibit. I thought they were visually stunning, not to mention presented in mass quantities!  

And here's Miss Nissa at the reflecting pond at the Penn Museum or Archaeology and Anthropology. 

We also took advantage of the fact that it was the week of Design Philadelphia and hit up the opening party. It was held in an architectural warehouse and featured some genius, green designers who were able to create chairs and tables from cardboard and igloos from paper circles! It was pretty fun.  

We ended our visit with a night on the beach, which sounds very romantic but ended up being more like boy scout survival. It was extremely dark and Bill had to create a sand, fire pit and start a fire in ungodly winds. 

All the same, we had fun, singing songs around the campfire and eating picnic foods. They may have been covered by sand, but they were good! 

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And that was that! We just need to make sure its not another two years before I see my best friend! 

Speaking of best friends, stay tuned for my other one's wedding! 

The Event That Took Over My Life

This last Thursday, we finally had the event that has been taking over my life for the last month and a half - the exhibit of art therapy for the non-profit I work for.

I envisioned this event a few months ago, and pitched it to a less-than-enthusiastic boss who was jaded by previous fundraising attempts. But I moved forward with it anyway.

Planning an event that was only a few months away, I basically did the whole thing myself, minus the art work. Luckily, I had a few amazing therapists helping me generate art work for the event and piecing everything together.

In the end, it was a pretty fantastic event. It was held at the Art Sanctuary, a local gallery and art space that focuses on African-American art. It was a beautiful space and the team there was a dream to work with. We had a great turn out and even the weather remained nice. My friend Nissa was in town and was even able to deal with some of the crap at the event so I could play hostess.

Everything went smoother than imagined and we even got a few Philadelphia papers to report on the event, including my own City Paper!

Anyway, on to the images....

The nice outdoor space that people loved. 

The outline was done by a child who had recently lost his father. When he was asked to create a self-portrait, this is all he did. He stopped with the outline that is reminiscent of a chalk outline on a crime scene. 

Amazing painting done by adolescent girl about her loss and her mother's aid through it all. That's her mom's hand sewing up the broken heart. Amazing. 

T-shirt made in adolescent therapy group with angel wings and "Peace In Paradise" - Islamic R.I.P. 

Our silent auction items

That's my back as I watch our Executive Director introduce the therapist. 

Our child therapist explains art therapy and trauma therapy to the audience. 

Our adolescent therapist, her client and her client's painting which represents the good times and the bad. 

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All in all, a great success. I'll try and remember to post when the newspaper articles come out! 

A Celebratory Weekend

Last weekend, Bill's family came together at our house for a very good reason: his sister and her long-time boyfriend got engaged!!!

What ensued was a lot of celebratory eating, of course. Cupcakes and all!

Aren't they a good looking couple?!

Parents' Visit

A week ago, my parents came into town for their annual visit. Last year we took them to some pretty fun places and good restaurants but this year we simply took them everywhere. Anywhere and everywhere we could think of.

Luckily, most of that "everywhere" was just a few blocks from us thanks to the Parkway's plethora of museums.

When they first arrived Monday night, we were able to take them around the corner to Hickory Lane to grab a burger. No one actually ended up getting a burger, but my dad did find a beer he liked!

The next day, we hiked to the Art Museum.

(They even did the Rocky steps!)

I've been there a handful of times but only to special events and exhibits. This time, though, we spent several hours strolling through the long halls of European art, armor, architecture and Asian temples and tea houses. I was really amazed by the anthropological elements in there. Like this...

... or this...

... or this! 

That night, we headed to Moshulu, the restaurant-on-a-ship that we tried to take them to several times during their last visit and never succeeded. 

I really think they liked sitting there on that lit-up boat, looking over the Delaware and sipping martinis. 

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The next day, Bill headed into work and the rest of us went on more museum expeditions. 

  

 We started at the Perleman building of the Art Museum which houses the Collab gallery of design. Its was pretty limited, but there were some favorite mid-century pieces in there. 

The Perleman also housed an exhibition of women's coats, which was a weird but really cool exhibit. Lots of Betty Draper-esque designs. 

After hitting their favorite deli in Philly, Famous 4th Street, my parents and I headed to Longwood Gardens in Kennett Square to see the light installation we posted about in what was, sadly, my last post. It was such an awesome (truly, awe inspiring) sight and I didn't want them to miss out on it while they were still in town. We all grabbed a glass of wine and walked amongst the splendorous colored lights that my dad kept saying looked like "Avatar" and my mom kept saying looked like "Lord of the Rings". 

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The next day, we let my parents hang out at Eastern State Penitentiary for a few hours before seeing the new Barnes Foundation. 

I had been somewhat loathed to go there, not being very supportive of the "heist" that happened when the city of Philly took the collection illegally from Barnes' home. But my not being happy with the move wasn't going to move the works so I thought I'd bring my parents so they could at least see them.

I was very impressed by the building. Its really quite gorgeous in its minimalistic and mid-century way. However, there was something off-putting in seeing the collection and its rooms housed in a massive, cold building. It felt wrong. And the transition between mass structure and closed rooms of the galleries took something away from the pieces. You didn't quite have that "Holy Cow!" feeling you did in the old building. 

But I could talk about that all day... 

We next went to a fun trapeze show! As part of the Philly Fringe festival, Tangle, a trapeze and gymnastic group, put on a fun show in one of the Phila soundstages. It was a bit "off the beaten trail"
 and because of that, I think the folks really enjoyed it. 

Afterwards, we all went to R2L, the highest restaurant and bar in Philly, for some drinks and views. Sadly, my iPhone is pictureless from that adventure. 

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And speaking of pictureless, we went to Cape May on Friday, but those pictures will have to be shared at a different time, when I actually have them. Sadly, we seem to have left our camera in my parents car. Which is now in Illinois, obviously. 

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Saturday, our last day together, we had brunch at the Waterworks- a restaurant on the Schuylkill River which was created in the classical style and thus looks like a Grecian ruin.  Totally "Wow" producing for tourists and visiting parents.  

After taking in the sun and a nice meal there, we went to the Devon Fall Classic, an equestrian jumping competition. It was actually a ton of fun and the weather was fantastic! 

The grounds were beautiful and they had a little "village" of boutique shops and fair food. Like apple cider and fresh doughnuts! 

Sadly, my parents had to hit the road only a few hours later. 

Though they only come visit once a year - we make it worth their while they are here! Meg and Bill Travel Agency, anyone?