the shawl and birthday party preparations

this morning morgana and i wrapped up the shawl for her ballet school. i didn't have time to take nice pictures of it, but it is recorded. it came out really nice . . 71 inches long and 19 wide. i used three skeins of rowan kidsilk haze in "liqueur." this is the third one that i've made, and i feel wonderfully satisfied with it. for the prior two i only used two skeins and it wasn't enough. this will be auctioned off at their silent auction. i put the value at $300, with a minimum bid of $125. it'll be interesting to see how it goes. i figure they'll be lucky to get two bids. people don't snap up handknitted items like they do coach bags (i've donated to enough silent auctions to know . .)

i sat in billy bakery and listened to oldie songs again, while having a cup of coffee and finishing a pencil case for the party. chanda took one of the older girl ballet classes at 11 am since her afternoon classes had finished (but the day classes were still being held). at night, our friend clyde stopped by. he's in town for the summer. it was wonderful to see him. then greg went shopping at the coop for birthday party items, while i met morgana at our friend carol's house to get paper for the bookbinding project. carol often has paper from the paper store above her apartment. she gave us 60 sheets which will fufill 16 books. i'm so glad since paper is very expensive!!! we'll add water color paper as stiff covers to slip into the tapestry bookcases. chanda and i picked out beautiful fabrics today at p and s next to her ballet school.

party preparations and schoolwork

this morning we enjoyed the bread chanda and i picked up at balthazar's. 

 

and started reading evangeline. (it's a beautiful old book i found on alibris.)

i blocked the shawl for morgana's ballet school's fundraiser . .

and camille came over to help sew party prizes . . 

 

chanda got to watch fantasia after doing all her work, and then she and morgana watched children of theatre street with camille after dinner. they went to bed late, but it was fun for them to hang out together working on birthday party crafts.

summer-like spring days

morgana's birthday party is sunday and she has been busy making prizes for the treasure hunt she wants to have in prospect park. the children will be divided into groups of three and there are prizes for first, second, third and fourth place. one of the prizes is a stationary kit (work in progress above).

chanda and i traipsed to the east village to get 16 glass jars of black cat india ink as part of the party favor (along with a feather quill pen, 16 of which should hopefully arrive in the mail on friday). it was a very warm walk. it's been in the upper 80's with 96 percent humidity.

 we had a nice dinner all together, of niman ranch burgers and a salad. 

a monday summer day

jack is having to get used to the heat all over again. we walk by the kitchen and check to see if he's still breathing. he's usually passed out and looks . . . dead. poor puppy.

morgana rewrote her letter to grandma and grandpa. it's a week or so out of date . . but it's going in the mail anyway!

chanda and i measured her shadow today to see when it was the same length as herself. we didn't quite get it exactly. we'll try again tomorrow, and also measure a tree's shadow. we did that today, but we think our measurements were off . . 

westbeth's flower garden is so pretty and cool feeling . .

nighttime dance rehearsal

korrina worked all day. greg went to a chess tournament. morgana, chanda and i lounged at home. in the evening we went out to dance theatre workshop (or new york live arts) on 19th street for a dance rehearsal.

ballet recital

chanda had her ballet recital this evening. it was a beautiful show! all the students are incredibly talented, and herman cornejo from american ballet theatre, danced the role of james from la bayadere. what a night. morgana's is coming up next week. it'll probably be just as spectacular since they are having a benefit with several abt and nycb stars.
 

with their teacher, miss lawler.

 

outside of artie's on broadway at 83rd, where we went for dinner.

 

with their "manu" or "jug dance" soloist, kirsten, backstage after the show.

after meeting adam

 peter woytuk ostrich sculptures on broadway at about . . 85th street.

after walking with adam along eighth avenue to 12th street and saying good-bye to him on his way to williamsburg, chanda and i got on the triain to 66th street and studio maestro. we went up to show ellen her dance and to discuss the title. after that, we continued uptown to symphony space for her gelsey tech. my friend juliann and i went to artie's and had mushroom barley soup and tea and coffee. it was a late night. they didn't finish until 9 pm.

on the peter j. sharp stage at symphony space, working on the jug dance (or manu) from le bayadére. chanda is the second from the left.

meeting adam

it rained buckets at noon this afternoon; just when we were supposed to meet my nephew adam at the top of the high line. his bus was an hour late. it was thundering and lightening, so we took shelter under an overhang on 10th avenue and 25th street.

we met him up on the high line at 28th street and walked downtown. here, morgana and chanda are showing him the "good animals/bad animals" exhibit: good . . penguin . . dog . . bad . . spider . . bat . . (except we like spiders and bats!)

 even though it was so wet outside, there were still many people out and about!

adam was stopping by on his way out to williamsburg to see his friend will. then he was going out to montauk to meet up with his mom and dad and to see nana and nonno. it was really wonderful and fun to see him. he had been in death valley all winter, doing an internship for the national park service. he just found out a few weeks ago that he got a job with the cape cod national seashore. his first national park job! he's very, very happy! hopefully, no more internships . . only jobs!

korrina and tyler met us on the doorstep and we had a very large and delicious lunch. it was supposed to have been a picnic, but it was just too wet . .

reading with morgana

studio time with korrina

korrina had studio rehearsal time this evening for her modern dance piece.

good to go (i filmed it for her).

waiting for the run-through

sixteen candles

 morgana turned sixteen today.

 the ring is full!

 lucky morgana always gets summer clothes for her birthday.

 breakfast with daddy before he goes to work . . korrina had already left! we so missed her.

 it was a rainy day which we spent at home. it was peaceful and sweet to listen to the rain outside while we read. lunch was goat cheese, figs and honey. very greek. oh! and homemade sour dough bread.

after dance classes in the afternoon, we stopped at the whole foods at columbus circle to pick up the pizza dough for dinner.

while daddy and i attended to necessary last minute laundry, morgana and chanda put together the dinner. korrina had already fallen asleep in her room. it was late! but she woke for the festivities.

chanda found an old home movie from morgana's 11th birthday. she was thoroughly amused. in it korrina was quoting from the pirates of the caribbean and flashing a knife around, and someone was causing disaster in the kitchen by knocking down dishes and getting into the milk . . (that sounds like kitty cat antics).

 key lime pie . . 

happy birthday morgana.