Weekend Basics

Hello, New York! It couldn't be a more beautiful morning in the city as we pop in to say hello today. We'll be checking in this week while working from Brooklyn for the week — and it feels good to be back!

So for a little weekend recap — Saturday we spent the bulk of the day packing and prepping for this week in the city, but did make time for a few local stops along the way. Our friend, Chef Ellie Basch of Everyday Gourmet hosted an open house to help celebrate the recent opening of her catering kitchen:

It's always fun for us to get a peek into the workspaces of other creative individuals (especially food from my pov). I'm excited for Ellie and looking forward to all the good things she's got cooking (couldn't help it, pun intended).

Mary spent the morning with these two little ladies:

Our nieces, Virginia & Sophia showed her all around their raised garden beds they'd recently gotten planted with tomatoes, squash and a few eggplants — we love seeing basics like gardening instilled as "fun" so early in the next generation.

And since we're in what I like to call "fan season" where the weather is warm enough to turn off the heat, but not so hot we need to turn on the AC yet, I went around attaching longer pull chains to each of the house fans for easier on/off access throughout the day.

Then, in the waking hours of Sunday, we made our regular trek up 95 to spend the week ahead in NYC.

We spent part of the day walking around Williamsburg, the neighborhood where Mary's old apartment was located when living in Brooklyn. The weather was warm and breezy, perfect for walking and generally taking in all the changes that have cropped up in this area over the past 4 years.

We even had a chance to stop in on the Renegade Mini Market, seeing and chatting with lots of familiar faces while at it!

Etsy vendors Peg & Awl, Jillian Rene Decor and Owl Kill Studio.

And when there's a photo-booth...

We will play!

Hope you have a wonderful week!

P.S. We're experimenting with a few blog layout tweaks, trying to simplify and reorganize many of the elements on the page for easier reading and navigation. We've also made a little extra room for slightly larger photos. If you're checking in from your blog reader, you can check out the changes here. Keep us posted if you notice anything out of whack, thanks!