New York City, April 2011, Part 2

Yesterday on the bus ride to the City I noticed that finally, it seems, spring has come to New York. While the forsythias are not yet the blinding chrome yellow of their full bloom, the buds are certainly bursting and the color is unmistakably sunny! So with the dual enticements of a warm cloudless day and the advent of New York's seasonal outdoor displays I thought, while I was there, a walking tour was in order. I'd read a piece about a new public art installation along the Park Avenue mall. Will Ryman's crazy large, blatantly garish fiberglass roses were planted in January on a few dozen of these little urban stages, between 57th and 67th streets.

They are just the latest of the always eye-catching displays along this wide residential boulevard but definitely one of the more fanciful.

See them through May 31st during the day or under the spotlights at night.  You can find more details and read the artist's statements here.

What I love most about Manhattan is the likelihood that without warning you might all at once stumble upon the completely unexpected. One could argue that a 25 foot tall flower looking like the spawn of Little Shop of Horror's resident man-eater Audrey is the very definition of unexpected and one would be right. But in this case the unexpected I'm referring to is that particular vignette, vast and imposing or tiny and delicate, that one has no idea is lurking around the next corner.  So the surprise, in addition to the delight, is the thing.

At any moment you might be feeling oppressed by the gray hardness all around you when suddenly the crowd thins and you see an improbably large flower pot exploding with the glow of daffodils and the perfume of hyacinths.

Turn the corner from a boring, unending expanse of dreary storefronts and feel the exhilaration of a wide open esplanade lined with elegant residences punctuated by a parade of planters packed with masses of tulips, each with petals just now shyly peeking out from their green leaf robes.

Walk up the street a way and - can you believe your eyes? Is that a frightfully large yellow - YELLOW?! - teddy bear! Yes. Very large. And a fine shade of yellow. Like the lemon in lemon meringue pie.  And it seems to be knit from yarn. And it has the shade of a black desk lamp sitting on its head. Like a wayward baseball cap - or batting helmet. And its poor little head is crammed up against the light bulb in the lamp. And all the diminutive people, as amazed as I am, are milling around, fascinated. Or completely ignoring it as New Yorkers do.

This art installation, one of 3 by sculptor Urs Fischer, can be viewed on Seagram's Plaza (Park Avenue at 53rd street) for the next five months before being auctioned off by Christie's (in case you just HAD to have it for your own plaza).

Where is Spring?

That seems to be the conversation everywhere I turn this week. Sis and I were wondering today if the pervasive gray and brown all around us will ever go away. My girl at ThriftyDecorChick was determined to find it - so she created some for herself! My own attempt at making it Spring indoors, the mudroom project, is stalled (it's a paint thing). So I decided to pack away the St Pat's, pull out the moss wreath and look for a bigger visual jolt elsewhere. One of the great pleasures in a good life well lived is lazily driving around in hopes of stumbling upon some local treasure. This happened last summer when I was exploring across the river. A little sign off a secondary road announcing Innisfree Gardens lead me to a relatively small, hidden spot on a back road. From their brochure: Innisfree is "a 150-acre public garden in which the ancient art of Chinese landscape design has been reinterpreted to create a unique American garden." Paths lead the visitor "from one three-dimensional picture to another. Streams, waterfalls, terraces, retaining walls, rocks, and plants are used not only to define areas but also to establish tension or motion. The 40-acre lake is glacial, most of the plant material is native, and the rocks have come from the immediate forest." Amazing!

Project Mudroom

There has been a bit of chaos in my life this week, most of it out of my control. This requires action, a counterattack, if you will: I need to dive into a home project! I have the list, of course, as I'm sure you all do. Or you maybe you have several lists: the manageable projects list; the large projects list; the projects to do when I win the lottery list; the projects to do in an afternoon list. And yet, though I've had quite a few idle afternoons this snowy winter, the lists have not gotten any shorter. Now I plan to remedy that with my downstairs hallway. This manageable project is a dreary forsaken space, a tiny 2 foot x 6 foot landing pad/mudroom off my garage.

There is no natural light and a few odd bumps. When I moved in I propped an old print on the ledge, never really intending to do much more than clean up the baseboards, patch the sheetrock and paint it a nice color. Now I have determined to recreate the image of "Cheery Colors" I've posted up there to the right. As I said I am captivated by the colors and textures of that little vignette and because it is out of character with the rest of my home, I think this will be the perfect space to do it. I am in the planning stages now and will let you know how it goes.

Spring Cleaning

We've had a short stint of consecutive warm, sunny days in New York this week and it has finally got me thinking of spring. That in combination with all the beautiful home/design blogs I've been reading with such gorgeous imagery, well, I've gotten the itch to redecorate. When I moved from my last {very large} apartment to my new {not so large} condo I was happy to pare down. I tend to nest too much anyway and, after living in the same place for 10 years, I had more furniture than I wanted, including many pieces bought each time to address a particular need (usually a way to store - and hide - yet more stuff). So I took advantage of my new home's smaller layout and additional storage (a whole garage with wall to wall shelving !) and put most of my stuff away. I have many pretty little things accumulated over years of travel and craft show shopping that all went into a large glass fronted storage cabinet. The larger pieces - footed Tuscan-style bowls, hammered metal trays, Navajo peace pipe, antelope skull (I kid you not) - were carefully bubble-wrapped and now live in one open storage bay. Framed photos and prints have their own carpeted bin. After living with bare walls for a few months I chose a few pieces that were just right for each room and set about nailing and hanging. I identified a couple of key locations and each season I create new vignettes for them, usually choosing from the pieces in my own private warehouse. But now, 3 years later, I am ready for something different. Damn you creative, inspiring, oh-too-productive types out there! I will keep you posted on my progress.

Bright Spots

Gosh what a dreary day it has been! I can't remember one this relentlessly gray in a long while. But of course there are always bright spots to be found. How about working from Starbucks with an iced caramel macchiato alongside? It sure beats the office kitchen, a cup full of the burnt end of the pot with skim milk and a packet of Equal.

A quick run to the bank in this wet mess of a day. I think I'll stay off the highway. Not so familiar with this road. Reward! How great is this? Can you see that the trim is a dark grass green and the awnings - the AWNINGS! - are chartreuse? I may not paint my house these colors but I'm sure glad someone did!

Back home...more work to do...seems like that calls for a yummy cupcake from Moxie by way of Gardiner's Village Market and Bakery! Which do you crave? Red velvet with a dollop of chocolate ganache in the middle, topped with a rich cream cheese frosting and a dark chocolate heart (Hmmm bad omen? The heart broke on the way home.) Classic vanilla cake with a pretty pink buttercream and pearl dragees. Chocolate cupcake with a tart cherry filling, whipped butter frosting, chocolate shavings and a chocolate covered cherry crown.

Blizzard

Well that sure was interesting! I don't ever remember it snowing that long uninterrupted! A total of somewhere near 24 inches. And now, barely 2 days later, the streets are clean as a whistle and the walkway looks like it's been snow-free for weeks. Crazy.

The Day After

It's a really beautiful day in New York, cold but sunny and crisp. It is very annoying that so many citizens and businesses do not properly clear the sidewalks. So today we are slipping and sliding as the slushy bits left behind from yesterday's odd snowfall have frozen overnight. But as the inconveniences of New York go, that one is small.