…is changing. Claudine will be 3 in exactly 3 weeks, which pretty much signals the end of the baby age and arguably the toddler phase as well. I wanted to take some head shots because along with shedding all things baby, her face is constantly changing, losing some of her chubby cheeks and baby fat (look at those cheeks in the photo below! I make really big, chubby babies). I wanted to remember this moment as she transitions from toddler to little girl. Soon she will be long and lean like Mia who is looking like a little lady lately. It doesn’t take long. I don’t know if you can tell from photos, but Miss C is very tall for her age and towers over most 2 year olds. Combine that with her language and fine motor skills (I haven’t talked about her freakishly precise coloring within the lines, have I?) and most people think she is older than 2. Slow down I say. I’m not having any more babies you know, and I *love* the baby stage. But Claudine has her own agenda and seems to absorb everything in order to keep up with her older sister.

Now I must confess, I also took these photos because every time that damn Gap casting call comes around every year I’m tempted to enter the kids. I’ll go to the site and look at the entry form and go back to look again. One year the Gap actually held auditions in my neighborhood. I thought about taking the kids. For a minute. But in the end, I think I’m happy to keep Miss C all to myself. And you guys.

You know how you sometimes discover cool things only to find out that it’s been there all along right under your nose? When we were buying paint for the apartment a few months ago, Mark and I got lost looking for the paint store, but discovered that the town that my parents live in actually has a charming town center with a park. Like, say wha? How many years have they lived there (10) and this is the first time that we’ve known about it? We finally took the kids for a picnic in that park last weekend and it was lovely – a perfect Fall day. The leaves were just starting to show the slightest tinge of color and the ducks, geese and swans kept the kids entertained.

Later that day we returned to the Nassau County Art Museum grounds to look at the sculptures (another relatively recent discovery). It’s like a mini Storm King practically in my parent’s back yard. And so this is how we spent our cookie-free weekend, recovering from a crazy 2 weeks of too many cookies.

I have to credit our neighbor Alison for describing something so delicious that it compelled me to head straight to the kitchen to make it right away. Ya’ll know that I don’t cook. And you’re probably thinking “KALE? Kale is what inspired you to cook after all those years of not cooking?” Yes! And it was good! And totally worth the eczema on my fingers flaring up from handling all that garlic and lemon juice.

Now, we have to give credit where credit is due. Alison ate this delicious Kale salad during lunch one day at Al Di La, a neighborhood restaurant that is showered with much adoration and praise. She wanted to try and recreate it at home and did, and then I got the recipe from her when I overheard her going on and on about it. So this recipe is totally unscientific since not a mention of actual measurements of any ingredient was exchanged. I just gathered all the things I needed and winged it. I also left out the homemade croutons as I’m not such a fan of hard pieces of bread in my salad. Here’s what I did:

1 bunch of kale
1 clove of garlic
as many anchovies as you can stomach
oil from the bottle of anchovies
lemon juice from 1 lemon
pecorino cheese

pepper

Wash the kale thoroughly, dry and set aside. Mince the garlic very finely. Chop up the anchovies and toss with the kale, which you should remove from the stem and cut in small pieces, along with the garlic and a good amount of the oil from the anchovies. Toss in the lemon juice and add some pepper. Finish with grated or thin slivers of pecorino cheese. That’s it – but adjust the ingredients to your taste (maybe you want less garlic and more pepper, etc). But I swear you will love it and say to yourself “Why is this soooo good?”

Not a new baby for me, silly. I’m a first time aunt. My brother had a baby boy, which made me realize that I never really talk about my brother here, for really no particular reason at all. So…his name is Ed and he lives in California and is a vet. We’re 6 years apart (he is younger) so there’s a sizable age difference between us which means that we never related to one another growing up or really played together other than the occasional annoying karate chop to the leg (by him) and the more frequent fighting and teasing (by both of us). I also moved out of the house when he was 12. I think that’s why I’m so intrigued by the girls’ relationship and how close they are. If you were to ask Claudine who her best friend is, she will tell you that it’s Mia without skipping a beat (Mia might have a different answer, but she is 5 and has her own social agenda after all). But yes, this new baby – a thing to be celebrated for sure, but it was a total surprise to the family so the situation is fraught with tension from my father and has brought some feelings of resentment back to the surface. I’m a bit tired of dealing with family issues after all these years. Why can’t things just be easy?

Speaking of my dad, he just came back from his annual trip to Korea and brought back a mountain of goodies for the girls: really nice oil pastels in a million colors, crayons, pencils, backpacks and pencil cases, 2 huge plush animals that have immediately became the girls’ favorite sleeping companions, and socks and underwear (is it just my family or is it some Korean thing to bring back underwear to the States as gifts?). The girls immediately tore into the art supplies and colored up a storm. Claudine is still drawing her “potato” people, but they’ve evolved a bit. They now have noses, belly buttons, ears and sometimes eye pupils, shoes and hair.

It’s pretty cold this week (relatively speaking). I think we can put away the sandals for good, but it also reminds me of how much of a cold weather wimp I am.

And lastly, if you’re on twitter then you know all about this, but our home is on Design*Sponge today.

I can tell this might become a regular series. This session was sans wacky costumes, but it nearly made my heart weep. They capture all that is shared between 2 sisters: tender moments and endearing looks, giggles and laughter, neck holds and wrestling, and every little nuanced moment in between.

Nothing makes you feel more like a parent than dropping off your kid to Kindergarten at your neighborhood public school and walking with the masses who converge from all blocks to this central point. Our neighborhood actually has a bunch of local public schools as well as a few private ones (and let’s not forget all the preschools and daycare) so the streets between the hours of 8am – 9am are jammed packed with parents and kids of all sizes toting backpacks, lunch bags and strollers. I guess this is why the neighborhood has become notorious for its sidewalk stroller hogging status (yes yes, our neighborhood is the one that Sarah Jessica Parker is in talks with to develop a series about city moms based on the Amy Sohn book, yawn). But aside from the common grumblings around the internets about the annoying sidewalk traffic, it’s a pretty great feeling to walk your kid to school and be part of this community. Even though we’re in the city, it all feels very neighborhoody and very small town-like.

That said, the after school pick up scene at school is a bit overwhelming. Parents and caregivers start gathering at the front and side entrance doors to wait for their kids around 2:40. Parents of kindergarteners have to pick up their child from the classroom so as soon as the guard signals that it’s time to come in at 2:50 pm (on the dot, not a minute before) the masses of parents enter the open doors like concert goers entering a stadium. Mia’s classroom is on the second floor, so this involves getting Claudine out of the stroller (god help me if she ever falls asleep at that time), parking the stroller with the other strollers, guiding her up the stairs to Mia’s class and then ushering them both out without losing either of them, because at that point there might be a teacher leading her first grade class down the stairs the same time as you have your little herd. Don’t forget I have a 2 year old who likes to take her time going down the stairs which can hold up traffic. But at the end of the school day, everyone somehow ends up pairing with their kids.

Then there is the social scene. The kids see their friends, either from their classroom or other friends who are not in their class, so there’s a whole lot of chattering, comparing notes from the day and general running around going on. Or you might get sucked into the vortex that is the playground on the school grounds or impromptu playdates might get arranged right on the spot. And of course you see your neighbors and other friends that you might want to catch up and gab with. The whole picking up from school thing can take an hour before you know it. But if you’re lucky and you maneuver your kids right, you might be able to escape within 10 minutes and avoid the many distractions like the THREE ice cream trucks and flavored ice carts parked around the school perimeter or the puppet show that’s being performed right out front. On these days, we sometimes have outings and we’ll whisk the kids on the train and have a pastry at Balthazar in Soho, a little shopping on Broadway and dinner of soup dumplings and noodles in Chinatown.

Have you had? Because if you haven’t you should try it. These weren’t supermarket grapes, but rather ones bought at the farmers market. Mark’s mom introduced it to us and it is divine.

Mark is still going non-stop as this week has proven to be just as busy as last week: a bunch of wholesale orders, brisk online sales, 2 weddings and 2 cake orders plus the Flea this Saturday. I’m still not working these days but I am waiting for at least 2 projects to start which are in their contracting phase (and I’m not breathing any sighs of relief until I have a definitive start date – anything can still fall through). It is so weird though, because despite the lack of work, the days have been so busy and I almost can’t remember – or even fathom – working 8 hours a day in addition to all the stuff I’ve been doing daily just to make sure everything is running smoothly. It’s not like I am taking on more or less stuff around the house. The laundry still needs to get done, the house still needs to get cleaned, Mia still needs to get dropped off and picked up, business emails still need to get answered and cookies still need to be packed, but how did I work on top of all this? It makes me realize how crazy our schedule is when I’m juggling 2-3 projects and that the current pace of affairs is so much more sane, so much more civilized. I think this is why I still don’t have any leftover energy to tackle that long list of projects and it makes me feel a little less guilty, because you know what? Life is just busy, period.

One thing that I *have* been doing with this bit of spare time is meet with friends for lunch or a coffee. Even though I never feel out of touch with people anymore because of all the various ways to stay connected (like a friend and I realized the other day that we had “talked” via twitter, facebook, email and text…all within 2 hours, geez), it is so nice to be able to sit down across from one another and catch up. I even went impromptu boot shopping the other day with my friend RJ which turned into a shopping therapy session. We sat on the bench at a shoe store and analyzed and rationalized to death potential shoe purchases. But it’s those moments I miss when I am crazy busy – shopping with a girlfriend, being an enabler of purchases, and waking around the city window shopping, looking at stuff, being inspired by stuff. When I’m working, there is too much staying indoors. Sometimes days go by when I don’t even leave the house because I need to stay focused on work and there is so much to get done.

I’ve had many fantasy thoughts lately about the business supporting us so that I wouldn’t have to take on so many projects at once or worry when there is a dry spell. Some days I feel like this is achievable. Other days I am not sure whether it is even logistically possible in our current situation if Mark can even single-handedly bake that many cookies a month to pay all of our bills. Maybe one day I will do the math. I am a little afraid to find out.

When Mark’s mom is here, she is usually content to stay home and hang out with the girls, but one thing we wanted to do was take her to the High Line, our new favorite place to take out of town guests. I loved how the landscaping, flowers and plants changed with the season and look forward to visiting in the winter (can you imagine how beautiful this place will look during a snowfall?). You can see more photos of the High Line from our first trip here.

I got a totally unexpected email today from Auster Events, the Brooklyn firm that organizes the Atlantic Antic. They read the blog post about our Antic experience and apologized for their misjudgment in placing us in the “kids” block (I didn’t even know we were in the kids section). I was floored and touched by their email. This is how you conduct a business, folks – make even the smallest vendor feel important and wanted. We decided right then and there that we’ll give the Antic another go next year, armed with lessons learned from this year’s experience.

Oh, and our leftover hot chocolate didn’t go to waste. We brought it over to Mia’s class picnic this afternoon, which was held right across the street from our house, luckily enough. It was enjoyed by all.

One last thing. I get emailed a lot of the same questions, so I made an FAQ. Look to your left under “About”.

* If you told me that we’d do better at the Brooklyn Botanic Garden Chile Fiesta, in the pouring rain, than the Atlantic Antic which had dazzling summer-like weather and about 10-15 times the traffic, I wouldn’t have believed you (actually, our numbers came in the same but the Antic was so much more expensive as a vendor). Know your demographic – and not surprisingly, the more focused foodie demographic, rather than the massive street fair audience, is our demographic. Hard to compete with beer and funnel cakes when you’re at a street fair.

* People really dig the hot chocolate (It IS REALLY good), but apparently “Earl Grey Hot Chocolate” was confusing. Some people thought it was tea mixed with hot chocolate and other people thought we were selling tea AND hot chocolate. We changed it to “Earl Grey Infused Hot Chocolate” the next day. Was it any clearer? Not sure.

* It was so nice meeting folks who read the blog that came by to say hello. You guys really are a sweet bunch. Thank you. You made the weekend, especially today.

* Guess I lucked out with the whole “bathroom situation” because I was able to avoid going to the bathroom the whole freaking day at the Chile Fiesta. That is 9 hours which might be some kind of record for me. And it wasn’t because there were a lack of facilities, but it was a bit of a hike to the restrooms and it rained continuously for, like, 4 hours straight, with much of it coming down in torrential downpours (surprisingly, the crowds braved the rain and stuck around). In a stupid last minute switch that morning, I changed out of boots and a jacket and slipped on ballet flats and a sweater because I was so hot while we were loading up the car. Stupid decision, as the grounds we were on resembled Woodstock and the front of our table became of the muddiest of all (maybe a good indication of customer traffic as some people suggested?). I was *trapped* with my inadequate footware and it wasn’t like I was trying to have a cute outfit or anything. There were tons of mosquitoes at the garden and my ankles were getting horribly bitten, so I put on a pair of socks. Socks + ballet flats = big fashion fail.

Some lessons from the weekend:

* Lesson 1: when preparing products for an event, listen to the weather and try to be flexible. Really. We sold out of our Earl Grey Hot Chocolate in 2 hours at the Chile Fiesta and wished we brought along another container, but because it was so hot the next day at the Atlantic Antic, we barely got through 1 of the 2 containers we brought, despite the fact that most people who passed by were intrigued enough to read it out loud in curiosity. We should have made a last minute change and served up our Passionfruit Mint Limeade from the summer, but predicting the weather is a little tricky. We would have done a lot better though had we brought the cold drink.

* Lesson 2: You gotta be more aggressive at these massive street fairs than the more gentle craft/flea markets. If your neighbor’s tent is inching towards the middle of the street, than you gotta move yours up, even if it means you’re all inching it up continuously throughout the day. But despite all your efforts, sometimes it’s really hard to compete with Dora and Sponge Bob plastic blowup dolls next door, bubble guns, frighteningly loud toy bullhorns that you make you jump, and other little gag gadgets called “Dr. Fart” and “Poo Poo Stick”.

* Lesson 3: You also have to be more visible at these street fairs than other venues. I feel like we got swallowed up between 2 bigger tents crammed full of colorful merchandise, particularly since our stuff is so minimal in design and our banner is white and gray (for god’s sakes). We just looked so *dainty* with our cake stands and white tablecloths. If we ever do this again, I’m going to have Mark bring his blowtorch and make s’mores, put up more in-you-face signage like one that saids “WE SELL COOKIES RIGHT HERE”, get blinking Christmas lights to put around our tent, and maybe some huge plastic blowup cupcakes and marshmallows, as well as silk screened t-shirts of dancing cookies. Oh, and maybe Mia. I think she’d be a good addition for venues like this. Since many people have tunnel vision while walking the streets of a fair, it’s all about being visible and catching people’s attention.

* Lesson 4: See what sells, and then make more the next day. I don’t know what it is, but our Pumpkin Ginger Sandwiches just flew off the cake stand both days. Maybe because no matter how hot it is, it’s still Fall and there’s this mentalilty that you MUST CONSUME PUMPKIN PRODUCTS during the month of October, but people couldn’t get enough. So despite it being the last thing Mark wanted to do, he went back into the kitchen Saturday night to make more for today (oh and Mark? If calling them whoopie pies help them sell, we should call them whoopie pies no matter how much you hate calling them that).

* Lesson 5: Consider having a big sign that saids, “WE DO NOT HAVE A PHYSICAL STORE” because we literally had to answer this question hundreds of times, continually throughout the day, to just about every single customer who stopped by.

* Lesson 6: One so-so day is no indication of how your business is generally faring, but I must admit, after the early morning wake up, getting ripped off by the car service company who lied to us about the cost of a minivan 20 blocks away from our house to the street fair, unpacking and then packing all the stuff up again 11 hours later with sore backs, I did think to myself more than once “there’s got to be an easier way to make money than this”. After some talks with other street vendors who said their numbers were down this year compared to last, I felt a little better. I guess better enough to come home and apply to a large holiday craft fair in December.

So will we do another big street fair like this again? We’re glad for the additional exposure and the experience, but not sure we’d do it again without really changing up the strategy (see lesson 3). We’re just glad the weekend is over and we can get back to our boring lives of packing up orders and sitting in front of the computer.