Family

  • Let’s Get this Show on the Road

    ByHeather Bailey

    It's time to hand out some show tickets and a C.D.

    Angela — you've got it — two tickets for Thursday night's show are
    all yours. Thank you for your enthusiasm. That always wins points with
    me—ask my kids.

    BreathingCoverTAnd
    — surprise — Rachel, we have two tickets for Friday night's show for
    you as well.

    I'm going to send Wendy your email addresses and she will
    send you the details. If you don't hear from her right away, email me
    your contact info.

    By random drawing, the C.D. goes to… Elizabeth S. Email me your
    shipping address, Elizabeth, and we'll drop your present in the mail right
    away—along with a few HB extras (!!!).

  • Wendy!

    ByHeather Bailey

    WendyLaneBailey_1

    As we wished—yay!—Wendy is game to offer two tickets to her show in New York City next week at The Metropolitan Room, featuring songs by composers as diverse as Cole Porter, Joni Mitchell, and Wendy’s collaborator, Michele Brourman. This exciting event celebrates Wendy’s debut album, Breathing, and is tied together with entertaining vignettes from Wendy’s colorful family—a fun and personal show.

    Wendy is my fiercely-fabulous sister-in-law. She is both a talented singer and a charming storyteller. She’s hilarious, in fact.

    WendyLaneBailey_2

    …And it’s killing me that we missed her opening night last week in Los Angeles! Anyone want to go to the New York show in my stead? I’ll sit on your lap in spirit.

    As Mitch Ellis of the performing group Chambers, Herbert & Ellis
    put it, after seeing the Los Angeles performance last week, “Wendy Lane
    Bailey's show was truly grand… Under Michele Brourman's artful musical
    direction she put on a really terrific show. Beautiful song selection,
    sensitive phrasing, clear storytelling and a warm rich voice. Kinda the
    whole package.”

     

    BreathingCover470

    Wendy performs on Thursday, the 21st and on Friday, the 22nd at 7pm. I
    have TWO tickets to give away—and a C.D. Comment to enter. Please
    indicate in your comment if you want to be entered into the TICKETS
    drawing; otherwise, I'll assume you're in it for the C.D.
    If you're in the greater New York area and you don’t win the tickets
    giveaway, head to The Metropolitan Room for a exceptional show
    nevertheless! You’re sure to have a great night. And the cover charge is
    only $20.

    One more time, that’s The Metropolitan Room at 34 West 22nd Street
    (between 5th and 6th Avenues) in New York City. Reservations can be
    called in at (212) 206-0440 or made online at metropolitanroom.com.

    Discover more about the show here, and stop by Wendy’s blog at WendyLaneBailey.com.

    Update: Winners announced — click here.

  • @ Los Angeles

    ByHeather Bailey

    We just returned from a week in Los Angeles. My super-talented sister-in-law, Wendy Lane Bailey, had flown out to L.A. to perform at the Gardenia.
    We were supposed to arrive in time to watch her sing, but our van's new
    transmission had a different plan. Even though the transmission was
    only a couple of months old, it gave out on our way out of town—big time. Needless to say, we started out on a different adventure than we had planned.

    AtSymbol

    I'll just say that we got to know the truck stop really well. And
    after a few hours we made our way to a pizza place near the mechanic’s,
    camping there for most of the evening until we had secured a rental van
    to pile into. Nine hours and $700 later, we were back on the road to
    L.A.

    FabricShopping

    Unfortunately, we missed Wendy’s performance. A serious bummer.
    But, we tried to make up for it once we arrived. We stayed in a
    beautiful hotel in old-town Pasadena, one of my favorite areas.

    Our first stop was to visit old haunts in the Fashion District with
    the kids. When we lived in Hollywood, Elijah was about the same age as
    our little one is now. It was bizarre—and pretty cool—to see him, at
    6-foot-3, push our youngest around in a stroller just like I used to
    push Elijah around the Fashion District in a stroller, years back. What a
    serious time warp.

    PinksHotDogs

    We ate at Pink’s hot dogs for old-time’s-sake, spent a day at The Getty Museum, shopped at the Rose Bowl Flea Market (my favorite!), toured our old neighborhood—which has changed quite a bit, yet is so much the same—had cocoa at The Grove, and received a driving tour of historic Venice, CA from Wendy’s friend, Jessie, who has lived in Venice for the last 40 years.

    I’ve been to Venice many times, but I had no idea that a large part of the city was originally built along canals. Instead of driving to a neighbor’s house, they would canoe. I love it.

    SphinxGettyMuseum

    As for The Getty, I adore it.

    If you can believe this, I never did visit The Getty when we lived
    close-by. We even had a friend who was a curator there at the time, yet I
    still didn't make it. Back then, Isaac once went on a private tour of
    the museum before it opened. Where was I at the time!? Seriously.

    SketchingGettyMuseum

    It was fantastic. I am awed and inspired. And ready to find a
    portrait-painting class to take. Know of a good one? We’re back home
    now, but part of me wants to turn around and head right back to The
    Getty. If you are ever in Southern California, get yourself there. Don’t
    miss it.

    BreathingCover300The
    mechanic repaired the transmission without charge. However, I’m still
    sad that the fiasco cost us our chance to see Wendy’s show. She has two more shows
    coming up in New York City next week. Perhaps I can round up a couple
    of free tickets to give away and send one of you in my stead.

    All photos are from my Instagram feed—hallelujah for functioning phone cameras! We forgot to pack the big camera on this trip—ack.

  • She Shows Mettle—Meddling with Metal

    ByHeather Bailey

    ApologyNote_800

    While crawling into bed last night, I found this note tucked
    carefully under my blanket. Don't tell Charlotte, but my first reaction
    was a big smile. Charm and cuteness go a long way toward absolution. In
    this case, I consider the necklace somewhat improved by the note it is
    taped to.

    I may not be teaching Charlotte to keep her hands off my jewelry, but
    she is learning some honesty to go with her mischievous fiddling.
    That's something, at least.

  • Sand in the Suitcase

    ByHeather Bailey

    121003_VacationMode
    We
    did it! The Baileys took a vacation. I'd call it our first 'official'
    vacation ever—that wasn't a family wedding, funeral, or campout.
    Considering that Elijah is nearly 16, it was about time.

    This could become a habit.

    NassauBeach_HeatherBaileyA

    We spent a couple of days in Florida, followed by a tour of the
    Bahamas via cruise ship. Before leaving town, I mailed off a new fabric
    collection—so I could truly relax. Of course, travelling with a baby
    isn't always relaxing. His needs accounted for half of our luggage.
    There was the crib, the stroller, the diapers, the swim diapers, the
    wipes, the formula, the juice boxes, the baby food for excursions (Conch
    Salad on shore wasn't going to cut it), the multiple changes of
    clothes, the quilt, the diaper bag. It was a workout.

    NassauBeach_HeatherBailey2c

    My siblings came along with their kids, so Charlotte and Elijah had a
    flock of cousins to hang out with. My mom was there too. We were a big,
    noisy group.

    Ten stand-out memories:

    •
    Elijah's glee at the sheer quantity of food he could order at will:
    steak, then salmon, then steak, then dessert, and dessert again, then
    pizza, and so forth. Teenage-Boy Heaven.

    • A run on the beach with my sister at high tide in the dark. The worst/best workout ever.
    • Touring the Flagler Museum in Palm Beach—Whoa! I will post more about this one.
    Think mini Versailles.
    • Siamese cousins at the airport (below).
    •
    Charlotte teasing the magician during his evening performance. With
    hundreds in the audience, he called out in reference to her loud giggles
    and taunting, "Now there's the reason some species eat their young."

    • Spicy Ginger Beer and Goombay Punch in Lucaya.

    • Jogging around the ship's deck during departure.

    • The butterflies on the hill below Fort Charlotte in Nassau.

    • Not having to miss the U.S. Presidential Debate while onboard.

    • Cramming 15 of us into one van, with all of our luggage, for a ride back to the airport.

    • Not one of my kids got sunburned—yes!

     SiameseCousins

  • |

    Guidolfo

    ByHeather Bailey

    Guidolfo470Have you seen the documentary, Being Elmo? It's fantastic. Very inspirational. If you have a Netflix account, go watch it right now.

    In fact, it is so inspiring that….

    While I was cooking dinner tonight, Isaac began to enumerate the many reasons why he would have made a great puppeteer. When I insisted it was not too late to become a puppeteer yet, he said, "Okay!" and headed into the other room.

    After five busy minutes, he came back to the kitchen with a new friend—meet Guidolfo.

  • Remind Me

    ByHeather Bailey

    RemindMe470hOne tricky thing about having a teenage cook in the house is keeping track of your pans.

    I pinned this note on Elijah tonight before he headed out to a swim party with his friends. The note didn't make it out of the door, let alone out of the kitchen. Though I got a good laugh out of him, he had it unpinned in 5 seconds flat.

    It worked though. Elijah didn't forget. My springform pan is now safely tucked away in its cupboard, ready for Elijah's next fat-bomb concoction.

  • U-Pick-a-We-Bop

    ByHeather Bailey

    UpickApples2_470HB

    There is a housing community nearby that is centered around a working farm, with a restaurant and a coffee shop on the premises as well. It's rather cool. Well, super cool. Even the people who work there are cool. If you ever visit the restaurant, Joe's Farm Grill, make sure to visit the restroom. I can't bring myself to dispel its mysteries, but I'll just say it is the coolest restroom I've ever seen. And bizarre. Think 60s saturday-morning space-adventure.

    UpickApples4_470HB

    UpickApples3_470HBThe community was built on the family farm of a local restaurant developer—the Joe of Joe's Farm Grill. When this Joe sent word out on twitter last Saturday that they were opening their groves for u-pick apples, Charlotte and I concocted an apple-centric plan for Father's Day breakfast.

    I clearly had apple-picking good times on my mind when I got dressed. Charlotte intuited my intentions and picked out clothes to match. When Isaac woke up and staggered into the room to find us in technicolor peasant clothes, he teased, "What's up with you and the russian doll clothing? The two of you look like rainbow refugees."

    I said, "Hey now. We're going apple picking. What better to wear?"

    He must have agreed because no sooner had I finished tying my scarf than Isaac trotted out of the closet in a floral shirt, a fedora, and aviator glasses, all fancied up and ready to join us.

    UpickApples1_470HB

    Here's the best part. When we pulled up to the grove, the man working the scales wore an outfit identitcal to Isaac's: folky shirt, fedora, and aviator glasses to boot. He was entirely too cool to be working a farm. Isaac and I could barely keep a straight face as we greeted him and got directions. I meant to sneak a picture of the two of them, but our camera only had a dribble of juice left in it. It died too soon.

    UpickApples5_470HBCharlotte and I hadn't planned to take pictures of our excursion—that was a bonus that came along with Isaac.

    It was bright out. And hot. But with the farm being only a mile from our home and apple-picking consuming only a few minutes of our day, I'm sure we'll be doing this more often. They grow everything from peaches, citrus, grapes and apricots to squash, carrots, tomatoes and cucumbers.

    One day I'm going to track that Joe down and shake his hand. It's inspiring to have such a visionary neighbor, bringing style and humor together with panache. If you ever visit Gilbert, AZ, stop by Joe's Farm Grill or one of his other restaurants, Liberty Market or Joe's Real BBQ. They are hands-down the coolest places in town.

    If you're interested in coffee, stop by Joe's Roaster Project blog. It looks like he's developing a new commercial machine for coffee roasting. Restaurants, inventions, a community farm. His ideas are big—and all over the place.

    I can relate.

  • Apples in Bloom

    ByHeather Bailey

    AppleBlossom_470h

    Last year we harvested one, singular apple from our tiny new twig of an apple tree. We sliced the tiny Anna apple into four pieces and passed it out to the children. It was a precious preview of what was to come; sometimes it's years before you know if you picked a good fruit tree or not. The group consensus was, "Hooray, these little apples are tasty!"

    This year, both tiny apple trees are covered with fruit. I feel equal pride and pity for their load. They are bent over and moaning. A beautiful ordeal—like an achy pregnant woman approaching her due date.

    *The Horticultural Scoop: One tree is a green Anna Apple, the other is a Dorsett Golden. Not all trees will cross-pollinate, but these will, allowing us to have two varieties come harvest time. Soon, soon.