Worktripping

I had the privilege to attend a conference at Boca Raton, Florida, this week. Work trips are exhausting as you have to be "on" from dawn to dusk, but you can still find small pockets of breathing space. And since the beach is my happy place, I love to go to trips where I have a chance to enjoy the salt water, breathe in the ocean air and meditate by the waves.

I stayed at the Boca Raton Resort and Club, which is a historic, and gorgeous, upscale resort. 

The view from my room was pretty nice. 

The resort was surrounded by luxurious yachts. Life goals... 

The resorts's signature pink color. And the beautiful fountains everywhere. 

The entrance in the end of the long palm-lined road makes an impact. 

Beautiful gardens and the lush plants. Wish I could bring some home! 

I sneaked away one evening for my therapy session by the beach. Salt water cures everything. And meditation by the waves cures the rest. 

Since I didn't get a chance to shop, and the resort shops were crazy expensive, I got creative with the souvenirs for kids. One of the parties I attended had this "island-art" station where you could get name art made. I wasn't popular on the line since I had three names to be made into art, but that was my only chance to get a cool souvenir for the kids. 

Rainy Day Outfit

Here's my outfit from last Friday, which was a rainy day, but I still had to be out and about for doctor's appointments and the Costco run.  I wore my new gunpowder grayish silvery shoes from Zara, and my Tory Burch windbreaker jacket which I absolutely adore.

The colors were popping in the rain. 

Magnolia Bakery Cupcakes

Everyone in New York knows that the Magnolia Bakery cupcakes are the best. I've been obsessed with those cupcakes for years. They are worth all the hype. So you can imagine my joy when I found out that there is a Magnolia Bakery cook book with a recipe for these cupcakes. Of course I had to try to see if I could recreate the yummy treats at home. And I can. The recipe comes out totally delicious and the cupcakes are almost the exact replica of the cupcakes from the actual bakery. The only difference is that mine don't look quite as pretty. But pretty enough...and now I can recreate these whenever I fancy a good cupcake. 

The Day at the Met

Early April I took two of my daughters and a friend to the Metropolitan Museum of Art. It was a nice sunshiny spring day and I was in the mood for wearing something pink. Not my usual color, but this year I'm really feeling it. We took these photos at the waiting room of our LIRR station.

Before the Met, the teenagers had to get their make-up shopping fix at Sephora and meanwhile I took my younger daughter to see the Macy's Flower Show. The theme this year was Carnival. The show is pretty every year, and this year even more fun for the kids to see.

After the shopping and the Macy's flower show it was time to uber to the Metropolitan Museum of Art where the teenagers of course wanted to take a ton of pictures sitting, standing and just generally looking cool on the famous museum steps. All we needed was some frozen yogurt to really channel Gossip Girl. 

Have you ever been to the Met? There is so much to see that you can hardly scratch the surface on one visit. You could probably keep going back to the Museum for months if you wanted to see everything they exhibit. So when you don't have months to explore, you have to pick what you want to see wisely. We picked two things: the French Impressionists and the Egyptian wing. 

It is fun to find things that you love in the museum. My daughter fell in love with Degas' Dancer sculpture and ballerina paintings. 

I totally fell in love with this painting of a sunset picnic on the beach by Eugene Boudin. (I'm so predictable.)

Another painting that spoke to me was this Renoir. Wonder why... (Hint: it has three daughters, a dog and a piano...). 

I love asking the kids stupid questions about the art to make them look at it in a different way, or potentially notice something they wouldn't have otherwise. They probably think I'm a total fool. But that's ok. 

Here's a painting by my favorite impressionist, Pierre Bonnard, who loved painting his garden (and his wife taking a bath). 

I also think it's fun and funny to recreate the poses of the paintings. 

I've never been to the Met so that it hasn't been packed with people. It would be fun to have the place all to myself one day... 

The Egyptian temple was closed due to a private event set-up, but the Egyptian tomb was open. It'a bit claustrophobic in there, but if you take a deep breath, and quiet your mind, you may feel the vibes of the people who built it some two thousand years ago... 

I want to go back to the Met soon. And then my destination will be the Costume Institute exhibit that just opened up showcasing Rei Kawakubo's work. I never get tired of going back there, and I hope to instill a love of the museums in my daughters as well. After all, this is how we transfer much of the knowledge of art and culture to the masses. 

Gold Button Cape

Here's a look back to a date night outfit a few weeks ago. This is the only time I ever wore my gold button cape. Not sure why I haven't worn it more. I guess I don't go out enough... Anyway, this night we went to a new (well, fairly new) restaurant in our neighborhood, Barto. I had heard very mixed reviews, but our experience was pretty good. We had to wait for a table for a long time, but that was expected since we didn't have a reservation, and we didn't mind waiting, sitting in the bar, sipping wine. The food was good and the service was fine, so I would definitely go there again!

By the way, the cape is an exact copy of a Valentino design. Just without a couple numbers on the price tag (and I'm sure different material and finishing). Usually the copies are more "inspired" than this direct copy, so I don't know if there's been any lawsuits involving the copying here. It is notoriously hard to police the copying in the fashion business as it's very hard to get intellectual property rights for clothing designs. Here's a picture of the original Valentino cape: 

Vappu 2017

This was the second year in a row that I arranged the Vappurieha for the Finnish School. It all started last year because I wanted to introduce my kids to the traditional May Day celebration. Most of the time, we don't really recognize that holiday here in the US, and my attempts at celebrating Vappu were always quite feeble. There is usually a Finnish picnic in Central Park around Vappu, but I've been too lazy to get there from Long Island. So last year I decided that it was time to show the kids what it was all about: Sima, munkit, ilmapallot, serpentiinit, vappuhuiskut, etc. And as a bonus, the celebration functioned as a fund raiser to the school. This year the fund raising aspect of the event was even more important because our school budget is on deficit. I didn't have the "munkkimestari" or my cousin from London as helpers this year, so we focused on pannukakku instead (it was a big hit). We made some munkki too, but they were nowhere near as good as last year. This year I manned the candy fishing activity. The kids were so cute fishing little prizes in the bucket through the curtain. I made sure to tug on the bucket a little before filling it with goodies. It is a lot of fun to work together with the great team of Finnish parents to put on these events, but it's also tiring. I was so exhausted after the day that I went to bed at 9:30 p.m. As much fun as this was, I think we have to do something else next year... 

Sad News

It's hard to update the blog on sad times, which explains my absence for the past month. My father-in-law passed away, worn away by a year of deteriorating condition, and being mostly in the hospital. He rallied back from the brink many times, but in the end his lungs could not support him anymore and he went over the rainbow bridge peacefully early on Easter Sunday. The symbolism of the day was not lost on the family, or me. I lost my own father on Christmas Day, and now my husband lost his father on Easter. Both these holidays will forever have a different, deeper meaning to us. My father-in-law's funeral proceedings took place very fast as is the tradition for muslims, and he was buried on the next day. All his eight children were there for the prayer service, the washing of the body, and the burial. It was sad, of course, but I did not have much of a relationship with him, so it wasn't a personal grief really. Mostly I was sad for my husband who lost his father. Whether you're close or not, your father is still your father.