013|365 Strangers

013|365 Strangers, originally uploaded by erinbyrnenyc.

Tuesday morning, 3am wake up call. Quick shower. Poorly made hotel room coffee. Car service to airport at 4am. Security line. No Starbucks in sight. Boarding at 5:30am, depart at 6:00am wheels up at 6:10. Tampa, here I come.

This describes many mornings for me. The story for January 13th however was a trip to Tampa to spend some time with my client there. I flew Jet Blue and got to experience the new terminal. It was cool. And modern. I had a great breakfast in a stylish restaurant (name forgotten of course) that I'd definitely look forward to having dinner at. Then I got coffee at one of their new self service stations where you can work on your laptop and order food and beverages from a touch screen monitor. And then we boarded.

The flight was largely uneventful. The man across the row was traveling with a young child. They were laying across all three seats and cuddling. And then kerplunk. The baby fell off the seats onto the floor but the man didn't wake up. I jumped up and gave him a shove right around the time the baby started crying. At that point he sat up and cuddled the baby - they were both asleep in minutes.

I took this picture of them while they were sleeping and called it Strangers. I felt like an intruder snapping it, but I thought it was such a sweet spot. Besides, I spend so much time in planes, trains and automobiles that I have to do a little people watching. I thought about asking him for his email address and sending him the picture but then I thought he might find that odd. Or creepy. Or both.

In other news, January 13 is Johnnie's birthday. I'm sure there will be some celebrating over the weekend.

012|365 Dinner with Rob

In the spirit of an annual tradition I had a holiday dinner with Rob Beltran on Monday night. Normally the tradition takes place in December, but due to schedules and early winter colds we were delayed to January.

It is always great to spend time with Rob. He is a great colleague and a better friend. And he has good taste in wine.

We originally planned to go to Beppe which is an old standby, but then since I had like 10,000 bags we decided to drop them first and go somewhere near my overnight digs. We were planning on Country but got a recommendation to try Olana which was just a few blocks away on Madison between 27th and 28th. It was awesome. They bill themselves as American with an Italian and French twist. They had a great attention to detail and the owner Patrick makes you feel personally welcome. Plus, they had a good wine list and Patrick made a great recommendation, Barrua from Italy. It was a great time and we got to catch up on the past year and do some planning for the year ahead. Thanks Rob!

011|365 Quilt

This is a baby quilt that I made for a friend at work who had a baby boy last year. It was inspired by Kaffee Fassett's work, and was the first time I did something completely freestyle. It was a lot of fun to work on and I am happy with the result. I hope Michele is too!

You can expect to see many quilts make appearances here. I love to sew - sometimes focusing on clothes for Maddie and other times on home decor, but mostly on quilts. People are sometimes surprised that I am a quilter given my other hobbies, but it is a hobby that I find very soothing and in pleasant contrast to the craziness of my job. It is also nice to have a creative outlet which helps me stay objective when managing creative projects for clients.

One of my resolutions for the year is to finish 24 quilts this year at a rate of 2 per month. That sounds like a lot considering I work at least 60 hours a week but I will finish some work-in-process projects while starting others from scratch. I think it is very manageable if I rotate - one new project and then one I finish. And, some will be wall hangings or crib quilts but others will be larger including a bed quilt for me.

I finished the quilt pictured last night, binding it while watching Sex and the City - The Movie and started a new one this morning while Maddie was working on her blog. Yes, Maddie has a blog at 9 years old. She started it yesterday on the topic of Club Penguin cheats. Pretty funny. She installed google analytics and is looking for traffic so give it a look...it will make her day.

010|365 Beautiful Morning

I love my house. Well, actually, the house is quite ordinary but it is on a beautiful piece of property with an awesome winter view. (The summer view isn't so bad either, but the leaves tend to block some of the mountains.) I took this picture sitting on the couch looking out the window with the Catskills in the distance. And then I had a pop-up visitor, Mittens the cat, who decided it was time to come in from the cold.

I laugh out loud every time I see Mittens pop up unexpectedly in the window. It is like a little kitty puppet show, and one of these days I think he'll bring a bunch of kitty-cat pals and perform for us. (It must be the exuberance of a day off and a great cup of coffee talking...)

Maddie just woke up, being the total night owl that she is, but is still looking a little sleepy. We were supposed to go visit my brother and his family in Pennsylvania today but the weather reports are predicting 7-10 inches of snow. Better to stay put, catch up on a few emails, and spend some time in the studio. Plus, Maddie has a project planned for later in that she is building a website about Club Penguin website cheats. If only I were so smart when I were 9. Or now. Either way, it is a beautiful morning and I'm happy to be home.

009|365 Nightfall

A view from my back deck as night falls and the moon rises, which led me to switch from the work week to the weekend. The week was long and it is safe to say that the vacation glow is gone. But, I'm determined to enjoy every weekend and I plan to do my best with this one.

008|365 Mindless

I love Project Runway. It is such a mindless pursuit with the contestants and their drama, which suited me just fine when I was watching reruns from DVR while working last night. I was pretty exhausted having gotten in at 3:00am and started working again at 8:00. To still be at it 13 hours later wasn't the plan, and Heidi Klum's band of sewing misfits definitely helped pass the time while my fingers did the talking on email.

This time last year I had never seen Project Runway. I had heard of it, of course, given that I don't live under a rock and all. It wasn't until I was in Alaska with Carmen in July that I saw my first episode, on as background noise while we were prepping to do frolick in the woods with bears. As soon as I got home I set the series up to record and have been addicted ever since.

The caption of this image also cracked me up as it says to "create a collection of 3 looks that incorporates 3 outdated trends." Look inside my closet lately? I try to get one look together that incorporates a minimum of 3 outdated trends on a daily basis!

On another note, I have to say that I am somewhat conflicted about this project. I have two goals that are not necessarily aligned. One is to improve my photography and the other is to tell my story of 2009 in pictures. This image was best for how I felt yesterday, mindless, but it certainly could not be referenced as "photography" by any stretch of the imagination. So, for now, the visual storytelling is winning over trying to take decent pictures. Yes, that is a disclaimer of sorts, isn't it.

007|365 Eastbound

I planned to take a photo from the air for Day 7 as the flight home was beautiful. I usually grab an aisle seat, but since I was traveling with Lynn I took the window. We had great views of the Grand Canyon and also the Rocky Mountains. Funny though that this image is the one that caught my eye. Clouds and sky. It was peaceful. And it had been an exhausting two days so this image captured my mood perfectly. Ended up landing at LGA just after midnight and walking in my door at 3am. The only thing more comfortable than how these clouds looked was my pillow.