stitchiness, the big 21, and more (looooonnnng post)

Firstly, the stitchy stuff.  You can skip the rest if that's all you want to see.

SDW so far.

I know, I know.  I'm not showing the top part anymore.  One of these days I'll try to take a pic of the whole thing.

Pretty, huh?

Love the duck.

And the star section -- so pretty!

Ok, now you can go away if you just wanted to see the stitchy stuff.  Long post coming up.

As you know, last Tuesday was the girl child's 21st birthday.  A big day here.  The girl child wanted to go into the city, but at first we were afraid we were going to be rained out.  But we lucked out.  The day turned out fine -- once we were out the door sometime past noon.

We started out at our favorite local diner for lunch.

(Note the earring in the girl child's upper ear.  She decided to get that done earlier this summer to freak me out.  Well, not really.)

Then we headed over to the train station to wait for the train to the city.  (Note the date on the sign.  It's sort of hard to read, but it's there.)

Once in NYC, we took the subway down to SoHo for some power shopping girl child style.

I tell you, I could never power shop for clothes like this girl child of mine can.

The good news is that while the girl child was shopping, I managed to squeeze in a visit to that greatly lauded land of dreams, Purl Soho.  (Photo courtesy of someone online)

Oooooh what loveliness!  Fabrics galore, wool fabric too, yarns so luscious, various bits and bobs.  I was in heaven.  A rushed heaven -- which actually wasn't necessary since the girl child was just leaving the shop as I got back to the gang.  But it was a good little stop for me!  (Too bad the boy child didn't tag along -- there was a guitar shop a couple of doors down he would have liked.)

While the girl child was power shopping in another store, the boy child, the father type and I went across the street to this interesting store -- which I had heard about before online.  Evolution.  What a cool store!  (Check out the website and you'll see what I mean.)  Also a bit creepy.

This is part of their window display.  (See what I mean by a bit creepy?)

The boy child perusing the window display.

I offered to buy the boy child a rattle snake rattle.  Or a raccoon penis bone.  But he took a pass.  :D

By the time the girl child was finished power shopping, it was just about 7:30 and we were ready for some yummy food.  The girl child loves Italian food, so we headed over to Little Italy and searched Yelp for a good restaurant.  We ended up here.  Peasant Restaurant.

It was soooooo good!  And the atmosphere of the place was wonderful!  Look at the back kitchen area.

So cool!  It was dark in the restaurant as you can tell by the next pictures.  The girl child had her first official glass of wine.

The next pics show off the food a bit.  And are from the girl child's pics.  (The others are courtesy of the father type and a couple of online sources.)

The yummy ricotta that you spread on the bread.

The girl child's appetizer (can't remember the name of it).

The girl child's main dish -- a yummy gnocchi.

The boy child with his pizza Margherita.

By the time we were done in the restaurant it was quite late.  We stopped by Zaro's in Grand Central and got a red velvet cake for the girl child's birthday cake, then plodded home on the 10pm train.  Home by 11:30 (waaaay past my bedtime!).

Then it was cake time!

Mia watching the proceedings as the girl child blows out the candles.

Yes, she was sitting on the boy child's lap.

After the candles are out.

Mia doing some advertising for Zaro's bakery.

All in all, I think the girl child had the best kind of 21st birthday.  It was a fun day for all.

Today is a glorious day outside after some nasty thunderstorms yesterday (I'm so sick of nasty thunderstorms.  How many tornado warnings can we have in NY?)   So Mia is enjoying the day.

Thanks for stopping by and saying hi.  I hope everyone has a wonderful week!