Back in the Blogging Saddle

It has been nearly 4 months since Maria and I posted a Blog Entry and it is time to start getting back into the blogging saddle. Maria has put in her notice at Trilogy Design Group where she has been working for the past two years. At the end of the month, we will be moving her up to the DC metropolitan area where we will be living in Arlington, VA in a brand new apartment, the Gramercy at Metropolitan Park. It is a pretty nice place, but we are hoping to only be there for at most 12-months while we search for our own little piece of the Washington area real estate market! Needless to say, we are both EXTREMELY excited to bring our households back together and leave the long-distance marriage in the past!

I have been keeping busy at the Crystal City Business Improvement District as the Operations Director. I have actually been spending a lot of time working with Blogs on my largest project to date, Crystal Flight. I have been documenting the progress and providing information to artists, sponsors, media, and the general public via the Crystal Flight Blog. Stop by, take a look, and tell me what you think! I hope to provide more frequent posts in the next few weeks so expect to here more details soon!

Regards,
Rob

Happy Holidays & Merry Christmas

The holiday season is in full swing...with Thanksgiving behind us, over-stuffed bellies flattened, we are back in shape and ready for Christmas. We feverishly mark off our list of presents and join the ranks of people succumbing to mass consumerism due to the holidays with those mile long wish lists in the middle of malls, botiques, God forbid highways thick with traffic...not to mislead everyone, I am no doomsday writer, but rather filled with the utmost amount of holiday cheer and generally delighted by the festive Christmas songs, trees, and lights.

I only wish to point out that people could make more of an effort to give the gift of handcrafted items to family and friends alike. Now, this is a wonderful standard to uphold oneself, but it is harder than you might think. An incredible amount of planning is involved with this route and I apologize ahead of time to those of you who might be secretly wishing for some delightful Maria-Made gift this Christmas only to be sorely dissapointed and bummed out. Never fear, there is always next year!

In all seriousness, I have been occupied crafting another type of holiday gift for the masses, one that will hopefully reach many, frustrate few, and delight all. I invite you now to take a look at, download, and print off my handmade holiday gift, courtesy Me, Maria Mandle with Trilogy Design Group.


Click here => http://www.thinktrilogy.com/ for your holiday gift and get ready for an evening of fun filled, origami ornament making!

Like so many, I am very excited for Christmas, but can't help reliving that delicious pie I had over Thanksgiving.....Thank you Daddy Mandle (Sr.)! Rob and I spent this past Thanksgiving in C.T. with the Mandles. It was a beautiful and slow train ride up. We felt like such comfortable travelers with our neat bags, books, laptops, art projects, enjoying each other's company.





The Mandle house was very relaxing with candles burning, a delicious Thanksgiving dinner...Thank you Sigrid and David! Unfortunately we did not take many photos on our camera. I have only a couple from this trip and all three of which were taken on a crisp day with David, Rob, and myself visiting the vineyard in Wallingford where we purchased the wine from our wedding....always lovely to return here! http://www.gouveiavineyards.com/



The weeks following Thanksgiving were filled with Christmas tree purchasing and decorating, crafty Rob and Maria projects to be disclosed at another time, a performance of the Nutcracker, and general fun listening to and in Rob's case, singing along to Christmas songs.










a vip after party at Bobby Woods for the Nutcracker!

Take a look through the remaining photos and enjoy the details of our tree. For my family so far away, I hope these images warm your hearts and make you feel closer to me....see our Wee Tree in our cozy apartment!? Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to all!!!!!!

Much Love,

Maria

November Racing Towards Thanksgiving

Wishing you all a very happy Thanksgiving. This should be a time to reflect, rejoice, and reunite with family and friends.

For all of you who are participating in some Thanksgiving Day races, I salute you, but do not envy you. Although Rob and I have participated in said activities in the past and very well may next Thanksgiving, I had my fill of walking the 5K race in Virginia Beach Town Center on November the 10th with a great group of girls. I also had fun designing our Team's shirts. For a detail of the design please take a look at the latest update on the left under "Image of the Moment."

Fall is not only a time for appreciating the change of the seasons and holiday cheer, but a time to go to craft fairs, spray paint chairs, catch a rugby game, and get crafty! Below you will find the adorable hand-made owl that I bought from my good friend Cassie a couple of weekends ago at the Handmade Parade Craft Fair in Norfolk. This inspiring little guy got Rob and I excited to get our craft on and spray painted our dinky old fold up chairs a beautiful red to compliment the red tones of our dining room. Take a look!

Hope you all have very delicious Thanksgiving Holidays and look forward to catching you up after Turkey Day.

Love, Maria

Halloween

With Autumn finally creeping in, Rob and I have been getting into the Fall spirit by watching the changing leaves, going on walks, arranging gourdes and pumpkin displays on our *new dining room table, and of course participating in Halloween.

October's set of activities started with the wine festival at Town Point Park where we had a chance to sample some delicious wine. Hundreds of people turned out for this event and we literally experienced having to wade through a sea of people. Quickly realizing the lines were too thick to penetrate in a timely manner, we decided to buy our own bottle of the next wine we both liked. After choosing a bottle, we sauntered off quite pleased with ourselves, found a spot more removed from the jumbled masses, and settled in for a nice chat while we finished off the bottle between the two of us!

Because we so enjoy cooking together, that weekend was also filled with some amazing dishes and a chance to properly enjoy our new table! This Spring Vegetable Risotto dish was amazing and highly recommended. For the recipe, just email me.

Aside from our wine tasting and culinary adventures, the weekend prior to Halloween was an adventure in costumes. After diligent searching and not much prep time, we found the perfect finishing touch for Rob's Halloween costume....and being such BIG Redsox fans, we were quite pleased with the end result. Rob was ready, under concealing clothing, to hit Adams Morgan for the birthday/Halloween celebration.

The night was filled with introductions. We met up with the Chiquita Banana, Strawberry, and Grape trio; Indiana Jones and a construction worker; and finally we were all introduced to......Jonathan (Rob) Pappelbaum doing his river dance! Take a look at Rob's Halloween costume as he starts his Irish jig......

Because the bar was not well lit, we could not get a video of Jonathan (Rob) Pappelbaum doing his river dance, but hope to catch him in the act some time soon!

Happy Autumn!