Life@(The Purnomo)Home

This is getting to be a bit much.  I promise I'll stop with the publicity posts soon but this one is too good not to share.

Late last year, we were asked by a good friend of ours, who happens to be a journalist with our local paper, to be featured in a Chef@Home article that he writes for the Times Union's Life@Home Magazine.  And as we're learning in this blog, I don't turn down publicity. 

In early March, we found out that we were scheduled to do the shoot later that month.  Cue three weeks of frenzied house clean-up and decorating.  All of those annoying little projects that we put off after the renovations definitely needed to be finished before a photographer stepped foot in my home. 

Or so I thought. 

Naturally, the pics that made it in the magazine only showed our kitchen and a bit of the living room.  None of the fancy new artwork, window treatments or gorgeous fresh floral arrangments appeared.

Oh well.  It was the kick in the ass that we needed to get the house done.  At least now we can relax and enjoy it.

We had a fantastic time during shoot, preparing and serving three courses for six.  Husband also paired two wines (one white, one red) with each course.

Course 1:  duck tacos with homemade salsa and creme fraiche
Course 2:  bacon-wrapped cipollini salad with hot bacon vinaigrette
Course 3:  paella (with every seafood variety known to man)
Dessert:  dark chocolate bread pudding a la mode

The food was delicious, the conversation entertaining.  And ever the hostess, I sent each guest home with a goodie-bag of homemade chocolate chip cookies.  Yes, I went a little overboard.

Even the pups enjoyed themselves.

We knew the article wasn't coming out until the June issue.  Waiting was so hard!  I was dying to see it.  Or more realistically, dying to read what I was quoted as saying.  Did I mention the two glasses of wine per course?  Or that our dinner conversation was recorded?  ;)

Finally in late May we received several advance copies and couldn't have been more pleased.  A few days later the article was posted online and then it hit news-stands.  Read it here.

And don't be shy.  Tell me what you think!

Love,

Mr & Mrs P, M & B

 

Publicity much?

Forgive me for being a publicity whore.

Even after 4+ years with the husband, I'm not 100% used to this sort of thing so it still excites me to no end. 

Today was a big day in the P household.

Husband and I both had our mugshots appear in local publications.

Photo courtesy of Joe Putrock/Special to the Times Union

This happens to be the fab-u-lous (although more than a little hip-widening) Badgley Mischka gown I had the honor of donning at Rock the Runway last week.  Love that it landed me in the Social Scene section of today's paper.

And how fun is this?  The caption under my photo reads "Celebrity model Carolyn Purnomo dazzled on the runway during Rock the Runway for Health".  Love!

Minutes after my discovery this morning, husband called to say that he too was pictured in print today.

Here he is, at last week's 40 under 40 celebration, sponsored by the Albany Business Review.  Husband was one of the 40 honorees last year, which I apparently neglected to blog about.  Bad wife.  Bad, bad wife!  This year he attended to congratulate friends of his for being selected.  Thus landing himself in the paper. 

So.  There you have it.  Another post to feed my ever-growing ego.

Enjoy!  ;)

A blog revival.

Blah.

Totally haven't felt like blogging lately, even though I've been busier than ever over the last few months.  In fact, the calendar I posted here kinda makes me laugh.  I seriously thought that was busy. 

Let's try again.

Take March for example:

Scratch that.  Looks busy but there really wasn't anything exciting happening.

How about April:

Two black tie dinners, two fundraisers, one baby shower, one first communion party, a trip to NYC, two wine dinners, one 2-day continuing ed class, two listing appts and countless showings, one girls' night, one seminar, wine school, volleyball, boot camp and you know, actual work.  Sigh.  I'm tired just reliving the month in print.

One perk?



Showing up in the paper.  Again.  Except this time I approve.  Although I could use a little more lip color.  ha.

Let's look at May:

More listing appts and showings than I know what to do with, one out-of-town wedding, two weekends in a row in Boston (!), charity fashion show and all the necessary prep, dinners with friends, wine school, office meetings, etc, etc, etc.  Note that we're oly halfway through the month.

Reason #2 for lack of recent posting:  broken camera.  And since I'm not so good with words, I find myself lacking anything interesting to post when I can't show pretty pictures.

Like these.

 Pretty girls in Boston for girls' weekend!

Pretty girls before Rock the Runway, my fashion show debut ;)



So now I will attempt a run at more regularly scheduled posting... since I don't feel like my head is going to explode with social obligations.  For the next few weeks anyway.  We'll see how well that works out.  No promises.

An average person could probably handle a full schedule with no complaints.  Me?  I like my downtime.  No, I CHERISH my downtime.  So after 6 or so weeks of nonstop busy, I need a break.  A big break.  Good think we have a vacation coming up.

Not sure how I feel about this...

I won't lie.  Publicity makes me feel kinda famous.  It's also a bit embarrassing.

A few weeks ago, someone I know who's associated with a local theater contacted me asking permission to use an old photo of me on the theater's 2011 membership brochure. 

Why not, right?

If only he'd picked a better picture.  The double chin and weird length side bangs don't do me much justice.

At least my name's not on it.  ha.

All press is good press, right?

Let's hope so.

A few minutes ago I received an email stating "What a great shot in the paper today!", followed by a facebook comment reading "Loved your pic in The Scene today!". 

Um, what?

Oh, yeah.  That. 

Last weekend, the husband and I attended our FAVORITE (caps is definitely necessary... it's that good) event of the year, Dancing in the Woods.  It's a black-tie charity gala sponsored by Albany Medical Center, held in the old Macy's space in Crossgates Mall.  You would be amazed at the transformation from vacant department store to gorgeous ballroom.  They go all out.

And it's open bar.  Duh.

Ooh, and the New York Players perform.  Our wedding band, remember?  We even got a shout-out.  I love being us.

Back to the topic at hand.  While on the dance floor, we noticed the events photographer from the Times Union.  We know him, he knows us and he's photographed us at other various events over the years.  We noticed his flash going off quite often in our vicinity but kept dancing like fools anyway.  Stupid, stupid idea.  Why, oh why didn't we walk over to him to pose like normal people?

Photo by Joe Putrock / Special to the Times Union

At least Nick looks good.  I, on the otherhand, am a dancing, screaming fool.  I'm assuming it was a good song ;)

The photo was captioned with "Carolyn and Dominick Purnomo light up the dance floor during Dancing in the Woods".  Light up?  Really?  Husband's glowing expression, yes.  Mine?  Not so much.  Thankfully I shaved my arm pits that day.   ha

I'm feeling slightly embarrassed.  But that's just my vanity speaking.  And here it is again...

Photo by Joe Elario Photography



What I looked like from the front.  With my mouth closed.  

So, as for today's press?  Begrudgingly, I'll take it.  Anything to get people to notice me right?  Even if they are laughing.

Vintage Vantage

Another self-serving post for your viewing pleasure ;)

Remember my wine class post?

The husband has had huge success with the classes over the past couple of months, catching the attention of the local media.

The Times Union ran a pretty fab story detailing the classes last week. Featuring the Husband's mug and some pretty lame quotes by the Wife.



Read for yourself. Here. I think I came off sounding a bit juvenile.

I'd like to tell you that I was ambushed and had no time to prepare but then I'd be lying. I saw the journalist sitting at another table interviewing other classmates... I knew it was only a matter of time til she got to me.

Which she did.

After I'd injested more than my share of wine. I probably would've used bigger words, you know, to make myself sound smart (SMRT!) if I had been more sober.

On second thought, who am I kidding? I have to look up big words to use for my blog. You can't possibly think I can come up with one off the cuff, while being quoted.

Whatever.

First article down, God knows how many to go. My husband is, after all, a local celebrity.*

*So states his now-defunct** myspace page.
**I used a big word without looking it up! Go me.

Finding purpose?

It seems that this, in fact, may be the case.

Lest my blog become any more self-serving, conceited, self-promoting, or however you want to spin it, I'm putting this out there right now:

I'm going to continue writing this blog the way I do (i.e. about ME!) for, um, me. I mean, most people's blogs are about themselves, right? But like previously discussed, most also have a theme, if you will. Mine, not so much.

So to avoid all the "God, this girl's full of herself" and "really, more pictures of her?" mantras rolling around in my (few) readers' heads, know this: I'm enjoying the whole blog thing and can't wait to look back at it in 5, 10 or 20 years and remember.

'Cause seriously, we should all have something to embarrass our future children with, right?

So there you have it. Think of it as a photo album/journal of sorts. Which is probably the definition of the word blog. Go figure. SMRT!

*************************

So now that that's out of the way and you're no longer allowed to yell at me for talking about myself, please enjoy the second installation of "New York's Newest Supermodel".

Once again, I started hearing "I saw your face in a magazine" from random people.

Um, what?? To steal a quote from the husband, "As long as it's not the police blotter, that's fine with me!" He's full of the quippy one-liners, that husband of mine.

The Spirit of Saratoga, which is a publication put out by the Saratogian, did a fantastic article on the ever-fabulous Alayne of Make Me Fabulous. Alayne is the makeup artist who prettied me up for The Wedding of the century. And accompanying the article is a picture of ME!

Now is where I should clarify. The photo is actually a shot of Alayne doing my makeup at The Wedding. Alas, it's not technically a pic of yours truly. Nor did my name appear in the article. But the side of my face does look pretty nice!

So nice of them to use my good side ;)

New York's Newest Supermodel

I'm kidding, of course.

The model lifestyle and I just don't agree: I could never deal with all binge drinking (well, maybe that...), purging, cocaine and carrot sticks.

But check out the ad below:

Someone, i.e. my florist, Kris Ann Blanchette of Fleurtacious Designs, thought that my wedding pics (courtesy of the amazing Elarios of Joe Elario Photography) were ad-worthy for this month's edition of Capital Region Living. If you're lucky enough to get your hands on a copy (er, drive to the grocery store and pick one up for free), I can be found on page 25, in the 2010 Bridal Guide section.

And if you're really lucky, I may even autograph it for you ;)