1 My summer kicked off with quite a bit of inspiration from performance artist Marina Abramovic whose retrospective and performance piece, "The Artist is Present," were on display at MOMA.

2 During her performance, Ms. Abramovic sat silently in the museum’s atrium, facing an empty chair (that museum visitors could sit in). She sat there all day, every day, during museum hours, for the run of her show -- over 716 hours!!

3 In May and early June, I got down and dirty in converting the overgrown backyard of my Brooklyn apartment into a relaxation destination! This is what it looked like when I got started...

4 With help from my family and friends, we cleared away all of the brush and leaves and bricks...

5 ...and we ended up with this! Most of the building materials were recycled from stuff I found while cleaning up the yard (e.g., bricks, wooden slats, table) or purchased from The Home Depot.

6 On the other side of the yard I put in an additional brick patio and planted a vegetable garden with lots of herbs, brussels sprouts, beans, peas, tomatoes, lettuce, kale, peppers, all sorts of squash, and even rhubarb.

7 Any weekends that I had free at the beginning of the summer were spent at Brooklyn Flea in Fort Greene, Brooklyn.

8 I was a vendor at the Flea for two weekends in a row, selling my Professor Figgy's Fabulous Science Kits -- educational, science-based toys for kids and families. Pictured here is my gak/flubber/slime kit.

9 At the end of June, I went to a beautiful wedding in Mystic, Connecticut. The reception was held at the gorgeous Inn at Mystic, a colonial style mansion with incredible grounds and spectacular views of the ocean.

10 Inn at Mystic entrance.

11 Inn at Mystic reception tent.

12 For July, I treated myself to a trip to Provincetown, Massachusetts. While there, I was inspired by all of the quaint homes with their lush gardens. I love the color and size of the hydrangeas in this picture.

13 Another fabulous garden.

14 And another.

15 This house could be in a Wyeth painting!

16 A few weekends later I went to Dartmouth College in Hanover, New Hampshire and took this picture of the beautiful Baker Library.

17 At least once this summer I was able to visit the forest behind the home where I grew up (in Westerly, Rhode Island) to relive some of its wonders.

18 This tree trunk is amazing. Nature finds a way to grow and survive -- no matter what gets in its way!

19 The light under the forest canopy is stunning!

20 A butterfly takes a rest for a perfect shot.

21 A polaroid filter on this iPhone shot gives the Ocean House (a replica of a turn-of-the-century hotel in Watch Hill, Rhode Island) an antique look.

22 After my last trip to Westerly, it was back to work at TV. And one of our first orders of business was a trip to Martha's Bedford home. The lush grounds of the property gave me plenty of inspiration.

23 And a late August trip to Artists and Fleas in Williamsburg, Brooklyn reminded me that fall was just around the corner...

24 These felt leaves remind me of the trees from the kitchen set during last season's Halloween show - just a bit of color showing through, as Fall sets in.