It’s the most wonderful time of the year…

 

 

Last Thursday we FINALLY went to see the Christmas tree at Rockefeller Center!  It was a particularly chilly night and as usual I checked the weather before we left.  The forecast was cool, but there wasn’t any sign of rain / snow in sight.  We rode the subway straight to the Rockefeller building and headed outside.  And there she was in all her GLORY!!!  The 76 foot tall Norway Spruce is: 40+ feet in diameter, strewn with 5 miles of LED lights (more than 300,000 individual bulbs), weighing over 10 tons, and boasting a Swarovski crystal star on top.  She is a beauty! 

We started off across the rink (away from the tree) and then went north a bit to watch the snow flake light show on the Saks Fifth Ave building.  All along the facade of the building they have hung snowflakes that are programmed to light up and “dance” (a la the Bellagio fountains in Las Vegas) to Christmas music.  Very cool!!  I was snapping pictures, along with EVEYONE else, the whole way.  My stupid camera ran out of batteries though, so I didn’t get as many as planned…  We took some on Nick’s i-phone, one will be in our Christmas card *hopefully*.  And then as if a scene from a movie, we were watching the snowflake show looking up in awe at the twinkling lights and it started SNOWING!!!  I couldn’t believe it!  We had planned on getting hot chocolate at Dean & Deluca but I didn’t want to go inside now and miss out on the snow.  We decided to take refuge in the warm store after all and get a refreshment.  When we went back outside the snow had stopped, so we meandered back to the tree to get a better look up close.  We took turns taking pictures of each other with our phones & I got a great shot to use as the wallpaper on my phone.  By then, it was time to get home and into comfy pj’s to watch the newest installment of the Office on t.v.  What a perfect night!!!  Could not have dreamed of a better experience.   

LOVE these

 

http://adaanddarcy.blogspot.com/2009/12/pom-pom-beauty.html

Wonder how hard they are to make?  There are step-by-step instruction on the web-site.  I was going to try to make crocheted floral necklaces for all of my friends for Christmas, but that didn’t turn out so well…  While I can pick up the crochet stitches OK, I am having trouble forming them to look like flowers.  I wonder if I can alter these to be small enough for a necklace?  Maybe this will have to be a project for my mom & I in AZ!  :)

crafty (happy) girl

Nick has taken to the library which means that I was left to myself for the day.  So I sat with my cup of coffee & bagel at my desk and continued to craft away on the holiday cards we will be sending out, while catching up on my favorite shows on hulu.  :)  I did take  a break however to have lunch with my man & then go into volunteer (at Room to Grow) in the afternoon.  I LOVE it there!

I am so thrilled with how the cards are turning out, and am even MORE excited that I have some festive decorations strung up above my desk.  I made a sort of clothes line out of some yarn (I have a plethora of that laying around…) and have dangled all of the completed cards off of it for the time being (until we send them out).  And then I plan to hang cards that we receive on it also. 

I ran out of supplies from my Michaels run last week so I decided to venture over to Kate’s Paperie (www.katespaperie.com) in SoHo to restock.  I could get lost in this store!  They have everything dealing with stationary & gift wrapping you could ever want (at a very EXPENSIVE price).  :)  It’s very easy to get sidetracked here & I didn’t do a very good job at staying on task…  I ended up buying two different sticker type tapes to assemble the cards together, one of which I use all the time and another I decided to give a try for something different.  Unfortunately the new product I am NOT a fan of at all, the profile is a little bit too high so it lifts the paper off of the card more than I would like.  And my old standby tape,turned out to be something different – because I was so enamored with all of the glitz and glitter around me, I must have picked up the wrong thing.  So back to Michaels I go tomorrow!!!  Which you won’t find me complaining about.  :)  I got a 25% coupon anyway last week when I was there so I HAVE to go to use it, right?  :)  I will post pics soon of the cards / display.

trying to redeem myself…

I have been baking (high calorie, bad for your body, but taste SO YUMMY) treats for months now.  A couple of weeks ago, while I was getting ready to make another batch of goodness (pumpkin scones), Nick said “can you make bran muffins?”  BARF!!  He twisted my arm :) , & reluctantly I agreed to after Thanksgiving.  Maybe I will like them.  Well, this week is after Thanksgiving so… in an effort to make myself feel better for all of the stuffing, pie, sweet potatoes, & turkey I ate last week (and all of the turkey, artichoke dip, mashed potatoes, and did I mention PEANUT BUTTER BALLS?!?! I will scarf over Christmas) I relented and decided that I would make the muffins this week.  Maybe I will like them?  How bad can they be?  They sell them at Starbucks?   

I had been putting off doing a huge grocery trip for weeks now, just getting by with picking up a few things here and there as necessary from the local store right across the street.  The more I procrastinated about this the fewer our food options were.  And I was literally going to that store “right around the corner” AT LEAST once a day.  :)  For a while I was doing good & going to Trader Joe’s once a week and stocking up.  Problem is that the Trader Joe’s is a mile away, which I don’t mind walking to and from, but I usually go by myself (Nick is usually in class) and that limits how much I can carry home.  And there are “special” days (Wednesday & Thursday) that TJ’s is less busy (and by that I mean the line only wraps around about 1/4 of the store as opposed to 7/8) & the last few weeks those days have been horrible weather-wise.  So today, I made a GINORMOUS list of items (including all of the ingredients for the aforementioned Bran Muffins) that will hopefully tide us over until we go to AZ for Christmas & was EVEN able to convince Nick to go with me. 

We opted to go to the store that was a couple blocks from our building since they have better prices & there were two of us so carrying our loot back wouldn’t be so bad.  After stepping outside we realized that it was MUCH colder than it looked from our apartment window.  The weather out here is so deceiving.  I am used to basically one or two (maybe three) different climate changes in AZ (and they REALLY aren’t  even changes by definition if you look at the temperature swings in other parts of the country), all of which you can pretty much select your outfit by looking out the window.  In AZ you can assume that if the sun is shining you will be comfortable in shorts / jeans & a t-shirt for 95% of the year.  On the 5 days it actually rains in AZ, you can put on a sweatshirt and call it a day!  In NYC the same can not be said…  I had 3 layers on and was still cold to the bone.  I will say that I think my blood has thickened in the 4 months we’ve been here, but I am still not used to 40 degrees!   

After we returned from our shopping trip, I was so cold that I decided to make the muffins TODAY because the heat from the stove would warm up our little studio.  I guess this is one of the benefits of living in less than 500 square feet!  :)  In an effort to make the muffins more appealing (to me), I added an apple to sweeten them up.  There is only 2 tablespoons of sugar in these things!!!  Not so sure it worked, the apple did nothing for disgusting sight of the batter, and they didn’t smell as good as red velvet cupcakes.  Our little home was nice & toasty though!  Nick might not have any competition / help in polishing these off.  :)  We’ll see…    

Thanksgiving 2009

Last week Nicks family came to NYC to celebrate Thanksgiving.  It was 5 fun-filled family days in Manhattan.  Paul & Gaynelle arrived on Tuesday afternoon and Kim rented a car to pick them up at the airport. 

Tuesday night we had dinner at Butter right around the corner from our place with Paul, Gaynelle, Kim, & her boyfriend Sean.  Dinner was amazing & very relaxing, the perfect setting to catch up! 

Wednesday was a wet one, but it didn’t keep us inside.  Nicks parents met us at our place & got the grand tour of our studio!  It didn’t take long!!  And then we showed them around our neighborhood, we went to the Law School, and Washington Square Park before we headed down to the Financial District to meet up with Kim for lunch.  After lunch we browsed around by the water & walked around the shops on the pier while Kim finished up her day and came to meet us to go to Ground Zero.  Not much to see as the site is under construction, can’t believe it’s been over 8 years!  Standing there looking up into the sky it’s hard to imagine how far the twin towers “towered” over the rest of the buildings, it still gives me chills thinking about that day.  We also stopped by the New York Stock Exchange & walked down Wall Street on our way to SoHo for some afternoon shopping.  The boys went off to find a pub for a drink & Kim, Gaynelle, and I set off peruse the street vendors for jewelry.  That evening we went to watch the floats being blown up for the Parade the next day and then headed back to Kim’s apartment for dinner, help her make the pies for Thanksgiving, and hang out until Lindsay arrived from Boston via the Lucky Star bus.

Nicks “Random walk down Wall St.” for his Investment Group

Nicks favorite float – The smurf

 

Thursday morning we met at Kim’s apartment and headed down 50th St. to 7th Avenue where the parade was going on.  Since we were on a side street the crowd wasn’t as bad & we still had a spectacular view of all of the floats!  Growing up watching the parade on tv you don’t really get a feel for how big the floats REALLY are, some of them were the size of neighboring buildings!!!  On our way back to Kim’s place we stopped by Rockefeller Plaza to watch the ice skaters and snap a few photos.  The tree was up, but obviously not lit.  (I think Nick and I are going to stop by and take pictures in front of the tree tonight on our way to Kim’s place to watch the Civil War game.)  Once home, Kim got to work cooking our feast!  I tried to help, but she kept telling me no!  :)  Kim’s Icelandic friends from college, Bjarney & Elizabet, came over & watched football, drank wine, and grazed on appetizers all afternoon until the turkey was done around 5:30.  Kim put together an amazing spread that was delicious!  We ate & sat around the dinner table for a couple of hours until we were all so STUFFED we couldn’t move! 

 

 

 

 

 

 

outside the ice rink at Rockefeller Center

 

On Friday Kim got reservations at the Boat House in Central Park for lunch.  We walked down 5th Ave and got to enjoy all of the holiday decorations and store windows before heading into the park.  The Boat House has a rustic feel with a large fire place, hearth, & leather club chairs in the waiting area complete with garland & pine cones strung across the mantle.   Our table overlooked the lake with boats lined up on the far side, at one point a couple took one out on the lake for a row!  After lunch we spent the rest of the afternoon in the Metropolitan Museum of Art.  This place is so big I get overwhelmed with it all, it was my third time there (two times since we’ve lived here) and after about 3 hours I am exhausted!  Such a great place!!!  We were all groggy after walking around the museum so we decided we needed a sweet treat  to revive us!  We headed to Crumbs for cupcakes & then on to a sports bar to watch football, basketball, and have some nachos!!  After our backwards dinner, we headed back to Kim’s to play Cranium.  We spent the next few hours acting, sketching, & rolling on the ground laughing at / with each other!!  It was great!!!

Lindsay left early Saturday morning, and we went with Kim, Paul, & Gaynelle to shop at Bryant Park!  Gaynelle got a customized ornament from a shop of a Christmas tree with all of our names on it to commemorate the holiday!  (I have been looking for an ornament too to celebrate our first Christmas as a married couple & living in New York, but I haven’t found one that I LOVE just yet!)  We hung out until Nicks parents need to go to the airport that afternoon! 

Nick & I were sad to see them all go home!  I had a wonderful holiday hanging out with my new family!  It was perfect & I couldn’t have wished for a better time!  I am so thankful!!!!  Next up is Arizona to spend Christmas with my side of the family! 

Boston Nov. 6th – 8th

I know I am all out of sequence here, but I wanted to post pictures form our trip to Boston to see Lindsay in November.  I need to be better about blogging more regularly and then this wouldn’t happen…  :)

We rode the Fung Wah bus out & it was an experience…  Fifteen bucks per person each way is a bargain, but it is not luxurious in any way!!!  I think next time we will be taking the “Bolt” bus.

 

church in Lexington / Concord

 

Old North Church in Boston with Paul Revere Statue

 

Paul Revere Statue

 

Plaque on Paul Revere Statue

Lindsay & I in the courtyard of the Old North Church

 

tree at Baylor College, I LOVE the red leaves – I picked up a few and plan on decoupaging myself a bookmark (I know I am not in kindergarten, but I just love the colors!)

Nick & I under this ginourmous tree in Lexington / Concord

crafting

Nick and I have been talking about what we were going to do for Christmas cards this year, I wanted to do a photo card with a picture from our wedding (I mean, you only get married once & we should celebrate that!) & he thought that this would be too expected.  So we decided that I would scrapbook cards instead.  Only problem is, I left ALL of my supplies in AZ!!!  A trip to a craft store was in order…  But I had searched before for & had no luck.  So…

On a side note, I was watching Martha Stewart on Monday this week and she made an advent calendar on one segment.  Nick walked in the door from class as they were completing the calendar and said he always loved these & that we had to have one.  So I added this to my list of things to buy at the aforementioned craft store…  Also in this episode Martha went to the BRAND NEW Michaels Craft store in NYC just up on the NW side of Central Park to surprise customers in the store taking her holiday crafting classes.  So problem solved!!  There is a crafting haven for me after all!  but this could be dangerous…  :)

 

my inspiration

Martha used metal tins with clear fronts from Ikea & glittered discs with numbers on them.  I DID NOT want to hassle with glitter, because lets be honest – the end result is pretty & sparkly but once you use it it winds up EVERYWHERE & when you think you’ve scrubbed your hands and rid yourself of it ALL you find traces of it in your hair, on your keyboard, etc. WEEKS later!  So I opted to go a different direction.  Since I was already buying scrapbooking paper for cards, I decided to use that for the calendar too.  For the tins, I had to get creative because I wasn’t going to trek all the way to Ikea in Brooklyn for one thing, so having just got married & spending UNGODLY amounts of time (& money) in stores like Michaels in their “wedding” aisle, I knew that they sold favor tins that looked just like the ones Martha used.  I bought a set of these, they were smaller in diameter (which will present a challenge in filling them), but will work!  I also picked up a magnet roll to affix to the tins so we can display the calendar on our fridge!  Armed with my 3 bags of goodies I set off toward home to start a day long crafting experience!     

our advent calendar

 

close ups of a couple of days

 

I filled each day with one of Nick’s favorite (bite sized) candies, homemade treats, & some have little love notes in them too.  The first day was Reese’s Pieces and when Nick opened it up he was thrilled, but told me that I was starting off with a bang, and that I should have began with something less “exciting”, like a gum drop, & work my way up to the Reese’s Pieces on the last day.  (I will remember this for the future when we have kids!)  I didn’t want to buy 25 different bags of candy because I would end up eating it ALL!!!

After the holiday I was planning on using the tins to hold / display spices, I even think we can write the spice on the plastic “window” with a dry erase marker and change it if we need to.  I will have to test this out though.

Posts to come of the Christmas card progress…  :) 

knitting away…

I started knitting a few years ago when an old roommate taught me.  Thanks KRISTA!!!  Since then I think I have taught just about everyone I have lived with, my mom,  and the now the girl I volunteer for at Room to Grow.  It is such a neat hobby!  You can virtually do it anywhere, it only requires a couple of supplies, and it’s a great conversation starter!!! 

A few weeks ago I finished the first of MANY baby projects for one of my BEST friends, Melyssa, & her baby boy.  I got a late start on this because of the chaos that has been my life the last few months, but I ended up finishing it before his birth.  Yay!!!  I knitted a matching beenie for him too, hopefully it will fit.  I think this is my 7th baby blanket with roughly the same pattern & I am looking to switch it up a little bit for the next one… 

 

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I have been working on a scarf for Nick made out of the yarns we picked up on the Aran islands on our honeymoon.  I wanted to get this done by Thanksgiving, but I am not sure I am going to make it.  I am not quite half way done, so I better get a move on.  :)

 

  

Three weekends ago we took the bus (Fung Wah) into Boston to see Lindsay.  The ride was 4+ hours so I took a new knitting project along with to occupy my time.  Unfortunately in the hubbub of rushing to catch an earlier bus, I left all of my knitting & snacks below the bus on the way out there, so I whipped this up on our way back to NYC.  I have tried numerous hats for myself over the years and they have all been just OK, UNTIL this one -

 I think I will call this the “fung wah”

I found a pattern on Lion Brand’s web-site & I LOVE IT!!!  Now I want to make one in every color…

grandma strom

One of my favorite memories as a kid was getting together with my grandmother to make potato pancakes.  It was a traditional meal that her family brought over to the US from Czechoslovakia (I think?)  In the beginning, my mom, sister, & I used go to over to my grandparents house for an afternoon and cook up a storm.  My grandfather never liked the smell of the house during our party, so in the later years, he brought my grandma to our house to stink it up.  It was always the same, she would come in tow with a large metal bowl full of mashed potatoes she had made the night before, her cast iron pan, rolling pin, and rolling mat.  They would enter the house and my grandpa would announce “Meals on Wheels has arrived”!  So cute!!!  My grandmother would roll out the mashed potato mixture on a lightly floured mat so thin you could almost see through them, then they would go into the hot pan with a little butter and cook for only a couple minutes on each side until they started to bubble and brown, once removed – we stacked them on a plate with a pat of butter in between each pancake.  (I should mention that my sister had her own little thing going on on the side, she liked to make “mini” pancakes and cook them along side the larger ones.  Not sure at what point this started but it was cute!)  This would continue until all of the potatoes were gone and we had a towering stack!  We would each snag one here and there and start tearing off pieces to enjoy.  When we were all done, we would all sit down & eat together.  I am not sure why, but these pancakes were the most scrumptious meal!  

This tradition continued at least once a year until my grandmother passed almost 10 years ago.  Since then, I have tried numerous times to recreate these and every time had the same disappointing result.  And this time all the way across the country in my little dorm kitchen was no exception.  I can’t seem to roll the pancakes thin enough without them breaking apart… I got SO frustrated this time, I put an egg into part of the mixture to hopefully bind everything together.  This helped, but they did not end up looking like I had remembered & they had to cook longer because they were thicker.  I still had a batch of some that I managed to roll as thin as I could (with a glass cup because I didn’t want to buy a rolling pin), these were the best ones & tasted the most like what I remembered.  The whole process took about 2 hours and I still didn’t achieve the end result I wanted.  Not sure why I keep hoping for a different result when the process is the same!  I am convinced that there is something that I am missing. 

Even though they weren’t what I was hoping for, they were still edible and Nick and I devoured all of them…

 

my mess, on the plate are my attempt at rolling out the original pancakes

in the pan, they are very small and thick

John Mayer

As many of you know I am a SERIOUS John Mayer fan.  He is playing two concerts in NYC while we are here, the first of which is already sold out!  I was planning on trying to get tickets to the second one in February at Madison Square Garden tomorrow & then I was notified that he will be giving a secret show tomorrow night in Brooklyn for free.  The idea of these “secret shows” is weird to me…  Apparently they happen all of the time, artists will notify fans via email, blog, or in this case , Face Book of their secret show (which are usually free?).  Anyway, I was ecstatic when I saw the post on Face Book late last week!  Hopefully I will be there in time and get tickets.  Wish me luck!!!  I will keep you posted.

We have had a lot going on this last month & I have not been blogging, but rest assured posts to come of my knitting projects, cooking adventures, and our weekend trip to Boston will be coming soon.  Stay tuned.

broadway…

One of the best things about Nick being a student at NYU is that we get amazing discounts to Broadway shows.  So far we’ve been to see Avenue Q, Oleanna (with Bill Pullman & Julia Stiles) and tonight was “next to normal”!  It was fantastic!!!!  but very emotional…  It was about a woman (& her family) who became bi-polar after the death of her 8th month son 17 years ago.  She & her husband got married because she was pregnant with her son and then he ended up dying of an intestinal blockage.  Her son, Gabe, is present throughout the play and toys with his moms mind through song.  The actor who played Gabe was PHENOMINAL!!!  He stole the show!  The couple had another child after the death of Gabe, a daughter, and she is deprived of her mothers love / attention / devotion / and so on because her mom is too self-absorbed with grieving for her son.  The play chronicals her struggle with treatment & how it tears their family apart.  By the end of it, I was in tears bawling  (as was most of the audience)!!!  It is my favorite play so far!  As we were leaving, I told Nick that the next play he picked had to be a little bit more lighthearted, I can’t take the sobbing…  This weekend we are going to see Carrie Fischers autobiographical one-woman show “Wishful Drinking” about her adventures in Hollywood, substance abuse, & mental illness.  It’s supposed to be funny, but we’ll see…

We have been going to shows on weeknights and are usually rushed because Nick has class most nights, so we end up running to catch the play!  Since it was a lazy Sunday & we didn’t have to be crammed for time we made sure we left early and got uptown in plenty of time & walked around the surrounding streets where other plays were showing.  We walked by the Theatre where Jude Law is playing in Hamlet and there were barricades up and people congregating so not knowing what was going on, but thought it was important, we decided to stick around…  AND we saw JUDE LAW!!!  He came out of the theatre and signed some autographs and got into a black Escalade and was driven away.  Pretty cool!!!  If I can figure out how to post the video I will!  :)

the best night

Last night while Nick was in class I made my FAVORITE dinner, roasted chicken!  I was a little nervous because although we’ve been making this dish for years, Nick is always the one to prepare the bird and get it in the over.  I usually chop the veggies.  :)  It always looks so disgusting when he’s taking out the insides of the bird, but luckily they package it all up for you in a neat little plastic bag.  And then the fun part came – smoothering the chicken with butter, GARLIC (yay!!), salt & pepper, and stuffing it with lemons.  I was unsure of the direction the bird should sit, breats up or down, in the end I put them down.  Apparently there isn’t a wrong way, some people like the breasts down because then they are more tender and juicy, Nick usually does it the other way (& I think this is the way I prefer because then the skin on the breasts is nice and crispy!)  If you can’t tell, I like white meat!  It turned out so YUMMY as always, I think it’s pretty hard to screw up!  I bought a cheap bottle of white wine from Trader Joe’s to enjoy with the meal too.

After dinner we watched the Yankee’s game & the Office!  I was ready to just stay in and relax for the rest of the evening when Nick announced we were going out on an adventure!  I was less than THRILLED…  I gave him a hard time the entire time I was getting ready wanting to know where we were going.  And he refused to tell me, saying things like “I think you will like the place”, “we are going to meet some of your friends” (which I ONLY have one here!), “maybe we’re going to see a person or something you like”.  And I’m supposed to be excited about going out?!?!  Mind you, if I tried to spring this on him it would NOT fly!  He would refuse to get dressed unless he knew exactly where we were going!!  Anyway, we get out the door and on the subway (RELUCTANTLY) to go uptown!  We exit the 6 train at 59th St and head west (I have no clue where we are, and he says (in true Nick fashion) “there’s a 20% chance that we might be lost”!!)  Ugh!!  We are walking down this cute street with sparkling lights and big white balloons tied to all of the storefronts & railings and come upon SERENDIPITY!!  I had sent Nick an email earlier in the week raving about their famous FROZEN hot chocolate.  Let me just say it was AMAZING!!!!  I had the original and Nick had the peanut butter one (my fave, but it was kind of rich), the glasses were huge and we felt like we were going to have to be rolled out the door!  The kitschy interior and the Tiffany-esque  lamps only added to the experience.  Definitely a must see when you are in the city!!  (Thanks Alice!)

 

So, hopefully next time Nick tries to surprise me I will go with the flow a *little* better!  :)   Thanks for the treat Nick!

lucky

wedding “video” from our photographer:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4GqOvBMn474

Unnecessary? hmmm…

Today I was g-chatting with my sister trying to find a good winter coat and got TOTALLY sidetracked…  She turned me onto this indie clothing web-site Mod Cloth!  While I don’t NEED a new dress right at this second, our good friends Scott & Brittney are getting married on New Years Eve in Tempe, AZ & think one of these LOVLIES would be perfect! 

 

Paris at Dusk

 

Precious Dress in Opal

 

Champagne Toast Dress

 

The Bow Must Go On Dress

 

Which would you choose? :)

Nick passed the Bar

Its been 2 1/2 LONG months of waiting, but Friday Nick received word that he passed the Arizona State Bar Exam!!!  Whoo HOO!!  I am so proud of him!  It’s really not surprising that he passed, but with all of the things we have had going on leading up to the Bar and even post exam, it really is a wonder we have survived!  :) 

Here is a re-cap for all of you:  Nick graduated Law School at U of A at the middle of May, he had to be out of his house in Tucson by the end of May.  So he packed up his stuff and put it all in a storage unit in Tucson since that’s where we will be moving in June of next year.  Then he drove up to Phoenix & attended his Bachelor Party (and I my Bachelorette) in Lake Havasu over Memorial Day weekend.  After that he drove up to the Northwest to stay with his parents over the summer to buckle down and study hard for the Bar!  I flew up to visit him for a couple of weeks & Nicks best man, Scott, & his fiancé Brittney came up for a weekend of wine tasting & socializing.  The week after the 4th of July we drove back down the west coast and stopped to stay the night in San Jose with one of Nicks groomsmen, Ed.  When we returned to AZ it was time to start packing up all of my stuff and rent a U-Haul to take it all down to the storage facility in Tucson!  My friend Karla came over to help me start putting my life away in boxes & pack for a honeymoon to a mystery destination!  At the end of July, one week before the wedding!, Nick spent two days in Tucson sitting for the Exam.  (My roommates & I made dinner for Nick and surprised him with party hats, noisemakers, & champagne when he got back from the test!)  And he still had a final section to take THE DAY BEFORE THE WEDDING in Phoenix.  Are you tired yet?  I don’t know how we did it all!  And didn’t kill each other!  :)

 

 

With all of this going on I don’t know if I would have been disciplined enough to study & stay focused, but somehow Nick finds the strength, dedication, & determination to do it!  Truly amazing!  Love you!!!

welcome to fall

The trees are starting to turn here in the city!  Here are a couple of pictures from my walk home from volunteering.  I am so THANKFUL that we live close enough and the weather has been ABSOLUTELY gorgeous & I can walk the mile to volunteer 3 afternoons a week.  I usually weave in and out of our neighborhood by campus and then travel up 5th Avenue which is quite a treat for the eyes & ears, its lined with every MAJOR clothing store & designers shop imaginable!  

  

Office along 5th Ave.

 

across the street from Washington Square Park

 

another shot looking down Waverly across from Washington Sq.

red velvet delight…

Since moving to NYC and NOT having a wedding to plan anymore, I have a lot of free time on my hands now.  I am enjoying cooking more because Nick is in class and doesn’t have as much time to do it.  I also have been baking a LOT!!  So far I have made blueberry muffins, mini drop sugar cookies, and now red velvet cupcakes from SCRATCH!  A few weeks ago Nick asked me to make them and I had planned it for last week, but my mom sent us a package with a bag of kisses in it & we (mostly ME!) ate the whole bag inside of 3 days!  Guess it’s a good thing I’ve been walking EVERYWHERE in the city, huh?!  

 

I looked on-line and in my Joy of Cooking book to find a recipe, I finally settled on this one from Paula Deen because it had more of the ingredients that I already had at home.  The Joy of Cooking one had some specialty things like cake flour, which I am sure would have made them better, but I am trying to conserve money here!  I halved the recipe, so we don’t have as many to eat!  :)  They are frosted with cream cheese frosting & I made a pink sugar to sprinkler on some of them too!  Now all that’s left is for Nick to get home from class & try them out!! 

studio

here are a few shots of the inside of our newlywed digs…

hallway at entry

 

 

looking from kitchen toward Nick’s desk

 

looking from bed to the kitchen

 

kitchen

 

bathroom

 

Our space is small (less than 500 sq. ft.), but it doesn’t feel so bad!  Other than the "*teeny tiny* kitchen, it suits us well!  Check back with us in May and see if we still feel the same way!  I think by the time we get back to AZ we will be thrilled to have more space to rattle around in!!  :)