new york, new york (part 2)

Saturday started with a trip to Grand Central Terminal, which was few blocks away from our hotel. It was so gorgeous, and my picture doesn't do it justice (not even close).

We grabbed breakfast then took the subway down the the Greenwich Village area for S's final bridal appointment. The area near her appointment had several cute fair trade type stores and I even found a hole-in-the-wall bookstore that carried signed books (found a souvenir for Sam there!).

S's last bridal appointment was at a little bridal salon called Lovely.  I just happened upon it online by googling "new york city wedding dresses" and let me tell you all--this was such a find! All of their dresses were unique and so fun, the salon was adorable, and the sales staff was so friendly.

Here is a little glimpse of the store...

S just happened to get the biggest fitting room, which was the size of my living room and had some of the cutest decor ever.

I can't show a picture of her dress on here, because there are nosy fiances who may happen to read this blog, but it's gorgeous and will look amazing on her. I know they were also very helpful as far as getting her dress to Texas once it arrives at the store.


After her last appointment, we went to brunch at this little cafe called The Spotted Pig...

Do you spot the Spotted Pig?

...then headed back to Times Square to buy some theater tickets! Some of the shows we wanted to see didn't have seats together, so we decided on Mamma Mia!

S does not like the creepy Statue of Liberty man.

Since it was only around 4:45, we decided we had enough time to check out Central Park before the sunset. This was one area of NY I didn't get to explore when I was there the first time, and I didn't get to see much of it this time, so I'm going to have to put it on my list again for next time.

 I normally hate it when people take pictures of themselves, but I mean c'mon. I was in Central Park.

After the park we grabbed a quick dinner then headed back down to see the show. 

And mostly because I don't want my ticket stub to be the last picture you see of my NY trip, here is a sunset picture from Central Park.

Until next time, NYC.

new york, new york (part 1)

Disclaimer: Despite the fact that I have two great cameras, I left both of them at home...so you must deal with iPhone photos. 

This past weekend I went to New York City with one of my best friends and her mom so that she could look at wedding dresses for her upcoming nuptials. We have dreamed of J. Crew wedding dresses since we were freshmen in college, so it was an amazing opportunity for us to go!

I started out my journey by preparing with a fancy new purse. I had a perfectly decent purse that I use all of the time, but I wanted something that I could wear across my shoulder so it felt more secure. I found the perfect bag at Coach, and I'm in loooove. There are plenty of pockets and the color is beautiful.

My first purchase was this bottle of water in the airport. A note about airports: they take advantage of you. I mean, it's TSAs stupid rule that you can't bring liquids through, and then they charge you $6
 for a bottle of Smart Water? It's ridiculous.

We stayed at The Roosevelt Hotel, which was gorgeous in the lobby. The rooms were fairly nice as well, except one of our beds was so close to the wall with the bathroom door you had to sort of turn sideways and scoot into the bathroom. It was interesting. The only bad thing about this hotel is that they lost our reservation...oops! At least they had another room available!

Another thing of note: we were in SUCH a great location. We could walk nearly everywhere!

We all arrived Thursday evening at various times, so we woke up early Friday morning and went across the street to a little cafe across the street that served squagles (square bagels). It was delicious. We then prepared to head out into the blizzard...no joke, a blizzard. The snow was blowing so hard we had to bend over to walk against it. It was horrid. 

Here is S getting ready to brave the elements!

 We walked from our hotel (at 45th and Madison) to Rockefeller Center, which was only around 10 minutes but felt like forever in the frigid conditions.

Taking refuge in Rockefeller Center.

As you can see, the ice rink was completely covered in snow. Another note about NYC is that they have  sidewalk sweepers, which is maybe the greatest invention ever. The snow finally stopped around 4, and by the time we took a subway back uptown, the sidewalks were perfectly clear!

Anyway, we checked out the Lego store, which I think would have maybe held my little brother's attention for approximately 22140.235 hours when he was a little younger. Or maybe still, who knows.  Each of those little circles was full of different shapes and colors of legos...and it wrapped around to another side as well.

From the Lego store we headed to St. Patrick's Cathedral for a quick walk through. Even though it is being renovated, it is gorgeous inside! I highly recommend adding the cathedral to your list of things to see.

We then walked up Fifth Avenue to see some of the shops...

Cartier. I mean, I'd take it...

A girl's playground

We also checked out FAO Schwartz, where apparently I only took pictures of candy...seems appropriate.

Every color of Peeps you could ever want....disgusting.

This is for you baby brother.

I mean, this just seems so excessive.

From there we headed downtown to eat and head over to S's first bridal appointment. We ate a this cute little store called Pret a Manger (Pret) which has premade food (think your grab and go section of your grocery store), but it's surprisingly good. They also had super cute artwork.

I don't have any pictures from S's appointment at J.Crew, but I was not impressed. The bridal salon was small and less than exciting, and the bridal consultant seemed less than thrilled about helping us out...which was interesting, since that was her job. I'm not really sure what was up with that.


From there we headed to another bridal shop near Time's Square called R. K. Bridal...also not super impressed. If you guys are interested in hearing more about our specific experiences, let me know and I will write a post about them. I'm trying not to turn this into my first novel here.

We grabbed some dinner and headed to Magnolia Bakery, which has several locations throughout the city. Yum.

And since we were there, we went by the ice rink again...and it was totally cleared off with people skating on it! Totally different view than 8 hours prior.

Whew! That brings me to the end of our first day in NYC. It was a lot of walking, a little bit of rudeness, and a TON of fun! I'm so glad that S and her mom let me tag along on this trip! It was definitely a great experience, and I was so excited to explore new york some more!

currently...

watching:
Silver Lining's Playbook

...only like 4 months later than the rest of the country. I looooved this movie. Sam didn't like it quite as much, but something about it just made me feel. You know movies like that? It was fabulous.  It doesn't hurt that Bradley Cooper is pretty easy on the eyes and I adore Jennifer Lawrence more than almost any other actress around my age. I love that this is going to shine a light on bipolar disorder, which I have a very personal experience with.


reading:
Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me? (And Other Concerns) by Mindy Kaling

 
You may know Mindy Kaling from the television show The Office, where she played Kelly Kapoor for the first 8 seasons, but you may not know that she is also one of the writers for The Office and for her new show, The Mindy Project. This book is HILARIOUS. My best friend and I both bought it in the airport last weekend and we were both cracking up before my flight left. It will make you laugh out loud, and also feel a little validated by thoughts that you might have about other people from time to time :). It took me less than a day to read this, even though it's around 200 pages. 


eating:
Haagen Daaz Caramel Cone ice cream

I don't even need to write a review about this stuff. It's so ridiculously good.


wearing:
Tippi Sweater from J. Crew

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Ok I haven't technically worn this yet, but I am planning to this week so it counts right? I saw this when I was in New York last week (posts to come on that little adventure soon!) and decided it needed to come home with me. Normally I would NEVER spend $80 on a sweater, but apparently shopping on Fifth Avenue makes me do weird things. 




What are you currently doing?

life through instagram

Have you missed my insta-updates? I'm sure you have.

Why would you not just make your own Rice Krispies? It doesn't seem like it should be that hard.

My brother is pretty great at shuffling cards. And by "pretty great" I mean, terrible. 

My mom and her favorite. 

Me and my favorite :) 

Birthday breakfast with Sam at my favorite breakfast place in KC.

What a little pumpkin. He is so cute.

Look at him! don't you want to steal him?

Birthday flowers from an old friend. 

Sam and his Maddie.

Lunch date.

Game night.

A surprise snow storm. 

My handsome valentine. 

New kicks. 

Stormy weather.

do you know my friend tami taylor?

I'm pretty sure that if Tami Taylor was a real person, we would be friends IRL (in real life, duh).

If you don't know who Tami Taylor is, shame on you. It means you haven't seen Friday Night Lights, which means you also don't know who Coach Taylor is, the man who I measure every other man against (mostly kidding, Sam).

I mean, really y'all.

Anyway, Tami Taylor Connie Britton is now playing Rayna Jaymes on Nashville, so naturally I spent this entire day watching like 7 episodes of it. Go. Watch.

Now.



Also, listen to this video. Talent, y'all.

Okay, I'll stop talking like a southern person now.

Go watch Nashville, then watch some videos by James Alan.


And finally, I will leave you with this picture (if you haven't seen it on Facebook yet):

Homeboy is so freakin' cute. He LOVES the snow, and I wish I was there to see him frolicking about.

a follow up.

Remember when I showed you how awful my Boston Cream Pie turned out?

Yeah, that's NOT what it was supposed to look like.

This is the original picture.

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Several things should you decide to try this recipe.

1) The only part that I didn't mess up was the cake part, because it's from a cake mix and it's super easy.

2) You should make up the filling part and then refrigerate it for a little bit so that it sets up a little more. If not, it will melt right down off the sides when you put the top cake part on. As you can see in the picture above.

3) I am not sure what's wrong with the ganache (chocolate part on top) but it's obviously wrong. I'm not entirely sure how to fix this, so if anyone has tips with ganache...

4) I suggest making this for a dinner party, or something, because it's so rich you'll only want one piece and then you'll end up throwing the rest of it away. Okay I actually wanted the whole cake, but I'm trying to show SOME restraint so I threw the rest of it away. 



As far as the other recipe I said I was going to try...

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this soup was the bomb.com. It's tomato based, but since you use cheese tortellini in it, it ends up tasting a bit like grilled cheese and tomato soup, but all in one dish. Sam liked it more than me I think, but I have to be in just the right mood for soup or I feel a little iffy about it.

pinspiration sundays (on a tuesday).

Forgive me for already messing up my weekly column. I know you're not surprised.


I worked 4 nights in a row over the weekend (Thurs-Sunday) and also came down with a sinus infection, so to say I was incapacitated is an understatement. On my last night of work my sweet patient said to me, "What's wrong with you, you can't talk." Thanks, little man. One of the many reasons I adore working with kids, they tell you like it is.

Anyway, here's whats (p)inspiring me this week!

Skinny Buffalo Chicken Lettuce Wraps via Gina's Skinny Recipes.

Umm..yum! I just made some crockpot chicken today so I know what I'm going to do with the rest of it!


Inspiration for some new wall art in our bedroom:

And finally, attempt this 'do for dinner with my 'rents on Saturday night.

What's inspiring you this week?