Goals: 2013

This was, by far, the quickest year I have ever experienced.
Time seemed to move at lightning speed, and I find myself here
on the brink of 2013.  So here is my usual list of things that I
want to improve, change, and accomplish for the new year.


*Be better about picking my cuticles.  It's time to control this
nervous tick and have pretty nails again.

*Cut out the unnecessary.  By not buying things that I don't need,
giving away things that are just collecting dust, and getting rid of clutter.
This includes people, as well.

*Learn to Can.  I feel like this is on my list every year, and every year I find
myself unprepared....which brings me to my next goal.

*Be better prepared.  Think ahead, send out birthday/anniversary cards
on time, have things ready early.

*Create a business plan. This is the big one for 2013.

*Use time wisely.  Time management is something that I'm getting better
at but every now and again I'll get sucked into meaningless crap online.

*Set aside time to be creative.  I used to think that I had to wait for the
creative mood to strike, but now I'm going to make time to just sit down
and make things. I definitely want to get back to my collaging.

*Exercise, eat well and keep everything in moderation.  Last year was a
binge year for me and not just wine, with everything. 2013 is about
taking it easy and being kind to my body.

*Come up with a plan for Littlebunny. I kind of put it on the back burner
this year, and I want to figure out a way to take it to the next level and
get my cards into stores. This could take lots of reorganizing...

*Have a monthly wine club.  Even if only 2 people show up, it's always worth it.

And there we have it. The goals for 2013.  We've already got a lot lined up
travel and wedding wise so it will be exciting to see where the year takes us!!

I hope that everyone has a safe and happy New Year's <3

A Year in Photos

After going through my photos for this past year, I realized that I didn't
take nearly as many as I did last year.  I guess that's what happens when
you are immersed in wedding planning.

Our trip to the Adirondack's with Maria and Angie

One of the first signs of Spring

Dumplings from White Bear in Flushing




















Rooftop installation at the Met

The husband paddleboarding out in Montauk

















Posing starfish at the Camden Aquarium

the lake @ Carly's Cabin


















Joelie at the beach in AC

The Chambers sisters

The Queen City at sunset

















Zach and I at the rehearsal dinner

Mr and Mrs 10.27.12

Honeymoon in Playa del Carmen

1st Christmas with the husband. The group on the
steps continues to increase as the years go by.


I could do a whole other post on just my favorite wedding photos.
Maybe I'll make that a project for the new year...
Tomorrow, I'll post my resolutions :)

JFK>CHS

When boredom strikes some people reach for a book,  play spider
solitaire, or turn on the tv.  I scour travel sites for cheap flights to
just about anywhere.  Travel is constantly on my mind, and few things
make me happier than being able to plan a trip.

Last night I found a RT flight to Charleston for $200, which is
the cheapest that I have EVER seen! I had to buy.
So that is what I will be doing for my 30th Birthday
(yes, I know that July is far off, but you can't pass up good flight
deals right now)

I'm excited to show the husband my other city, the one that I never
quite fit into but loved regardless.

See you soon, Pineapple Fountain <3

Home for the Holidays

The husband and I had a lovely time in NJ celebrating out 1st Christmas
together.  We got to see lots of friends and family over the course of our
4 day visit, and had all of Christmas day to relax. It was great.

Making Merry

I'm sitting here with a mug of peppermint hot chocolate

and watching Eloise at Christmastime.  Our tree is lit up,


this little guy is the latest addition to our
collection of ornaments<3
a gift from the husband!


presents (to be given and received) are all around, and I am loving it.
We had our annual Christmas party last Sunday and it was a
success, though we do have way too much left over ham
and I may have had a bit too much holiday cheer (read: wine)
But a good time was had by all and now we know how much ham
to buy for next year :)

The homemade gifts are just about finished, I have one more batch of
salted butter caramels and peppermint scrub to make, and maybe some more
ornaments.  The nutella turned out to be a fail before it even began because it
is apparently impossible to find hazelnuts in this city! Who knew.






















I also wanted to introduce Slog, our new shitake mushroom log.
(An awesome gift courtesy of Chelsie and Peter, my new sister and brother-in-law)

Looks like we'll have a mushroom to eat quite soon!

Hard to believe that Christmas is only 6 days away,
we'll be leaving for South Jersey late Friday night
and enjoying 4 whole days of holiday festivities!
Can't wait!

Feels Like Christmas

My best friend/life partner came to stay last weekend!
It's become a tradition for her to visit around the holidays,
and this year was epic.  We started with lunch at Ippudo,
(this is the akamaru modern. absolute fav)

followed by churros at The Churreria, a trip to HousingWorks,
the Soho Etsy market-which was slightly confusing-but still charming
nonetheless, and then dinner with the husband at Blau Gans.
(if you go, get the schnitzel!)

















We saw this on our walk to the train. Definitely worth documenting.
Proving once more that you can find anything your heart desires in NYC.

After dinner we made our way to BAM to see the Nutcracker,
which was glorious.  It wasn't the Balanchine version but
the choreography was still beautiful and the show was still
a nod to the classic.  It made me want to take dance classes again,
and get a pair of red pointe shoes...but I always want those.

After a long bus ride back to Queens
we managed to catch the tail end of the SHAC
(Sunnyside Holiday Apartment Crawl)
where we drank bubbles, ate delicious snacks,
and caught up with friends.

It was the perfect way to really get into the Christmas spirit.

Holiday Card 2012

Here is the design for our 2012 Christmas card.

I can't wait to send these out!

Latest Obsessions

Anton Bauer Wagram Pinot Noir 2009
One of the allure of Austrian wines for me is the peppery spice and
somewhat gamey qualities that you often find. This Pinot Noir has it all,
AND it's under $20.

What Are You Doing New Year's Eve?- Rufus Wainwright
This has been my favorite holiday song this year

Our wedding photos
They are ridiculously amazing and more beautiful than I ever could have imagined.

Hot Chocolate
I always want it in the winter time, bonus points if peppermint or lavender is involved.

Chloe Ballet Pump
So that I could pretend like I was wearing pointe shoes again...actually
a pair of pointe shoes would be a whole lot cheaper....hmmmm

Pusheen the Cat

Having a spa day in the near future
Can I afford this? no. Can a gal dream? yes.

Holiday DIY

I've decided to make most of my gifts this year.
I'm pretty sure that I've said that for the last 2 years, but
this time I've already started putting my plan into motion.

My list of projects looks like this:
*Vanilla extract
*Lavender sugar
*Peanut butter cups
*Hot & sweet mustard
*Nutella
*Salted Caramels
*Candied Nuts
*Painted glass ornaments (with the paint on the inside!)
*Salt ornaments
*Sugar Scrub

I've already taken care of the vanilla extract and the lavender sugar,
next on my list to make is the sugar scrub and the salted caramels.
I'll be saving a lot of the food items til the week before Christmas
so that they last.

For good DIY ideas check out:
Pinterest
DesignSponge's No Buy Guide
The December Issue of Bon Appetit
The December Issue of Living
Sweet Paul

Are you making any gifts this year?

Happy Thanksgiving!

Wow. It is really Thanksgiving. Time has flown
by like I have never experienced before.  But here we are.

I have so much to be thankful for this year, an amazing new husband,
so many awesome friends/family, a job that enables me to do
what I want to be doing, the clean bill of health for a close friend,
not being harmed by mean ol' Sandy, waking up every morning,
enjoying the small pleasures in life, and having quality time with the people
that I love the most.

I feel like that's just the tip of the iceburg. What are you thankful for this year?
I hope that everyone spends it surrounded by family and/or friends and tons
of delicious food. <3

Happy Thanksgiving!!













source

Latest Obsessions

*Monday night is 50% off all wine bottles at Bourgeois Pig
and they have a variety of fondue!

*Seckle Pears
super tiny, extra delicious

*Pomegranate & Spruce candle from Paddywax
smells like Christmas!

*Tomorrow night (as soon as Thanksgiving ends)
 I can officially start listening to Christmas music!
(so nerdy, I know.)

*Homemade Spiced Cranberry Sauce
excellent on toast, with cheese, or on a sweet potato with greek yogurt

*Hospoda
Delicious Czech fare, nice wine list, mind blowing dessert.

Further Exploration: Flushing

Every time we go to Flushing it is a new and different experience.
Always some new place to try, new stores to visit, and it never
disappoints.  This time we visited Biang! which is the restaurant version
of Xian Famous foods which has all the noodle essentials that you'd
expect, plus some delightful (and not so delightful) extras.


First we have the spicy grilled quaile with "tiger vegetable" salad.
Good but the quaile was a little hard to eat because it's small and there
isn't an abundance of meat on it. The tiger vegetables were amazing.
I could eat that salad all the time.

Next we have the cold buckwheat noodles, and this by far was the
spiciest dish we had. But the noodles were a perfect texture,
and I kept eating despite the extreme heat. (sidenote: this is
where the tiger vegetables come in handy, after the spicy food)

This is our usual dish from Xian. The Mt Qi Pork Noodles.
It was ridiculously satisfying as always.  Moderately spicy.

This was my least favorite thing we ate, and it was all due to texture.
This is the grilled seitan, and it felt like i was chewing straight chicken skin.
Not my jam, at all.

This was an extra special treat, hot and sour lamb dumplings in soup.
The perfect umami feast. So many flavors, every taste is different.
Highly recommended.

The whole meal was a little over $30. which is pretty amazing
considering all the food we had and how full we were.
If you haven't made it out to Flushing yet I totally recommend it.
You can find awesome food for super cheap prices, and nothing
hits the spot in the cold weather like a huge bowl of hand pulled
noodles in spicy sauce.

Biang! Restaurant
41-10 Main St  Queens, NY 11355

The Sketchbook Project

The only thing that I've committed to lately is my new husband.
Otherwise, I've been hesitant to really dive in to any projects-
especially art related.  But yesterday (on the very last day)
I signed up for The Sketchbook Project, which is just
what I need to get the creative part of my brain moving.

I wasn't totally artless during all the wedding planning,
I actually started collaging again- which is probably my
most favorite medium.  I could sit for hours just flipping through
old National Geographics, looking for images that call out to me.
I even have a different pile of images that I love so much that I
couldn't bear to ever glue them.

 I'm getting sidetracked.
Back to the Project at hand.  In a few days I will be receiving my
official Sketchbook Project notebook, and I have 'til mid-January
to fill it and mail it back.  After that the book will go on tours,
and then eventually live at the Brooklyn Art Library-where anyone
can check it out.  It's a pretty awesome project and I'm excited to be
a part of it.  My friend Carly is also participating, and now that I think about it
she may have been the one who told me about it! So thank you, Carly!

I'll be posting sketchbook updates on here, so stay tuned!

Greenmarket Finds

I treated myself to a trip to the Union Square market
this morning.  It was magical as always, and there was
the bonus of seeing the holiday market being set up.
I look forward to getting lost in the maze of all the stalls,
and indulging in the hot chocolate from the truffle stand.
Just another reason to be excited for the Christmastime.

But back to the greenmarket. I stocked up on a few
things that I needed for the Boeuf Bourguignon Soup
and picked up a ton of other good stuff.  My digestive system
has been unhappy lately so I'm trying to appease it with
fresh produce.  I think it'll work.

1 head of cauliflower
1 heirloom tomato
3 apples
a small box of seckle pears
3 sprigs of thyme
parsley
3 carrots
raw honey
concord grapes
crimini mushrooms
arugula
1 quart of whole milk(not pictured)
1 pint of heavy cream (not pictured)
1lb of beef short ribs (not pictured)
1 slice of reuben bread (eaten)

All of that was $50

Latest Obsessions

*Twin Peaks complete series
got it last week and have been watching it since

*Llena eres de Gracia in Playa de Carmen
the husband got me the most awesome bag from there
and they make gaudy bathing suits fit for mermaids.

*My Berlin Kitchen by Luisa Weiss
I'm about halfway through and truly enjoying it.
Good story and good recipes.

*Planning for Christmas
ugh I know, I'm turning into that person. I'm always excited for Christmas
but for some reason this year the excitement came on earlier than usual.
I'm just looking forward to everything about the holidays this year.

*Post-wedding Detox
After over-indulging for nearly 2 1/2 weeks, it's time to be good
to my body again.  Time for a veggie overload.

*Big Bang Theory
At first I wasn't too sold on it, the extreme nerdiness kinda
freaked me out. But it grew on me and now I'm hooked.

Greenmarket Finds

In case you haven't noticed, it's basically winter now.
Snow is on the ground, the heat in our house came on,
and Christmas advertising is everywhere.

The greenmarket, thankfully, has not taken a full swing into winter
just yet. There are still ripe red tomatoes, pumpkins, and just today
I found cranberries!!! (Clearly, cooking seasonally allows you to
really get excited about the small things)

1 loaf of sourdough bread
1 doz eggs
red russian kale
brussels sprouts
cranberries
5 apples
3 heads of garlic
2 onions
1 fennel bulb
1 tomato
1 sugar pumpkin
beef short ribs (not pictured)
chicken leg and thigh (not pictured)

All of that was about $44

I plan on making:
pumpkin pie
boeuf bourguigon soup
fennel and citrus salads
chicken and dumplings or matzo ball soup w/ chicken
brussels sprout slaw (which was served at our wedding!)

Everything New

It's the end of an era.
Long story short I became unable to access
Captain's Log because of a password loss. Gone is my beloved
seaparty blog after I had been posting on it for 6 years.

But it is the season of change, I've got a new husband, new last name,
and big plans for the coming months.  I'm looking forward to blogging
regularly again and recording all of my adventures.