And We're Back!

I have been quite blog delinquent, but I am going to try and be better about keeping up-to-date. Miss May has certainly been taking all of my energy; however, it is time to give my brain other things to think about besides crawling, diapers, teething and separation anxiety.

One of the things I miss about living in The South are the really cute gift boutiques that every town has, no matter how big or small. I love browsing the pretty stationary and beautiful housewares. It is easy to stop in and grab a quick birthday gift for a friend or a hostess gift for the party you are headed to that evening. The boutique gift stores up here are usually either incredibly expensive or not quite my taste; however, Pink Olive is exactly what I have been looking for. I read about their new East Village shop, so May and I headed over last week to investigate. I stayed in the approx. 200 square foot store for a good thirty minutes because there was something new to look at everywhere I turned. It was incredible and gave me the taste of home I was craving. I am so happy to know where I can go for the perfect gift for friends (and a little something fun for myself as well).

Picture by Miha Matei via Pink Olive

Right Here, Right Now

When we got pregnant, a lot of people started asking us if it changed our timeline for staying in New York.  I would be lying if I said it hadn't crossed my mind several hundred times in the past year, but I am even more confident in our decision now than I was a year ago.  Yes, I so wish that we lived closer to our families, and there are days that I desperately want a car and a house and a Publix down the road.  Living in the city is hard and has gotten harder since little miss May arrived, but I love this place and our life here.  There isn't any place I would rather live right now.

You see, while it takes me two trips to get May, the car seat, the stroller and the diaper bag down our apartment stairs and onto the sidewalk; and every time we venture out the door, I have to bundle May up in a snow suit that she hates putting on, so she screams bloody murder while I am putting her in it; and I can't just open the back door to let Bo out, I have to do the aforementioned routine, even if it is just to walk a couple of blocks; and I have to make my own network of friends with babies because we don't have close friends nearby that have ventured into parenthood yet; and our 550 square foot apartment feels even smaller now that May and her things have arrived and taken over.....there are so many more things that I love about living here right here, right now.

May sees as many new things in our walk to the park as she would in a week of driving around in a car in any other city we would choose; and we have our choice of this, this, this, or this mommy and me class (and that is just in our neighborhood); and May learns every single day that the world is made up of people of all different kinds of nationalities; and we can pick up and go to four different zoos or an aquarium any day of the week; and we walk to church and are learning what it means to live in community; and there is a kids sing-a-long in a local bar every Wednesday morning; and we get a lesson on our country's history just by walking around lower Manhattan; and we can walk to no less than five playgrounds without breaking a sweat; and most of all, we have wonderful friends who have taken care of us like family.

We will undoubtedly get back South at some point, but right now, we are so thankful to be right where we are.  And we are so glad that May gets to start discovering the world in this wonderful place.

The Past Two Months

I have been such a blogging slacker these past two months!  So much has happened, so in lieu of trying to type it all out, I am including a ton of pictures.

We are less than two weeks away from Maybelle's due date, and we cannot wait for her to get here!  We will keep you posted on her arrival!

Sugar Plums from our CSA

Our Brooklyn Shower

 Cake Decorating Class with Natalie

Laurie Beth gets married!!!

 Funny belly shot

Hurricane Irene

Mitch's surprise baby shower at work

US Open....one thing checked off the bucket list

Nursery painting

Bo Carnell testing out the crib

 I think he is ready for Maybelle to get here, so we stop pestering him....

Doughnut Heaven

I went this morning for my glucose challenge test.  I made my appointment in our next door neighborhood of Greenpoint.  Since I couldn't eat anything from about 9:00 last night, I was famished this morning!  So after I had my blood drawn, drank a sugary orange drink, waited an hour and had my blood drawn again, it was time to reward myself.  I had been wanting to try Peter Pan Donuts in Greenpoint for a while, so this was the day.  Man oh man, it was amazing!  For $2.00 I got an old fashioned glazed doughnut and a cup of coffee.  The doughnut was the perfect cake consistency with the perfect dip of glaze!  And the coffee was perfectly creamed and sugared.  I cannot wait to take Mitch there this weekend!

picture from cakespy.com

Empire State of Mind

Last night was a beautiful, clear, spring night here in NYC, so I decided to redeem the last of my Valebirthtine's Day gifts.  Have I told you about Valebirthtine's Day?  My birthday falls five days before Valentine's, so our first year of dating, Mitch developed Valebirthtine's Day.  I get a gift each day from my birthday to Valentine's Day.  It makes me feel so loved and cared for!  This year, my gift on Valentine's Day was tickets to the Empire State Building.  We were going to go on V-day for a very romantic, Sleepless in Seattle evening, but the weather was terrible...so we decided to hold off until a better night.  When I viewed the weather for this week, I knew that Friday night was our night, and it was perfect!  As I mentioned in this post, I love a cityscape, and the view did not disappoint.  We had a fabulous evening admiring this city that we have grown to love.  Enjoy the pictures!

Crawfish and City Bakery

Last weekend we went to a delicious crawfish boil at the Boat Basin Cafe on the Upper West Side.  One of Mitch's good friends from Starkville, Jimmy, started an organization called Crawfish for Cancer after his dad was diagnosed with multiple myeloma cancer.  This was the third annual boil in NYC, and it was a blast.  We spent about five hours outside eating crawfish and talking with friends.  There were several people from Starkville that came up to help cook, and they can cook some mean crawfish.  All around, it was a lovely Saturday afternoon and the close to 700 people that showed up, helped raise a lot of money for a great cause.


On an unrelated note, I was introduced to a wonderful bakery/restaurant near Union Square, and I am slightly obsessed.  I met my discipleship group at City Bakery on Saturday morning, and it was delicious!  I got the bakers muffin, but there were so many other pastries I wanted to try.  And I hear their hot lunch buffet is pretty delicious too.  I can't wait to go back and try lunch sometime soon!  Also, their space has a great feel to it, and is huge by New York standards.


I hope everyone is having a great week!  We have been engulfed in baby registering around here; which has taken a little bit more time than I anticipated.  I couldn't resist buying a couple of cute little outfits and headbands for little Maybelle...they are just so darn cute!  I will post pictures of our purchases soon.

Fabric Shopping

I went fabric shopping earlier this week and had a blast.  My friend Ashley kept me company and helped me haul the spirals of fabric around the store.  I found P and S Fabrics online and really liked the store a lot.  The workers are really nice and helpful, and the fabric selection is pretty good.  The only downside is that they don't have a good selection of printed fabrics.  But the price is certainly right.  It was fun to get inspired by the different colors and textures.  I am going to work on a burp cloth for Maybelle today using that pretty pink fabric.  I'll report back tomorrow with the finished product, and hopefully it will resemble an actual burp cloth! :)

Royal Wedding and Our Weekend

Did you watch the royal wedding on Friday?  I was not dedicated enough to get up in the wee hours of the morning, but I did watch it on delay as soon as I could get Bo to doggy daycare and pick up my breakfast.  I decided to bring out our china for the occasion; it seemed like there really wasn't any other way for me to have my bagel and coffee.  I loved watching all of the coverage and fell in love with Kate and her dress.  It was amazing!  And I loved that they just looked like two normal people in love and getting married....even though millions of people were watching.  I am not usually this into "celebrities," but I was glued in on Friday.

Mitch and I had a wonderfully relaxing weekend together.  It had been a pretty busy week, and it was nice to recharge.  Saturday night we went on a lovely dinner and a movie double date.  Natalie always knows the best restaurants, and this time she introduced us to some of the best BBQ we have had since moving up here.  The movie was really good, but had a plot twist at the end that kind of made you wonder whether you should like it at all.  Sunday we rented a Zipcar and headed out for the morning.  It was wonderful to stretch our wings and see that there is in fact green space outside of a park and that single family homes are still prevalent.  And Bo loves riding in a car, so it was nice to give him a treat that he had been missing for seven months.

Did anyone else watch the royal wedding?  What did you think?

Spring Has Sprung

And that means warmer weather, flowers and baseball!  The cold weather seems like it is finally on the way out and flowers are blooming everywhere!  It is so refreshing to walk down the street and see blossoming trees that I didn't even realize were there before.  Last week I was able to get out of the house a couple of days and enjoy the gorgeous weather.  

Mitch and I had his firm tickets to the Mets game last Tuesday evening, but the game got rained out and rescheduled for Thursday at noon.  Since Mitch couldn't make the noon game, Catalina and I got to enjoy the sunshine and incredible seats (four rows back from the dugout!). 

Then on Friday I met a friend at the Brooklyn Botanical Gardens.  It was really overcast and not really the best temperature to walk around the gardens; however, cherry blossoms and daffodils were blooming all over the place.  Mitch and I will definitely be taking a trip back this summer; it is such a wonderful escape in the middle of the hustle and bustle of city life.

Union Square

Union Square is one of my favorite places in New York.  It is only three subway stops away from my house and has so much to offer!  It has a lovely park and farmers market, but I would be lying if I said that was my main draw.  It also has great shopping and food!  The surrounding blocks have almost all of the stores that I like to frequent: H&M, Anthropologie, Gap, Old Navy, Banana Republic, LOFT, and DSW.  Not to mention these fabulous home and/or craft stores: ABC Carpet and Home, Fishs Eddy, and Paper Presentation.  And finally two great places to eat: Grey Dog Coffee and Pipa.  Grey Dog is usually packed and a little pricey, but the food is delicious and it is a great place to grab lunch.  Pipa is in the ABC Home building and is a fabulous tapas place.  It has beautiful chandeliers hanging all over the restaurant (you can see it from our girls weekend here) and it is such a fun place to go for an evening out on the town.  And do yourself a favor and order the sangria; it is delightful!

If you come in from out of town; I would say this is a must see area.  And I would be more than happy to be your tour guide! :)

Mitch and I are headed to Charlottesville tomorrow night for a long weekend, and we could not be more excited!  We are looking forward to a weekend of friends, fellowship and food!  I will post all of the happenings next week!

**Picture from islandwoo.com.

Winter Essentials

There are two items that are getting me through this crazy winter we are having.  I had a very wise friend (thanks LeeAnne!) tell me back in October that I needed two things to survive the winter up here, and boy was she right!  I am completely covered for any type of weather: rain, snow, ice, slush or wind.  I feel quite invincible when I put on my puffy coat and Hunter boots.  I mean seriously, I can walk through anything.  I don't have to be that person sidestepping the puddles; I just plow right through them!  And with a 55 lb. dog that likes the snow, I am glad that one of us has tall boots to conquer the knee high snow build up.  Also, don't even get me started on how the jacket insulates me from all cold.  It is quite amazing that I can walk around in 10 degree wind chill and not even feel cold because my jacket and the attached hood work like magic!  


Hope you have a great weekend and are somewhere warmer than NYC!  I have a craft project up my sleeve, so be on the lookout for a tutorial next week.


**Pictures from Brooklyn Industries and Hunter Boots.

Skyline

When Sarah was in town a couple of weeks ago, I took her the few short blocks from our house to the waterfront.  She got to see one of the main reasons I love living in Brooklyn versus Manhattan, the skyline.  I only have to walk five blocks to get one of the best views in the world.  Sarah lives in Boston and loves a big city at least as much, if not more than me, and when we walked upon the view she expressed my feelings to a T.  She said that some people think that you can't beat a mountain or ocean view, but that one of the most beautiful views to her is a city skyline.  I couldn't agree more.  There is something beautiful, energizing and exciting about seeing the buildings rising to varying heights and standing solid right next to each other.  I find a cityscape mesmerizing.  


I remember the first time I drove through Atlanta after moving away from the big city to Charlottesville.  It was night, and Mitch was driving.  We hit 75/85 South right when it curves around downtown, and I was like a kid in a candy store.  By the time we were through downtown, I had turned around in my seat to soak in the view as long as I could.  There is just something amazing about the twinkling lights of the buildings against the dark sky.  I don't know how this girl from Dothan, Alabama became a city girl, but she did!


Saturday mornings are family walk time.  We usually get up and take Bo for a long walk or to the dog park and then swing by our favorite pastry shop for a coffee and a croissant.  We decided to head down to the pier this past Saturday, and I took a few pictures so you can see the view and all of the snow!


Does anyone else get excited by cityscapes as much as Sarah and I?

View From Our Window

 

I just thought you might enjoy a view from our window.  If you can't tell, it is snowing like crazy!  I had to take a picture because as I am staring out of our window, some of the biggest snowflakes I have ever seen are floating by.  

So, I tried to get a good picture of the big snowflakes, but I couldn't get the camera to focus on them.  Does anyone know if I can do this and if so, how?  I am definitely the less skilled photographer in our family. :)

Hope you are enjoying your Friday as much as I am enjoying the beautiful snowfall!