Oops!

I've attempted to write several times over the last few days, but real life has gotten in the way of my virtual life.

Work has been booming, my mom is in town visiting, sweet hubs and I are considering adopting another furbaby (ie. a kitten), and one of my BFF's, Jaime, is coming to visit me next weekend.  I'm a busy lady these days.

So my apologies - next week, I'll do better.  I promise.  Maybe even do a design related post (been a bit for one of those!) - what a crazy idea.  Haha.

Hope everyone has a wonderful weekend.  Once my work day ends, I'm going to go and enjoy it with my sweet hubs and my amazing mamacita.  I see lots of good food, laughing and delicious drinks in my very near future.

Au revoir!

Goodbye for now, but see you again soon! (PART 2)

This is a follow up to my previous entry because ...

HOORAY!

Three cheers for Christina and Nick because they're now allowed to get hitched!

Yes, that's right as of Thursday, May 20th at 10:30am, Christina received her visa - well not her REAL visa since that has to be mailed to her and she's stuck in Canada till she gets it - but permission to come back to the USA and finally get married!  You can read all the juicy details on her blog.

I'm so thrilled for them!!

And on another exciting note (this time for myself), I won a contest held by the venue where sweet hubs and I got hitched in 2008, the Almost Heaven Resort in Gatlinburg, Tennessee.  The prize is a free two night stay at the cabin we stayed on our wedding nite!  We're hoping to book it to celebrate our two year anniversary.

Goodbye for now, but see you again soon!

This little post is dedicated to my wonderful Canadian friend, Christina. She's off to Canada today with her fiancée to go through her final immigration meeting tomorrow and will hopefully be given a visa and permission to come back to the USA to get married.

Christina has been through so much over the last three years between managing to hold together an amazing relationship with her hubs-to-be, being told many times over she has to leave the US of A and having to hunt down every bit of medical history she possibly can among filing many many papers and other daunting tasks. What a champ. I told her earlier that if I was in charge, she'd be given a platinum and diamond encrusted visa because of the effort she's put forth to PROPERLY enter the US to be with her man.

If you're interested in reading about her trials and tribulations of border issues and finding true love (among other things that interest her), check out her blog: http://christinamm.wordpress.com/

Fingers crossed for the next two days that she'll receive good news.

Good luck, Christina (and Nick)!

Hope to see you back in NYC very soon!

Summertime: A Good Time for Expanding Your Horizons

This summer, I fully intend on expanding my horizons. I've recently had a moment of clarity and its hit me just how much I miss having hobbies. I've restricted myself in many ways over the last several years and have given up many things I used to enjoy. Now, when attempting to revisit a lot of my previous hobbies, I no longer have the skills needed or interest and motivation to pursue them, so now I have realized that I will need to make some changes.

I'm sure this sounds like a bunch of ramble and nonsense, but if you think about it, maybe you, like myself, will come to the realization that as you've gotten older, you've let some of the things you love slip away. If you haven't, then I admire your ability to hold on and fully enjoy life, but I think the majority of people end up focusing too much on what it takes to live, and not enough on what it takes to be happy. I, regretfully, am one of those people and I intend to rectify that. It may be a slow process for a control freak such as myself to learn to let go a little and be more fluid and flexible, but I am going to try my hardest. And maybe, if you are in the same boat, you'll try and do the same. And if you are, I'd love to hear about it. Let's band together to enjoy life more!

The whole point of this is to sort of make a tentative "to do" list for myself for this summer of things I'd like to pursue and enjoy. Living in New York offers a lot of opportunities, and its ridiculous that I have not taken advantage of them.

Without further adieu, here is my list. I hope to accomplish as many of these as possible.

• Spend more time with my husband.
• Spend more time with my friends.
• Take a letterpressing class. (Signed up on last night for a class at The Arm in on Sunday, June 13th
• Sell my unused video camera and use the money to buy a new still camera (I'm thinking of the Olympus Pen) and take more photos, specifically more travel photos.
• On that note, travel more. Even if it's just short day and weekend trips.
• Explore locally. I love Brooklyn and need to experience more of what it has to offer.
• Take a flower class from Little Flower School. As soon as they release their summer schedule, I hope to sign up. I'd really like to take their succulents class.
• Smile more. Simple, I know, but really. Just smile more.
• Take advantage of the fact that I live so close to Coney Island and enjoy what's left of the old skool culture there before Thor Equities destroys it.
• Go to the beach. I don't do that nearly enough.
• Read more books.
• Bake and cook more.
• Attempt to write more, even if its just blogging.
• Rely on digital technology a bit less (ie. spend less time on Facebook and other useless time wasting websites.)

I'll keep an ongoing list, but I think this is a good starting point.

And a photo, completely unrelated to this post, which just makes me happy.

Sweet hubs and I, at Coney Island in Summer of 2005, when we first moved to Brooklyn.

Rainy Wednesday

Its a really cold (for mid-May), rainy and yucky Tuesday Wednesday (apparently I don't know what day of the week it is anymore) here in NYC.

Here are some images and things I found that made my day a little brighter.  Hopefully they'll have the same effect on you too.

I love every single thing about this room setup
from Mitchell Gold & Bob Williams. So in love with it!
I wish it was in my house.
Image courtesy of Apartment Therapy.

This just made me really happy between the color and the little deer.
Image courtesy of Home Sweet Home.

I really like the color of this wood
as well as the architectural details.
Image courtesy of Apartment Therapy.

Fun little vintage owl salt and pepper shakers.
Available for purchase from Modish Vintage.

I love this chandelier by Marjorie Skouras, even though it resembles
a soccer ball.
Image courtesy of Apartment Therapy. 

I wouldn't mind living in a treehouse if it looked like this!
Image courtesy of Home Sweet Home.

Who wouldn't want to wake up to this view?
I've been yearning for sunshine and the beach lately,
which is odd since I'm not a "beachy" kinda gal.
Image courtesy of We Heart It.

If I had a place to put a birdhouse, this would be the one I'd buy.
The Pigeon Hole Motel Birdhouse, part of the "For the Birds" collection.
Available for purchase here.

The Hillside House

How amazing is this house? VERY AMAZING (at least to me).

It's such a gorgeous combination of natural warmth from the materials used and sleek modern lines. I adore it.

The Hillside House is a single family residential home located in Mill Valley, California, and was designed by SB Architects.

Some project information, courtesy of the SB Architects website:

Nestled in the hills of Mill Valley, California, this custom home is slated to be the first LEED for Homes certified house in Marin County, and the second LEED Platinum house in Northern California.

Designed by Scott Lee, majority partner at SB Architects, this home is a statement of what is possible combining "high design with high sustainability." Recently completed, this project represents the collaborative effort of a visionary group of partner companies, who have come together to bring this first-of-its-kind project to Marin County. The steep hillside site provides for a very vertical design with living and private zones situated on multiple separate floors. Numerous outdoor and covered terraces and balconies capitalize on stunning views of the bay and the San Francisco skyline beyond.

Out of the loop!

Well, I've been a bit out of the loop the last week due to allergies/sinus/cold issues.  All around good times, if you consider drowning in tissues, Alavert and nasal spray to be fun.  ;)

Anyhow, just a little tid bit that I found today and figured I'd share courtesy of one of my favorite shops, Flight 001. I adore these travel labels!

Here are some of our favorites from Tom Schifanella’s collection of luggage labels. Take a long look at his incredible flickr stream.

Description from his profile:

Luggage labels are fascinating bits of hotel history from the golden age of travel, roughly the 1900’s to 1960’s. During this time these labels were used by hotels as advertising and eagerly applied to steamer trunks, suitcases and all sorts of luggage by hotel staff, mainly bellhops.

It’s almost hard to believe there was a time when travel looked this good. Let’s revive the golden age!

For the original post, click here.

Happy Star Wars Day!

My friend Becky reminded me this evening that it's Star Wars Day!  (How can a girl who loves Star Wars forget such an important date?!)

So... Happy Star Wars Day!

May the 4th be with you!

Image courtesy of http://jeremieanne.tumblr.com/.

Sugar and the Willpower to Undereat

This was just too wonderful NOT to post.  Courtesy of somebody else's blog, somewhere on the interwebs.  (Sorry,  can't remember the source.  If it's you or someone you know, let me know and I'll give credit.)

Hello, May!

May is here and it's been a beautiful weekend to bring it in.  

Yesterday, sweet hubs and I made our first trip of the season to enjoy some papusas at the Red Hook ballfields.  They were as amazing as I'd been dreaming them to be since I'd had them the last time at the closing of last season.  So good!

We enjoyed a nice long walk, amazing food, beautiful weather, warmth and sunshine... and ended up getting a sunburn and a cold (courtesy of my allergies, I'm sure).  

Anyhow, today I'm stuck inside with my icky sicky cold so I'm just going to post a photo that I found online this morning, sheerly for the fact that I think its pretty.

Regardless, happy May and I hope you had a wonderful weekend as well.

Photo courtesy of snaphappyraa on Flickr.