26 May 2011

sprinkles in manhattan

...finally!!!


Yesterday my sweet coworker Sandi surprised me in the office with Sprinkles cupcakes after her afternoon meeting. I've heard about Sprinkles from my friends on the west coast (ahem, Caylen) but have never had them for myself. Then last week, Kyo was raving about how delicious they were. And, of course, I can't let a new cupcake place come into town without giving it at least a try! They were delicious and completely held up to their rep. Sandi was snapping pics and emailing them to me the whole time she was in the store, now I just have to make it over to see for myself!

25 May 2011

i'll take one of each.


thank you very much.

many faces of tate


"Tate is stronger than Perryn" face


Busted-lip-Tate face (so sad, poor little guy.)
He tripped over a chair at church, while ripping and roaring, I think.

I-could-not-be-prouder-of-myself Tate face.

24 May 2011

good reminder

"He has shown you, O mortal, what is good. And what does the Lord require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God."  Micah 6:8
























[on the sidewalk in my neighborhood]

22 May 2011

next stop:



I had heard about the opening of Doughnut Plant a few months ago, but hadn't made the effort to go yet. Last week after a delicious, authentic Chinese dinner at Grand Sichuan with some friends, I happened past the Doughnut Plant on my walk to the subway. I can't believe I haven't been here yet! Beautiful doughnut pillows fill the walls. And as you can barely see here, a beautiful ceramic mosaic doughnut-designed slab makes up the bench seating. It's small, but it looks worth the trip. 

18 May 2011

the rainy city

Because apparently that's what New York City should be called now! It's been raining since Saturday...and is currently scheduled to rain on all days of the foreseeable future. And, the temp dropped down to the 50's again. At least I have this fab picture to look at in the meantime! If only NYC was this fab in the rain...


[found here.]

16 May 2011

inspiration & nostalgia

This time of year I always think back with bittersweet feelings to school days and college. It is sweet because this time of year was always filled with such joy: summer had come, along with another year accomplished and pure jubilance that I had survived one more year of school. Bitter because there was often a lot of blood, sweat and tears that came, too, with finishing up a semester and yet another dreaded project deadline. Now, three years removed from my last interior design studio critique, I realize that I learned the most valuable lesson of all:


[found here on pinterest.]

kyo & tim noble

I can't believe it's already been two weeks since the beautiful Alder Manor wedding in Yonkers, NY! As mentioned earlier, the wedding was a blast. The couple was so beautiful. The flower girl ran her own show. And Brendan wore a blue-with-pink polka dotted tie (which was, obviously, my favorite). A group of 8 of us rented a mini-van (that seated 7) and made our way north, just outside of the city. The pictures just keep coming...but I think this might finally be the last of them! Well worth the wait - and continuous stream - if you ask me.




more beautiful photographer pictures from Kyo & Tim's wedding
























Ah! I can't stop looking at them. They look so much like a fairytale...

Check more out here.

14 May 2011

congrats to my new favorite Dr.!

...actually my favorite THREE doctors: Mary Lindsey, Courtney and Rose Lynn! I got the pleasure of experiencing the first year of pharmacy school with these three while I was finishing up my silly old undergraduate degree at Auburn (and when I say "experiencing the first year of pharmacy school" I simply mean I lived in Auburn at the time and so did they). I was pretty excited when I graduated from Auburn after 4 grueling years of college. But I have to say, my excitement for these three actually rivaled my own excitement for myself. Congratulations Drs Newlin, Green and Farmer!!!

13 May 2011

too close for comfort

I made a scary discovery today - there is a Baked by Melissa only one block over from my office! They sell cupcakes the size of a quarter, which are way more deadly than they sound because I could eat 10 of them in about 10 seconds. My favorite flavor is tye die because it looks so pretty but tastes so normal. The flavor is vanilla cake with vanilla icing, but looks very rainbow-esque. Now, my self-discipline comes into play...



a good soho lunch


Last Saturday's excursion included a trip down to Soho for lunch. Brendan had been raving about this place called Torrisi that had "the best Italian sandwiches in New York".  He got an Italian sub and I got chicken parmigiana sandwich. I have to agree it was pretty good. The restaurant was tiny, but had a good atmosphere and vibe. If you're in the neighborhood, you should try it out!





11 May 2011

kyo's beautiful wedding

In case you are getting anxious to see beautiful photos of Kyo & Tim's wedding (since I've been blogging at a snail's pace lately) you should check them out here: Sweet Little Photographs.

They are soooo beautiful!!


[I snagged this photo off the photographer's website, so all credits for this beautiful photo go to the lovely photographers, Merrill and Tim at Sweet Little Photographs!]

09 May 2011

ta daaa 2!

Now for the rest of the d-day apartment revamp pictures!

When I moved into my apartment, we quickly changed things up a bit from the three guys who lived there previously. They had white walls, a white couch, a recliner (that was pretty close to white) and a picture of University of Virigina's football stadium hanging on the wall. The first thing I did was paint. It's such a quick and (relatively) easy alternative for sprucing up a room stat. For some reason I chose a dark satin navy color, which I never fully loved, but I did like it better than the drab off-white walls that were already there.

The first thing Katherine and I did in our revamp, was cover up the dark blue wall. We had another color in mind, but decided to save ourselves some trouble later on in the day and go ahead and prime the wall with a nice white coat. Turns out, this was the best decision we could have made. It made our afternoon painting a breeze.


We quickly noticed that the room suddenly took on a completely different look!! Even if we had done nothing else to the room, it would have been a drastic change. But we couldn't stop there - look at the excitement on Kat's face to paint!


Next, we did some spray painting while the white base layer was drying. In case you've never thought of this, finding a spot to spray paint in New York City is a pretty difficult task. Especially when it's raining outside. Katherine and I finally decided on our trash room downstairs (which has NO ventilation whatsoever). We propped our table legs & top on the trash cans in order to avoid getting spray paint on the floor. Then we sprayed as long as we could possibly stand it - while the other wafted as much fresh air in as possible - and then we would switch. Painting two small tables seemed small and manageable at first, but this was actually one of the most difficult tasks of the day. Also, not alerting our neighbors to our project while subjecting them to harsh fumes inadvertently was a task in itself! But, you can see in the bottom left photo below, we got them done! And we now have two beautiful polished metallic nickel tables that were originally yellow and only $7.99 at Ikea!



And now...the beauty! Margaret (my fashion designer roommate) informed me that coral is the hot color this year. But I would have loved it and chosen it anyway. I saw this color at a former employers office, and fell in love. We chose a color from the Benjamin Moore Color Preview series, then tweaked it a little by adding 25% white. It looks a little pinker in the pictures, but it is the perfect shade of coral in person.



And ta daa: the finished product!! We took down the borders around our chalkboard (they were bright purple before), we got new pillows, swapped the two couches, hung new pictures and cleaned off our 1 million issues of People, Glamour and NY Mag on our coffee table. There are still a few finishing touches to do, but it makes for a nice change in the meantime!

 

...beacuase who wouldn't want a book called "Snog: A Puppy's Guide to Love" with adorable puppies on their coffee table?!



Now that our apartment has had the majority of its face lift completed, hopefully we will continue pulling it together piece by piece! But for now, I'm happy with the new look.

i got one too!

LA posted a link for these shirts that benefit the victims of the tornadoes in Alabama. I couldn't resist such a cute tshirt that also provided a donation to those in need.


They're designed by Maggie Crisler, a florence based graphic designer. Get yours today!

05 May 2011

BYOC(hipotle)



I just got finished celebrating Cinco de Mayo at a "Bring Your Own Chipotle" party at my apartment. What a brilliant - and delicious - idea! We ended up with more guacamole than we could eat... which is never really a bad thing.


Happy Cinco de Mayo!

04 May 2011

how to help:



I saw this on Caylen's blog, and it looks like a great way to help. Click here to check out the site "Shelter for the South" for ways to give and their mission.

03 May 2011

i finally got one!

Back in November, LA's co-blogger Holly posted about this beautiful Kate Spade book that was being published. I immediately fell in LOVE with this book, and asked LA if Holly knew where I could purchase one. Turns out...they weren't for sale! Kate Spade had done it as an internal inspiration piece. Then a couple months later LeeAnne told me the name of the printing company (Graytor Printing) and that it was located in NJ..AND that Holly had gotten one as a gift! Then set in my persistence...

Last week I decided to call the printer and see if I could persuade them into letting me buy one. I spoke with a guy who was so nice and helpful and seemed intrigued that I even knew about the book in the first place. After a quick chat, he said he would be happy to send me one and to send over my contact information to him. I was more than thrilled...and now I have one of these for my very own that I can look at every day!









Aren't these inspiration images so beautiful? They make me want to design something! Thanks LA and Holly for the lead!

ta daaa!

Remember this post a few weeks ago when I mentioned I was doing some work in my kitchen? Well, the work has actually been completed for a few weeks now (since a couple days after I posted that!), and I finally have the pictures to prove it! And, boy do I love these stripes...and our 'wall of random' as Katherine and I like to refer to it.

When Kat and I had our d-day decorating a couple Saturdays ago, we knocked out our whole apartment (er, at least the areas we wanted to cover) in one fell swoop!

Here is a photo of the stripes as they slowly became unveiled...

I have always been pretty terrified to paint stripes in the past, so I started with a smaller and more manageable wall. And let me say: it wasn't that bad! We have high ceilings in my apt (between 9'-10') and I was also intimidated to try painting a wall that high without a decent ladder. But, I did it part by part and used my trusty straight-edge from my studio days and a pencil with a good eraser, and I came out pleasantly surprised with the overall ease of the task! I do believe it looks a lot harder than it is. 



The final view!
Coming next: the living room revamp! Check back soon...



02 May 2011

game changer

Thanks to my well-informed roommate, Katherine, I made a life-changing discovery tonight: there is a 16 Handles only a few short blocks from my apartment. It's NY's version of Yogurt Mountain and I felt very obligated to check it out considering my allegiance to Yogurt Mtn. So I did... and it was soooooooo good!

more to come...


The wedding this weekend was an absolute blast! The venue, the Alder Manor, was stunning and so charming, the weather was terrific for an outdoor wedding, and the party could not have been more fun!! I'm still gathering all my pictures together from my camera, iphone, and other friends' cameras... so those will be posted shortly. And, Kyo and Tim...they were the prettiest couple around.

The picture above was taken on a miniature polaroid camera! All the guests were asked to take a photo and place it in the guest book next to where they signed. Isn't that the best idea ever?! Kyo designed the entire wedding, and since she is a window designer at Polo Ralph Lauren, you can imagine how beautiful, creative and detail oriented the entire wedding was...