moving fever

I'm itching to move. I have looked at apartments online every day for the past week. My lease doesn't go up for a couple more months, but I'm so anxious to paint and have a little more space!

I am coming to the realization, by looking at my bank account, that to stay in my neighborhood, I'll probably have to move into another studio instead of a one bedroom. A heads up to anyone who wants to know about Manhattan realty. Just because an ad says an apartment is a one bedroom, 90% of the time, their lying. More times than not, the apartment is really a larger studio or an alcove studio, or my favorite, a loft above the kitchen.

My main desire to move is not only to have more space but to be able to entertain a little and have a more "home" feel as opposed to a glorified dorm room. I really, really want to paint! And get a headboard and a rug. A real, "sink your feet in, love to walk barefoot" rug. If you know me, you know I rearrange and redo and redecorate on a regular basis and well, my current apartment is full of furniture and my walls are covered in paintings, prints, and frames. It's time to get on with it and MOVE!

Totally digging on this yellow couch from CB2. It's not to big or bulky and would look great with dark wood furniture.

If I stay in a studio, I want to create some sort of room divider so it will feel like smaller separate living areas, instead of the current "bed in the kitchen" kind of situation.

I am envious of the counter in this studio. This isn't the kind of place I'd find in my neighborhood, price range, but I have the same bed, and like the warmness of the apartment.

Isn't this sideboard/cabinet from CB2 fabulous! If only I had room for miscellaneous furniture like this! I'm debating whether it would totally clash and look awful with my retro-style orange print club chair, or make it pop. I'm leaning towards clashing, as it might be too much for my space, but if I had more space....

Please don't read this as a complaint, read it as eagerness.

Photos borrowed from CB2 and HGTV.com

the pouf revisited

Remember when I posted about the pouf ottoman's? If you don't, click here for a quick refresher. Since that post, I have been seeing pouf's everywhere. I almost splurged on Saturday at Johnathan Adler's floor sample sale but I guess it wasn't meant to be because it was already gone by the time I got there.

Whether I end up saving or splurging, I really like the way people are using them in their homes. One home, featured in the current issue of Lonny, used a white pouf in a small living area. Now white is not my color, as I lean more towards warm colors, but in this space, the pouf really adds an extra element of texture and style.

Image borrowed from Lonnymag.com

unexpected treats

Having visitors is always fun, but having your family visit is even better. My cousin, Elizabeth, lives in DC and came into town Saturday evening. I had spent the day in Hackensack, New Jersey supporting a friend in a competition for school. We both arrived back in the city about the same time and we were both drenched. It was one of the largest longest thunderstorm New York has seen in a while. So instead of heading back out into the rain we ordered in dim sum, watched Man on Wire and Love and Other Drugs.

Elizabeth celebrated her birthday earlier this month so as a belated birthday treat I took her to Alice's Tea Cup (go figure, I know). But honestly, out of everyone I know, I've been wanting to take my cousin for over a year because she is obsessed with tea. We both tried new teas and both were delightful. After feasting on scones and poached eggs we walked down to the farmer's market before getting ready for the symphony.

We strolled through the park on our way to Carnegie Hall to see the Chicago Symphony Orchestra (CSO). Absolutely wonderful. An unexpected treat that was beyond words. This was Music Director and Conductor, Riccardo Muti's first three Carnegie Hall concerts with CSO and to a sold out New York audience, he was shown an abundance of praise, as was deserved. I have heard Cherubini's Overture in G Major once before and loved it, which of course I did this time as well, but what stood out to me the most and were the flutes and clarinets in Liszt's Les preludes as well as the bassoon and contrabassoon in Shostakovich's Symphony No. 5. Thank you, thank you to my aunt and uncle for the tickets. Elizabeth and I enjoyed ourselves immensely and will never forget our day or the music.

After the symphony, we headed back to my apartment to relax before dinner. We left about 7:30 to make it down to the West Village for our 8 o'clock reservations at Annisa. We were seated promptly along the back wall of the restaurant and greeted by our waiter shortly after. We looked over the menu and although everything was tempting, we each made our decisions pretty easily. Liz chose the lamb and I chose the veal tenderloin, which was hands down one of the best things I have ever eaten. That is, until we had dessert. Seriously, we could have ordered every item listed, so we asked our water what he suggested and without hesitation he recommended the "pecan and salted butterscotch beignets with bourbon milk ice" and the "tower of caramelized banana and peanut butter with coconut sauce." The coconut was very mild, which was nice since neither of us are big coconut fans. We had such a lovely time at dinner and indulged like royalty. I highly recommend Annisa to anyone and everyone. Cheers!

boston fever

The annual baseball trip my dad and I take each year is just around the corner! Next stop on our unofficial tour of Major League baseball stadiums is at Fenway Park in Boston. Of course we will not be sitting on the home team's side OR supporting them. The O's will be in town, so of course we'll be sporting our orange and black paraphernalia. The tickets have been purchased, the plane tickets are booked, now the fun part. Planning what we're going to do and where we'll be eating. Local fare and brew is the menu of choice. Know of any awesome places to eat or grab a beer? This isn't a fancy trip, we go to relax, watch baseball and take in the city. I don't know if we can top last year's trip to Baltimore, but nonetheless we'll have a ball. No pun intended.

After looking over several restaurants and places online this is my list of restaurants. Basically it consists of seafood, seafood, and seafood.

According to the Best of Boston 2010,

• best cup of chowder is from Legal Seafoods
• best fried clams are from Summer Shack, which we will definitely be going to. The pictures remind me of Flying Fish in Little Rock
• best raw bar is at Neptune Oyster - I'm thinking we'll have a late dinner here on Sunday night
• best waterfront bar is the Barking Crab, and the attire is jeans, tshirts, and flipflops. Right up my alley, especially after a flight. And they have a great menu. I'm thinking late lunch/snack on Sunday
• The best lobster roll is from Belle Island Seafood and was highly recommended on Yelp.

Been to or heard of any other great restaurants in Boston? We've never been and will tackling it next month!

"Dad's weekend" 2009 in St. Louis

"Dad's weekend" 2010 in Baltimore

Too bad we won't get to have this picture perfect moment in Boston.

goals not resolutions. continued

I posted about my New Year's goals several weeks ago. I missed updating you all in March, so here is my March/April update.

For 2011 I have planned to do the following throughout the year

• Start and finish seven or more books: 15 down... but a few more "non-young adult" novels to go...
• Drink 8 glasses of water everyday: So far so good but could be drinking a little more
• Continue taking the stairs to my apartment: For the exception of groceries and laundry, this goal is in full swing
• Gain a new client each month: Since I started working full time with keeping a few clients on the side, I'm too busy for my own good at the moment. For now, this plenty of "clients" for me.
• Maintain a consistent work out routine: Feeling better than ever, gaining strength and endurance, still consistent
• Cook more often/eat out less: AH! this needs some work. I haven't been cooking, but I'm working on it. I'm ready for the day I have a full size fridge/freezer so that I can keep more frozen dinners. Is that crazy?
• Make a bigger effort to stay in touch with friends: Can't happen over night, but have been keeping up with emails and sending out cards. In pretty good shape with this one but always could be doing better.
• Find a great apartment in my neighborhood that is a little bigger but still in my price range that I can move into by the time my lease goes up August 1: I've been looking online but still a little early to find the perfect apartment. I won't be moving till July/August

purge a little, keep a lot

Sorry I haven't posted in a while, I've been buried under mountains of clothes.

When I first moved to New York and had two suitcases and after a few trips to Bed, Bath, & Beyond I was happily surprised that I was able to sustain living. That was nearly two years ago, and this is now. I'm far to embarrassed to publish the picture I took of my apartment yesterday, but it looked like my closet threw up everywhere. Space bags really do shrink everything down because when I opened the vacuum sealed bags filled with summer clothes, I could not figure out how I fit that amount of clothing into the smallest closet on the Upper West Side!

It was pathetic really. Living in such a small space I can only keep one seasons worth of clothing out at once. The rest are packed and sealed and stored in the top four feet of my closet. Thank goodness for high ceilings!

It was 50 degrees, sunny and breezy this weekend which got me into a very productive mood. I decided to pull down all the clothes from the top of the closet and start packing up my heavier sweaters and coats.

In the process, I realized, there was stuff I not only didn't wear this season but haven't worn it since like, freshman and sophomore year of college. My second thought was, 'how the hell did these clothes even get to New York?' That is when I got out three trash bags. One for resale and the second for donating, and the third, well, to mail home.

Going through everything I realized that this is not only practical but good that I'm doing it now and not in July. Less clothes to move will be good, although I'm sure my mother along with everyone else will say that I need to ditch several hundred magazines come July, but that is neither here or now, so I won't start that fight yet.

The next step, take three bags of clothes to Goodwill. Easier said than done. The closest location to me is seven blocks and two avenues away, which is very close, but it's not like I can throw the bags in the trunk of my car, whip over there and drop them off. Do you think I can hail a cab holding three trash bags full of clothes? Otherwise I guess I'll be that bag lade walking down the street... stay tuned for the outcome.