Sun-less Day

Today is the last day in a long stretch of rainy and gloomy days in the Bay Area. While this will be the second day I am trapped inside my apartment, hopefully I will more productive. I dug into my inspiration files and came across this picture from a Refinery29 article on Jane Herman, the concept director for Gap, and her simple and clean personal style and home decoration. I love in this picture how you can feel both order, and relaxation. With this image in mind, I am using this last rainy day to pull my apartment into tip-top shape too! But first I will have a cup of coffee...

To Longchamp or not to Longchamp?

My birthday is just around the corner and I am looking to splurge on something nice for myself. One suggestion was a Longchamp Tote bag. When I started thinking about this a few weeks ago, I knew I was already a little behind on the times. It seems the trend really picked up steam back in my sorority days, very many moons ago. Last weekend I stopped by the beautiful Longchamp store in Union Square to check out their selection, and I even played around with custom making my own bag on their website. The problem is, that now, I see them everywhere! There were at least 5 girls on my bus yesterday with the same bag, but in different colors. The idea of being just another sheep in the herd makes me frustrated, however, I cannot shake the functionality of this bag. It would be the perfect to and from work tote! I guess at what point does one give up their need for individuality for the sake of being practical? 

The jury is still out. 

NYC: Top 5

With the start of my new job on the horizon, my Mom and I took advantage of the time in between to celebrate my birthday a little early. I flew home to my hometown, Niskayuna, and from there Mom and I drove down to NYC for some time together to walk, talk, shop and see the musical Mary Poppins on Broadway. I have been saving money to purchase my own digital "Mom" camera, as my friend Paige would say, but since I'm not there yet, I was able to borrow my Aunt Linda's camera. Here are my Top 5 favorite pictures I took on our trip.

A photo of one of the many floral sculptures that lines Madison Ave. 

It was raining our first day, and the mood made these trees in 

Central Park even more interesting.

You can stand under my umbrella, ella, ella... in Columbus Square. 

Late afternoon light; a view from the Brooklyn Bridge. 

So close, and yet so far away. I love NYC, always have, always will. 

There's No Place Like Home

So I grew up in a small town just North of Albany New York, called Niskayuna. We were taught growing up that in the Iroquois Indian language, Niskayuna, meant "Field of Corn." Quite the fun fact, I know. Since I have graduated college I make it back home, on average, once a year. But when I do go home, my family knows that there are two places I must visit straight away; and those are my two favorite restaurants, Blue Ribbon Diner and The Fireside. This last trip was no exception. Before I started my new job, I was able to sneak in a quick trip home to see Mom and Dad, and celebrate an early birthday with Mom in NYC. I will post my Top 5 favorite pictures from that trip soon, but here are some snapshots of my hometown favorites.

Classic pic of a NY diner; snow on the ground and a used car lot in the background.

A picture of the decorative fireside at, well, The Fireside. 

Not your typical NY pizza, but it is my absolute favorite! 

In My Mind I'm Goin to Carolina

My first of two recent trips back to the East Coast was courtesy my friendly federal tax return, and it was money well spent to visit one of my best friends Emily. I lived in Charlotte, North Carolina for a little over a year so it was fun to visit some of my favorite local salons, shops and eateries. I got my hair done at Fuze Salon, tried not to buy up everything at Paper Skyscraper, and sampled several dips at Dean and Deluca.

Friday night we chose to stay in and create our own tasty dinner. Inspired by Argentina we paired our Malbec wine with some steak we bought at a local butcher and made a fresh Chimichurri sauce. As a side we made quinoa with fresh vegetables, a little lemon juice, salt, pepper, oil and cayenne pepper.

Oh yeah, we were ready for a great night!

Em, chopping up some veggies for the quinoa.

The finished meal! So delicious!

 And for dessert we made Tres Leches Cake from scratch. It's actually quite a misnomer because there are in fact four different milks used in the creation of the cake and it's sauce. Here's a pic of Court de-stressing by stabbing the cake so it can soak up the creamy sauce goodness.

Get it Court!

So incredibly tasty! 

For our last night together Em and I decided to celebrate the second half of our late 20's by going out to a fancy new restaurant called Dresslers in Charlotte's new hot spot, the Met. The food was absolutely fantastic, and I highly recommend the calamari appetizer. It was so nice to relax and spoil myself for the first time in a long while. But the best part of the night, and the entire trip, was spending time with a life long friend. Love ya Em!