New York New York!

We just got back from our New York adventure late Saturday night after driving 7 hours through the surprise snow storm, it took us a little over 4 hours to get to NY mind you.

Our trip started Thursday morning when we set off on our journey. We decided to stay outside the city in New Jersey so that we could use an amazing Hotel coupon. We arrived just in time to check in, and change for Wicked. We were about to catch a shuttle into the city when the other family that was going changed their mind and the shuttle driver decided to drop us of at a bus stop instead. He informed us to take the 125. So we waited patiently for a while then after about 30 minutes became a little concerned that our bus wasn’t coming for us. So we went into the Dunkin Doughnuts and found out that the 125 comes once an hour. In total I think we waited for 45 minutes it was quite chilly. Then when we got onto the bus we didn’t have enough “singles” for the trip, so luckily the bus driver let us on despite our incomplete fares. The ride was quite nice and relaxing actually. After a quick bite to eat and a yummy Peppermint Mocha (at the most packed Starbucks I have ever experienced) we arrived at the Gershwin Theater! It was huge and so exciting. Our seats were spectacular and the play was magnificent!!! It was quirky and fun and we loved every minute of it.

The next day we were much more prepared to go into the city. We parked our car and took the Path Train. Our next adventure took us to the Museum of Modern Art. Jordan’s brother Jesse joined us there. Our big excitement for going is a Tim Burton exhibit they have there currently. It was amazing!!

And after we were done with that there were 6 floors of art to look at.
Look we even snuck into a piece of art!

We ended up getting coffee and desert at the Museum café and we just had to take a picture of it because it was so amazing!!


This was a yummy meal at a Japanese place, we were only given chopsticks and this spoon for the broth :) So we both became much better at using chopsticks.

That night we went to a really fun diner and then went to the Town Hall to see Prairie Home Companion; which is a radio show that is aired on NPR. It was so fun to be there and Norah Jones happened to be one of the musical guests, which was something we didn’t know when we bought the tickets. We were pleasantly surprised because we both enjoy her music. It was really fun to see everything live after listening to the radio program.

Our last big event before the drive home was waking up Saturday morning to go to the Bodies exhibit which is located near the World Trade Center. Jordan’s mom had gone to this exhibit a little while ago and raved about it so we were very excited. It was also really neat for Jordan because of his studies so he had a fun time pointing things out to me as we went through. The displays were truly amazing and fun to see.

We had a super fun time in NY seeing the sites here are some random pictures we took :)

Tis the season!

I have thoroughly enjoyed this past Thanksgiving weekend! It has been full of fun with family and decorating!

First of all we hosted our first Thanksgiving meal, Jordan's brothers came over to our place. The past several years we have had Thanksgiving meal just the two of us because Jordan has had to work the Friday after. We had made it quite a fun tradition. I enjoy cooking so I always come up with the menu for the big day and then we would enjoy a Thanksgiving feast together. After the meal we would always put up the tree and watch Elf. This year we were honored to have Jordan's brothers over. I got a little stressed because sadly the turkey took a good hour longer than I had planned on; but in the end everything turned out fine. Here are some pictures of some of the fixin's (we are so bummed that we forgot to get a picture of all of us together).

Jordan picked up these beautiful flowers for me :)

Now for the decorating part. Yes we put up our tree!! Also my parents gave us a little gift money to buy something special for our new place (Thank you!!). So we got to use that for some new decorating items. Here are some pictures of our decorations!


Here is the our new country snowman with our stockings hung by the fireplace in the background :)

This is the cutest owl ever and our new ornament for the year!

I have saved the best for last...homemade crafts! So I love Martha Stewart Living magazine especially around the holidays. I recently picked up the December issue and it is full of yummy recipes and crafts. One of the projects in the issue were these beautiful star ornaments made out of ribbon. I instantly fell in love and had to give them a try. I tend to collect ribbons so I had a little stash and then I went out and bought a few more to have variety. Below is a picture of the finished product.


After I was done with this project I had some leftover ribbon scraps and decided to put our names on our blank stockings using the scraps. Here is how they turned out :)


Hooray for the Holidays!! I hope you are all having fun with your decorating too!

Sky Meadows...

Doesn't that just sound like the most beautiful place?....Well I have to tell you it is! :)

3 Sunday's ago we had just finished a long dreary week it seemed that it was cloudy or raining every day. I actually like rainy, overcast days but even I was ready for some Sunshine. So that Sunday afternoon we decided to go on a much needed hike. It was a gorgeous day in the low 70's with a breeze and very sunny. So Jordan went online to find a location (still being new to the area we don't know all the great hiking spots yet). He found Sky Meadows State Park a great hiking find by Jordan as always. So we made our 30 minute journey there. We were so happy to find a place so close to us. As we arrived we found that we were not the only ones with this idea...it was packed!! So we knew it must be a good spot. Upon arriving you see several Historic buildings that you can tour, we will have to go back to do that another time. Being super excited to be out enjoying the great outdoors we headed straight for the trails. There are several different options of directions to go and paths to take. The path we chose started out very steep and quickly you are looking back at the most beautiful view. You can see so far over the rolling hills filled with trees, cows, horses and farms it was breathtaking. The trail eventually connects to the Appalachian Trail too so you could keep going if you wanted too. Here are some photo memories we took to share.

I can't say that the pictures do it justice but we sure can't wait to go back!

Crafting at the Polka Dot Pot

About a month ago my friend Tosha and I went to paint some pottery at the Polka Dot Pot. I was very excited about this because back in high school this was a favorite past time of mine. I used to go to the "Dancing Brush" which was the local pottery place in Poulsbo, WA. I had many fun times painting gifts there. So needless to say it was fun to do again. I already knew what I wanted to paint before I even got there to pick out my piece. Awhile ago my friend Carrie painted a travel mug and that is what I chose. Tosha chose a cat treat jar as a gift for her Grandparents who happen to love the Redskins which is what inspired her color choices. My design choice was inspired by a plate that was on display in the shop, I just chose different colors that caught my fancy. So here are our finished products.

Then the following week Jordan and I went to paint too. I was very excited that he was interested in trying it. We had a lot of fun it was a rainy Friday and our outdoor plans to go to a hot air balloon festival with some friends had been canceled because of the weather. So it was nice to do something like this together in place of the festival. Jordan chose the mug and wanted to paint ornaments around the rim. He chose a really neat gray color for the base that was called Tin Man it turned out great!. Then I chose a ring tray and painted it a fun purple with little white polka dots all over...I love polka dots can you tell? :)

So this was my craft outlet for last month. I am getting back to my quilt project and will be showing a little progress soon!

Fall Faves

My favorite season happens to be FALL! I love the crisp, sunny days, changing leaves and festivities that come with this wonderful season. I want to share with you some of my favorite things about Fall...

Starbucks Pumpkin Spice Latte

This is my favorite coffee drink and I get very excited to hear when the pumpkin spice latte is back at Starbucks. This year my friend Susannah actually called me the first day (September 1st) they started serving them this season to let me know because she remembered just how much I love them. So off I went to get one and it was so delicious!

Boots...Boots...and More Boots!

Yes I love boots, I purchased some boots while they were on sale this past spring and summer (thank you mom for the gray boots!!) and now I am finally able to wear them. They are so fun with dresses, skirts and of course skinny jeans (which are also a new thing for me:)) there are just so many possibilities. Also a big plus is that they keep me so warm. It has been quite chilly this past week and weekend for us and these boots have taken the chill away.

Festivities with Friends

This weekend we got together with some friends and the men did some pumpkin carving. Jordan did the cat pumpkin in honor of our Pazooki. Mark did the crazy monster. Matt drew his pattern freehand onto his pumpkin only to discover that it was rotten...it was very sad when he had to throw it in the woods. All in all we had a great night of laughs and yummy desserts.

Speaking of...

Apple Pie

There were so many yummy desserts there. Tosha made a wonderful pumpkin pie with a yummy cranberry mixture on top then brown sugar whipped cream to top it all off. Denise made some amazing pumpkin bread muffins and sent us all home with a loaf, so good! I brought this apple pie. Actually the Fugi apples were given to us by Matt and Tosha as a gift and they are the most scrumptious apples ever! My recipe called for tart apples and Fugi's are considered sweet so I reduced the amount of sugar in the recipe and it turned out great! I love baking in the fall. It's great cause you actually want the heat from the oven in your house and then you get all the fall aromas swirling around your home.

So I am toasting to all of you with my pumpkin spiced latte, a very happy Fall!