Indeed it is.
Happy Christmas from my home to yours!
Can you tell I really got in the spirit last night?
blog
last week I moved.
Last week I moved and this was my view for pretty much the first 30 minutes. And then things got crazy. And have continued to be crazy ever since. But I'm finally beginning to resurface amidst the sea of boxes and screwdrivers and hammers & here's hoping to some normalcy again very soon...
wishing you days that are merry & bright.
a thursday night dinner party
Despite three blown fuses that resulted in three entire-apartment power outages, I would say our 9A dinner party was a fun time anyway. We pulled out the Girls Night Out "questions to start great conversations" cards and they did not disappoint. After two rounds of questions, dinner and dessert and one last power outage, we called it a night. I'm ready for the next one, already!
#roommates #birthdays
Birthdays are always fun to celebrate, but there's something extra special about celebrating a roommate's birthday. Last weekend my roommates and I got to celebrate together for Bethany's birthday. It was on a beautiful rooftop on the Upper East Side with a black & white theme. Everyone, except the guests of honor, wore black and white. And we got our first roommate picture! Still so excited and thankful to live with these girls. I hope someone has another birthday soon...
another sneak peek
My new apartment foyer!
I know, I know. "grainy iphone photo." Sorry about that.
sneak peek
There isn't much to see yet, but here's a small preview of my new room!
smooth move
That rhymes. Kinda? I digress. I've completely deserted this blog here and I'm sorry for that. But you should know that my move went very smoothly and I am so grateful for all of the help I had that made that happen. I am still settling into my new routine and new abode and haven't quite had time to do it all. But I thought I would get you excited with pictures of this cute helper I had during my move! What a trooper: carting around my hairdryer, scale, pink bag, fur blanket - all in a granny cart. My room is coming together nicely, but not nice enough to have pictures yet. Soon, though.
You can also see a quick preview and glance of my room here at my new roomie Bethany's blog.
You can also see a quick preview and glance of my room here at my new roomie Bethany's blog.
i think i'm going to like it here.
This magazine clipping is hung on my new fridge. I think I'm going to like it here! Although I do enjoy cooking, I feel like I'm in good company. More later on the new apartment and move!
the joys of moving
And by joys, I mean pains. Oh, the things we do for moving! I've done my fair share of moving in my days (a few times growing up, to college, every summer out of the dorm, into an apartment in college, and twice in NYC...and I know that doesn't even compare to most people!) and I am here to tell you: it is no fun. The moving part is such a hassle, not to mention packing up every single thing you own into a box. But the end result: SO worth it. And, would I do it again? Absolutely.
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| Sunday morning before pre-move #1 on Monday morning. |
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| I think this is progress... |
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| Monday morning. (it grew.) |
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| Thanks for this idea, Pamcakes! |
Someone asked me on Sunday how the packing was going and if I had hired 'Man with a Van' to do my moving. Yes and no. There was a man (ahem, thanks againnn Brendan!!!). And there was a van...
I like to take "progress" pictures like this so that I can see how much I've done and remind myself how much more I have to do. (And, new roommates were so, so generous to let me store half of my unsightly stuff in the living room for the week.) Unfortunately, these pictures aren't very pretty, but hopefully the good ones will be on their way soon enough...
a new home in nyc!
My big, exciting news that I couldn't wait to share is: I'm moving! Not from NYC, though. Just relocating within my neighborhood. I'll still be on the Upper West Side (how could I ever leave this wonderful neighborhood?!), but just more uptown. I'm moving into a beautifully decorated and homey apartment (thanks to DIY expert, Hannah Flora. I'm moving into her room when she ties the knot!). I am so excited to have a new space to design and decorate...which has perhaps caused some slight insomnia over the last month or two...
Take a look at these photos of the common spaces [courtesy of my new roomie, Bethany].
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| Living Room |
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| Living Room |
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| Kitchen |
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| Foyer |
I'm moving next week, so I'll be sure to update with pictures of my new space!
my exciting news:
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.
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.
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.
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.
ο»ΏWe 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.
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.
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| The final view! |
Coming next: the living room revamp! Check back soon...
4.23: d-day
And I don't mean the day we stormed Normandy. Katherine and I put an official meeting on our calendars for a decorating day on Saturday for 3E. (The "work in progress" post is part of that too, I just got a head start!) The truth is, I can't hardly wait until Saturday to start. I'm so excited about the revamp our little home is about to undergo. We're going with corals and light greens. New pillows are on their way as I type. Some of this may have to be done in phases, but I'm expecting a big change from just a few small items. Did I mention I'm excited? I'll be sure to post some photos after we storm the living room on Saturday!