bits of my weekend- volume 5

We had a pretty quiet weekend here.

I went for a walk on Saturday. These homes on the Upper East Side are amazing, aren't they. I always wonder who lives here...





Outdoor cafes make me smile. Even when they are empty. It was quite chilly on Saturday, but the sunlight was gorgeous.





Short taxi ride across town to meet my Aunt Kathy and Uncle Tom who are in town visiting. It's always great to see family.



The exquisite Plaza Hotel on 5th Avenue.




What about you?
Share your weekend pictures!

another reason i love anthropologie

I don't know if you heart Anthropologie as much as I do. But I just found another reason to love it even more.

I've been adding a few finishing touches to our apartment and was looking for some new pillows for the couch. I'm usually not a fan of the pillows that come with most couches. They're a tad boring, don't you think? But if you still have the pillows that came with your couch, I'm not going to judge you.

Anyway, I've been noticing all the beautiful crewel wool pillows on-line and in a lot of the stores. Then I noticed their price tags. Most of these type pillows are $200 dollars or more for just one tiny one. Pretty - yes. Pretty expensive - that would also be a yes. And since we're on a b-u-d-g-e-t living in the city, I just couldn't justify it.

Then I went to Anthro and saw this:



It's called their Floral Fresco rug. It's made out of wool and has a cotton backing. I loved the colors. Loved the size. I wished it was a pillow instead of a rug. I even said out loud, "I wish you were a pillow instead of a rug." What? Don't you talk to items as you shop? Then I noticed there was a cotton backing that was actually sewn onto the rug. It was like a pillowcase (but with no opening.) Why couldn't I turn it into a pillow?

I bought it and brought it home. Lily and I ripped it open and stuffed it with the down from the old sofa pillows. I was going to take a picture of the actual process, but that would have required leaving Lily in the room ALONE with feathers while I retrieved my camera. I'm sure you can understand my decision.

Here's a picture of the finished project:



I love how big it is and that it makes a statement. It also breaks up a lot of the beige I have going on.

Would love to know what you think! And please tell me you love Anthro as much as I do.

Dear Target,

Dear Target,

I miss you.

I've tried to put you out of my mind since moving to Manhattan, but can not. After a relationship of over a decade, we were already in too deep. I was silly to think I could toss you aside like an old shoe and never think of you again.

I thought I wouldn't miss you, but I've come to see that my life is more difficult without you. My heart is heavy thinking about what you did for me during holidays. Not just Christmas, but Valentines, Easter, Thanksgiving...the list goes on and on. No one lays out aisles of needless holiday decor like you do. Only you can make a modern-day sophisticated woman think she needs a strand of blinking lights to match every holiday.

I've also heard you're carrying Liberty of London now. I've seen the commercials. I am positive I am missing out on something that would have changed my life.

And the dollar bins. O.How.I.Miss.The.Dollar.Bins. It was like digging for treasures. Sure, I didn't need anything in them, but you still filled a void I was sure I had at the time. Even my 6 year old understood the draw of the dollar bins. Of course they were conveniently placed near the entrance and were varying heights so kids her size could reach in. But I'm sure you did it that way for us, not so you could increase sales. You are self-less.

I miss just stopping by to see how you were doing. You were always available for the big events, but were just as available for those spare 10 minutes I often had on the way to pick up kids from school. You were always ready to accept me with open arms no matter how much time I had for you.

I just wanted you to know how I felt. Like I've lost a friend. You are missed.

Love,

Lonely in Manhattan

window shop wednesday - volume 3

Ok, so this is not my normal Window Shop Wednesday Post. But I figure there is a loophole somewhere that will allow this picture. It's a window and it's a store. And there is my loophole. Thank you.

This is the Apple Store on 5th Avenue. A recent report stated that it is the city's 5th most photographed location. If that doesn't prove that Apple is taking over the world, I don't know what does. The store is huge. But what makes it so unique is the glass cube that is actually the entrance to the store. The cube sits on the street level. Once you enter, you take the stairs (or the elevator) down to the store level which is underground.

I asked Jackson to stand in front of the store for the picture. He is in danger of being swayed by his 18 year old brother Ben to go the PC route. We're not sure what we did wrong with Ben, but he prefers a PC over a MAC computer. It could be something to do with his diet. I don't know, but we are reading a lot of parenting books on the matter. We're determined to get to the bottom of it.

When I downloaded this picture, I noticed the handsome man on the right. Don't you think it looks like McDreamy? Sorry, its not.

But I will tell you that all the men visiting the Apple store look like this. My husband asked me to meet him at this store one afternoon. When I walked in, I looked around and saw about 100 men that all looked like Rod. Seriously. They were all handsome, dark haired men with day old scruff on their face. A sea of metro-sexual men.

So what did I do? I immediately texted all my single friends and said, "Forget the bars. You need to come down to the Apple Store on 5th Avenue."

why did the elephant cross the road?

Do you remember your youth? The time where you stayed up all night with your friends at a slumber party? You know that weird haze that comes over you and you almost feel like you're sleep walking, but you don't dare close your eyes. You laugh. Tell jokes. Maybe get in an argument or two. Then you play truth or dare and realize you're the only one that hasn't kissed a boy yet? Well, that's how I felt in Manhattan last night...minus the truth or dare part.

Jackson (age 11) and I went down to 34th street around 1 am last night to see elephants march down the street. The elephants were from Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus and they were on route to Madison Square Garden. They're unloaded off train cars in Queens and then walk through the midtown tunnel and continue across 34th Street.

It's actually quite a sight. People line up hours ahead of time just to get a spot to watch. Some of these people are quite territorial, too. I won't go into the ugly details, but I got in a bit of a scuffle. A grumpy, old man said Jackson couldn't stand next to him because he had been waiting at that spot longer than we had. If you want to see a kind, quiet Southern woman like myself morph into Teresa from the Housewives of New Jersey, just tell my son he can't stand next to you to watch the circus elephants. If there had been a table there, I would have flipped it over, too.

Did I also mention that it was raining? I don't think rain brings out the best in people.

Jackson and I actually had a blast. It was unbelievable to see traffic stopped so ELEPHANTS could walk down the street. We'll definitely come back next year to see it again.

Here's a short video so you can see what it was like.

Elephants in Manhattan from six in the city on Vimeo.

bits of my weekend- volume 4

Welcome to another edition of Bits of My Weekend!
And as always, sign the linky below so we can view your weekend pictures, too!

Central Park:








Farmer's Market on the Upper West Side:






Why is my mother taking a picture in a mirror?:


Best food in NYC:




Eating ice cream on the steps of the Museum of Natural History:


Tippy Toes:

caution: you might get a cavity just reading this

One of the first things I did when we moved to Manhattan was take Lily to Dylan's Candy Bar. She loved it. I thought I would take her for a repeat visit and invite Jackson (age 11) to come along. This was a little easier said than done.

Jackson is my planner. He likes to gather a great deal of information before he makes a move. Where do we need to go and why? How long will it take to get there? What will be the amount of time spent at our destination? Would we be making any additional stops along the way? Let's just say he does not leave a lot of room in his life for spontaneity. This will be great if his college roommates try to drag him to Tahiti for a weekend, but it does not bode well when I, his own mother, want to take him somewhere.

I thought inviting him to a place to load up on sugar might be different. It wasn't. I answered ALL his trivia question about the journey and he was still hesitant. He just didn't want to go. I told him he would love it. That it was the most amazing candy store ever.

Lily saw I was needing help, so she chimed in: "Come on Jackson! You'll love it so much you will forget your mind!"

I think she meant to say, "You will lose your mind!" But that's a common error, right??

It really is an amazing store. It's 3 stories and has every kind of candy imaginable.

The store has tons of candy bins where you can fill your own bag to your heart's content. Well, to your heart's content at $12.99 per pound.





Here's a tip. Prep your children before you walk in the store that the candy is not free. I didn't think this was necessary until Lily walked up to me with a mouthful of candy.









The store is so whimsical. Giant suckers on the ceiling.



Peeps!



Cookies!



The Easter displays were delightful. I definitely think the Easter Bunny needs to shop here this year.









Even the stairs have candy in them.







Maybe regular candy bars are more your thing. They've got you covered.





Or maybe, you'd like to take a bath in a giant tub of gumballs.



Wait, you're not supposed to do that. And as you can see, my daughter is getting ready to dive in.

We all had a great time. And when we left, Jackson uttered those beautiful words every mother loves to hear, "Mom, you were right."

We ate our candy all the way home. Unfortunately, the sugar high hit Lily while we were still on the bus. Unfortunately, she kicked the bus driver in the shins, too.

So after reading this post, what kind of candy are you craving now?

i've included a handy visual in case you don't understand. you're welcome.

Lily (age 6): "Mom, have you seen the goose tape? I need it."

window shop wednesday - volume 2

Bergdorf Goodman on 5th Avenue

you know you're a new yorker if...

I don't know if it's like this in other cities, but there is much debate about WHEN one can call himself a New Yorker here. Some say you have to live here 10 years. Some say 3 years. It can actually be quite a violent conversation. It's not that I am pushing to call myself a New Yorker. (I still like to think of myself as a sweet Southern girl.) But considering the AMOUNT OF TAXES we have to pay to live here, I will darn well call myself a New Yorker if I want to.

I recently ran across this list (don't know the author though) of how you know you're a New Yorker. I found myself laughing out loud at a few of them because they were so true.

Enjoy the list.

You know you're a New Yorker if....

1. You say "The City" and expect everyone to know that this means Manhattan.

2. You have never been to the Statue of Liberty or the Empire State Building.

3. $50 worth of groceries fit in one paper bag.

4. You can get into a four hour argument about how to get from Columbus Circle to Battery Park at 3:30 on the Friday before a long weekend, but can't find Wisconsin on a map.

5. The subway map makes sense to you.

6. You think the subway should never be called anything prissy, like the Metro.

7. You believe that being able to swear at people in their own language makes you bilingual.

8. You've considered smacking someone just for saying "The Big Apple."

9. Your door has more than two locks.

10. The most frequently used part of your car is the horn.

11. You consider eye contact an act of overt aggression.

12. You call an 8' x 10' plot of patchy grass a yard.

13. You consider Westchester "Upstate."

14. You live/work in a building with a larger population than some American towns.

15. You walk faster than some people run.

16. You see nothing odd about the speed of an auctioneer's speaking.

17. You're paying $1,500 for a studio the size of a walk-in closet and you think it's a "steal."

18. You've been to New Jersey twice and got lost both times.

19. You pay more each month to insure your car than most people in the US pay in rent.

20. You haven't seen more than twelve stars in the night sky since you went away to camp as a kid.

21. You go to dinner at 9pm and head out to the clubs when most Americans are heading to bed.

22. Your closet is filled with black clothes.

23. When foreigners ask directions, you are nice to them. When other New Yorkers ask directions, you ignore them.

24. You pay $5 without blinking for a beer that cost the bar 28 cents.

25. You take fashion seriously.

26. When you pass a celebrity on the street, you don't go to pieces.

27. You have 27 different menus next to your telephone.

28. Going to Brooklyn is considered a "road trip."

29. America west of the Hudson is still theoretical to you.

30. You've stopped thinking about how many hands touched the subway pole.

31. You're suspicious of strangers who are actually nice to you.

32. You haven't cooked a meal since helping Mom last Thanksgiving.

33. You take a taxi to get to your health club to exercise.

34. Your idea of "personal space" is no one actually breathing on you.

35. You have a minimum of five "worst cab ride ever" stories.

36. You don't hear sirens anymore.

37. You've mentally blocked out all thoughts of the city's air quality and what it's doing to your lungs.

38. You run when you see a flashing "Do Not Walk" sign at the intersection

39. You're in the background of a tourists' photo.

40. You use the rats in the subway tracks to tell you when the train's approaching the station

41. You move up one block to steal the cab from the person waiting for it below you

42. Your doorman is Russian, your grocer is Korean, your deli man is Israeli, your building super is Italian, your laundry guy is Chinese, your favorite bartender is Irish, your favorite diner owner is Greek, the watch seller on your corner is Senegalese, your last cabbie was Pakistani, your newsstand guy is Indian and your favorite falafel guy is Egyptian.

bits of my weekend- volume 3