Our new URL is 2sistersblog.com
New York, New York!
BAM! Beat that view playa. Well, actually I will forfeit and say that your view from your roof deck is prettier than ours, but still, I love NYC! The picture below is the view that Jeff and I wake up to every morning:
Helloooooooooo Jersey!
I love being able to look out over the Hudson River. A little random fact: Sully landed the plane in the Hudson right outside our window…but we weren’t here to see it because we hadn’t moved in yet. The stories we’ve heard about it are quite impressive though! I’m still trying to wrap my head around the fact that he actually landed the plane so gracefully in the river. And finally, the view from our living room:
Pretty City 
Not really sure what that smoke stack is or what it does, but I still like being up high and able to see out. I’m slowly becoming a city girl and starting to love my new home!
A: I’ll have to say our view from our apartment is not nearly as grand. It looks across the street at some nice big houses that can probably see directly into our apartment. I’m sure they’ve gotten an eye full.
So, hi, my name is Karen and I’m a MARTHA-holic. GASP! I know, I know! It’s a problem, but there’s just something about that Martha Stewart blue color that really floats my boat. When I registered for my wedding, I got made fun of a lot because the majority of my registry at Macy’s was overtaken my Martha Stewart products and everything was primarily for my kitchen. I couldn’t help it! It was like the products were just calling my name and telling me to shoot them with the registry gun, (pow pow!). Martha Stewart kitchen towels, hand mixer, blender, ice cream scoop, oven mitts, digital kitchen timer, paper towel holder, salt and pepper shakers….all absolutely needed things? Well, no. Do I have them? Yes, duh! Witness exhibits A and B:
My Martha Kitchen
I Heart Martha!
Sigh. Isn’t she beautiful? I absolutely adore cooking, so having a pretty kitchen just makes cooking that much more fun! Sadly, however, my Martha Stewart obsession does not stop with just my kitchen. As you know, I’m a recent newlywed. I spent 16 months following in my sister’s footsteps by using Martha Stewart as my ultimate wedding planning guide…and boy did she deliver! She’s fabulous! Martha Stewart wedding magazines were some of my most prized possessions and I frequented MarthaStewart.com/Weddings like it was my job. The weddings she featured were always gorgeous and she had the most crafty ideas! In my opinion, everything about the Martha Stewart line is quintessentially classic and super beautiful!
So, to sum it up, my life pretty much revolves around three main things, (sorry hubby, I love you too!!):
1) Food- Cooking it, eating it, reading about it in my 12868562 cookbooks…it’s all good.
2) Harry Potter and Twilight- Oh it’s bad, real bad. A post will follow soon about these bad boys
3) ALL THINGS MARTHA. Martha, Martha, Martha!
Needless to say, it doesn’t take too much to make this girl happy
A: I do loooove me some Martha Stewart Weddings. That was one of the hardest things to give up after the wedding. I really don’t have an excuse to buy those magazines anymore and I miss them. There were so many pretty ideas in there.
As for your kitchen supplies, yes I can vouch. I’ve never seen so may aqua blue colored things in my life. I hope you don’t get tired of it any time soon! And since we’re sharing kitchens I’ll share mine too. I don’t believe I have one thing Martha blue in it. The horror! I know i know. I have navy blue though.
polka-dot kitchen!
So currently my skirt is spread out across my floor in a sheet of maroon with the dog running over it. I started laying out those ridiculously fragile patterns onto the fabric and pinning them. Cutting them out turned into a fiasco. I tried 4 pairs of scissors including some that can cut through WIRE and this damn fabric still wouldn’t cut smoothly. Hopefully I can straighten things out when i start sewing them together. I’ve had to estimate a lot of the sizing b/c evidently they do not make patterns for us smaller people. I had to cut off an inch on everything- length, width, girth. OK not girth. Anyway, i still have patterns #1, 5, 4, and 2 to cut out. I had to cut out three #3′s, double-sided! That took forever. OK I need a beer.
Wassssup Sucka Free!?
Excuse the ghetto language. I’ve been listening to too much Flo-rida. Anyway, I took this photo last night on our roof deck. Nice eh?
So, a typical weekday in my life is usually dominated with doing the job search thing. Unemployment is no fun. So, on some days when I get super fed up after applying to jobs and continually getting “Thank you for applying. A representative will contact you if we feel you qualify for this position” email responses, I usually take a break and go out into the city to do something that only I could do by living in NYC. Sometimes I put on my stretchy workout pants and trusty tennis shoes and go for a run in Central Park. Other days, I put on my most comfy j. crew jeans, go get gellato and sit around the fountain in Columbus Circle and people watch, (it’s actually really entertaining!)
But if I’m going to be quite honest, usually when I get really annoyed and fed up with the whole finding a job thing, I throw myself a dance party. No joke. I’ll turn on my favorite BSpears and have a full out rager by myself in our apartment; I guess it sucks to be our neighbors. Thank God we live on the 35th floor of our building, or else unfortunate passersby would get quite a show. A show that includes but is not limited to: minor break dancing and spinning on the hardwood floors, many attempts at recreating the classic “sliding across the floor in your socks” Tom Cruise move from “Risky Business” (I have clothes on though!), and for a grande finale I put on a pretty well choreographed lip-synching rendition of Britney’s “Womanizer,” equipped with sunglasses and make shift spatula microphone. I’m not ashamed, but maybe the hubby should be?
But just the other day, I was fixing lunch and I found myself unconsciously dancing around the kitchen to a really catchy tune. When I finally caught myself and realized that maybe I was having one too many dance parties by myself, I noticed what I was dancing to. It’s the new Baskin Robbins Ice Cream and Cake commercial jingle. That song is my jam! “Ice cream and cake do the ice cream and cake!” It’s absolutely hysterical. The next time it came on, I paid attention to what was actually in the commercial and literally laughed out loud at the little plastic figurines dancing around, (maybe because they reminded me so much of my own personal dance parties?) Take a look for yourself: [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dy_WqicWcHg]
Hilarious right!? I freakin love the T-Rex dancing at the end. And when the soccer player falls off the cake and then gets back up and just keeps right on dancing, now that’s funny. FUNNY. But seriously, if you’re ever having a bad day, or just want a little pick me up, just turn this song on and get to dancing. It’s amazing what kind of dance moves this song can inspire, (some moves that would attract admirers at a club, and other moves that only a mother could encourage and love). Who knows, maybe I’ll do a spin off of this little video, [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zlfKdbWwruY], and instead use the catchy Baskin Robbins jingle.
Then again, maybe not.
A: I freakin’ love that commercial! It’s brilliant. Your links are turds though
Try this
K: OK, so I failed at the links, I’m new at this! Try this link for the second video I tried to post…hopefully it works this time.
So since I am still living the unemployed life, I find myself with a lot of time on my hands but no moolah to fill it. Soooo I’ve had to get creative. In the olden days, poor people made their own clothes, so can I! They also pooped outdoors and killed their own food, so can I! But I won’t. I’m not that hard up for cash. Sheesh.
I decided I’m making a skirt. And it’s not like I even need it. I’m just bored really, and have always wanted to learn to sew. My poor little sewing machine just sits there, it’s high time I used it! So my friend Shannon and I went shopping for patterns and material today and I found some nice maroon tweed-ish like fabric that I think is going to look pretty dope when it becomes a skirt. I know it sounds ugly now, but i’m already picturing it: Anthropologie-style with gray sweater tights and vintage mary janes! Sort of like this photo from this AWESOME blog i discovered today called Sally Jane Vintage. Check it out.
But that’s not the only old-school thing I’ve got going on. I bought this vintage (Vogue!) suitcase set at a flea market I took Mom to on Sunday. I thought I could stack them and use them as both storage AND a nightstand. Every piece of furniture we buy must be both cute and functional. We have too much shit in this apartment and i need to hide it. I’m having issues though finding them a home in our bedroom. What i visualized in my head isn’t as cool as i had hoped. Now they’re just piled in a corner, waiting for a home.
I’ll keep you updated on the skirt status. Right now it’s just a giant sheet of material with some paper patterns cut out.
K:
Cute suitcases! I’m sure mom loved them too. Good luck with the skirty. It’ll be a challenge, but once you finish it you’ll be super proud of your creation! I can’t make clothes to save my life. I once tried to make a shirt and it might as well have been a dress; just a really ugly dress. Fail.
If I’m beginning to reconsider the black rug purchase, imagine how Jack feels.
It’s currently 1:42am over here on the east coast and the littlest of the 2 sisters, (that’s me!), has yet to go to bed. I swear I need to get myself on a better sleep pattern. The hubby, (we’ll have to concoct a fun code name to brand him with), has been passed out asleep since 10:00pm, (side note: passed out because of extreme exhaustion or because of the open bar that Bank of America ponied up tonight to celebrate the end of training for their analysts….it’s a toss up). Regardless, I’ve gotten to have a lot of me-time today/tonight. The hubby did, however, interrupt my watching of the So You Think You Can Dance finale show, (Go Jeanine!), by sleep walking into the living room, performing a pretty impressive monologue of pointless sleep-talking babble, and then marching himself happily back into the bedroom with a smile on his face. Hmm. What have I gotten myself into?
Indeed, what have I gotten myself into? I’ve officially been married for over a month now and everything seems to be streaming by in a blur. The wedding rocked, (no, I’m still not finished with the thank you cards), the honeymoon was superb, moving to NYC was virtually painless, (aside from Jeff almost breaking his leg, another story for another time), and now we’re the hottest newlywed couple to hit NYC….or so I wish, ha. However, life in NYC is quite the adventure and I do believe it’s the perfect place for a newly married couple to “set up shop.”. Not only does it allow them to discover how to work as a cohesive unit together, but it is also a great place for them to discover who they really are as individuals. I remember that was one of the biggest apprehensions I had about getting married, “I’m 23 years old and fresh out of college. I’m just now really discovering who I am as a person, but now I’m getting married and bringing an entirely new dynamic into my life?” I was terrified that by getting married I was going to “lose” myself before I actually even really found myself! Quite the debacle. But to put it into perspective, and to keep myself from going into a sleep-deprived ramble, getting married actually gave me a chance to take someone along with me on my road to self discovery. If I had set out on this journey alone, my insecurities would have left me experiencing life one little toe in the baby pool at a time. But with the hubby by my side, I’m doing a perfect two-and-a-half pike with a twist dive into the deep end! I know that no matter what my decisions are, I have someone whose willing to swim along with me….or dive in after me to save me from drowning. Awww.
Anyone getting nauseous yet? Oh get over it, I’m not that sappy! But I probably should run along to bed before Jeff puts on another rousing sleep walking display. We have company coming to visit for the weekend, hooray! So we get to do all the touristy New Yorkey things that I’ve wanted to do since we’ve gotten here, but refrained from doing because I wanted to be a “cool local.” All self dignity put aside, I’ll be toting my cool, but discrete, NYC guide book and handy dandy camera. If nothing else, I’m sure our friend’s visit will make for a pretty sweet Facebook photo album. See? Always a happy ending.
Peace out cub scout.
The happy family
So the parents just left. I dropped them off at SFO this a.m. after grabbing a donut at Bob’s Donuts. Mom made sure to ask me once again if San Francisco gives sanitation grades for restaurants. “It’s clean Mom. It’s just old.” “Oh I know. I was just wondering.” Suuuure you were.
Anyway, I’d say for the most part it was a successful trip. I tried to avoid all of the homeless and sketchy areas as best I could for her sake since she hates cities. We visited mainly things outside SF, traveling to Sausalito, the wine country, and Palo Alto. I found myself trying to make the visit as perfect as possible. I cleaned the apartment for 3 days, cleaning then re-cleaning before they got here. I busted out the yellow rubber gloves and that steel spongy thing that works magic on soap scum. The place was spotless and everything was in its place (AKA all our junk was placed into neat little piles of junk). The scary thing was that I found myself trying to do the same when I was outside the apartment. I was on my way to pick them up at the airport and saw this graffiti on the side of a building and had the urge to scrub it off with my metal sponge. I realized that’s psycho and gave up on trying to make her love it here. SF will just have to speak for itself.
Dad liked the trip too. But he’s not hard to please. Everything we fed him he loved and said it was the best thing he’d had. We let him drive the convertible while Mom backseat drove. We arranged for them to stay at a B&B on Friday night in Napa. I had only seen it online and read reviews but was still worried it may be no good given that it was closer into town than I wanted. But when we got there they loved it. Or as Randy described, “Your mom’s face lit up like a Christmas tree.” So whew. They liked it AND they even loved the Hilton we put them in for 2 nights in SF. I was worried b/c it was a gamble i took through Priceline where you dont get to see where you’re staying until you’ve purchased it. They loved it though. To me, it was okay, a bit touristy and GIANT, but I think Mom’s used to Dad putting her in sh*tholes so she was thrilled with the place.
I think i’d venture to say that they’ll be back. Well I know Dad will b/c he keeps saying how he’s going to make it an effort to come out here twice a year. He gets excited and says those things which I know won’t be true as soon as he looks at the bills, but it’s a nice thought. Mom I think will come back too. There are a few things she didn’t get to see b/c we didn’t have enough time and I think she still wants to see them. Hopefully it won’t take her another 6 more years to come out here!
So, are you ready for everyone to come visit you in NYC for Thanksgiving? We already argued over who gets to sleep on your floor. I told Dad he can’t be serious about us all staying there and that I’m more poor and get to stay with you guys. I think he understood. I hope.
