Signing Off

Well, we're off to Florida for Christmas and I'm so excited! We've thoroughly enjoyed our December up here in NYC while living in the festive Christmas city but now it's time to go somewhere tropical. I think we might even hit the beach tomorrow.

We're going from this...

To this!! 

See y'all in a week!! I hope you all have a very Merry Christmas! 

Isaiah 9:6
 For to us a child is born, to us a son is given; and the government shall be upon his shoulder, and his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. 

Manly Things

Now back to the gift guides before it's too late and Christmas is here. This one is for that special man in your life...

1. Funny Moosehead Mugs from Etsy's shop Simon Et Cie
2. Golf, sleep, eat shirt from Etsy's shop Geek Things (if Ben could do anything in life this would be it)
3. Iphone case from JCrew
4. And incredible Leather Satchel from JCrew
5. Pointelle Sweater from Billy Reid
6. Beer Holder for your bike from Walnut Studiolo
7. Slippers fromOverstock
8. Ice Ball mold for the bartender in your life from Useful Things
9. Casual shirt from non other than JCrew

Family Weekend

Here's a small taste of this past weekend. Tomorrow will have more gift guides!

Dazzling Weekend

My family got in yesterday and tonight we're carrying on the tradition of seeing the Rockettes! We're even christening Little Man on this great show. We just found out there's no intermission this year so we'll see how captivating the Rockettes are to a little 2 and a half year old. 

I hope you all have a dazzling, leg kickin' weekend!

Hostess with the Mostess

Here is the beginning of the gift series! This is for your lovely Hostess with the Mostess. Next week will be the rest of the series...

1. Acrylic Tray from Rosenberry Rooms
2. Mid century Serving Bowl from Etsy's shop - House of Oliver
3. Shatterproof Champagne Glasses from govino
4. Soap and Lotion from Molton Brown (its expensive for soap which is why it would be a great gift)
5. Lovely little vase from Anthropologie
6. Pitcher and glasses from Etsy's shop Rust Belt Threads
7. Agate Coasters from Etsy's shop Aimee's Rockworks

Blurry but Fun

Since I posted the recipe yesterday, how about some pictures of the actual party? Most are just of the apartment because we were so excited about our rug coming (an hour before people arrived.) So we just kept snapping pictures of it. It's also hard to take photos while hosting a party. But we did take a few but most of them are blurry. So here are the non-blurry ones...

 The cookies are going fast!

 No matter how small the kitchen is people will gather

Compost Cookie

If you've lived in NYC more than a week then you have heard of Momofuku Milk Bar.  They've got some serious goods. And when I saw Christina Tosi from Momofuku on Good Morning America I decided I was going to attempt my hand at Momofuku's Compost Cookie for our cookie and beer exchange. Christina made this recipe look so simple but apparently she's had some practice. After reading all the reviews online, I became a bit hesitant but had already bought all the ingredients and was committed. So I gave it a go, refrigerated overnight, baked those crazy concoctions and came out with some different batches. My first batch came out right. The second batch came out a bit overdone, but were in for the same amount of time. The third batch which I timed for 5 minutes less came out even more burnt. How did this happen? Well, I really didn't have time to think about it because people were arriving in just a couple of short hours. So I acted like they were fine and put them out of my mind. But of course, when you make a "famous" cookie people are going to start asking questions. Needless to say, from here on out I'm sticking to my recipe exchange rule; stick to something tried and true and don't vary. So next year I'll be making chocolate chip cookies and in the meantime I'll be practicing on Ben so I perfect them like Christina Tosi.

Instead of typing the entire recipe, here is the link...recipe

Ikat Trend

Tonight we're going to have a Christmas cookie and beer exchange over at our place. I'm hoping we have a good turnout with lots of fun cookie and beer assortments. I've been redecorating our place (for the 4th time in a year and a half) and wanted it done before the party tonight. But it looks like that won't be happening. We haven't yet received the rug or pillows. So I guess it'll just be the unfinished look. I couldn't decide if I wanted to get ikat pillows or an ikat rug. I figured the ikat trend would have end somewhat soon so I went with the less expensive and got pillows. However, I'm starting to wonder if this trend is actually here to stay for the long haul since everywhere I look I'm now seeing ikat as the new "nail art" design.

Christmas Windows

I'm busy getting ready for some Christmas parties and events coming up this weekend which means I haven't had time to get up to Midtown to look at the windows. However, I did come across Refinery29's photos of the windows. It makes me so excited to see them in person on Saturday after Ben and I see the Nutcracker at Lincoln Center! But if you can't make it up here before Christmas, take a look through the sideshow below. It's almost like you're there.

http://www.refinery29.com/the-best-holiday-windows-in-nyc/slideshow#slide-1

Market Week

It's no surprise that NYC has some great markets around the city and the boroughs. My sister even gave me a book on all the different markets throughout the city last year for Christmas. Needless to say, I've been slowly making my way through them. So far, I have not been disappointed. And I was able to check another one off my list last Friday when a good friend had setup shop at the Dekalb Market over in Brooklyn. The market has taken old shipping containers and re-purposed them into pop-up shops. How cool is that?! So one of my friends is one of the owners of the toy company, Tegu and they had just begun their "truck tour" and started around Dekalb market.  If you haven't heard of Tegu then you should check it out since its a great toy for all ages, not just the little ones. (Ben has some Tegu blocks in his office.) And while my Tegu friends were talking to customers, I wandered around the market to check out the other vendors on site.  There was an etsy site, clothing, jewelry, furniture, candles, and basically anything else you could think of, including yummy looking food! I'm already looking forward to going back and if you're coming into town then you should check it out as well.

 Old shipping containers with fake men on the top!

Tegu's very own trunk with their cool car track

 All the wooden magnetic cars and blocks

 A passerby couldn't resist Tegu's car photo-op

Now to Breathe

I'm just going to start off by saying that I have the best husband! Instead of relaxing on the couch or getting together with friends on his day off, he came with me to help out at the holiday trunk show. He even talked to some of the customers when I was talking to someone else and then went out to grab me lunch. I'm going to hang onto him!
Moving on to the trunk show itself. It was a wonderful experience where I learned a lot and met some very talented Designers. I have a new found respect for people who do trunk shows every weekend. Let me tell you  it makes for a long day, not to mention a lot of prep work. But there is most definitely some fun that goes with it as well. Some of my friends came out to show some support which was of course great! So all-in-all it was a fun day at the holiday trunk show.

As a side note, you might want to check out the website for a sale!

Entrance into Sumi Tachibana's showroom

 We're getting all setup

I shared a table with a Florist and candle maker

Homemade soaps -they smelled amazing!

 Clothing designer with some beautiful tops

Cute Jewelry and purses