October or January??

Here's what happened this weekend -

Last Minute

This week has flown by! Maybe it's because I've been dreaming about our trip next week to these two places. So this weekend I'll be doing some last minute planning. If you have any recommendations, I'm all ears!!

And here

A Bit More

Since the pieces from yesterday's post are long gone (which makes my day) here are a few more that are up on the website.

More More

I'm back at it. I'm still designing more pieces for the Winter Collection. November closing in has kind of snuck up on me so I'm busy making stocking stuffers and other Christmas worthy pieces. Here are a few I put up yesterday.

Carving Time

On top of all that other fun we had this weekend, I was also able to join in on some girly Halloween fun over at my friend's apartment. After brunch at PJ Clarks I dashed over to the carving madness. Julia is such an amazing hostess and had prepared some incredibly yummy cakes, sausage swirls, cookies, etc for pre-carving eats. Then the carving began! I love everything about the Fall, especially pumpkin carving and roasting pumpkin seeds! 

Julia's really getting out the goop!

Packed Weekend

This weekend went by incredibly fast but probably because it was so great and we did so much. Mom and Dad came in for a little Fall trip. Since we packed in a ton of things this weekend I'm just going to give you some bullet points. (I think Ben likes it when I do this anyway)

• Thursday night - Dinner in the village at the yummy yummy Market Table
• Friday morning - grabbed some apple cider donuts at the farmers market and then hit the shopping streets until we met up with Ben to see the Off-Broadway play The Fantasticks. It was incredibly intimate and fun. I'd recommend it to anyone wanting a great play and fun unique experience.
• After the play we went down to our neighborhood and had drinks and after play eats at The Brandy Library.
• Saturday we woke up early and went down to the 9/11 Memorial then drove to West Point and took a wonderfully beautiful and insightful tour of the campus. It should definitely be on the top of the most beautiful campus list. It overlooks the Hudson river and to top it off the leaves were changing. Gorgeous!
• Then we drove to Cold Spring, NY and did a little antique shopping. 
• Finally making our way back to the city, we had dinner at Marc Forgione down in Tribeca.
• Sunday we made our way through Central Park and over to PJ Clarks for brunch then before they left to go back to Florida we hit up some Shake Shack for the closing dinner.

World Trade Tower

 South Tower fountain

 West Point Chapel

 Straight rows of bible - military style

 Cold Spring antiquing

Dumplings

My friend, Carla made some delicious apple dumplings for bible study last night and they were so good that I asked her if I could share them. She said yes and I started snapping pictures while she worked. This might just become my next "go to" dessert for when guests come over. I wish we had a fireplace because I could just imagine sitting in front of the fire under a blanket while eating some yummy dumplings. Not sure why I these make me think about fireplaces but yall should give them a go - see what they make you think. :)

 Paula Dean would like this recipe since it uses some butter - but you're by the fire so who cares

 Getting ready to bake

 Golden delicious goodness

 We used more apples than the recipe calls for and the apples we picked which were not granny smith

M I C K E Y

I'm back from a fun trip to Florida with my mom, sister, and her boys. It was so much fun and nice to not be at home by myself while Ben travels. We accomplished a lot of fun activities while we were all together, one of those being Disney World! It's been two years since my last visit and I was excited to be back. One of the amazing things about growing up in Florida is being so close to Disney. I can't even count how many times I've been in my life - and I love it! There's not much explaining that needs to be done when it comes to the fun had by all when Mickey is around so I'll let the pictures talk for themselves.

Me and my two favorite little boys

Little Man was in awe of Walt

 Disney in full Fall mode

 First time meeting Mickey and was so excited! Talked about him until I left 3 days later

 Even us grown-ups were excited

 Small World wonder

 Although this little guy was put to sleep in It's a Small World

 Baby blues

 The line for Winnie the Pooh sis as good as the ride

 Race Car madness

Can hardly even see the little man 

The sun is setting which means its time to go home!

Apple a Day...

Warwick, NY is a great apple picking place in the Hudson Valley. We ended up at the same orchard as last year, Applewood Orchard. And yet again we had a great time. As a bonus, Applewood is also a winery and sells yummy hard apple cider and of course wines. I can't wait to come back here with kids since they have sheep, face painting, puppets, and live music. It's basically a kids dream...and a little bit of mine. But with all the activity, Ben and I snuck away and had ourselves a picnic near the same place as last year. It's right by the red barn and open field.  We were heading out and had planned on grabbing the apple cider donuts as a dessert but they had run out which meant we had to find another orchard so we could get our donut fill. We found Orchs Orchard which was a bit smaller but had more produce and DONUTS! After that donut run we decided to visit another orchard that gets a lot of press named, Masker Orchard. It was a serious orchard and huge at that. They had all the kids activities, too. It was a production and quite pretty since it was up on a hill overlooking a valley. However, we decided that we liked the more intimate setting for picking the apples over at Applewood. Although, I'm sure one day we'll venture out to another orchard. The drive was beautiful since the leaves are beginning to change and Fall is here!

Just 3 rockstars hanging out on the side of a barn.

 This tree was full of apples ready to be picked

 Our perfect picnic

 This was the view we choose over the puppet show

 Orchs hot apple cider donuts

 Maskers serious rows of apple trees - these went on forever!

 but a good view

 This was our sunset welcoming us back home to the city!

Are you ready for apple recipes?!?!