Three on Thursday | Shopping Plans.

I'll be in New York next Thursday and while Sara works, I have plans to meet up with Diane for lunch and shopping at Purl Soho. Purl is one of my favorite yarn shops, but they sell fabric too. I've never spent much time in that part of the shop, but this trip, I will!

Thinking that Sara's blanket is going to leave a nice big opening in my suitcase, I'm planning to buy yarn and fabric. These are the three projects I have in mind:

1. Uniform Tunic, View A, in watercolor linen.

2. Lotta Jansdotter's Kiomi Dress (from Everyday Style) in a Liberty print.

3. Terrace Wrap in Cattail Silk.

Truth be told, I have a couple of other projects floating around in my head (maybe a long-sleeved tunic like View B, or two more skeins of Cattail Silk to knit Sayer) but it's Thursday, so I'm limiting myself to three. We'll see what happens next week!

Head on over to Carole's to see more three-fer's!

Hello from New York!

Well hi there, it's been a while!

leaving Madison, Sept 16

If you follow me on Instagram, you know we arrived safely last Monday and have since made Sara's apartment into a home.

last Monday evening 

Friday afternoon

We've also had time to explore - a play on Thursday, local restaurants, the 9/11 memorial and Central Park.

dinner out after the play, Thursday evening

9/11 Memorial, Saturday morning

view of the Upper West Side from Central Park, Thursday morning

Her neighborhood on the Upper East Side is great - lots to do, family friendly (the mama part of me feels like she's safe) and easy access to the rest of the city thanks to the brand new 2nd Avenue subway (which will - hopefully - be the site of an FO photo shoot later this morning).

neighborhood wine bar, Sunday afternoon (we've since completed the puzzle!)

Sara has a good friend here (about ten blocks away) and two more friends visited for the weekend. It feels like she's in a place (and the mama part of me feels especially good about that!)

hosting friends, Friday evening

We had one more lunch out yesterday and I got to see the friend's apartment and meet her dog.

Sara and Cody

Today Sara and I are taking the train to New Haven. My mother-in-law passed away on Saturday and the funeral is there tomorrow. The whole family (including the two great grandsons) is coming; it's going to be a wonderful celebration of her life and legacy. I won't be home until Sunday, and don't expect to be back here until next week. I do hope to share bits and pieces on Instagram before then.

As always, thank for you for reading and being part of my story. xoxo, M.

Poetry Friday | Lady Liberty.

I'm taking a cue from Kym today and sharing a poem.

In all my visits to New York, I've never actually been to the Statue of Liberty. Flying in last Wednesday, I caught a glimpse.

And then on Friday, there's a spot on the High Line that frames a nice view of her, but it's easy to miss (trust me - she's out there!)

Also a big Thank You to Poetry in Motion, which I've only seen in New York (maybe because that's really the only city where I spend much time on public transportation?!)

Weekending City Style.

...begins of course, on Friday. We set out in the morning under clear, chilly blue skies and headed down to Chelsea.

First stop was Cookshop for an early lunch. We started with burrata and it was the best we'd had. That toast was spread with roasted garlic and the cheese was nestled into a wild nettle pesto.

After lunch we headed to the High Line. This was our first visit and wow! what a great space. also WOW! it was windy and cold. 

We got off at Chelsea Market and made a bee line to Ninth Street Espresso.

We wandered around the market for a while to warm up. What a fun place it's turned out to be! On our next trip, we'll definitely plan a meal-time stop, hopefully on a weekday so it's not so crowded.

Next we headed to Pottery Barn and then made a quick stop at Lion Brand for Sara to pick out a color for a new afghan. All that cold wind wore us out and we headed back to our apartment via Union Square (where I finally saw #blueskyblooms!)

We got cozy with our books, took quick naps and then had fun with Yelp figuring out a fun place to go for cocktails. We had dinner reservations on the Upper East Side, so we looked around there. Lo and behold we found The Penrose. Super fun on a Friday night. We had cocktails and a cheese plate and enjoyed lots of people watching. The Upper East Side has changed a lot in the five years since Katie lived there!

We walked to dinner at Seamstress. I have no photos of the food, but it was all delicious. Sara said it was her favorite meal of the trip and I'd have to agree (we set a very high bar in that regard!) I did get a few photos of Sara, certainly my favorite dinner companion.

Saturday we packed up, checked out and headed to the Upper East Side to meet a friend of mine. We had brunch at Isabella's and I did take photos.

smoked salmon omelette for Sara

and smoked salmon platter for me

Then all too soon, it was time to go (and raining!) We shared a cab to the airport...and flew our separate ways home. The only bright spot about getting home late on Saturday was getting to see this guy (and his mama!) on Sunday!

I can't wait to go back - or really anywhere - with Sara. She's such a fun and easy travel companion. Maybe next time she'll manage tickets to Hamilton and invite me along!

Thursday in the City.

The weather has been a lot better than I thought it would be. Sara didn't even wear her coat yesterday and the rain was just off and on showers in the afternoon. We spent most of the rainy time sitting at this cozy table with the Times crossword (which mostly stumped us, but we'll try again today), a delicious meal and a few glasses of wine.

Then we walked down to SoHo and did a little shopping. Sara bought shoes (Supergas) and I bought yarn (three skeins of the newest Linen Quill to knit Tails).

We decided to head back to the apartment to relax a bit before the play. Stopped into Dean and Deluca for snacks. Totally appropriate that we had our little picnic with an episode of Sex and the City (and yikes! I can't believe that show is almost 20 years old!!!)

The play was in a very cool theater in NoHo. This was my first Off Broadway show and I'd love to do it again. The setting is so intimate and we had great seats. The play was fantastic, too!

We ended the evening with fun cocktails at the Stanton Social Club,

the perfect ending to a wonderful day.

Today the sun is shining and I think we're going to check out the High Line. It's fun to have no plans...

A Quick Hello.

...from Central Park.

We walked (and walked and walked some more). And now we're enjoying a little down time to rest up for dinner.

more soon...xo, M.

p.s. I feel like my voice is getting better (but Sara says I'm imagining it :-)

Throwback Thursday | Travel Plans.

Sara and I had a two hour FaceTime on Saturday afternoon to nail down a few details for our trip next week. The weather forecast isn't great (rainy and chilly), but it is spring and hopefully the forecast is just plain wrong. Still, we don't have high hopes.

We have only two definite things planned to do:
1. see Claire Danes in Dry Powder Thursday evening (Sara managed to get tickets and that's really the reason for the whole trip); and
2. meet up with a friend of mine Saturday morning.

So we spent that two hours on Saturday talking about where we'd eat! Sara pulled it all into a map:

And I couldn't help thinking about how different all this is from our first trip back in April, 2008. I pored over blogs and probably even a guide book or two looking for recommendations. Apart from a quick trip (for a business lunch) in 2007, I hadn't been to New York since college and this was Sara's first time. We were definitely newbies. without iPhones, Yelp or Google Maps!

We landed at La Guardia with hotel reservations and The List.

(which I still have!)

A piece of paper - filled on the front with Places to see/Things to do and on the back with Food. We managed to have a great time and I don't remember being disappointed by anything. Although Sara was for sure disappointed by the carriage ride through Central Park (I do have to agree with her that the smell was...tough to handle!)

I compiled a day by day summary of what we did for our scrapbook.  Fun to see that three of the restaurants we tried back then are on this year's list too (Fig & Olive, Blue Ribbon Bakery and Isabella's).

We'll also see Central Park, plenty of the Village and maybe even a yarn shop or two. And we'll also ride the subway. I doubt we'll keep up the pace of that first visit, though; I'm amazed how much of the city - even Brooklyn! - we covered in just a few days.

But I'm sure we'll have fun. no matter what.

Throwback Thursday | NYC.

lunch at Del Posto

This is from June, 2010. The last two of us (Sara and me) photo from our last trip to NYC.

We visited first in April 2008. Sara was a sophomore in high school, considering NYU.  We had a really encouraging tour, but then we went to breakfast one day and it snowed. in April*. She never even applied.

We visited again in April 2009. Just for fun. And with no idea that I'd be back in June and July to help Katie move there for a year**. Sara and I visited again that Christmas and then one last time over Memorial Day 2010, just after she graduated high school.

Fast forward a few years (yikes, quite a few!) and we're planning another early April trip. Sara texted me last week about joining her for a spur-of-the-moment-I-really-need-a-break-from-work trip and I jumped at the chance.

We'll be there April 6-9. Needless to say, I'm excited!

*and isn't it ironic that she now lives in Madison, Wisconsin. where a trip to NYC in early April is likely going to be a breath of warmer air!

**Katie's first job after college was with NBC/Universal. She spent a year in New York and then two years in Los Angeles before (happily, finally) moving back to Atlanta to get married...and have a family.

not knitting.

...that's right - not knitting (well, except for about an inch on a sock wednesday evening, but that really doesn't count, does it?). nope, amazing I know! instead, I...

...finished reading a book - shadow of the wind by carlos ruiz safon. It was amazing. A great story, beautifully written, and now I think I need to visit barcelona (I'm sure I could get katie to come with me!)

...finished my nyc journal - I am so pleased with how it turned out.

it's not quite as full as the one from paris (shown on the bottom), but for a week, I think I did fine. I also uploaded over 70 photos to costco so I can get them into an album. and I did all the laundry, cleaned up the house, bought yarn for my next project and worked a bit.

so now I'm really anxious for some knitting time - but that will have to wait til later - off now to meet my mom & dad for some shopping and lunch. we've got lots to do to prepare for sara's last bit of celebration tomorrow!

saturday.

...sara and I were up early to visit the union square greenmarket (we'd planned to cook brunch and needed some vegetables, cheese and eggs to make a strata, plus fruit for salad). it didn't disappoint. only wish I'd had more cash so we could've taken home flowers, too!

in the afternoon, we walked to the park and enjoyed the people watching. sara and katie got a decent start on a crossword and I made a little more progress on a sock.

we dressed up a bit for dinner out at a voce - no more photos after we left katie's (just a clutch means no room for a camera), but trust me, it was all good!

we're getting pretty good at the mirror shots (and I kind of like not having my face in the photos!)

p.s. I'm trying to get photos uploaded to flickr every day, but the blog posts are probably going to be few and far between!

three of us.

...love how quickly we settle into being three.

tuesday was spent traveling, shopping for food and wine, watching four(?) episodes of parenthood so we were caught up for the season finale (which was sadly a bit of a disappointment - boo!), and eating in. sara and I made mexican while katie worked.

not sure what's up for today. katie just left for work and sara's still asleep. at least for now, that means knitting time for me!

live well. laugh often. love much.

...I've stamped this message inside nearly all the cards I've made since I acquired that stamp (2003?) and that really is the motto I try to live by. so it seemed especially fitting to grace the cover page of the travel journal I've planned for nyc (beginning tomorrow - or if I take too long to type this post - beginning in just a few hours!)

these are the blank pages I've printed to capture the details of our days, my thoughts, and special memories, decorated with pieces and parts of my favorite five pages of american crafts patterned paper. leveraging the journal I created for paris (wow, over a year ago!) - hoping this will help me document our trip - probably our last to nyc (at least for a while) and our last as a threesome (until italy, 2014, to celebrate sara's college graduation?)

a bit sheepish to admit I hadn't even thought about this trip as one to document...until I shared my three NYC scrapbooks with beth (I owe her a huge thank you!). and I knew I wanted another journal to capture the details. because this is for sure a trip I want to remember. forever.

p.s. yes, this means the knitting I'd hoped to finish before the trip (a pair of "no purl monkey" socks) is still not done. and yes, in the spirit of all this, I am completely ok with that!

google weather doesn't lie.

...right? (or at least no more than any other weather forecast!)

this week is looking fabulous for sara, sharing her spring break with katie. and as much as I love them having their sisterly bonding time, I admit to just a little bit of jealousy. springtime in nyc is lovely. and even more so when it's warm. (and being warmer than home. and drier. priceless!)

rockefeller plaza (day 23).

...katie took me to see her office (she works in the building behind the tree) and I was surprised how few people were out and about - maybe the early hour, maybe the very cold temperature or maybe just the effect of the holidays since it was crazy busy again in the afternoon when we had to get to the airport.

bryant park (day 22).

...we started off in soho for the shopping and then back up to 42nd street to see the skaters at bryant park (and the last photos of the day!). katie had to be back at work, so sara and I went up to kitchen arts and letters. I think this really is sara's favorite store in nyc. she browsed for over an hour while I knitted.

and then, all too soon, our traditional last night in nyc dinner at becco. the food was good as always, but my favorite part was the company. silly stories (funny what they remember!). talk about college and looking forward to life. special times...