Amber's Great Escape to New York City

Thursday, February 5, 2009

Goodbye White...Hello Color!

Here are the before and after pics of my kitchen and dining area. The walls were WHITE!!!!! So first we painted the kitchen blue and the back wall a golden yellow, but it turned out to look like a country kitchen. So then I went back to Home Depot, which luckly is only about four blocks away, and got a nice light brown color. There are still some white walls in the living room, but that will soon all change and I will post more pics of that as well!

And here are pics of my bedroom. It was also totally white, so I painted it a nice beige color. Its very cozy now, Chili and I are quite happy here.

Wednesday, February 4, 2009

More Snow Fun!!

Today Gabe, Mac, and I went to beautiful Prospect Park to walk around and enjoy the snow. We walked along the many paths of the park, built a sad little snow man, made snow angels, and chased Mac around. There weren't a lot of people out, so we basically had the park to ourselves. Check out the pics and videos of our snow day excursion!

2009-02-04 prospect park

Sunday, January 18, 2009

Wrap It Up Already!!!

Ugh...I am totally slacking with the blog I know. So I am going to just try to wrap up the last couple weeks of December real quick!

After my dear sweet sister left, I had one week to myself and then prepared for more visitors. First my girlfriend Laura stopped by in route to Jacksonville from Rome, Italy. She flew in to NY on Wednesday, December 10th. Once she arrived we hung out at my house, then went into the city for drinks. The next day we woke up semi-early and ventured out into the city in the rain. Laura applied to some colleges here for Law school so we went to Columbia and NYU to look at the campuses. The schools were beautiful, we had a nice time walking around and checking everything out. We then headed over to Time Square, took some pictures and then we were off to our next stop, Central Park. We had a lovely time walking through the park in the pouring rain and again snapping more pictures. I believe we were the only people in the park that day. So after our Central Park photo op we headed to FAO Schwarz. Laura and I roamed the toy store like we were little children and even made virtual Barbies of ourselves.

While Laura and I were roaming the city that day, my mother and aunt Linda were on their way to NY from Jacksonville. When they arrived in NY, we had them meet us up at FAO. We hung there for a while and watched the BIG piano show. While we were watching, my aunt notice the famous t.v. chef Emeril who was also watching the piano show with his son. Once we were done at FAO, we headed back to my house so Laura could hope back on the big white bird and headed to her final destination Jacksonville. It was a fun 24 hours and I was glad to see her even if it was for a short amount of time. So once we sent Laura on her way, my mother, aunt and I all went to dinner at a cute little restaurant in Brooklyn called Olea. It was just a short rainy cab ride from my house, the restaurant wasn't crowded so it was a nice cozy calm place to have dinner. We all enjoyed our food, and then went home to sleep. The next day I had to work early, so my mother and aunt road the double decker bus tour and roamed the city. When I got off work I met them up and we went to Rosa Mexicano uptown. After dinner we went to see the Radio City Christmas Spectacular starting the Rockets. The show was really good and really got me in the Christmas spirit. Saturday we woke up and had brunch at the Coffee Shop diner in Union Square. After brunch we did a little shopping in Century 21 and then it was time for me to head back to work. While I was at work moms and Linda went to see the Broadway show Boeing Boeing. Sunday was their last day, so I took them to one of my favorite breakfast spots, Tiny Cup cafe. We had a nice breakfast full of laughter and tears, then it was time to send them off once again.

2008-12-16 mom and first real snow

For the rest of the month I focused on work and decorating the apartment. I had a nice Christmas Eve with Gabe and worked all day Christmas. So thats the end of the year wrap up!

Thursday, December 25, 2008

Thanksgiving Weekend Recap!

Its the beginning of the new year and its been a while since I have really updated the blog. Things have been crazy as always here with work, having visitors, and the holidays. In the next week or so I am going to try to get up to date with the last events of 2008.

Thanksgiving day I woke up early and went to the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade with Gabe. We watched most of the parade and had a really good time. It was fun to see all of the giant floats in person, especially after watching the parade on t.v. for as long as I can remember.

Later that evening my sister Amy came up to spend the weekend with me. I had to work most of the time she was here, but when I was off we really made the best of it. We shopped and ate ALOT! The first night she came in I had to work, so she went uptown and checked out the Christmas decorations near Rockefeller. The next day was Black Friday, so we went shopping in the city and ended up finding some great deals. You will see in our pictures that we ate at several little pastry and sandwich shops around SOHO. Later that day I took Amy to my favorite happy hour spot, Verlaine, for some Lychee Martinis. The Lychees were delicious as always and the bartender kept them flowing and he even threw in a complementary Tequila shot. Next thing you know we are quite tipsy and shoe shopping in Macy's. After our long and crazy day, we decided to stay in Brooklyn and have a Thai dinner at SEA. The dinner was really good and the restaurant was very cute. After dinner we went to Public Assembly and Bembe for some drinks and dancing. The next day we went into the city and had a yummy Mexican Brunch at Mercadito and then went out for more shopping. That evening I had to work again, so Amy met up with her good friend Jen. When I got out of work we all met up and went to a couple little bars on the Lower East Side. Her last day here we met Jen and a group of friends at the Good restaurant...it was good! Afterwards, Amy, Jen and I went and did a little more shopping before I had to go to work again. The next day Amy hopped on the big white bird back to Jacksonville.

As always it was great to see a familiar face here in NY. Amy and I had a really fun visit and Im looking forward to her next trip up here!

Sunday, December 21, 2008

Walking in a Winter Wonderland....

In the past month there have been a couple of light snows here and there. It would snow for a couple of hours and melt before I could even enjoy it. Friday, December 19th I came to work wearing heels and had no idea there was even a chance of snow. Around 10:00 a.m. the snow started coming down really fast. Before long the awnings and the streets were covered and workers were shoveling snow. It was a beautiful sight to see. Luckly I had a another pair of shoes in my locker and didn't have to wear my heels home :) Three days later it has been snowing on and off and there is still snow on the ground. It is really starting to feel like Christmas here in New York, I love it!