In which we go to NYC...

Our first day in NYC we decided to explore the area around our hotel. We stayed at the Wall Street Inn, which was, you guessed it, near Wall Street! Strangely, it wasn’t actually on Wall Street, but was very close. The surrounding area was the Financial District, which was very business-centric. I don’t think a lot of people actually live in the area, but our first day was on Friday, so there were lots of people around.

 

First up we visited Century 21, which is a popular discount designer store. I didn’t really see much there that I liked, and what I did see was too expensive anyways. Is it just me, or is digging through a messy store to buy something for $500 just not really appealing? If I’m going to spend $500 on something, I’d really like to go into a nice store and feel fancy. This store was the opposite of fancy and was kind of disappointing. We didn’t stay long and I didn’t take any photos!

After the store we headed over to the Brooklyn Bridge and walked half-way across and back, here we are:

Around the corner was Ground Zero. We were in total awe of the new tower going up at the site. It was so incredibly tall and it isn’t even completed yet. My brain could hardly process the sheer magnitude of it. Unfortunately we weren’t able to visit the 9/11 memorial, we didn’t know that you needed tickets (albeit free ones) in advance. Oh well. We did go to the church nearby which served as a resting place for many 9/11 rescue workers. They had many interesting things on display, like all of these crests/badges from different cities’ rescue workers. We were able to find one from the RCMP and one from the Ottawa Fire Department. One the way out we lit a candle and left a donation. It felt very emotional.

We ate lunch at a pizza place overlooking Ground Zero. It wasn’t anything special, and wasn’t on the list of best pizza in NY or anything, but it was pretty awesome anyways. The pizza was LOADED with toppings and super delicious. We ate the whole thing. Ooops. I wasn’t even that hungry!

After lunch we went to the Museum of American Finance. It was an activity my husband wanted to do and I begrudgingly went along, but it was actually really fun and interesting! There was a gold plated monopoly game there. It was insane. The die were encrusted with diamonds. Wow. How amazing and frivolous all at the same time!

That night we had reservations at Harry’s Café and Steak. It was our “official” anniversary dinner, and we went all out. The restaurant was really interesting. You ordered your steak, and then you ordered sides separately. The sides were served family style, so we could share. The baked potato was massive, and fully loaded. We ordered some asparagus to go with it, which came in a yummy cream sauce, I think it was a hollandaise but I am not sure. We also had some delicious red wine. To top it all off, we ordered the cheesecake for dessert and shared it. What an awesome meal. I didn’t take any pictures because it just seemed kind of weird to pull out my giant camera in a nice restaurant. Trust me though, it looked and tasted amazing!

 

After dinner we took the Staten Island ferry to get some views of the Statue of Liberty and the skyline at night, all lit up. The ferry is free, and comes pretty close to the statue, but not quite close enough to get a good photo. I really need to think about a telephoto lens for my camera. Below are some of the better shots I got. Shooting at night is pretty tricky, especially for a newbie like me, but I took all of these photos with no flash and on manual, so I am still pretty proud of them. The Statue of Liberty photo is very blurry but it shows how close we got and was the best I could do!

 

That concludes my day 1 recap! Stay tuned for more, on day 2 we explored Chinatown, and the Upper East Side, including a lunch at Serendipity 3 (spoiler – it was delicious!!!).

Trips to the market...

There is a great little farmer's market about 15 minutes from our house. It's only open on Saturdays and we try to go a couple of times a month while it's open May to October. It's dog-friendly, which is awesome because we're always looking for ways to tire out Leroy on the weekends.

Would you please stop taking photos?? I want to see the other doggies!!!

All of the produce sold here is local, and everything else is homemade or handmade. We don't usually buy a lot, but just wandering around and checking everything out is pretty fun. Since everything is local, you can only get what's in season. We bought some asparagus and cooked it on the barbecue for supper, it was delicious and I am mad I didn't take a picture! We also bought some puppy muffins. This vendor makes salt free, milk free, gluten free (maybe taste free?) dog treats. Leroy really likes them, so we try to buy a couple every time we visit. All in all it was a great trip to the market and I am hoping for many, many more this summer!

Our Wedding Part 2 - We get our photos taken...

Our Wedding Part 1

After the ceremony we had some family and wedding party photos done at the church. It's a beautiful church and the grounds are equally as awesome. We didn't request many posed shots, so we just had a few immediate family ones done. One regret I have is not getting one shot with both families... I'm not sure why I didn't think to ask about this!! Oh well. Here we are:

My family

My husband's family

After the family shots, we took a few with our wedding party. My maid (matron? I hate that term so I am sticking with maid!) of honour was my sister, and my two bridesmaids were my new sister-in-law and my best friend. My husband had my brother-in-law (my sister's husband), a high school friend, and a new-ish friend. Everyone was so great!

 Afterwards, my husband and I went with our photographer to have some photos taken of just us. We went downtown to a pretty courtyard. There were lots of cobblestones and pretty buildings to pose in front of.

 I really loved my cathedral length veil. It was easily my favourite part of my entire bridal outfit. It just felt so airy and feminine. I haven't decided what to do with my dress yet, but I am 100% keeping the veil in hopes of a future daughter wanting to wear it for her wedding!!

I don't want to overload you with too many pictures all at one time, so I am just sharing some of our favourites. We saw an elderly couple sitting on a park bench and holding hands and it was so sweet. When they left, our photographer snapped a photo of us sitting on the same bench. I am really looking forward to holding my husband's hand in the many many years to come...

And finally, the -over-done but I still love it anyway- shoe shot. I wore Nine West purple satin flats with multi-colored gemstones on the toe. They are the most gorgeous pair of shoes I own, as well as the most expensive! I had to show them off! My husbands socks are purple too, but you can't really tell in the photo, which is sort of disappointing, but I think it's cute anyway!

Finally, I'll leave you with a few detail shots. Everything turned out just as I imagined. The flowers were amazing, and other than my veil, my hair flower was one of my favourite accessories for that day. I purchased it at the same store as my dress, and I am planning on keeping it for a future daughter as well!

 I think I have about one or two more recap posts before I am done writing about our wedding! I can't believe I never wrote all of this down until now, when we just celebrated a year. I'm happy to document it though. Stay tuned!!!

We're back from NYC!

We had an amazing anniversary trip in NYC. We were there 5 nights and 4 days, which seemed like a good amount of time, I wouldn't recommend going for any less than that, but you could definitely go for more! There were a lot of things we would have liked to see but didn't get the chance to.

I am working on some blog posts about the trip, so hang tight for those! I just wanted to pop in, just in case anyone is actually reading :)

Here's a sneak peak, it's us at the Museum of Natural History!! Excuse the poor quality of the iPhone picture, we forgot the good camera. Stay tuned!!!

Mother's Day Brunch

I made a brunch for my mother-in-law this past Sunday. It’s always tough not being around my own Mom and family for pretty much every holiday, or in this case, “holiday”. My in-laws are great though, so it works out ok.

Anyway, on the menu: whole-wheat waffles, pumpkin spice muffins, western frittata, and sausages.

The waffles were made exactly as in the recipe linked above. I did use 1% milk with a tablespoon of vinegar added to turn it into buttermilk.

The pumpkin spice muffin recipe was altered just a bit. I used a full cup of pumpkin puree, and instead of pumpkin spice I used 1/2 tsp cinnamon, 1/4 tsp cloves, 1/4 tsp ginger. I also didn't have any honey so I just omitted it and they turned out fantastic anyways!

All of the ingredients laid out and ready to go.

Ready to go in the oven!

For the frittata I cut up red and green pepper and white onion. I used about 1/2 of each pepper, and half a medium sized onion. I beat 6 eggs in a large bowl with 1/4 cup of milk. I poured the mixture into a pie plate and added 1 cup of shredded cheddar cheese. I baked at 360 degrees for 40 minutes.

Why yes, I do own a pig shaped cutting board!

Everything was a hit! We had raspberries, strawberries, and fresh whipped cream to top the waffles, and classed it up a bit by drinking our orange juice in champagne flutes.

I set the table with a neutral table cloth, aqua napkins, and some fresh flowers that the husband picked up for me that morning. I think it looked pretty nice, but if I had more time (and money) I would have done something a lot fancier, since it's really fun for me to make everything pretty. All in all we had a lovely brunch! I can't wait for my next opportunity to entertain!

Our Wedding Part 1 – Getting Ready & Ceremony

My wonderful husband and I were married on May 21^st, 2011. It was the first sunny and warm day of the Spring, the weather leading up to it was just plain scary! Anyway, happily we had some amazing weather. As I sit down to write this out a year later, I’m realizing I really should have done this sooner, it’s hard to remember all of the details!

The day started out with a trip to the salon with my bridesmaids, my mom, and my mother-in-law to be. We all had our hair and makeup done, and the salon put on a breakfast for us. I am really glad I got to spend the morning surrounded by all the important women in my life. Sadly, we have no pictures of this!! It’s one of my regrets for sure.

Meanwhile, my husband to be was getting ready with his best man and his father. After the salon, his mom and sister (one of my bridesmaids!) joined them and our photographer’s assistant took some photos.

Back at our house, our photographer, Melissa Johnston, showed up and started snapping some pictures of us all getting ready. I opened the card that my husband left for me, and it was so sweet.

My mom and sister helped me get dressed, and my dad saw me for the first time.

The morning was a whirlwind. I couldn’t believe when it was time to head to the church. My dad took me in his truck!!

At the church, the girls, my dad, and I waited in the back room, and the ceremony began with my brother-in-law seating my mom and my adorable niece, and my husband’s parents were seated as well.

Then it was time. My husband and the other groomsmen came down the aisle with our minister.

The girls all left the back room and we made our way towards the doors of the church. I distinctly remember my dad asking me if I was ready, and joking that I still had time to back out. I think I giggled nervously… and then we walked.

Our ceremony was a traditonal Anglican service. I won’t go into too many details, let’s just see a few pictures, shall we?

And then, just like that, we were married! 

To be continued...

*All photos are credited to Melissa Johnston.

Doggie Shenanigans...

We are not great at taking care of our front lawn. Every year we try, we lay dirt and seed, and it never works. Maybe we don’t water it enough? This year we are at it again, only this time we’ve been watering it every morning for about 30 minutes before we go to work. All the weeds were pulled out from the root, and sprayed with weed killer for good measure. We’re optimistic that this year we will not have the most awful lawn on our street. Fingers crossed.

Anyway, we are also trying to revive our backyard this year, since we now have a fence and want it to look pretty. We’re using one of those firing sprinklers, you know the ones, there’s a dance inspired by them??? This morning we turned it on and Leroy got out. Chaos ensued. Enjoy my friends, enjoy.