Sweet Disposition

Due to working this Sunday I had today off. Conveniently, Nina's mom (Jill) and Jill's friend Eileen happened to be coming into town today from Atlanta for a trade show where they will be promoting a children's book Eileen wrote and Jill illustrated. We spent the morning brunching next door at Colador and walking around the neighborhood/Pratt's campus (Jill and Nina both went there). It was an unexpectedly lovely and hilarious morning, which will unfortunately be followed by a night of laundry:

A little blurry Jill, Nina and me at Colador

The straight out of a horror movie neighborhood nunnery, where nuns have never actually been spotted

Tree-huggers on Pratt's campus

Outside Pratt's library, which I'm now obsessed with. See further pictures for reasons why

Inside of library. Tiffany glass floors and gorgeous bookshelves. Apparently no one actually studies there...students just go to draw it.

Glass floor

Bookshelves

Glass stairs

More campus art, plus Nina and me

and a confused photographer 

"All the wine is all for me"

Thursday night art gallery openings in Chelsea make me feel like Edie Sedgwick:

Floating orb garden

Plant in bag

Minus the boys

"She's a Southern girl without a drawl, she's a good girl who wears black bras"

When I was first planning on moving to New York and was considering job options I nixed out the idea of nannying pretty quickly. I had been babysitting/nannying/camp counseling since the 8th grade and although I enjoyed it, I was ready for something new. Now that I've been away from it for a while though I've decided that I miss it (and the significantly better pay), so I've recently started babysitting a bit on the side again. This morning I watched the happiest little 2 month old girl named Penelope in the Upper West Side. Given Penelope's age, our list of activities was limited and naps and feedings were in excess, so I got to enjoy sitting down and mindlessly watching cable for the first time in months. Naturally, I chose Kathy Lee and Hoda. I've had Christina Perri's recent hit "Jar of Hearts" stuck in my head non-stop this week, maybe because it plays at the store or maybe because somehow in-between 21 and 22 I might have discovered that emotionally raw female singer/songwriters hold an unusual soft spot with me. Interpret my newfound taste how you will, but I like to view my feelings as meaning I have varied and non-judgemental taste in music. I also have recently acquired a taste for alt-country. Once again, varied and non-judgemental. ANYWAY, Christina Perri preformed on the show this morning and it made me like her even more:

Not the Today show performance, but you get the idea. 

Also. my current favorite alt-country song, "Blue Eyes" by Middle Brother. I may or may not like to pretend it's written about me:

Sidenote: the guy popping up in the middle literally made me laugh out loud.

And while I'm at it, "Marathon" by Tennis is going to be my song for the summer...I can feel it:

"You know all those words we wrote are just the rules of the game and the rules are the first to go"

This weekend:


Planned to have a night in watching Coco Before Chanel while falling asleep Friday, only to discover that it's subtitled (obviously I should have seen that coming and I normally wouldn't mind at all, but they kind of defeat the purpose of sleepy movie watching) and that my neighbors were having a party that seemed to involve a megaphone.


Discovered that fried cheese with chipotle sauce is the best snack in the world thanks to the grocery store across the street uncharacteristically giving away samples and a hungry boyfriend. 


Bought these ridiculously comfortable flats to replace my smelly got caught in the rain go-to ones and a skirt that I can't wait to wear with a grey sweater and said flats, a la What Would a Nerd Wear.


Oh and one of my very best friends and fellow former English major, Heather, just started a blog about her adventures in grad school at Florida State. I have a feeling my nephew Huckleberry will be making quite a few cameos too.

Get dressed, jump out of bed. You do it best

I've been so so horrible at this for the past month, but I PROMISE that I will try my very best to be better. Lately I've just been so caught up with everything (i.e. SPRING IS FINALLY HERE!) that I haven't been taking many pictures. So many fun events are coming up in the next few months though and it's time to get back into the swing of things. Here are a few highlights of what's been going on:

$4 champagne in a stolen Delirium glass 

Birthday banana bread for Nina

Penelope. Aly's second roommate

Obama chaos outside the French consulate

Aladdin sing-along party at The Bell House

Aladdin sing-along costumes: Purple Peacock #53 and Jafar in snake form

And I made these cookies from one of my favorite food blogs for Sue Sue's birthday. They sort of kind of tasted like lemon Girl Scout cookies, but softer. Or a lemon bar in cookie form. Either way very lemony and not the best thing I've ever made, but still pretty good:

 Cool Whip Cookies:

1 (8 ounce) container frozen whipped topping, thawed

2 eggs

1 (18.25 ounce) lemon cake mix

1/3 cup confectioners' sugar for decoration

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Lightly grease baking sheets.

2. Beat together the whipped topping and eggs. Add the lemon cake mix and continue to mix. Dough will be sticky. Refrigerate for 30 minutes.

3. Drop by teaspoonfuls into a bowl of confectioners' sugar and roll to coat. Place cookies on the prepared baking sheets. Bake for 11 minutes. Cool on racks.

And last, but not least I've been reading Random Family by Adrian Nicole LeBlanc, recommended by my BFF Nick Hornby. I 100% also recommend it.