Fall Bucket List

I have posted several entries about how much I love fall. I saw the cutest Fall Bucket List on another blog and I had to share it. It makes me feel like a kid to think about doing all the fun things on this list . Some tasks may be a bit challenging since I do live in the city but that's never stopped me before. Today the kids and I made leaf art. On the way home from school we gathered leaves to do crayon rubbings and then we looked at pictures and tried to identify the varieties of leaves we collected, it was a lot of fun. The only thing I would add to this list is chili, beer and football (usually all at the same time.)

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My Birthday

Happy Birthday to ME today! I'm the ripe old age of 28. I have two years left to be in my 20s so I better make them good, so that's exactly what we did this weekend to celebrate. Brian came home from Baltimore (he only has 3 weeks left, yeah) and he had a great weekend planed for us. Saturday we had lunch at a really yummy burrito place and hung out with friends durring the day. Saturday night we went to Morimoto's for dinner in the meatpacking district. I think it was on the top 5 list of the best meals I have ever had. I am so pumped about my present too. Brian gave me tickets to the last show of Taylor Swift's concert in Madison Square Garden in November, I can't wait. Tonight Diana is taking me out to dinner because my husband is gone on my actual birthday so its going to be a fun girls night. I also had a yummy cake from two little people I love in addition to such a wonderful day thanks to all of my friends and family who sent me birthday wishes.

TGF...

Thank Goodness For Crafting. Since Brian has been away I have been filling all my spare time crafting away. I have caught up on 8 months of scrap-booking ( I still have 14 months to go to be to present day), and I finally took out my sewing machine again. I have been working on creating enough outfits and small goods to do a craft show in late October. I plan to have 15 dresses, 40 onesies (mostly boy designs), 12 girls tees, 3 tea cozies, 12 crayon rolls, 4 crayon/art aprons, and 2 tutus completed to sell. I have cut all the patterns for everything listed but now it's time to sew! I hope this is a success because my plan is to get a new embroidery machine with my profits, and I really want this machine. I don't have any pictures yet but once everything is sewn I'll post a few pics. I'll also post more about the details of the show closer to the date. Happy crafting.

Part 5: Goodbye

Goodbyes are always the hardest part but after 9 days my mommy had to go back home. I sure have missed her since she has been gone. We had an awesome and exhausting time together. Thanks Mom for everything and I hope you come back soon (Thanksgiving :)?)

Dinner the last night at a favorite spot

The Boat Basin

Hitting up a street fair the last day

My Mom is all about a good deal,

and you better believe she bargained with them on this delicious popcorn.

Part 4: The Circle Line

Ever since my mom visted last year she has been wanting to go on the Circle Line. The Circle Line is a boat that takes tours around the NY harbor. We chose to the the sunset city lights tour and gave our legs a break from all the walking. It was the perfect night and we had beautiful weather and amazing views of the city.

As the sun was setting you can see a reflection of the sun on the buildings. This is the Empire State Building.

Lady Liberty

I love this picture I can't belive I took this with my small little digital camera.

I wish I would have taken our nice camera.

City Night Lights

The building in the back that is lit up red, white and blue is One World Trade Center. Upon compeion it will the Manhattans tallest skyscraper at 1,776 feet tall. It will have an observation deck on the 100th and 101st floors. There are several green and security features in the design of the building. It is costing $3.3 billion to build making it the most expensive office building in America.

Part 3: Shopping and Dropping

While my mom was here we did exorberant amounts of shooping and walking and by the end of he day we were dropping. We walked so much that I really needed a foot massage everynight. But it was all worth it because we had such a great time. Here are a few highlights.

At Fashion's Night Out with our shoe deals

The Allice in Wonderland sculpture in Central Park

Earlier in the week we had brunch at Allice's Tea Cup

My mom loves these statue performers

The Central Park Castle

TGF...

Thank Goodness For A Good Book. I am not the fastest reader by any means unlike Nikki and Megan who can finish books in one day, but I love a great read. I wanted to take a look back at a post from January and look at the progress I've made and how much I have detoured from my 2011 reading list. (I meant to do this mid year but 3 months later here we go.) If it's highlighted I read it and I'm going to add the additional reads to the bottom. If anyone has any suggestions or great books they have come across I would love to hear from you. I would also love to be in a book club but I don't have that many friends here. If anyone is interested in doing a Skype book club time let me know :)

January: Half Broke Horses by Jeannette Walls (Awesome book but make sure you read the Glass Castle first, Nikki I sent this home with my mom for you)

February: Brave New World by Aldous Huxley

March: The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson

April: Are You There Vodka? It's Me Chelsea by Chelsea Handler (Hilarious everything she writes is so funny and when you are reading it you are shocked she actually published his, It's things you may think but would never say)

May: The Girl Who Played With Fire by Stieg Larsson

June: The Girl Who Kicked The Hornets Nest by Stieg Larsson

July: Little Bee by Chris Cleave (Good book but a little dark and it contains disturbing children subjects)

August: Room by Emma Donoghue

September: Prep by Curtis Sittenfeld

October: Radical by David Platt

November: Kite Runner by Kahled Hosseini

December: Perfection by Julie Metz

Also read:

A Collection of One Night Stands by Chelsea Handler (FUNNY!)

The Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell (Top five reads this year for me but I heard his most recent book Outliers is the best one so that's on my list)

Safe Haven by Nicholas Sparks (Thanks Elizabeth great read)

Posh by Lucy Jackson

Something Borrowed by Emily Giffin (If you want a quick lighthearted read with no substance these two books are great entertainment. I would read this one first)

Something Blue by Emily Giffin

Water For Elephants by Sara Gruen

Sarah's Key by Tatiana De Rosnay (Top five book this year on my list, just finished and it was so good. There are some disturbing things that happen to children but they are all based on true events during the holocaust. Trust me it's worth it.)

1984 by George Orwell

New List:

The Elegance of The Hedgehog by Muriel Barbery (in progress)

Prep by Curtis Sittenfeld

Room by Emma Donoghue

Radical by David Platt

Kite Runner by Kahled Hosseini

Perfection by Julie Metz

Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell

Part 2: Broadway

My mom and I love going to see Broadway shows when she is visiting. We can almost always find such good deals on tickets when we go down to the box office. Plus you save about $10 per ticket just on ticket master fees and taxes alone when you purchase directly from the box office. The first show we saw was Billy Elliot. It was awesome and the 11 year old boy who played Billy was amazing. I couldn't believe an 11 year old could act, sing, dance, and have a British accent that well, not to mention he is on stage 90% of the time. The other show we saw was Memphis. It was really entertaining. The music and dancing was fabulous. If you have a chance to see either of these two shows I would highly recommend them both.

Times Square

At dinner before the show

After leaving the show one night all of these police cars were parked in a line displaying all the names of the 9/11 heros.

Mom's Visit Part 1: The High Line

Wow, my mom and I were really busy when she was here last week. We walked all over the city and I had sore legs and feet every night. I have several posts to detail our time together. The first weekend she was here was the best part because Brian was also able to come home for about 40 hours (not even 2 full days). We spent Saturday visiting a new park in Chelsea called The High Line. It was originally constructed in the 1930s to lift dangerous freight trains off Manhattan's streets. Now they have turned the old tracks into an elevated walking park that will be a mile and a half long once all sections are complete. We enjoyed walking the path and looking at the naturalistic plantings on a beautiful day.

To escape the heat we headed next to the Chelsea Market and sampled a variety of yummy foods and treats. The waterfall in the market was really cool.

This is actually made from cake and icing

We ended our day with a delicious dunch (dinner/lunch) at the Standard and while waiting had refreshing beers in a German beer garden. What a wonderful day.

TGF

Thank Goodness For wonderful hair products and treatments. I have spent a lot of time in my life worrying about my hair to the point where sometimes I think I have an obsession and it never really looks that good. My hair is on the difficult side to manage with all my curls and I am really envious of people that have beautifully straight hair. But recently my life has improved due to the amazing Keratin hair treatment. It is a bit pricey unless you find a Groupon or a first time customer deal, which I always find :) It allows me to blow dry my hair in half the time and not flat iron it and it looks so straight and smooth. If your hair is anything like mine and it bothers you I would highly recommend the Keratin treatment. It will change your life.

I also had to share some of my new favorite hair products...

The Fekkai Marine Summertime Line is awesome if you want beach hair. Brian actually really likes to use this because it isn't hard or wet looking like a gel, paste, or moose but it gives volume and it smells just like the beach. We like the beach waves spray.

Also if you haven't tried dry shampoo it's great. You can go that extra day or two without washing and no need for the hat or ponytail. The two below are my faves.

For Any Color Hair

For Light Hair

TGF...

Thank Goodness For my MOM! No doubt I love my mom and I am so happy that she is coming to NYC today to stay with me for 9 days. I have been looking forward to her trip for a long time for several reasons. One being last year she was only able to make one trip to visit because my parents were building their new house and she couldn't be away from it for even one day. Thank goodness the house is complete and beautiful and now my mom can get back to her vacations. Another reason that I need my mom is because since Brian is away I am lonely and I need some good ole' company. Brian said it's just that I require a lot of attention, I'm not sure if that's a good thing or a bad thing, hmm. Anyways we have lots of fun stuff planned for the week and I'm so excited to spend time with my mom.