End of year and other links

Tree looking over the foggy Hudson river

Hi! 

I hope your holidays have been joyful and warm, and full of love. I've been splitting these past two weeks between NYC and my parents in Pennsylvania, between city and country, between what I know now and what I knew then. December has run away and I can hardly believe I'm looking over the mountaintop at January's cold edge.

I took Latin in high school and college and I always loved how Latin and Roman history are woven into so many facets of our lives today. January was named after the Roman god, Janus, who signified doorways, beginnings, transition, and passage. Knowing this, it's pretty clear why the first month of a new year makes us feel like we are starting a new chapter. My favorite depictions of Janus show him with two faces; one looking backwards towards the past, and one looking forward to the future. I have personal goals, goals for this site, goals for my career, goals for my family, and I just need to take a deep breath and dive into 2014. 

I've only just begun.

interior design

I almost wish Sherry and John of Young House Love would buy a new house every year so I can follow along with their renovations. They've been putting up shelves in the kitchen lately, and I'm loving the wide open brightness they've brought to a previously dark kitchen.

I know the internet is full of post summaries at the moment, but I loved this one on the best bedrooms of 2013 on Apartment Therapy. Looks like serene and calm was the theme of the year.

Living in an apartment, I'm probably always going to have a tiny bathroom. To be honest, I'd rather give the space to a kitchen or bedroom. So if you have the same kind of small space that I have, here are some gorgeous small bathrooms featured on Decorology. Does anyone know if I can drill into marble to put up shelves??

food

Joy shares her favorite childhood thai dish - green chicken curry, it's simple, nourishing, and I bet it smells incredible.

I have rhubarb in my freezer and lemons are always available, so perhaps this flourless rhubarb and lemon cake from My Darling Lemon Thyme will be next on my list.

Just in case you didn't do handmade gifts this year, perhaps a new years gift is in order? How about some handmade syrup from My New Roots. Wouldn't your friends love to drizzle some maple and apricot syrup over their pancakes on a Saturday morning?

And how about a lovely satsuma and pomegranate cake from Tartelette to help you enjoy the abundance of citrus at the moment?

Other fun things

Add a little glitter to your life (and your leather) with this project from Say Yes to Hoboken. 

Slim Paley broke with tradition and celebrated the holidays amongst breathtaking scenery in Patagonia! Sometimes tradition is great, but sometimes you need something else.


Happy new year, everyone!

My (snowy) weekend in images

View from the living room when we woke up on Saturday!

I love when it snows on the weekend: I make sure my fridge is full of food (although really, in our house it's just important to have chocolate, eggs, and bacon), I break out the snow gear, I make a plan for one ambitious city activity - and then let the snow fall. This weekend we decided to make a trip to the museum of natural history - one of my favorite places ever.  Here's what we got up to:

Starting off Saturday morning with a cappuccino in a cozy cafe and some window snow watching is never a bad idea.

...especially with friends

We bundled up and took the bus to the west side

The Rose center was the perfect place to watch the snowstorm ... the light in there is just fantastic.

Of course as soon as we got to the museum, she was hungry - why does that always happen? She was super happy with a grilled cheese sandwich from the cafe on the first floor (it has better choices than the food court) 

Can we talk about this travesty for a second?  Why does this "astronaut bear" have to be a space princess in order to appeal to a girl?  This annoys me more than I can express in words. Why can't we just encourage our girls to be regular astronauts instead of pink frilly space princesses?

Make sure you get to see the butterfly exhibit at the museum. It's steamy, and the butterflies land all over you!

Truly one of my favorite places in the entire city. I never, ever get tired of visiting.

Sunday was a lazy day compared to Saturday's adventure. We stayed in, cleaned the apartment from top to bottom, went through old forgotten clothes and packed bags for donations, ventured outside for short walks, went swimming, and drank lots of hot chocolate. It wasn't as taxing, but equally as fun :) I hope you guys had a brilliant weekend as well.

With seconds to spare

Sorry for the internet silence in this little space. Work and home obligations completely overwhelmed me, and I didn't have a spare second for my little world here.

I hope all of you celebrating Thanksgiving had a lovely day. It was bitterly cold here in the city, so we didn't move far from our apartment, nipping out quickly here and there for supplies. We set the table with Christmas lights for a little extra sparkle, trailed pumpkins up and down the table, and ended up eating dinner by candlelight and twinkle light. 

Even though I wasn't here for two weeks, it didn't mean I wasn't looking at the blogs. Here are some of my favorite recent posts.

food

It could be that i have my eye on beginner kitchen stuff because I have a brother and sister recently in their own apartments, but I loved this starter kitchen gift guide from Big Girls Small Kitchen. I have to say, even though i have a well-established kitchen, I still want some of the items from this list. (Why don't I have a cast iron pan yet??)

Like Aran, I crave a different type of apple pie, and her apple cranberry custard tart would definitely hit the spot.

Winter is for soups, soups so thick and creamy that you barely need bread (although a hunk of buttered warm bread is the best). I'm adding this rice and smothered cabbage soup from Molly at Orangette.

interior design

No one does Christmas like the Scandinavians. No one. Check out how My ScandinavianHome decorated her gorgeous place in a minimalist holiday style ... so pretty.

Ah, the entryway bench. I haven't gotten it right yet, but this roundup from Kirsten at Simply Grove helps me on my way, I hope.

other links

I love this post from Sydney at The Daybook where she surprised her husband with a trip to a cabin in the wilderness of the Blue Ridge Mountains. I'm craving that kind of rustic experience at the moment.

Ok, it's true that in NYC we wear a lot of black. And I'm a book editor, so I feel I'm supposed to be in double black at all times. I don't, actually wear that much black, but this all-black ensemble from Creature Comforts has me scrambling to put together that kind of streamlined look.

It could be because I'm finally reading Dan Brown's Inferno, and now I've got Italy on the brain, but Nicole Franzen is only making me crave it more with the shots from her insane trip.

I'm so glad to be back here. I hope you'll come visit me here again, too. Leaving you with a shot of Central Park from my run this weekend. Just magical, that park. And the run wasn't so bad, either.