NYC: Food, Fabric, and Fabulous!

I'm back from NYC!  We had a great little mini-break without the kids and got to see one of my hubby's frat brothers get hitched.  I hope you guys are ready for a picture bonanza!  I'm going to try and just write brief captions under everything so you get the general idea.

This was our hotel, the Library Hotel.  Each room is themed using the Dewey Decimal system.  I don't mean the decor, I mean the books in the room are all themed.  We had the paranormal room so all our books were about psychics, ghosts, etc.

14th floor roof top garden/bar of the hotel

Every morning they have free breakfast and every evening they have free DRINKS here.  

After checking in, we walked from our hotel in Midtown down to Soho.  A cupcake cart!  How cute is that?!?!?  This is totally off topic, but I felt like it was Invasion of the Body Snatchers when I was there!  All these girls dress alike:  tight black pants/jeans tucked into boots, cotton top, cropped jacket.  I swear, just on our walk from Midtown to Soho I saw no less than 100 girls wearing this exact same thing!  Totally freaked me out!  It's not that they didn't look good, but when they all dress alike it's really weird.  

Farmer's market in Union Square.  By the way, the weather was sunny and in the high 70s low eighties the entire trip.  It was perfect!

Purl Soho baby!!!!  Yes, we went there the first day.  Hubby was a little tired of hearing me bemoan the fact I couldn't go to the Sewing Summit (seriously, I pouted all weekend!), so he made sure we got my one fabric to-do out of the way early so I'd be a bit happier.

They are all about the presentation here, but the prices are sky high.

I don't use yarn, but it sure looked pretty!  Don't worry, I did buy some things, but that pic is at the end of the post.

Saw this store on the cab ride back to our hotel, but hubby wouldn't let me get out to browse!  How rude!

A friend of hubby's took us to the Korean BBQ place in Korea town (not where Korean's live, but where all the Korean restaurants are.)  As a side note, there are all these guys waiting outside fancy black cars on this street--apparently they take you to a Korean prostitute house if you're so inclined.  Um, no thanks.

After dinner we went to Momofuku.  It was ok.  I wished I got the compost cookie instead of the creamsicle cup.  Hubby got the crack pie, it was tasty!

The next morning we walked around the corner to Grand Central Station to take the subway uptown.

Hall of Grand Central.

Ceiling of Grand Central.

On our walk from the Subway to the Met, we stopped at Dean and Deluca for a snack.  They really know how to make a presentation!

Uhhh, I'll take them all!

Jars of candy goodness!

Mmmmmm, carbs!

We passed this church that had ribbons and prayers for deployed soldiers.  These covered the entire gate around the church!  It was really touching.

We sat on the steps of the met and drank lemonade and people watched for a while.

Us!

Really?  I mean, really?  I love art and all, but are you freaking kidding me?  Art my round rear end!  It's a blue canvas for cripes sake!  I guess everyone who paints their living room is an artist now.  Call the Met, they'll transport your wall and put in on display!

Love the colors here!

Again, really?  art?  I love it, don't get me wrong, but I made this kind of thing when I was 12.

This will be a quilt one day!  This was the most inspiring piece I saw.  I wanted my fabric and my sewing machine right then and there!

You can't call it an art museum unless there's a Monet!

Taxi cab pic.

Little quilt, big city!  Another couple attending the wedding are friends of ours who are expecting their first kiddo in December.  They don't know the sex, but they are extremely outdoorsy so I thought they'd like the Circa 60 regardless.  This was a really simple and quick quilt.

I botched the photo here, but the label on the back reads:

be honest.

be fearless.

be yourself.

I tried to think of the most concise way to express my general philosophy on life and that's what I came up with.

Nighttime again and we went to Brooklyn to try out a restaurant I saw on the Food Network.

The place is called Rye and it was on The Best Thing I Ever Ate.  They claimed the meatloaf sandwich was killer--and they didn't lie!  I'm not even a meatloaf fan, but this was the most kick ass sandwich ever!   It had beef, pork, duck, and other random things in it, along with onion jam, BBQ sauce, and fried onions.  FABULOUS!  Also, we ordered two appetizers.  The boys (hubby and two of his friends went with us) wanted fish, which I don't eat, so they let me pick the second appetizer.  I choose the brussels sprouts and they all groaned, but agreed.  Guess who got an apology from them later?  Yeah, that's right, those sprouts rocked!  Bacon, butter, parmesan cheese, hello?!?!? They were gone in a flash!

The boys!  Steve is on the left, Brent in the middle, and on the right is hubby.  After dinner we met up with a lot of the other wedding guests and the soon-to-be married couple at a pub and hung out for a while.

The next day we went to Chelsea Market and ate at The Green Table.  Everything was super fresh and organic.  Chad had the Beef Bourgeon pot pie--very delicious! 

I had a harvest salad with candied pecans, cheese, and apples along with a side portion of mac and cheese.  Yummy!

Kaelin, this pic is for you!  FatWitch baby!  These are the most scrumptious brownies you will ever eat!  They even had free samples!

Brownie heaven!

More yummy finds at Chelsea Market!

From Chelsea, we walked to the Donut Plant.  This was their wall decor.

The menu of awesomeness!  I had a creme brulee donut and a tres leche one.  The top of the creme brulee donut was crunchy--like the  top of creme brulee!

This is in front of Marimekko.  This old guy was sitting on a bean bag chair playing with his iPad.  Struck me as funny!  

Sadly, this was the only picture I took inside of Marimekko!  I was simply too overwhelmed to think!  Such beautiful fabrics!  I even ran into someone who was in town for the AMH and HR workshop!  cool huh?  I came up to her because she was carrying an AMH scarf and I had my AMH bag.  Yay for fabric junkies!  I did buy a little fabric in here, but that pic is at the end!

Angela, this pic is just for you!

I ditched hubby so he could go play with his friends an I had a nice (long) walk back from Chelsea to the hotel.  It was such a nice day out that I didn't mind the walk, especially after my pedicure!

All dressed up for the wedding!

*Sigh*  A halfway decent picture of me and hubby has to close his eyes!

We got stuck in traffic trying to get on the Brooklyn Bridge.

I was supremely bored!

The bridge.

Finally we cross the bridge.

Made it to the wedding on time!  It was in a converted warehouse. 

Drinks were served before the ceremony!  My kind of wedding!

The couple has a garden and used all their own flowers for the table settings!

The bride.

The food was very tasty!  Local BBQ, mac and cheese, salad, etc.  They also had some really wonderful cupcakes for dessert, but I forgot to take a pic of those.

Hubby and I toward the end of the night.

My NYC loot!  Three 1/2 yard cuts from Purl Soho and some twill tape that looks like measuring tape; an organic cotton, hand printed shirt I got at a shop in Chelsea Market, and 1/2 yard of Marimekko fabric (my big splurge!)  Whew!  Thank you if you made it this far!  We had a great time in NYC, but I must admit I thought a lot about my friends at the Sewing Summit and wished I could split myself in two so I could be there with them!