Vacation Day 1: Blogger Meetup!

Heading out the door, but writing a few quick e-mails before shutting my phone off for a week and having limited internet access -- yikes!  But I had to do a quick post about the awesome blogger meet-up yesterday in McCarren Park.  I felt met Helen from Helen Hearts, yay!  First though, I did some morning baking. 

Popovers really DO pop up!  Had them with some of my strawberry jam.

And made some jam-filled cookies from a recipe by Mrs. Fields for the picnic.

Helen and I also made some new friends!  The Delightful Dozen hosted and I'm so happy I met Yanil from thenewyorkerstyle (check out her handmade jewelry!), the totally stylishly fabulous Monroe from Fashion Steele NYC (love her twirling in her latest post) and the totally fun Nicole from Black Shoes Diary (she had the most adorable shoes on that she got for FREE!  And thanks to whoever made the spectacular spiked punch...

The girls took me vintage shopping at beacon's closet, which I have NEVER done before and I can't believe how fun it was!  

Got some dresses from Calvin Klein, J. Crew and Kimchi Blue for such great prices.  Uh oh, I may have found a new obsession...too bad this cute, pink wall sconce in the dressing room wasn't for sale.

Also loved these colorful chairs lining Bedford Avenue.  Helen said they're all over Paris too, so can't wait to see them in person very soon.

We also passed the biggest Scrabble game.  Too bad I am so so bad at Scrabble.

Well, my posts never end up short or quick, but there you go.  And to my new friend who I sent a link to today, hope you visit soon!

Change of Scene

It's been a wallop of a spring!  Busy all around, lots of changes, yadda yadda yadda...so it's time to get out of here for a while, see some new things and make some new memories.

I heard about this NYC & Philly blogger meetup organized by Delightful Dozen from the always fabulous Helen Zuo of Helen Hearts.  We've been bloggy pals for a while so I'm SO excited to meet her in person and trek over to Brooklyn together.  Fingers crossed for a dry day with rapid transportation...a LOT of fingers crossed...

Then on Father's Day I'm hitting the high seas for a cruise...

to Bermuda!  It'll be my 2nd time there and is well-deserved vaca time for my sister who just took her 8-hour medical boards exam: so proud of her and can't wait to chill together.

Then even tho I'll be back at work for a few days, I'll start out next month with a plane ride to...

Paris!  It'll be my first time to Europe so I've been trying to brush up on my French but it's been a looong time since high school.  I'm absolutely in love with the colorful Parisian art print collections from little brown pen and can't wait to go find some beautiful things to see and taste.  

Hope you're all traveling somewhere fun this summer, or having a lovely staycation as Time Out New York recommends this week.  Either way, relax, enjoy and take yourself on a little date like Helen did in her sweet encouragement post.  We could all use more time for quiet self reflection.  And yea, that's another shoutout for ya, Helen, see u tomorrow!

Credits:

[kitten in car pic from 123RF Stock Photos]

[Hello Kitty suitcase pic from Amazon]

[pic of rare Barbie Cruise Boat from AmericanListed.com]

[pink beach pic from arirang (Korea International Broadcasting Foundation)]

[Pretty in Pink plane pic from Kidsonroll.com]

[PARIS IN PINK photo collage by little brown pen]

Jammin'

OMG, I made jam! after I went strawberry picking last weekend.

Cutting them up probably took longer than anything else.

And since I closed a sweet deal at work this week I bought myself a present I've been craving for a long time: a cassis Le Creuset 3.5 quart French oven.

It helped that Broadway Panhandler was having a great sale: I even got a free bakeware set with purchase!

Next: supplies!  A lid lifter and jar lifter while I was at Broadway Panhandler, Ball jars and a funnel at Walmart (they have a whole canning section!) and Canning for a New Generation by Liana Krissoff.

I really like this book: beautiful pictures, tasty-looking recipes and a soothing (and encouraging!) writing style.  So, away we go...boiling the jars...

starting to cook down the berries, adding sugar and watching it all meld together.

And finally filling the jars and processing them for a few minutes in the boiling water to create a seal.

It wasn't as hard as I thought it was going to be and way more fun. Maybe I shouldn't of started at 10 p.m., but I still had a good time (even tho I didn't go to sleep until 2:30 a.m. on a Monday).

Sheep & Strawberries

When my parents sent me pics of their trip to Valley Shepherd Creamery I liked them so much that they offered to take me too.  So I went to see the farm with 600 - 700 ewes who are bred with only 30 - 40 rams.  Interesting...they also have alpacas, goats, a horse and....

baby lambs!

In their Sheep Shop they sell many, many things made from sheep's milk and wool

including of course their cheeses.

I also bought some glow-in-the-dark sparkly sheep along with yogurt, gelato and butter.

Next it was on to Alstede Farms for pick-your-own strawberries.

We picked about 12.7 pounds from the fields, so next post will be about my adventure canning my first batch of strawberry jam!