nyc

on to our friday in new york...

well, we began by having breakfast in the most beautiful park (and probably my most favourite place we visited), bryant park. we were so lucky that it was only a 2 minute walk from our hotel. i'll have to do a post just about this place. we took so many photos.
there are little kiosks in the park where you can buy food. i had the most delicious oatmeal with cinnamon butter, almonds, and dried fruit.

after breakky, we set off to explore the city with only one plan: to visit the m.o.m.a.

on the way there we saw.....

wonderful photography exhibits by atta kim and weegee

street vendors



rockerfeller centre


the nbc building (what a gem...amazing art deco interior!)



water fountains that looked like dandilions


the famous "love" sculpture


and some pretty cool window displays


we arrived at the m.o.m.a. and realized there was more than we could possibly see in a couple of hours. to ensure everyone saw what they wanted, michele and deutsch went their way and paul and i went ours. we saw some incredible art!





after a little rest in central park, we headed out to brooklyn to eat dinner at foodswings. the legend of faux buffalo wings was all the incentive we needed. and let me tell you, they did not disappoint!!

just looking at that picture, i can almost taste them again.

after dinner we walked around williamsburg. michele and i were lured into the mini minimarket where we found great jewellery, clothing, cards, and bric a brac by indie businesses. so sad that we got there just as they were closing and only had a few quick minutes to browse around. (probably good news for my wallet....) while we were in the shop, paul and deutsch found a bar a few doors down and stopped in for a beer. michele and i met up with them afterwards and we all ended up staying there well into the a.m. i think this photo pretty much says it all, folks. hee hee


needless to say, we didn't get to bed until 3am and got a bit of a late start the next day.

***
stay tuned!

new york, new york!

at long last, here are some pictures from our amazing trip to new york. i can't even begin to tell you how much fun we had! it's like we squeezed in a week's worth of fun into 4 days. and we stayed true to our mission of eating our way through the city, one veggie restaurant at a time. hot damn!!

here i am at the beginning of our trip, trying to look happy about the fact that i'm about to get on an airplane. little did i know at the time that i'd soon be in the smallest airplane imaginable sitting on the runway for 2 hours because laguardia wasn't letting planes land due to bad weather.


here's paul on our first night in the city. i think this is the coolest shot of him in times square. we passed through on our way to dinner at a veggie restaurant called zen palate. (the shepherd's pie croquettes were out of this world!!)


thursday's adventures started with a trip to curly's vegetarian lunch for our first meal of the day. mmmm...faux crab cakes. so delish! (that's my cousin michele and her husband deutsch, who we vacationed with in the city.)


after lunch we walked around and ended up at washington square park to see the doggies in the off-leash areas. we especially liked these guys in the "small dog area". eep, how cute!


then on we walked through soho (went into my first anthropologie store ever but couldn't afford any of it...bah!) and then on to little italy. i can't even tell you how wonderful it was to just walk and take in the city. i especially loved the beautiful architecture. i was overwhelmed by how old and lovely all of the buildings are! seriously...every building is old and gorgeous! i totally expected it to look like toronto but it's actually very different.




we walked over to the bowery and then to mooshoes...the mecca of sensible vegetarian shoes. ahhhhhh!


even the kittycats like to hang out there (there must have been about 7 or 8 hanging out inside the store). here's one snoozing on the shelf.


by this time we were all pretty much beat from all the walking (and walking, and walking....) and the stifling heat & humidity. luckily for us, teany was right around the corner from mooshoes so we stopped in to rest our feet and cool off with some iced tea and a cupcake (this one was coconut!)


no sooner did we walk in and paul spotted sofia coppola having cake with a friend. paul and i were a bit star-struck but michele and deutsch were totally cool...they live in l.a. and see celebs all the time. we weren't big goofs or anything but we did pretend to take a picture of michele and deutsch so that we could sneak a photo of sofia without bothering her. aren't we sneaky?!


after our little rest we were up again and on our way to chinatown to meet michelle, aaron, megan and her husband for dinner at vegetarian dim sum house. it was so nice to finally meet megan and to see michelle and aaron again. we had so much fun just sitting around and talking and laughing. (and eating and eating....) michelle and aaron are regulars there so they helped us pick out a bunch of great dim sum dishes to share including one with a mysterious name like "treasure balls with assorted flavour" or something equally cryptic. they were really yummy though...everything was! i could have happily eaten there every single night of our vacation but there were too many other restaurants we wanted to try.


after dinner michele, deutsch, paul, and i took the subway back to the hotel and rested a bit. we caught a bit of a second wind so we ventured out to find a pub for a couple of drinks before calling it a day.

*****
more pictures & stories to follow. there's too much to include in one blog entry!

how my summer vacation began

oh my gosh, i've only been on summer vacation for a few weeks but it's already started out amazing!! at the beginning of july, michelle and aaron came to toronto for a few days. now maybe some people would be hesitant to invite people they knew solely from internetland to stay over at their home but not me...i could tell they were going to be fabulous people. (and i was right!) so stay at our home they did!

their first day was spent in kensington market eating a table full of yummy food from one of my favourite veggie restaurants, king's cafe. more blog-worlds collided as we met up with michelle and her boy david, and tania.


after lunch we wandered around kensington, chinatown, and queen west. i love this picture of the michelles:


the boys were super patient as we stopped to look in windows, browse in stores and take pictures.


on tuesday we did a bit of thrifting at the local goodwill (and michelle scored two amazing dresses!) then explored little india. before heading home we got takeout thali from a vegetarian restaurant which we ate while sitting on the backyard deck. it was absolutely delicious.


later that night we met up with michelle, carla, vania and joel for drinks at the drake. here's a blurry picture of the fun.


wednesday was spent hanging out, taking noah to cherry beach, shopping for a mysterious spice in little india, and hanging out on the deck with michelle.






michelle and aaron had to head back home on thursday :( but they caught a later bus so that we could still get out and enjoy the city before they left. we started at a used bookstore in the annex where we all found some treasures (and michelle and aaron bought me a richard scarry book that i had as a wee one. it makes me so happy to look at and read all over again.). then we headed over to the fancy new juice for life digs at bloor and spadina for lunch.
i love this picture of michelle and aaron at the restaurant.


after lunch it was time to head to the bus station. we really wanted to check out the distillery before they had to go but traffic was bad and we ran out of time. click here for a picture of how we felt when we had to say goodbye.

it was the most amazing 4 days with michelle and aaron here but it went way too fast! there are so many things i wish we had had time to do. i miss them both a whole lot but hopefully they'll come back and visit all of their canadian friends again soon... (you will, right??)

taking a bite out of the big apple!

hey everyone! sorry things have been so quiet around here lately. life has been crazy busy here the last couple of weeks with school ending for the summer, michelle and aaron coming to visit, and doing fun stuff around the city like checking out the toronto outdoor art exhibition. so i actually have lots of news and pictures to share....

....but it's going to have to wait just a little longer. tomorrow afternoon paul and i fly to new york city for 4 days! i'm soooo excited! i've never been to new york before. expect lots of pictures and stories when i get back.

hope everyone's enjoying their summer so far. it's been quiet out there in blogland lately, so i can only assume you are!

see you next week!

xo krissy

ps. vania, if you're reading this....have a wonderful day on saturday! i'll be thinking about you and joel and sending you lots of great celebration vibes!!!

'sup?

did you think i had been buried under the stack of marking and report cards? not to worry...after i finally finished i felt kinda burned out. sorry for being so quiet over the last couple weeks.

*****

on saturday we celebrated my nephew aaron's first birthday!

here he is enjoying the bubbles his uncle steven blew for him.


we had such a great day...it was warm and sunny. everyone just sat outside in the lush backyard and chatted the day away. so relaxing.

my brother-in-law, brian (aaron's dad) is a rabid collector. he has a way of finding the most amazing gems in thrift stores, yard sales, you name it. one of his latest lovely finds was a "lot" of 5 vintage eyeglass frames for $7 at a neighbourhood yard sale. he knew his growing collection would make me salivate so he brought them out to show me.


then the ladies got a little goofy trying them all on and posing for the camera:
me


lana (my step-sister)


mary (brian's mom)


when we got home from the party we found this little guy on the roof outside our window:


so cute. but so bad!

absence makes the heart grow fonder?

...(hopefully)

i have to take about a week off from blogland as i'm up to my ears in report card madness. i'm feeling way behind...even more so than usual! so to ease my panic a bit, i have to duck out of the blog world until these awful things are out of my hair. that means i probably won't be around to check out what's happening with you for a bit either. i'm so sorry. i'll catch up with you soon!

have a good week, everyone!

xo krissy

ps. while i'm gone, have some fun over here. i quite like this one even though i'm terrible at it.

(part 3)

the busy weekend that i've been telling you all about ended with a fantastic sunny sunday afternoon. i visited a few local buildings as part of doors open toronto, an annual event in which hundreds of local buildings open up their doors and let people tour them for free. it's one of my favourite toronto festivals. since i got a bit of a late start, i only had time to visit a few.

first stop: the fancy-shmancy new bmw building (click link for a better picture of it). since it's located in my neck of the woods and i've always wondered what it was like inside i figured it was a good opportunity to check it out. (especially since if i ever tried to walk inside any other time of the year, i'd likely be treated like julia roberts in "pretty woman" pre-makeover.)

i'm not really into the cars and since this is mainly a fancy showroom, i didn't take many pictures. but it was a lovely building with glass everywhere. including a completely glass elevator that made my stomach lurch when i took it up to the 5th floor.



cute vintage "beemer"


then a few blocks west to the national school of ballet. and a big lineup to get in! (but it was so worth it)




my bad ballet form...but look at the cool reclaimed wood flooring


and then a quick walk north to tour 2 historic mansions (now both inns):



cute coach-house behind the mansions:


just one short year until next doors open! :)

ps: (sorry for the picture-heavy post!)

last weekend (part 2)

so despite going to bed at 3:00am on friday, i woke at 6:00am on saturday morning when the alarm clock went off. i had set it the night before so i could get up in time to hit the massive number of yard sales being held in "the beaches" (local neighbourhood near the lake). there were something like 300+ sales being held with all of the proceeds going to fight breast cancer. so after 3 short hours of sleep, paul and i dragged our sorry asses out of bed and off we went.

i was surprised to find that people were still setting up the sales at 7:30. back in my hometown if you waited until 8:00 to go to a yard sale, well...things were pretty much picked over. here, paul and i actually had to kill time before the shopping could begin.

it was all worth it though. we found some great stuff!

this massive hardwood mirror that weighs a tonne!


this cute pyrex (or fireking?) bowl

and two matching chairs for our deck. we think they may be teak. they are also incredibly heavy!


along with that, we also got some magazines (incl. 2 martha stewart's) and i got 2 cute skirts.

satisfied with our purchases, we headed home to bed to catch up on some much needed zzzzz's.

*******

much later that afternoon, i went back to "the beaches" neighbourhood to check out crafternoon tea. i was sad that i missed the winter one so i made sure i went this time.

not only were there lots of amazing local crafters selling their goodies, there were also free workshops being held each hour. i was sad that i missed the bookbinding workshop but i did make it in time for the tutorial on how to sew a tote bag. that was fun to watch and i got instructions to take home and try it out (now if i could only figure out how to wind the bobbin on my machine...)

i didn't want to spend any money but one thing was way too tempting. a woman was there selling her handspun and hand-dyed wool. i swear it all looked like candy! i broke down and bought this:


*****

i did some fun stuff on sunday too! i probably won't have time to post about it tomorrow but will definitely get around to it this weekend. stay tuned...