Weekending it

Happy Halloween!! Wow, October is the fastest month ever.

 

It's Monday and we're exhausted but the weekend was packed with fun and good times.

 

Remember this summer when we took our little friends E and K on the Staten Island Ferry and to play at the swanky park in Battery Park City (here)? They had wanted to come over to see our apartment in the summer but it was a move-in disaster so we promised we'd have them over once things were settled. It worked out nicely to have them over on Saturday to help celebrate their mom's birthday.

 

 

Before they arrived around lunchtime, Dan blew-up some balloons and I made a birthday cake. This was my first time EVER making the frosting and decorating a cake. It was a frustrating process but turned out pretty good.

 

 

 

We had pizza for lunch and then played for hours!! Now, obviously, we don't have kids of our own yet but we do have quite a bit of stuff that kids enjoy. Video games, board games, stuffed animals, my American girl doll, and even some dress-up items.  Also, Youtube is always entertaining.  

 

 

We had them paint small pumpkins

 

 

Had birthday cake (we lit the candles three times so everyone got a turn blowing out the candles)

 

 

Then the kids designed the carved pumpkin (Dan did most of the carving).

 

 

In the late afternoon I was assembling some mummy hand pies for the costume party we were going to later, so Elizabeth and I got some good girl chat time while Dan entertained E and K with Jenga and the balloons. They were really sad to leave that evening after a full and fun day but we promised to have them over again soon.

 

After our tiny guests left, we scrambled around in a mad dash to get dressed for the Halloween Party at our friends' apartment. I mentioned it a couple of weeks ago - costume contest with a cash prize. So we went all in. Come back tomorrow for a recap of the epic party and costume reveal!!!

Apartment Tour: Living Room

Continuing the apartment tour today with the living room!

I really love this living room because it is truly the heart of the apartment and you can't get to anything else without going through it. At our old apartment the living room was very big (by apartment standards) and felt cold and not cozy. I realize it is really strange to say a room is "too big" in an apartment but it's weird, our old place was really just too big for us. I'll regret saying that if we ever end up having kids in the city. The problem we had was we really didn't have furniture that fit well or had furniture that was simply occupying space that we didn't use. There were times at our old place when we didn't set foot in the living room because it was separated from everything else. The new living room feels like the exact opposite. A cozy place you really want to hangout in.

We have two nice windows, like we did at the old place, but these ones don't get quite as much sunlight (they face north with a not-so-lovely view of the apartments on the other side of the building). There is a radiator cover which I love for having extra display space and we got the white shelf in the center from IKEA. All those little gray boxes are serving massive storage purposes. Printer paper and extra ink, flashlights, extension cords, and other outlet things, games, and keepsakes, etc. Pretty and functional. 

This is the couch we purchased this summer. It is our first actual real piece of quality furniture (non-IKEA) and we love it. It's deep and cozy, fits three comfortably, and four if you're intimate, and it has a pull-out sleeper bed for visitors. We didn't have a color choice so while I generally like the color, it is a tiny big light for my preference. So we purchased the 5-year stain warranty and put a moratorium on eating on the couch.

Dan did a nice job hanging these shelves from IKEA above the couch. I like this concept better than a typical gallery wall because I can rearrange and swap things easier. Also, less wall holes overall.

Close-up of these two little guys because they are so cute! During this apartment tour, you can play "find the hedgehogs" as they are literally everywhere.

Over on the other side of the room is the dining table. We have it pushed against the wall for more floor space but there is plenty of room to pull it out and add two chairs on the other side.

Dan recently hung two more of those white IKEA shelves above the table and I got some things in Kansas to display, plus our cute little pumpkins. That white thing hanging down has photo clips on it. It's meant to hang over a door but it doesn't fit any of our doors so I put it there for the time being. 

We still have our sideboard/buffet where I have all of our nice display dishes and heirloom-y type things. I'm not sure what will happen to this overtime as I recognize it will be a nightmare if kids come along.

For now, I've got that big chalkboard up there which has been really fun for changing with seasonal decor. I attached my season-changing wreath from Hopscotch & Honey to it so it gets highlighted a little more. Obviously, right now we have all our Halloween items out on display.

That's it for the living room! Next week I'll share the bedrooms. 

See the Entryway tour here.

Apartment Tour: Entryway

It's finally here!  Apartment tour time!

I know I've been delaying and stalling and teasing about this forever but I finally just determined that I would never get good photos so, take what you get. Thank you for your patience.

We lived in our old apartment for two years. There were some great things about that place like the size and huge closets. But the rent kept going up, our landlord was not nice, we had bug issues, and it was a major pain to get anything fixed. This new place is only about 5 minutes from our old apartment so we're in the same area, it's a two bedroom, and although it's overall a smaller unit it has a much better layout.

The building has lots of perks like handicap/stroller accessible, elevators, bike storage, laundry room, and an immaculate trash room (this is huge for me). It's the cleanest trash room I have ever seen. The super and porter are super nice and have already fixed things we've requested. The building is a co-op which means most of the units are owned by the tenants. This is a plus because the owners have a huge incentive to keep the building nice. And we benefit from that. We moved way back in June and it took a solid two months to get everything organized enough amid an otherwise very busy time of year. We continue to tweak placement and hang things but it's pretty close to where we want it.

Today I'm sharing the entryway! In a house you would call this a foyer but that term is far too glamorous for Brooklyn apartments.

This is what you see when you walk in the door. A tiny room that looks into the living room and the kitchen is on the left. 

There is an end table where we put incoming mail/junk and a place to hang your keys. The other side has a lamp next to a little storage bench.

Below is the view if you are standing in the living room looking into the entry area. The blue door is the front door. It's a metal door so it's magnetic which is fun!

This is looking into the kitchen from the entry area

And this is looking into the entry from the kitchen.

We have two closets in the entry area. One is serving as a linen closet/broom closet/everything else closet. We lost a lot of storage space in this move so I had to get creative. Those striped totes have extra sheets and towels in them. All my tablecloths are hanging and there is black bin on the floor which is full of "back-stock" supplies like toilet paper, toothpaste, Kleenex, etc. The basket on top of the bin is for things I need regular access to like dusters and wipes.

The other closet is a typical coat closet. We also have empty suitcases in there and black storage totes for winter gear (scarves, hats gloves) and summer gear (beach towels, swim suits, sunscreen).

The entry is about three times smaller than the entry in our old apartment. The entry in our old place was basically another room which we had no idea what to do with and was pretty much wasted space for us. This current entry is a pretty normal size for Brooklyn apartments. There is space to take off your shoes and throw your bags and that's it. But that's all I wanted.

This apartment is overall quite smaller than our old apartment but overall a much more functional layout. For me, smaller means cozier and less to keep tidy. We feel like this apartment "fits" us better and so far we're really loving it.

Weekending it

Thanks for all the love, support, and encouragement on our last post. After this first weekend of life with this new routine, we're feeling a bit more confident and excited for this next chapter.

We had lots of fall fun this weekend. Hung out with many friends. Slept-in both days!! Did some baking and cooking and adventuring.

The highlight of this weekend was going on a fall adventure to Long Island to see The Rise of the Jack-o-Lanterns. The event takes place only at night at the Old Westbury Gardens (basically a really beautiful botanic garden). You walk through the grounds and view hundreds (perhaps thousands?) of carved pumpkins. A co-worker told me about this event and when I looked into it I really wanted to go but was immediately discouraged because it was basically impossible to get to via public transportation. Dan and I do not have a car, nor do we need one right now. But there are a select few things that would be so much easier with a car. This event was one of them. So I pitched the idea to friends with a car but figured it would be too tough with their three month old infant. Surprisingly, they were on board so I got tickets!! We were glad to spend time with friends, see a really neat event, and get lots of baby love at the same time.

We got pizza beforehand in the little town nearby and arrived at the Gardens for our ticketed time (it was very crowded). You guys, it was amazing. I took as many pictures as I could but they don't do justice. There was spooky music playing and very little light aside from the glow of the jack-o-lanterns which made for the best ambiance. And the artistry was amazing. See for yourself:

The ground was filled with basic jack-o-lanterns with colored lights illuminating in the inside. Then on either side of the pathway were pedestals with the massive pumpkins with intricate carvings or designs painted on the pumpkins. Horror movies and beloved kids movie characters (to keep things a little more kid friendly). Then there were sculptural elements with carved pumpkins stacked together to create animals, cars,  superheroes, a Chinese dragon, and dinosaurs. Midway through there was a giant tree strung with jack-o-lantern lights.

There were pumpkins of the candidates...

And last but not least - STAR WARS

Our friends took this picture of the four of us. Credit to Landshaw Photography