New Year, New Me!

Happy New Year everyone! Hope you all have an amazing, fun-filled, safe night! We're heading on over to the LES for dinner and then out to a club where we'll ring in the new year with our friends. Should be fun despite the snowy weather.

I'm really looking forward to a fresh new start. 2009 was probably one of the best and worst years of my life. I won't get into all the details but the major highlight was getting married and major low was the death of my best friend. All in all, I think I've learned a lot this year and I'm hoping to continue to learn & grow in 2010.

I decided I didn't want to make resolutions this year since they're meant to be broken. Instead I've decided on a few goals I'd like to accomplish. I don't know why but the word goals make them sound more positive and attainable.

Here's the quick list that I'll try to expand more on in the next few days.

• Be healthy (I know it's not very original but it's a necessity)
  
• Stop the clutter
• Learn to take great pix
• Be a better friend
• Entertain more
• Learn to say NO more often
• Have disconnect days

So what about you guys? Do you make resolutions/set goals? I'd love to hear them if you do.

Oh and with the start of a new year, I'm thinking of making some slight modifications here on over at The Alternative Bride. Nothing too drastic. This will continue to be a place where I post things that intrigue and inspire me. But I am thinking of changing my name from The Alternative Bride to The Alternative Wife now that I'm married. And as you've probably noticed over the past few months, it's becoming less of a wedding blog and more of an all around things that make me happy blog. I'm not moving away from weddings all together. I still love them and will continue to post wedding inspiration, but just not quite as often in the past. I hope that you all continue to follow me and that the things that make me happy, make you guys too :)

Image: found here

Pure Perfection!

I just came across these over at dress, design & decor. I nearly had a heart attack because they are just too amazing. My close friend is getting married in Feb. and these would be absolutely perfect for her!

I made an inspiration board for her way back when but I never showed you guys the final product. Here's where we ended up....

So what do you think? Absolute perfection, right?!?!

Good news is she actually already has a to-die-for!!!! pair of shoes that are amazing. I can't share them with you just yet though because I'm sure she'd kill me for spoiling her big secret. I'll leave you these to swoon over in the meantime :)

Who Me???

It's award time again! Yay! I LOVE awards! The lovely Westside Wedding gave me this blog award a while back but between travel & the holidays I haven't had a chance to pass it on. Thank you thank you thank you WW! You're the best! :)

So here are the rules...For the Over the Top Award you are supposed to answer the following questions with one word answers and then pass the award onto six fellow bloggers. Seems simple enough....

1. Where is your cell phone? desk

2. Your hair? down

3. Your mother? sad

4. Your father? travel

5. Your favorite food? tapas

6. Your dream last night? travel!

7. Your favorite drink? j&d

8. Your dream/goal? earlyretirement

9. What room are you in? office

10. Your hobby? blogging

11. Your fear? death

12. Where do you want to be in 6 years? house

13. Where were you last night? home

14. Something you aren’t? bitchy

15. Muffins? yummm

16. Wish list item? Chanel

17. Where did you grow up? NY

18. Last thing you did? sang

19. What are you wearing? black

20. Your TV? old

21. Your pets? Cramekins (aquatic frog)
22. Your friends? amazing

23. Your life? great

24. Your mood? tired

25. Missing someone? Ant

26. Vehicle? Corolla

27. Something you’re not wearing? color

28. Your favorite store? Topshop

29. Your favorite color? burgundy

30. When was the last time you laughed? 9:30am

31. Last time you cried? Sunday

32. Your best friend? J

33. One place that I go over and over? fantasyland

34. One person who emails me regularly? J

35. Favorite place to eat? Gemma

I have to say that was a bit harder than I had anticipated! One word answers are impossible for a person like me. I prefer to be a bit more descriptive. I guess rules are rules though, so there you have it!

And now it's my turn to pass on the love. It's always so hard to choose who to give these to! I love you all but since I can only choose 6, I'm going to pass it onto a bunch of my new blogging buddies.

Marie-Eve
Giovanna @ Swoon
Miss T @ 99 + Forever (It's such an exciting time for her. She's getting married in 2 days!!!)
Crystal @ Plush Palate
Sogni e Sorrisi
Stacy Marie @ You Can't Take it With You

Image: found here

The Final Countdown

Happy Monday! I hope you all had a lovely holiday weekend. I'm so thrilled that it's a three day work week!

Our weekend was wonderful. We were able to rest up and we even managed to sneak in a bit of fun yesterday. Unfortunately that involved some more eating and drinking that has become way too abundant this time of year. And it's not quite over yet. Tonight my awesome cousin is sleeping over and Wed J & I are going out to dinner to Maialino, a new restaurant in the Grammercy Park Hotel. Then you've got NYE which is bound to be way too indulgent.

All I can say is that I cannot wait for New Years Day. I have quite a few resolutions I need to put into effect! :)

Anyone else over the holiday bingefest?

Image: found here

Holiday Hangover

Hope you all had a wonderful holiday and that Santa treated you well. Ours was great but I have to admit I'm thrilled that it's over. After all of the running around, we're enjoying a weekend of much needed r&r. As J says, "what a wonderfully lazy day!"

Have a great day!

Image: found here

Merry Marriage

I'm so excited to spend my first xmas as a married woman with my love. It's not too often that I get to experience a first time. Especially after 23 years! :)

Hope you all have a wonderful holiday!

Image: found here

Have Yourself A Merry!

Wishing you all a wonderful holiday. Eat, drink, get lots of gifts and be merry!!!

Oh and speaking of gifts, I have a feeling that the only Chanel I'm going to get this xmas is one along these lines. Oh there's always next year... :)


Enjoy loves!

Images: found here and here

My First Gift!

Noir Mars Crystal Cluster Ring

Thank you, thank you, thank you! Hope you all get everything you want this year :)

Take Two

Good morning lovelies! Hope you all had a wonderful evening.

So last night didn't turn out exactly as planned. After running around to pick up xmas gifts and stopping by the grocery store to get baking supplies, we came home and realized that we forgot to get butter! Seriously we're brilliant. So rather than run back out to the store at 8:30 to get butter that would need to then be defrosted, we decided to officially postpone cookie baking until today.

We did, however, manage to squeeze in a few other baking projects that I had on the agenda. I made apple pie, brownies and, what I'm most excited about, I made Peppermint Bark for the very first time!

I don't know about you all but I seriously LOVE peppermint bark. There's something oh so delicious about the layers of chocolate and mint. Oh Williams-Sonoma, thanks for helping add an additional 5 lbs to the yearly holiday bulge ;)

I couldn't contain my excitment when I came across this recipe last week on The City Sage. How fabulous, right? I figured that it looked simple enough to make. Why not give it a shot? I could package it up and give out to our guests on xmas eve as an extra little treat.

Well I'm happy to report that everything went smoothly. It really didn't take much time at all to make. And it looks amazing! I haven't tasted it yet but I'm hopefully that it will be delicious. But maybe I should stop by Williams-Sonoma on my way home tonite to pick up some of theirs as backup...

Do you have any baking projects on tap this holiday?

Images: found here, here & here

Cookie Craving

Well it's finally here. The night that I used to look forward to more than any other night of the year, but after many years and years, has become the most dreaded night of the year. Christmas Cookie Night!

It's funny, I seriously used to love decorating all of the cookies. It was a major creative outlet for me. I even would hold cookie decorating parties so we could do it a few times during the holiday season. But something happened along the way. It became a major chore. I don't know if it's because our lives are more hectic than they used to be. Or if it's because it is expected of us. Our families would seriously kill us if we decided to skip this tradition. And believe me, we have tried to many times. Just. Not. Happenin! Oh an I won't even go into the fact that not only do we have to bake and decorate cookies tonight but then we are expected to bake some cookies and leave them undecorated so we can have a separate decorating party with J's family on xmas eve.

Well this year I'm determined to bring the joy back to cookie decorating. Why dread something that used to give us so much joy? We even picked up some new tools to spice things up this year. I'm loving the new Williams-Sonoma Message-in-a-Cookie Holiday Cookie Cutters and I must admit that I'm pretty excited to give them a whirl tonight. Oh and we also get to use one of our wedding gifts, the Williams-Sonoma Marble Rolling Pin. We've been dying to get one of these for years. Let the fun begin!

And in the spirit of sharing, I figured that I'd share with all of you the famous Dawn & Jen's Sugar Cookie recipe. People tell us all the time that it's the best sugar cookie recipe they've ever had so I figure why not spread the love around. It's the same recipe that we gave out to our wedding guests as favors. I think we need to come up with a snapier name for the recipe but for now it'll have to do :)

Dawn & Jen's Sugar Cookies

2 sticks butter (room temp)

1 c sugar

2 eggs

1 tbsp. vanilla extract

3 c flour

1/2 tsp. baking soda

1 tsp. salt

• Use an electric mixer to beat together the butter and sugar until creamy.
• Add the eggs and beat well.
• Beat in vanilla extract.
• In another bowl, stir together the flour, baking soda and salt.
• Beat the flour mixture into the wet mixture slowly, one-third at a time.
• Wrap the dough in plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least one hour.
• Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.
• Sprinkle flour onto work surface and rolling pin.
• Divide the dough into quarters.
• Roll each quarter to about 1/4" thick.
• Use cookie cutters to cut out shapes.
• Sprinkle on decoration.
• Bake 5-10 minutes.
• If frosting cookies, bake first, let cool and then frost.

Frosting

1/2 c butter (room temp)

1 lb confectionary sugar

1 1/2 tsp. vanilla extract

4 tbsp. milk

• Place butter in a bowl.
• Add confectionary sugar, vanilla and milk.
• Mix until smooth.
• If frosting is too loose add more confectionary sugar.
• If frosting is too stiff add more milk.
• Add your favorite food coloring or use sprinkles on top of frosting.

And the rest is up to you. Oh I can see those creative juices flowing already :)

Oh and if you have any favorite cookie recipes to share, I'd just love to hear them!

Images: 1, 2-4, 5

Snow Day!

Hope you all had a lovely weekend. We braved the big snow storm here in the northeast. Actually I have to admit that I didn't even step foot outside for 2 days straight. Nevertheless I ended up having a very productive weekend. Tree's up, house is pretty presentable, menu is set for xmas dinner and I even finished writing Christmas cards at 12:30am this morning.

It was physically exhausting but I have to tell you nothing beat the feeling of waking up this morning to a spotless home, beautiful tree and christmas cards on the table all ready to be mailed.

What did you all do this weekend. Are you all ready for the holidays?

Image: found here

It's Beginning To Look A Lot Like....

Yay for Friday and the close of the longest week ever!!! We're expecting a blizzard here so we're going to try to get all of our outdoor activities (buying a tree, shopping, etc) taken care of tonight and tomorrow before the big storm arrives. Maybe if we're lucky we'll have a white xmas. We haven't had one of those in these parts in a very long time.

Oh and before I go, I wanted to share this cuteness with you. What a lil snuggle muffin! I'm absolutely in love. I wish we could have one but Js allergic, even to hypoallergenic ones, so all we can do is dream about them. Which we do. Often. Sigh....


Hope you all enjoy your weekend! xoxo

Images: found here and here

Ride On!

Hi all, happy Thursday! I don't know about you but I feel like this has been the longest week ever. How is it possible that it's not Friday? I guess all of the holiday celebrations are catching up with me :)

Anyhooo, I wanted to let you all know about a fabulous new project that the wonderful Bridget of And Stanley Makes Three has been working on. Bridget along with Renee of Two Fishes Artistry just launched A Bride's Ride, a website that helps to link stylish couples with amazing vintage cars for their big day. It's such a great concept, I wish it was around when I got married!

In addition they also have a shop full of custom decorating kits for vintage cars. You can make your own custom vintage car decorating kit by choosing a flower garland color, then a banner, and they also include a set of white painted cans with coordinating belly bands to make the set complete. They're really super adorable. I'm just loving this whole idea!

Oh and Style Me Pretty is also hosting a giveaway for a custom decorating kit. Be sure to check it out. Good luck to all and congrats to Bridget! I wish you all the best in your exciting and brilliant new endeavor!

All I Want For Xmas

Dear Santa,

As you can see, my list is pretty short this year. I'm a lucky girl and don't really want thaaat many things. But I was really good this year so I'm hoping to find one of these items under my tree. (Notice I said one of these items...I'm not greedy :))

Thanks Santa!

xoxo

Dawn

Chanel 2.55

YSL Tribute T-Strap

Chanel Pearl Necklace

What's on your wishlist this year?

Images: 1, 2, 3

Happy Holidaze!

Hope you all had a wonderful fun-filled, productive weekend. Hectic as mine was, I did manage to check a bunch of things off the list. We bought some gifts and did some visiting and gift exchanging with some of our friends and family. There's still a lot more to do though. Holiday parties, cookie baking, shopping, wrapping, and the most daunting task on the list - cleaning out our mess of an apartment so we can buy & put up a tree and decorate the place.

This year we're hosting J's family on xmas eve for the very first time. 11 people in our lil apartment. Isn't that cozy? The first part of the day is the annual cookie decorating extravaganza and then we're going to serve dinner. It shouldn't be such a big deal but I have absolutely no idea what to prepare for dinner! It's the first time we've ever hosted xmas eve. Thanksgiving we're ol pros at...we've hosted it at least 7 or 8 times before. But xmas eve??? I'm at a total loss. I have to put my hostess hat on and get creative.

What are your plans for the holidays? Are there any hosters out there? Do you have everything under control or are you all frazzled like moi?

Image: found here

Happy Friday!

Burr it's freezing here in NYC! I pulled on all of the layers today. Wish I could just stayed snuggled up inside all day.

I need to get cracking on the xmas to-do list this weekend. How come life always turns into one big to-do list? First wedding, now this! Too much to do, too little time. Wish me luck!

Hope you all have a wonderful weekend!

Image: found here

Divine de la Renta!

I'm just dying over the new Oscar de la Renta Pre-Fall '10 collection. Chock full of sparkle, glamour, make me melt ombre blush to rose to red, and fur. I'm not a fan of fur but that pink one?!?! Can someone please make me a faux version ASAP? Pretty please? Oh and I'm loving the veil treamtents. How fab would that be for bridal?


Images: via ELLE

Getting Lost In Amsterdam

We had such a spectacular time in Amsterdam. The vibe is quite different from London...very chill, anything goes and fun-loving & extremely tolerant. It's quite beautiful with numerous canals, bridges, and really wonderful architecture. Sprinkle in a few great museums, pancake houses, cafes & shops, it's everything I love wrapped up in one charming city.


We visited the Anne Frank House, the Rijksmuseum and the Van Gogh Museum. All are definite must sees. The Anne Frank House was extremely moving and the Rijksmuseum had spectacular pieces by the Dutch masters including Rembrant and Vermeer. And over at the Van Gogh Museum besides hundreds of pieces of his work, there was also an exibition of letters he wrote to his brother, other family members and friends over the years. I think I actually liked that exibition as much as his paintings. If anyone is planning on visiting Amsterdam before January of 2010 you should really be sure to check it out.

Outside the Rijksmuseum

One of the highlights of Amsterdam had to be the amazing pancakes! I stopped by The Pancake Bakery on quite a few occasions. Sweet and savory, they were all amazing! We've been going through pancake withdrawl since we've been back. Luckily it seems as if J might have tracked down a place in NYC that makes them...The Sullivan Diner. I'm gonna try to check it out in the very near future to see if it satisfies the craving.

Me outside the famous Pancake Bakery. This was my second visit there so I was really excited to go in!

Delicious pancakes. The one in the back is banana and I put Nutella on top. The one in the front is bacon and cheese. Yummmm!

On my second visit, I decided to try poffertjes, tiny Dutch pancakes. I went with the butter and sugar variation. Pure perfection! They actually melted in your mouth!

On every table they have something called Stroop which is the syrup of choice in Amsterdam, powdered sugar and a bucket of pure molasses.

We also discovered Stroopwaffles at The Pancake Bakery. They give you one with every cup of coffee. They're caramel waffle cookies. Just amazing! We brought a few packages back with us but I think I might order a few more and give them out as xmas gifts.

We went shopping at a few stores. One of my favorites was Sissy-Boy Homeland, a lifestyle concept shop. It kinda reminds me of the Dutch version of Antropology. The displays were just gorgeous. I bought a few of these mercury glass votives.

We also stopped by De Kaaskamer, a cheese-lover's paradise. The sell over 400 different types of cheese from all over Europe. In addition they also sell wine, olives, tapanades, meats and sandwiches & salads.

And we strolled through the Flower Market. What a amazing feast for the eyes! We brought back some tulip bulbs for our families.

And I wanted to share some more exciting news with you all. I temporarily overcame my fear of Smart Cars! I'm not sure how long that will last now that I'm back in the states...

Conquering the fear!

All in all, it was an absolutely amazing trip that I'll remember forever. Unfortunately now it's time for me to stop daydreaming about my honeymoon and get my butt into holiday gear!