The Art of Entertaining

Good morning and happy mid-week lovelies!

The return of fall means the return of many things to me. Fabulous fall fashion, apple picking, strolls through the green markets, cooking, wine tastings, hockey. But it also means the return of my desire to entertain. After a long summer of casual beach house gatherings, now is the time to step things up a notch.

Dinner parties are suddenly calling my name. Time to break out the china, pour some fine wine while cooking up a storm all while being dressed up to the nines. Sounds like a party! Care to join me? :)

Hope you all enjoy the day!

xoxo

Images: All edited by The Alternative Wife

Simple Summer Pleasures

Good morning, lovelies! We're having such gorgeous weather here in NYC the past two days. And weather like this makes me just want to savor all of the goodies that summers in the city have to offer.

Long strolls in the park, gorgeous blooms at the market, mojitos, and of course dining al fresco in the little hidden backyard gardens.

Can't wait to get out of work today so I can take it all in!

Have a wonderful day! xoxo

Images: 1, 2, 3 - all edited by The Alternative Wife, 4

Vineyard Bound

Good morning everyone! With fall being just around the corner I've been dreaming of the little pleasures that autumn has in store. Apple picking, hockey, and trips to the wineries definitely top my list of favorite things about the start of the season.

We have wineries here in the area but lately I've been fantasizing about a little trip on over to the west coast to Napa, Sonoma or even Santa Barbara and Santa Ynez. There's something so magical about heading on over to wine country. The picturesque rolling hills, the cuisine, the way of life and of course the wine. It's all breathtaking and can easily steal a little piece of your heart. I know it has mine :)

Hope you all have a fabulous day and don't forget to enter the Betsey Johnson Bow Pendant Giveaway. Remember you can tweet every day for extra entries. Good luck!

Images: 1,3, 7 - Arthur Elgort via FGR, 2, 10 - From Me To You, 4, 5, 6, 8, 9

It's A Beautiful Day

Morning lovelies! Hope your week is off to a great start. It's getting a bit crisp here the past few days. The perfect weather for a bike ride, a leisurely stroll and grabbing a little sweet bite outdoors.

Sounds like a good day, no?

Hope you have a wonderful day and don't forget to enter the Betsey Johnson Bow Pendant Giveaway. If you've already entered, remember you can tweet every day for extra entries.

Images: 1 & 4 via Unstiched., 2 via Everything Fabulous, 3 via Cannelle et Vanille

Summer Lovin {Al Fresco Style}

After a particularly hot and humid few weeks, the past few days have been rather pleasant here. For the first time in weeks, rather than be couped up in air conditioning or being right next to some sort of body of water while wearing only a bathing suit, I'm actually considering venturing outdoors once again to dine in the beautiful fresh summer air. Days like these make me wish that summer will never end. Now if only I had that garden... :)

How has the weather been by you lately? Hope you've all been enjoying pleasant days!

Oh and don't forget to enter the Perricone MD Cold Plasma giveaway! Remember for all you tweeters, you can tweet every day for extra entries.

Good luck to all! xoxo

Images: 1 & 3 via Pretty Stuff, 2 via From Me To You

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!

Walking Round London Town

Happy Friday everyone! Well I finally figured out how to upload the photos from my new camera so today I can begin to share some of our amazing trip with you.

First of all I have to say that I LOVE London. Absolutely love, love, love it and would definitely be a very happy girl if I could live there. I didn't even mind the weather which is really remarkable because I'm usually a bit of a freak about my hair in such conditions. What can I say? It's just my kinda town :)

Me in London on one of the rare blue sky occasions. It was quite windy though...as you can see I'm looking pretty flushed because of the wind-burn!

We stayed at the Grosvenor House in Mayfair. It was a lovely hotel in a great location. Just a few blocks away from Oxford & Bond Street shopping, Hyde Park, and the Marble Arch tube which made it really convenient to get around town.

One of the highlights of the trip, besides the shopping (I'll get to that in another post), was the Winter Wonderland festival that was held inside Hyde Park.

The festival features a traditional German market with amusement rides (they even have a huge toboggan slide and an even huger ferris wheel!), musical entertainment and an outdoor ice skating rink.

It's hard to describe exactly why but was a really magical experience that I'll remember forever.

Here are my top three favorite things at the festival:

Mulled Blueberry Wine

The Candy Bar

German Pancakes with Nutella - Yummmm!!!!

The happy girl with her mulled wine, nutella german pancakes & yes, that's a Laduree shopping bag :)

We had been to London once before 13 years earlier for our 1st honeymoon after our commitment ceremony so we didn't need to visit many of the tourist attractions. But there were a few that we wanted to catch this time that we missed the first time around...the Cabinent War Rooms and Churchill Museum, which was a really interesting peak inside the underground complex that Churchill used as an operational command and control center during WWII, and the London Eye, which wasn't even around when I made my first trip.

Me filming J with the London Eye in the background

For the most part we just walked around and shopped, had cocktails and ate delicious meals. Oh and I have to say, the culinary experience I had was muuuch different than the one I had 13 years before. On my first trip to London the only decent meal I could find was a local fish and chip shop that we ended up eating at three times! A few years ago I read in Gourmet magazine that London had a culinary revolution but I still had my doubts and my expectations were really low. I'm happy to say I was pleasantly surprised with the cuisine.

Enjoying one of many apple cinnamon martinis in The Red Bar

Next week I'll be back with more of the trip...London shopping & Amsterdam. Hope you all have a happy weekend!