philly foodie

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I spent this past weekend in Philadelphia with my fiance. He was in town for a huge teaching convention...so I drove down from upstate NY to hang with him for a couple days in between his sessions. We stayed a block from his RAD old place in Olde City (he lived in Philadelphia for a while in the early days of our dating phase)....around the corner from Betsy Ross' house. I love this section Philadelphia. LOVE it. The cobblestone streets, the church spires, Independence Hall, buildings from the 1700's, all the dang statues of Ben. God. It's amazing.

This time, for the first time, we took on the role of Philadelphia foodies and ate ourselves silly at every meal. Traditionally, we are rather broke travelers, so pizza places and cheap beer are what we fuel up on. Oh friends. Life is SO much more fun eating incredible cuisine along the way. We basically camped out on 2nd and Market...delicious street full of yummy eateries.

Best weekend involving food in my life. AND it was a great rendezvous with my loverboy.

yellow coat

My coat via Girl Meets Glamour

Two years ago My Guy gave me the most beautiful JCrew coat for Christmas. It is bright yellow, has a ruffled stand up collar, and big fun yellow buttons. I pretty much worship this coat...I have never had anything so fine.

Needless to say, when I was in New York City last weekend I received several compliments on it. Seriously. Simple little me...getting complimented on my clothing in New York. It felt fabulous.

Also...three people asked me for directions. Yep. Like I was a local. And the rad part? I knew how to help them find their way.

uggs

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I am far from a fashionista. And I had no idea that my practical Uggs would actually help me blend in to the New Yorker landscape. I wore them because it was cold and rainy, and I needed my feet to be warm and cozy (and comfy!) as I explored. I actually think they are kind of funny looking, so I was surprised that everywhere I looked and everywhere I went I saw Uggs. (Well...it was either Uggs or stilettos.) Paired with my super skinny jeans and big ass slouchy black bag, I felt New York tres chic.

I am so damn hip.

nyc

Spent a few days in New York City. Gawd. Love that place. Granted, this past weekend was rather rainy...and cold...and windy...and just perfect. I didn't take out my camera...I lived everything instead of trying to capture it. And then I found these amazing images from Porter Polaroid Project and I'm instantly bummed I didn't take any. Next time.

I have a couple fabulous friends in the city. Instead of the tourist thing, I decided to explore their neighborhood (when I wasn't traipsing about the hospitals in Greenwich Village or Park Slope.) I ate at different eateries...did the MET (obviously...I live for my excursions to the MET), studied in little cafes, and meandered in and out of the beautiful boutiques of the upper east side. It was an exquisite five days.

It would be a dream to live here one day.

trees without leaves

Birch trees - Single Stone Studios

In the one week that I have lived in the southern tier of upstate New York, the trees have become bare. It really looks like winter...and a lot like the Blair Witch Project. They are a tad more creepy than charming...but they are rather nice to look at from the coziness of my window, while I'm drinking a steaming cup of hot cocoa.

These Etsy finds look like the nature outside my door.

Winter trees - Popwall

The Wishing Tree - Salon D

Barren Tree - Uncommon Accents

Julie Webb

Winter Trees - reasdesigns

long johns

REI

Here I am, in upstate New York, freezing. FREEZING. It's so cold I can hardly breath when I'm outside. And from what they tell me, this is NICE weather.

Holy Jesus.

Thankfully I packed a couple pair of long underwear (thanks Mom!). The difference is amazing.

I went in search to buy another pair or two this morning and all I can find are boring solid colors. Granted, they do go under the clothes...but that fact only makes me want a pair of brazenly obnoxious ones even more.

Winter Silks

Winter Silks

cloudy with a chance of rain

Etsy shop Ara133 Photography

That was my Halloween costume this year: "cloudy with a chance of rain." And it was the best Halloween of my life.

I drove down to DC for the weekend to stay with one of my dearest friends of all time. She is, quite literally, Crafty McCraftster, and dressed up as Carmen San Diego herself. When I showed up with the intention of wearing a set of blue scrubs as my costume, she busted open one of her pillows and hand sewed cotton clouds all over them. Then she slapped a water bottle in my hand and pinned a big white cotton fluff in my hair. I looked silly - but it was clever and I love clever.

DC was full of clever costumes. Clever costumes and rockin' parties!

Sea Pink - adorable lil pin cushion!

A Little luster - something shiny...and stormy.

Uniquely Chic For You - perfect color to wear on a cloudy day...I like to rock gray. And yellow.

cloudy day magnets found at Kathleen Marie Kelly

pretty pretty pennsylvania

This view is of the gardens behind my "home" here in the 'burbs of Philadelphia. I fell in love with this area...my month here started out shaky...but I ended up falling hard. It was such a gift to experience the spectacular explosions of brilliant color this autumn. I've decided that I only want to live where the leaves change every year. There really is no other way.

This has been one enchanting month.

The gardens behind my housing. Spectacular.

Red and yellow.

The park across the street.

Yellow leaves make my heart sing.

Such great shapes. I love that all of these different colored leaves came from the same tree.

Streets full of crunchy crunchy leaves.

The prettiest lil red leaf.

wonder wall

My fiance came to visit me a couple weekends ago in Philadelphia...and I haven't seen him since the end of September! We spent two glorious days exploring the city, enjoying each other, and eating (and drinking!) ourselves silly. He used to live here, so it was fun for us to reminisce about his old life, and our past adventures here.

We stumbled upon this excellent installation on South Street, The Magic Garden's. I must have stood there for 20 minutes just taking in the intricacies of the mosaics...

it was a wonderful 20 minutes.

happy birthday loverboy!

photo from here

Today is my future husband's birthday! He fills my heart with such joy. Today, I'll be dreaming of Angel Food cake, our birthday cake tradition. Next year, I might make two.