On the Bench and NYC

I am still not staffed on a new project, known as "on the bench" in consulting. It is nice to be home but a bit unnerving to not know where in the country I may/may not be in the coming weeks. I am making the best of it, eating healthy and working out as much as possible. Last week I met up with an old work colleague, Laura, for my first Lithe class in years! I forgot how much I enjoy Lithe and it was so nice to spend time with Laura.

Nice and sweaty for dinner :)

I wandered around Washington Avenue a few times during the week to begin planning my kitchen. We will need one weekend to rip out our old kitchen and put in the floor and the following weekend to have the kitchen installed. Unfortunately, we don't have two free weekends in a row all summer so the kitchen is going to be put on hold until August/September. I have an idea of what I want (thank you, Pinterest!) but I will need the time to make all the big design decisions.

My inspiration

This weekend we headed up to NYC to visit our good friend Sam. We got in late on Friday and had a low key night of Cards Against Humanity and wine. Without fail, I always feel like such a country bumpkin in that big city - Philly really just cannot compare with the size of New York.

We woke up to a very rainy Saturday morning and headed to brunch at The Meatball Shop in the Upper East Side. The food was delish and they even had vegetarian options for me so I could stick to my pescetarian lifestyle!

The weather was terrible so we had a very low key day inside, resting up for the night ahead. We bought a Groupon for the Greenwich Village Comedy Club on Saturday night so we headed down to Greenwich Village for dinner at an awesome little Italian place. We will be back to New York in hopes for beautiful weather and an opportunity to do some touristy things in the city! 

This week I am home again, looking for new projects and enjoying the spring weather in Philly. I have the Broad Street Run in a month so it is time to get outside and get running! We are going to relax the next couple of weekends and finish up a few house projects before our spring/summer of crazy travelling begins!

Taking a (spring) break

I needed a break - from work, from travelling, from eating out all the time - and I finally got one! I asked to take a week or two of vacation between projects, a little spring break to recover from the past six months of travelling. I headed to Kutztown for a few days for a little country living and time with my family.

After spending some time with my friend Katherine, I decided I needed to make a change in my eating so I am trying out pescetarianism. I also want to eat more clean, so it was nice being home with my mom who is also eating clean. We headed to Echo Hill, where I loaded up on quinoa, farro, steel cut oats and some candy for the boys.

We then headed over to the Rodale store to check out how they transformed an old garage into a quaint little store. 

Ideally, my mom and I would love to open an organic living store. This week I am planning to start on our business plan and check out some store fronts in South Philly. While at Rodale, we stocked up on organic catnip, soy candles and healthy living books (on sale for $5!).

On Tuesday night we headed to church to help my Grandma make chocolate covered candies, something she has been doing for 30 years. Volunteers make all the candy and the church takes order from individuals and stores around Kutztown, bringing in a huge profit to the church.

I was responsible for making milk chocolate covered peanut butter eggs, which was torture since I gave up sweets for Lent this year. I wasn't the best at it but it was still a fun little night with my Grandma, mom, Aunt Hallie and Uncle Larry.

My parents are getting a new kitchen this spring so Wednesday night their contractor, an old family friend, came over to review plans.

I just happened to have the dimensions of our kitchen on hand so I gave them to the contractor for a free drawing of kitchen options. The results were awesome and we are now in full kitchen planning mode. Stay tuned for more updates...

First draft of the new kitchen! yay!

I headed back to Philly on Thursday afternoon to spend the weekend with Andrew. The weather was beautiful and I was so excited to spend Friday with my favorite baby Aris and his lovely momma, Lauren.

love :)

Lauren has been such a good role model for me and it's been so nice watching her learn and grow over the past six months. After spending time with her, I always get excited about having babies :)

Big boy can sit up on his own!

We finally got our Pottery Barn couch! I love it - it has so much more space and is super comfortable. 

I was a little freaked out that it was too big for the space but we finally got the old couch out of the house and it now feels comfortable. My sister got our old couch so we had to load it on the Civic and drive it across the city to her apartment. Ridiculous.

Dan rode on the back of the car, holding up the couch.

After the couch madness, we had a very Philly Saturday with friends, enjoying the beautiful weather. We headed to the Yards Brewery in the Fishtown/Northern Liberties area for a free tour!

The tour was very cool, I would definitely recommend taking the it if you are in Philly and love good beer!

On Sunday my whole family came in from Kutztown for family dinner at our place! It was the first time they had all been to Philly to see our new house so it was so nice having everyone over.

I am home again this week and planning to continue with kitchen planning and spend some much needed time with my husband :)

Visitors

After three failed attempts, the weather finally held up and our friends made the trip from Pittsburgh to Philadelphia. We had not seen each other since June so a beautiful spring weekend in Philadelphia was exactly what we needed. We spent the entire day outside on Saturday, exploring the city and catching up on life.

4:30 selfie

A very late night out proved that we are way too old to party that hard. We are so lucky to have such wonderful friends, I am just sad they aren't closer!

I am exhausted and dumb so that's all I got.

JT and Banisters!!

When my mom was offered free tickets to the Tuesday night Justin Timberlake concert, I knew I had to go. I asked my manager to stay in Philly Monday and Tuesday and booked a 6am flight to Charlotte Wednesday morning... it was so worth it. My mom, sister and I grabbed sushi in Philly at our favorite place, Vic's, and headed to the Wells Fargo Center, which is only three miles from our house.

My mom's friend from London is JT's tour manager, so he was able to get us the awesome sixth row seats. Any seat in the house would have been great but we were so thankful and excited to have great seats!

Justin (we are on a first name basis) was an amazing performer - definitely the best concert I have ever been to (don't tell Tom Petty I said that). He had so much energy, looked like he was having a blast, and really engaged the audience. He started on time, played all his top hits and the boy can DANCE.

We were given VIP tickets filled with beautiful pictures of JT and a t-shirt I have been wearing since. It was a really epic night and I am so happy I was able to go!

VIP!

I was in Charlotte until Friday which was a total bummer, I love my Fridays, but we made the best of the short weekend. Early Saturday morning we had our railings installed!!! And by early, I mean we got an 8am phone call that our little Irish man was at our house and ready to install.

The installation only took a half hour and our house was one step closer to being complete.. and, not to mention, in compliance if we ever want to rent it out. The railings turned out so well, exactly what we wanted.

The third floor is safe!

The railing installation was perfect timing for the birthday party we were hosting at our house Saturday night. I was a little nervous to have a bunch of people over I didn't know with all our dangerous ledges around the house but everyone was safe.

Ready to party

The party was great! We had about 40 of Dan and Kathleen's friends over to celebrate with food, drinks and cake! Our little house did not get destroyed, even with the kitchen being the pajama time center of the house.

Happy birthday Dan and Kathleen

Some of my favorite boys

I was in bed early Saturday night, well before the party ended. I think all the running around has finally caught up to me so I spent Sunday relaxing and watching the Oscars. Next weekend Carly and Mike are coming, so we are excited to have guests at the house again!