Let's Hear it for New York!

Back in February (I know, I'm behind on my posts!) I took a trip to New York with my friend Heather. We both took the day off work Friday and went up for a long weekend. It was so much fun! And full of sights and things I had never seen/done.

One item on my New York list: the Brooklyn Bridge. For some reason I had it in my head that I wanted to walk across it. Maybe because my favorite book is A Tree Grows in Brooklyn. Maybe because it plays a big role in the "Sex and the City" movie. Except I forgot about one thing...I'm terrified of bridges. Absolutely terrified! I'm a little better than I used to be, in that I can now drive across them. But I still don't like it and I definitely don't like walking across them. But, I'm proud to say I conquered my fear and made it! And I was so glad I did. This thing is amazing!
Then while we were walking around the Lower East Side, we stumbled upon this:
If you watch "Real Housewives of New York City" you know what this is. If you don't, you have no idea and I'm not even going to try and explain it!

Then while walking around Greenwich Village, we stumbled upon this:
It's the apartment building from "Friends"!!! The trip was filled with random sightings of famous buildings. We also found the soup kitchen made famous by the Soup Nazi in "Seinfeld" but I didn't get a picture.

Here was the view from our hotel room:
Can you say AMAZING? It was so fabulous. All in all, a wonderful weekend filled with shopping, sight-seeing, eating and the ballet. So great and I want to go back right now!

Trip to Kentucky/Ohio

Last weekend, I headed up to Ohio for my friend Tara's bridal shower/bachelorette. It was a blast! I took a personal day on Friday, so I first hit up Hot Yoga for a workout and then hit the road. I drove to Lexington, KY to see friends and spend the night Friday night. I haven't been to Lex in forever and it was so great to see my sorority sisters! We talked and laughed until about 12:30am, just like life in the sorority house :)

Saturday morning I left Lexington pretty early and headed to Jeffersonville, OH. What is in Jeffersonville, Ohio you might ask? Only a Pottery Barn outlet!! Fortunately I found a beautiful full-size headboard that would be perfect for my guest room. Unfortunately it wouldn't fit in the car. So I left it behind and headed off to Centerville, OH for Tara's shower.

Here she is with the cupcake cookbook I gave her:
I discovered the chocolate chip cookie dough cupcakes from her blog, so this seemed like an appropriate gift. I also got her a cool cupcake carrier thing-a-ma-jig.

And here is the beautiful bride-to-be with her most adorable flower girl:
Tara, I'm making plans to become Belle's BFF in April! If she gets shy and needs an escort down the aisle, I'm available AND have experience being a flower girl escort :)

The shower was great and it was so fun to see Tara and her family. After the shower, all the girls loaded up and went to a lake house for a night of just good old girl fun (and some dirty lingerie!). Tara, I'm so glad I could spend the time with you!

Sunday morning, I hit the road to come back south. Before I left, I realized there was one of these right on my way home:

How could I pass it up? Of course I had to go! I found so much cool stuff, but man this place is huge! I was totally overwhelmed for a while and probably spent a good 2+ hours pretty much just wandering around. But I did find a ton of fun stuff. Including a new duvet cover. At $39.99, it was such a great price and so pretty I couldn't pass it up. Usually, I stick to pretty plain bedcoverings, so this is a little out of my comfort zone.

My bed before:

Blue and white duvet cover. Very simple, but not totally practical with a dog in the house. It has been very hard to keep clean.

New duvet cover:

I know, it's hard to see. But it has a really pretty red and blue floral print. The blue walls bring out the blue flowers and the brown lampshade complements the brown branches in the print. Eventually, it will probably end up in the guest room (walls are green). But for now, I'm loving it. And it makes me wish there was an Ikea closer to where I live!

It was so great to have a little vacation and see friends in Kentucky and Ohio! I felt like I was gone a lot more than 3 days. Can't wait to take more road trips in my new car...