Spain! Madrid - Day 2, Part 1!

After a good night's sleep, we were ready for our first FULL day in Madrid!  We started our day at La Mallorquina on Puerta Sol (yet another of the many plazas in Madrid).  It was a diner type place that was very busy with lots of locals coming in and out.  I had read that it is a great place for breakfast and especially for their ensaimada pastries.  Of course we had to try one of those (I wasn't super impressed though).  But, I LOVED my egg & cheese sandwich thing.  Isn't it cute?

From breakfast, we strolled down Calle Arenal....a pedestrian only street known for its shopping.  We went in our first Camper shoe store here (they're all over Spain).  They have very unique shoes that are quite pricey (we have at least 1 store in NYC now), but interesting to look at.

Streets like this are what I loved about Madrid.

Narrow and windy and colorful!

Our next big destination was the Palacio Real.  The Palace was huge and neat to see, but they didn't allow pictures inside - boo!  

This is from the outside before we entered the Palace grounds.

I couldn't even fit the whole thing within my camera frame - it's huge!

One wing of the palace

Another building on the Palace grounds

 The courtyard once we were inside

The views from the palace were beautiful!

There is so much green surrounding Madrid!

I did get one photo inside the palace in the entryway 

before I realized we weren't supposed to take any.

Scandalous!

Our very favorite parts of the palace were the armory and the pharmacy.  These spaces were huge and had so many interesting things to look at!  I loved all the interesting bottles in the pharmacy and they had so, so many different medications and treatments.  I also enjoyed seeing the throne room (talk about royalty!) and the porcelain room where the walls and ceiling were made entirely of porcelain -amazing!!

From the palace, we went to Plaza de Colon because we had some important tickets to pick up near there for our activity later that evening.  This Plaza had a big statue of Columbus.

After we picked up our tickets, we walked through the streets of the Salmanca neighborhood.   We strolled down Calle de Serrano and popped in some of the fancy shops there - to me, this was like 5th Avenue in NYC.  My biggest (maybe only?) regret of this trip is that I didn't buy a Longchamp Le Pliage Bag while we were shopping.  We went into the Longchamp store and I could not believe how cheap the bags were there (less than 1/2 what they cost in the US).  I debated getting one, but it was only the 2nd day of the trip and I told myself we'd see other Longchamp stores, so I had time to think about it.  Well, we didn't see another Longchamp store the rest of the trip.  Darn!

We also wandered to La Paz market, hoping to pick up lunch there.  Unfortunately, most of the booths there were closed for siesta.  (While the idea of siesta sounds quite nice, it's actually a huge pain when you're not used to it!!)

Just a random street intersection in Madrid...but so gorgeous, right?!

It's okay that the market was closed because we ended up at a little place called Mallorca (a nod to the island where we'd end our trip!!).  We LOVED this place!!  They had little mini sandwiches and beautiful pastries.  We were able to get lunch to-go and take it to the beautiful Retiro Park which was just across the street.

They wrapped up our food so cute!

And I was super excited to see a vendor selling Lemon Fanta

as we entered the park.  Lemon Fanta is soooo good and you cannot

get it in the USA.  I have to say, though, that Greece has

better Lemon Fanta than Spain did.

After a leisurely lunch, we decided to tour the park.  Retiro park is absolutely fabulous.  I loved it.  There was so much green and many flowers.  There pretty little winding paths through lightly wooded areas.

The lake with rowboats was gorgeous and was my favorite part of the park!

We saw the Crystal Palace which was so pretty with a pond out back

The rose garden was enormous and so very beautiful!

We literally stopped to smell the roses!

We could have spent a lot more time in the Rose Garden and much more time in Retiro Park.  Alas, we needed to head home to put on warmer clothes for our evening activity.  More on that in my Day 2, Part 2 post!

PINTEREST

Are you on Pinterest? I LOVE Pinterest! But, I have come to realize that I do not use it like most people seem to. I hear people make comments like "I saw this on Pinterest" or "this recipe came from Pinterest" or "Pinterest has the best ideas"!  But, I rarely go to Pinterest for ideas, recipes, or inspiration (although, sometimes I do). What I DO NOT NEED is one more social-media tool in my life. I don't need one more place I feel like I "need" to check on each day....I have Facebook and way too many blogs I like to keep up with to add something else to the daily checklist.

A snippet of my ridiculously long Google Reader List for Blogs

So, what am I using Pinterest for?! To keep track of all those things I see on all those blogs I'm already reading that I do not want to forget!! I see things on blogs all the time and try to make a mental note of it. Ideas I think would be great to keep in mind for future parties or home decor inspiration or projects I'd like to attempt sometime in the future. And, while the mental note thing works on occasion, it often fails me. Even when I can remember an idea I've seen, the chances of me remembering where I saw it so I can go back and reference it are slim-to-none. Pinterest is GREAT for this!!! I continue to read my design blogs as usual, but when I see an idea I like, I just PIN it! And occasionally, I'll go back and look at my boards so I can remember these things. Or, before hosting a party, I'll go see what I've pinned for ideas.

I've also started having my computer open when I'm flipping through the catalogs that come in the mail. If I see something that I want or something that inspires me, I go find it online and just PIN it!  I even sent a link to my Pinterest to my mom and sister before Christmas and they were just able to browse it and come up with what they wanted to get me for Christmas. So, for me, Pinterest is not just 1 more thing I've added to my life, it's something that has helped me organize and keep track of all these things that were already in my life! I LOVE IT!

Some of the things currently on my "I WANT" Board

And, as far as recipes go, I do like seeing what other people have Pinned, but I am very, very skeptical of the recipes that are on there. Just because one person saw a recipe online that they thought sounded good, Pinned it, and it went Viral DOES NOT mean it is a good recipe. I mean, there is a good chance that the original person who Pinned the recipe hasn't even tried the recipe yet themselves! I haven't personally tried any Pinterest recipes, but I know of at least 2 friends who have tried at least 3 recipes between them that did not turn out well. So, as far as recipes on Pinterest go, I think I'll use it for inspiration, but cross-reference any recipe to other websites before I actually make anything. For that, my favorite is AllRecipes.com. Do you use it?! I LOVE it! You can see how many people have tried a recipe and what they rated it...if a ton of people have given 4 or 5 stars to a recipe, you can count on it being a good one. For instance, this past week, I went to a LEAP DAY Birthday Surprise Party - so much fun! I was asked to take a 7-Layer Dip. Amazingly, this is not a recipe I had ever made before. So, I went to AllRecipes.com to find a recipe. Of course, there was more than one recipe for 7-Layer Dip, but one of them had been rated by 1,500 people and received an average of 5/5 of stars. You just can't go wrong with a recipe that's been rated that high! And, it was a HUGE hit at the party - it was really so good!

So, are you on Pinterest? And what are you using it for? Do you find it's just another thing that adds to the busyness of your day?  Do you find it is a helpful organizational tool?

SoHo on a Friday Night

Leticia, Megan and I met for dinner at La Esquina on Friday night.  I love this place and love introducing it to people who haven't been before!!  Their reservation process is a pain, but I guess I think it's worth it! Such a cool space, plus good food.  We tried the Queso Fundido and I'd never had it there and it was seriously one of the best things I have ever tasted - anywhere.  I can't wait for the next reason to go back here!

Dinner was super early (because they'll only give me 6pm or 11:30pm reservations - every single time I call), so we were done by 7:30.  The shops in SoHo were still open, so we went in a couple.  We stopped in Mitchell Gold furniture store, which I've heard about and didn't think I'd like (I thought it would be way to contemporary/modern), but I did like it quite a bit!  I'm definitely not in the market for furniture, but it's still fun to look!

Next, we went to C Wonder.  Do you know this store?!  It was amazing.  Apparently it's only in New York and New Jersey right now.  It was started by Tory Burch's ex-husband.  It is a huge store and they have everything - clothes, accessories and home goods.  I liked the home decor and gifty items a lot.  Many things were marked down and some of the prices were shockingly low.  Such a fun new store to remember!

Finally, we went to the new Georgetown Cupcake.  I'm so glad Leticia knew this had opened here.  Beth & I went to Georgetown Cupcake when we were in DC a few years ago.  The new store here is super cute and the cupcakes are adorable too!  The cupcakes tasted pretty good - the icing was delicious, cake was a bit dry.

Photo of Leticia & I,

courtesy of Megan

Best Picture Noms 2012

It's that time of year again!  Oscar movie-watching frenzy is in full-force.  I haven't seen as many of the nominated pictures this year as last, but I've put a dent in the list.  And yesterday I went to Day 1 of the AMC Best Picture Showcase.  We saw 4 of the Best Picture Noms and next week we'll see 5 (although, I've previously seen 2 of those).  Yesterday was so fun and I absolutely loved 3 of the movies.  I was surprised that there were already so many that I loved as much as I did.  Here's my personal synopsis :

War Horse -- I went into this with little expectations.  I thought it might be okay.  I'm not a History buff - at all - so I wasn't sure I'd be too interested in the story.  I am also not big on animal movies - it's very hard for me to become emotionally attached to an animal in a movie.  I was so wrong though.  It is a great, albeit sad, story and I really loved that horse by the end of the movie.  Really loved this!

Moneyball -- I went in expecting to like this movie and I really, really did!  It's another feel-good sports movie where you can't help but to get excited and into it.  I'm not sure it's your typical Oscar nom, but I really loved this story.  I also loved the song the daughter plays on her guitar in this movie...I found it online..."The Show" by Lenka.  I'm listening to it now and think I'll add it here (I really need to change-up the song on this blog anyway...been far too long!!)

Tree of Life -- this was the low-point of the day.  I heard from more than one person that this was terrible and it was worse than I could have even imagined.  I guess if you're really into computer graphics, you might enjoy it?  Although, I'm not even sure why.  The plot is lacking.  The story is quite simple, I think, but it's laid out in a way that it ends up being confusing.  And towards the beginning there is a 10-20 minute scene that has no acting and is computer graphics showing the Creation story (at least, that's what we decided was going on).  It was weird, weird, weird and didn't really fit in with the rest of the story.  Honestly, I might have liked the movie okay if they hadn't put that scene in there, but by the time it was over I was so annoyed and turned-off, there was no way they were getting me back.  Perhaps the most exciting part of this film is that it was filmed all over Texas and since I was with 3 of my friends who are also Texas-Transplants, we had fun picking out the cities we recognized.  We saw both the Houston and Dallas skylines, but a lot seemed to be filmed in Waco!  We were like "Great.  Just one more weird thing to associate with Waco!"

The Descendants -- another winner!!  I loved this movie!  Again, it's sad, but it was so so so good!!

So there you go!  Three amazing movies in one day...so fun!

DIY

So, this is my first DIY post of what I hope becomes many!  I am always dreaming up projects I want to do around my apartment, but actually getting around to doing them is a different story.  I've just finished a DIY that ended up being SO easy and fun and I love the way it turned out.  This may be motivation to do more projects soon!

Remember quite some time ago when I wrote about my love for the X-Bench?  And I mentioned how I wanted to buy the Target one and recover it?  Well, I bought it well over a year ago.  I was very impressed with it when I got it - it is well made and actually looked better in person than it did on the internet.  I've also enjoyed having an extra spot to set stuff on or to use as more seating when I have lots of people over.

I liked it the way it was, but I still wanted to spruce it up a bit.  It took me over a year to actually commit and get it done, but I finally spent the past couple of weeks working on it.  Picking the fabric was a tough choice and a process that I started months ago.  I knew I wanted it to be green because that would go with my bedding, but I was really nervous about how bold or not bold to go.  I ended up pinning a bunch of fabric images to Pinterest so I could look at them side by side.  From there I narrowed it down to 4 choices and ordered swatches so I could see them in person.  I was  leaning heavily towards a green chevron stripe from the beginning, but it took a while to pull the trigger!  I got the fabric about a month ago and finally got to recovering the top 2 weekends ago.  I am so glad that's the fabric I went with.  Even though I started to wonder if I was too far behind the game on chevron stripe.  Then, this week Emily Jones posted how she still loves the chevron stripe, so if she's still using it, I certainly can, too!  Her post definitely reaffirmed my choice!

After recovering the top, I sanded, primed, then painted the base with 2 coats of white.  I didn't like the sanding part very much, but the priming and painting were super quick and easy.

And here is the finished product!

I love, love, love the way it turned out.  It's exactly what I wanted.  In fact, I like it so much and it was SO easy that I kind of want to do it again!  Target doesn't sell this exact model anymore, but they have another x-bench (that I found for even cheaper at another store online).  I'm seriously thinking about buying that one and painting the base black and recovering the top with a pink or blue fabric (preferably pink AND blue, but I'm having trouble finding that) for my living area - as an ottoman/coffee table in front of my couch.  We'll see if I ever get around to it though!!

Oh, and I had to get rid of the rug you see in my before pics.  It never really went well there anyway, but now it really doesn't fit in.  I'm trying to sell it on craigslist, but no luck yet (but I did sell a printer for $30 last weekend that I got for FREE when I bought my laptop!!).  I'm hoping to replace the rug with something that goes better and that I like better soon!

Spain! Madrid - Day 1

Remember that time I went to Spain? NINE months ago?!  I can't believe I never blogged about it.  Unless I blog my pictures, they remain on my camera.  And it is time to get them off and cemented into the interwebs.  So, here we go!

Spain was wonderful.  I did not love it as much as I loved Greece or Ireland in 2008, but it was still a fantastic trip and vacation.  Michelle and I were there for 16 days and went to 5 cities.  We saw, did, and ate a lot!  I love doing the researching and trip planning.  I get too excited about a trip to not start reading about it months ahead of time and I also like to read about everything ahead of time so that I know and am familiar with the things I am seeing once I'm there.  I also have a huge fear of missing something I should have seen, so this helps me try to "control" that - ha!  We didn't have daily itineraries, but I knew what we needed to see in each city and I made all the reservations/bought any tickets we needed to secure ahead of time.

Even though we were very much on the go the entire time, I still came back feeling so refreshed and relaxed.  I really think that was the life I was meant to live :)  Since we did SO much, I'm going to have to split this trip into many posts....bear with me!

We started in Madrid.  It was probably my very favorite spot we went to in Spain.  I think of it as quiet and quaint and to me it has more of a European feel than, say, Barcelona.  Madrid is very clean and extremely easy to get around.  We never once had to wait for a train!  I don't know if it was luck, but every time we got to a train platform, our train would be pulling up.  The city is filled with narrow, winding pedestrian only streets that are lined with beautiful buildings that have gorgeous flower-filled window boxes.  These little narrow lanes lead to many different plazas/squares that are surrounded by restaurants and filled with people eating at tables outside.  I loved it!

We got to Madrid mid-morning on a Sunday...our flight over was delayed so we arrived later than planned and this put a bit of a kink in my day.  Our first stop was to be the Rastro Flea market which occurs every Sunday.  By the time we dropped our things at the hotel and made our way there, they were closing up.  We missed it.  I was disappointed because I was expecting to see some very cool things at this European market!!  Maybe it's best I didn't go and end up with a bunch of souvenirs on day 1 of the trip to have to lug all over Spain with me.  I hate when my plans don't work out, but we kept trucking and filled the day with many other fun things!

We wandered to the Plaza Mayor which is one of the most popular squares in Madrid.

We were there during the San Isidro festival - their biggest one, so it was pretty crazy and crowded with people.  We saw a lot of children and even some adults dressed in traditional costume.

We went to the Mercado de San Miguel.  I read a lot about this market and their tapas and was excited to see it!  It is a gorgeous space with lots of windows.

There were many different vendors, mostly selling tapas but also some beautiful fruit & vegetable stands.

The market was packed with people which made it quite hard to get around and to get to the counters to order tapas.  It was very crazy and chaotic!!

We did force our way up to one of the counters and had a bit of trouble ordering, but ended up with some cheese croquettes and fish croquettes.  We liked the cheese ones a lot...the fish, not so much.

From the market, we did some more walking and ended up at the Plaza near the Opera Metro station.  it is surrounded by pretty buildings and tons of hot pink flowers!  Jet lag was starting to hit both of us, so we took some time to lay in the sun.

Our day 1 adventure led us next to the Chueca neighborhood.  I read beforehand that the Sunday afternoon tradition in Madrid is to sit in the plazas drinking Vermouth.  I wanted to take part!  We went to a place called Antigua Casa Angel Siera, which is one of the oldest, most traditional bars in Spain.  They also have handmade Vermouth on tap.  It is very tiny, but beautiful!!

We took our Vermouth to the tables outside with everyone else.  Vermouth is like a spiced wined.  It is VERY strong.  I liked it okay, but Michelle didn't like it at all.  It was very thick and almost syrup like.  They served us pickled onions, garlic, olives and other goods to nibble on while we drank.

While we sat at our table outside, a whole slew of ladies dressed in 1980's fashions walked by us.  They seemed to be taping some sort of dance video up the street.  It was very entertaining to watch them!

After finishing our Vermouth experience, we walked down Calle de Fuencarral which is the main shopping drag in Chueca.  It was a pretty pedestrian-only street with great shops...but most were closed at this time.  

Next, we stopped by the Prado Museum.  It is free on Sundays, so we decided we should take advantage of that.  It was very crowded though!!  Really, too crowded.  We did make our way through one of the main areas of paintings and saw some Velasquez and Goya pieces.  The part we were in was mainly full of portraits, which was kind of dull.  

At this point, we were starting to get very tired, but also needed food.  We walked towards Plaza Santa Ana, which is filled with outdoor cafes that are wonderful for a tapas dinner.  We walked around the square looking at menus and selected a restaurant.  We were not disappointed.  I'm thinking this was my favorite meal in Spain, but since we're only on Day 1, I have a feeling I will say that about 10 more times as I go through and remember everywhere we ate!  We definitely ate well on this trip!  (But thankfully, we walked more that we ate..I actually lost quite a bit of weight on this trip)!

For our first real meal in Spain, we split garlic potatoes that were amazing!!  And we also ordered a platter of Iberian ham & Manchego cheese that was served with bread.  It was so, so good!!  I became and Iberian ham addict while in Spain (and had plenty of Manchego cheese as well).  They serve ham at all 3 meals of the day and there were many days where I had it for 2 meals!  Delish!

Day 1 ended up somewhat early for a good night's rest before venturing out on Day 2!  To be continued....

Happy Valentine's Day!!

I've been hosting my Bible Study at my apartment every Monday night since we rang in 2012.  It's been fun to have 14 ladies in my home each week (and a 15th via SKYPE!!), but we will be migrating back to Katie's next week since she is done being Glinda all across the USA (but, hopefully some more exciting stuff is coming thru the pipeline for her acting career!).  When we gathered tonight, I wanted to give the ladies a little something special for Valentine's Day.  And what's my favorite treat to celebrate a holiday or any occasion?  You got it...sugar cookies!!  So, I whipped up some cookies yesterday and pulled out my twine and cellophane bags and ended up with the perfect treat for these ladies who deserve to know they're special and loved!

After blessing the Bible Study crew, I had 6 bags leftover, so I did a bit of brainstorming and came up with 5 more friends I'd like to surprise tomorrow (I'll figure out the 6th tomorrow...depending on who I might be near)!  I hope to walk to the offices of Audra, Mindy, and Stacy at lunch to hand-deliver their cookies.  Hopefully, we can coordinate schedules for the hand-off!

I also decided to leave 2 packages on my upstairs neighbor, Christine's, door - one for her and one for my friend, Megan, who is her co-worker.  I had to get a little creative figuring out how to leave it attached to her door (I was afraid she would step on it if I left it on the ground) and also wanted to include a note explaining that one was intended for Megan!

I ended up putting both their cookie bags into a brown paper

bag with a hand-written note.  I used more red twine to create

a handle that I used to hang the bag from her door knob.

And I sealed the back of the paper sack with one of my

gift tag stickers that I got for FREE when I ordered my

Erin Condren planner (which is amazing, by the way).

Aren't these tags just perfect for this?!

This was a super cheap and easy way to bless 18 of my favorite women in life.  I only had to spend a few dollars for a new bottle of Vanilla because I was out and that will last thru many more batches of cookies.

Can we just take a minute to acknowledge the awesomeness of Christmas goods?  The twine I bought on December 26th, 2010 at Crate & Barrel for super cheap -- it's a huge roll that I've already used several times and I have a feeling it's going to last me my entire life!!  And the glittery like sprinkles I used were part of a Christmas sprinkle set that I got at Brookie's Christmas party last year...her mom actually won them and gave them to me (oh, how I love Brooke & her mom!!).  Don't you agree that both the twine and the pink/white sprinkles easily pass for Valentine's Day?  And what about the red sharpie I used on the paper sack?!  A stocking stuffer from Santa this year.  Love it!