this is what nine mornings can do.

this was nine mornings ago, when i kept my promise to myself and went to the park before work:

and this was the same scene this morning: 

i just can't get enough of these yellows, reds, and oranges.  

autumn, please don't leave me.

weekend forecast.

my aunt glenda has come to play and i am 

thrilled. i foresee a weekend full of walks in

 the park, dinners out, and crisp, chilly weather 

all the days long.

fall left me for a minute this week when it warmed up 

around here, but it is back now and i think (hope) 

it is here to stay. 

happy weekend!

xo

i (almost) can't handle how pretty my neighborhood is.

after my dad and christy left on sunday, i took myself on my first ikea adventure.

three hours, one rug, and a bag full of pillows later, i was riding the subway home when a lady sat down next to me and asked if i have a new apartment.

when i told her that i just moved to the city, she responded:

"i am going to say to you about new york what hemingway said about paris in a moveable feast. if you are lucky enough to have lived in new york as a young woman, then wherever you go for the rest of your life, it stays with you."

i love that a stranger on the subway quoted hemingway to me and i love that someone who has lived here for years is so deeply excited for a newcomer. new yorkers truly love their city. 

people want to be here. rent is terribly expensive and a lot of life's little conveniences are absent (no dishwasher, no a/c, laundromats instead of a washer/dryer), yet no one cares. 

because it's new york.

in my seven weeks here, i have met one native. everyone else is adventuring. 

living in new york was never on my list. it also never wasn't. and now that i am doing it, i would never have wanted to miss it.

i'm so excited that my kitchen stuff has arrived that i am inventing reasons to host dinner parties.

what do you do when it's raining and almost halloween and you have a handful of new girlfriends and a new apartment, too?

you make a big batch of homemade chili and cornbread, invite those girlfriends over to that new apartment, and watch hocus pocus. 

and you don't bother with dessert because you know that one of those girlfriends will.

**p.s. in case you are wondering about recipes, i used this recipe for cornbread (thank you, mrs. harding) and angie used this recipe for dessert. and this is how you make the chili, courtesy of christy:

3 large onions, chopped
4 cloves garlic, minced
1 T olive oil
4 lbs lean ground beef
2-28 oz cans crushed tomatoes
3-15 oz cans tomato sauce
2 c water
4 T chili powder
2 T dry mustard
1 t ground cumin
2 t oregano
1 T rosemary
3 T curry powder
1 T cinnamon
1 T cocoa
2 T paprika
1 T salt
1-39 oz can kidney beans
1 T sugar
1 dash cayenne pepper
2 c shredded sharp cheddar
1 large sweet onion, chopped

In a large pot, saute onion and garlic in olive oil until soft. Add ground beef and cook until meat is no longer pink. Add all remaining ingredients, except cheese and sweet onion. More chili powder may be added, if desired. Bring chili to a boil, reduce heat, and let simmer for one hour. Ladle into bowls and sprinkle with cheese, sweet onion, sour cream, etc.

**Notes: This recipe serves 12, so I cut it in half. Also, I don't love/don't own curry, so I left it out. Enjoy!

this view never gets old.

manhattan at night looks like someone spilled glitter on lego land. it takes my breath away every time.

weekend.

my parents came up for the weekend to help me settle into my new apartment. we packed a lot into three days...amazing dinners in hell's kitchen, a walk down wall street, a staten island ferry ride, and coffeehouse hopping. 

and just when i think i can't love this place more, my family comes to town and i do. family just makes everything more fun.

sleepy hollow.

thanks to angie's incredible planning skills, weeks of anticipation finally paid off when a group of us rode the train up to sleepy hollow on friday night and took halloween festivities to a new level. we explored the town, checked out the old dutch church graveyard where part of the legend is set, and saw thousands of jack o lanterns at the blaze. 

the jack o lanterns were displayed according to theme, from spiders and a web to mummies and a pyramid. there were also dinosaurs, butterflies hanging from trees, fish and a pirate ship, and celtic knots. 

my favorite? the beehive. it was unbelievably detailed, down to the tiniest bee.

there was hot chocolate, there were scarves, there were homemade blondies for the train ride (thanks, amanda!), and the moon was even full. a halloween celebration doesn't get better than that. 

**note: i borrowed (stole?) the group shots from angie's blog. her husband, klane, was kind enough to take them for us!