I just found a new dream...

magic on Grove Street in the West Village
...to live on Grove Street one day.

I've walked it before, sure. Seen the famous 'Friends' apartment. Seen the adorable but hard-to-get-into restaurant, The Little Owl. Been swept away by the charm and loveliness of this perfect West Village setting. But last night it hit my heart with such longing and force. It's pure magic. Just a beautiful, charming, perfect street, like something out of a storybook, and I want to live there one day!

the 'Friends' apartment building, above the blue awning of the Little Owl
Part of what added to the magic and put it on my List of Dreams is something I couldn't capture with my camera because of lack of lighting. But tucked away between two buildings on the south side of the street (between Bedford and Hudson) is an almost hidden gate, not even really noticeable upon first glance. The only reason I saw it was because I was literally hanging out in the middle of the street, taking pictures and marveling at the way the wind picked up all these tiny white flower petals and swirled them around (only adding to the magic, of course), when all of the sudden a man came out from behind that secret gate with his dog. That's when I saw it: Grove Court. A whole little, nooky magical neighborhood tucked away behind the other buildings. It was like this entire secret village! There were these adorable homes with little porches and painted shutters and gardens and Oh. My. Gosh. It was just dripping with cuteness and charm. (I found some good shots of it here and here on Flickr).

While it might cost and small fortune (okay, who am I kidding, a very LARGE fortune) to live there, it's still going on the List. And if I don't make it into Grove Court then I will just take one of these lovely brick homes with the pretty shutters and flower boxes, pleaseandthankyou, because I am SURE they are very affordable (ha!):


The end.
(have a lovely, magic-filled weekend).

ps - yes, i know i completely missed my thursday post. i intended to do it last night when i got home but it somehow got very late & i was very tired and...well, i just didn't feel like it. my apologies.
pps - also, please forgive these less than stellar, grainy night shots. my camera struggles in night mode.

A Night in the Village.

John's Pizzeria on Bleecker
It was a chilly New York day, but a lovely New York night warmed by the company of my husband and a good friend. First there was live music at the Red Lion, then some yummy cheesy goodness at New York's famed John's Pizzeria in the Village. Mmmm. There's a reason it's so famous.

weekend recap.

washington square arch
i am choosing to focus this post on the amazingly lovely and relaxing weekend that i had rather than the horrendously rainy & awful morning that started my week today (monsoon-like conditions here in the big apple this morning that literally snapped my super-duper, turbo "wind-proof" umbrella like a twig. not pretty, people).

so. the weekend. it was GREAT. friday night included an excellent movie and a homemade meal -- just what i needed. saturday was sleeping in and hanging out in pjs until well into the afternoon, when dan and i finally decided to go out "exploring."

this is seriously one of my favorite things to do on a free day -- just walk out the front door with no plan, no agenda, and let the city lead us. on this particular day, the city led us to the village (where the above photo was taken), chelsea & the meatpacking district (a neighborhood i really haven't explored much).

while wandering around chelsea, we stumbled upon highline park, which i've been wanting to check out, and it was a-m-a-z-i-n-g. an elevated, urban park in the sky. brilliant. (can't wait to go back when the weather gets warmer). and in the meatpacking district we passed so many cool restaurants and cute streets that i had never seen before -- i felt like i was exploring a new city b/c this was unchartered territory for me.

we ended up at an excellent restaurant for dinner -- Barbuto -- which was low-key, charming & hip with amazingly good food. we had a perfect view of the open kitchen from our table, and apparently the chef is somewhat of a "name" in the food biz. even though we'd never heard of him, we snapped this picture of him preparing meals for good measure:


throughout the evening i found myself repeatedly saying to dan: "i feel so happy right now. i am just so happy." it was a good, good new york night.

sunday morning was spent lazing around, gearing up for my time in the studio to record vocals for the cast recording of "Bellevue Sketches" that afternoon. we spent 6+ hours in the studio recording and re-recording our parts & various sound effects. even though it was long and tiring, it was actually a really fun time. i loved seeing everyone again and it was inspiring to be inside such a fancy-pants NYC recording studio.

and there you have it. the weekend in a nutshell. let's hope tomorrow morning starts out better than today did.

Village love.

a cafe in the village
It's been a lazy day of being at home & enjoying the holiday (and a day off work) and so I nearly forgot to post a picture today. This one is from my romp around the West Village this weekend with some fun friends who were in town visiting. I love having a free day to aimlessly wander around charming New York neighborhoods (such as this one) with good friends. It's good for my heart. Lots of photos were taken so you may be seeing more in upcoming posts :)

Still holding on...

greenwich village: evidently i'm not the only one still holding on to christmas
happy thursday. my day was eh. how was yours?

the highlights:
~i got to spend some time in the village, which is always lovely. and they were still sporting some serious holiday cheer which made me smile.
~i got a much-needed, long overdue haircut at my favorite new york salon.
~dinner with my husband at whym.

the lowlights:
~i was verbally abused by an angry postal worker at the grand central post office while running an errand for my boss. i do not like mean people.
~the trains were ridiculously crowded and sardine-like today. boo.
~work was a bit blah & slow, but at least it left time for some day-dreaming and etsy-planning.

overall, not a bad day, per se. i think the post office 'incident' threw a wrench in my day & made it a bit bluer than usual. again i say, i don't like mean people! why do they have to be so......mean?!