So well over a month ago my friend Jessica and I both instantly saw that our favourite home reno bloggers, John and Sherry Petersik from Young House Love, were doing a book tour and stopping in Toronto.  Specifically at West Elm, which is one of my favourite stores in the city!  So we planned to go down, get our books signed, and bathe in the geeky awkwardness of meeting pseudo-celebs.  I have mentioned and linked to them numerous times already on this blog, so I was so excited to see them FOR REAL!  We know so much about them that it felt like we knew them already, and they completely lived up to my expectations.

I picked Jess up after work and we headed into the city in the rain and traffic, and got there about an hour before they were due to arrive, planning to grab a coffee, wander around, and be close to the front of the line.  We walked in and saw the line...that kept going...and going...until we were at the back of the store.  So it seemed like it would be a long night, but shortly after we got there we were served hot cocoa and cookies and it was lovely.  They arrived at 6pm right on time and started the signing.  They were planning to stay until everyone got their chance to talk to them - they were only supposed to be there 6-8pm, but were planning on letting anyone through that was in line by 8 (which probably meant they were going to be there until closer to 10pm).  

When we finally got to see them, they were just like they are on their videos - sweet, chatty, and very friendly.  From listening to the people in front of me, they honestly tried to talk to everyone about something.  I just stood there dumbly smiling while they signed my book, saying that John's mom's name is Kathleen, and Jessica chatted a bit with them...I just kept smiling.  Haha...so awkward.  Anyway, we were happy to have our signatures and went to dinner across the way at Mildred's Temple Kitchen (which was so yummy - gnocchi poutine - delish).

Here are the pictures from late July to Labour Day weekend that I took on my phone:

First Row: 1 - Matt's birthday and anniversary presents wrapped up (he got a coffee grinder and gravity filter for his birthday). 2- Out for dinner at Pachuco - a great Mexican place at Danforth & Broadview.  3 - Meg's baby shower with the pool girls - such a lovely afternoon!

Second Row: 1 - Anniversary dinner - we intended to go out but after being in Vancouver for a few days, we were exhausted!  2 - Our anniversary gifts - year 2 is cotton, so we went to Banana and picked out something for each other. 3 - Rainy weekend at the cottage meant torturing Tabby a bit...put him under a laundry basket...he just stared at me pleading, so I let him out, and he just ran away.  Stupid uncuddly cat.

Third Row: 1 - Figures the sun comes out just as we leave the cottage.  2- Matt ran 21 km as part of his training program for the marathon next month.  It was rough on him.  So of course I photographed him while weakened.  3 - More painting begins while we were in NYC!

Fourth Row: 1 - Prepping at school - beautiful quiet school.  2 - Teaching Marta how to use Instagram.  3 - Labour Day cottage weekend - this is barbequed caesar salad Matt made!

So I finally got around to blogging.  I'm sorry to all my (7) loyal readers.  Once we got back from New York it was back to school mode with prepping all week, actually going into school, then trying to relax at the cottage (which turned out to be somewhat hard when you have the worst cold ever - thanks to my darling husband who had it earlier in the week).  Feeling better today although still a bit sniffly with a low raspy voice - hopefully for the first day of school tomorrow I am back to myself - so I thought I would do so blogging on my Labour Day off.

So this is the story of our New York City trip.  We were there for 5 days, 4 nights, and did a lot of sight-seeing.  We were exhausted every night!  Some pictures I used the DSLR, some were on my phone.  It's hard not to seem touristy when you have a big camera slung around your body, but oh well, everyone was exactly the same as us.

We arrived at LaGuardia in New York around 1pm and headed to our hotel.  We stayed at Hotel Mela on 44th between 6th and 7th.  It's a small boutique hotel, but it was right in the heart midtown and was pretty and clean, though small.  Since our hotel check-in time was 3, and the room wasn't ready, we wandered around Times Square (sensory overload) and random surrounding streets.  I also forgot to unstrap my neck pillow from my purse, so though we had stored our luggage, I was the image of tourist with a stupid neck pillow, wandering New York City, for a good hour.  We stopped at Magnolia Bakery for a cupcake, which was really just okay (I had red velvet).  Finally it was 3pm so we could check in and freshen up.

Once checked in, we headed out for some refreshment (it was very hot outside).  We found the Beer Authority, which conveniently was located beside the Port Authority, about a 5-minute walk from our hotel.  We sat on the rooftop patio which overlooked the New York Times building and the bustling city below.  I even had a blueberry-infused beer (which tasted more like beer than blueberry, but was still pretty good).

That night we headed to the West Village to meet our friend Kyle and his girlfriend Jillian, for dinner at a sushi place called Amber.  It was really good sushi - between the four of us we had 10 rolls, some edamame, a free dessert and 4 bottles of wine.  Highly recommended!  We also went to a bar called Willfie & Nell, which I probably would have really liked had I been about 5-8 years younger, haha.  Very loud and crowded for my taste but I can see the appeal for others.  I didn't take any pictures...because I didn't want to seem like a tourist in front of them, haha.  I wish I did.  I think I made up for it over the next few days anyway.

Our second day started off with brunch at a place close to the hotel called Maison.  Great prices, quick, and good French-inspired food.  We then were off to live out our geeky 30 Rock fantasies of seeing Kenneth and Jack and Liz at the NBC Studio Tour and Top of the Rock.  On the studio tour, we saw Brian Williams nightly set, the Jimmy Fallon set, and the SNL set (really big!).  It was a typical touristy thing to do, but I still liked it.  Right after we went up to the top of Rockefellar Center and saw the city from above.  It was a good alternative to the Empire State Building.

After the 30 Rock stuff, we decided to walk up 5th and Park Avenue a bit and headed to FAO Schwarz.  It was busy but a lot of fun seeing all the tops and acting like 5 year olds for a few minutes.  We saw the Lego land and the giant piano and tonnes of stuffed animals.  They had a Harry Potter area too, but since there were no magic wands, I was not impressed.  I almost got a geeky science puzzle as well, but figured it would be hard to get back to Toronto with it.

That night we had some Italian food before our night on Broadway.  We went to a place called Scarlatto, which was in the basement of another building but surprisingly bright and best of all, it had great pasta.  Dinner was quick, and then we headed to Eugene O'Neill Theatre to see The Book of Mormon.  It. Was. Hilarious.  I was laughing so hard I was crying at some points.  It is very off-side (makes sense - the guys from South Park wrote it), definitely Rated R, but it was really funny.  Not recommended for any sensitive Christian people - it offends pretty much everyone but it was all in good fun.  It is coming to Toronto in 2013!  Once it was done, we had a quick walk around Times Square at night (even more sensory overload, but pretty spectacular), had a drink at the pub beside the hotel called The Long Room, and called it a night.

Our third day we decided to wander around all the neighbourhoods.  We started off with brunch at Pastis in the Meatpacking District.  Really good brunch, and it was really busy.  I had some brioche french toast - yum!  From there we walked along the High Line, which is an old railway track that has been converted to a garden pathway that goes from the Meatpacking north through Chelsea along the west side.  We then found Greenwich Village and wandered around that area, and then got to SoHo, and did some more walking.  We had lunch there at a place called Cipriani.  It was expensive, and we didn't know that beforehand - Matt's rash decision, haha.  We just had some sandwiches, which were good, but expensive for what they were.

Once we couldn't take the heat anymore, we decided to head uptown to the American Museum of Natural History.  We got there just over 2 hours before it closed, thinking that would be more than enough time.  Then I discovered Matt has never been in a planetarium, so we had to do the Hayden Planetarium which took up a half hour of seeing the stars (although it was quite educational), and then we quickly looked at the dinosaurs, some apes, and of course the big WHALE!

For dinner we went to Murray Hill to have dinner at Les Halles, which is where Anthony Bourdain used to be the head chef.  Since Matt and I watch No Reservations whenever it is on, we figured we would try out one of his places, and it didn't disappoint.  Great french food and excellent wine.

We saved Sunday to wander around Central Park.  We started off with breakfast at a little diner called The Flame Restaurant.  We didn't know it was a diner, but it sort of looks like a Denny's, but the food is a lot more fresh.  I had a waffle with loads of blueberries, bananas, and strawberries (called the Red, White and Blue Waffle).  It was cheap and quick, and then we were off to the park.  We actually wanted to ride bikes around the park, but it was a beautiful day and every one was rented out.  So we walked a bit and saw Strawberry Fields, the row boat area, lots of little bridges, the little sailboat pond, and some turtles.

Once we were done in the park, we went for lunch on the Upper East Side at Serafina - more Italian - we split a pizza and had a drink.  By then my new boat shoes were pinching my toes so we wandered back to the hotel.  Along the way we saw some incredible (and very expensive) apartments, and The Plaza Hotel.  Once I changed into some flip flops, we went out to see the New York Public Library (yay books), Grand Central Station, and the Empire State Building (just the outside, we didn't go up).  We just looked around the basics of all of these, the library was closed but we originally planned to go in the following day (didn't end up having time, sort of).

For dinner we went to the Upper West Side to Rosa Mexicano.  They had the most incredible guacamole served in a giant bowl.  I could have eaten it for hours.  The best part was that it was right across from the Lincoln Center, and there was a Metropolitan Opera playing on a screen for thousands - we could here it throughout the meal.  Of course afterward we walked over there to see a bit of it.  We grabbed a cab back to midtown, and saw a bit more of the Times Square area after grabbing a coffee at Caffe Bene.  

Our last day started off with Dean & Deluca - remember that's where Felicity worked?  We then headed downtown to see the World Trade Center (lots of rebuilding is occurring), Wall Street, and the Stock Exchange.  We wanted to walk around TriBeCa, but it started to pour rain.  So we grabbed a cab to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and ran in the pouring rain to the front door only to find it was closed.  By that time I was soaked and was no way going into it anyway in a wet sundress and squeaky shoes.  So we ran back in the rain to the bottom of the stairs to get a cab and back to the hotel.  We had actually checked out at this point but had stored our luggage, and changed in the gym area into our airport clothes.  We had to be there around 3pm anyway, and it was one, so we had lunch at The Long Room, and of course, the sun came out and it was a beautiful day once again.  So with an hour to kill we again wandered around Times Square, and went to M&M's World (so many colour M&Ms).  Finally we headed to the airport, only to find out our flight was cancelled, and we had to wait an extra 3 hours - 6 hours later we were off - it was the LONGEST WAIT EVER, but we made it home safe, and spent the next day recovering from our crazy busy few days.

Overall it was a great trip.  Really REALLY busy, and we could have spent another week there easily and taken our time with things.  This is definitely a city where we will return multiple times, and hopefully explore new places each time!

I didn't take a lot of pictures this day - didn't have a good viewing angle during the ceremony to get clear pictures without standing in front of everyone, but here are a few shots from the night at Shaughnessy Golf & Country Club:

Row 1: Getting nails done in preparation for Vancouver at Tips Nail Bar, first pretty leaf latte from Coffee Bar in Gastown, and amazing porchetta sandwich from Meat & Bread - all on our first day out west!

Row 2-5: Shots of the Grouse Grind - 2.9 km straight up a mountain - took 89 minutes and it was pretty hard - another first day activity!

Row 6-7: "Hell" sign from Bin 941 - great tapas place we went to on the first night (also went here on my birthday in March), rest of shots from Stanley Park and along the walk to 3rd beach (where I spent Friday while Matt was golfing with the boys).

Row 8: Cable playing jenga at Guilt & Co on friday night, other two of us each getting ready for Adam & Emily's wedding.

Row 9: Shot from my SLR at the wedding at Shaughnessy Golf & Country Club (the only one of us together that night), the "Love is Sweet" candy box filled with salt water toffee, swedish berries, and navy M&M's that I ate the day after, and Matt relaxing at Chill Winston's Sunday evening.

Row 10: The water drop down by the water, last latte from Cafe Medina on Monday, and belated birthday cupcakes from the Cupcake Girls shop on Thurlow!

**Not pictured Vancouver activities: dinner at Revel Room on Friday night, brunch at Catch 122 on Saturday morning, dinner at La Casita on Sunday night, and some anniversary shopping on Robson for our 2nd year (the gift is cotton) at J. Crew and Banana Republic on Monday before we left.  As you can see we did a lot of good eating but also a lot of walking and hiking to try and balance it all out between!**

*Wedding post to come for Adam and Emily's wedding, though I didn't take that many pictures*

*Wrote this post last night and updated it a bit just now*

Well it's just under a month into the summer vacation, so what have I done?  Well, for the long weekend we went to the cottage.  See more pictures of that here.

Then from Tuesday-Saturday after that I tried my best to not go crazy from boredom.  I pretty much did all the little things on Tuesday - cleaned the house, organized my school stuff, got groceries, and went to the gym.  By the time Matt got home I was wired and bouncing off the walls.  The next few days were similar, so I immersed myself into bad TV and blogging and scouring Pinterest (more on that soon).  A few days before the trip I did get my nails and toes done - I went to Tips Nail Bar on Danforth and it was a great place.  The women that work there are so friendly and I will definitely be going back there this week!  Here are my beachy toes via Instagram (that's right, I now have an iPhone, finally!):

Then the trip took us away to the Dominican for the week.  Before I left school, I casually mentioned to the summer school principal that if they really needed a teacher for science, I could be available.  Well, it turns out that they needed me, because I got many calls and emails throughout the trip, and I ended up getting grade 10 science (my usual summer course) for the next two weeks.  I had the Monday we got back off, but then on Tuesday I was back to school.  Typical summer kids - not bad, but annoying - 6 hours a day with most kids would do this to me, though.  

Last Thursday I had dinner with Jessica, Carolyn, and Stephanie at Leslie Jones on Queen.  We had a good meal and caught up - last saw Jess and Carolyn at Hixmas in December, and Steph not in a year, which is so sad.  It was good to see all the girls, and found out Jessica moved and of course has her little baby Sophia - I'm planning on visiting her for the first time in the next few weeks!  

The whole weekend was really a Leslieville/Riverside weekend - Friday Matt and I went to Goods & Provisions for dinner (SUCH good food), and then to see Batman (very good too).  Saturday we had brunch at The Commissary - had an apple and brie french toast on a croissant - wow - it was yummy.  We walked around the street for a while and went into all the furniture stores and antique shops.  There were a few things I liked but didn't love enough to purchase.  After all that food, there were a few days of hardcore working out that followed.

Tuesday Megan came over and we gossiped about The Bachelorette (yay Jef, ohh Ari - that breakup was super awkward), boys, and our summers.  We had some sushi, and went to see Spiderman in 3D - much better than the Toby Maguire ones - Andrew Garfield is a way better spider! 

Now it is Thursday night, and I'm not feeling so great.  I swear Marta, if you got me sick, I am NOT going to bring you Starbucks tomorrow (PS it is now Friday and I'm actually feeling much better)!  The exam was today, and of my 13 kids, only one failed (which is better than some years), and now I only have to be there tomorrow until 10AM to give kids their marks, give in all my paperwork, and pick up my paycheque (PS once again it is now Friday and I am DONE - yay summer!)

What will I do for the rest of the month?  Well Sunday is Meghan's baby shower at The Lakehouse.  Next week will be a boring week again, but I'm hoping to get some more cleaning, organizing, and gym-ing done, plus some cooking adventures!  Next Thursday we leave for Vancouver, and we're there until Tuesday, for Adam and Emily's wedding on the 4th (also Matt's birthday - must get him a gift soon - PS I did that today at Yorkdale).  When we get back, it is our 2nd wedding anniversary on the 7th.  Year 2 is cotton...he's probably getting a t-shirt (PS got him something today, haha).  Then who knows for the last 3 weeks of summer...some painting, decorating, gardening (oh how I've been avoiding all the dead plants), and relaxing!  Oh yeah, and at some point I'll prep for my upcoming school year.

Okay, done with the "dear diary" style blog post.  Have a great weekend!

Here are the pictures from after Dawn and Matt's wedding ceremony and onto the reception in the Centennial Room of the Liberty Grand. It was a great night of dancing, drinking, great food, and great company, all for such a sweet friend and colleague.

Yesterday Matt and I went to a wedding for one of my colleagues and friends, Dawn.  She was married at St. Bernadette's parish in Ajax and had a beautiful ceremony.  The rain held off and the overcast skies created great pops of colour from the bridesmaids eggplant dresses and greenery.  Here are some pictures I took of the first half of the day.