Words to live by!

Happy Weekend Everyone!

Homemade Baby Blankets!!

My first ever baby blanket for my nephew Connor Thomas

One of the benefits of working in the fashion industry (aside from the discounts) is working alongside some seriously talented and creative designers.  I recently discovered that some of the designers in my office held a 'knitting circle' and was immediately intrigued.  After firing off hundreds of questions to the girls they finally invited me in and offered their assistance! Six months and three baby blankets later I am proud to say I am now a knitter! I am am completely obsessed with my new hobby and it has started at the perfect time, right when many of my friends are expecting to be new mama's!  My first blanket was very special, it was for my baby nephew Connor and is seen in the picture above.  This was made with a baby friendly wool yarn that is washable and was very thick to help me learn the basic knit stitch.  My sister in law was floored when I gifted the blanket to her and I hope it will keep baby Connor nice and warm for years to come!

My second and third blankets were for my best friends twin girls Flossie & Eliza and are seen above.  I went with the same uneven stripe theme but this time in girly pink colors! This yarn is a cashmere blend and is SUPER soft.  Not as thick as the first yarn so these took a bit longer but, well worth it.  The blankets are so beautiful and colorful themselves that you don't even need to wrap them.  What I did was took some of the leftover yarn and used it to tie a bow around the blankets.  The bow serves two purposes; it looks pretty and it can fix and snags in the blanket as the years pass.

Use leftover yarn to tie a bow around the blankets and you don't even need to wrap them!

Now for the kicker, the little munchkins snuggling with their homemade baby blankets from aunt Barb!!

Baby Eliza 

Baby Flossie

Joi Gin Hong Kong

Hong Kong Harbor view at dusk

Since I left New York with a view from my apartment, I thought I'd leave Hong Kong with a view from my hotel.  Well, not exactly BUT this is a view of HK from Kowloon, where I stayed.  The HK skyline is beautiful, especially at night.  I took this photo from the Star Ferry terminal on Saturday night while I was waiting for some friends to head over to Lan Kwai Fong for some dinner and a lot of drinks! I am so happy to be home and happy to say my jet lag is finally dissipating!

Good Bye NYC

I am on my way to China! First stop in Hong Kong with a connection to Shanghai, then back to Hong Kong for a week! I am very excited to get over there and get some work done but will miss this view from my apartment:

Stay tuned for pics from the far east!

Showered with Love

Here I am with my beautiful sisters, Kim on the left and Meredith on the right!

My Maids of Honor, yes I have three, and my mom threw me an incredible bridal shower.  Everything about it was perfect! We had an impeccable day and ALL of my 14 bridesmaids were able to make it up to celebrate.  I felt truly loved and showered with happiness.  The house and backyard looked so cute, I was floored at all the tiny details.  They printed out and framed lots of pictures of Joe and I and set them up around the house.  My sister-in-law had custom napkins made as seen below that I adored! Don't you just love them?

The generosity of my friends and family was incredible, I was showered with gifts from my registry, here I am below with my china, it is subtle but elegant and can match back to a lot pieces and table settings.  If you want a closer look you can find it at Bloomingdales, Monique Lhullier China!   

The food was catered by Kitchen Kabaret and it was delicious but, it was the desserts that I really need to talk about.  The cake was done by my dear friend Kristan and it was gorgeous.  The most beautiful cake I have ever seen, so chic and so yummy.  It was red velvet inside.  She also made the favors which were the cutest cake pops in our wedding colors.  Don't you love the tag too? You can find more of Kristan's incredible desserts here Kreated by Kristan! 

What I wore:

I loved my shower outfit, I felt very 'bride-like'.  Whatever that means! I guess I loved wearing white but I dressed it up with some bright colored accessories.  My dress was Shoshanna it was in a deauville summer tweed and the perfect silhouette for this amazing Kate Spade bib necklace.  I also wore Kate Spade pumps, they were in a bright blue to match the necklace, you can see them peaking out below:

It was the perfect day, I loved being surrounded by my beautiful friends and family.  I am so lucky and count my blessings everyday! 

The day was finished off with a visit from Joe, isn't he handsome!

Sheryl Sandberg: Get on a Rocketship Whenever You Get the Chance

Sheryl Sandberg HBS Commencement Speech

Sheryl Sandberg is the COO of Facebook.  She is an amazing woman, intelligent, inspiring, successful and beautiful.  She recently gave the commencement speech at Harvard Business School (Sheryl Sandberg HBS Commencement Speech) and I had to share it! Reading about how she got to where she is, how she stepped outside the box, took risks and believed in herself is truly inspiring.  Made me think, when was the last time I did something without second guessing myself.  I am good at my job, I am successful and I know my coworkers respect me but, would they respect me even more if I took a few more risks and was a more confident in my decisions?  She really opened my eyes to the fact that exuding confidence and believing in yourself forces others to believe in you!

If you are inspired by this speech, if you are woman who aspires to be successful in the workplace I also suggest you read Mika Brzezinski's book Knowing Your Value.  I wish I read this book when I was 22 years old and starting my first job.  Just read it, you will be inspired and you will realize that women need to be empowered in the work place, we need to ask for or even better yet, take what we want because no one is going to give it to us! 

Date Night

Date night at Maialino

Joe and I had a date night last Friday, we went to Maialino at the Gramercy Park Hotel.  We rarely ever leave our neighborhood for date night so heading up to Gramercy Park was a ton of fun! I love the area and the park (although I've never been inside).  Before we moved to our neighborhood last fall I always thought I wanted to live right here, on Irving Place...it really is a great NYC spot.   All in all was a perfect spot, food was delish, company even better and we drank this awesome bottle of red wine; which to our surprise the Waiter recommended to us instead of the more expensive bottle we had picked out.  

What I wore:

Here I am in front of Gramercy Park wearing my go to Eleanor Blouse from Joie, Emett Stripe Pants from Tory Burch and these unbelievable cute Beverly Pumps from Tory.  These shoes are definitely a splurge but they are just so cute! I have been wearing them with crop pants and skirts this season but, they would also be a great way to dress up a cute pair of skinny jeans.  I love to mix and match stripes and polka dots and these shoes are the perfect, subtle way to do so!