The Most Interesting Store in NYC

While in NYC my family and I stumbled upon this little truck-store in Little Italy

It is hard to tell, but all these items were placed on an open truck that can roam through the city

How fantastic is that elephant?!?!

I love the fun goodies you stumble across in NYC

What has been your favorite NYC find??

A little NYC shopping

        This past weekend I headed to NYC for a mini family reunion.  It was a rocky start getting to the airport in Pittsburgh, the roads were completely covered in ice and my car was all over the road, but I made it, and after a rough morning, a little Soho retail therapy was necessary. 


   I love shopping in Soho, because there are always so many cute boutiques and shops that I cannot find in Pittsburgh. 

First up: UNI QLO

Uni Qlo is a Japanese based company, and currently their only American stores are in NYC.  I had never been in a Uni Qlo before, but my dad had heard a lot about it as an "up and coming" company so we checked it out. 

I was really impressed with the store, I would compare it to an H & M, but a lot more classic then trendy.   The prices were super affordable and they had great staple pieces in a variety of colors including jeans, button downs, etc.

Next up:  C Wonder

C Wonder is owned by J. Christopher Burch ( Tory Burch's ex hubs), I had checked out their website before, but had never been into their store, and I was super impressed.  The clothes are amazing and  preppy, similar to Tory Burch, but much more affordable.  I also loved their home goods. 

Monogram shop...yes please.

Other fun Soho faves:

 Crate and Barrel's CB 2 always has great home goods

A Chinese market with amazing goodies inside.

What are your favorite NYC shops?

Jason Wu for Target

Ladies and Gentlemen on February 5, 2012 Target will start carrying the Jason Wu for Target line.

  I am obsessed.

I cannot get enough of the color block/striping combo

Super fun dress for spring

I am loving the fun vintage vibe.

Mark your calendars!!

Book Suggestions Please!!

   This weekend I have my book club meeting and we are deciding which book to read next and I need some ideas. 

We just finished reading The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Society, and I loved it!  If you like Historical Fiction it's a perfect read for you.

My cousin RPS suggested The Paris Wife, and it looks amazing, but I want to bring a couple suggestions in case some of our members have already read this.

At this point I think most people have already read the popular books such as: The Hunger Games and The Help, so I need some new ideas.

What books have you loved?

What books has your book club read?

Yum! Stuffed Peppers

The other night DFH and I made a delicious Stuffed Pepper Recipe.  It was actually a Paula Deen Food Network Recipe, but suprisingly, it is pretty healthy. 

Ingredients

• 4 large red peppers  ( I used green)
• 3/4 pound ground chuck
• 1/2 pound ground pork  --> we used 1.25 lbs of ground turkey instead of the chuck/pork combo
• 1 medium onion, chopped
• 2 garlic cloves minced
• 2 teaspoons beef boullion granules
• 2 teaspoons House seasoning, recipe follows 
• 1 cup cooked rice
• 1/2 cup jarred cheese and salsa
• 1/2 cup sour cream  --> I left out the Sour Cream
• 1 cup diced tomatoes
• 1/2 cup chopped green onion tops
• 1 tablespoon soy sauce
• 1 cup hot water

House Seasoning:

• 1 cup salt
• 1/4 cup black pepper
• 1/4 cup garlic powder

Set over to 350 degrees

Using a hot skillet, saute the ground turkey, onion, garlic, 1 teaspoon of bouillon granules, and house seasoning together. Saute until onions become translucent.

While the meat is cooking cut the peppers in half lengthwise, leaving the stems intact, and halving them also. Remove the seeds and ribs inside the peppers.

Add the rice, cheese, tomatoes, green onions, sour cream and soy sauce to the skillet

,

Stuff the mixture into the peppers.

In a small bowl, mix the hot water and the remaining bouillon granules. Pour this mixture into a shallow casserole large enough to hold all of the peppers. Place the stuffed peppers in the dish, cover with foil and bake for 25 to 35 minutes

Remove the foil and spoon the juice from bottom of the casserole over the top of the peppers.

Bake for an additional 10 to 15 minutes

We chose to add a little cheese at the end as well.

This meal was delicious and extra good left over.

Sass up your house with Embellished Letters

      This is a real simple project and perfect to add some life to a book shelf, wreath, etc.   Plus it is fun that you can get as creative as you want with it. 

All you need is:

1. The material of your choice, I chose a hemp like string which is a thick string/rope for a neutral color ( but other great options are fabric, ribbon, glitter, etc).

2. Hot Glue Gun

3 If you want to add any additional flowers etc. material for that.  I purchased flowers on Clearance from Michael's, but it would look pretty to make your own felt roses to add to the letters which I discuss HERE.



4.  Letter of your choice:  I found white wooden letters at Michael's and they come in a variety of sizes, but I am sure most craft stores would have them. 

    Basically there is no right or wrong way to do this, you can wrap/decorate the letter any way you want.

 I started wrapping the string around the bottom of the letter to make sure all angles were covered up by the string.  I would add hot glue every so often to keep the string in place. 

I used the letters in my home to distract from an ugly window, but I would love to make smaller ones to hang on wreath, or a embellish a larger letter to hang on the wall.

Our Awesome Salt Lamp

  For Christmas this year DFH's Sister and Brother in Law gave us a Salt Lamp.  I had never seen one of these before, but they are so cool and look pretty all lit up.  DFH's sister works in massage therapy and she informed us that not only do these lamps look pretty, but the salt helps purify the air!!! How cool is that !?!?!

   Basically a light bulbs sits under all of the salt rocks and it illuminates. 

   I did a little a research and most salt lamps are made with Himalayan salt which is super old, most says hundreds of millions of years old ??   Anyways, the heat from the light bulb causes the salt to emit negative ions and the negative ions bond with air pollutants which cleans the air.
     It is said that as a result these lights clean the air and improve symptoms of asthma, allergies, and other sicknesses.    -Find more info here

    We turn the lamp on pretty much every night and so far DFH and I haven't been sick ( Knock on wood)   so hopefully our air is cleaner. 

Has anyone else heard of these?  Have they helped your allergies /sicknesses at all?

  

I am off to NYC this weekend to see my family!! I cannot wait.

Hope everyone has a fabulous not too snowy weekend :)

My Frozen Winter Herb Garden

            This Summer DFH and I were spoiled with our backyard herb garden.  It was so nice to just cut our fresh basil, rosemary, etc. as needed when we cooked.  Now that it is winter, I don't keep any fresh herbs in the house.  I feel that I don't use any one herb enough on a regular basis to buy them, although dried herbs don't compare they do their job.

      One herb DFH and I especially love is cilantro.  We attempted to grow our own cilantro plant this summer, but didn't have luck.  Womp.

   Anyways,  the other day while at Trader Joes I came across their frozen herb collection.  Maybe I have been living under a rock but I had never seen this genius idea before.  They had a variety of fresh herbs frozen into little squares. 

    I knew buying this i was either going to be amazing and taste like fresh herbs or a waste of money.  I decided to be cautious and just buy one to start.  Obviously I chose the cilantro, and it was AMAZING.

The other day I was making guacamole and decided this would be the perfect time to test it out.

The cilantro popped right out of the individual squares and I was able to reseal the rest of the cilantro squares for the next use. 

( I know this looks gross)  I put the two cubes in the microwave for 30 seconds, and could immediately smell the fresh cilantro. I added the cilantro to the guacamole and can honestly say it is very comparable to fresh cilantro.

YUM!!!

This is such an amazing way to keep "fresh" herbs during the winter without having to worry about the herbs going bad, plus they are very reasonably priced.  I cannot wait to try some of their other frozen herbs!

eShakti Review

    A few weeks ago I was contacted by eShakti to review one of their products.  After checking out their website I was really intrigued by their concept.  Not only do they offer a ton of great fashionable clothes at reasonable prices, they also customize and tailor any item to your specific measurements.  I love that eShakti understands that not all standard clothing sizes fit and flatter every women, and thus their customizable options  allow women to find fashionable clothes that fit their bodies. 

 I was able to pick any item on their website to review.  Trust me, it was hard to make a decision because they have such a great selection.   I ended up choosing a silk blouse.   I didn't choose the customized fit, but the size I got was true to fit, and fit perfectly.  The blouse is really great quality and very flattering. 

  I was also really impressed with the customer service as well, eShakti's representative Jennifer made sure I was satisfied with everything, and my package arrived less then a week after I ordered it. 

It is their policy that all items ( even custom items) usually ship out after only 3 days of placing an order. 

  I honestly have nothing negative to say about the company it was a wonderful experience.

eShakti was also recently featured in Glamour Magazine HERE 

 Check out their website, to see more of their clothes, they have a great variety for school, work, and play!

*  The opinions in this post are my own, I was able to keep the item I reviewed from eShakti, but no other compensation was provided.

DIY Valentines Day Project

  The other day my I met with some of my favorite crafting friends to make a fun Valentines Day project.

It is an easy project and does not use a lot of "ingredients" which is always fabulous and cost effective

What you need:
1. Frame of your choice

2.  1yard of burlap

3. 7-ish pieces of felt ( the color of your choice) to make the roses

4. Glue gun

I started out making the roses.  You can find several tutorials online if you need help with the felt roses, but basically you do as follows:

 Cut a quarter piece of felt into a snake like shape, its good to make the snake varying widths so that the petals look unique.

Start with the pointy end, and being rolling the felt through the "snake"  you will start to see the rose shape.  Once you reach the end attach the felt with a dab of hot glue. 

Next you will need to cover the base of the frame with burlap ( or the material of your choice)

Cut the back and attach the burlap to the frame with hot glue.

Next, arrange the felt roses into the shape of a heart and glue gun each rose to the burlap.

Ta-Da!  All done and ready for Valentines Day

xoxo