Tuesday, June 10, 2014

reduce reuse recycle

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just a friendly reminder of how precious this fragile world of ours is, and that finding clever ways to reduce your consumption, reuse goods and packaging, and recycle everything you can make a bigger impact that you will ever know...

bouquets and baskets flower shop has two of these beauties lining their corner store front, and i'm in love with them!  instead of sending that big chunk of metal to the scrap yard, junk yard, or worse, the landfill, these claw foot tubs were recycled and repurposed for a beautiful, fitting-for-the-brownstone-filled-neighborhood sidewalk garden (that dogs CAN'T relieve themselves in and kill the flowers).  and hey, it makes the neighborhood pretty too and gives someone a reason to smile when they walk past :)

cheers.
jenn

Monday, June 9, 2014

supper club date night

june is an action-packed month for us, with no more weekend time to ourselves.  a few months ago i planned a DAY date exploring williamsburg and we loved it.  although I wanted to plan another adventure date, this month just wasn't going to give us the chance.  last tuesday i saw sam a.m. cafe's supper club menu posted for thursday (see it on their instagram , twitter , or facebook ), and the lightbulb turned on in my head... supper club it is!

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last week's menu included lamb ragu. two of hung's favorite foods in 1 dish: slow-roasted lamb and pasta, so i knew it would be a win.  what i didn't know was how good the REST of the meal was going to be! lamb ragu was just the fourth course of FIVE.  i thought that because there would be 5 courses, the portions would be itsy bitsy.  hung ate a sammich before we left the house, and i had a few bites too.  i could have been rolled out of the place that night i ate so much.  normally i feel zero guilt asking for a box to take food home, but for some reason (i.e. the food was so good) i couldn't leave anything left on the plate.  i even consulted hung to take up the last bites when he knew i looked miserable but still eating.  first world problems? absolutely. 

Tuesday, June 3, 2014

look up, jersey city.

if you live an urban life, look around you.  look at the people.  look at the ones walking the streets alone.  how many of them have their heads in their phones, their minds on other things, possibly trying to navigate through tourists or slow walkers, possibly making sure to avoid stepping into dog poo (it's incredibly disgusting.  reason #1 i will never have a dog in the city. i don't like to pick it up either. but i would if i had one. ok. rant over.)

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sometimes though, it's worth it to pick your head up, and look up.  a lot of cities are old and have amazing ornate details in the buildings, the sun shines on the buildings in the most beautiful way during sunrise and sunset, and the diversity of people will astound you.  i had a doctor appointment yesterday on irving place in manhattan.  the street is just a few blocks long, and picks up where lexington ave would continue south if gramercy park wasn't in its way.  with a few minutes to spare before the appointment, i took my time taking in all the new views of this just-east-of-union-square street i had never seen before.  it made me think that if new yorkers just slowed down a bit every once in a while, they would grow an even greater appreciation and satisfaction for living in this wondrous place.

taking in irving place with my own eyes, and not a lens, was beautiful.  last night i decided to "look up" while on an evening run.  i made a point to go down by the water to catch the last bit of sunset reflecting off of the financial district's glass-covered skyline, and see the colgate clock lit up.  taking a moment to see the beauty just in my own neighborhood put a smile on my face (well, perhaps that and the endorphins spewing out from my run). sometimes it's fun to document these smile-worthy scenes too ;)

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cheers.
jenn

Monday, June 2, 2014

lately.

how is it june already!? time slips so fast around here, and before you know it i'll be saying "we still need to go to the beach this summer" forgetting it's already september.  although this space has been quiet for a while, our lives certainly haven't been.  when the sun starts to shine in jersey city, people are OUT.  it's like a stroller haven around here. and bikes! goodness there are a lot of bikes.  it's so nice to live in a place where a bicycle is an accepted mode of transportation and isn't just for those less fortunate or those who stumbled on getting a DUI.  hung and i recently took our bikes to grove street bicycles to get them prepped for the season, giving us motivation to get out and about on those things for once!

last saturday (after i fell asleep not even 10 minutes into frozen the night before), we thought we wanted a quiet night in, just the two of us.  we spent the afternoon returning things to the mall (seriously, it felt like we were making so much money returning so many clothes i couldn't decide on without my trusty fashion expert/fiance). then, being the social butterflies we are, we decided that a night in "could" mean that we just bring the people to us, so we invited friends over for snacks and drinks.  nothing crazy, very casual, and much-needed! hung served up some cranberry, caramelized onion, manchego, and cheddar paninis on sourdough and we laid out some random indian snacks and cucumbers with hummus.  mixed with boxed pinot grigio and schofferhoffer grapefruit beer , our random night in with scramblings from the fridge turned into quite the fun night! 

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