a belated christmas gift from a vendor at work? flattering.
my (old) last name spelled like THAT? priceless.

also, this hilarious spelling was sort of comical given the current weather conditions outside (so cold the air hurts my face kind of cold).

my brother-in-law is coming to town this weekend and he said he just wants to eat ramen... eat ramen all weekend.  i think this sounds like an excellent plan.  i mean, delicious rich pork-y noodle soup every few hours after walking around NYC? yes. yes i like the sounds of that.  (well, except for the fact that i finally ate right and went to kickboxing everyday this week, eating all that ramen would totally make up for any effort during the week and MORE! sigh... if only i had infinite metabolism when i wanted it...)

happy friday!
jenn

(flashback friday... back to OUR wedding day.  this is right after we got married at city hall in jersey city.  gosh that was a great day!!) image c/o cheyenne mojica

hey friends! it's friday! we'v e got some pretty awesome things to be thankful for this week, despite the fact that i got in a 6-car accident on one of the busiest highways in the NYC metro area (causing probably hundreds of thousands of people to miss their flight, be late for work, miss an appointment, etc. etc. etc.) and i sliced my finger cutting a bagel this morning (in my defense, the knife was dull and it was difficult to cut the bagel, sharp knives are safe knives people!!)

1. hung gets to be the best man in his best friends wedding, a 3-day indian wedding bash that we're SO excited for....  mostly for two great people in love and getting married, but also the food.  yeah, definitely the food.
2. we got OUR wedding photos from our photographer, cheyenne mojica , this week! i'm beside-myself-excited about them (if you couldn't tell already from my instagram feed)
3. we got to host friends for dinner on wednesday, teaching a non-fish eater that fish can be good! (remember the claypot salmon recipe i posted a while back? if you haven't tried it yet, you need to)  being around THOSE friends always makes us feel so inspired to take a leap and follow our dreams.  so thanks, john trigonis , eightymag , and milk sugar love !
4. i got to try filipino food for the first time kamayan style at a potluck dinner for an eightymag photoshoot! photographer greg pallante did an awesome job catching everyone mid-huge-bite, including me with a whole rambutan stuffed into one side of my cheeks like a hamster. look for his work in the next issue of eightymag !
5. on the bright side of the car accident, i get to "test drive" a mini cooper countryman until my peanut is fixed (aka i get to try out a nice 4-door, small, baby-friendly, fits-in-our-tiny-driveway car for when we will actually need to get a new car in a few years when we start making baby phans :P)

ok now, let's get this party started! i've got two bright-and-bedazzled sarees ready to go and i'm crossing my fingers i'm there in time tonight to get my hands all hennaed up... indian weddings are the best, and we can't wait to celebrate with these two awesome people!

cheers.
jenn

my monday brain might be thinking differently, as i got about half the sleep i should have got last night, but seriously, this sunday was the best.  my video-game-loving husband got to play video games while i went for a 6.5 mile run with a friend, got a blueberry scone from the riverview farmer's market and a ice coffee from modcup, drove to l.o.v.e. furniture to check out their collection of awesome vintage finds and refinished furniture, cleaned the house, and had friends over for dinner. 

how i ran 6.5 miles on a SUNDAY MORNING is beyond me.  i always thought that running with friends would wear me out faster because you end up talking, and can't breathe, etc. but it seems to pass the time faster! maybe that's what i've been doing wrong? i mean, as much as i love ke$ha, i can only listen to them so much before i realize i know the exact length of each song, and get sad when i've gone .35 exactly only miles to "blow". 

hung has become the master at making ma po tofu, and i think it's because we learned that a chinese sauce made from fermented black beans and chilis is the key ingredient to, well, everything.  for once we didn't have sweat dripping down our faces in a panic rush to get dinner done on time, because the dish is super fast to make (we just had sweat dripping from EATING it, because it's so spicy!).

can i have a repeat of that sunday every sunday?

how was your weekend?

cheers!
jenn

wait... it's the weekend already? i feel like this week flew by so fast.  no? you've been waiting for friday since monday?   maybe it's the fact that there's a holiday weekend coming up!?

we're celebrating by seeing many friends we have not seen in WAY too long, making rounds in both new jersey and philly.  we've been to philly so many times, but any suggestions for fun things to do this weekend are certainly welcomed ;) 

also, that frame? it's mine.  or, more accurately, it "will" be mine soon.  my mom has a knack for finding the good stuff.... the good stuff that sells for way-out-of-our-price-range prices in new jersey that sells for pennies in ohio.  the frame came with a mirror, but she took it out with intentions of painting the frame to sell a trendy colorful mirror before i stopped her in her tracks and said that i wanted it exactly the way it was.  i'm a sucker for that gawdy gold stuff.

hung had the idea of "giving me a vanity area" in the bedroom that i was just "meh" about when he first brought it up.  but the more i think about it, the more awesome it sounds.  i mean, we plan to stay in our 2-bedroom apartment through 2 kids, which means 4 people and 1 bathroom, which means eventually the bathroom will be for bathroom duties only.  putting on make-up and blow-drying my hair are not bathroom duties.  plus, he's right, i do enjoy sitting down while putting on my make-up anyways (you can find me sitting on the floor in the living room in front of the mirror most days anyways).

now i just need to find a desk that will fit in that little full-of-natural-light nook in the bedroom.  i'll be perusing craigslist and local reclaimed/vintage/repurposed furniture shops (like L.O.V.E. furniture in east hanover NJ) and i'm sure i'll find "the one".  we found our double drop-leaf, gate-leg dining table at miss pixie's in DC, so we'll be sure to stop in there next time we're in the area too.  brooklyn flea in, well, brooklyn? the frayed knot in hoboken?  now i just need a weekend to actually GO to these places!!

can you tell i'm excited about this project?  we've also got a paneled door headboard project coming up soon.  details on that one soon ;)

cheers!  happy labor day weekend!
jenn

what a whirlwind week after such an exciting wedding weekend .  i certainly can't complain though!

we both took vacation days on monday, fueling up for the week after hosting out-of-towners since the wednesday before. we spent hours in the social security office for 2 hours, (among precisely 50 screaming children), but we discovered yet another pretty darn awesome asian grocery store nearby (the sign just says "asian food", and it's on route 440) just a few minutes drive from our house.  we might go back if for nothing else, just the small custard pies.



...ok ok maybe for the super fresh salmon steaks too.  that ca kho to (clay pot fish) that hung made on monday hit. the. spot.  keep your fingers crossed that a recipe post comes out of the next batch (guys, it was SO so good)

a few more phone-photos from the wedding weekend and from this week:


cutting our wedding cake! my nephew wanted that cake SO bad, until we cut into it and he saw that it was chunky and brown (carrot cake).  and hung did NOT want to give me a kiss when everyone started tapping their glasses.  i guess he didn't want to eat my red lipstick?


we got to see inside the barrow mansion last night for the whoopie awards hosted by the sweetin sisters ! did you SEE that mirror!?!? i'm in love.  and that BOWTIE!? gosh he's a cutie. and that couple up there on the left!? they are seriously the best (and own one of my favorite downtown jersey city stores, e.tittlemouse ).


i think i might just leave that little balloon up in my cubical forever.  and remember when hung and i went on a date to BYOB painting classes in april?! yeah, so 4 months later we finally picked the paintings up off of the floor and hung them in the building hallway.  SO much better than what was there before! i'm not even going to show you it was so bad.  a VERY faded print of a girl in a garden that now looks like a creepy ghost (it was trashed the second it came down)



thanks to everyone for the well wishes for our wedding ! this week we got to spend dinner with new friends, dinner in india square with old friends, a night on the town with local creatives at the whoopie awards and TONIGHT...

TONIGHT is the big one! we get to celebrate a new jersey city magazine called EIGHTY at the magazine launch tonight.  we're so happy to be able to support them as they support jersey city grow to what is becoming a very, very great place to live.

happy friday!!

cheers.
jenn

when you move out of your old place, don't you ever wonder what the new people did with it? how is it decorated? did they tear down all of my hard work? did they keep the curtains? if you've been following beyond the stoop for a while, you know that hung and i put in a LOT of hard work into our last apartment (peruse the renovation posts here ).  but, we decided to become real adults and purchase a home , even though we still loved living in that apartment.  luckily for us, we get to go back to it often, because our friends moved in! and they decorated it so well! as cute if not cuter than we had it. 

tonight we get to go back again for a bbq.  yeah, that's what i miss about that place too: outdoor space .  like real outdoor space, with a grill, and a patio set, and grass, and GRASS.   really though, i'm just excited that we get to spend our friday night so close to home with great people :)

with actual TICKETS to shakespeare in the park and wedding shoe shopping at THE macy's on 34th street on sunday too, my weekend will be complete! have you ever been to that macy's?? there are MULTIPLE ENTIRE FLOORS dedicated to shoes. it's like a woman's biggest dream.  lets just hope i come home with just ONE pair of wedding shoes ;)  plus, i'll get the 10% discount for having an "out of state" driver's license (hey, sometimes literally pays to live JUST outside of new york city)

cheers to the weekend,
& happy friday!
jenn


p.s. photo from my urban sanctuary post , view of manhattan and hoboken from riverview park in jersey city .

happy friday! 

it's been quite the week around our house.  between getting ready for guests, trying to get back into a workout routine, and putting in long hours at work, we're SO ready for the weekend!  here are 10 reasons why:

1.  although it will be busy with everyone in town, we will be doing things for fun. pure fun.
2. with cinco de mayo coming up, the restaurants and bars are starting the celebration early with events this weekend, used york city has a good round up ! 
3. the weather is also pretty darn awesome right now, perfect for stuffing our faces at smorgasburg , in my opinion.
4. hung took the day off to host his friends who came in last night.  they dined at sam a.m. this morning.  getting to spend a weekday morning at that wonderful place is reason enough to take off a day of work!
5. i made cookies and beef jerky for our visiting friends.  when hung says "babe i want you to make cookies and beef jerky" i know he means these cookies and alton brown's beef jerky .
6. having people stay at our house is one of my favorite things.  i would have been nice if our sofa had been delivered by now so we would have something more comfortable to sit on.  but hey, custom furniture takes time! (but it will be here SO soon!!)
7. our first visitors that came last night got to be the guinea pigs in the guest bedroom ! it probably would have been better if it wasn't recycle night.  sleeping with the windows open on recycle night means you get suddenly woken up with clanking glass and metal in the wee hours of the morning. trash and recycle comes at night here.  can't have trash cluttering up the sidewalks during the morning commute or trash trucks getting stuck in gridlock at rush hour!
8. the second couple coming tonight is also recently engaged ! congrats guys! this means the boys can be boys and the girls can talk weddings.
9. this isn't anyone's first time in NYC, so we aren't obligated to do touristy things (although sometimes it's ok to be a tourist in your own town)
10. did i mention the weather!?  after 5 inches of rain in 1 day this week, a clear forecast makes for a happy jenn.  plus, the cherry blossoms that didn't get ruined in the ICE STORM a few weeks ago are finally showing their pretty faces! (cue photo at the top from my walk to kickboxing last night)

cheers to the weekend!
jenn

they are awesome and awful at the same time.
if they button up the front, they droop at the shoulders.
if they fit the shoulders they can't button.

jean jackets are my FAVORITE "accessory" for spring and fall.  i say "accessory" because rarely am i wearing one for keeping me warm.  every single one i try on has something that's just not QUITE right about it, though.  after purchasing what i thought was the perfect one at the gap last year, i decided i needed one that fit better in the shoulders.

gosh i can't hardly hold in the excitement over here.  we have so many things to share about the new place, and so many things to look forward to in the coming weeks i can't hardly stand it!  it really helps that it's so warm outside that i don't need a jacket.  and that we finally got some window shades for the new place so i don't have to change my clothes in the kitchen in the morning anymore (more on these next week!)

however, there is one HUGE sad/scary/dreadful/totally-not-looking-forward-to-it fact that looms over me today:

today is the last day to drive on the eastbound pulaski skyway before it's shut down for the next TWO YEARS.

guys, this is huge. 

oh hey guys! it's friday! ...which means we get to relax! drive 4 hours for a weekend away! although we're pretty darn exhausted from 3 weeks of nonstop painting, refinishing the hardwood floors, and moving, we're going for a mini family vacation with hung's immediate family and i am SO excited to see them!! 

last year we went to ohio more times than i can count for very unfortunate circumstances, but in the midst of it all, we got to see hung's family more often than we ever anticipated.  now that we aren't going back so often anymore, it feels like FOREVER since we've all been together! ...even though it has been just 3 months. 

the idea for the trip was to see the cherry blossoms in DC, but with the crazy weather this year, it has been hard to predict when they will bloom. although google says the peak bloom won't occur until later next week and next weekend, we're hoping to see at least a few blooms this weekend too.

my body is pretty darn worn out from being on the move (literally) for so long, but i can't help but have a smile on my face for all the good in our lives lately :)

happy friday, friends!

cheers.
jenn

p.s. photo is from this post two years ago when my mom came to visit and we went to the brooklyn botanic garden.. guys there's a whole FIELD of cherry blossom trees there and it's GORGEOUS when they are at peak bloom!!

while our weekend didn't exactly start off with a bang, we're super excited for an action-packed weekend of celebrating and moving and moving and moving...  did i say we're moving yet? we're MOVING!

we have friends coming to town this weekend, who we couldn't be happier to see! while they are soon to be a family of 3, i'm happy i'm getting to see them several times before their lives take a new turn, including the epic olymp-nick's birthday olympiad in virginia .  they used to live in the area, and are excited to snoop around their old stomping grounds (and get some good food while they're at it! seriously the food in nyc is incredible)

now onto the moving part.  last night was laundry night, and the night to move some things.  on my way home i got a call from a friend saying he had a special delivery.  when i walked into my house, 2 of our good friends were in the house with hung, munching on boxes of treats from dean and deluca (think chocolate grand marnier mousse, macarons, cupcakes, you get the picture).  with 2 extra sets of hands ready to work, hung made sammiches for everyone while the girls went to the laundromat (for hopefully the last time!! high fives to having laundry at the new place!). after laundry, we started packing as much as we could...  as in just starting to pack, nothing in boxes or bags yet. 

the boys did a great job taking stuff to the new place while the girls tried to pack as fast as we could, folding laundry while we were at it. thank GOODNESS for those 2 extra and unexpected sets of hands!  later, another set of hands showed up, and even later, 3 more sets of hands, and 1 more even later.... what did we do to deserve so much help!?  at one point in the night we had SEVEN extra people helping us move, all who voluntarily came offering to help....

unfortunately, between the lack of packing, the need to do laundry, and the lack of having any boxes or any more bags to pack things in, we had to stop around 10:30pm.  i admit, i was pretty stressed and overwhelmed with so many people at our house to help with so little preparation, and i snapped...

why?  i'm still asking myself the same question...   i was embarrassed at how unorganized it was, overwhelmed at how much stuff we had to move, and wondered if i was going to get any sleep because we had to prepare for our out-of-towners coming the next day.  but, those are no acceptable excuses.  the reality is that we put a big stab into the moving process, and without hung's enthusiasm and all of our friends who unexpectedly showed up to help, we probably wouldn't have gotten anything moved at all (laundry night at our house is usually a pretty jam-packed night anyways, let alone trying to move a whole apartment!) 

undeserved, hung took the heat for nothing. he worked his butt off and so did all of the people who came to help (to everyone who came, i can't thank you enough!). here's to looking forward to a more positive, smoother moving day on sunday.  i can't WAIT to be in the new place and start decorating!! that's when the real fun begins ;)

cheers to a happy friday!
jenn

p.s. that photo above is a photo our new downstairs neighbor sent to us of our house "a long time ago" that she found at the library (who knows when it was taken) the front looks so different now!

be as happy as a puppy on a boat ride.

my mom sent me this photo of our dog last summer when she was out on a boat ride on the lake she goes to.  i'm going to see both of them this weekend, and it's pretty friggin cold out, so i thought this was an appropriate photo to leave you with for the weekend! (and pretty darn adorable too)

i will be as happy as a puppy on a boat ride, despite the 22 hours of driving we will be doing this weekend.... it's been over a year since i've been to my mom's house!  we're long overdue...

be happy, friends, it's friday :)

cheers.
jenn

it's the weekend, which means it's time to.....

party hardy
or do some holiday shopping
or be lazy and sleep in
or go to the ingrid michaelson concert tonight at webster hall in manhattan (that's us!)
or go on a date
or have a friendsgiving

whatever you do this weekend, i hope it's something fun, something that makes you smile, something that you look forward to doing. 

hopefully these photos will put you in the 'weekend' mood.  on the last full day in barbados , we went on a boozy catamaran cruise with tiami catamaran cruises (unfortunately, it was just all fun and games, no rihanna, no music-video-filming)













after a day in the sun, good food, lots of booze, we decided to stay in for the night, cook our own food, and enjoy being with each other on the last night of vacation.

thanks to all of our friends for making this trip a great getaway! and again, congratulations to the happy couple !!

cheers.
jenn

is it just me or is this week dragging on like crazy?  i shouldn't be complaining, my life seems to flash by me these days...  maybe it's the fact that i've only got 1 more day of work standing between me and a much-needed vacation.  maybe it's because i pushed myself really hard working out (i ran 23 miles in 5 days and went to 3 kickboxing classes).

either way, i'm really looking forward to this weekend.  maybe we'll get to savor the last few moments of fall before a real winter comes upon us. or maybe we'll stay inside and snuggle on the couch while mr p makes me watch another episode of once upon a time (which i'm totally ok with, I've made him watch SOO many episodes of parenthood , so we're even) maybe (hopefully) we'll eat healthier than the past few weekends. maybe we'll actually get to watch the episode of bizarre foods that featured jersey city restaurants (since comcast doesn't provide the travel channel, extra lame).

our only obligation this weekend is having dinner with mr p's coworkers (which i think we're both pretty excited for)... but the rest of the weekend we can sort of fly by the seat of our pants...

....or... lay on the couch.  gosh i'm exhausted.

what are your plans this weekend?
i hope whatever you do (or don't do) puts a smile on your face, that's all that matters anyways, right?

cheers!
jenn

(dinner from last night, steak with chimichurri sauce, i swear i could be like that lady on the frank's Red Hot commercials and say "i put that shit on everything". every bite of my dinner last night got dunked in that stuff, broccoli and all)

wow these past few days have been quite the busy ones!! between driving all around the state for my day job, waking up WELL before dawn to get in good runs, going to kickboxing after work, and prepping for a baby shower this weekend, i'm pretty much exhausted!!  i just wanted to stop in and say i wish i could slow down to finish writing so many of the posts i started this week, but it just didn't happen.... can we just have a week of 48-hour days?  i'd like that.

halloween FLEW by this year, but if you follow me on instagram , you know that mr p and i dressed up as minions! and ever since i discovered the "banana song" while in a panic search for learning how to "speak minion" before the party, i've had it stuck in my head...  it's just so darn catchy and adorable!!



thank me (or smack me) for that 50-second gem later ;)

cheers to the weekend!
only 16 hours of driving ahead of us, we're obviously not slowing down anytime soon...

what are your plans?!

jenn

friends & food.
shopping & sipping.
trains & travel.

i'm a 'tiny' bit anxious for this weekend.  with all of the traveling i have done for work and for family this year, you would think i would be 'over' going away for the weekend.  but when you have great friends who make you feel at home, want to do exactly the same things that you do, and don't care that you crash on their couch for the weekend, it makes it easy to pack up and just go.   the fact that it's going to be 90-degrees in dc might help! another summer-like weather never hurt anyone.

good friends, good weather... it's the perfect recipe for vintage furniture shopping, right? right.  we could stand to replace our particle-board-based Ikea tv stand for a mid-century modern credenza, or find a double drop-leaf table that could double as a sofa table AND dining table. i'm not sure Amtrak will let us bring either of those on the train home though, so i guess we'll have to plan a trip back if we find any goods we just can't live without.

oops? another weekend in dc just to pick up furniture? you don't have to twist MY arm ;)

what are your plans?  please tell me it's something outside!!

cheers to the weekend!!
jenn