Loving City Living

Welcome to the Big Apple!

2012-08-08T19:24:00.000-04:00

Cue up some Frank Sinatra, because this little blog (and its owners) have moved to New York, New York!!! That's right folks, a brand new city, a brand new APT, and the same old RyGuy and me. I told you all about the area we were moving into in the last post, but you guys have been waiting all summer long to see our home for the next three years. So without further ado, I present to you our NYC

Big News. Big. HUGE.

2012-05-11T13:46:00.003-04:00

There have been a lot of crazy transitions in our lives recently. I graduated from my nursing program in December and RyGuy's finishing up his master's in English this month. In the meantime, Ryan's been applying to law schools while I tried my best to guess where he'd end up so that I could look there for a nursing job. And on top of all that, we got engaged! So we figured, with all that

Bring on the Challenge - Part 2

2012-05-01T11:32:00.002-04:00

This weekend, Ryan and I will be partaking in the North Face Endurance Challenge for the second year in a row – not just because we think it’s fun to trek up three miles up Bear Mountain and three miles back down, but because we'll be running on behalf of Flying Kites! For those of you who don't know what Flying Kites is, it's worth taking a couple minutes to go back and read my blog post

We're Engaged!!!

2012-04-15T12:02:00.000-04:00

That's right, I am a single lady no more. RyGuy put a ring on my finger, and told me I had to come up with a new favorite song. Sorry, Beyonce. We're currently soaking in the post-engagement bliss, and have been incredibly lucky to be able to celebrate with our family and friends in Philly, New Jersey, Boston, and New Hampshire. Gosh, we feel loved. In the spirit of full disclosure

Happy Birthday!

2012-03-20T20:16:00.000-04:00

Happy Birthday to the current reigning youngest member of the family - Juliabug, who was born exactly one year ago today! I can't believe it's been a whole year since she made her spectacular debut, but here are some of my favorite memories that document her first 365 days. RyGuy and I tried to make it home in time for the delivery, but the little rascal was just too quick for us. And we

This is a baddddd idea.

2012-03-19T12:38:00.000-04:00

RyGuy and I are running a marathon. Our first. Not just any marathon either. THE SAN FRANCISCO MARATHON on July 29th. I know, brilliant. I hate hills and San Fran is practically the hilliest place on the planet (....I'm pretty sure that's not true AT ALL). Also, I'm pretty sure that I said I was never running again when we were at mile 11 of last year's half marathon. (...

Mapalicious

2011-12-13T13:08:00.002-05:00

Back when we were young and naive (aka one year ago), RyGuy and I got all excited about hanging six tiny frames on our wall and calling it an "arrangement." At the time, I was downright giddy about the whole thing (if you want to read me gushing all about it, see this post). I even tried to rationalize its size by saying it was larger in real life (...not true). While I loved the frame

Happy Halloween!

2011-10-31T14:00:00.000-04:00

Happy October 31st! To celebrate this crazy holiday, we'll be sitting out on our front stoop tonight with this guy..... Isn't he just the happiest jack'o'lantern you ever saw? He's going to help us hand out candy to all the little kidlets who traipse by our apartment on the way to the haunted house across the street (haunted brownstone? I guess it's not technically a house....) Have a

Decorating (with the help of Pinterest) for Fall

2011-10-30T13:00:00.001-04:00

Before I get to the real point of this post, let's spend a few moments discussing how much I am head-over-heels in love with Pinterest. For those of you who haven't been introduced to its awesomeness yet, Pinterest is a website that allows you to bookmark images onto boards that you create. It's sort of like an online inspiration board - but way cooler because the images link back to the

DIY Pie in a Jar

2011-09-17T13:03:00.000-04:00

While we're in the wedding state of mind, let's talk about the fabulous favors at my sister's wedding. Meghan was originally thinking about making jam, but after an unsuccessful trial run we realized that the jam thing might be more trouble than it was worth. So we moved on to Plan B... (picture from Green Wedding Shoes) These snazzy little numbers have been blowing up the wedding

Mr. and Mrs. Steve and Meghan

2011-09-11T17:22:00.001-04:00

I love weddings. A lot. I love family weddings even more. So I'm thrilled to say that last weekend we celebrated the marriage of my second-oldest sister, Meghan, to her new hubster, Steve. Stevie Wonder (as I like to call him) has been around for quite some time now. Check out this throwback picture of the happy couple at my oldest sister's wedding three years ago: ADORBS. (That's

Facelift

2011-08-10T19:44:00.001-04:00

Whoa. Things sure are changing here at lovingcityliving. First the APT went through some upgrades, so it was about time the actual blog got a facelift too. When I first created the blog back in November, I had a really hard time finding a template that I liked. I knew I wanted to go with the city theme but everything I saw was too modern, too dark, too blah. So I decided to take an existing

Ch...ch...changes

2011-07-11T08:00:00.001-04:00

Remember when I posted a while back about rearranging our furniture and running out of space on our bookshelves? Well, ladies and gentlemen, I offer you photographic proof. This first photo was taken last summer, just after we had moved in to our little APT. You can tell how early it was taken because #1 there are no curtains on the windows, #2 our bookshelves are basically empty, and #3

Happy July!

2011-07-08T14:12:00.002-04:00

July is my favorite month of the whole year. The weather is beautiful, the days are long, and it has one of the best holidays of all time to start it off. We spent this past weekend in Philly, soaking up the never-ending celebrations marking the birth of our fantabulous nation. There were barbecues, free concerts, ice cream festivals, and fireworks galore. (On a side note - I just found out

Better Late than Never

2011-06-20T19:54:00.002-04:00

Okay, so I haven't posted in a long time. I know. I'm sorry. You'll get over it. Check out this picture I took TODAY of his royal cuteness, RyMikey, with his new glasses. See? You're over it already. I've been a pretty busy lady. And I've got a lot to post about. However, in the interest of my sanity, I'm gonna give you the abbreviated version of the events of the past month. You're just

Over the River and Through the Woods

2011-05-18T16:38:00.000-04:00

When I initially signed up for the North Face Endurance Challenge 10K, I was thinking six miles was no big deal. After all, RyGuy and I had been training for a half marathon and we'd already run a whopping nine miler (ouch). So I was thinking this race was going to be a piece of cake. Big mistake. Big. Huge. (And ten life points for anyone who can identify the movie reference).

Bring on the Challenge

2011-05-03T14:43:00.001-04:00

We've been telling everyone about the half marathon we're doing on May 22nd, but I actually have another, more important race coming up--the North Face Endurance Challenge 10K in Bear Mountain, NY on May 8th. This race is very special to me, because I'm running to support the Flying Kites Leadership Academy, a home and school for almost thirty orphaned children in Kenya. A few months ago, our

Men in Tights

2011-03-25T18:00:00.001-04:00

Remember way back in December when we posted about our New Year's Resolutions? One of our resolutions was to run a half marathon, partially to stay in shape but mostly to prove we're hardcore. It took us awhile to get our acts together, but we've finally bitten the bullet and signed up for the Philadelphia Oddysey Half Marathon on Sunday, May 22. And because we're no ordinary runners, we chose

Darling Diaper Cake

2011-03-04T11:10:00.001-05:00

Our niece hasn't arrived via UPStork yet, so baby fever is continuing this week with a post about the diaper cake we made for my sister's recent baby shower. The idea is simple - make something that looks like an elaborate three-tiered cake but make it entirely out of diapers. It makes a fun centerpiece, plus it's a good way to give little gifts to the parents-to-be. And it's green (and pink

It's a Baby! ....shower

2011-02-25T08:00:00.004-05:00

Last weekend we had a baby shower for my oldest sister and her hubby, who are having their first baby in March sometime soon! It's going to be a girl (well, I guess she already is a girl) and they're naming her Julia. Umm, adorable. In true girly-girl fashion, we decided there was no better color than pink when it came to decorations. You would think that all the pink would scare a guy off,

Happy Valentine's Day!

2011-02-14T20:09:00.001-05:00

This is our sixth Valentine's Day together, and I still don't know what RyGuy's favorite kind of candy is. He knows mine though--and there's a suspicious bag with my name on it in the fridge that I'm not allowed to open until he gets home. I'm not sure I can stave off my chocolate cravings for that long... Hope you're all having a wonderful February 14th, and don't forget to tell somebody

Dumpster Diving

2011-02-13T08:00:00.004-05:00

Monday is trash day here in our lovely little part of the city, which makes Sunday the best day for DUMPSTER DIVING! Before I tell you about why I'm rooting through other people's trash, let me clarify a few key items: ~ FIRST, neither dumpsters nor diving is involved. (And that sentence took a while to reach RyGuy's standards of grammatical excellence.) Although I have heard reports of

DIY Paper Mache Glass Bottle Vases

2011-02-08T08:00:00.000-05:00

So....I'm having a little fling with paper mache. I just can't help myself. We were introduced back in the fall of last year, when David Stark's line of gorgeous paper mache goods was on sale at West Elm, and we've been going steady ever since. I think if RyGuy would let me I just might paper mache everything in the apartment, because that is how much I love it. Whoa. If you remember, I

Extreme APT Makeover: The Other Side of the Bedroom

2011-01-31T08:00:00.007-05:00

Whew! Hello blogland. I've missed you all terribly. It's been such a long ten days. It felt like eleven. Remember when I said things would calm down after the holidays? Yeah, not so much. We've been swamped with school and work and a million other things around here--not to mention the never ending snow that's really cramping our style (really only my style--RyDude had several snow days at

Spice Up Your Life

2011-01-21T01:11:00.000-05:00

So, I have this thing about being organized. Everything in our little APT has a place, and every place in our little APT has a purpose. Which is why the black hole that is otherwise known as our corner kitchen cabinet was annoying the heck out of me. It's a big deep cabinet that is great in terms of storage space, but I just couldn't figure out how to make it work for us. When we first moved