Southern by Design

The Top 12 Things I'll Miss About NYC

noreply@blogger.com (Laura) — Wed, 29 Aug 2012 17:45:00 +0000

I have three more days until I move back to South Carolina. Three days. I can't believe it. The summer has flown by. When I first came up here, I decided that I could never live up here long term, not even for a year or two. However, as I got more and more adjusted each week, I slowly fell in love with New York City. I love the South, but I've learned to love it up here too. I could see myself living here for a year or two. Of course, that's what everyone says when they move to the city, and they usually end up staying longer than that. I'm not planning a move in the near future, but I do plan on making as many weekend trips as my schedule/wallet allows :)

As promised in my Top 12 Things I Miss About the South post, I came up with a list of things I'm going to miss about NYC...

1. The food

New York has so many great restaurants. I've loved getting out of my comfort zone and trying so many ethnic foods while I've been up here. I've never been a timid or safe eater, but I've gotten to the point where I'll just order something off the menu even if I have no idea what it is. Everything has been good so far!

2. Cute little bakeries/coffee shops

So maybe this could technically fall under the food category, but it's a different category in my book. I absolutely love all the local bakeries and coffee shops up here. I even love the coffee man with his little cart that parks outside my office building each morning. Since I've been up here, I've tried to avoid chains like Starbucks and Dunkin' Donuts and instead try to visit as many local places as I can. Of course, I have gotten Starbucks or Dunkin' Donuts here and there for sake of convenience since they're located on practically every street corner in Manhattan.

3. Endless list of things to do and explore

There are so many things to do up here. While I sometimes enjoy doing touristy things, I've grown to love the non-tourist things New York has to offer and find myself staying away from the crowded, touristy parts of the city.

4. The shopping

I'm going to have withdrawals when I come back. Planning to get my last shopping trips in this week - might have to stock up a little bit :)

5. The people I've met

I've met some great people since being up here and will miss seeing them all the time.

6. The spirit of adventure

You have to be somewhat adventurous if you've made the decision to live in New York. While there are some adventurous people in the South, it's more of the norm up here. People just pick up and move either to or from NYC all the time. In the South, it's very common to graduate college, get a good job, settle down and get married and then have kids all within a span of five years. People don't have "five year plans" up here. They don't always plan ahead and instead just go with the flow. I kinda like it.

7. Diversity

I haven't been exposed to a lot of diversity growing up. The area I grew up in in South Carolina is predominantly white. In New York, it truly is a melting pot. It's been really neat to be exposed to so many different people and cultures in one place.

8. Healthy lifestyle

People eat so much healthier up here. While fast food is available, people don't eat it like we do in the South. I've had fast food two times since being here. Granted, this may be due to the fact that there's not a Chick-fil-a around, but still :) Vegan and vegetarian restaurants are everywhere, and regular restaurants serve healthier food in general. People eat salads up here like they do Chick-fil-a sandwiches and hamburgers down South. I know, two references in one paragraph - too much maybe? Cut me some slack - I miss it a lot.

9. Reading time

Thanks to the subway, I've gotten in so much reading since I've been up here.

10. The relief from humidity - sort of

It can still get hot and muggy up here, but it's not as bad as South Carolina. It was 66 and sunny when I walked to the subway one morning last week. It felt amazing. However, like I mentioned a previous post, there aren't lakes and pools to cool off in when it does get hot up here.

11. Cheap manicures and pedicures

You can easily find salons around the city that offer $20 mani/pedi combos. Such a good deal!

12. Seeing views like this...

Sunset at Chelsea Pier

View from the ferry on the way to the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island

View from Williamsburg, Brooklyn

View from South Street Seaport

Taken from my old rooftop garden at the Webster

And there you have it! Summer 2012 is coming to a close for me, and I'm so grateful to have had the opportunity to live and work in this wonderful city. To sum it up in a few words - I really do love New York.

Smorgasburg: A Foodie's Dream

noreply@blogger.com (Laura) — Sat, 25 Aug 2012 02:09:00 +0000

Smorgasburg combines two of my favorite things - flea markets and food. It's basically an outdoor food flea market that takes place each Saturday through November in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. From 11am to 6pm, approximately 100 food vendors gather and sell their products. I've been twice now, and I highly recommend it if you're ever up here. Williamsburg is extremely easy to get to from Manhattan, but it's shocking how different it is from the hustle and bustle of the city. It's a much slower pace and a lot less crowded - there aren't even walk signs at intersections! It's a very cute, artsy neighborhood - kinda reminds me of downtown Asheville, NC.

Back to Smorgasburg. Sorry.

I went alone the first time I went to Smorgasburg, not knowing exactly what to expect. I still thoroughly enjoyed myself, but I wished I had come with someone so we could try out more food. Some of the portions being sold were small enough where I could try a few different things, but some of them are quite large.

My sister and my best friend Emily visited me two weekends ago and we headed to Smorgasburg on Saturday morning. I wanted to them to see some of the other boroughs besides Manhattan while they were here, and I also enjoyed getting to try more food between the three of us. Here are a few of the things I've tried over my two trips....

This place specializes in hand made pigs in a blanket - such a fun and unique idea

Oh my goodness. This donut was from a bakery called Dough in Bed Stuy, Brooklyn. It was incredible. New York knows how to do donuts.

Frozen mini smores

Brisket sandwich from Mighty Quinn's. Very moist, juicy and full of flavor. The line for Mighty Quinn's booth is consistently the longest line, so you know it's good.

Southern Fried Chicken Taco. I had to try it as soon as I saw the words "southern fried chicken." Southern food/comfort food is very trendy up here. The taco was actually really good. NY does tacos a little different than the tacos I'm used to. They're usually made with a variety of different meats (shrimp, tilapia, carnitas, chicken, etc.), fresh lettuce, cotija cheese, cilantro sprigs, picked onions and are usually free from grease. Delicious.

Hope this has given you a taste of Smorgasburg (pun intended). Like I said, I highly recommend it and it's also something that's unique and not super touristy.

When you go, you'll also get to enjoy these views while you're there...

Very cloudy on my first visit

So beautiful.

The Best Cupcakes in NYC...

noreply@blogger.com (Laura) — Thu, 16 Aug 2012 00:33:00 +0000

One my favorite things about New York is the abundance of cute little bakeries and coffeeshops. I love it. If I had the time/money/metabolism to visit a different one each day, I would do it in a heartbeat.

That being said, I have had the chance to try out quite a few bakeries while being up here. I've visited several different places, but my work also serves "Cupcakes & Cocktails" every other Wednesday, which has allowed me to test out a few cupcakes without ever leaving my desk.

Being a ~~completely unofficial~~ self-proclaimed cupcake critic, I decided to make a list of some of the bakeries I've been to along with my opinions. In my defense, even though I'm no professional baker, I do love to make cupcakes and have been told they're quite good :)

Note: I have not been to ALL the bakeries in NYC - that would take hours upon hours of exercise :) However, these are a few places worth visiting if you're in the area. I'm sure there are plenty of other wonderful bakeries up here, but I unfortunately haven't been able to visit each one.

1. Sprinkles Cupcakes - The Original Cupcake Bakery

Sprinkles is known for starting the cupcake trend, so I had high expectations going in. If you've ever watched the show Cupcake Wars, one of the judges, Candace Nelson, is the founder of Sprinkles Cupcakes. They did not disappoint. I had the raspberry cupcake with raspberry icing. So delicious - very impressed.

2. Georgetown Cupcake - Soho

If you've ever seen the show DC Cupcakes, then you're familiar with Georgetown Cupcake. The bakery is based in DC, but thankfully they have one other location in Soho. I've been there twice now and have been impressed both times. I got a salted caramel cupcake the first time and a key lime pie cupcake the second.

3. Baked by Melissa

Baked by Melissa specializes in mini cupcakes. These aren't the mini cupcakes you make in a mini muffin pan, they're even smaller - literally bite-size cupcakes. The upside is that you can try out several different flavors. The downside? Not quite as filling. I've tried several different flavors now and loved them all. They are so cute and extremely moist, which can be hard to achieve with mini cupcakes.

Here's a picture from their website to give you an idea of what they look like.

4. Crumbs Bake Shop

Remember that time I raved about Crumbs' Apple Cobbler cupcake? And then I went back and my chocolate peanut butter cupcake was super dry? So sad. I couldn't believe it. I had fallen in love at first bite with their Apple Cobbler cupcake, and then been slapped in the face when I went to get more. Come on Crumbs - I need you to redeem yourself.

My love.

5. Molly's Cupcakes

I haven't been to the actual storefront in the West Village, but my work served these one week at "Cupcakes & Cocktails" and they were amazing. I got the red velvet and it was wonderful, but everyone also raved about the other flavor being served which was some kind of banana cupcake with chocolate frosting. Apparently you can create your own cupcake (pick your base, filling and frosting) in the store and they make it right in front of you. Highly recommend this place.

6. Magnolia Bakery

This bakery has made quite the name for itself, partly due to its appearances on Sex and the City and mentions on various shows and movies. However, I had one of their Orange Meringue cupcakes and wasn't impressed, so technically it shouldn't be on post titled "The Best Cupcakes in NYC." The icing is extremely light (which some people like) and the cake was a little dry. I've heard their other desserts are delicious, so it's definitely worth checking out.

I've tasted cupcakes from a few other places, but maybe I'll save those for another post. Plus, I don't want you to think I just gorge myself on cupcakes all the time :) I'm only up here a few more weeks - might as well test out as many as I can, right?

If you're ever in New York, please eat a cupcake for me!

BlogHer Recap

noreply@blogger.com (Laura) — Tue, 07 Aug 2012 00:51:00 +0000

Mommy bloggers and tons of free stuff.

That sums up BlogHer in one sentence.

Okay, so maybe there is a lot more to BlogHer than that. It actually is a really cool event and I enjoyed getting to experience it. The conference had close to 5,000 attendees. Attendees were able to hear from guest speakers likes Martha Stewart and Katie Couric. President Obama even addressed all the attendees via live video feed on the first day.

BlogHer is all about building relationships and getting your name out there while connecting with other bloggers and brand reps. There are also numerous workshops and parties throughout the weekend. The agency I work for attended BlogHer on behalf of several of our clients. Here are a few pictures of our booth...

Our "business card." Banana flash drives with all our product and contact info.

The "greenhouse." Doesn't it look awesome? The day before this space was just a 10'x30' section of a huge ballroom.

More greenhouse pictures.

Our fruit carving station! We brought in a fruit and vegetable carver from DC - he was so great!

How awesome is this?

Between our shifts, we were able to walk around to the other booths. It's really neat to be able to see all the various ideas from the brands come together in one place - lots of creativity.

Remember the free stuff I mentioned at the beginning? We were able to get in on some of that as well :) I came home with a nice little tote bag full of samples.

The Top 12 Things I Miss About the South

noreply@blogger.com (Laura) — Tue, 31 Jul 2012 11:39:00 +0000

I've been up here long enough to start missing some things about the South. Of course, there are definitely some things I will miss about New York once I leave, but I'll save that for another post. Here's why I love the South...

1. My family, friends and community. This one goes without saying.

2. Lakes and pools.

There aren't any lakes up here, and if there were, I don't know that it would be safe to swim in them. There's no telling what's in there.
There are public pools, but it's a very different experience. Lots of rules are involved. First off, you have to buy a lock (or bring your own) for the locker, and then lock all your belongings up. You aren't usually allowed to bring in food. You can bring a towel, your keys, your phone and a book. No electronics are allowed on the pool deck (i.e. iPod and phone). I haven't been yet, but I've heard they are somewhat crowded and many people lay out on the concrete due to the lack of chairs.

3. Chick-fil-a.

Yes, this deserves the number three spot on my list. It maybe should have been number two. Apparently, there is a Chick-fil-a in the NYU food court, but I haven't tried it out yet. Of course, they don't make any of the food there, but it might be better than nothing.

4. The convenience of having a washer and dryer.

People don't have washers in dryers in their apartments. A few might, but the majority don't. I'm very fortunate to have a laundry room in the basement of my building, but many New Yorkers have to lug their clothes to a laundromat to do laundry. I used the word "lug" on purpose because plenty of apartment buildings are without elevators (not mine), and you may have to walk a few blocks to a nearby laundromat.

5. A dishwasher.

Again, not many apartments are equipped with a dishwasher. I've lived without a dishwasher before, and it's not a huge deal, but it's a very nice thing to have :)

6. Home cooked meals.

Both of my parents are great cooks, and my Dad loves to make gourmet meals on the weekends. My mom always keeps me in the loop about the new recipes he tests out, and it makes me want to be there so bad. I enjoy cooking, but cooking for one person isn't always the easiest or most convenient thing when you have a small kitchen and don't get home until seven or later every night. Let's just say I lack my usual inspiration up here. New York does that to you. I usually cook once or twice a week and will make a big meal that will supply me with plenty of leftovers.

7. A car. However, there are pros and cons to the subway.

Pros: It's nice to be able to read everyday on my way to work. My commute is about 40 minutes, and this is very normal for New Yorkers. Unless you happen to live within walking distance of your job, most people have a thirty minute to hour long commute regardless of where you live. I only live five or six miles from work, but I still have a nice little commute.
Cons: While I enjoy not having to drive 40 minutes, there are definitely some down sides to the subway. No matter where I go, I always allow myself 20 minutes to go somewhere, even if it's just one or two stops away. You never know how long you'll have to wait for the train, so you always want to give yourself plenty of time. When I'm traveling to and from work, I rarely have to wait more than two or three minutes, but the trains run less frequently on nights and weekends. This is when I really miss the convenience of being able to hop in my car and drive to the grocery store a mile down the road.

8. The cost of living.

Don't even get me started about how much everyone pays in rent up here. Unless you're super rich, no one owns any real estate. If you want to live anywhere in Manhattan, you either need to a) be okay with having a tiny little apartment - I'm talking a bedroom the size of a walk-in closet or b) be willing to fork up a good bit of money. This means a minimum of $1200 a month - and that's with several roommates.
Food can be a bit pricier as well, especially when eating out. I've done my research and found several places I can eat at without paying a ton, but you can end up spending a lot on food if you're not careful. The main grocery stores people go to are Whole Foods and Trader Joe's, and Trader Joe's has a reputation of being the cheapest grocery store in the city. There are a few supermarkets, but nothing near as big as Bi-Lo, Publix, Ingles, etc. The supermarkets tend to be a little on the pricier side.

9. The work-life balance.

As a whole, Americans are known for not being able to relax and disconnect. It's SO much worse up here. It might not like this in all professions, but corporate culture up here is very intense. People definitely work hard in the South, but for New Yorkers, work is their life. I honestly don't know how they balance it all.

10. Southern gentlemen.

First off, New Yorkers aren't rude, regardless of any stereotypes associated with "Yankees." It's just different up here. I don't think people are always aware of their surroundings. Everyone's worried about where they need to be and are lost in thoughts of their own. That being said, I definitely miss always having the door opened for me. There are also many times that I'm standing on the subway and can't help but wish one of the many men around me would give up their seat. Or give up their seat for the elderly lady standing up. Those kinds of things wouldn't happen in the South. But like I said, it's just different up here. People don't expect to have the door opened for them. They don't expect someone to give up their seat on the subway. But that's okay. It's not looked at as an insult up here, it's just their way of life, and you have to accept that.

11. Fresh air.

New York is full of all kinds of smells, and not all of them are great. I can't wait to breathe the fresh, albeit humid, air down South.

12. Cleanliness.

You just can't think about all the germs floating around up here or you'll drive yourself crazy. The sidewalks are far from clean. I don't want to know how many people have touched the bars in the subway. Like I said, you can't think about it.

And there you have it! I'll post a list of things I'll miss about New York soon!

Brooklyn Tabernacle Choir

noreply@blogger.com (Laura) — Sun, 29 Jul 2012 21:15:00 +0000

If you know me well at all, you know that I'm a little bit of a choir nerd. I've sung in multiple choirs for the past six years, and I met some of my dearest friends in the choirs I sang in at Clemson. My non-choir friends know my choir friends as my "singing friends." There's nothing quite like being a part of a group of talented people who love to sing as much as yourself.

I went to church at the Brooklyn Tabernacle this morning, which is a church well-known for it's church choir, the Brooklyn Tabernacle Choir. The Brooklyn Tablenacle Choir is directed by the pastor's wife and is made up of 280 voices. The choir is mostly composed of church members with no formal vocal training, but you would never know that listening to them. They've won five Dove awards and six Grammy awards and have also performed at Carnegie Hall, Radio City Music Hall and the Madison Square Garden Theater.

Here's a few clips of the choir singing to give you an idea of what they sound like. I think both of these clips may be from a concert or something, because no one was dressed like this today. There were no choir robes to be found, and everyone was wearing normal, everyday clothes.

Not sure why these have subtitles, but there surprisingly weren't a ton of videos on YouTube.

The choir nerd in me loved it so much. Some of the soloists were ridiculously talented. I had heard of the choir before, but my Mema really wanted me to go hear them sing while I was up here. One of the first things she said to me when I found out I was moving up was "oh Laura, you have to see the Brooklyn Tabernacle Choir while you're up there." So cute.

If you're ever up here, I definitely recommend stopping in on a Sunday!

The Fam in NYC

noreply@blogger.com (Laura) — Sat, 21 Jul 2012 04:04:00 +0000

My goodness, what a crazy week it's been! Like I mentioned earlier, my family (plus Andrew and Katie) came up last weekend. We had a great time, but we were all exhausted by the end of the it. Unfortunately, I didn't have much time to recover as I had to be at work bright and early on Monday morning, but I finally feel like my schedule is getting back to normal.

So the fam flew in on Thursday. I met them on Thursday night and was able to take Friday off of work. I have one summer Friday to take off during my time here, so it worked out really well. It was SO good to see everyone on Thursday night.

Our first picture in five weeks - way too long!

I met everyone near Rockefeller Center and we headed down to the Lower East Side to eat. We ate Cafe Habana, which is a neat little Cuban place famous for their grilled corn on the cob smothered in feta cheese, aka "Mexican corn." It may sound weird, but it was delicious.

After dinner, we wandered over to SoHo and got a cupcake from Georgetown Cupcake. My sister and I watch the show DC Cupcakes a good bit, so I wanted to make sure she got a cupcake from their SoHo location. I tried the Key Lime Pie cupcake this time - so delicious.

On Friday, we woke up pretty early and headed to Times Square to stand in line for Jersey Boys tickets. We were able to get really cheap tickets with our student ID's, and since we were able to buy two tickets per ID, we were able to get my parents student tickets as well.

Waiting in line for tickets.

After snagging our tickets, we walked around Times Square a little and then headed to Madison Square Park to eat at Shake Shack. I work right by Madison Square Park, so I see the ridiculous line for Shake Shack every single day and knew we needed to get there early. We got there at 11:15 and still had to wait for 45 minutes! Isn't that crazy? By the time we left, the line was twice as long. It's literally like that every single day, all day long. I don't know how people have the time to stand in that line. However, the food was delicious, and it was on my bucket list of things to do while I'm here.

Me, Caroline and Katie in the castle at the Disney store in Times Square.

Katie and I in the Barbie house in Toys R Us - can you tell we like fairytales/princesses?

We spent the afternoon at the 9/11 Memorial, and then headed back to Times Square to eat at Carmine's. Carmine's is a famous Italian restaurant that serves all their dishes family style, meaning you order a few things for the table and they bring them out on huge platters. It was so yummy. If you're ever in NYC with a group, I definitely recommend going there. You get a ton of food and it's not super expensive.

Does it seem like our trip revolved around food? Well, it kinda did. We had quite a few foodies among us, myself included.

We saw Jersey Boys that night and it was so great. Loved it.

On Saturday morning, my mom, Katie and me went wedding dress shopping! Up until this point, my mom hadn't seen any dresses on me because I had done all my shopping in NY. I'm glad she was able to shop with me a little, and I actually ended up buying my dress!

For lunch on Saturday, we went to a restaurant called Pommes Frites. I don't know if I would consider it a full-service restaurant because they only serve french fries. Huge french fries. With tons of different sauces. We ordered two large orders for all of us (which was plenty) and got several different sauces to try. I definitely recommend going there if you're in NYC - very unique.

On Saturday night, we wandered through Chelsea Market and strolled along the High Line, ultimately ending up at Chelsea Pier.

Sunset at Chelsea Pier

On Sunday, we had a cute little brunch at place on the Upper West Side called Cafe con Leche. Brunch is huge up here, so I wanted to make sure they got a complete NYC experience. After brunch, we decided to visit the Museum of Natural History because there was a possibility of rain. NYC is MISERABLE in the rain, so it was good to have a backup. It didn't end up raining during the day (thankfully!), but we still had fun at the museum.

Of course, I had to take a picture with the leopard display. If you know me at all, you know that I love animal print, particularly leopard print. Thankfully, I was wearing my new leopard shorts that day - perfect photo op.

We rode down to Canal Street on Sunday afternoon just for the experience, but I honestly don't like going to Chinatown. Canal Street and Times Square are both SO crowded. Andrew and I split off from the family and actually got our engagement pictures done on Sunday night. My roommate up here is a photographer, and we had so much fun taking them. Maybe I will be able to share some of them in my next post :)

That's all for now - this girl is sleepy!

Have a great weekend!

Brooklyn Bound

noreply@blogger.com (Laura) — Mon, 09 Jul 2012 01:39:00 +0000

It’s hard to believe I will have been in the city one month tomorrow. As of this weekend, I’m officially living in Brooklyn. I mentioned this in an earlier post, but I’ve been living at a place called the Webster since I’ve been here. However, now I am subleasing a room in a cute little Brooklyn apartment from a friend-of-a-friend. There are pros and cons to both living situations, but I’m excited to live in a New York apartment. Let me start by telling you a little bit about the Webster….

It's basically an all-girl dorm in the heart of the city. Sounds a little sketchy, but it's not so bad. There are actually a few of them dispersed throughout the city. The attraction? You pay reasonable rent (for Manhattan), pay your rent weekly (no lease - frees you up to move if you find your apartment), and your rent includes two meals a day.
You get your own room with a sink, but have a communal bathroom.
It's the perfect place for interns, students, or single women just starting out in the city. However, there are older women there as well, some of them who have lived there for decades. A little weird.
It's SUPER old school. They don't use email. You have to call and request for them to mail you an application, and then you fill it out and mail it back.
In addition to having your meals cooked for you in the cafeteria downstairs, you also have a maid who comes and cleans your room everyday.
There's a BEAUTIFUL rooftop garden with a stunning view of the city. I've posted pictures taken from it in previous posts.
No AC in the rooms. You can pay $250 to get a window unit installed for the summer, but since I was only going to be there a month, I decided to stick it out. I opened my window most days, and I had a fan to keep the air circulating. There were only two nights when I was super hot at night. It's very rare for apartments up here have central air. The majority of apartment buildings have window units, but it's not unusual for a building not to have air at all.
They have "beau parlors" for you to entertain men, who aren't allowed past the first floor. I told you it was old school. However, these little parlors are adorable. Here's a picture of one:

Here's a picture of my little room:

It's not much, but it was fine for the time being.

One great thing about living at the Webster was the location. It's located on 34th, and for those of you who aren't familiar with NY, that's the street the Macy's parade is on. Macy's is a few avenues away.

Here's a picture of my new room in Brooklyn:

I love it. My Brooklyn apartment also has several window units, which I'm very excited about. It's extremely different in Brooklyn, but I'm excited to get to know another borough of NYC. It's definitely more of a commute, but I think I will get used to it.

Living in an apartment means I have to buy groceries now. Buying groceries in the city is much different than back home. You only buy as much as you can carry. Also, like everything else, groceries are much more expensive up here. Trader Joe's is probably the most reasonable place, and their prices are about the same as back home. I made my first trip there tonight and was completely overwhelmed. Right when I walked in door, I saw a guy holding a sign that said "line ends here." He was standing right by the entrance, and I quickly realized the line wrapped all the way around the store. After trying to weave in and out of people in line, I found out the best method was to get the stuff I needed from the center aisles, head to the back of the line, and then pick up items from the outer aisles as I walked by them while waiting in line.

In other news, I got to celebrate 4th of July in the city this week! To be honest, I would have much rather been down South, soaking up the rays at the lake with my family. It was fun to be in NYC, but I miss having bodies of water nearby. It's still pretty hot up here, and I don't love spending tons of time in the heat if I don't have relief from the heat in the form of a pool, beach or lake.

I did get to watch the Macy's fireworks show. It was really neat to watch, but there were so many people. Here's a glimpse of the crowds.

Between trips from Manhattan to Brooklyn this weekend, I made time to go to Chinatown and Little Italy. My friend and I ate at a wonderful restaurant in Little Italy. The best part? We ate supper super early, around 5, and we were still offered the lunch menu. The restaurant was so cute, and tuxedo-clad waiters came and scraped the crumbs off our table when we were done.

Bread from our Italian lunch. Does that just look delicious? It was so yummy.

I also went to church in Brooklyn this morning with my roommate, and the pastor of the church actually grew up in Greenville! I get so excited when I meet people from the South up here, much less from my hometown. It makes me feel like the city isn't so big after all.

My family comes in on Thursday, and I couldn't be more excited! I'm sure I will have some stories to tell from their visit.

Hope you all had a great weekend!

Dialogue in the Dark

noreply@blogger.com (Laura) — Mon, 02 Jul 2012 02:55:00 +0000

Work. Exploring NYC. Shopping.

That pretty much sums up my week.

I also got to experience NYC through a blind person's eyes. No pun intended.

Let me explain.

On Friday, I went to an exhibition called Dialogue in the Dark. My work does something called Parks and Recreation every so often, which are fun activities that various employees plan in order to get to know other employees better. It's not a company-wide event, but rather is a smaller group that gets to participate. In the past, they have gone to concerts, taken a Broadway dance class and done other fun things. It's first-come, first-served, so you basically have to be sitting at your desk when the email comes through and respond right away to get in on it. On Friday, they had a spot open up last minute so I decided I would go.

Dialogue in the Dark is an experience in total darkness where participants embark on a simulation of NYC. Of course, you're not actually walking the streets of the city with a blindfold, but rather go through a series of pitch black rooms while being guided by a tour guide, who happens to be an actual blind person. The rooms you go through are set up like different parts of the city - Central Park, a grocery store, the subway, Times Square and a restaurant.

The rooms were amazing. Central Park was filled with trees, stones, fountains and the sounds of birds chirping. We even had to cross over a bridge. The room smelled of fresh air, and the only things missing were the crowds and our sense of sight.

After visiting the park, we experienced what a grocery store would be like as a blind person. Our tour guide, Romeo, made us pick up many different objects (real food) and identify what they were. They even had a freezer with frozen foods in it. We made our way to the subway station next, which was so weird to experience in the dark. I can't imagine navigating through the terminal as a blind person. We arrived at Times Square and were met with the smells of hot pretzels and roasted peanuts. We headed over to a diner after getting our dose of Times Square and were allowed to ask Romeo any questions about being blind. It was so interesting and insightful to hear him tell us about his life.

Throughout the tour, I was amazed at how quickly Romeo not only learned our names (there were 8 of us), but also learned our voices and knew who we were by simply guiding us in the right direction with his hands. It was unbelievable.

On Saturday, I finally went up to Central Park. My family (plus Andrew and Katie) is coming up in two weeks, so I have been trying to visit different parks of the city so I can have places to take them. I'm a little concerned about transportation when they come up. I can just picture me trying to direct all 6 of them around the subway terminals among the crowds of people in NYC. We might not all get to the right place in the most orderly fashion, but I'm sure we will have some stories along the way.

On Saturday night, one of the other interns and I headed to Times Square to see if we could find any last minute student tickets for a show. We ended up getting student tickets for CHICAGO. We paid student price, but I'm pretty sure the box office guy did not give us student tickets. We ended up near the center on the 13th row - great seats. I think he felt sorry for us because we were still looking for tickets an hour before show time.

I went to Hillsong NYC again this morning and ended the day by heading over to Macy's. I walk by it almost every single day, but haven't actually taken the time to look around. Since it's 9 floors, I knew I needed to go on a day when I had some time to look around. As I was getting ready to leave, I made a last minute decision to go up one more floor and check out the shoes. Good/bad news - they were having a huge sale. Racks and racks of shoes on clearance. Every time I thought I have seen them all, I realized there was another section that I had missed. I tried on a lot of shoes, but ended up walking out with only one pair and $20 less in my bank account. Not too bad.

Hope you all had a great weekend! I've heard it's been hot in SC thanks to all your Facebook/Twitter/Instagram pictures of the thermometer :)

Sample Sale Mayhem

noreply@blogger.com (Laura) — Sun, 24 Jun 2012 20:44:00 +0000

Finished out my second week! It's hard to believe I have been here for two weeks - it seems like it has been so much longer. I feel like I'm finally figuring out the subway system and learning my way around. The good thing about NYC is that it's on a grid system with numbered streets and avenues, which makes it a lot easier to figure out where you're going.

This week was full of sample sales! Well, only two, but that's enough in one week for me. There's a sample sale warehouse right near by work, which could be a good thing or a bad thing :) Every week they house a different sample sale. This past week was J. Crew, this coming week is Rachel Zoe.

The J. Crew sample sale started on Tuesday, and the other two interns and I decided to check it out during our lunch break that day. Big mistake. The line was wrapped all the way around the building. Clearly we weren't going to be able to shop during our lunch break. The sale went until Saturday, so I went back on Thursday during my lunch break. After realizing there was no line, I decided to go in and check it out.

It was complete chaos.

Racks and racks of clothes positioned super close together. Lots of people. No organization. You have to be willing to dig through everything if you're going to go to a sample sale. You also have to have a lot of time, which I didn't.

Oh, and you can forget about dressing rooms. They had a narrow hallway setup with mirrors and racks where everyone just throws off their clothes and tries everything on. It was all girls trying stuff on, so it actually wasn't too bad.

I'm sure if I had stayed long enough I would have found something I liked, but I didn't have the time or patience to dig that day. The prices were pretty good, but some stuff was still pretty high (cheapest pair of shoes I saw was $60 and they were little sandals). I did try on a pair of leopard pants and a leopard skirt (had to) that were both priced at $25, but they didn't fit me quite right. Like I said, you really have to have the time to dig and brave "the dressing room," which of course has a decent sized line of it's own.

However, the J. Crew sample sale was great preparation to the sample sale I went to today - the Pronovias bridal sample sale! That's my exciting news from last week. I realize you may not be quite as excited about this as me, but I had to create a small bit of anticipation for the 5 people that read my blog :)

When I got engaged, everyone kept telling me that I have to go dress shopping in NY. Of course I smiled and agreed, but in the back of my mind I was thinking "do you think I have $10,000 to go blow on a dress?" I would be one of those people at Kleinfeld that gives their budget and the consultants respond by saying, "well, we will definitely be limited about the dresses we choose with that budget."

Thus began the search for bridal sample sales.

I found out about the Pronovias sample sale last week and called to make an appointment. I love their dresses and wanted to at least see what it was about. Since I had to set up an appointment, I knew it wouldn't be like Kleinfeld's sample sale where people line up outside for hours waiting to get in. Thank goodness I didn't have to do that. I asked my friend Sari to come with me and we headed out this morning. I wasn't sure exactly what to expect.

We got there and they had all the dresses organized by price. We started digging and took a few back to "the dressing room." It was a little better than the J. Crew hallway, but it was still just a smaller room set up with mirrors and racks. I went to David's Bridal up here on Friday night to make sure the style I had always wanted looked okay on me. That made it much easier when pulling dresses today because I only tried on that particular style. They didn't have quite as many dresses as I thought they would today, and I only ended up trying on 2. I loved the front of the first one, but hated the back of it. I loved the second one, but ultimately, I wasn't ready to commit quite yet. I feel like I need to have other dresses to compare it to, and I didn't want to buy it just because it was a great deal. It also was a few sizes to big and was going to need a decent amount of alterations.

One of my consultants that helped me today was Elise from "Say Yes to the Dress." I knew I recognized her when I saw her, and after doing a little research online, I found out she used to be the Director of Sales at Kleinfeld. She doesn't work there anymore obviously since she works at Pronovias, but it was really cool to have her help :)

I'm doing more research to find out about other bridal sample sales or stores up here. Maybe I will be able to find a dress in my budget :) If not, I have plenty of time to find a dress when I get back to SC.

Ok, enough about sample sales and wedding dresses. I also headed to the 9/11 memorial yesterday. Here are a few pictures I snapped.

The South reflection pool

Names listed on the walls of the reflection pool of those who died.

I'm also going to check out Hillsong NYC tonight! I'm excited to see what it's like. After that, it's time to get out of weekend mode and transition into the work week.

First week. Check.

noreply@blogger.com (Laura) — Mon, 18 Jun 2012 01:55:00 +0000

I've officially been in NYC for one week. After wrapping up the first week of my internship, I decided to do a little exploring this weekend.

On Friday night, Ines, a girl at the Webster who also moved in last week, and I headed over to Union Square to walk around. I have a friend from high school who just moved up to NY and she was in the area, so we met up with her as well. The three of us window shopped and went in and out of the stores. I finally figured out where a Whole Foods was and went in just to see how big it was. Because it's more than one floor, they have little escalators for your shopping carts. It's funny how after being in NYC for a week, I suddenly label any store that is only one floor as "small." I'm going to be in for a rude awakening when I come back to South Carolina.

On Saturday morning, I got up and went for a run along the High Line. The High Line is a (mini) park built along a set of old railroad tracks. It's above street level, and provides a nice strip to run along while being surrounded by a beautiful green oasis of grass and trees.

Part of the High Line

Around lunchtime, Sari, Ines and I all headed to the Times Square area. I mentioned Ines earlier, but Sari is another girl who moved in last week as well. The three of us have been eating and hanging out together. It's nice to meet people who are also new to NYC and want to do touristy things like me. We walked to Times Square in search of 99 cent slices of pizza. After a little help from Google, we finally found some. You may be skeptical about buying a 99 cent slice of pizza, but it actually was really good! Here's a few pictures from our adventure....

Not too shabby

We also saw the infamous Naked Cowboy while in Times Square.

So many M&M's

While we were in Times Square, we decided to stop in a few of the theatre box offices and find out what their student ticket/rush policies were. The first one we stopped in was Mary Poppins, and they happened to have some student tickets available for the show on Saturday night for $32. After thinking about it for approximately .018 seconds, we decided to buy them. How could we have passed them up?

After walking around Times Square for a little longer, we decided to go find a little treat. I've always thought Times Square was so glamorous in the past, and it is to an extent, but it is SO crowded. Everyone moves so slow and there are so many people. I think I've gotten a little to used to the fast pace of NYC. Anyone who knows me knows that I am a very fast walker, so I fit right in up here.

After consulting Google maps again, we found a Crumbs Bake Shop and stopped in to get a cupcake. So many flavors. I finally decided to order the Apple Cobbler cupcake.

Oh my goodness.

It was incredible, and I don't say that about many cupcakes. I consider myself to be a little bit of a cupcake snob since I like to make them a lot, and I haven't tried many incredible cupcakes from bakeries. I'm not saying I'm this world-class baker - I'm not - but I expect cupcakes to be moist when I buy them.

This cupcake was so good. The cake part was extremely moist, and it had a delicious apple pie filling inside. It was topped off with cream cheese icing covered in crumb topping. Delicious.

After I ordered my cupcake, I noticed they had the calorie count listed by each flavor. Really, Crumbs? If I'm splurging on a delicious cupcake, I don't really want to know how many calories are in it. There were a lot. But that's besides the point :)

We headed back to the Webster for a bit and then started walking back to Times Square to see Mary Poppins. It was so great. Loved every second.

Beautiful view from the Webster's rooftop garden

On Sunday, I woke up and ran the High Line again. After eating lunch, I walked a few streets over to a flea market. It was a little different than the Pickens Flea Market. Mostly upscale antiques and expensive vintage clothes. However, I thoroughly enjoyed looking through all the vintage clothes and wishing I was an adult in the 1950's so I could wear the clothes from that era.

Tonight I wrapped up my weekend by visiting Redeemer Presbyterian Church. It's a pretty decent sized church up here that I've heard great things about. It was a little different from NewSpring, but I still really enjoyed the service.

I'd say it was a successful first weekend in NY. I'm even more excited about next weekend because I've got something really exciting planned! Guess you'll have to read my post next week to find out what it is...

I know, that's a little mean :)

Time to get back to the grind.

I Love NY

noreply@blogger.com (Laura) — Thu, 14 Jun 2012 02:44:00 +0000

At least for now. I don't know that I could live here long-term, but it's been fun so far! I got here on Sunday, and these past few days have been such a whirlwind. My mom, her friend Jill, and Jill's daughter Lansing (also one of my friends) came up with me on Sunday and left this morning. Lansing interned at Ralph Lauren three summers ago, so it was great to have someone who knew how to get around NYC. We flew in to LaGuardia and somehow fit all our luggage into a cab. I managed to squeeze all my stuff for the next three months into 3 suitcases.

Maybe three suitcases is a little much, but let's be real, it has to last me three months. Here's a picture of all our luggage put together.

We dropped everything off at their hotel and headed to grab a bite to eat. After that, we took all my stuff to the Webster, which is where I'll be living for the month of June. After June, I'm subleasing from a friend of a friend in Brooklyn.

Everyone helped me get settled in and then we went on a tour of the Webster. It has a beautiful rooftop garden with this stunning view...

I'll tell you more about the Webster in another post.

After that, I wanted to figure out where I would be working, so we practiced getting on the right subway so I would know where to go the next morning. The subway actually isn't as hard as I thought it would be, especially when I have Google maps and Hopstop on my phone. The PR agency I'm interning for is only about a mile from where I live, but there isn't a great way to get there on the subway. I can either walk the whole mile to work, or I can walk half a mile to the subway station and ride the train in.

I miraculously made it to work on Monday without getting all mixed up - thank you Lord! I headed up to my office and learned more about what I will be doing this summer. The company I work for is actually split up between three floors in the building because they've experienced a good bit of growth. I really like all the people I work with and think I'm going to learn a ton. It's definitely not a company where they make the interns get coffee and run errands - we got thrown in the first day and are getting to work on a lot of different projects.

After work I met up with Mom, Jill and Lansing and we headed to the West Village to eat. During dinner, we looked across the street and saw Cuba Gooding Jr. Of course we had to get up and ask him if we could get a picture. Not gonna lie, he was a little bit creepy.

Me, Lansing, Cuba, and Lansing's friend Carolyn

After our first celebrity spotting, we walked around the West Village for a while. I got my first cupcake in the city from Magnolia Bakery. There are so many cute little bakeries up here.

Monday felt so glamourous. My first day working in NYC. The West Village. Celebrity spotting. Cupcakes.....

Then Tuesday happened.

On Tuesday, I learned that living in the city is not so fun when it rains.

Because I was already bringing so much stuff, I didn't bring any rainboots because they are so bulky and heavy (every pound counts!). It's not very fun walking to the subway station with just a little umbrella. My feet were so gross. Enough said.

But Tuesday was still a fun day. I met up with everyone after work and we ate at the Chelsea Market. Thankfully, all the shops in the Chelsea Market are indoor, so it was a great place to go.

Inside the Chelsea Market

We headed up to Dylan's Candy Bar after dinner, which is owned by Dylan Lauren, Ralph Lauren's daughter.

Oh my goodness. The place consists of three floors of candy. How could anyone not love that?

Mom, Jill, and Lansing left this morning, so we said our goodbyes in the rain last night after the candy bar. Now I'm officially on my own in NYC. Little bit scary, but I'm really excited about what this summer holds!

Snapped this pic on my walk home tonight. Beautiful Empire State Building all lit up.

Engagement Story!

noreply@blogger.com (Laura) — Fri, 01 Jun 2012 14:40:00 +0000

My best friend completely surprised me last night and asked me to marry him! I feel like I've told this story 52 times in the past 12 hours(and loved every second of it), but I figured I would blog about it too. Here's how it all started....

On Wednesday, Andrew got back from Raleigh. He swung by my house in Greenville on the way home and ate dinner with my family. I was planning to come to Clemson on Thursday for my last Dgroup (Bible study) before I head to NYC, so we decided to get lunch on Thursday and hang out in Clemson before Dgroup.

I got to Clemson around lunch and Andrew wouldn't tell me where we were going to eat. I didn't think anything of this because he likes to surprise me on dates sometimes. He took me to 1826, which is a cute little plantation style restaurant in Pendleton that I've wanted to try for the past four years but never had.

After lunch, we decided to walk around the Botanical Gardens in Clemson. I still didn't think anything of this because we had just kind of decided to walk around after lunch. After that, we went and got a drink at a new coffeehouse in Clemson that I've been wanting to try.

I headed off to Dgroup around 5:15. Originally, I was supposed to get dinner after Dgroup with my friend Carla, but Andrew called her and told her to cancel. After those plans got canceled, Andrew's mom told me she was making pork chops and invited me to eat dinner with them. I told her yes and not to wait on me if they got hungry; they could just save me a plate. After Dgroup, I called Andrew and headed back to his house. He said he was at the store (he wasn't- he was actually giving the roses and journal to Emily and Caroline) and would be there in a second. When he got there, he told me that his parents only had two pork chops and had already eaten. He asked me if I just wanted to pick up Subway and go eat at the dikes. For those of you who aren't familiar with Clemson, the dikes are natural dams by the lake. We go to the dikes often and walk and have taken picnics there multiple times, so I still didn't suspect anything. The dikes are also special to us because we went there on one of our very first dates and it's also where Andrew kissed me for the first time a few months later.

We went down to the water and ate our subs. I was writing in the sand down there and wrote A+L=heart (with a heart drawing of course). Until yesterday, Andrew had never told me he loved me. After I drew the heart, he asked if the heart meant love and then asked me if I loved him. Of course I wasn't going to be the first to admit that I loved him, so I replied and just said "Andrew!" He then told me that he loved me, and of course I told him I loved him back. He keeps saying that I had a huge smile on my face after he told me that. I asked him why he waited such a LONG time to tell me that, and he told me he wanted to make sure he never was going to love anyone else like he loves me. We hadn't really talked about it, but I always suspected that he was going to tell me when he proposed. Him telling me that should have a been a huge hint, but in the back of my mind I was thinking "oh, I guess he isn't waiting until then and wanted to tell me before I left for NY."

After all this happened, he said he wanted to go walk along the dikes. Of course, I put up a fight because I told him I liked sitting down by the water and had just walked through a bunch of brush to get down there. I was wearing little flip flops and didn't want to plunder through all the brush again. Obviously, he eventually convinced me to go walk.

While we were walking, he mentioned that Emily (my best friend) had called him earlier. She was trying to fill out an application for Boosterthon (Andrew's employer) and needed help finding it online. I told him it was fine to call her back real quick. Little did I know, they were actually talking in code the whole time. Emily and Caroline (my sister) had set up roses and a journal along the path, and Andrew couldn't find it. I didn't think anything of him talking to her. He was actually calling her because he couldn't find the roses and journal.

Andrew kept wanting to walk farther and farther. Normally, I'm the one who wants to walk a lot, but he was pushing for it last night. I put up a fight again. I told him I didn't know we were going to be walking 5 miles (slight exaggeration) and I didn't have the right shoes on. Once again, he convinced me to keep going.

Here we are walking 5 miles.

We finally came across the roses and journal. I have no idea how we missed it the first time we passed them because they were extremely obvious. When I saw them, I was completely surprised and said "Oh, are those for me?"

Dumb question.

Andrew then started saying all this sweet stuff (that neither of us can remember), and got down on one knee and asked me to marry him. I was shocked. We had talked about getting married, but I thought he would wait until after I got back from NYC to propose. Of course I said yes!

Getting a good look at the ring for the first time

We sat down and he told me he had been keeping a journal for me throughout this whole engagement process so I could read about how it happened. I read part of the journal and I asked him a hundred questions about how he pulled everything off. Here we are talking about it...

Around this time, I heard a "click" behind me and looked to see someone duck behind the hill. I didn't know who it was, but I told them they could come out. Emily and Caroline came out and they had been hiding in the bushes taking pictures of the whole thing.

First real picture as an engaged couple!

My beautiful ring! He did SO good - exactly what I wanted!

Small Town Southern Life

noreply@blogger.com (Laura) — Fri, 01 Jun 2012 13:16:00 +0000

Over Memorial Day weekend, one my roommates from Clemson, Rachel, and I went up to see one of our other roommates, Stephanie, in her grand hometown of Santee, SC. Most of you probably haven't heard of Santee before. It's a small little country town about an hour outside of Charleston, SC. Stephanie is so proud to be from Santee. When she introduces herself, she ALWAYS says "I'm Stephanie Peagler from Santee, South Carolina." It doesn't matter if the person asks where she's from, she always adds it in. Many times, the person hasn't heard of Santee. Steph LOVES this. She will then take the opportunity to tell them about her beloved hometown for the next five minutes.

If you don't know us, you need to know that Stephanie is nothing like Rachel and I. In fact, people often ask us how we became friends when they meet us because because we are so opposite (we lived on the same hall freshman year). Steph is one-of-a-kind. If I had to choose three words to describe her I would choose loud, outgoing, and ~~redneck~~ Southern (and proud of it).

After hearing about Santee and all Steph's family members (they all live on the same street of course) for the past four years, we decided it was time to visit the beloved homeland. For some reason, Rachel and I have a very idealistic view of small-town Southern life. We picture everyone sitting out on their front porches all day, sipping lemonade, and greeting the neighbor boys as they walk the dirt road on their way to the fishing pond. Everybody knows everybody of course. If you need something, you walk up to the corner market/grocery store that is named after one of the families in town (Puckett's, Dillard's, Durham's, Smith's, etc.).

Of course, our view is very jaded and we all know that small-town Southern life is not actually like that. However, our experience in Santee was certainly noteworthy. Steph had organized a fish fry for the night we arrived. We always hear about the fish frys at Aunt Sarah and Uncle Buck's house, so she wanted to make sure we experienced one. We feasted on fried fish fresh from Uncle Buck's farm, grits, mac n' cheese (our veggie), baked beans, cole slaw, watermelon, homemade sweet potato fries and Aunt Sarah's boiled peanuts. For dessert, we ate nanner (banana) pudding of course.

Rachel and I enjoying Aunt Tyler's beautiful yard

Steph introduced us as "city folk" to all her friends and family. Before we left for the fish fry, Steph's mom, Mrs. Wanda Sue, made sure that we knew it was normal for her family members to yell at each other and maybe even cuss at each other. If that happened, she told us there was no need to worry. Steph also took us around the neighborhood before dinner and introduced us to all her neighbors. She just walks in all their houses without knocking and yells to see if their home. Completely normal.

In true Southern fashion, we watched NASCAR while eating dinner. Aunt Tyler also showed us the pictures of all her family members. This also included telling us about the ex-family members (ex-wife, ex-husband) that she had purposely cut out of the picture. You could still tell someone was supposed to be in the picture there, but she had cut their head out. Guess that's what happens when you get a divorce in the family.

Steph also took us fishing while in Santee. We went out on Uncle Buck's farm with her 15 y/o cousin Derek. Rachel and I both caught 4-5 fish - success! We also had a nice little encounter with a 4-5 ft. long chicken snake, which included Derek killing the snake by repeatedly whacking it with the fishing pole. Keep in mind, we are all crammed in the tiny fishing boat about 2 feet away from the snake while this is happening. He forgot to bring his gun with him, so I guess the fishing pole works just as well when you need to kill a snake.

Here's a little snapshot of our time in Santee

Definitely a trip to remember!

Post Grad Life

noreply@blogger.com (Laura) — Wed, 30 May 2012 02:48:00 +0000

I'm officially a Clemson alumni. This actually happened a few weeks ago, May 11th to be exact, but I haven't had a chance to update the blog since then. I'm hoping to start posting more frequently, especially since I'll be moving up to NYC in 12 short days! So much to do before then!

Here's a picture of me coming off the stage at right after I got my diploma.

My family and me after graduation - couldn't done it without them!

Andrew and I outside of Death Valley - Clemson's football stadium

Rubbing the rock - The football team rubs the rock and runs down the hill before every football game. The most exciting 25 seconds in college football.

I loved my time in Clemson. I'm so proud to be an alumni and I wear my class ring with pride every single day. I met some of my best friends there. I met Andrew there. I made memories that will last a lifetime. There really is something in these hills.

Half-Marathon and Easter!

noreply@blogger.com (Laura) — Fri, 13 Apr 2012 21:13:00 +0000

These last few weeks have been cuh-razy. Yes, I just said that in a blog post. I'm having a hard time believing I will be graduating from college in less than a month and moving into the real world. However, I have lots to get done before that happens. I just wanted to share some photos from the past few weeks with you!

Ran my half-marathon 2 weeks ago! I was hoping to finish in 2 hours and I ended up finishing in 1:55! Definitely not the easiest thing I have ever done, but I think I would run one again.

Here are a few Easter pictures with the fam

Me and Kinley

Andrew got to come up for the weekend!

Last week I celebrated Easter with friends and family. I volunteered at and went to the Easter services at my church (which were amazing!), spent time with my mom's side of the family and played with puppies all day. My cousin's lab just had 8 little black puppies so we played with them all day long. SO cute. I'm not sure how I didn't snap any photos with my camera.

Hope you all had a great Easter!

New York State of Mind

noreply@blogger.com (Laura) — Mon, 26 Mar 2012 23:39:00 +0000

I know I've been a little MIA lately. Usually I try to post once a week, but that just hasn't been doable this semester. However, I want to pop in and say "hi" when I can!

I want to share some exciting news with you all. I will be graduating in May, which is a little bit scary. I love Greenville, SC, which is where I grew up and would love to work one day. However, I have always thought it would be cool to work in NYC, even if it was for a short period of time. In fact, I would rather it be a short period of time because I'm not sure I could live in a huge city like that long-term. So, I decided I would try to land one last summer internship before I settle down with a full-time job.

The internship search began. I filled out lots of applications and sent countless resumes and cover letters. A couple weeks ago I had a Skype interview with a company called Hunter PR. That interview led to second Skype interview, and then last week they offered me a full-time paid summer internship with them! After working out some details, I officially accepted and am so excited!

This will be a whole new adventure to me as I don't know my way around the City and don't really know anyone up there. I've been to NYC before, but it's always been for short visits and I haven't been in a few years. I should also mention that I am directionally challenged, so thank goodness for helpful apps like HopStop to help me get around. Now I just need an iPhone :)

Now I am in the process of trying to find a place to live! Wish me luck!

The Best Running Partner Ever

noreply@blogger.com (Laura) — Wed, 22 Feb 2012 03:45:00 +0000

Ok, so I don't actually have a running partner. Sometimes I can talk Andrew into running a few miles with me, but it takes a lot of pleading. I tried to get him to run a half-marathon with me, but sadly, it was not a success. But it's ok. I don't mind running by myself, especially now that I have this new little running partner:

The Nike + Sportband

So my "partner" isn't actually a person, but I love my Nike + Sportband. It tells me how far I've run, my pace, my time, how many calories I've burned, and doubles as a regular watch when I'm not running. It's really easy to switch between the different modes while I'm running. I usually watch my pace the most during my runs, but I occasionally check to see how far I have run. After I calibrated it, the sportband has been really accurate (it was pretty accurate before - only off by .1 or .2 miles).

You can also detach the face of the watch and plug it into your laptop to upload your runs online. I really like being able to see my progress week to week - definitely keeps me more motivated. You don't have to have a Nike + Sportband to be a member of the Nike + community. Instead, you could just buy a sensor and download the free app on your iTouch or iPhone. I run with a iPod nano (I know, old school) on my arm because I don't like carrying anything while I run. I like being able to look down at my watch during my run and check my progress. However, you could also do this with your iPhone or iTouch as long as you don't mind carrying them.

For $59.99, you get the sportband and the sensor that goes in your shoe and tracks your progress. I don't have Nike shoes (I'm a huge Mizuno fan), but I bought a little pouch that attaches to the top of my shoelaces. If you have Nike running shoes, there is a specially designed place for the sensor under your left heel.

I highly recommend this for any runners out there! It's a great, basic running tool that's not a huge investment (some running watches can be $200-$300). I wish I could track my non-running workouts, but I'm happy with what I have right now.

Updates of Life!

noreply@blogger.com (Laura) — Sat, 11 Feb 2012 01:27:00 +0000

It's been almost a month since I posted, which is not good in the blogging world. This semester has started out busier than ever. Every semester is busy, but I'm in class/on campus a whole lot more than I have been in past semesters. Although busy, classes have been going well so far. I may not say that after next week because I have two tests, one midterm and one very time-consuming design project due.

One of the reasons I have been in class more this semester is because of my design class. Even though we only get two credit hours for the class, we meet for six hours in-class each week. However, this class is probably one of the most beneficial classes I have taken during my college career. I'm learning how to use Adobe Photoshop, Illustrator and InDesign. The class is a ton of work inside and outside of class (especially for two credit hours), but I enjoy learning how to use these programs and think it will be really beneficial in the future. Maybe I will post some of my work eventually :)

Another update about my life - I'm training for a half marathon! I'm planning to run one on March 31st, so I'm heading into week six of my twelve week plan. Usually I don't like it when we have mild winters, but I am so thankful this year because I get up and run early in the morning 3-4 days a week.

Hopefully I will have some recipe or craft posts for you soon! I have been dying to bake this week but haven't had the time. I'm planning on making some cookies tomorrow, so I will try to post them if they are yummy.

Have a good weekend!

Cake Decorating 101

noreply@blogger.com (Laura) — Mon, 16 Jan 2012 03:41:00 +0000

You volunteered to bring a cake to a party. You have no idea how to decorate. No worries, I've got you covered. Relax. You don't have to go buy a Wilton decorating kit or scour the internet for ideas.

The easiest decorations are non-edible. It's alright if you have to take them off before you cut the cake. No one cares what the cake looks like after it's cut. Fresh flowers are a great way to top off a cake. This past Christmas, I decorated a cake with ornaments. Andrew's graduation was a few days before Christmas, so I combined Christmas and Clemson with these decorations.

I had to make the cake two days in advance, so it worked out really well to pile these ornaments on top of the cake. Instead of stacking the ornaments and hoping they wouldn't roll off, I used a hot glue gun to make them stick together. The topper was also really easy to transport and move since it was all in one piece.

Ribbons are also a great way to decorate. Just wrap a thick ribbon around the circumference of the cake, put some fresh flowers on top and everyone will be talking about your cake.

"At the Chef's Table" Tour

noreply@blogger.com (Laura) — Sun, 08 Jan 2012 03:54:00 +0000

I found out about "At the Chef's Table" Tour this past August after my boss posted about how good it was on Facebook and Twitter. The tour is lead by local author and historian John Nolan. John teamed up with the Table 301 restaurant hub and together they have come up with a tour that gives participants the chance to dine at five different restaurants over the span of a few hours.

After reading about it online, I knew it would be the perfect birthday present for Andrew. Unfortunately, his birthday is in December so I had to wait four long months to give it to him. We finally got to go on the tour today and loved it. At each of the five stops, one of the chefs came out and talked to our group and told us how the dishes were prepared. With the exception of Nose Dive, all of the restaurants were closed during the tour, so we had the whole restaurant to ourselves. Here's a little recap of the places we went and what we ate.

We started out at Soby's on the Side, where we sampled several items from their catering menu. Here's what's on the plate starting with the metal cup and going clockwise: Passion fruit creme brulee, open face Reuben with slaw, BLT with candied bacon and sun-dried tomatoes, toast with brie and lingenberry jam, and portabella mushroom with curry chicken and arugula.

Our next stop was Nose Dive, where we were taken to the upstairs loft. We ate Minuto soup, which is somewhat similar to chili, but it's main ingredient is tripe. I found out tripe comes from the lining of a cow stomach. So that was...neat to find out. This was actually my least favorite stop, but not because I don't like Nose Dive. The soup was just way too spicy for me, but I think the restaurant is great.

Soby's was next on the list where we were offered two different drinks along with an entree. The drink on the left is made from muddled strawberries, mint leaves and club soda. The drink on the right is a fig bourbon mixed with lemon juice and club soda.

This is the snapper we had at Soby's. It was served over hummus, chick peas, kale and cauliflower.

We headed over to Devereaux's and tried some grouper served with carrots, polenta and mushrooms.

We finished the tour at the The Lazy Goat with some champagne and this lovely cake. It doesn't look like it in the picture, but it was a huge piece of cake. The pastry chef made a vanilla cake with a hazelnut filling. The cake was covered in chocolate ganache and topped with toasted almonds.

I would highly recommend this tour to anyone who loves food or Greenville. Between stops, John would tell us about the history of Greenville. I found out some interesting things about some buildings downtown, and he also showed us old pictures of downtown Greenville. It was neat to be standing somewhere along Main Street and then see a picture of how it looked in the same spot a hundred years ago.

I also really enjoyed being able to meet the chefs and hear about what goes on in the restaurants every day. Our tour group had 24 people in, but I think our tour was larger because they didn't have any tours during December due to holiday parties. The minimum people the tour needs is 6.

If you decide to go on a tour, you may not eat what we ate today. There is no set menu, though the restaurants typically serve one of their famous dishes. Both Soby's and Devereaux's served some type of seafood today, but it wasn't planned that way. The cake we had at Lazy Goat wasn't even on the menu, it was just something the pastry chef was experimenting with. I would love to do the tour again and taste more menu items. The tour would be a great gift or creative date night to any foodies.

2011 in Pictures

noreply@blogger.com (Laura) — Sat, 31 Dec 2011 18:45:00 +0000

With 2012 right around the corner, I thought I would take a little bit of time to reflect on 2011 and share my year in pictures with you.

January - Kick off the year in Atlanta at Passion 2011 with 20,000 other college students

January - After having a white Christmas, we get more snow in January and the first week of classes gets cancelled!

February - Tour the grand state of South Carolina with CU Singers to recruit!

February - celebrate 2 years with Andrew. There he his hula hooping his little heart out in downtown Greenville - can you see why I like him?

March - meet designer Carmen Marc Valvo!

March - Attend a wedding in Charleston over spring break

April - run our first 5K

Easter

May - start my last summer break by going to the beach with some friends for a few days

June - visit the beach again with the fam (plus a few friends)

July - Andrew is a groomsmen for the first time in his old roommate's wedding. Cue the beginning of many engagements.

August - visit Colorado with Andrew's family

Colorado

September - Attend the ring ceremony and get my class ring! This is me and President Barker showing off our rings.

September - November - attend lots of Clemson home football games

November - bike the Swamp Rabbit Trail with the roomies

November - our last home football game as students :( Clemson goes undefeated at home this year!

December - After a less than stellar game against the Gamecocks a week earlier, Clemson comes back and wins the ACC Championship in Charlotte.

2012 will be my year of transition - graduate college, hopefully get a job and go into the real world. Scary to think about but exciting at the same time. I can't wait to see what God has in store for me this year!

25 Ways to Wear a Scarf

noreply@blogger.com (Laura) — Thu, 29 Dec 2011 15:58:00 +0000

I came across this video the other day and wanted to share it. 25 ways to wear a scarf in 4.5 minutes. This girl shows us how to do each one. She does go pretty fast, but it's easy to pause the video at the one you want to learn and watch her do it slowly. Some of my favorites are The Celebrity, The Hidden Knot, The Magic Trick and The Braid. Not only is the video helpful, but she makes it entertaining to watch. Enjoy!

Merry Christmas!

noreply@blogger.com (Laura) — Sat, 24 Dec 2011 17:30:00 +0000

Hello blogger friends! Sorry it's been a while since I've posted. Over the past few weeks I've been finishing up school, Christmas shopping, working, catching up with friends while I'm home and lots of other fun things. I will say this "break" has been the busiest break I've ever had! I'm looking forward to some downtime after Christmas. Unfortunately, I have not had much time to do any Christmas crafts :( I have a done a little baking and will update the blog soon!

My family also got a new little puppy last week. Our lab of 10 years died about a month ago from liver failure. Everyone missed him a lot so we started looking for a little Christmas puppy. We found one nearby that we were interested in and ended up getting her. Here are some pictures of little Kinley.

Isn't she the cutest? I promise I won't let her start taking over the blog though. I just wanted to post a few pictures to show you :)

Hopefully I will be posting again soon!

Merry Christmas!

Cranberry Salsa Cream Cheese Dip

noreply@blogger.com (Laura) — Thu, 08 Dec 2011 03:25:00 +0000

I came across this recipe on Pinterest a while back and was waiting for the right occasion to make it. I originally planned to make it as an appetizer for Thanksgiving, but ended up making it for a football game a fews days after. It was a huge hit and super easy to make.

It only takes about 15-20 minutes to put together and then is supposed to sit in the fridge for four hours. However, I didn't read that part until I had already made the salsa and kick-off was 2 hours away. It only sat in the fridge for about 2 hours and was perfectly fine. I also only used one package of cream cheese for the base layer and took the jalapeno seeds out since I'm not a huge fan of spicy food. The recipe comes from a blog called Jamie Cooks It Up! Definitely will be making this for some holiday parties.

Cranberry Salsa Cream Cheese Dip
1 12 oz package fresh cranberries
1/4 C green onion, chopped
1/4 C cilantro, chopped
1 small jalapeno pepper
1 1/4 C sugar
1/4 t cumin
2 T lemon juice
dash salt
2 8 oz packages cream cheese

1. Put your cranberries in a food processor.
2. Chop up your green onion, cilantro, and jalapeno pepper into small pieces. Take the seeds out if you don't like spicy foods. Also, be sure to put on a pair of rubber gloves or something when taking them out.
3. Add all ingredients (but the cream cheese and the wheat thins) into a bowl. Mix them all together, cover and store in the fridge for at least 4 hours. The sugar needs some time to soak in to the cranberries and break up their bitter taste.
4. When you are ready to serve, place your cream cheese bricks on a plate.
5. Spread the cream cheese out as evenly as you can.
6. Pour your cranberry mixture over the cream cheese.
7. Spread it all around.
8. Serve immediately with Wheat Thins, Ritz Crackers or Tortilla Chips.