"The Big Apple" of my eye

Sometimes I day dream that I live in a cozy loft

somewhere in Manhattan.

A loft that looks a little something like this

with a balcony that has a view

of this!

Since the odds of me ever living there are pretty much zero to none, I guess I would be happy just settling with a trip to the big apple.

I would love to see Central Park in Fall

I would rent a boat from the boathouse that was

featured in the movie Twenty Seven Dresses

then float along the river to see the beautiful fall foliage
.....ahhhh

I would like to stay at the Plaza Hotel where Kevin lived it up in the movie Home Alone 2

Which is conveniently located across the street from Central Park making it easy for me to spend a couple of days just wandering through it searching for all the famous landmarks.

Of course I would also visit the regular historic sights that are mandatory while in Manhattan, but here are some other things I would like to do while I am there....

Go to Carmines in the Theater District for a delicious Italian dinner...Family style:D

Then after dinner walk down the street to the theater and see the play that I have been wanting to see since it opened... Wicked!

I would also like to visit the LDS Temple. Last time I was there I went to a Sacrament meeting that was held in the same building. We took an elevator up to the Chapel, where we had a nice view of the city during our testimony meeting....it was awesome! We also introduced ourselves to Jane Clayson who was a member of the ward we were visiting.... she was nice:)

I would grab a quick lunch at Grays Papaya's
while shopping in SoHo

Then treat myself to a nice dinner at Mr. Chow's

and hope that Mr. Chow would bring me the Chicken Satay's again:D This is how it works....he comes out to your table to meet you and get a feel for what kind of food you like, then a little while later out comes your meal which is a total surprise! I lucked out and got these tasty treats that are melt in your mouth delicious!!!

For my sugar fix I would get some cupcakes

from Magnolia's

and stop at Dylan's candy bar... not so much for the real candy but for the eye candy!

Then on to Serendipity's for.....

their famous frozen hot chocolate! If you haven't seen the movie Serendipity you need to watch it.... I Love Love Love it!!

The window displays in this town are magical, making window shopping almost every bit as fun as the real thing!

In fact I had my first Anthropologie
encounter in Manhattan

It happened several years ago on a cold and snowy December night while trying to keep up with the hustle and bustle of the Holiday crowd. The pavement was slightly wet from the gently falling snow when suddenly it started to glow. Glancing up....there it stood shining like a beacon signaling me from across the street. It's giant window display's beaming like a glittering star inviting me to step inside to get warm and shop for awhile....which I cordially did;)

Another really cool store I discovered was
ABC Carpet & Home.

It is located in this really cool old warehouse a few blocks from where our taxi driver almost ran over a pedestrian (but that is a whole other blog post)

anyway this store was a fun discovery that was filled with 5 or 6 stories of overpriced gorgeous eclectic goodies, all of which wanted to come home and live with me

....or maybe I could just live there:D

Room with a view

Autumn burned brightly, a running flame through

the mountains, a torch flung to the trees.~ Faith Baldwin

Autumn, the year's last, lovliest smile. ~ William Bryant

Every leaf speaks bliss to me, fluttering

from the Autumn tree.~ Emily Bronte

For several enchanting weeks this fiery
Autumn tree danced outside my window.

Each day her lively performance
more charming than the last

Then overnight she was gone

Silently slipping back stage, trading her glamorous
dress for a woolen scarf.. gracefully rehearsing
her encore for Winter's grand performance.
~ Lisa Davies ~

Pumpkin Porch

I wanted to decorate my porch like this for Halloween

but I didn't:(

maybe next year:)

Happy Halloween!

Look whooo's joining our Family Tree

My Sisters Patty and Linda along with my Sister-in-laws Janene and Syd helped me throw a baby shower for my nephew's wife Robyn a few weeks ago. When I called my niece Holly about drawing up some invitations and told her what we had in mind, (a baby owl in a pink diaper standing on a branch with the words Look whoooo's baby is joining our family tree written on it) she laughed and said I have something that sounds just like what you described. All she had to do was make a few color changes, rewrite the text and voila we had these adorable invites!

The centerpiece for our food table....owls of course!

Since Robyn loves pasta we had a Pasta bar with grilled chicken and three kinds of sauces... Pesto, Alfredo and Marinara. We also had salad and bread sticks from Olive Garden....Yum!

Cheery Cherry Italian Soda's

These are the favors we made to match the trees on our invitations. We filled them with pink chocolate covered sunflower seeds, then placed them in a container from pottery barn that was covered in aspen bark resembling the trunk of a quaking aspen tree.

I set up 5 folding tables in my living/dining room so we could play baby bunko. Some of our guest have never played before including my girls, some of my nieces and my 82 year old mother! We had a blast! The prizes were gift cards to use at some of the places Robyn has been craving during her pregnancy, like.... Noodles, Cafe Rio, and 7-11 for hot chocolate:)

Besides playing baby bunko we played a game where everyone was given a binky necklace to wear at the first of the night. If you heard someone say the words baby or cute you could steal their binky. This was hilarious because trying to take the word cute out of the Atwood family vocabulary is just....well wrong! Karli came in second place with 8 binky's

Trisha beat her with nine!

Ashley & Jamie waiting for Robyn to open all her presents

"Look at all these presents!"

Presents....presents

and more Presents!

This present is from future grammie linnie winnie, the tag says.... For your night owl! Inside.... lots of bedtime stuff that will hopefully help baby zzzzz

This one says... For your hOOTer's ha ha ha....yep you guessed it....nursing essentials... nice!

all the baby goodness!

All dressed up and somewhere to go

Saturday my neice Courtney called and asked if she could tag along with Robyn (her Sister-in-law) who was coming over to do Karli's hair for Alta's Homecoming dance. Courtney said she wanted to bring her camera and take pictures of Karli getting ready and also told Karli she should invite some of her friends to come over as well. Now if you have seen any of Courtney's pictures you know we would be crazy not to take her up on this sweet offer. Karli was so excited and quickly called some of her friends, but unfortunately only Emily was ready in time to come over for a quick photo shoot. Karli absolutely loved every minute of it and we both want to thank Robyn and Courtney for making this day extra special!!

Here's a peek of Karli and her crew

Slathering Karli's legs with lotion

Emily thought this was hilarious!

Black House White Market..... here's your next ad

You're welcome:)

Karli & Preston