Category Archives: watson and riley

my darlings

the weekender 5/4/2013

Hello friends. This weekend, I’m spending a lot of time at home. I just moved my cats into the new apartment and I want to keep an eye on things. My roommate also has a cat, so we’re spending a lot of times doing cat introductions. They can be such grumpy creatures. But it’s so worth it, especially when they take naps with you.

Sleepy Cats

(photo by ryan)

It’s a beautiful weekend. I hope to get a little bit of baking done and a little bit more unpacking. I hope to show you the place, when it finally comes together.

Erik Klein Wolterink takes photos of ethnic kitchens. There is so much to look at. How do they differ from yours?

This Anthropologie Plate Wall D.I.Y. is such a pretty way to decorate a wall.

I must have had a major sweet tooth while collecting links this week. First, Salted Caramel Ice Cream Cake Shots, and then this banana cake. I couldn’t decide!

I’m in the process of decorating the apartment, and this bean bag roundup has inspired me.

These D.I.Y. marquee lights look so professional, yet so easy to make.

This is really the best way to end the post. This giant sleeping cat couch is perfect.

perfect weekend: brooklyn botanical gardens

After spending the past two weeks moving and painting my new apartment, I really needed a relaxing weekend. Ryan and I woke up early on Saturday Morning and scoped out Tom’s Restaurant. It’s one of the few diners in our neighborhood, and still a mile away, but Yelp promised it would be worth the walk. When we got there, the line was wrapping down the block. The 30-minute wait was made pleasant by a server who brought us coffee, water, oranges, and then french fries, in that order. It was worth the wait. Tom’s makes their own flavored butters and serves fries for breakfast (with horseradish sauce!). Incredible.

Then Ryan and I walked over to the Brooklyn Botanical Gardens. Sadly, I misplaced my DSLR camera battery during the move, so I had to snap all of these photos with my iphone.

The gardens were filled with rows and rows of tulips. I couldn’t stop staring at them. I’ve never seen anything like it.

I immediately longed to sleep in a bed of tulips a la Alice in Wonderland. I see the appeal.

More Alice in Wonderland flowers! I was on such a literary kick at the gardens. We walked through, and loved, the Shakespeare garden.

The gardens had an excellent Bonsai exhibit, and I fell in love. I hope to grow my own Bonsai soon, but what a commitment.

We really embarked on this trip with the intentions of seeing the Cherry Blossoms. Unfortunately  we picked a bad day. There were tons of people celebrating a cultural event. It sort of felt like Disney World. There was even a giant tent set up underneath the blossoms, so it was hard to get a good idea of how spectacular they were.

We mean to come back later this month. But, we were lucky enough to snap a pretty great picture in front of them.

And a few more, just to show you how genuinely happy and excited we get about gardens.

It really is like we’re at Disney World. Like, this photo below was taken solely because we found a willow tree.

Then we finished up the trip with some shared FroYo.  Pretty perfect.

Other highlights of the weekend are: cheap pedicure, baking, really great conversations with Ryan, watching the Roomba sweep while I drank my morning coffee, and this guy:

Always. <3

last photos of Tallahassee

Heidi and Adrienne

Adrienne and BryanBeer Stache

Turk's Nose

HeidiandTurk

Riley's Cage

I was feeling a little homesick yesterday. So Ryan took me on our first date in NY. We ate Arepas at this awesome place in the East Village. It was our first bit of alone time in a few weeks.  Then we met up with some Tallahassee friends who recently moved to Brooklyn, which was nice.

Photos above are from Diana’s birthday, cat Christmas, cat goodbye, and my last day at the farm.

life moves fast

The past few months have been quite a struggle. I’ve been dealing with pesky medical issues and snags in my relationships, stress at my job and less than average performance with my personal goals. All the while, I’ve been trying to make a tough life decision.

I’ve been riding horses for nine months now. I’m finally getting up to a canter – a movement that scares me. It’s a different pace with a faster rhythm and makes me feel like I am no longer the one in control. The horse’s body bolts forward thrusting you back. Its breathing changes, the hooves pound loudly and quickly and your whole body sways, struggling to stay on. And when this happens, I desperately want to pull on the reins. I want so badly to pull back.

My trainer yells, “Let her go! Just let her go!” And I just let the horse go. And for a few seconds,  our bodies are moving in sync and beautifully fast and it’s simply exhilarating. I forget about the fear. I’m just cantering.

Like the natural rhythm of the canter, my life is trying to move forward, and I’ve been pulling on the reins for too long.

And it seems everything is falling into place and things feel right again. My life is moving forward. With monumental happiness, I’m ready to share my exciting news.

I’m moving to New York City! Ryan and I bought our one-way tickets. We depart January 15.

Letting this settle in feels completely right. My cheeks hurt, I was smiling so much today as I shared my news with my coworkers.

And my life is moving forward in other ways. I just bought my first DSLR camera, which takes fantastic photos (for the blog!), I’m learning photoshop, and my coding skills are slowly improving.

I have my first horse show this Saturday! I can’t wait. I’m only competing in a walk/trot, but still. It’s so much fun.

Christmas Lights

And I’m so ready for this holiday season. This week Ryan and I put up our Christmas lights.

Ryan with lights

And Watson wanted so badly to help.

Watson and Ryan

And this weekend, we ran in the Jingle Bell Run, which is my all-time favorite.

Jingle Bell

Everyone runs with a jingle bell on their shoe. I wore a light-up santa hat and a light up necklace.

Pre-Jingle Bell Run

And Adrienne joined us, to celebrate her one year running anniversary! I’m so proud of her.

Adrienne

I’ve got a lot of great crafts planned for this Holiday season. I can’t wait to start sharing them.

I’ll also be documenting how I plan to move to New York. Right now, I’m just concentrating on what (craft supplies) I’m taking with me. We’re getting rid of most everything, and basically only taking what can fit in our suit cases on the plane. It’s hard to part with stuff, but I’m excited for a fresh start.   I also got confirmation today that I’ll have a place to live when I get to NY. I’ll be staying with one of my best friends. And I found out I will be able to keep my job! Temporarily. They’re letting me work remotely for a few months. Now, all I have to do is find a stable.

the weekender 3/16/2012



Happy weekend! I’m always curious to see what household item my cats will turn into their next play toy. Watson has no idea how much my heart melts when I see him hold this plastic rose in his mouth.

My friends and I rented a beach house in Apalachicola this weekend. I plan on spending every second in its over-sized jacuzzi tub. Sorry, friends. Ryan’s Irish band is playing at the historic theater there for St. Patty’s Day.

Last night I ran 5 1/2 miles! And then went and died in a Little Caesar’s Hot n Ready. It was too ambitious of me to think I could run for that long and cook dinner. Lesson learned. But I’m only .75 miles away from my 10k goal. My official 10k is at the end of the month.

Anyway, on to the official post. Here are some links for the weekend:

Loved this collection from Secret Squirrel.

The best of color and food. These Pantone inspired tarts are so fun to look at.

This elephant bean bag could be my best friend. I just want to read a book in its lap.

Oh, this hair tutorial! And it doesn’t even require French braiding. Make everyone swoon with a double braid gibson tuck.

These metallic rocks by Jim Hodges are so pretty. I wish I could visit the gallery.

This spaghetti squash au gratin reaffirms my love of spaghetti squash. I can’t wait to try it.

Have a great weekend!

pizza cat

I guess it’s safe to say I’m a little too into cats…and food.

Luckily, so are my friends. And we got this brilliant idea to make a pizza cat.

Definitions from ninjawords:

“pizza: noun. A baked Italian dish of a thinly rolled bread dough crust typically topped before baking with tomato sauce, cheese and other ingredients.

cat: noun. A domesticated subspecies of feline animal, commonly kept as a house pet.

‘pizza cat’ is not in the dictionary.”

How sad.

I don’t know what makes eating a cat-shaped pizza so great, but it is. Maybe it’s the removable bread stick arms (!), but we’ll get to that in a minute.

Here’s the basic assembly of our pizza cat. We used the Pioneer Woman’s pizza dough recipe. Be warned, this makes a lot of dough. We had enough leftover for extra bread sticks.

We rolled out the body first and stuck a tail behind it.

pizza cat body

Then we shaped the head and the bread stick arms.

head and arms

Check out those paws.

pizza paws

Then we slathered a garlic butter mixture on the bread sticks. My friend Adrienne really has a talent for creating pizza cat faces.

pizza cat

We loaded the body with sauce, cheese, and strips of basil leaves to create stripes. We placed both cookie sheets in the oven at 450 for 18 minutes. It was a little tricky since the dough was thicker in some places than others, but we didn’t burn it.

bread stick arms

pizza cat face

Place the bread sticks over the body.

pizza cat assembly

And then add the head to the top.

pizza cat

Pizza cat is the best. Building the cat is as much fun as eating it.

First time CSA Members

Ryan and I bought a CSA share from a local farm, so we’ll be getting fresh veggies every other week. We visited the farm yesterday, which made it all the more meaningful.

This week’s haul included fresh carrots, kale, swiss chard, strawberries, cilantro, and green beans.

csa veggies

Needless to say it was a big day for all of us.

Watson found a new home in the CSA bag.

watson in csa bagcsa bag

Watson got stuck in his new home.

watson in csa bag

The agony.
watson in csa bag

Riley got a special kale treat.

kale treatkale treat

And Watson was jealous.

kale treat

hello, i’m here

watson and Riley

I took quite an extensive break from the blogging world. The primary cause for this absence was studying for the ultra-horrible GRE test. But now that I’ve knocked it in the face with my amazing test taking ability, I’m feeling a little bit better about spending my time blogging again.

Other reasons for blog absence:

- Florida’s sweltering heat, the type where I just lay in a bathtub filled with ice, because even the pool water is a warmish 85 degrees.
-Game of Thrones! Specifically the 4-book boxed set I’m blowing through.
- Mad Men on instant watch. Come on, who isn’t drooling over Peggy and Betty’s outfits a second time around?

Thank you, lovely readers, for sticking around.

Also, my blog turned one year old a week ago. Happy Birthday Blog!