apartment photos

Just a few photos of the new place (still a work in progress):

getting ready to paint the bathroom


after


we finally have a shower curtain!


pillows

everybody's working for the weekend

Well, well, it's Friday already? Can't beat a 4 day work week. AND I only have two days separating me from summer vacation. I can't wait to spend some time with my long lost friends, sun & sand.

As Jeff said, we're getting settled in and it's feeling less and less like we're housesitting. The apartment is coming along really nicely, and I PROMISE I will have photos up at some point this week (ok, Mom? :) We're still looking for a new shower curtain and plates, but otherwise we've covered all the essentials. I've got my eye on this curtain. Y'know...just in case anyone wanted to buy us a housewarming present.

We're heading to Jersey tomorrow morning to pick up the dining room set at my 'rents house and to (hopefully) meet with a jewelry designer to start designing the new setting for my ring. After Tuesday, I will officially be in wedding planning mode. Until then, please don't ask me when and where our wedding will be. Kthanksbye.

Settling in...

The furniture's here. We have cable and internet. We've cooked a few meals, done a couple of loads of laundry, and figured out (most of) the lightswitches.

We're settling in nicely. At some point late this past weekend, it started to seem less like we were housesitting and more like we were home. Home is, after all, where your loved ones are and where you feel comfortable.

Next up: get the rest of the stuff out of E's old place, then my stuff.

adventures in cohabitation

We did it. We survived the move. It wasn't easy, and we might have had a couple bumps along the way...but now we're in, and I'm *borrowing* the internet from one of our soon-to-be introduced neighbors. Things are definitely coming along, and the place is looking great and starting to feel like home. We have a full day of IKEA and the fabric store ahead of us, so I'll just leave you with a few pictures for now. I hope you're all having a wonderful Memorial Day weekend!

OOPS...blogger is not being cooperative, stay tuned for photos!

Painting the bathroom

Aside from operating a big roller at the end of a long pole and turning the walls of my parents' hallway a cleaner white than they were, I've never really done a whole lot of painting. So when E decided that she wanted to paint the bathroom and kitchen of our new place (fortunately, she's happy with the bedroom and livingroom), I gulped. Not because I don't like color--I do--but the idea of painting made me nervous.
It turned out that there wasn't much to worry about. I went to Home Depot yesterday afternoon and bought a gallon of really nice bluish paint (Behr's Provence, if that helps), then E and I spent last night taping, drop-clothing, and applying the first coat.
I went back early this morning and, 90 minutes later, we've got a pretty smooth application of paint on our bathroom walls. Is it a perfect, professional job? Nope. But I must say I'm really impressed with what we did. And E's happy about how much it makes the white wainscoting pop.
We'll do the kitchen some rainy day during the summer. Right now, though, it's just about time to start bringing our big stuff over. E and her mom are putting new shelf paper down in the kitchen this morning, and I'm taking care of insurance, cable, etc.
It's all finally happening.

moving day #1

We stopped by the apartment last night to pick up the keys. The place was, well, not quite ready. The owners were having the cleaning company come this morning, so I really hope it will be cleaned out and ready for us to move in boxes this afternoon. First order of business? PAINTING. Picked out a really nice dusty blue-gray color for the bathroom, and we're getting started this afternoon. Wish us luck!

(upstate) new york state of mind

Our weekend plans? Tomorrow afternoon J and I will be driving over 3 hours up to Binghamton, NY for my little brother's college graduation. I can not believe how quickly the past 4 years have gone. I remember that hot August day when we first moved him in and dropped him off. I had just graduated from UConn three months before and was trying to figure out what I'd do with my life. Fast forward to 2009: I lived the yuppie lifestyle in Boston, moved back down to Connecticut and have now almost finished my Masters degree, and most recently gotten engaged. It's kinda amazing what happens when you let your life just work itself out...

Congrats Adam, so proud of you!

bhati beads

I recently came across Bhati Beads. They're fun, colorful, and perfect for summer. I will definitely be buying two (or three) of these bracelets for the upcoming season. Can't wait to pile these on!

Wedding FAQs

Erica & I
Originally uploaded by One Ping Only

When are you getting married?
Some time between May and October of 2010, give or take.

How many people are you inviting?
Not very many. Start looking for your Golden Tickets.

Why?
We believe in paying for it ourselves. Also, we've each been to big weddings and haven't had too much fun at them. I personally think it's awesome when everyone at a wedding gets to meet some new people and it turns into the kind of party that everyone can enjoy.

Where is it going to be?
Outside. On the beach if at all possible. Somewhere between New Jersey and Rhode Island.

Jeff, how do you feel about weddings in general?
I don't want to have a wedding, but I want to be married. Erica signed up for an account on The Knot, which made me twitch a bit. There are so many people who want to sell you things when you decide to get married. It's kind of distasteful, I think. As soon as it got to the point where there's so much minutia involved in a modern wedding that you need to hire someone to keep track of everything for you, weddings officially jumped the shark.

I'm not that cheap, but I also don't want to get sold a bunch of stuff we don't need. I want everything to be simple, somewhat classy, and fun. The way we are as a couple.

The most important thing is that we're getting married and having a party. That's all there is to it.

my pink shorts are packed!

So last week I entered J and I in this Bermuda getaway giveaway from one of the local news channels. Just got back from lunch, checked my email, and what do I see? An email from J telling me WE WON THE FREE VACATION. First engaged...now free trip?! As my first graders told me this morning, it's the BEST. WEEK. EVER.

"Join in the celebration of the 400th anniversary of Bermuda. Enter for your chance to win a trip for two to our pink sand paradise. Every Friday during the month of May the Bermuda Department of Tourism and PIX11 Morning News will be giving away one trip for two to Bermuda. The lucky winners will receive roundtrip airfare for two by JetBlue, accommodations for 3 nights/4 days and, of course, memories to last a lifetime."

I SAID YES!!

Y'know how I mentioned how my friend's rooftop is one of my favorite places in the city? Well, it will now forever hold a special place in my heart because J proposed to me up there on Sat. night. I've been on cloud nine for the last few days, so instead of a recap, I'll just steal J's thoughts (for now at least):

"I don’t have Facebook, so I knew I’d have to miss out on the awesomely postmodern way of letting people know about major changes to my life. So instead, I popped the question and brought Erica to a surprise gathering of our friends and loved ones. Now everyone who needs to know knows.

We spent today, our first full day of being betrothed, running grown-up errands (including ordering a couch and a chair for our new apartment). Everywhere we went, Erica kept checking out the ring, which isn’t even the real ring. The real ring that she’ll be sporting has yet to be made. It’ll use the diamond from her great-grandmother’s engagement ring, but she’ll be designing the setting, since the antique ring’s setting is damaged to the point where it can’t be used.

I love the idea of Erica wearing something from her ancestry on her finger. I feel like it connects me to her family and brings the past to the present and the future.

There’s plenty more to write about this whole thing, but I’m going to save that for another day. Right now, I’m just enjoying this brand-new feeling of officialness, of a major turning point turned, of overwhelming emotion every time I see Erica’s finger glinting in the light."

city bound

Tonight we're heading into the city with a few of my college friends for dinner & drinks (Heey Ali, one of my favorite readers :) I love living close enough to the city that we can head in whenever we want. NYC was definitely one of the the things I missed most when I lived in Boston. Luckily J loves going in as much as I do!
Before dinner, I think we'll have to stop at one of my favorite places in the entire city...Ali & Mark's rooftop deck. It's breathtaking. 50+ stories up and a few hundred feet from the Chrysler building. We've spent the last 2 New Years up there.

A&M are looking to move -and as much as I hope they find a bigger apartment, I'm also being completely selfish to say that I don't want to give up the rooftop. Maybe I can make friends with other tenants in the building? ;)

xo,
E