A Design, Music and Eggs Weekend

Tyler and I traveled to Utah for a fun-filled Eaweekend. I have been looking forward to this trip for months. The USU Interior Design Senior Exhibit is when the seniors design an exhibit that displays their work from the past 4 years at USU. Since I chose to do my senior year in NYC I wasn't able to display my work with my classmates but this event is so important that I couldn't miss it. I had to see all of my friends and celebrate their work with them. It was so fun seeing everyone!
My mom bought tickets to Wicked in Utah last year when we didnt know we were going to be living in NY. It has been hard to justify flying to UT just to see Wicked so when we realized our tickets were for the same weekend as Sr. Exhibit it was a done deal. I am so glad it worked out that way and that I could see Wicked again with my whole family. The traveling cast was great, I actually preferred a couple of the actors over the cast in NY.
I lost my camera at a design event this week. Thanks to my friend's tagging me in facebook photos, I have some pictures from the amazing weekend but not my own :( I dont have my pictures of Tyler and I with our new nephew Kruz. I am so sad. Good thing we are going back in a couple weeks for graduation so we can get some more.

Surprise!

I got a text Friday afternoon that my cousin Kelsey and Aunt Debbie are in the city for a choir festival this weekend. So we met up tonight and chatted over dinner. She lives in Arkansas so we dont see each other very often so it was such a pleasant surprise!

We Love Visitors

Our good friends Devin & Shalise came to play in the city for a few days. Even though I had to work we were able to meet up at night and had tons of fun. Luckily Tyler didnt have to work so he touristed (I think I just made that word up) around with them.

The first night we toured our neighborhood a little. Walking out on the pier is our favorite thing to when people come to visit. Its not a part of the "normal" NYC vacation so we feel like its our little gem of the city.

The next night we met up and dove into Time Square. We had dinner at my favorite diner, Ellen's Stardust Diner. With the singing waitstaff and killer milkshakes its always a good time.

On Tuesday we met up in Little Italy for dinner at this tiny little restaurant that was so so good! We wanted to get gelato but "my gelato shop" (to which i am extremely loyal) was not very convient to where we were so when we stopped at Grand Central on our way home to see the beautiful station we got some gelato there. I have to admit that it was good but L'arte Del Gelato is still my favorite.

The last night we went to a Knicks game. It was so much fun! Devin & Shalise were so nice to buy us all tickets and we thought we were getting a deal with $40/ticket but when we picked the tickets up right before the game they were only $10 tickets. StubHub won on that one. The arena at Madison Square Garden was constructed brilliantly in that there is not a bad seat in the place. We could see the game great and had so much fun (even though the Knicks lost)

Thanks Devin & Shalise for a fun week!!

New York Design Center Hospitality Event

Interior Design Magazine and The New York Design Center hosted a hospitality event where the New York Design Center's showrooms opened their doors to designers, architects and the hospitality industry to frame the NYDC as New York's top hospitality design resource and to present a networking opportunity for the design community. Over 1,500 people filled the nearly 100 showrooms to see products and hear from various speakers. One of which was Jamie Drake (the boss man). It was so fun hopping from showroom to showroom meeting lots of people and nibbling on all the goodies.

The pre-party started in the cab.

Hayley, Darrin and myself (we work together)

The boss man doing his thing and the beautiful Michael Tavano showroom that hosted us.

Natalie, Hayley and me enjoying the event!

Our Weekend in DC

When Tyler and I started thinking about what we wanted to do for Valentine's Day we went from a nice dinner to a night at a bed and breakfast upstate somewhere to a 3 day trip to DC! Go big or go home right?

We left on Feb. 14 at 10:00 am. After a short 4 hour drive we were in the Nation's Capital. We saw the capital building and then went through the National Air and Space Museum.

This is us standing in front of a heat sensor. Apparently we are both "hot headed"

Then we went to Union Station which is a train station with lot of shopping and restaurants. I hate to admit it but it blew Grand Central Station in NYC out of the water.

The next day we saw the rest of the memorials, monuments and museums.

I have the strongest husband in the world! He can pull out the Washington Monument with one hand! :)

The architecture was amazing in Washington DC. I was expecting a lot of historic buildings which there were but i didn't expect the contemporary architecture as well. It made the city even more impressive.

These pictures show where each of our "hearts" are. When asked where we're from, I said New York and Tyler said Utah. hmm....

The White House was beautiful. I was disappointed that we couldn't get closer.

This pic is for my friend April Toone. She told me about this restaurant, saying it was one of her favorite. We went there for dinner and it was fabulous! The best pizza crust I've ever had! Thanks for the tip April!

On our way home we stopped in Philadelphia. I have always wanted a picture with this infamous "love statue". I'm not sure why but I was under the impression that it was a lot bigger.

Even though we paid over $50 in tolls, we really love living on the East Coast. There are so many great places to go and things to see. Everything is relatively close so we are able to get a lot out of a weekend away.

Parties and Cancer!

Tyler was working in Texas for a couple weeks in January. I usually am very lonely but this time my work friends kept me busy. There were a lot of design events that I went to. Michael Tavano
(a custom clothwork company) hosted this month's Design Exchange Event. This event is for designers to get together and network. A couple days later Tai Ping (a carpet vendor) hosted a Chinese New Year Party which was fun, they had their showroom all decorated for the event. This last week Tyler had a chance to go to one of these parties with me! Alpha Workshops threw a Valentine's Party. Designers such as Larry Laslo, Vicente Wolf, Guy Clark and yours truly, Jamie Drake, donated one of a kind Valentine creations which are then auctioned off in a silent auction. It was fun to have Tyler there, it was definitely not like any party he'd been to before :) but we had fun!
Jamie and our architecture team redesigned the Marriage Bureau at City Hall. It made the front page of the New York Times when it opened, which is cool because not many designers can say they've made the front page of the NYT. A bunch of us from the office wanted to check it out so we went for a private tour one Friday after work. It was so nice, the nicest city offices I've ever seen. Jamie treated us to dinner afterwards at a fun restaurant at South Street Seaport. It was fun to spend so much time with my co-workers, outside of work. I love my job!

Ok so by now you might be thinking whats with the cancer part of the title? Well I had an appointment with my Dermatologist while Tyler was away. I went in to get a new skin cream and had my doctor look at a couple of new moles that I have noticed in the last couple years. To say the least she sort of freaked out at some of my moles and removed a couple on the spot for Biopsies. This last week i went in for a full body exam and learned that one of the moles that was removed was skin cancer. I was pretty surprised and freaked out but she said that we got it all. It was on my breast which obviously doesn't see the sun so she said it was a direct result of fake tanning. Of course just my mom telling me its bad wasn't enough, I had to get skin cancer to learn my lesson but i am here to shout it out there (Attn: K.A.D) FAKE TANNING IS NOT WORTH IT! This is the only time I'll ever say this but i am grateful for zits that took me to the doctor so i could catch and remove that cancer!

I have killer pics of these wounds but will spare you :)

We Won the Lottery!!

Ok so we won the "Wicked Lottery"
We did a couple lotteries for Broadway shows when my family was here but since that was the busiest week of the year in NYC we didn't win a thing. Tyler left to sell in Texas today so we wanted to do something fun this weekend before he left. So we thought we'd try the lottery again. Even though it was a Saturday night we thought that there would be less people than during the holidays, wrong! There were just as many people, like 100-150. I was bummed but of course had to go for it. We put our names in and waited in the cold (single digits, below 0 with windchill!) They started announcing the winners and my name was called fifth! I flipped out (inside) and took my place in line...

Me in line with other winners while they finished the raffle,
trying to suppress my ecstaticness

What does it mean to win the Wicked Lottery? Oh just front row tickets to that nights show for $25!!! It was crazy being that close to the show. This picture is taken from our seats, where we could touch the stage without even leaning forward.

I have seen the show 3 times and each time has been a completely different experience; different companions, different seats. It is such an amazing story and I love finding more and more parallels every time I see it. We feel very lucky to be living here with such great opportunities like this and so many fun things we can do together!

Happy Birthday Hubby!!

Today is Tyler's 26th birthday! I had to post this picture of my smokin husband sporting some of his birthday gear and let everyone (and Ty) know how much I love my hubby. I couldn't ask for a better man in my life. He is so amazing. I am so grateful for his example and love.
Happy birthday Ty!
I love you!!!

Holidays with the Family

NOTE: the pics are small, you can click on them to see them larger.

DAY 1
12-26-08

We started the week off with some shopping, like mad shopping! It was awesome. Thank you Santa for the $!

We experienced "street food" for the first time. I have been here 8 months and have never had street food! Crazy

That night we went to the Broadway show, Gypsy with Patti LuPone.
It was so fun!

DAY 2
12-27-08

We started off the day in Central Park. It is my favorite place in the city. My sister kept pointing out all of the scenes from the movie Enchanted.

Then we moved on to the American Museum of Natural History. I loved this Christmas tree they had displayed decorated in origami animals.

That night we ventured to Greenwich Village for some Two Boots Pizza and La Arte de Gelato. Unfortunately we don't have a pic of us with our gelato because everyone was so focused on the creamy goodness and we forgot :(

DAY 3

12-28-08

After church on Sunday we went on the Staten Island Ferry to see the Statue of Liberty. It was my Dad's idea to explore Staten Island for a while so that we had perfect timing on our way back and were able to see this beautiful sunset.

We then walked to the South Street Seaport to check out the Brooklyn Bridge and all the fun that goes on at the Pier. (Notice the lack of coats in this pic, the high that day was 63!)

We came home and made some sweet gingerbread trains!
Girls vs. Boys!

DAY 4
12-29-08

We spent the majority of this day exploring through lower Manhattan. We visited Ground Zero and then walked along the water and through the streets. It was fun exploring an area that I was not familiar with. I love how extremely different all the areas of Manhattan are. Its like a new city every 20 blocks!

That night we went to see the tree at Rockefeller Center and all of the 5th avenue stores and their Christmas windows. The Bergdorf Goodman windows were my favorite by far! They were so intricate and beautiful.

DAY 5

12-30-08

Since my work was closed for the week it was a perfect time to play show and tell and show my family where I work. (in the pic on the right i am holding a Jamie Drake Muppet that a vendor gave him for Christmas, it was so funny)

The picture on the bottom left is from our apartment and you can see the island that is in the middle of the East River between us and Manhattan. This is Roosevelt Island and my dad was so intrigued in the history of this island so we took the tram across to check it out. It turned out to be way cool!

We couldn't stay on the island long because we had a tour scheduled of the NBC studios. This was one of my favorite things we did. It was so cool to see "behind the scenes" of some of their studios. Wouldn't my family make a great news team!? :)

We went to do the lottery for a couple of shows. Seeing how this was the busiest week of the year in NYC we didn't win a thing. But it brought us to Times Square often and this night was New Years Eve - Eve. We debated off and on and decided that we weren't going to do the Times Square New Years Eve party for a number of reasons 1-it was supposed to snow and be 15 degrees (it ended up being 1 degree) 2-you have to get in your "grid" at like 1:00 and just stay there until midnight. So it was fun to see them getting ready for the party. They had stages set up and were doing practice interviews and practice countdowns and stuff. I say it was good enough :)

DAY 6
12-31-08

As forecasted, it was snowing this day so we decided it was a good day for another museum. We went to the Metropolitan Museum of Art. A friend at work had told me about this amazing tree they set up in the Medieval section. There was an amazing nativity scene all around the base and then the tree was decorated with beautiful angels.

I must include the Subway entertainment portion of our adventure. This lady/man (we weren't sure) was posing as a human statue. She was actually really good! This homeless man kept bugging her, it was pretty crazy. When people gave her money she gave them something. My brother wanted to see what it was so he took her a dollar she gave him a little red heart that said "Peace in your Heart". How sweet (and weird)

DAY 7
1-1-08

We had a short day with packing and plane to catch so we decided we had to squeeze in a visit to Serendipity. We put our name in and were seated an hour and a half later. It was worth the wait as it always is.
That frozen hot chocolate is the best!

Thank you family for an amazing week in New York.
It was so fun to have you here!
We love you!

A New York Christmas...just the beginning

Tyler got home from working in Las Vegas today! He helped me wrap all of our Christmas presents (something I had on my list to do before he got back) I love having the house decorated for Christmas, there is nothing better than a room light by Christmas lights.

I love seeing the random scenes of "normalcy" in NYC. This snowman was built in between parked cars on the side of the street. I guess you squeeze it in where you can. Our first snow storm was on Friday and it was amazing. The flakes were so big and it fell so slowly. I don't know if it was windy or if it was the height at which I watched the snow fall but the flakes weren't just falling down they were dancing every which way. It was beautiful and once again reminded me how lucky we are to be living here and experiencing all that this amazing city has to offer.

Workaholic

You know work and life become too intermingled when you chat through instant messenger with a vendor and report in staff meeting that you are now friends with a client on facebook.

So has been the story of my life for the last month. I have been working like crazy. We were approached by a couple from Paris 4 weeks ago. They just bought a two bedroom apartment in the Manhattan House and want to spend the holidays in NYC in their new apartment. They hired Drake Design to design, order and install their space in 4 weeks. IMPOSSIBLE! ..or is it.

Another designer named Darrin and I were given this project and we have been working like mad men (women?) ever since. We designed the space and sent our presentation to the clients through email because they were still in Paris. That same day Darrin went to Florida to install another project. The next morning we got the response that the clients didnt like anything we proposed. So I get a call from Jamie (who is conviently out of town as well) saying that I need to re-design the whole scheme and propose it to them asap. So I spent the next 48 hours making selections, emailing them to Jamie for approval and then on to the clients. It was crazy doing it all by myself. Fortunately they approved the second scheme and I proceeded with placing orders (begging and dropping Jamie's good name to get this stuff in weeks when regularly it would take months) Long story short (long story long) we have given them a furnished apartment including a custom sectional sofa in just 4 weeks! The clients landed today at 3:45 and I didnt leave the apartment until 4:30. (yes i worked an 8 hour day on a Saturday) Thanks to NYC traffic I was out before they came. whew

It was crazy and stressful and I'm exhausted but it is also so rewarding to basically have my own project and to see it though the whole process down to placing the roses on the table.

I love my job and am so grateful for the opportunity that we have to be out here experiencing all that we are.

(sorry so long and lame pics, but I had to please the mother by posting something)