Time to put up another post of photos recapping our amazing trip to NYC!

It’s amazing how much our activities in New York revolved around eating! After going to Kleinfeld’s for wedding dress shopping (see previous post), we then headed over to Chef Bobby Flay’s MESA Grill on 5th Avenue for dinner.

To be completely frank, it did not meet my expectations at all. Allan and I ate at MESA Grill in Vegas, and it was far superior. I felt in general that it was very noisy in the room, crowded, and service wasn’t particularly quick.

The big saving grace for this restaurant is definitely the drinks. The pomegranate margarita was really delicious, and so were the other drinks that Allan, Kim and Greg had as well.

The food was pretty underwhelming for the price. It was quite expensive (~$50 per person and up), and basically what you got was a HUGE piece of meat and fish, and then you had to pick your own sides for an additional cost. I didn’t feel that this format allowed the chef to shine with pairings/combinations/flavour profiles, and it felt kinda like going to The Keg, but a lot more expensive. I had the sea bass with plums, Allan had the NY strip, Kim had a tamale and Greg had the pork medallions. I think I was probably the most disappointed of the group, but I didn’t think anyone was really raving about it either.

We did like our appetizer which was a blue corn pancake with barbecued duck (DELICIOUS!) and the corn breads/rosemary bread starters were also very yummy.

So we split up from Kim and Greg, and Allan and I went on a romantic date to Serendipity 3.

It was VERY cool. Super eclectic inside and very busy! We waited about 40 minutes to get a table for two.

We also spotted Blake Lively (Serena van der Woodsen from the show Gossip Girl), which was cool… since it’s such a quintessential NY show and place! It’s funny, Allan actually spotted her first! She looked pretty much exactly the same as she does on the show. She walked through covering her face trying to avoid anyone noticing her.

We finally were seated and I was surprised by how big the menu was. It was HUGE. We were there for the famous Frrrozen Hot Chocolate, but they served about 30 different desserts, plus lunch/dinner items and drinks.

We of course ended up sharing a Frrrozen Hot Chocolate. My expectations were low going in, as I had heard mixed reviews about the desserts. However… I can honestly say it was one of the BEST desserts I have EVER had. Soooo delicious. It really does taste exactly like frozen hot chocolate. It’s huge though, so make sure you share with someone.

It’s important to drink it through the straw and not use the supplied spoons. That way it does taste like frozen hot chocolate. It’s creamy, smooth but with little flakes of dark chocolate. It’s bubbly, light and airy… and totally exceeded my expectations.

It was a really sweet date for us to go on, and if we had stayed in NYC longer, I definitely would have gone back for seconds.

The next day we all headed out on the subway again to explore a different area of town.

We headed over to Chelsea and enjoyed walking around the area, checking out architecture and enjoying the amazing weather we had.

Allan really wanted to check out the High Line which is a city project mile-and-a-half-long elevated park, running through the Meatpacking District, Chelsea and Clinton. There was a great view from up there! We didn’t get a chance to walk the whole thing, but it was still need to check out.

We made it over to the Chelsea Market, which was SUPER cool. For you Vancouverites, imagine a posh upscale Granville Island Market! They had all sorts of amazing restaurants, foodie shops, chocolate shops, clothing stores, and more. It was also cool to see the linen store where I ordered sheets for our bed about a year ago. My primary purpose for going there was to check out Jacques Torres’ chocolate shop. For those of you who remember my chocolate chip cookie recipe, it is based on Mr. Torres’ recipe… so that’s why I had to sample some of his amazing chocolates!

The cookies were very good, but since they weren’t fresh it was kind of hard to judge.

I bought a box of chocolates to bring back to my mom, and I finally got to have a bite of them last week when I gave them to her, and they were HEAVENLY.

Yep, we ended up eating a lot. More New York stories and photos to come

If you’ve been following the blog, you may remember that last year I spoke a lot about our bedroom makeover. Our apartment makeover is pretty much done now… you can see our sports room here, and our living room here… but the bedroom has always been close to my heart. I wanted it to be just perfect.

Here’s a shot of our old bedroom. Although it was at our old apartment, all the components were pretty much the same. The same mattress of the floor, wooden IKEA shelf and lots of boxes!

You may also remember the post I made about our bedroom concepts way back when last year. This was the concept I came up with after lots of brainstorming and soul-searching. The bedroom is really important to me — it’s the place you wake up in to start the day, and the place you rest your mind before going to sleep. It is important to me that it imparts a sense of peace. We wanted something clean that is not too girly, although I did ask that the bedroom could be a little more feminine since the rest of the apartment is quite masculine. I think it is a good compromise, and the green is quite a neutral-gender colour.

So here we go! This is the new bedroom with the makeover! I think we did a pretty good job of staying true to our concepts.

Here are some shots of the bedside tables and highboy under construction

The biggest part of the makeover (and the most time consuming) was the furniture. We bought some old dressers and side tables in French provincial style off Craigslist and completely re-did the hardware, stripped, sanded and painted for many many weeks. The paint is a white antique lacquer finish from Mohawk, and the handles were purchased from Lee Valley. We also painted the handles with metal paint and I think they look really cool and very similar to the design concept. I’m really proud of the beautiful curvy King-size bed that we custom designed and ordered from Vancouver custom woodworker KLK Woodworking. Kelly was really amazing and built the bed that we dreamed of! It has a French style but it is still whimsical to make the room look a bit more modern. To save money, we ordered the bed unpainted and it took several more weeks of sanding and painting to finish it.

The linens and bedding are where we really splurged though. We really pinched our pennies by buying used furniture and getting a custom bed, but the bedding was something I wanted to make sure was good quality and lasted. After months of looking around online and in stores, I FINALLY found the sheets we were looking for! We got our bedding from Terra Nova Interiors downtown. They are gorgeous Italian Sferra sheets… we purchased the “Alice” coverlet, 3 euro shams, and small green throw pillow in the front. The bed sheets underneath are from HomeSense and the two green throw pillows from the Bay.

I am absolutely in love with the scalloped edges and the texture of the linens!

The lighting is also an important part of any room, so it took me about 6 months to find the right lamps. We finally ordered these white Robert Abbey Piero lamps from Chintz and Co downtown. I like how they are modern (following the Oversize design trend this year), but they are still timeless with a classic design (I hope!) .

Here’s a better shot of the bedside tables we re-did and the base of the lamp. I also made the flower arrangements with silk flowers from Chintz, as well as the vase. Picture frame from HomeSense.

Here’s a shot of the view of the bedroom if you were laying on the bed. The tallboy dresser has a flower arrangement I did from Chintz, as well as two silver and glass candlesticks from them as well. The white shelf holding the candles is from IKEA, and the candles and glass holders are from Wal-Mart. It really sets a romantic mood in the dark with lots of light!

The other bedside table has two beautiful mirrored accessories from Nicole Jane Home. I was looking for something mirrored but couldn’t find what I was looking for from other stores. They are actually one of the few stores you can deliver interior design goodies to Canada (they are based in Vancouver!!) and they have a great selection. I literally just ordered the picture frame and jewelry box, so I haven’t even had a chance to change the default photo yet.

The last finishing touch to the room is of course the picture frame, which I had mentioned in the design concepts is an absolute key to the room. It’s an image from the drive to Tofino… a peaceful forest with a rushing stream. It really brings the room together in my opinion, and I love the green in it. I learned how to custom frame a photo myself at Opus Framing on Granville Island! It’s much cheaper than ordering a frame and it’s actually quite easy to do. Highly recommended for the photographers out there.

So that’s it! The room is finally done and I think it’s pretty similar to the design concepts. I am really happy with it, and Allan and I have been sleeping in it for the past 6 months now and we really love it!

What do you think of the makeover?