head down south

I'm counting down to our 3rd Annual Winter Beach Retreat (3rd as a couple, the Captain's--I don't know--like 25th?? Getting to a beach at least once a winter is a pretty big deal).

This year we will be trying out the Domincan Republic. The Captain found an AMAHAZING deal on www.cheapcaribbean.com, and we couldn't pass it up. We'll be staying at an all-inclusive (my first time) and soaking in the sweet sunshine.

In honor of the countdown, I put this little guy together. Have you heard Mocky's birds of a feather ditty? It's pretty catchy. Check it out downtown. After you download my gift to you, that is.





Me love you long weekends

Oh the luxury of the long weekend! Bless you Abraham Lincoln for being born and becoming our sixteenth president and for having a holiday made to celebrate it all (and George Washington too).

The Captain's former roommate and long-time buddy came up with another friend from DC to celebrate his own birthday in the big apple. It's always fun to have an excuse to do things we wouldn't normally, like take in a random broadway show and get dessert at Max Brenner at midnight. (the trains are so notoriously unpredictable and infrequent after midnight that we never stay out late for fear of it taking way too long to get home.)

So, here's to a fun day in the city with friends and to having an extra day to recover!

 Start it off right with some pizza...this time from Di Fara's (another ultra-famous pizza joint in Brooklyn on Avenue J). I will say that the pizza was a hit as was the owner-slash-pizza chef. BUT in all honesty, I like Grimaldi's better! What can I say? I guess I'm a Grimaldi's girl.  This one does get my vote for looks though. It's a very good looking pie. And what about that fresh basil that he snips off the bunch with scissors as you watch? Oh, and he also takes the pizza's from the oven with his bare hands. No joke. 
This was the pepperoni and cheese. yum!




After pizza, we went back to our apartment for the over-night bag drop off and purchased four discount tickets to "Sister Act" on the live stage. Very entertaining! I'll give it a 3.5* (docked for a bit of irreverence and a whole lotta breaking the 4th commandment).



Nathan's birthday wishes included pizza, a show and lots of sweet things to eat. I think we hit all three right on the noggin. I suggested Max Brenner to Melanie, so we made a reservation (the earliest was 11:45pm). When we told Nate what we'd done, he about jumped out of his skin and exclaimed, "That's where I wanted to go!" I guess he'd seen a blip on the TeeVee and bookmarked the website on his computer (come on Nate, haven't you heard of Pinterest??) 

This is the fruity tutty sugar waffle that Nate and Melanie shared. How cute is the little beaker filled with chocolate ganache? 
The Captain ordered the Italian "thick" hot chocolate in dark. Oh wow. I took two divine sips. 

I had the Orange Smoothie. Orange, mango, passion fruit, honey, and yogurt on ice. 

And then Nate got the ice cream popsicle bar for dessert ;). 

A good time was had by all! 

Every Little Thing

We watched "I Am Legend" the other night for my first time (Tim had seen it already). Great flick. It, of course, reminded me of how much I enjoy the lyrical genius of Mr. Marley. AND inspired me to create this. One of these days, I'll take the time to get set up so you can download PDF files here, but for now, if you like, feel free to click on the image and print for your personal use. Happy Saturday!

ps, it's snowing here today, how about where you are?


UPDATE: you can download the PDF by clicking on the button below!




Free Fonts

I'm a sucker for free anything, but when it comes to fonts, I'm a double sucker. I'm obsessed with checking the "new fonts" on a couple different sites and downloading anything that I think I might someday want to use. Of course for personal use only, but there is the rare occasion that a free fontier has given permission for commercial use as well, so I tuck those away for the future life when I will have more time to freelance again. Here are a few of my favorites from the past few weeks and a lovely link where you can find them for your own free font enjoyment!
I don't know what it is about this font, but I just love it. It's an all caps font and reminds me of Marvel comics, I think. Shown here with a slight drop shadow. download from fontspace. 

What can I say? I love calligraphy and I'll blame my grandmother who took calligraphy in her early grandma years, and always writes with beautiful penmanship AND every card or letter is beautifully scripted.  download from fontspace.

mmm...clean and warm, just like fresh laundry. Me gusta!

When I first saw the name of this font, it reminded me of my little sister's monthly blogograms to her babies. love them! The font itself reminds me of their purpose to savor your babies at every stage. love them up. download from dafont.com. 


I also downloaded a ton of web ding, ding-a-ling fonts that I have already saved as vector images to get decorative with. Even if you don't have illustrator software to convert these gems, they are still fun to use in word processing documents. just type them in a text box for easy placement. 


The Ghost of Valentines Past

I was going through past entries on my blog, reminiscing, when I came across this one from four years ago. Oh the blessed and/or cursed day. I'm not very romantic, so I've never really understood the hullabaloo.

But, when I was single, any Holiday was just another excuse to throw a party. So that's what we did. I must say, the invite turned out quite nice. A little bit like her introduction at the pre-superbowl press conference, or so I read here... (if you choose to follow the link, scroll down to 2:04pm)