One Whole Year

It is officially our one year anniversary today. Woohoo! It's completely bizarre to me that a YEAR, a whole YEAR has gone by. What? How?? It was so fast!

We have had a great first year, I think. We've grown a lot together and I feel like I am enjoying Geoff even more now than I did a year ago. We've had some standard first-year-of-marriage conflicts, as most do, but (thanks to Geoff) I am learning that conflict doesn't have to be scary or threatening. And we like our life together. We like to be together. Doing exciting things, or boring things. It truly doesn't matter. He makes me smile. A hug from him usually solves most problems. We are good for each other. He listens to me (at least when I tell him to). These are all good things I think.

We had a great anniversary today. The ONE day in like 2 weeks it hasn't been cold and rainy....we had a lovely outdoor brunch at Quaint, our favorite neighborhood spot. Gorgeous and lovely time on their patio just chatting over mimosas, goat cheese omelets and challah french toast. Yes please.

Then we headed home, got a little cleaned up and hopped in the car to head into the city. We would have set off on bikes, except that my chest cold hasn't fully cleared, so I was worried about my breathing, and Geoff had a 12 hour shoot yesterday, so we took the car instead. Got this cool shot from the passenger seat heading over the Queensboro Bridge....


We ended up in the West Village and just happened to park on Hudson Street in front of an open house. So.....we ventured in just for fun. And lo and behold, discovered our dream house.

OK, so most New Yorkers at one point or another, dream of owning a building with space for a shop on the first floor and an apartment to live in upstairs. Alison would have a coffee shop (featuring her amazing baked goods and perhaps with a knitting and/or live music focus, I feel), Stephen would have a restaurant, and Geoff and I would have a photography/video studio. A place to meet clients, have an office and hold photography shoots. FOUND IT!


Here is our future studio space...


How amazing is that? It was previously a children's clothing store, but before that, it was a children's bookstore. The very children's bookstore that inspired the one Meg Ryan ran in You've Got Mail. I know. So cool. And you can sort of see there's a little outdoor garden space out back. Also very cool. So picture, sort of a living room set up in the front for meeting with clients maybe...completely with flat screen TV to view film samples. And the back would be a photography studio set up. Not sure where we'd fit the actual desks and office space, but DO NOT WORRY, I will figure it out.

Then we ventured upstairs to the 2 bedroom apartment. And were not disappointed. This is our future living room/dining room space.


And get ready for my new kitchen. Look at that sunlight!!


Headed upstairs....which were narrow, but I'm not thinking about any problems with the place. We will just lose weight and shrink our furniture if it, or we, don't fit.


Second bedroom. Small, yes. But lets face it, who will really be staying in here? Alison maybe when she comes to visit from whatever whirlwind tour or film set she's been on? She's small. She can fit. A baby someday? Yes. But again, babies are small. Mom and Dad? They are used to cozy spaces. I think it will work just fine.


2nd floor bathroom. Nearly bigger than the second bedroom.


And the master.... Come on....amazing.


And the icing on the cake..... There is an outdoor terrace on the top floor. Please. Can you stand it?


So yes, you are all welcome to come over as often as you want. We will be doing much entertaining. The neighborhood is amazing. Hello, it's the West Village. And there is a Le Pain Quotidien on the opposite corner, right across the street. Restaurants, coffee shops, dry cleaning, sushi, playground, shopping....it basically has it all. The only tiny sticky part is the $3.5 million price tag. Just ever so slightly out of our budget. So, should any of you have that kind of budget floating around, go ahead and snatch this little gem up, and in lieu of a finder's fee, Geoff and I will gladly just live and work there. Sound good?

After finally tearing ourselves away from our dream house, we came upon a bazaar on Bleeker street, which apparently only happens once a year. Bought some cool magnets. It took me nearly 15 minutes to select the perfect three. In case you did not know this about me, I am slow to make decisions.


Found this awesome stand that was selling super cool hats. So we had a mini-fashion show...


Love this one....

If you'll notice, in nearly every picture I have to hold the hat on my head. This is because my head is ginormous and no hats ever fit me.



I clearly do not look as good in this one. I can't actually pull off a beret. And here I am laughing at myself for trying.


Possibly the most beautiful dress I've ever seen. Definately the prettiest one at a street fair.


Come on, this would totally win a Project Runway challenge. It's gorgeous. I think that's the designer, in the yellow plaid dress in the tent.


A Friend waiting to cross the street...


Dreaming of bags....


If you look closely, you can see us posing in the reflection...


On our first real date we went to this restaurant in SoHo called KinKao. Really amazing Indian food. It has since moved locations, and the old location is now a Tapas bar, but we took a picture of it when we passed it. I like this shot, even though it's blurry...


And after KinKao on our first date, we went and sat on a bench and talked for a while. Well, we found the actual bench. I hadn't realized it was so close to where we ended up having dinner tonight, but Geoff did, so we sat and watched NYC go by. He even remembered which of three benches it was. Impressive!


After dinner at Barolo, this Italian place with a lovely outdoor garden/courtyard, we wandered over to Little Italy for some gelato....as a tribute to having been in actual Italy for our honeymoon a year ago. I wonder if Little Italy knows it doesn't actually look anything like Actual Italy?


While in Little Italy, we passed a restaurant making this boast:


So Geoff took them up on their challenge and bought one. Here, allegedly, is the best cannoli on the planet.


It of course was not. So....shame on them, I guess. For lying. And shame on us for buying into their marketing ploy.

All in all, a lovely anniversary....good food, finding our dream home, and basically a visit to Europe. Not too shabby. Happy Anniversary to us!!