New Old Photos

I was poking around my photographs on one of my memory cards and found a bunch of photographs I'd totally forgotten about. I don't think I've ever saved or processed them, so tada! They're from about two and a half years ago when we stopped by Brattleboro, VT on our way home from NH.

The photos make me miss autumn... my favouritest season of all. But spring is on its way with all the daffodils, crocuses and hyacinths popping up in our front yard :)

I realise it got a bit silent around here again... Looking after an infant doesn't give me too much time to do much of anything, let alone anything quilty or blogworthy. I have plans... but definitely am not in a hurry to get to them. I'm soaking up every minute of her and her meatball head (seriously, her cute head is like a delicious meatball lol), because soon this will all be a distant memory. She'll be four months old in a week... How'd that happen??

New Hampshire In Autumn

We just spent an amazing weekend catching up with old friends I hadn't seen in almost a decade. I went to high school with both of them in Singapore, and I'd seen them in Melbourne and Perth in Australia over the years. They'd moved to Copenhagen, Denmark for work a little while ago, and are in the midst of moving home to Singapore, so they thought they'd visit relatives who own an inn in New Hampshire. The hubs and I took a little drive up there to spend a weekend with them because how could we not?! 

And let me warn you... this post is very photo heavy. I took SO many pictures, but autumn is undoubtedly my favourite, so it's no wonder I got snap happy. Just be thankful I didn't post them all. You're welcome :)

The inn just is gorgeous. Their aunt and uncle have owned and run it for 40 years, and it spans 65 acres with breathtaking views. Plus the food was amazing! I'm hoping to take my sisters up there when they visit next. And we're hoping my friends make the trip back to New Hampshire every autumn so we can come back and see them all! Especially little Christian, who's just the cutest thing ever :)

We didn't do much more than eat, chat, go for walks and then eat some more hehe I actually went to bed before midnight... gasp! We took home some apples we picked, a few veggies from the garden, and wonderful memories :) They said there'd be a chance they'd relocate to Westport, CT some time in the future... I really, really hope so!

Hello Brooklyn

Oh I love me some Brooklyn. When we returned from Australia and Singapore in May, I found out that Vampire Weekend were playing in Brooklyn, so I immediately booked those tickets and we figured we'd make a weekend of it. Little did I know, that gig was going to be their very first giant arena gig, so I'm doubly thrilled that we were there for it! 

We stayed at NU Hotel, where we stayed the last time. Love that area, plus it's only down the street from the arena. Can you imagine taking a subway after a gig in Brooklyn? Neither can I. We had Vietnamese for dinner... bahn mi and chicken noodles, and lots of yummy iced coffee to wake us up.

We had two opening acts to get through before VW... Sky Ferreira (my first thought was very talented but she seemed high as a kite and apparently, I'm right because she was arrested for drug possession two days prior) and Solange (amazing voice and stage presence... and the closest I'll ever get to Jay-Z *sob* I love you Jay-Z!).

The gig itself was amazing. AMAZING. The tightest set they've played of the many times I've seen them. Oh, and when I was waiting for the gig to start, I was posting pics to Instagram and it turns out Jess was in the crowd and saw my posts! She asked if I wanted to meet, and I replied "Of course!". We chatted for a while and then scurried back to our seats!

If anyone's interested, here's the set list:
Cousins / White Sky / Cape Cod Kwassa Kwassa / Diane Young / Unbelievers / Holiday / Step / Horchata / Everlasting Arms / Finger Back / California English / A-Punk / Ladies of Cambridge / Ya Hey / Don't Lie / Song 2 (Cover of a Blur song) / Campus / Oxford Comma / Giving Up The Gun / Obvious Bicycle | Encore | Hannah Hunt / One (Blake's Got A New Face) / Walcott

The rest of our stay in Brooklyn mainly revolved around food. Then again what else do we ever do when we're in the city!? The hubs finally found a bottle of Cream-Nut at Stinky. I can't tell you how many shops we've been to and how long we've been searching for this stupid peanut butter. It better be bloody amazing.

And then the hubs got it in his head that we had to find chocolate chip cookies, so we got some at Caputo's Bake Shop. They're more crunchy than I think he likes, but he enjoyed them all the same. What's not to like about chocolate?! I got a couple of cookies with jam in the middle and I loved those. And we stumbled upon Brooklyn Farmacy but unfortunately we were on our way to lunch, so no room for an ice cream float. Sadface.

But we weren't sad too long because I took the hubs to Henry Public and our minds were blown. It's super old timey and very adorable. I had my very first deviled egg ever, and I have to say I LOVE them. I ordered what they're known for... a turkey leg sandwich. It's prepared like a pulled pork sandwich, and served with the best fries ever. The hubs had an egg sandwich that looked absolutely gorgeous but I wouldn't know if it was because the dude breathed it in, and half my sandwich in the time it took me to finish the other half. Hmph.

Ahh Brooklyn :)

And for dinner that night we went to Buttermilk Channel. I'd been with my sisters before and loved the food, so I thought I had to bring the hubs. We had a relatively short wait (they don't take reservations) and they sat us outside, which was really nice because it was a beautiful evening. I had a rib eye, he had the chicken and waffles, and we split an ice cream float with coffee soda. So freaking good.

And before we left, I took the hubs to Van Horn, a little place run by a dude from North Carolina, and they're known for their sandwiches. I had the fried chicken sandwich, and the hubs had a full country breakfast. And half my sandwich. I'm a cheap date, what can I say! Haha!

Then home we went. Ah New York, I love you muchly, but my feet hurt greatly. Plus I fell sick while I was there so that was unpleasant. Still, I can't wait till our next visit :)

Australia: Part Four

More pictures from Australia :)

That's the corner of where we stayed. We were right by the Botanical Gardens where they had the Anzac Day celebrations (I wasn't going to wake up for the 6am gathering so you're just going to have to imagine it...), and that's basically like Australia's version of Memorial Day.

One morning the hubs went for a run around The Tan and kind of lost his way, so his half hour run became an hour and a half hehehe Silly goose.

How awesome are those glasses??? Want!

Chapel Street is another one of my favourite parts of Melbourne. We went to many second hand shops and I wanted to bring sooooo many things home! Beautiful mid-century furniture, bits of decor... heaven! My cousin ended up buying a small child's chair that she's going to attempt to restore. Parts of Chapel Street are kind of posh, and she kept muttering, "Great... I'm going to be walking down Chapel Street carrying a bloody chair..." Hehehe!

Also, those eye things are creepy as hell. So creepy that it's awesome.

Mrs Parma's.

Chicken Parmigiana.

If you're in Melbourne, those two things have to happen. Capisce? Don't even argue. Just do it.

St. Ali Coffee Roasters for brekkie... beautiful food, yummy coffee. Hilarious decor. 

Really hilarious decor. They've hung paintings from an artist and I kept laughing at how the lightbulb happened to censor the artist's self-portrait lol!

Australia: Part Three

Hah! The sisters three! It's very rare for us to all be together (well okay, not suuuuuper rare, but rare for us!) so we always insist on taking pictures together whenever we can. Love my girls :)

Yup. We take one normal picture... followed by ten idiotic ones. Well, more than ten... but yeah... Mum is so proud. 

Ahhhh Melbourne :) We walked around Brunswick Street in Fitzroy almost all day because that's one of our favourite areas. It's all grungy with interesting little shops, and the graffiti art everywhere is mind-blowing. SO amazing.

The hubs was so gleeful in the first record shop we found that I had to pretend to be David Attenborough, finding a music lover in the wild. We're not for everyone...

DO YOU SEE ALL THOSE SEWING MACHINES?!?! Ahhhh it hurt so much to have to leave them all behind! There was this cute little hand cranked toy one at another shop that I so wanted, but it was too much money. Bah.

Love Brunswick Street. Definitely go when you visit Melbourne :)