well i love that dirty water...

...it's almost time for us to go on m's surprise trip...i can't wait!

1. cufflinks boston subway tokens

2. boston love

3. boston typography canvas art

4. dirty water

5. home of the red sox

6. i love boston

new bling

and to wrap up the  last of the birthday gifts, i got some new bling! above are two rings. the band on the bottom i bought at h&m a while back, but the ring on top is brand new. i bought it from urban outfitters, and it's designed by bleachblack. i love it! it was modeled after the designer's mother's engagement ring from the 70s. it's my favorite.

and, for those of you that guessed i bought the camera necklace from etsy, you were right! but...i didn't realize how HUGE it actually is...i thought it was going to be a little charm. no. this is one serious piece of bling. it's going to take some finesse to work this piece into outfits.

macaron obsession

as a birthday treat to myself, i ordered some fresh macarons from little oven on etsy.

of the several delicious sounding flavors offered, i decided to go with raspberry, caramel, dark chocolate, and pistachio... pistachio was my favorite!

after lusting over macarons for months due to their lack of availability in my smaller city, this was a real treat. i am looking forward to placing my next order soon...and i think next time i might just get a whole box of pistachio!

c+m

my awesome friend amanda hand made this potholder for my birthday. i love it! it's perfect!

threes

Jennifer at Down The Rabbit Hole tagged me for this fun little questionaire:

3 names I go by:
1. Crystal
2. CAPow!
3. Crys (only m's family calls me this)

3 jobs I have had:
1. Dog Washer
2. Independent Record Label Office Manager
3. Bank Teller

3 places I have lived:
1. Boston, MA
2. Brooklyn, NY
3. Albany, NY

3 fave drinks:
1. Soy Chai Latte
2. Kettle One and Tonic
3. Diet Green Tea Ginger Ale

3 TV shows I watch:
1. Tim & Eric Awesome Show Great Job
2. Lost
3. Gossip Girl

3 places I have been:
1. Los Angeles, CA
2. San Juan, Puerto Rico
3. New Orleans, LA

3 places I would like to visit:
1. the Caribbean
2. Paris
3. San Francisco

3 fave retro TV shows:
1. Punky Brewster
2. Alf
3. M*A*S*H

3 fave dishes:
1. Steak Burrito Bowl from Chipotle
2. Spicy Salmon Roll from Sushi House
3. Smoked Mozzarella pizza from DeFazio's

3 things I am looking forward to:
1. visiting Boston!
2. track season this summer

3. visiting florida again

3 people I am tagging:

1. Kelly at Friendly Brown

2. Casey at Jerkcake

3. Amanda at My Name Is Michael

breakfast at farmer boy

Continuing on our breakfast tour of the area, m and i made a stop at Farmer Boy diner.  Right away we felt like we were in a bizzaro world because inside it looks a lot like our favorite diner, the Metro. Except it's all pink instead of teal. I'm kind of confused as to why a restaurant called Farmer Boy would choose a pink color scheme....but it's still pretty nice.

The waitress was very nice and attentive - refilling our coffees 3 times. M had the traffic jam - which is 2 eggs, 2 pancakes, bacon & sausage. He seemed to like it. I had a greek omelet that was really tasty and not too dry. The coffee was perfect diner coffee, and the home fries were tasty.  The atmosphere was nice too, it was busy but not overly loud a chaotic like the Gateway Diner was when we ate there. Farmer Boy may fall in to our tentative top 5 places to get breakfast.

this week...

...saw m's band open for the lymbyc systym

...ate at the Chinese buffet...ewww...

...spring cleaning

...it started to feel almost like summer when m & I made a frozen yogurt run to the local ice cream stand

...heard the first ice cream truck of the season drive down our block!

...went to a CD release party for one of our friend's bands

...awkward times...

...played the lotto....can we win please?

-- Post From My iPhone

analog camera week: etsy finds

1. a collection

2. sweet diana mini

3. i love holga no. 9

4. a holga round my neck

5. polaroid camera print

6. polaroid vintage brass cuff

analog camera week: diana-mini

diana-mini is my newest little friend. she just arrived this week and i'm still shooting her first roll. i had a little trouble getting her loaded up at first...she likes to eat the sprocket holes on her film. but i think we've come to an understanding now, and we're going to bring her along with us on our trip to boston in a few weeks!

analog camera week: holga

here is my holga. she's a 120GN, which means she has a glass lens instead of a plastic lens. i've shot one roll with her so far, and it's currently being developed...i can't wait to see what we've created together!

analog camera week: polaroid

recently, my parents passed their mint vintage polaroid down to me. and thanks to the impossible project, i now have a few packs of film to play with!

here is the first photo i took, to make sure the camera still works. it's miyagi's first polaroid!

breakfast at manory's

m and i recently ventured to historic downtown troy to get some brunch at a local landmark: manory's. manory's has been around for almost 100 years, and when you step inside you feel like you are entering a classic diner.

i ordered the vegetable lover's breakfast burrito. it was delicious, full of eggs, vegetables, and cheese. i also ordered a grilled cinnamon roll (that i devoured before remembering to photograph...) but the cinnamon roll tasted more like a blueberry muffin and was served cold.

m's breakfast experience wasn't as super as mine. it started when his glass of water tasted like lemon, and the waitress had no idea why. that made him uneasy. he ordered his staple of 2 eggs overeasy with homefries, bacon, and pancakes. but manory's offers some pretty unique pancake choices, so m decided to try the reece's pieces pancakes. he thought the eggs and homefries were too bland, and complained that the bacon was oddly paper thin and flavorless. He said the bacon had the "melt in your mouth" consistancy of cotton candy when eaten. He also wasn't a fan of the pancakes because he thought the syrup the provided on the side was too watery and lacked flavor. The Reese's Pieces in the pancakes definitely gave them a more dry taste, so extra syrup would have been nice. I thought they were pretty damn tasty despite being on the dry side. 

so we were torn on our opinion of manory's. i thought it was pretty decent, m is looking forward to this experiment being over so that we can just get back to going to our regular diner.

this week...

...really craved some pistachio ice cream

...split fajitas with m at our favorite local Mexican joint

...caught up on the last 2 episodes of Lost...whoa.

...so thankful for the record week in sales at the CAPow! etsy shop! I <3 my customers! (and readers!!)

...a night out with beer and good friends.

...need to find a way to control cravings. hunger pains I can deal with, but sometimes cravings turn into OBSESSIONS!

...my diana-mini arrived!

-- Post From My iPhone

the hold steady

the night after my birthday i went to see one of my favorite bands with two of my favorite people. friendly brown, her dude, and i went to see the hold steady. halfway through the second song, "sequestered in memphis," the power to the stage cut out. the drummer kept drumming and the crowd kept singing the chorus. the singer and guitarist ended up doing an impromptu acoustic set of 2-3 songs. it made a disaster become something really special. after about 20 minutes the electric was finally restored and the show went on. the set was a good mix of old and new. they played for almost 2 hours. they closed the encore with my favorite song, "how a resurrection really feels." it was a good birthday week.

letters

dear spring,

where did you go? it was so nice and warm and now it's cold again? at least you left us some flowers before you left town.

dear photo processing lab,

please handle my film with care, i'm really anxious to see what is on it.

dear the linda,

at first i couldn't believe that you let the electricity fail, but it ended up making the night really special. thanks for the surprise.

dear macarons,

you are really yummy! but you're also super sweet, so thankfully i can't eat too much of you! best dessert ever!

dear grocery store,
sunday afternoons probably are not the best time for us to get together. we have to figure out a better routine.


dear elderly couple upstairs,
i think it's great that you get up early on sundays and go to church. i think it's great that despite being older you're still active and have lots of family that visit you several times a week. however, i don't really think it's great that all day since you came home from church you've been BLASTING a weird playlist of old people music and traditional latino music. it's now 9pm. it's been over 6 hours. you are driving me insane.

birthday bowling

once we managed to finally pry ourselves out of the restaurant, it was time for a little bowling! two more friends met up with us at the ally.  i like bowling, even though i am better at wii bowling. i can never seem to find a ball that is both light enough and has holes drilled bigger than child-size.

our friend, my name is michael sets her sights on some pins

mmmmmm, birthday beer

what bowling alley is complete without gambling?

thank you so much to my awesome friends who made my birthday so much fun!

ps: i bowled a 55, i told you i was better at wii bowling!

my birthday dinner

m and i went out to dinner with a few friends at the standard. i love the swanky decor, and the first time i went there i had an amazingly good salad. on my birthday, i decided to be a bit more adventurous and i ordered the crabcake blt with avacado. i thought it was delicious! m had a pasta dish he wasn't impressed with. and for some inexplicable reason, i ordered a cosmo (which i never drink), that ended up being $9! thank you standard for not putting prices on your drink menu...ugh. for dessert, all i wanted for my birthday was chocolate cake. i ordered a piece of chocolate layer cake that sounded great on the menu, but in real life wasn't that great. although the food and service were less than stellar, we still had a great time hanging out with our friends! and we had PLENTY of time to just hang out at the table, because the service was so slow. we were there for over two hours. yikes.

happy birthday brother and sister

1. two headed chick print

2. 2 headed kitten

3. the squirrelton twins

4. book buddies

5. owl twins nest

today is the birthday of my little brother and sister, yup, they are twins! happy birthday guys, we hope you both have a great day!

love,

big sissy and m

this week...

...day trip to Massachusetts for BBQ and rock n roll.

...found my beloved diet green tea ginger ale in a massachusetts grocery store after months of not being able to find any in NY

...Easter with my family, Easter dinner with M's aunt and cousin.

...got sent home from work early due to computer problems

...got an awesome new printer for my birthday from my family

...had a nice birthday dinner

...bowled a high score of 55

...saw the hold steady!

...took bets in how long it would take a white chocolate Easter bunny to melt on a window ledge in direct sunlight (after day 2, it still hadn't fully melted!)

-- Post From My iPhone

squash

it's about that time to say goodbye to baking spaghetti squash in the oven and to say hello to cooking summer squash on the grill. we'll see you next winter, our tasty friend.

letters

dear local bars and restaurants,

please make sure to have your patio seating ready. we will be coming over very soon!

dear friends and family,

thank you for making my 29th birthday so wonderful. i love you all.

dear debt,

you are killing my soul, but i am trying as hard as i can to get you out of my life so that we can do the things we really want to be doing.

dear cameras,

we're going a lot of places this summer, i hope you're ready for some adventure!

fruity

styles is bananas for fruit. we've made sure to research which foods are bad to feed cats, and luckily two of styles favorites are on the "a-ok list." he really likes strawberries. but he FLIPS OUT for red delicious apples. if he even hears the produce drawer of the fridge he comes running, and won't stop begging until he's seen the last remnants thrown into the garbage can.

today is my birthday

to celebrate the start of the last year of my 20's, here are some of my favorite etsy items. i bought myself one of these items in honor of my birthday...which one is it?

1. nest ring

2. assorted macarons

3. camera pendant necklace

4. polaroid camera

5. the bulldog, the kitten, and the rabbit

6. tangerine dreams

...ok, so maybe i bought two... it's my birthday!

babette

i've been looking at all the beautiful babette blankets popping up in the online crafting community, and have wanted to make one for about a year now. i was finally able to start working on my very own! it's a very easy pattern, i've been crocheting for about 20 years (what?! yup!) but it's easy enough for a beginner to complete as well. in fact, many online crafters taught themselves how to crochet just so they could make themselves a babette!

i took m to the store with me to help choose the colors for my babette. he found something better to amuse himself with.

it took us about 15 minutes to put together our final color pallet of 12.

and i immediately got to work that night!

after one month, i've progressed to here: it's about 2/3 done. unless i decide to make it bigger than the pattern and add more panels.

this week...

...attended a childs birthday party at jeepers and had my fill after 15 minutes

...eggplant parm heaven

...splurged on new sandles and Yankee candle

...I am in LOVE with being able to stream my netflix through my wii now!

...spent one full day at work listening to practically every song ever recorded by the cure

...spent the next day listening to a playlist consisting exclusively of music I loved in high school.

...got crafty with friendlybrown.

...stopped in to the local biergarten to celebrate a friend's birthday

...drinks on the patio w/ friendly brown & her dude

-- Post From My iPhone

happy easter

1. system failure

2. cadbury busted

3. bff

4. little lamb prince

5. bunny love

6. russell

CAPow & Kramer Photo Walk v. 1.0 pt4

after wandering around down by the bus station, we headed across north pearl street and up madison ave.