OUR CUTE BROOKLYN APARTMENT.

We had such a hard time finding a place here in New York.  After a few deals falling through and looking for a month, we finally signed a lease on this place and we LOVE it!  Honestly, when we first saw it, we had decided to pass on it for a number of reasons: price, it was very dark in the front of the apartment, and no bedroom door (and after living in a studio for 3 years that was high on our want list).  However, we really connected with the sweet landlord when we saw it and he ended up contacting our broker to see if we still might be interested.  AND he negotiated price.  We had to take it.  Plus, the kitchen is AMAZING (I am seriously loving cooking here), there is a backyard, and the neighborhood is ridiculously fabulous.  Plus it is really close to the subway and a super easy commute to Manhattan.  Sold.  We take walks pretty much every night and I have already made friends with the owner of the organic grocery shop down the street.  We feel very, very lucky to be where we are.  :)

The neighbor's fig tree attacks our bathroom window.

Our new stairs and railings!  There were old, crumbling brick ones there when we looked at the apartment.

Pretty fig leaf.

Our other, very sweet neighbor's awesome veggie garden.

Our cherry tree-- can't wait to see what the fruit is like next summer (and the blossoms in spring!).

View from patio.

Do you spot 4 of our curious fuzzy pals?  We have many, many wild cats that hang out in our yard. 

Our back patio!

Basil.

My bottle and nature collections on our bedroom windowsill.

The best I could do of our bedroom (it is SO dark).  Also, this quilt was a trade for jewelry...YES!

View from the bedroom.

Earrings in the works.

My work space.

Raf's white board, more of my work space.

Raf's work space and some lovely art by his family members.

My recycled paper California collage that took me FOREVER!

Living room.

This rug.  Hahaha.  I LOVE this rug.  I bought it from a vintage shop down the street for a song.  I was pretty excited for Raf to see it when he came home that night.  He said something along the lines of:  "Ugh!  What is that weird sweater doing on the floor?!"  So funny.  I think that MAYBE he is getting a little bit used to it.

Living room again.

Kitchen desk.

Color!

Dining area.

Old-school bathroom.

Dreamboat kitchen.  I mean, REALLY?  I feel like I'm on a cooking show every night.  :)

Kitchen/dining/sliding glass door to patio and yard!

LATELY.

View of Brooklyn from the subway.

Mossy pathway.

Grand Army Plaza fountain.

Our sweet brownstone.

Our pretty street.

I love when people put effort into Halloween decorations.  Fun!

East Village, Manhattan.

A little buddy watching me.

Fall changes in Brooklyn.

Apparently Ben Stiller was shooting a movie near our house.  This was one of the trailers.

Busy bee.

Unconventional beauty on the subway.

ADVENTURING.

Brownstones in our neighborhood.

We had a fairly busy weekend, both in Manhattan and Brooklyn.  Really, really loving being here and experiencing east coast Fall again.  I'm pretty happy right now just exploring around our neighborhood, but have big plans this week of exploring lower Manhattan too (parts I've not yet roamed).

Boaters in Central Park.

Central Park.

We had a really great/quick visit with Raf's cousin and took a peaceful walk around Central Park.  After parting ways with her, we ended up having dinner at Angelica Kitchen,  a really yummy vegan/macrobiotic restaurant in the East Village.  Delicious!

Raf on a vintage city bus (1958) we toured at the Atlantic Antic street festival.

These buses were really cool.

Perfect autumn sunlight in Boerum Hill.

Such a lovely neighborhood.

Garden gate.

We ended the day yesterday at a house-warming party for some new friends who recently moved into their lovely place in Park Slope.  Such a great neighborhood!  And we hung out with some really fun folks and got invited to a (weekly) Downton Abbey viewing party.  Ummmm...YES!  I may or may not have watched the first 3 seasons in a ridiculously short amount of time.  I guess the obsession with this show will continue, at least at a healthier pace now.  :)

NEW JEWELS!

These babies will all be headed to the etsy shop soon!  

ALL OF THE THINGS...

I had written a post about a month ago, detailing the beginning of our time in New York, but never published it.  Now upon rereading it, so much has changed!  So, instead, I'll play a quick catch up and move forward.

We arrived in New York City on July 31st, after a really special send off from our Berkeley buddies.  It was strange and surreal to go from northern California/ mellow life to be dropped off right into the heart of New York!  We had temporary housing in Hell's Kitchen for one month while we were exploring neighborhoods and looking at potential apartments.  Living in such a crazy and full-of-life part of New York for a month was really cool.  I walked and walked most days in the scorching heat (while Raf started his new job) and we took full advantage of our proximity to Central Park (5 blocks away!) on quite a few evenings for strolls.  I am kind of amazed that I didn't take a single picture during that time (not of our swanky temp apartment, or our night walks, or anything!) but I suppose I was just living it instead.

After a chaotic, nearly month-long search (and many, many fiascos that I will spare you-- I will just say that house hunting in New York is competitive and heart breaking at times) we finally settled into the most darling neighborhood in Brooklyn: Carroll Gardens.  Seriously.  It is so. darn. cute.  And we have discovered that Brooklyn is much more our speed than Manhattan.  We live in an old brownstone and guess what?  We have a sweet little patio and backyard all to ourselves!  The previous tenant was from California and lived here for 9 years and he planted so many beautiful (and edible!) things back there.  I'm pretty excited to see what blooms next spring and early summer.  Right now, we are enjoying the last (and abundant) harvest of figs.  Yep, figs!  Our neighbors on either side of us have huge fig trees that hang way over into our yard.  Black Mission on one side and Brown Turkey on the other.  We have full permission from one neighbor to pick as many as we want.  We haven't met the other neighbor, but have been picking the ones that hang over our patio, otherwise they fall and rot and collect ants.  Needless to say, I have been in my happy place.  Figs are high on my list of favorite things.  :)

Brown Turkey figs (with a couple of Black Mission too).  Our neighbor made jam from these and gave us a jar!

Fig harvest plus rosemary from the neighbor.

Also, I have had a couple of job interviews and one wasn't a good fit, but another one was.  In the end, the good one (an art teacher position) would have been mine had my New York license been renewed in time, (the NY state department of education is SO SLOW and wouldn't have my license ready for another 3 weeks beyond when they wanted to hire me), and the other one (a vegan kitchen job) at the very least taught me a couple of crazy-good recipes (see photos below)!

Amazing raw lasagne.

So, onward and upward and exciting adventures to come!  Raf likes his job quite a bit and I am having fun exploring opportunities and the neighborhood and cooking up a storm again, now that I have my kitchen in order.

P.S.  Pictures and details from our Italy trip (in MAY, geez.) are coming soon...