Honeymoon in NYC!

I'm guessing the last time you saw some images of NYC, the ground was covered with water and bits of tree were in places you wouldn't normally expect to find them. It has been crazy to see the wreckage brought by super-storm Sandy on the place we were honeymooning in just a month before and I feel awful for everyone who has suffered because of it. That said, I know that some of my lovely readers would like to hear a bit about how our honeymoon went, so here we go...

We spent a week in total in NYC, spending two nights in a hotel in midtown Manhattan and the other five nights in an apartment in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, that we rented via air bnb. Oh my goodness we had a good time! The whole place was sooo interesting, and we walked about seeing, eating and drinking as much as we physically could! 

During the first couple of days, whilst dealing with our jet lag, we put ourselves on those open-top tourist buses which gave us a fantastic over view of Manhattan and helped us to decide which parts of it we wanted to head back to and explore more thoroughly. Our criteria for 'places we'd like to head back to and explore more thoroughly' basically involves interesting, old architecture with fantastic looking cafes and bars. Using this criteria we found our way back to Greenwich Village, the East Village and the Lower East Side. 

Whilst we were in Manhattan, it may not surprise you to learn that we headed to the Garment District. Thanks everyone who made suggestions of where is worth going, all your suggestions were very helpful. I could easily have spent a whole day going to each location, but I was very aware that it was Pat's honeymoon too, and I would have felt bad dragging him to more than a few fabric and notion shops, no matter how many book stores I took him to in return. 

Seeing as I wasn't messing around, I went straight to Mood fabrics. Thanks very much to the ladies that explained how to find the entrance! No obvious to the uninitiated, eh?! I ran round that place like a game show contestant, trying to see every single section. Notice the mild panic in my expression in the picture above as I desperately try to see every damn roll of fabric. Just because I don't tend to buy new fabric and try to stash-bust instead, doesn't mean that I don't want to gaze at it all! As I mentioned in my previous post, I had decided that I would allow myself to buy some fabric if I fell in love with some. 

I was on the look out for some red, mustard or jade stretch denim type trouser fabric, but nothing there seemed quite right. I did, however, buy one yard of this ex-Just Cavalli leopard print twill with elastane content. It was $25 a yard, so although a pair of trousers in it would be epically awesome, I think I'll have to settle for making a high waisted pencil skirt!

I also visited a couple of notions shops, but there really is only so many anchor buttons a girl can own so I walked away empty handed from those. I did also visit Metro Textiles, another well hidden fabric cave owned by the inimitable Mr Kashi. Check out Erica B's amusing video to see this master salesman at work. As some people have noted, if you don't like very attentive salesmen, this shop might not be for you. I was able to deflect his attentions onto a couple of Canadian students and viewed his Aladdin's cave in peace. There are probably some awesome bargains to be found in there, but nothing particularly caught my eye. 

I also walked in and then out of Spandex House. Once again, I'm sure there are bargains to be found in there, but with all the off-putting super-synthetic leotard fabrics positioned at the front of the shop, and a cupboard full of jersey already in my flat, I didn't feel it was worth spending valuable time there when Happy Hour was fast approaching. Another shop, away from the Garment District in the Lower East Side opposite the Tenement Museum was a predominantly upholstery fabric outlet called Joey's (or something) which seemed like bargains lay within (see above). As we've previously discussed, at the end of the day who's to say what is curtaining and what is dress/coat/skirt fabric anyways?!

The Tenement Museum, incidentally, was incredibly interesting and I'd definitely recommend their Sweat Shop tour for learning about both how the immigrant population lived and how clothing used to be produced. It was really eye-opening and I felt super pleased we went on it.

Also in Manhattan, we were very lucky to spend an evening with the very lovely and gorgeous sewing blogger Janice from She's In Fashion (pictured above). It was great to meet her and have a chance to ask a New York resident lots of the questions Pat and I had by then racked up! And who would have guessed it, Janice practises martial arts so the conversation switched regularly between ninja stuff and sewing!

In terms of creative stuff, I could talk more about the inspirational markets, fairs, shops and so on we found in Manhattan and Brooklyn, but I could equally expand upon the epic Mexican food, Moritos (frozen Margarita and Mojito blends! Seriously Karen, that's a thing!), crack pie and so on that we experienced. Instead, I'll share a few extra little nuggets from out trip. 

A chicken caesar salad on a pizza! It was hot but somehow the lettuce was still crunchy. I don't claim to understand science. 

Somehow, as big as this flea market store was, there wasn't one thing I wanted in here. Weird.

Inspiration for my Autumn/Winter wardrobe.

Whilst we were drinking our coffees, a woman sitting close by announced loudly on her phone that she was stalking our table. We stayed there for ages longer that we otherwise would have. 

Moritos!!! It took me a couple of these to realise I would have been happier with a straight up Margarita, the fake mint flavour was dragging it down.

Drunken boy!!! Very cute.

Basically a warehouse full of Mad Men era furniture. I nearly wept. 

A Homage to Saint Chihuahua. I assume.  

Brooklyn Bridge! Sunshine! Hurrah!

Pat could easily have moved in to this Mexican restaurant/bar. I'm lucky he finally chose to come back to UK with me. 

Seriously?! ANOTHER amazing cafe/bar/restaurant?! You know my Achilles heel, New York. 

These croissants don't look as big in this picture as they were in real life. They were more the size of a new-born infant. They could sustain a girl for days. Or at least until the next lovely cafe/bar/restaurant.

Street Art! Boom! Did I mention that we saw TWO street art books that Pat has written for sale in New York book shops? No? Well, we did.  

Another food item the size of my face!