And so we're back - NY show and tell!

We're home! And I'm so pleased to be home, I must admit. It must be an awful feeling to come back from being away and not want to be home. We had a fantastic honeymoon in NYC but love our home and city so much that it wasn't hard to come back.

So..... I will do a little post in the future about our wedding day, but I'm not a big fan of oversharing private details of life. But I must show the frock. Because it was divine!

Anyway, this is a little show-and-tell summary of our trip - a little bit of shopping, a little bit of fabric, a little bit of sight-seeing and way too much food! It's a long post - hang in there!

Our first week was in the Baked Apple - we timed our visit with an unbelievable heat wave. I have to be clear here. I'm Australian. I've lived in regional Victoria and NSW for more than half my life and I know heat - I know days on end of 35C+ (95F) days, water restrictions, and existing in not much more than a pair of undies and a singlet. But I'm used to dry heat, and poor old NYC gets pretty humid in summer, so when that's combined with extreme heat that barely changes overnight it was a pretty exhausting place to be. I've got to hand it to the New Yorkers - they coped so well, I think we whinged a lot more and at least we were on holiday and could head home for afternoon naps! We stayed in an apartment in the lower East Side for our first week, that we found through Air BnB. It was a very mixed part of town - some great finds, and some pretty shabby spots, but we had a great visit. The second week we headed over the river to hipster Williamsburg in Brooklyn. We enjoyed our stay a bit more there, mostly I think because the heat wave broke, but it was quieter and less hectic - a bit more familiar. And we had Mikon, a super cute little kitty to keep us entertained!

Mikon - proving that cats are the same the world over - life is better when one is sitting on something on something on something. 

We decided to buy New York Passes, which provide entry into a heap of different sites and museums, walking tours, bike hire etc. Because of the heat we probably didn't make full use of the passes (god it was unthinkable to even consider a walking tour!) but it was great being able to skip ticket lines, and it made us go to a few places that we probably wouldn't have worried about if we had had to pay for each  sight individually.

Of course the shopping was fabulous - my love restocked his wardrobe from top to toe, and I allowed myself a couple of wardrobe purchases - some new jeans, a great dress from J Crew and some fab houndstooth pants from Uniqlo. I also snapped up a fab pair of Camper sandals and a couple of new bags. God the shoes - I could have brought back a suitcase just of shoes!

But enough of the boring stuff. We all know what we are here for - the fabric of course!

My first crafty visit was to Purl Soho. I was determined to find some yarn here to make my beloved Cap Sleeve Lattice Sweater, and I was not disappointed. The girls there were just so lovely, they let me drift aimlessly around the store stroking everything until I was ready for help, and gave me advice on an alternative yarn to wool for the sweater (I just can't see myself wearing a short sleeve wool jumper in summer!). I ended up going with a beautiful Cascade Pima Cotton, in a beautiful royal blue, with a pale turquoise as contrast for the lattice. I can't tell you how luscious this yarn is - it has the most beautiful sheen and is just lovely to work with. I also bought some fluoro pink bias binding, probably to use as piping in a future bag project. Their range of yarns is amazing - if you follow the Purl Bee blog you'll know, but their wall of rainbow yarny goodness is such a treat. Fabric-wise they have a small selection of high quality wovens, mostly quilting cottons, but some lovely japanese double gauze, Liberty fabrics and a few other lighter weight cottons. I was after some of the Robert Kaufman Chambray Union Indigo dot fabric, which was back in stock by my second (unplanned!) visit. I bought a couple of yards - most likely to make a shirt (I am completely in love with this shirt by Laney - check out their blog they make awesome things). It's a beautiful lightweight blueish-grey cotton, with the dot design woven into the fabric:

The day I visited the Garment District was a hot one. We'd spent the morning on the Intrepid - an aircraft carrier that has been converted into an air and space museum. It's bloody huge! This thing had at least 20 aircraft on it, and housed 3000 men when it was in active service. My beloved had a great morning scampering around and geeking out over all the helicopters, planes and various gadgets. By the time we had made our way to the Garment District we were pretty wilted, but after a fortifying Coke (never have I drunk so much soft drink in my life) I left my love in a pub with a promise that I would be back in about 1 hour and I hotfooted it into Mood. I had already decided that I wasn't going to go toooooooooo crazy. Melbourne really has got some fantastic fabric shops, and there really isn't too much that I couldn't source here or on-line, so I promised myself that I would only bring home some treasures, plus something for the upcoming Thread Theory Jedediah shorts sew along for my beloved.

And of course Mood was awesome, overwhelming, huge and amazing. I was pretty proud of myself - I whizzed through and managed to only waste 10 minutes getting lost in the furnishing fabrics. I nearly developed whiplash from zigzagging through the ceiling-high aisles, but ultimately was very well pleased with my haul:

Emerald 100% silk jersey - they had a great range of silk jerseys at a very reasonable price - this one was $25/yard I think (in Australia I've only ever seen 100% silk jersey at Tessutis, for about $70/metre!). I'm not sure what this will become - most likely a simple drapey top to make the most out of the beautiful drape. Its totally luscious and I am in love with it.

This is a lovely crinkly cotton knit in a pale blue with a darker blue-grey spot. Nice cotton printed knits are not the easiest to come by here in Australia, and I liked the texture and colours of this. I do love me a spot or two, and I can see this as a Renfrew (maybe a boat-neck to make it a little more sophisticated) and in a little tank or two. I think I got 2 yards of this, and it was maybe about $10/yard.

This pretty little stripey may not look like much, but it was pure cotton and the most gorgeous soft tissue weight - in the second pic you should be able to see how fine it is in the draping tail - even my love commented on how nice it feels. I am sure I have spoken before of my love of the stripe - I could dress top to toe in stripes from my wardrobe. I'm not sure what this will become - I do have McCalls 6319 which is a lined knit dress that would look great in this - I'm 100% convinced though - it might be too light for it....

This treasure is a shirting fabric that I just couldn't leave behind. I've never seen anything like it. I hope the photos do it justice. It is a pink and blue stripe that is woven in 2 different textures - the blue is a standard shirting weave, but the pink is satiny, and woven like a ribbon - it has the most gorgeous shine that contrasts with the matt blue stripe. I don't know what I will do with it, but I bought enough to make a shirt dress.

And finally this is a nice sturdy cotton twill for my love - bless him he was very patient with my fabric shopping, and it was only after about an hour that I started to get distress texts - he was onto his 4th pint  and was worried he wasn't going to make it home if I took too much longer.

So in the end I didn't go into any other fabric stores - I was more than happy with my haul, and as it is my stash at home is completely out of control, and I really had to be sensible.

I won't bore you too much more, but below I've done a quick summary of our favourite places we visited/ate at/experienced - its my very narrow snap-shot of our NY faves just in case you wanted some random suggestions:

Sights/shopping:

• 911 Memorial - beautifully done. I was there in 2004 when the site was still in chaos, and it's a very moving and tasteful tribute. 
• Rockefeller centre - great art deco architecture and the Top of the Rock was less busy than the Empire State, with better views (it's lower and closer to Central Park).
• Central Park - what can I say - a great spot to get some peace and quiet on a hot day.
• The Highline - beautifully preserved elevated railway lines great for people watching.
• New York Transit Museum - museum of the history of the NYC transit system (subway and buses). Sounds dorky and probably is, but fascinating. In Brooklyn and in an actual subway station.
• New York City Library - magnificent building, great shop.
• Intrepid Air and Space museum - as mentioned above very impressive and great for big and little kids. 
• Liberty Helicopter ride - my fab workmates chipped in and bought us a voucher for a 15 minute helicopter ride over Manhattan. Just amazing - not sure what it cost, but a great way to see the city. We did it on our second last day, which was great because we knew what everything was and it was a great perspective on the city.
• Brooklyn - we stayed in Williamsburg, which was a great melting pot of hipsters, Hasidic Jews and every other race/age/class in between. We took the East River ferry down to DUMBO and Brooklyn Heights - highly recommended. 
• Brooklyn Flea Market - cute little hipster market with vintage and handmade bits and pieces. We scored a 1940's Subway map, and an awesome cast iron Michelin Man statue. 
• Baseball - we went to a match between the Mets and Phillies which was a great experience. I'm not sporty but my love is and we had a great time. Totally loved it. 
• Bar Next Door - tiny little jazz club with small cover charge and delicious Tiramisu from Italian restaurant attached. 

Food:

• Eatitaly - impossible-to-describe Italian food emporium in the Flatiron District. A huge indoor marketplace of different food types - Gelato, antipasto, charcuterie, fish, etc etc. Beautifully decorated/styled. We just had gelato on one hot night and mine was the best salted caramel gelato I've ever had. Fab!
• Lobster Joint - this was near our first apartment and we loved it so much we went back 3 times! Simple but stylish dude-food with lobster, crab and shrimp (prawns) as the stars. I had a whole lobster meal for about $35, with the most delicious butter sauce. We became quickly addicted, and the deal was sweetened by happy hour - $4 cocktails and beer!
• Brooklyn Brewery - my love is a craft beer fiend, and he was so excited to do the tasting tour here. Most beer I've ever drunk in my life (3 tastings!) but it was a highlight for him. Also very impressed by the customer service as we stuffed up our booking and turned up a week early - they still squeezed us in as we would have missed out otherwise. 
• Cowgirl Seahorse - crazy little Tex-Mex restaurant in the Seaport District. We happened upon this place by accident and it was great. Excellent value, crazy decor, fab cocktails and delicious food. 
• Random taco place on East 3rd Street, between 1st and 2nd Avenues. This place was literally 3 doors down from our first apartment and the tacos were just unbelievable. The owners are mexican and we were blown away with how good they were. I can't remember the name - something like Diablo Tacos. So. Damn. Good. 
• Brooklyn Sandwich Society - another happy accident we found whilst waiting to meet an old friend in Fort Greene, Brooklyn. Very stylish little cafe with beer and delicious Banoffee pie. 
• Lexington Candy Store - old-school diner in Manhattan, not too far from the Met and Guggenheim. This is a true vintage diner - same family has been operating it since the 40's, and it was last renovated in the 70's! Fantastic milk shakes, burgers etc. 

Phew! Thats about it folks - now its back to reality, winter and shedding those extra kg's we've accumulated in the last couple of weeks. I'm off to combat jetlag and make myself a nice comfy Hot Cocoa Sweater - see you next time!