Artwork for the Home

We've been in our townhouse for a year and a half now (where does the time go?). While we've been able to fully furnish our place, we're still working on filling our wall space. It's a bit hard to find pieces that we both love and can afford. Here are a few of my favorites right now.

The painting above is a Lulie Wallace painting. I recently ordered one of a custom floral arrangement that Lucas gave me, and I'm so excited that it should be done later this month.

Emily Green's watercolor paintings are lovely and we could choose colors that appeal to both of us:

This Nancy Ramirez print is really cool and would look awesome in a gold frame:

Caroline Wright has really amazing paintings, and I love her drip and line series:

I'd love to hear about any favorite artists that you may have. We're searching for a few things to adorn our walls and would appreciate any guidance!

J.Crew Fall Sale

J.Crew is offering 25% and free shipping on orders over $150. I picked up this Peter Pan collar tee and these black jeans. I love Fall shopping.

Recipe: Corn Chowder

The weather has been unbelievably nice in the Bay Area this week, and I am so happy that it's finally fall. I made a big pot of corn chowder earlier this week to celebrate. The recipe is below, and I think the simplicity of the ingredients really makes this recipe delicious. I'm looking forward to making homemade chicken noodle soup and trying out a vegan lentil chili recipe soon. What soups, stews, and chilis do you like to make when it's chilly out? I'd love to hear!

What you'll need: 

8 medium sized ears of sweet yellow corn (white will work too)
4 slices of thick cut bacon, cut into 1/2 inch pieces
1 medium onion, finely chopped
2 cloves of garlic, minced
3 tbsp of all purpose flour
3 cups of chicken broth
2 medium sized red skinned potatoes, cut into 1/4 inch pieces
2 cups of milk
1 cup of heavy cream
Salt & pepper
Shredded cheese

Directions:
-Cut kernels from 4 ears of corn and set aside.
-Working over a large bowl, grate remaining 4 ears of corn on the large size of a grater, and then scrape remaining pulp from cobs using the dull side of a butter knife.
-In a large pot over medium-high heat, cook the bacon for about 6 minutes or until crisp. Remove bacon with a slotted spoon and drain on a paper towel.
-Add onion to pot and cook for about 4 minutes, stirring occasionally until golden brown.
-Add garlic and cook for 1 minute, stirring occasionally.
-Add flour and stir constantly for 2 minutes.
-Whisk in chicken broth then add potatoes, milk, and the grated corn. Bring to a boil and then reduce heat to medium-low and simmer for about 10 minutes or until potatoes are tender.
-Using a potato masher, press down on potatoes about 4-5 times.
-Stir in cooked bacon.
-Add whole kernel corn and heavy cream. Cook additional 5 minutes or until corn is tender but still crunchy.
-Stir in salt and pepper.
-Ladle into bowls and top with cheese.

Enjoy!

Vacation Photos: New York City

Last week, Lucas and I took a 5 day trip to NYC. We stayed on the Upper East Side with Lucas's family in a really lovely town home. I'd love to share a few photos, if you'd like to see. 

On Friday afternoon, we visited Chelsea Market, which is full of cute shops and restaurants (it reminds me of the SF Ferry Building). It's conveniently located right across the street from Google's NYC office, so we had fun wandering through the shops during lunch.

On Friday night we took the subway to Brooklyn to catch up with a few friends. We had dinner at The Meatball Shop in Williamsburg and then went to a few local bars. Brooklyn has such a creative energy and young vibe and we loved it!

On Saturday morning, we grabbed brunch at Tartine in the West Village, which was seriously so delicious.

 After that, we picked up treats from the famous Magnolia Bakery.

Manhattan is full of day spas that offer great deals on massages. We went to this hole-in-the-wall for 30 minute massages. It was a bit sketchy, but the massages were on point. :)

 On Saturday night, we attended our friends' wedding (more on that later!).

We were worn out the next day, so we headed to the High Line in Chelsea to relax. It's conveniently located near Chelsea Market, so it's easy to grab some food and chill out for the day.

 Finally, we rounded out our trip at MoMA, which is the coolest museum ever.

We hope to see you again soon, NYC.

Nina Garcia's NYC Apartment

Nina Garcia is the stylish judge of Project Runway and the Fashion Director of Marie Claire. Her home is featured in this month's issue of Architectural Digest and it is to die for. I'm having major apartment envy as I flip through the photos. 

New York City: The Met

New York offers so many amazing museums and the Metropolitan Museum of Art is by far my favorite. We spent Friday afternoon walking through the museum's many exhibits and then headed up to the rooftop to drink wine and watch the sunset. It was the perfect afternoon. 

Above I am hanging on the steps of The Met, just like Blair Waldorf and below Lucas is posing with a Rodin statue and doing the Single Ladies dance, apparently.

The museum guards made Lucas wear his backpack on his chest as to not damage any art, but he was a pretty good sport about it. Clearly he really loves Degas, too.

 One of the museum's many Van Gogh paintings:

 The rooftop exhibit was awesome.

The views from the roof are unreal. You can see all of Central Park and the entire NYC skyline. 

We hope to visit again soon! 

Girls Season 2 Teaser

Ahh I cannot wait for the return of Girls in January 2013. Do you watch it? I find it so hilarious. We're returning from a week in NYC, and during our trip I laughed out loud thinking about certain scenes from the show.

Wedding Shoes: Flats or Heels?

One of the fun parts of wedding planning is the dress and shoe shopping! I found my dress last week and now I'm beginning to look at shoes.

Since then, I've been debating whether or not to wear heels at my wedding. I'm normally a flats kind of girl, and I want to feel comfortable on my wedding day (check out these beautiful Vera Wang flats). Still, there are so many gorgeous bridal heels on the market (like these or these) that it's a tough decision. While there is no huge hurry for me to decide, I'll need choose my shoes before getting my dress altered.

So I'd love to hear, what type of shoes did you wear at your wedding? Did you choose comfort or style? XO

New York City

Lucas and I are heading to NYC! Our friends, Chris and Matt, are getting married this weekend, so we're turning it into a little trip. We have a few things on our to-do list (below!), but we'd be so stoked to receive any recommendations.

-Visit the Met's rooftop exhibit.
-Walk across the Brooklyn Bridge.
-Grab sandwiches at ino.
-Swing by Chelsea Market.
-Catch up with friends over beers at this Brooklyn Biergarten.

Can't wait! XO

{Photo via The Sartorialist}

Restaurant Review: El Dorado Kitchen

While in Sonoma last weekend, we ate at El Dorado Kitchen, which was affordable and delicious (delicious is easy to find in wine country but affordable isn't!). Here are a few snapshots from our meal.

Above is the Chicken BLT, which came with amazing truffle fries. Below are the fish tacos - they were crispy and tangy.

El Dorado Kitchen was quick and affordable and the perfect place to eat before wine tasting.

Fall TV Shows

I'm excited to check out a few new shows this Fall. Mindy Kaling's new show, The Mindy Project, seems hilarious - the pilot is already available online and it made me laugh out loud! I'm also looking forward to Nashville, which features Connie Britton aka Tami Taylor. Clearly I'm psyched about TV, y'all.

I am also embarrassingly excited about the return of my favorite TV shows. I have terrible taste in TV shows (Gossip Girl is my favorite show, people!), but Lucas is such a trooper. Seriously, someone give him the fiance-of-the-year award for bearing with me and my terrible taste.

What Fall shows are you looking forward to?

Fall Boots

"Indian Summer" is about to hit San Francisco, which means the best weather of the year! Although we get our warmest days from September to November, I can't help but anticipate fall boots season anyway. I just picked up these Coach ankle boots and I can't wait to bust them out. On Wednesday, we're heading to NYC for a week, so here's to hoping the weather is cool!

Second-hand Finds

We spend a lot of time going to yard sales, thrift stores, and flea markets to search for furniture and goodies. As a result, we've furnished our townhouse almost entirely with second-hand furniture. Here are a few things we recently picked up.

Above is a green depression glass vase that we bought at a yard sale for $1 (the flowers are from the local farmers' market!). Below is our vintage bar cart that we picked up at the Alameda Flea Market for $20:

We found this brass piano lamp on Craiglist for $15. Today we saw a really similar one at Homegoods for $150!

 This brand new World Market basket was at Goodwill for $1. The tags were still attached. Score!

Finally, this green storage cube from Goodwill recently joined the Turner-Puente household. It's the perfect place to stash blankets and computer cords to reduce clutter.