Runny Side Up | An Everything Blog

Who am I and what am I doing?

By Alyson | Published: April 22, 2012

Ach, the guilt that I feel when I neglect this blog. I swear, I’m trying to make something cool happen here despite not really being one of those “fashionista,world traveling,professionally mouth-watering food creating” people. Anyway, lately I have been having a bit of an identity crisis. It’s kind of a sudden - shit, what if everything I’ve been doing since I graduated 2 years ago is completely in the wrong direction and I have no idea who I am or where I’m going? I’m horrible at following directions, but I could really use some guidance here. Talking to friends I’ve realized that we are all kind of in the same boat and all doing very different things with our lives so far – this is comforting because I think that my friends are brilliant and awesome so I’m cool being in the same boat. Deep inhale, exhale, look, listen and repeat.

Stevie Wonder (that is, perhaps, what I would name this bunny)

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DUMBO.

By Alyson | Published: March 17, 2012

What a perfect day to be outside! Fresh air! We walked around Dumbo this afternoon and first stopped at the carousel. If you’ve never been there, it’s encased in glass and located right on the East River by the Brooklyn Bridge. It was full of babies, but still really awesome.

Horse from Jane's Carousel - built in 1922! Really beautiful.

Vanilla chocolate chip + strawberry + waffle cone. Bam.

I need this in my kitchen.

No flowers yet,but they're comin'!

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65 and sunny

By Alyson | Published: March 15, 2012

SPRING! SUMMER! Today I was lucky enough to work from home and took a little lunchtime stroll to run an errand and get an iced coffee (ok fine, and an almond croissant). Just breathing that fresh spring air made me so happy. I was looking through old photos and wanted to share these summery photos from last 4th of July.

Fire Island - can you tell?

Fireworks!!

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Hold that pose.

By Alyson | Published: March 4, 2012

Yoga makes you bendy.Yoga also makes you feel like sunshine with awesome posture. About 5 years ago I discovered Yoga to the People on St. Marks in the East Village and fell in love. As expensive as NYC can be, there are tons of donation based studios just like this throughout the city.

Over the past 5 years I kind of fell in and out of yoga but these days I’m craving it more than ever. My work can be crazy, like frequently dreaming about excel spreadsheets crazy, and enduring 30 minutes on an elliptical machine doesn’t cut it. This week, I did yoga 3 times so far! I feel like giving myself a big gold star, but instead I’m going to challenge myself to doing this every week.

by Marc Rosenthal for The New Yorker

Day 1: Vinyasa Flow (favorite)

Day 2: Power Yoga. This class was a little out of my league. The girl in front of me could do all the “stands” (head, shoulder, you name it), so you go Girl in the Front Row.

Day 3: Lululemon Athletica holds a free yoga class on Saturday mornings at 11 before the store opens. I was 5 minutes late thanks to the 2 train, but hopefully I didn’t disturb the peace too much. It does make me feel less guilty that I splurged on these pants.

Go yoga, go yoga, go. Get on it.

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Forty Carrots

By Alyson | Published: February 13, 2012

I spent most of today having fun shopping around Brooklyn and Soho. My first mission was to stock up on art supplies for a secret project that I’ll be giving my boyfriend for our 1 year anniversary next week (I have this problem where the vision in my head is perfection and, well, the execution…). Basically, Paper Source is amazing and the only one in NY happens to be 2 subway stops away.

Afterwards I strolled around Soho and made a stop at Zara. And Bloomies. And Madewell. And Topshop. AH. Obviously I needed a snack somewhere in there. Forty Carrots, the Bloomingdales cafe serves this “low cal – so no guilt” (um, right?) froyo – I had the coffee with chocolate sprinkles. Oh, and this is what I got when I asked for a small. My kinda place.

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mmm, music.

By Alyson | Published: February 11, 2012

Just discovered Midi Matilda. I’m down. It’s very indie-pop-that-makes-me-happy.

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Pucker Up

By Alyson | Published: February 3, 2012

I bought this at the C.O Bigelow store in the West Village as a tiny treat for myself. Deliciously rosy with a hint of vanilla sweetness. Years ago I used the “Rosebud” salve which is stickier and doesn’t have that extra vanilla undertone. Apparently it’s all purpose, so you can use it on any kind of dry skin, but I think it works best for lips. This is on my list of ”must keep in my bag at all times”. Go buy it!

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Spring Look Book

By Alyson | Published: January 31, 2012

I have been loving Madewell lately, a store that has the bohemian look of Anthropologie and the colorful prep of J.Crew. Without the time or endurance to shop in their Soho store during the insanity of the holidays and post-holiday sales (yes, shopping during that time of year in NYC is a highly competitive sport), that leaves me room for a spring wish list! Here are a few of my faves.

Perfect for an afternoon at The Met.

Love scarves and belts on dresses! Plus those booties, mmm.

I would absolutely wear this to work. Love little pops of color like this yellow.

As my college roommate would say "cute as a button". The color combo is so warm and Springy plus you can wear those shoes with everything.

Just think, Spring is only a short 7 weeks away! What’s on your Spring wish list?

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Eat And Tell

By Alyson | Published: January 26, 2012

Food is a big part of my life. I’m at the grocery store about 4 times a week buying stuff for a recipe that I’ll only halfway follow. I dream of shiny white Cuisinart supplies. A few weeks ago I formed my entire Sunday around the cookbook “Veganomicon”and read it like a novel in this little cafe near my apartment. It’s hilarious by the way and vegan or not you need to buy it.

Anyway, last Sunday was one big food-fest.

Brunch

Like a typical New Yorker, I am particularly in love with Brunch. Last Sunday my friend Jill and I went to a place in the East Village called Grape and Grain that makes fancy breakfast pizzas and has delicious, HUGE mimosas. I was so excited to eat, I forgot to take a picture.

Here’s what I got: The Arturo sunny-side up eggs, chorizo, roasted jalapeno, mozzarella, and avocado pizza. DELISH.

Here’s how we started:

Part Two

A few hours later, I had Sunday dinner. My boyfriend and I head from Brooklyn to Manhattan for traditional Italian Sunday dinner with my grandparents as often as we can. My Nanny is the greatest cook on the planet. See:

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The City by the Bay

By Alyson | Published: January 8, 2012

In lieu of the extremely moderate, non-winter weather we are having in NY (64 degrees in JANUARY) I am reminded of San Francisco. In August my boyfriend and I took our first trip to “The City by the Bay” and absolutely fell in love with the mini cultures of each district as we walked/drove/hiked/ate/drank/photographed our way over the course of 8 days.

Bad-ass graffiti all over the place.

So much Yelp-ing.

Blue corn waffles.

This place was known for it's chocolate-covered salted caramels.

Can I tell you how many tries it took before I got a decent picture of this guy?

WE ATE SO MUCH BREAKFAST. Who could resist this sticky morning bun? This is from a place in the Mission District called "Tartine" which was the absolutely best. ever.