Yikes! Stripes!

I had a productive weekend- as I mentioned Friday, Jon and I painted some accent stripes on our wall as part of our office makeover.  Seeing as how I'm still alive,  you can deduct that the project was a success and I was not, in fact, murdered for my life insurance money. The office is far from done, but I am really happy with the results!

Now that I'm an experienced striper (not stripper, mind you), I've got a couple pointers if you ever decide to give it a try:

• This goes for any project ever, but recognize that everything will take longer than you expect
• Be aware that floors are not always even so measuring from the floor may not give you a good result.  A laser tool is essential for this project, as is a second person to hold said laser.
• Be crazy psycho meticulous with the first line: mark the walls every 3 feet or so and then apply the blue painter's tape as flatly and carefully as possible. It may not seem like a big deal if there are wrinkles in the tape, but this can screw you later in the process
• I measured all the subsequent lines off of the first line of tape to make sure that the lines would be parallel to one another
• Be mindful that the painter's tape is negative space, not color. That means if you want a 6 inch stripe, the space between the tape must be six inches, not 4 inches plus the width of the tape. This means sometimes you'll be aligning the tape from the bottom and other times you'll be aligning it from the top
• THIS IS THE MOST IMPORTANT! After you've applied the tape, take a credit card edge and run it over the tape to make sure it's completely adhered to the wall, particularly the edges. If you don't do this, paint will seep under the tape and your line will look like it was applied by epileptic donkeys.
• After you've done your coats of paint, remove the tape while it's still not completely dry. I'm not exactly sure why, but that's what other sites said to do and I think the lines looked cleaner when I did it wet than when I forgot and had to do it dry.

 For the BEFORE, go here

 The IN BETWEEN:

X marks the DON'T PAINT THIS IT'S NOT A STRIPE!

And here's the AFTER:

A Williamsburg Weekend

This weekend was all about exploring.

I don't know about you, but I tend to fall into patterns- going to the same places, seeing the same people, doing the same things.  It gets to the point where I'm actually nervous to try something new.  Some of you may call that Social Anxiety Disorder, but I just call it "being in a rut" because that sounds way less certifiable.

I guess I was feeling especially adventurous this weekend, however, and tried to shake things up while at the same time getting to know my neighborhood a little bit better.

If you don't know, I live in Williamsburg, Brooklyn.  But not the "cool" part, not Bedford.  I live a few subway stops east, though I daren't say I live in "East" Williamsburg because a.) there's no such thing as East Williamsburg and b.) that's what people say when they live in Bushwick (not that there's anything wrong with that).

There are tons of awesome spots in my part of town, however.  Here are a few that I visited for the first time this weekend:

Grand Street Bakery:

via

These people really walk the walk, repurposing the former Grand Street Bakery into a cool vintage store.  The t-shirt selection is righteous and I saw some pretty awesome leather boots that wanted so badly for me to adopt them.

Asian Foods Express:

This Asian restaurant supplier on Grand Street is a true gem.  Though it has a storefront, it looks like a store that has yet to open, with boxes piled up in front of the windows.  Even Yelp says it's closed, which I think adds a bit of street cred to the place.  I guess they just don't care because their main line of business is wholesale; providing Asian ingredients to the Thai and Chinese restaurants in the area.  However, if you stop in (at a time that they happen to be open, which seems a bit unpredictable), they'll sell you whatever you need!  Jon and I bought palm sugar, Thai basil and green chilis, all ingredients we don't see at our regular grocery store.

Then we went home and rocked out with our wok out.  We (Jon) made Pad Kra Pow and it was sexy hot.

Mei Ying Qi Gong Tui-Na:

Finally, I also got a Chinese massage because my legs hurt from marathon training and my neck was sore from writing Project Runway recaps on my laptop.  True story.  I'm usually a little wary of massage spots- all the nakedness and the fear of a little tug with your rub.  But reviews suggested this place was upstanding and cheap so I gave it a try.  My masseuse rubbed my neck so hard I thought my head was going to explode, and if you know me, you know that means it was the best massage ever.  I have bruises on my legs from where she punished my calves.  After she ripped apart my muscles, she used hot stones so I left feeling like Paula Abdul 5 minutes before an American Idol taping.  It was glorious.


I'm so happy I discovered a few new "regulars" in my 'hood.  Sorry some of these pictures are ass- I forgot to snap my own.

Beth and Jon's Wedding: Part II

Portraits

All photos by Heather Waraksa

Beth and Jon's Wedding: Part I

Getting Ready

All Photos by Heather Waraksa

Life is Grand

Photo by Heather Waraksa

Yesterday I showed you all pictures of the apartment pre-Beth and Jon, so today I thought I'd show you what our Grand St. apartment looks like now:

PB&J Loft

 ... as in Pre- Beth and Jon.  Here's what it (sort of) looks like currently:
(more current photos here!)

Photo by Heather Waraksa

I thought I'd share some photos of our current apartment from our first walk-through over 2 years ago.  We got to look at the apartment before the previous tenant had moved out, which was a huge help for us "walls & doors" people to see how one might decorate an open space.
Though things clearly worked out for us,  just seeing these photos reminds me of the nightmare that is apartment hunting in NYC.  I'm not saying all brokers are terrible people, but if you were in the piles-of-crap-selling-business you might compromise your ideals too.  The lies!  Oh the lies-
loft = studio
jr. 1 bedroom = studio
2 bedroom = 1 bedroom plus a large closet
New York area = Jersey
upper east side = spanish harlem
harlem = washington heights
williamsburg = bushwick / bed stuy
cozy = so effing tiny
quiet = dungeony dark
close to everything! = drunks at your doorstep
minutes from the subway! = miles from the subway

Oh there are so many more.  I almost sucker punched a broker who spent 20 minutes telling us you don't pay for the apartment, you pay to be in NYC.  Don't tell me what I'm trying my best not to admit.  Nevertheless, most apartments here are shit-holes and you really have to look hard to find a good one.

So when we saw this place, Sally Struthers shed a small tear, cause baby we were home!
More photos after the jump!