Style Icon: Olivia Palermo

Olivia Palermo is right up there with Rachel Bilson when it comes to my style icons! I love everything she wears. Here are some of my favorites! Make sure to visit her blog: http://www.oliviapalermo.com/.

*pictures from http://oliviastyle.tumblr.com/* 

The Vampire Diaries...obsessed.

My favorite scene from last night...I'm officially obsessed with this show.

Hurricane Irene and I go to NYC...

 This post is obviously long overdue but since I haven't been very good about keeping up with my blogging recently I'm having to catch up. This would probably be better suited to facebook, but as y'all know I don't really put up albums so here ya go... Basically I had this awesome trip to NYC planned from Thursday-Monday because I was supposed to go to the Hamptons with Molly, Merrill, Ellen and Caroline, but Irene pretty much ruined our plans. Instead NYC shut down and we had to get creative. If nothing else we were stocked up on food and alcohol. Pretty sure we each purchased around 5-6 bottles of wine for what was supposed to be a week long lock down. Delta went ahead and cancelled my flight for Monday morning on Saturday and I had the pleasure of being up there for 5 nights....I couldn't have found a better group to spend it with though!

Day/Night 1: Magnus's Birthday Party
I must say that every time I get to hang out with Lib in NYC I'm always finding myself in really cool settings. On Thursday night Lib threw Magnus a birthday party in a penthouse suite at the Tribecca Grand Hotel. I was lucky enough to tag along with everyone and we had a blast.

Lib and Magnus...

We had so much fun in fact that some wine ended up in a bowl on the coffee table...

After the party Merrill, Molly and I decided to go have a few more drinks. Well those last couple of drinks led to Molly and I having quite an adventure on the way home...

Day 3: Day Drinking and A Dance Party

I didn't take any pictures on Friday (Day 2) but we did eat at a great restaurant named Peasant. Also on Friday Molly and I took a pedicab down 6th avenue (I think) to Central Park...by far one of the best times in NYC. We wanted to make sure we got some extra park time in just in case Irene destroyed everything. Anyway on Saturday, much to our dismay most things closed down around 12. So the few places that were open were packed. We had an awesome lunch at BarBossa where we immediately decided to start drinking. After lunch we made our way to Spring St. Lounge which was packed. After Spring St. Lounge we went to Gatsby's. At Gatsby's I took more shots during the day then I ever have. Things started to get crazy after that... After Gatsby's a large group headed to CP, Molly, Ellen and Laura's apartment for a hurricane party and spaghetti. While the party was fun, the real fun didn't start until everyone left and we had a late night dance party...

The sign outside of Joseph Leonard, it was too crowded for us to eat there.

Day drinking at Gatsby's...

Hurricane Irene apartment party.... Liz brought clothing to dress up in and fake tattoos...one of which I still have "hidden" in my purse. At some point during our party we had complaints from the neighbors, if only they had known what was in store for them late night.

Once everyone left, we had a huge dance party for a solid 3 hours singing along to Shania Twain, Tim McGraw, Eve 6, basically anything from high school.

We just got more and more into it as the night progressed...

Here's a sampling of what our dance party was like....I had to cut out some inappropriate stuff but you will get the idea...

After the dance party we decided to play in Irene. It was POURING down rain and there were absolutely no cars on the road. It was ideal...we even made some friends in the rain.

This is probably my favorite picture of the weekend...Molly and Charlotte in the street. Not sure how my camera survived this rain.

Back inside and in new clothes. This is right before we decided we needed to change out of our wet clothes so we could go back outside.

The girls that were smart and stayed inside took these pictures of us. At this point we took a bottle of wine down into the rain and shared it with some nice strangers we met.

Here we are just laying in the streets.

Day 4/5: The aftermath of Hurricane Irene

Luckily there wasn't too much damage in NYC. We were able to go to a great brunch on Sunday but I can't remember the name of the place. We spent most of the day drinking and watching movies. On Monday Caroline had the day off, so we were all about town. It was so pretty outside...perfect weather. Charlotte, Molly, Caroline and I had a great lunch at Pastis and did a little shopping. Caroline was so excited to be out on the town that she even curled her hair. She looked stunning.

Merrill came back in town and we went to an awesome dinner at Cornelia Street Cafe. I highly recommend this restaurant it was amazing! (Maybe I just needed some vegetables?) 

While at dinner Caroline shared this amazing picture with us. It's from this summer at Schwab's wedding when she went horseback riding. I can hardly believe that I'm friends with such a beauty. The picture below actually doesn't do it any justice because she refused to send me a copy, instead I had to take a picture of the picture. So if you want to really see the picture in all it's glory ask CP to email it to you, her email address is caroline.p.parker@gmail.com. 

Overall it was a great weekend! I just hope next time I go back the bars are open and the cabs are running! 

Real Simple's Irresistible Chocolate Chip Cookies...

I've been majorly craving chocolate recently so I decided to once again attempt to find the perfect chocolate chip cookies... the recipe is from Real Simple.

Ingredients: 

2 sticks unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 cup packed dark brown sugar
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 large egg
2 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
kosher salt
1 1/4 teaspoons baking soda
12 ounces semisweet chocolate chips

Directions: (I've decided it might be easier to list them and then show pictures)

1) Heat oven to 375*F.
2) Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper or aluminum foil.
3) With an electric mixer on medium-high, beat the butter, sugars, and vanilla for 3 minutes. Add the egg and beat until combined. In a separate bowl, whisk together the flour, 1/2 teaspoon salt, and the baking soda. Reduce mixer speed to low and slowly add the flour mixture to the egg mixture until combined. Stir in the chocolate chips.
4) Scoop the dough into tablespoon-size mounds and place on the prepared baking sheets, 2 inches apart. Bake until lightly browned at the edges, 12 to 15 minutes.
5) Cool on the baking sheets for 5 minutes. Transfer cookies to wire racks and cool completely.

All the ingredients.

Combined flour, salt and baking soda.

Butter, sugars and vanilla mixed together for 3 minutes.

Slowly add flour.

Stir in chocolate chips.

"Tablespoon" size mounds on parchment paper lined baking sheets.

Cookies cooling.

Shot number 2.

I thought these cookies turned out pretty well. Frank said they were the best I've made yet, but I'm not sure about that. The only change I would make next time would be to maybe bake them at 340*-350* for a little bit longer, because the bottom of my first batched was a little brown. The second batch at 340* turned out perfectly!

Fall TV...

All I can say is thank goodness for DVR! With all the advertising for new fall tv shows I had a list of about 10 shows I wanted to add to my fall line-up. Luckily I have only added about 5...seriously DVR is awesome. So I spread them out and watch during dinner or on the weekend, and I don't feel like all I do is watch TV as of now. I have already dedicated one post to The Vampire Diaries...still obsessed. I decided to share with y'all the other shows I'm currently loving.

1) Revenge- I think it's great. I have no idea where it's going but it's so dramatic and over the top and I love it.

2) Hart of Dixie- I was a little unsure about this show but since I love Rachel Bilson I knew I had to give it a shot. It's now one of my favorites. It's not overly serious and it makes me happy...I love the cast. I mean Rachel Bilson, guy from Friday Night Lights and Jaime King. LOVE.

3) Pan Am- I have only watched the first episode and I was a little confused with all of the government stuff. However I think it has a lot of potential! I wish flying was still so glamorous! Plus loving the fact that Christina Ricci is on the show! She was one of my fav actresses when I was younger- Now & Then, Casper, The Addams Family, etc.

Here are all the things I have DVR'ed...I am obviously way behind on watching these and need to catch up. Yes my life looks pathetic but I love anything that has to do with stories...books, movies, tv, song lyrics, etc.

Monday: Gossip Girl, The Lying Game (thank goodness this is a summer series!), Hart of Dixie, The Playboy Club (haven't started this yet)

Tuesday: 90210 and during the summer Pretty Little Liars

Wednesday: Modern Family, Up All Night (I've seen it once looks pretty funny- love Will Arnett), Revenge

Thursday: The Vampire Diaries

Sunday: Pan-Am, How to Make it in America

Yes typing it all out gives me a little anxiety. 

Coco Osteria...

On Saturday night Frank and I went to Coco Osteria for the first time. It was amazing...so delicious! It was so quaint and cozy, with an awesome atmosphere. I highly recommend checking this place out! They have a bank menu for all of you bankers...

I even branched out and got something that resembled this instead of bolognese. It was so yummy! Unfortunately I trusted Graham enough to leave it at his house late night and he ate it! (This picture is from urbanspoon.com but mine looked very similar!) 

I like this...