nykeiko eats and play: Just a couple of pics from the weekend ...

Monday isn't so bad when you had a great relaxing weekend.

Even though the weather was friggin' beautiful and warm on Saturday, I spent the day indoors sleeping in and napping trying to recover from my week long coughing episodes and then woke up to start cleaning the apartment. Dave slaved away working 10 hours in front of the computer. By 7 p.m., we made up the time we missed during the day by going on a super date. We stayed in Williamsburg and ate at Marlow and Sons which we have wanted to try for quite some time. The menu changes daily and so you know you're getting freshly delivered goods onto your plate! We had drinks, raw clams, delicious dishes and after our feast, we strolled to Bedford Avenue. We decided to check out the much talked about rooftop bar at the Wythe hotel where there is a panaromic view of Manhattan. The music was so loud though so we stepped out onto the terrace but it was too cold so we left. Yea, we're getting old. We took the stairs down and end up stepping into and crashing a movie release party with an open bar and food. Guess what we did there for 20 minutes. hehe. Quenching our thirst. We explored the hotel a little and admired this ex-warehouse turned to hipster hotel splendor. We then decided to get some dessert (Strawberry+Angel food) at the Wythe's resto called 'Reynard'. A great way to end our night with something sweet in our mouth!

On Sunday, we hit up a batting cage at Chelsea Piers for a friend's birthday. I was pretty impressed by myself when I was able to hit most of the softballs. As for the soft pitch baseballs..not so much. It's too fast. We didn't even try the regular pitch. We then checked out Friends and Family at Saks and had ramen for dinner.

A little gift of maple-vanilla roasted almonds I made for the neighbors...The recipe is SO EASY! Addicted.

Marlow & Sons

We had a nice dinner at a quaint restaurant in Williamsburg called Marlow and Sons and I was tipsy off my butt from one glass of gimlet!

We had a dozen of raw Littleneck clams and baked razor clams. For main, we had brick chicken and swordfish! It was so delish!

Marlow & Sons razor clam

Littleneck clams

Wythe hotel

Reynard

At Saks looking for bridal shoes but NOT looking at bridal shoes...

Jimmy Choo

Like an art piece on your feet!

Louboutins

Hide-Chan Ramen on a chilly Sunday evening.

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Remember this picture?

Remember this picture I took in Argentina?

Here's a video of when I took this picture! Enjoy!

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In pictures: Proenza Schouler sample sale [April 2013 NYC Sample sale]

This would be my second Proenza Schouler sample sale. This time, I was disappointed. First of all, NO leather BAGS to be had which is what I was most interested in! Second, NO $10-$15 sample tops and tees like at last year's sale. For the fans who loved the PS 2012 Fall collection (see runway pics here), they must have been ecstatic with the discount and plenty of stock but nothing exciting for the girl looking for deals (like me!). I pouted at the sales lady when she confirmed there would be indeed 0 leather bags..just tons of neoprene beach bags going for $125 a pop which NO one seem to care for. What I was surprised to see was belts and shoes which also did not peak too many people's interest. Did I see shoes last year? I think so but they were being hogged by some lady hoarder :) The shoes were decent and very nice but prices ranged from $140-$650.

I posted one of the price list they had for Pre Fall-Fall 2011 collection and the 2012 collections were at a higher going price. I saw runway leather jackets going for $1200+ and runway metallic skirts at $1075. RackedNY has better details about the pricing since I was too disappointed to take note of things I didn't care to buy. I did like these $50 Navajo printed skirts with leather trimming from Fall 2011 but the sizes seem ginormous even for size 6+ which occupied most of the racks. High waisted denim jeans were $75 in bins in the middle of the room. There were nice structured dresses and soft knits here and there but nothing excited me.

The sale was calm since they let in 15 people every 15 minutes. Below are some pictures I was able to take. Since no photos were allowed, the quality of the picture is ...what it is... :)

In blue and black

For my face...

NARS aqua gel

I ran out of moisturizer for the night time and decided to try this one from NARS. NARS cosmetics is owned by Shiseido so I expect their skincare line to be efficient and excellent. I have used the NARS' cleanser and lotion back in College but moved on to try other things. With the weather transition and my skin going through some weird phase whether it is weather related or from "purging" caused by my new Clarisonic, I thought this would be the perfect moisturizer to deal with my dry flaky skin (around the cheek area near my nose) though still getting some breakouts- yes, combination skin problems. This moisturizer keeps my skin plump and moist but I need to add extra cream where it is super dry. Maybe I should have tried the luminous moisturizer. I got it during F&F at Sephora at 15% discount + 5% cashback with ebates (thanks Viv for the tip!).

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nykeiko eats and play: Lovely Saturdays

I met my bridal make up artist for the first time early Saturday for a trial and I was so relieved when she was done. It looked totally natural which is what I wanted! Nancy works for Make Up For Ever and used all of their great HD products on me. Here I am in my make up, taking a selfie at Sephora and later on deciding to add a filter to see how I would look like photoshopped. Oh the power of makeup + filters.

My photographer is supposed to use minimal photoshop so I wanted to make sure my makeup looks as natural as possible under natural light and not see much cakey foundation or a shiny forehead. Nancy did a great job.

So I thought I would be able to hit two birds with one stone since I thought for some reason (okay, I never read anything carefully) Nancy also could also do my hair but I was le wrong. So now, I have to find a hair stylist for my big day as well. Argh. I was thinking a quickie up-do at Drybar? $80, in and out and done! No biggie!

After I got my makeup done, Dave and I met up for lunch. We met up by the Union Square green market where food sampling was all around but there was a special one from a tent hosting a book signing. Chefs were on site meticulously making samples for the hungry crowd. We had some carrot cake and a delicous beet/goat cheese salad. OMG I wanted two but didn't want to look too greedy. We also snacked at other stalls which offered artisanal sausages, handmade potato chips, cookies, pickles and more!

After lunch at Saigon market, we decided to slowly stroll down University Place until we reached Washington Square Park. It was a beautiful sunny day and there was crowds around the park. A pianist played beautifully on a grand piano he rolled in. Three tap dancers performing to a roaring crowd. A street artist using color powder to stencil the concrete floor in the park. All this was happening simultaneously and we were just enjoying the weather taking pictures as well as testing how my makeup looked in the sun taking shots with the SLR camera. I quickly forgot I had a cold.

Treated myself to a free frozen yogourt from a gift card I won while walking by the same 16 handles yogurt store a year ago. I got fat free vanilla flavored frozen yogurt topped with...ahum not so fat free stuff. See the mini Reeses and Turtles?

As we walked home on Saturday afternoon, we passed by our community garden which we haven't paid a visit since last Summer and a volunteer was there trimming weed and cutting flowers. He stopped us and waved some flowers asking us if we wanted any? We never met him before! That was my favorite part of the day. Fresh flowers given to us by a random stranger. Love it. The flowers are sitting beside Lilies Dave gifted me last week. Our apartment smells better than usual...usual meaning, bad!

Carmine's pizza

Annnnd for dinner. We had pizza! Diet? What diet? I have been bad and not losing my goal weight. But Carmine's pizzeria is only a couple blocks from home...

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