Home Sweet Home

With my time at home quickly dwindling away I made sure to make the most of every last second.  Yesterday Brendan and I went to Grimes Glen in Naples, NY.  This is a great place to hike and walk up to an enormous waterfall that towers above.  I brought along my telephoto camera lens to work on some shooting prior to leaving for South Africa and thought i'd share some shots from the day:

Photo Credit: Brendan Ewing

Photo Credit: Brendan Ewing

I'd highly suggest checking out Grimes Glen and the surrounding NY area.  It honestly is a hidden treasure up a dead end road that you would miss on any casual drive through the small village.  While there I would also go into Monica's Pies (prior to entering Naples) and pick up some Concord jelly and Grape Pie!

Park Ave Holiday Festival

Last night my two lovely friends from William Smith, Emily & Alyssa, came to visit.  Emily had been begging to see me and I thought the perfect time would be during the Park Ave Holiday Festival.  I had never been to the festival before and figured that going with them could be a great time.

The festival itself was quite interesting and rather crowded.  I should have known this since the summer Park Ave Fest is insanely busy but yet again I forgot to plan ahead.  So unlike me.  It took forever to find a parking spot and get reservations but once we did it was great!  I took them through ParkLeigh to look at the holiday gifts and we stopped for free Hot Chocolate outside a cute cafe.  

Dinner was at Magnolias Cafe.  We indulged in soup, salad and sandwiches.  The soup I ordered, Tomato with Artichokes and Crostini Bread was quite tasty for a cold evening.  My sandwich, The Rising Sunflower was piled high with turkey, pesto mayonnaise, roasted red peppers and havarti cheese along with the usual tomato lettuce and onion.  Toasty and warm. It most definitely hit the spot.

We later stopped at Stever's Candy Shoppe, a homemade chocolate shop on Park Ave.  The stop was a must since the last time they visited it was closed.  While I literally wanted everything in the store I chose three items.  Cinnamon dusted chocolate, a peanut butter filled santa (as a gift) and a dark chocolate gingerbread boy (gift).  I immediately dove into the dusted chocolate which was just as delectable as it sounds.  I HIGHLY suggest stopping by if you're ever in the area.

Inside Stever's Candy Shop! Insanely busy with a huge line but so worth it!

Dinner at Magnolias

Outside Stever's prior to meeting some very talkative interesting ladies!

Hiatus

I owe you an apology for my recent hiatus from blogging the past few days.  I was ridiculously busy with BPG, Brendan visiting and many other fun and exciting activities.  Lets catch up a bit and move forward with the week:

Friday:

Brendan came to watch my show and we spent the day relaxing.  He took me to breakfast at Highland Park Diner and then I spent the morning in class. We relaxed for the afternoon and then got ready for our big show!

here are a few quick clips from the show:

Geek in the Pink, We rocked the whole "geeky" look which is well suited for U of R.

Me and Sarah before the big show, it took quite a lot of effort to get me out of that tutu, I am IN LOVE with it!

After the show everyone made their way to Friendly's.  I was rather disappointed to realize that they are not like Dennys and DO NOT serve breakfast all night. What?

We settled for a Banana Split which was delicious and definitely filled my starving belly.  First official banana split, ever, and it was amazing.

Saturday we took a trip to Canandaigua and stopped at the Christmas Market, an arts and crafts show designed much like the markets in Germany. We grabbed some bratwurst and beer and met up with Brendan's family. How fun!  There was a very cuddley Alpaca that I tried to bring home with me but that did not work out very well.

Saturday night we went to the Amerks game with a few close friends. I had never been to an Amerks game before but for the $23 tickets it was AWESOME. I am so glad we went and would really like to go again. Also, I just realized that I am writing this like a five year old and deeply apologize.

Great 100 level seats, compliments of Will! Can't beat center ice :)

Ah the moose. I literally chased this guy down to get a picture with him. I just couldn't resist.

Yesterday I made myself get up early and I pushed through a 4 mile run, the longest distance i've done since last january. It felt great! Brendan and I went on a dinner date to Pomodoro's followed by a movie date to see J. Edgar!

Was that a quick enough summary? This week is going to be very hectic since I procrastinated everything up until today but in any case, happy Monday everyone!

Review: parlo francese a italiano

Parlo francese a italiano? I speak French in Italian? If you're wondering the purpose of this title, get excited. It basically explains the variety of foods I had from breakfast to lunch yesterday, starting with crepes and finishing with pasta and then a little Americano dessert. What an amazing saturday with both my family and Maureen.

The morning began with a delightful breakfast at Simply Crepes in Pittsford.

I was especially hungry and craving something sweet so it was the right place to be.  Of course I ordered my usual Simply Strawberry Crepe but also decided to try some of their Creme Brulee Oatmeal.

This is my amazing oatmeal yesterday morning:

Simply Crepes really did it this time with the amazing flavor explosion I experienced. I HIGHLY suggest this little cup for a cold winters morning.

My mom had the "Crepes Benedict" but I can't for the life of me remember what she said about it nor did I indulge in testing it out.  I am not much of a fan for eggs benedict and steer clear of the cream sauces, most of the time.

Afterwards we did some shopping at Eastview mall for fall clothes, computer accessories and she even surprised me with Hunter boots (I'll post later!)

We met my Dad for dinner in East Rochester at Lemoncello, an Italian Bistro type cafe & lounge.  The building itself was an old main street building completely redone to a "old italy" style.  My Dad, a very critical restaurant goer, oo-ed and ahh-ed his way through the lounge area until we made it to a glass enclosed outdoor area which was heated. Quaint and friendly.

The menu ranged from basic pasta dishes to veal and seafood along with an assortment of pizzas. The Lemoncello Artichoke caught my eye and I was hooked.  They serve bread with olive oil and pepper along with a great side salad (included with entree). 

The portion was a bit larger than I'm used to but this is expected with pasta dishes.  There was a lemocello deglaze atop a pairing of egg battered artichokes, sundried tomatoes and pancetta. I had never tried pancetta before but it complimented everything with a hint of salt  which was necessary.

Simply Crepes is always a must and I have been a returning customer for quite some time.

Lemocello is a new favorite because of both its atmosphere and great food, an overall great dining experience.

Simply Crepes

7 Schoen Place                                                                 Pittsford, NY 14534                                                                     (585) 383-8310

Lemoncello Cafe & Lounge

137 West Commercial Street

East Rochester, New York 14445

T: (585) 385-8565

The Market.

Okay so as usual I am a bit behind on my posts and for once I have no excuse whatsoever.  What have I been doing?  Next to nothing since classes haven't started yet.  Today I woke up and went for a 2.25m run since Hal Higdon (bow down to this guy) told me and everyone else following his 5k running plan to do so.  Then I met my 6th grade advisor for lunch, but I should probably mention that she is so much more than that.  She is a friend, mentor, employer and all around amazing person to have in my life.  After finishing a great southwestern salad I proceeded to come "home" to the South Wedge and began watching Grey's Anatomy from the very beginning...Yes, the first episode ever aired (thank you Netflix!)  I will most likely purchase the series at some point in my existence but like many things that fall to the wayside (oh I love corny lines like that), money and sheer forgetfulness will put me back a few months or years.

Hokay so this past weekend I was beyond bored with my life since I currently know only a few people in Rochester and the majority of them were busy this entire weekend so instead of sitting around eating a pint of Ben and Jerry's I ventured over to the Rochester Public Market. While the market is rather big I find that most vendors sell similar or the same thing minus those few flower shops and whatnot.  Don't even get me started on the folks that sell bulk canned goods and fake gucci purses, yuck!  Anyways, I tried to stay a while and snap some photos but the place was so busy I kept getting bumped into.  So enough rambling and here is what I was able to get:

Let's start with some B&W of the Mennonite folk, please don't confuse these men with the Amish since they are very different.

I've been playing around a bit with Iphoto since my Adobe Photoshop Elements slows my computer to molasses and I can't even work with the simple quick select or magic wand tool.

I thought of trying out the Sunflowers in both color and Black and White but can't decide which one is best.  For color I enhanced the saturation and contrast level and then decreased the highlights so that more of the background petals would pop through.  The black and white still has an upped contrast level and all that other fancy stuff.  They're the same exact photograph but so different, ah someone help me decide!

Bubbles.

Getting back into blogging is more difficult that I thought, though I do tend to over think things a bit too much.  Should I update on my summer and the few adventures I went on or start with the right now?  Either way I wanted to share a bit of my photography that I worked on the past few months.

These hippie bubble photographs were taken at the Park Ave Festival this summer.  I went with my three friends Cara, Mo (Maureen) and Mandy.  While they trolled ahead of me I tended to casually stop and snap a few pictures along the way.

The man with the bubble contraption intrigues me in the strangest way.  I swear he must have been a hippie back in the Woodstock days or something and just never grew out of the "phase" which evidently turned into a lifestyle.  Look at those red sunglasses, beard and tie-die t-shirt!

The image on top is by far my favorite out of the two because the bubble dynamics are what really catch your eye.  They're translucent but also dimensional and a bit carefree if I say so myself.  I would have loved to work with these in Photoshop, which I did actually purchase, but my computer does not have a big enough hard drive to actually work smoothly with it.  Bummer!

Fairport.

Last weekend, and yes I understand that I am writing this out of order and a bit late, I stopped by the Fairport Canal Days.  Comparable to Canandaigua's own "Main Street Show" or the "Waterfront Festival" there was a multitude of vendors from all different walks of life.  Festivals get me sometimes because of (a) the strange people you meet and (b) all the wacky stuff people sell but sometimes you find a hidden treasure that you'll cherish forever.  Sadly, Canal Days did not provide me with any such treasures but instead a rather tasty Cheeseburger which later turned out to be...not so tasty.

Afterwards I ventured over to a seven year olds birthday party, of course it was Hannah my friend Mandy's younger sister.  She so secretly told me to attend and forgot to mention that I would be swimming and supervising/ face painting the faces of her friends, oops!  Fortunately my doggy paddle style of swimming sufficed for such a shallow pool and the deep end was not too challenging haha, I actually had a great time.

I have been lacking in the whole photography aspect of this blog quite a lot, my apologies.  Someday I will stop being lazy and actually do some good posts that take more than 5 minutes of my time.  Until then enjoy the rain.

Random Outdoor-sy Photography.

Okay okay I understand that my posts have been lacking in both numbers and creativity.  You would think that a girl with 1 job which takes up not even 20 hours a week could come up with something better than photography and a pasta salad.  I will try to improve, really.  But for now, you're stuck with this.  However, it is the weekend and an exciting one at that so look forward to some new and exciting posts about Kabobs, Abbott's, Festivals and maybe even a BBQ (if I can convince Brendan the non-planner or the relationship!)

For now we can focus on a few photos I took at both the George Eastman House and Onanda Park respectfully located in Rochester and Canandaigua New York.

The George Eastman House (outside the Gardens):

Onanda Park, Canandaigua Lake (Hike to the waterfalls):

A few of my babygirl frolicking in the yard:

Lack of Lilacs.

Today I spent the better half of the afternoon exploring Rochester's Lilac Festival.  To my dismay I found that the lilacs were not in full bloom and at least to me, were not very attractive.  So a bit of an epic fail on the "lilac festival" but who can control the weather?  What I was able to enjoy were the tulips and various flowering trees around the park, in addition to my chicken gyro (which was also sub-par).  Luckily my mother introduced me to the delectable Red Osier dipped sandwich, a bit heavy but delish!

Flowers:

Spring Break| The Artsy Side of Us

If you are friends with me on Facebook you have already seen all of these photographs but I figured I'd post them to the blog anyways and give a little description/ explanation of them.  I have realized I am awful at organizing posts on such a HUGE EVENT but some is better than none right.

The first day we literally walked everywhere, which would have been okay if I had prepared and chose not to drive to classes that were far away.  Amidst my huffing and puffing we went from the apartment in Camden to St. Pauls and all the way down to parliment across the river to the eye and back!  I was trying to get some great compositions so I thought the above photo of St. Pauls was cool!

Here we have BIG BEN, twice! I like the top picture because it shows the buildings around the tower but also highlights the tower itself.  The photo below is one of my favorites because its so busy.  You have the flags, the tower and even the eye in the background. In photography we learned how the eye is attracted to shapes, these three objects create a triangle which balances the photo.

Below is a photograph of the London Eye, which has probably been taken many times and is becoming too touristy but I still like it.

After walking past the eye there was a sort of boardwalk.  Under this one bridge were walls of amazing and interesting graffiti, along with some young skateboarders showing off their tricks.

The artist seems to be talking to the sand sculputer in this photo, its as if he is yelling at her.  It was the most random thing right in the middle of London but so interesting at the same time. 

Buckingham Palace at its finest, on our first sunny day!

Buckingham palace, which can also be seen through the reflection in Brendan's RayBan Sunglasses.  It was quite stunning but also a serious tourist trap.  I don't know how I could deal with it if I were the Queen.  Also, the Guards were NOT as exciting as I had hoped, they were so far away I could hardly see them!

The Louvre.  Being the serious nerd I am and LOVING The Davinci Code/ Angels and Demons, I am of course in love with the Louvre and the pyramid outside if it.  I happened to catch the suns rays coming through the pyramid on the sunny day we went (which was a tuesday, the museum is closed).  I love this picture because it really shows how absolutely gorgeous it was outside since it was in fact 75 degrees!

Brendans Masterpiece (pt 1).  While walking up through the gardens outside the Louvre he just had to go get a picture of these trees...Little did I know he had another idea, which came out very nicely I might add.  The trees seem to frame the women sitting on the bench which I love.

He also took this photo at my request.  I like the lines of the building and then the movement of the cars, it shows how fast they actually do drive in Paris!

The top photo of the pallet is one that I took and Brendan took the B&W ones below.  I thought that I was doing great with my framing and aperature but he seems to outdo me once again.  I really like how the stand is in focus while the rest of the background is blurred, you can see it a lot better in the black and white.

The Eiffel Tower: Touristy and Expensive but obviously something everyone who goes to Paris must see.  We went to the second level (the line to the top was way too long for our short stay), and traveled about the gardens below.

My first sausage in 3 years!  In the German Marketplace (Borough Market), we walked around scoping everything out when I had this sudden urge for Sauerkraut and a big Sausage.  Luckily this nice guy had some for sale.  I must say, it was amazing.

This picture was taken our last night in London when we went on the Eye.  It is a lot taller than I thought it was but luckily very steady and you could hardly tell you were moving.  The sunset was gorgeous and it was a great end to our trip!