New York: The Six Year Journey

Hello and happy long-weekend Friday! This week I am celebrating six years of being a New Yorker and boy has it been a roller coaster journey but I am happy to say that I have finally "made it" in this unforgiving City.

The journey started Labor Day Weekend 2006 when a girl from Nogales, Arizona moved to and visited NYC for the first time for a 3 month unpaid internship stay. Fast forward six years (through 6 apartment moves, 5 jobs and countless part-time gigs, crazy roommates, mice infested apartments, unemployment, heartache, loneliness and extremely narrow means) and I can proudly proclaim that I have wrangled the beast that is New York City.

Although the road to today has been ANYTHING but easy by Labor Day Weekend 2012 I have found: true love and companionship, a group of amazing girlfriends, a solid career track with excellent prospects popping up frequently, and a large sunny apartment with a large renovated kitchen in a great little family friendly neighborhood (trifecta in my book). All these things were my measures of success at the beginning of this journey way back in 2006. I'm excited to keep on living (a cheery life) in this City for years to come and I know that if we ever decide to leave, it will be on our own terms.

Here are some highlights from the past 6 years:

Meeting and falling in love with this guy

Ces Birthday 2012

Chloe Berta

The Greatest Friends

Hogar: DIY Stencil Pillows

I've been wanting to update my drab lime-green Ikea pillow cover for a while now, the color is all wrong, and the plain linen is just boring. I came across Wit & Whistle's stencil pillow tutorial and loved the prospect of personalizing a throw pillow. I decided to add a step an treat the fabric with dye and hope for an even turquoise color, the dye job did not go so well and I was contemplating donating our cover to our local thrift store. I stayed put and after days of eyeing the blotchy pillow I decided the unevenness only adds to its charm. I was too impatient to trace out my letters with pencil first (a step that is highly recommended) but I did measure out the rows so that there was 1 inch of space between each line. I chose to quote the beginning of Todo Cambio by Camila which just happens to be mine and Ces song <3.

I'm loving the final result! 

Weekly Chicome {8/20-8/26}

Hello! Here are some of my favorite things this week!

{1}.  Monday was off to a great start with a special delivery. I bought these Boston Terrier silhouette refrigerator magnets from Fire Hydrant Press' Etsy Store, I'm loving all things aqua blue at the moment and these mini Chloes look awfully cute on my refrigerator.

{2}. Ces and I absolutely love film festivals, documentaries and soccer; put them together and you have a masterpiece. We recently checked out the Latin Beat Film Festival at Lincoln Center and saw the film 3 Millones by Jaime and Yamandu Roos. The Roos duo follows the Uruguayan National Team as they seek to win the 2012 World Cup in South Africa. 

{3}. Destination wedding! Two of my dear friends are getting married next Spring in Udaipur, India. With their engagement party coming up in the next couple of weeks, wedding excitement has been kicked into high gear. It is time to start saving the date (and the funds) for an unforgettable getaway at this fabulous location.

{4}. Getting back in the groove of running outside, while the weather allows it my goal is to run outside with Ces and Chloe a couple times a week. 

Chloe decided to take a breather mid run

{5}. Getting a tune-up this week; meaning cut, color, mani and pedi, darker hair to welcome Autumn.

{6}. BBQ-ing with Ces, Chloe and friends on Roosevelt Island. Spending a sunny day grilling, chatting and playing dominoes does not get old.

{7}. Lil sis B-day! My younger sisters are not so little anymore! While I could not be there in person to celebrate Juli's 9th birthday, I made sure she had a sweet day with a gift basket from Dylan's Candy Bar. 

First day of school 2012

La Fonda Del Oso: Strawberry Yogurt Popsicles

Summer is quickly coming to an end :( but as long as we have warm weather I want to try as many popsicle recipes as possible! I broke in my new popsicle molds from Bed Bath and Beyond with this recipe from The Kitchn. The Kitchn is one of my go to websites for meal-making inspiration; their recipes are creative, healthy and delicious.

Ingredients:
1 box strawberries
1/4 cup sugar (I used brown sugar)
2 table spoons water
1 single serving non-flavored Greek yogurt

Start by cutting your strawberries into quarters

Next I cooked the strawberries, sugar and water in a saucepan over low heat for 5 minutes until they were soft and syrupy. 

I poured the mix into the blender and gave it a couple pulses before mixing in the Greek yogurt. This made 4 popsicle servings plus a little extra for an impromptu snack. 

Freeze for 5 hours and voila a delicious healthy summer treat! 

I can't wait to try this recipe next! 

Foodie: Makanek

There is a new food truck in town! Toum an authentic Lebanese cuisine (that's their claim and I have no point of reference so we'll go with it) truck has been making the lunch rounds around the city since early August. Parked right outside my office it attracted a rather large crowd so I decided to have a more exotic lunch than usual and give it a try. I ordered the Makanek platter which is lebanese beef sausages mixed with pine nuts sauteed in a lemon sauce served with french fries, garlic sauce (toum), babaghanouj, pita and salad.

The verdict? Good value as you get more food than one person can possibly consume in one sitting. The sausage was interesting looking but tasted good, the toum sauce strong. Overall it was a hearty lunch option I recommend to those who love Mediterranean food.

Weekly Chicome {8/13-8/19}

Hello! Here are some of the things I loved from the week. 

{1}. On Monday Ces and I attended a free happy hour at De Santos that our friend won. Cannot think of a better way to start the week than free yummy cocktails with friends. De Santos had a very cool history as well, it is located in a West Village brownstone that was once home to rock legends such as Janis Joplin and  Bob Dylan.

{2}. After all the excitement of having family in town and hosting a BBQ, I was glad to have a much needed low-key night. We had some left over tomatoes, bread, wine and basil from the weekend's festivities so I decided to make a bruschetta and wine dinner. This is the recipe I followed, it was so simple and delicious!

{3}. Bargain flats! I had been searching for nude flats for a while and these patent leather ones from NY & Company where a great find at only $20 bucks! 

{4}. Girls night with one of my favorite ladies. I cherish the time when I get to catch up with miss KP and on Friday night Pier NYC in Roosevelt Island proved to be the perfect setting. Loved the city views, flasqs of wine, guac and great gab-fest.

{5}. Discovering new things in the city! On Saturday Ces was walking in midtown Manhattan on his way to meet me and walked by The Sony Technology Lab, being the technology lover he is, we just had to check it out. It was a lot of  fun; if you have kids this place is perfect for a day of learning, best of all its free! 

{6}. On a mundane run to Bed Bath and Beyond, I came across these popcicle molds. While summer is almost over, we still get a few weeks to try some yummy ice pop recipes. I made a batch last night that I will share with you soon! 

{7}. This week President Obama's Deferred Action Program went into effect. A step in the right direction for immigration reform. 

Hogar: Map Picture Frame

I want to share with you a quick and super easy way to update a picture frame. I'm curating a gallery wall for our living room (big reveal coming soon) and in searching for inspiration I came across this idea from Martha Stewart Weddings. I had an extra Istanbul city map from our trip to Turkey earlier this summer so I decided to give it a go.

Before

After

All you need is a frame with a mat, a box cutter, tape and a free map of the city of your choice. This is a great way to create a keepsake of your family's travels or even celebrate where you live!

Weekly Chicome

I've decided to start a weekly series focusing on the 7 things that have added cheer to my week (in no particular order).

In my debut post I want to clear a couple things up:  

1. Why 7? Because 7 is and has always been my very favorite number. 
2. What is Chicome? Chicome is the Nahuatl word for 7. I originally thought of calling this series the Sunday Seven or even the Sunday Siete (I'm a fan of alliteration) but unfortunately that idea was not very original. I decided to use the Nahuatl word instead as this ancient language has a very special meaning to me. 

Without further a due welcome to Weekly Chicome!


{1} EL TRI winning the first ever GOLD medal for futbol during London 2012!

{2} Having my mom and aunt in town for a long weekend filled with wine, conversation, laughter and food!

{3} Ces and I hosted our first annual Roosevelt Island BBQ! We took advantage of our wonderful city views and park setting and had our family and friends over for a day of grilling. I made these zucchini canoes which received great reviews.  

{4} Outdoor movie night in McCarren Park with a couple of my favorite ladies! TopGun + Trader Joes + Wine = a perfect post-work summer picnic. 

{5} Discovering what can be my new favorite store JOE FRESH! If you are in the market for colorful basics  pieces on the cheap this is the place to go. 

{6} Life on "the island". So close and yet so far from the hustle and bustle of Manhattan. 

{7} Starting this blog. Hogaroso is a play on words using the Spanish word Home (hogar) and Bear (oso); Oso is Ces' nickname for me (one of many, the others shall remain undisclosed).

Foodie: BBQ Pulled Pork Waffle

I can usually resist the Wafel & Dinges truck but I saw one particular menu item that has intrigued me for months: The bbq pulled pork waffle. Today was the day I took the plunge to find out what it is all about and it is a.ma.zing. from the fluffy waffle, to the right amount of bbq sauce to the crunchy coleslaw, if you like bbq and waffles try them together, you won't be disappointed. Maybe their bacon waffle will be next?  http://www.wafelsanddinges.com/

Photobooks: My new favorite way to share memories

Scrap-booking never did it for me; I spent a small fortune on the decals, paper, stencils, stickers and such; got through about 5 pages and never gave it another glance. Photo-books on the other hand are right up my alley, since all of my pictures are on Facebook and I spend most of my day in front of the computer, I can take any chance I get to create, critique, change my mind and start all over again with a drag of a mouse. They are sleek, replaceable and make a great personal gift not to mention an interesting coffee table book. I gifted a photo-book to my dad for father's day and to Cesar to commemorate our one year anniversary.

Photo-books by Shutterfly

Here is my most recent project: 

On May 13, 2012 my boyfriend Cesar and I embarked on a vacation of a lifetime. After many months of dreaming about Turkey Ces and I decided to take a leap of faith and book a 10 day vacation with three weeks notice. This automatically woke up the planner in me and together we came up with an aggressive itinerary in order to hit all the spots we had been daydreaming about for so long. Hope you enjoy our Turkish delight!

Turkey Trip 2012