Weekend Basics: NYC & MA Roadtripping

Our weekend consisted of road-tripping it through 7 states in one shoot (Massachusetts to Virginia) and generally winding down from our week away from home, so for today's weekend basics post, we wanted to share some of the highlights from our week in NYC and MA.

Last Monday we shared a few highlights from our Sunday in the city like Gotham Market, Fairway and even a quick run through Ikea in Redhook. Throughout the remainder of the week, I was working in the Brooklyn Etsy offices by day and we had time for a few fun evening adventures — including celebrating a bridal shower, making a special visit to our favorite jewelry supply warehouse and having a date night at The Breslin!

First up, Shake Shack. There's a newly opened location in Dumbo, within walking distance from the Etsy offices. Believe it or not, I've never actually been to a Shake Shack, but couldn't wait to try it:

I opted for the Shack-cago dog and a peanut butter shake for lunch first thing on Monday. Definitely a fun spot to try out with an incredible view of the water, bridges and city if you're in the neighborhood.

Later in the week, I had the chance to help celebrate one of my friend's upcoming nuptials at a collaborative coworker bridal shower we all put on. The theme of the party was "black & white," which is what we all wore:

I had been excited to take a stab at making these shiny metallic himmeli style diamond shapes from this Sugar & Cloth tutorial I'd recently come across for decor at the shower and think they turned out great!

They definitely have me wanting to try out more shapes and ideas now that I have the basic building concept down.

Later in the week, we got a chance to stop by our favorite wholesale jewelry supply warehouse (which is a total secret and gem among jewelry designers) in the city, CJS Sales:

CJS is a 5,000 square foot warehouse in the middle of the city that specializes in vintage jewelry supply closeouts — for more background and info, you can read an entire post we wrote up about this amazing place here. We ended up finding so many great new things in the warehouse this trip and look forward to sharing more in an upcoming post.

Later that night, we walked over to the Ace Hotel to have dinner and drinks at The Breslin. We'd been looking forward to this all week since we'd just finished watching April Bloomfield's (the chef/owner of The Breslin) featured episodes from The Mind of a Chef. Neither of us had been to any of the Ace Hotels, so it was fun just getting a chance to walk around and take in the scene. We even got a chance to pop into the photo-booth in the lobby.

The Breslin was a small spot with dim lighting and cabin-style decor all over the walls — everywhere you looked, there was something new to see:

Not the best shot of me, but gives you an idea of the space, ha! The place was packed to the gills with people stopping in for a drink after work or lined up to grab a seat for dinner. All of our friends told us that the lamb burger was the best bet here, so it made it into our order lineup along with the scotch egg, saltimbocca and a chopped salad.

Everything was over the top and amazing — Tim's favorite was the saltimbocca (maybe because it has his name in the spelling?). We practically rolled out of our seats, thankful for the long walk we'd need to make to the subway and back to the hotel that night.

While in town Tim also hit up a few of his other favorite spots like the Union Square Green Market, Grand Central Oyster Bar, Maison Premiere, the Meathook Sandwich Shop, Republic and we had dinner at an old neighborhood favorite, Le Baricou.

As you can probably gather, we made the most of the week in the city, making our favorite rounds and finding a few new ones. Friday, we got on the road early and drove further up north to Massachusetts where my cousin was getting married.

The drive was beautiful and just shy of about 3 hours outside the city. The wedding took place in a picturesque village in the Sturbridge area at the Salem Cross Inn.

Heather, my cousin getting married, was just stunning. The Inn is located on a beautiful garden and every last detail was so well planned out.

We loved how creative the guestbook was — a tree where guests left fingerprints to form a family tree, and the personalized cake toppers came from Etsy:

This was the first wedding we'd attended since getting married — which made it all the more fun! We also got a chance to see and get to know some of our more distant Hungarian family members in attendance a little better.

The next morning we were back on the road first thing, Tim driving a solid 9 hours before making it back to good old RVA. This was probably the longest we've road-tripped in one go before — discovering new marvels like this neapolitan striped tile rest-area bathroom, ha:

It was quite the week, and boy were we glad to come home to this guy:

P.S. Today is Basil's 4th birthday! We're celebrating by spoiling and whipping up a special doggy cake especially for him — look out for his birthday roundup post tomorrow!