Hi friends, welcome back! This month definitely did not go as planned. As soon as I posted my last What’s Up, I started to feel pretty sick and we had to cancel a weekend worth of fall plans and our much-anticipated trip to Shenandoah National Park. But as the saying goes, when one door closes another opens, and we ended up moving into a 2-bedroom apartment in our building that we love. We did have some fall fun apple picking with our friends at Fishkill Farms, seeing the Great Jack O’ Lantern Blaze, watching a lot of football, and enjoying our Halloween decorations. I’m looking forward to the leaves changing color in NYC and I’ve already started seeing Christmas lights going up. It seems Christmas is starting early in the city this year, but I’m not complaining!
On to my post 🙂 I’ve been linking up with the first blogger I ever read, Shay Shull, for my What’s Up posts. Each month I’m answering the following questions:
What I’m eating: I’ll be sharing my Foodie Friday next Friday, so today I’ll share some of my favorite fall foods: cider mill donuts, fresh picked apples, and candy!
Niagara Chocolates sent me their fall flavors and they were so tasty!
What I’m reminiscing about: moving into our last apartment four years ago. It’s crazy how fast time is flying! Growing up I always thought NYC would be the very last place I’d ever want to live, but now I’ve been here four and a half years and it’s hard to imagine not living in a big city.
What I’m loving: all the fall things!
Favorite post of the month: my Halloween decor, it makes me feel so happy and cozy. It pained me to take down this gallery wall when we moved!
What I’m Up to: getting settled into our new apartment. You can check out the empty apartment tour here 🙂 It took us about 10 hours to move everything up five floors with an elevator. It was a long day, but so worth it! We celebrated in style with some champagne and sushi.
What I’m working on: I’m still working on my Germany series, the next part is Berchtesgaden and it was so beautiful! I think Berchtesgaden has some of my favorite pictures from the whole trip.
What I’m excited about: my Christmas season begins before Thanksgiving, so I am very excited to decorate the new apartment and see all the holiday decorations around NYC. I’m also excited to make my NYC Christmas Bucket List and share all the holiday cheer along the way!
What I’m watching/reading: we started watching Abbot Elementary and really enjoy it! It’s clever, funny, and always ends with a good message. I just wish there were more seasons to binge. We didn’t love the new Hocus Pocus movie, we thought it could’ve been better. I enjoyed The Curse of Bridge Hallow, I can’t do scary Halloween movies so this was perfect. The original Hocus Pocus is my favorite, but I also nostalgically love the Halloweentown series, and Hubie Halloween is pretty funny.
Books I read this month:
- The Hotel Nantucket by Elin Hildebrand
- Then She Was Gone by Lisa Jewell
- Ugly Love by Colleen Hoover
- The Ex Hex by Erin Sterling
What I’m doing this weekend: our friends are having a Halloween party! Not sure if we will watch the U of M vs MSU game, we are a very civil house divided, but MSU is pretty bad at football this year so I have zero hopes or expectations.
What I’m looking forward to next month: decorating the new apartment for Christmas! I’m also going to my parents for a weekend to decorate their house and then we’re spending Thanksgiving in Atlanta with Jon’s family. It’s going to be a busy, but fun and festive month!
What are you looking forward to in November?
Wow! I love this. Very inspirational. Thank you
Glad to hear that you are settling-in well! 🙂
Thank you! Now we wish we moved sooner 😂
Hindsight is an exact science 😉 At least you are there now!! 🙂
Your new place looks like a nice upgrade! I’m excited to see your Christmas decor. I’m trying to wait until mid-November before I put my stuff up. 😛
It will be fun having more room to decorate! We are gone for Thanksgiving and Christmas, so I like to decorate early so we can enjoy it longer 🙂
Lyssy, you seem to have no trouble keeping busy. Congrats on your move and happy housewarming. Fall is almost complete here and we have seen a few snow flurries. Now back from our travels, I must deal with a yard full of leaves, before the snow arrives. Stay well. Allan
Thank you! I do not have any trouble keeping busy, that’s for sure! Good luck with all your raking. It’s feeling like fall here and the leaves in Central Park have turned color, I’ve got to do my tour before they all fall off. We’re predicted a warmer winter this year.
I am glad to see that you were able to go apple picking in the end. I am looking forward to a tour (with Christmas decorations) of your new apartment. Reading your post flames our desire to have our own cozy nook filled with our photos and mementos. Let’s see if 2023 is the year we settle down somewhere. Enjoy the party!
Me too, it all worked out! The apples taste so good right off the tree. We’ve got everything unpacked and organized, just need to figure out where to put paintings/pictures. I am glad you get a cozy vibe from our apartment 🙂 it is nice having a space you love, I don’t think Jon and I would do well not having a home base. We need that structure and routine, but miss out on possible adventures.
It sounds like you’ve had a fun month though a busy one. Glad you got moved, and now I look forward to the not-empty apartment tour. Happy Halloween!
Happy Halloween! We got settled pretty quickly, just have a few finishing touches left 🙂
I’ve heard enough about apple farms and apple picking (from several people) that it’s something we need to do one of these days, the closest being a ~4 hr drive into North Carolina. And keep The Hotel Nantucket on the list – it’s a fun story, good enough to read another of hers when I’m looking for something light and airy.
Definitely the apples taste 10000x better. That is a far drive, maybe you’ll have to do a fall road trip. A lot cheaper than flying! I really enjoyed The Hotel Nantucket, it was very entertaining and light. Took me forever to get from the library, but worth the wait! I put her Christmas book on hold she has a series called Winter Street I’ve heard was good.
Thanks for the Hilderbrand rec – didn’t know about this series. I’ll give the first book a shot.
Those Niagara chocolate flavors sound perfect for fall!! I bet Christmas in the city is wonderful. My grandparents and I used to go into the city every year in late Nov/ early Dec. and catch a show, do some window shopping, and check out a few restaurants. I always felt like it was such a magical day.
That’s such a wonderful memory! Christmas in the city is so magical (minus the crowds), but luckily I can go during the week to avoid some of them. I’ll be sharing all the holiday things this season 🙂
Moving is stressful. Glad you got through it successfully. I just started watching Abbott Elementary and have seen only the pilot and episode 1 but I enjoy it. The issues are quite realistic, especially supplies and money. EVERYTHING besides computers, desks and chairs I bought for my classroom and as you know, I taught in a very upscale district. I was never given money for supplies. I used to spend about $1,000 a year for my classroom (things like a stepladder, stool, rocking chair, book shelves, big mail box thing with individual student slots, cleaning supplies, photography, student gifts, rewards, vacuum cleaner, air purifier, and all decorations. I never begrudged it but after I retired 37 years later I kind of wish I had my $37,000. But the best part of being a teacher was having students like you and Kristin. And room mothers like Sue.
It was very stressful, but worth it! It’s sad that teachers get so little funding and support, they really need it!! Imagine if you invested that $37,000…. glad it was all worth it! It is pretty special that you can stay in touch with former students/parents.
So happy for you in your new apartment Lyssy. As always, your photos are superb and are already putting me in a festive mood.
Thank you!! I’m excited for all the holiday decorations in the city 🙂 Have a great weekend!
A month to remember, having a new flat is always a milestone. It is indeed very appealing to be able to live in New York in such a great place.
A month to remember indeed! I’m very lucky to be able to live here in such an incredible place 🙂
Those cider mill donuts look amaaazing. The fall is my favourite season as well and I am loving every minute of it. It’s very impressive that you were able to move everything in about 10 hours!
They were so good!! It felt like a very long 10 hours, but we survived! Luckily we don’t have too much stuff and we didn’t have to empty dressers/nightstands etc. because it wasn’t getting jostled around on a moving van.
That donut looks pretty delicious! Also I love your New York Christmas photos, the holidays are so much fun!
Congrats for moving to a new apartment! I have also been loving all the autumnal things this month, especially everything pumpkin-flavoured (except for pumpkin spice which I don’t like as much as I would have thought)! I have also heard a lot of people talk about cider donuts and I’ve been really curious about what they taste like – I don’t think we find them in Europe! I hope November is just as great as October was for you!
Thank you!! I don’t like pumpkin spice as much as I thought I would either, the pumpkin spice latte has too much sugar for me to try. Cider donuts are like a cinnamon sugar donut, but they’re so fresh and yummy!