rain, and lots of it!

The forecast was not kidding around for today when they said it was going to rain all day and night. My mom is here visiting for the weekend, which always has its ups and downs, but today was pretty good, all things considered.

Our task for the day was to find some lamps for my apartment, which has pretty bad lighting. I really wanted to go by Apartment 48, because it's right down the street from where I used to work, but I had never gone in. It's a really cute store, curated perfectly with tons of quirky little things that would make fantastic housewarming gifts, stocking stuffers, and birthday items (but, alas, no lamps). My mom fell in love with several of their larger furniture pieces, but alas they were all too big for any of the gaps in our house back in Chicago (and the store wasn't sure they could ship them there anyway). I came away with this cute candlestick in the shape of a tree branch, which I have paired with a white ceramic dish adorned with some painted gold birds. It now sits proudly on my bookcase, but may very well move:

I wound up buying two lamps- one for next to my futon, and one for next to my sewing machine. The larger lamp (for the futon) was from Pottery Barn, and it was large enough that we didn't feel like carrying it with us, so it's being delivered this week. The smaller lamp is from West Elm, and is totally over-priced. Regardless, it's kind of cute and now will give me some much needed extra light in my (extremely messy) sewing area:

After all of this shopping, we met up with my friends for some dinner at BLT Steak, up on 57th Street. I had heard good things about it, and it truly did not disappoint. The only regret I have is that I was too full to try one of their dessert specials: spiced pumpkin pie with cinnamon ice cream - I really am a sucker for fall flavors.

Above: a red wine jelly-topped spread, served with toasted baguette

Fresh out of the oven gruyere popovers, served with butter and sea salt. (so good!)

We all had hangar steaks - this was mine. I also had some bernaise sauce and potatoes gratin.

Tomorrow I'm taking mom to the Brooklyn Flea, to see a movie, and to dinner at Perilla! I'm crossing my fingers for smooth sailing the rest of this weekend.