Happy New Year!

Husby and I are visiting with family friends and enjoying every minute.

Happy New Year!

I'll see you all again in the New Year with plenty of fun stories...

Merry Christmas Eve Giveaway Winner!

From our home to yours, Merry Christmas Eve!

And a special Merry Christmas Eve to our giveaway winner...

Lucky number 7, Miss Classy Fab Sarah!

Congratulations and happy hosting :)

Note: Sorry all, I haven't figured out how to print screen an image on my new Macbook. Anyone know how, please let me know! I pinky swear I used Random.org and number 7 was the first one to pop-up. Husby can attest to this.

Top Secret

Note: Click on either image to enlarge.

Tabletop Decor Giveaway

Remember last week when I blogged about this?

No?

That’s OK. I’ll let it slide. Hopefully CSN Stores will too, because they have kindly offered to give one of you lucky readers the adorable NotNeutral brown bud vase set and Littala napkins just in time for the New Year. Because we all know you’re tired of looking at red and green.

CSN Stores has been my life saver during this move - I highly recommend giving them a browse before settling on one of those more expensive websites...

And since I’ve been wildly dancing about baking all morning to Christmas music, I’m giving away a copy of The Silver Spoon, the most successful cookbook in Italy.

What?! I like my carbs. You should too.

Here’s how to enter:

1. Become a follower (or let me know you are one).
2. Activate e-mail in your profile (or leave your e-mail address in your comment). If I can’t contact you, you can’t win.
3. Leave a comment with the above information.

Contest ends Wednesday, December 23, 2009 at 11:59 p.m. ET. Winner will be posted the next day.

Official rules:
*Only open to residents of the continental U.S. (Sorry folks, international shipping is a nightmare.)
*Winners are chosen by random.org.
*Once selected, the winner must reply to me by Monday, December 28, 2009, otherwise a new winner will be chosen.
*Rules must be followed to be valid. Blog author has right to refuse any entrant.

The One With the Fancy Text

Texting with my sister:

H.I.T.: This pregnancy flatulence really sucks.

[about 10 minutes later]

Sister: Thanks. At a fancy restaurant for date night with the hubs.

H.I.T.: Whoops! As only a little sister can bother you…

Why, Merci!

Edited to add: Read all the way to the bottom for a chance to win some Cosabella loveliness.

What is it about wedding planning that brings out the six-year-old girl playing Barbie in all of us? Thank goodness that little girl is someone Husby thought was adorable and not crazy. because she gave the wedding party an eight-page run of show for the event.

Well ever since our New York City wedding, my inner six-year-old has been running rampant planning events, dinners, dreamscapes, anything I can get my hand on! Luckily our new house provides plenty of hostess opportunities.

Family dinner on Sunday, come on over!
A night cap after dinner, please do!
A cozy B&B for our NYC friends, the more the merrier!
Baby showers, themed parties, BBQs, weekend brunches, holiday entertaining galore - you name it, I can’t wait to host it.

Unfortunately, this inner six-year-old is bound to run out of ideas eventually. That’s where Merci New York comes into play.

Merci New York is a refined niche on the web that attempts to edit the overbearing world of weddings (or in my case, entertaining). Offering insight on stylish color boards, chic resources, and on-trend fashion and design, Merci New York will quickly have you saying “merci!” for the creative vision it inspires.

A delicious taste of what you’re missing:

SweetAmbs - A Scrumptious Work of Art

To die for delicious. Now if only her Etsy shop will reopen...

Fab New York Finds Vol. 1 Dabney Lee at Home

For all your monogrammed needs.

Merci Inspiration Board No. IV - Lavender Soiree

Perfect for spring dreaming.

In true iconic fashion, Merci New York is dedicated to philanthropy, donating a portion of proceeds to charity. If that doesn’t scream Grace Kelly, in our Paris Hilton world, I don’t know what does...

And as much as I don’t want to share the best news yet, because it will sour my own chances of winning, Merci New York collaborated with Cosabella to offer one fabulous reader a soft floral stretch Lexy camisole and Lexy hotpant or thong (shown below). Contest ends on Wednesday, December 16th. Enter here (all you have to do is comment on your favorite Cosabella piece).

I would definitely keep an eye on Merci New York. Her sophisticated ideas, luxe palate and chic collaborations just might give a certain hostess with the mostest a run for her money...

All images from Merci New York.

Top 5 Hidden Ornaments

On Monday, I read Anonymous Elle’s post about holiday obsessions and how she tucks certain ornaments out of plain sight.

Honestly, who doesn’t hang an ornament or two on the back of the tree every year? Walls need decorations too!

To show a little appreciation to those ornaments, here’s our Top 5 Hidden Ornaments:

5. I heart NY. An engagement gift.
4. Dancing pepper decked out in Christmas lights. We bought this on our trip to Arizona. I have no idea what we were thinking.
3. A caged elephant. Enough said.
2. Barbie snowflake. I was young once too.

And the number one ornament we hide on the tree...

1. Six-pack of beer. Clearly from Husby’s ornament collection.

Stay tuned for a giveaway this weekend...and maybe some divulging of secrets next week. Wink, wink.

The One With the Roof

Driving in the car:

H.I.T.: Please turn down the music.

Husby: Why? The baby wants to dance.

H.I.T.: The baby does not want to dance. The music is giving me a headache.

Husby: Hey baby, raise the roof!

H.I.T.: [sighs]

Husby: Wait! Raise the placenta! Raise the placenta!

H.I.T.: I pray this baby is a little girl.

Hello Monday

This has been a great morning and an even better afternoon.

I know, I know, I can gag you all now with my Monday peppiness.

And guess what? I HAVE A SECRET!

What's with me these days?!?! Keeping things from you! I promise to share soon and not four months from now like I did with the last two bombs. Pinky swear.

We had a fabulous weekend filled with family and friends. A few more friends from the city came out to see our new place, and on Saturday, Husby and I stayed home to enjoy a delicious honey rabbit roast dinner* and to watch the Polar Express. It was perfection.

And I finally got to use some of our new home goods! I had so much fun setting the table. Here’s a sneak peek at what it looked like:

The main attraction were the peonies and adorable bud vases from CSN Stores. I’m a huge fan of brown and adding splashes of color in accent pieces like flowers and napkins. What colors are on your table?

*Note: The recipe is called Rabbit with Honey and is from The Silver Spoon cookbook. You can find it on this blog.

Adventures in NYC

Yesterday I ventured back into the city to watch the Rockefeller Tree Lighting with quite the surprise waiting for me.

Police swarmed my old neighborhood in search of a two armed robbers.

An attempted robbery occurred at our local parking garage. A doorman was held at gunpoint as one of the robbers tried to escape.

I was shocked and relieved at the same time. Shocked because the scene I was looking at was straight out of Law & Order (which is filmed in NYC).

Relieved because this is no longer our home.

I think we made the right decision.

Mad Chocolate Disease

I’ve been known to be a bit dramatic emotional sensitive. Anyone who knows me will second that. Add some pregnancy hormones into the mix and you either have a blubbering fool or an over-excited angry woman.

Neither are pretty.

Husby will second that.

Over Thanksgiving, I exhibited a rare trifecta of classic pregnant women scenarios - one complete with over-excited angry woman, blubbering fool and laughing idiot.

It all began with some special caramel chocolates that we bought...

[H.I.T. walks over to Husby and hands him the rest of her chocolate]

Husby, politely: No thank you.

H.I.T., pushing the chocolate towards him: No, this is for you.

Husby, pushing the chocolate away: I don’t want it.

H.I.T., confused: What do you mean you don’t want it? I brought this over just for you.

Husby [silence].

H.I.T., beginning to cry: Why are you mad at me?

Husby, proceeding cautiously: I’m not mad at you.

H.I.T., sobbing hysterically: Yes you are. If you weren’t mad, you’d eat this chocolate.

Husby, desperately trying to make sense of the situation: But I don’t want the chocolate. I’m not mad at you.

H.I.T., attempting pregnancy rationalization: But before you said you wanted it, so I just took a small bite and was giving the rest to you. I brought it over just for you…

Husby [just looks at H.I.T.]

H.I.T., now laughing while hysterically crying: Stop goading my pregnancy hormones! Eat the damn chocolate.

Husby, perplexed: I really don’t want the chocolate.

H.I.T., pops the chocolate into her mouth: Then please get me a few tissues.

We live in dangerous times at the H.I.T. household my friends, dangerous times indeed.

Guess Who's Back?!

And boy does it feel good. I sorely missed all you bloggies and can’t wait to see what’s been going on in Blogland while I’ve been gone. The house is still a mess so I might be a little slow to start, but I’ll be back up to my dailies again in no time.

Now for the long awaited BIG news...

Drum roll please (because I’m such a drama queen).

Well, umm, actually, before we dive into that, let’s address the topic at hand, or should I say, comment at hand? More than a few of you have made guesses at my BIG blog news.

So let’s address the elephant in the room.

Top 3 Reasons Why A Pregnancy Isn’t My BIG News

1. I first addressed the notion that I had BIG news to share about my blog in this post. I also said it wasn’t baby news...
2. I regularly house Entenmann’s Holiday Cupcakes and have been doing so for the past six years. It has nothing to do with “cravings” or PMS, I assure you.
3. I can’t think of a third, so let’s just take my word for it. Love you!

Back to our regularly scheduled program.

Drum roll please...

The BIG news is that NYC H.I.T. has moved! I know, you’re thinking, I know, I know, H.I.T., tell me something I didn’t know! Or maybe you’re thinking, that’s it?! That’s your BIG news?!?! because, sometimes I have a habit of building things up into being much bigger than they really are...Did you not see my drama queen reference above?

But this H.I.T. is officially a suburbanite with a brand spanking new web address to prove it. Oh, you didn’t notice that?

Don’t worry, you can take this H.I.T. away from the city, but you can’t take the city out of the girl. ;)

I’ve also updated my blog header to reflect this BIG change. Sorry ladies, I know you were hoping for something bigger. In the mean time, I leave you this:


We are 18 weeks, 6 days along and very excited. It took a year to get here, a couple of scares along the way, but baby and mother are doing GREAT.