Friday Happiness

taken from here

This week is finally over and the chaos of moving starts this weekend. Im going to pick up my keys tonight, and then I'm finally going to start getting stuff settled in! My mom and I are going to paint on Sunday and then hopefully on Monday I'll be able to start putting furniture in. I'm so excited to share my space with you once it is all set, but be sure to follow me on instagram (marlahorenbein) for a play-by-play of my moving experience! Happy weekend everyone!

-oxblood is my new fav color for fall-

-my stack this week- 

-so excited to light this thing in my new apartment!-

-the prettiest roses at the ralph lauren showroom-

-view of tuesday's outfit from the train platform-

Aunt Dubby's Apple Cake

My mom is an amazing chef and baker. She can literally come up with something from nothing. Seriously, dinnertime is a coveted event in our house...people always want to eat over and have my mom's cooking. Definitely something that I am going to miss when I move out (I'm sure I'll be stealing plenty of leftovers though!).

As I've gotten older, I've realized that I should probably start learning my mom's recipes (she can remember so many from memory!), so that I too can carry on the ever so special trait-my great-grandmother Nana Molly is where my mom learned all of her tricks-and what better time to learn than the Jewish holidays?

One of my all-time favorite desserts is an apple cake that my mom only makes during the high holidays (Rosh Hashana & Yom Kippur). When I was away at school, I used to wait by the mailbox for my special package of apple cake. It's really that good. This particular recipe is actually from my dad's side of the family, which my mom quickly adopted, and I'm so glad that my great-aunt Dubby is such an amazing baker too! With apple picking season in full gear, this is the perfect recipe to try out!

Ingredients:

10 inch greased tube pan

6 granny smith apples

1 tbs cinnamon

3 1/4 cups of flour

2 tsp baking soda

2 cups sugar

1 tsp salt

4 eggs slightly beaten

1 cup oil

1/2 cup orange juice

1 tbs vanilla

1. Peel and slice the apples and put in a large mixing bowl. Add cinnamon and sugar. Mix and set aside.

2. In a separate bowl, sift together flour, baking soda, sugar, and salt. Create a well in the center of the mixture.

3. In a third bowl, mix together eggs, oil, orange juice, and vanilla. Add to the bowl of dry ingredients. Mix well.

4. Pour half of the mixture into the pan and then top with 1/2 of the apple mixture. Layer 1/3 of the rest of the batter on top of the apples, and then spread the rest of the apples on top. Cover the apples with the remaining batter. Bake at 375* for 1 hour and 15 minutes. 

Oxblood

Wine, burgundy, oxblood, merlot...call it whatever you want, I'm obsessed with fall's hottest color. Red is one of those tricky colors too wear: too cheery around the holidays, and you look like a walking Christmas card; too much red at once, and you look like fashion roadkill. It's gotta be the right shade, on the right person, with the right pieces. Which is why I love this dark wintery shade...it looks great on redheads, blondes, and brunettes alike, and looks fab when paired with color (like teal or yellow), or super polished when paired with black or white. I'm particularly liking the way it looks on my nails, and with a couple of gold rings...ah-maz-ing!

elizabeth & james pump, miu miu clutch, equipment blouse, miu miu skirt, gucci beanie, lulu frost for j.crew necklace, opi nail polish, valentino loafers

Apartment Wishlist

A week from today, I'll officially be moving to Hoboken! Time has flown so quickly since we signed our lease back in August, and I thought that a little over a month would be plenty of time to gather everything that we'd need for our new space. Clearly I was wrong. I feel like I'll be scrambling to get all of our last minute things, and decorating seems to be a never ending task. Since I'm living with a friend, our common space will reflect both of tastes, but I'm super excited for my bedroom.

I've been wanting to redecorate for a while (2 years to be exact!), so I'm excited to get into the space and make it mine. I'm obsessed with navy blue, white and grey, and my room is going to reflect that. I purchased this douvet cover from West Elm, which was the starting point, and I'm so in love with it. I also recently purchased some prints from this super cute Etsy shop, and can't wait for them to come in so that I can frame them. The room is going to have a very strong nautical influence (surprise, surprise), but I still want it to look girly and sweet, so I'm looking for some softer pieces to accent the strong lines of my furniture and the grey/blue walls that I'll be painting.

Here are some of the items that are currently on my wishlist...

ikat pillow, navy pillow, cable knit throw, zinc letters, tray, pouf, foot stool

Friday Happiness

taken from here

Happy Friday all! So glad the weekend is here! I have so many things happening this weekend and I'm really looking forward to them all! 

Tonight I'll be cheering the football team at the high school that my boyfriend works at...it is their first home game of the season, so I'm hoping for a big win! 

Then, tomorrow morning I'll be running in the FITNESS Magazine Mind, Body, Spirit Games for the second year. It is a 4-mile race through Central Park, and it is such a great race to run. I'm looking forward to running with colleagues, friends, and thousands of FITNESS readers! After the race I have a brunch date with a friend (who I convinced to run the race too!), and our moms at Normas (ahh!). All that is happening before noon tomorrow...can you tell my weekend is busy?

Sunday will be spent at a picnic and then my family and I will be traveling to Boston to celebrate the Jewish New Year with all of my cousins. I can't wait to see everyone again...especially all of the little babies!! 

Hope you all have a great weekend!

Happy...

-a fav kate spade quote on my shoe bag-

-highlight of my week: meeting "kelly kapowski"!-

-nyfw has wrapped! until february...-

-a little sweetness-

-love this print from the wingshawaii girls-

NYFW: Polka Dots

I posted about a little polka dot trend that seemed to be happening over the summer, but based on the runways, it looks like spring will be filled with the innocent pattern too. Designers across the boards have incorporated polka dots into their collections, and I'm interested to see how long these spots will stick around for. Here are some of my fav polka dot looks from the shows...

victoria, victoria beckham

karen walker

diane von furstenberg

rebecca taylor

christian siriano

jason wu

NYFW: Rebecca Minkoff

On Friday afternoon, I had the pleasure of attending the Rebecca Minkoff runway show at Lincoln Center. RM is by far one of my favorite accessories designers, but after seeing her spring collection, I'm so in love with her apparel as well. She was totally working off of the 1960s and 1970s vibe that we've been feeling for the past few seasons (using Slim Aarons photographs as inspiration), but she totally captured the true essence of that time period and made it super modern and easy to pull off (or so the models made it look!). Floral prints were all over her collection, as well as lots of white, lots of short shorts, and of course, some killer shoes. Oh yea and did I mention that the ever so beautiful Hillary Rhoda closed the show? Ah-maz-ing.

click here for the full collection

NYFW: BCBGMAXAZRIA

With fashion week in full swing, I've been noticing a lot of similarities amongst the collections that have walked down the runway so far. One that I'm kind of loving is bringing black and white together for spring.  You don't normally find black as a staple for such an easy, breezy season, but I find it to be kind of fresh and cool- a total step away from all the pastels and neons that we saw last spring. I've always been partial to black-although color is littered throughout my spring/summer wardrobe-and I'm looking forward to taking spring to an edgier level.

BCBG seemed to embrace this trend the best, but stayed true to who they are, with bondage-esq cutouts with light and billowy fabrics. I've always been a huge fan BCBG (most of my wardrobe comes from the multiple lines from the fashion empire), and can't wait to get my hands on some of these amazing pieces. 

click here to see the full collection

Friday Happiness

taken from here

Happy weekend all! Hope you had a great first week of September. Even though things seem to be getting back to the normal routine, I'm still in denial that summer is over, and I'm looking forward to spending some time outdoors this weekend soaking up as much sun as I can, and enjoying the last bits of tank top and shorts weather that we have left. The mornings have been cool, which is a sign that fall is almost here...not such a terrible thing, since I have lots in store the next couple of months, but it is bitter sweet, and I'm going to miss my weekend beach trips, my multiple ice cream outings each week, and of course the warm and sun soaked air. Hope you all have a great weekend! 

A little happiness...

-just me & pup this week. sissy power-

-an amazing new fragrance cc: @bcbgmaxazria-

-preview of the october issue-

-silly dog-

-one of my fav pic from the summer-

California Dreamin'

I spent last week out in Los Angeles shooting covers for FITNESS Magazine. It was a quick trip (only a couple of days), and I wish I could have stayed out there longer. Every time I head out to the west coast, I always try to convince myself that I could make the move...you know, give up my job and just go...but then I come back to good old NYC and remember why I love the east so much. The hustle and bustle is who I am, even though the sunrises and sunsets and laid back vibe out in Santa Monica are pretty enticing. Who knows, maybe one day I'll find myself catching some rays and dipping my toes in the Pacific for a little while. 

-monday night's sunset over the pacific-

-view from tuesday morning's run-

-palm trees & pink skies-

-that skyline is incredible-

-out and about before the sun-

-view from topanga canyon-

-hello hollywood-

-the best thing about la-