Happy Monday everyone – it’s nice and dreary outside in NYC today.  It seems to be sort of spitting from the sky… hence, I’m still in my PJ’s catching up on indoor kinds of things.  Taxes anyone?

Anyway, first off, I’d like to welcome any new readers to nellsdish!  Last week I noticed a spike in traffic and a bunch of new subscribers (from all over the world… amazing!) – and I discovered that nellsdish was picked up by a site called PopPressed.  I am now listed as a featured blogger on their site – the tagline being “The Freshest in Culture”.  Fantastic!!  Thanks PopPressed! I’m rather excited. 🙂

As for this weekend, we spent a lovely seventy degree Friday evening walking around our dream neighborhoods in Brooklyn – Brooklyn Heights and Cobble Hill – and then had dinner with some friends at a restaurant called Breuckelen in Cobble Hill.  It was a great dinner – nice atmosphere (definitely a bit upscale) with delicious eats.  In between our appetizers and our mains, the chef brought out a taste of one of his favorites…capellini with meyer lemon, AOK roof chilis (? – no idea… looked them up and don’t know what this is), parsley and cold-pressed olive oil.  This dish is a testament to the idea that quality ingredients prepared in the simplest of ways can create magic.  This was probably my favorite dish of the entire meal.

On our walk before dinner, we stumbled upon these adorable little girls jumping rope in an alley adjacent to Cobble Hill Park. A perfect scene for photo 343 right?

Photo 343 out of 365 – “Jumping Rope in Cobble Hill”

"Jumping Rope in Cobble Hill" - Settings: ISO 400, f/2.2, 1/400 sec, 50mm lens

On Saturday we watched a LOT of basketball and did a little spring cleaning.  We don’t normally watch basketball, but we filled out a March Madness bracket at Adam’s office, so we’re suddenly super into it.  The games have actually been really exciting.  These guys are so young and passionate and they want it so badly!  I actually jumped to my feet and screamed at the TV a few times… that’s how into it I’ve been.  Kind of hilarious.  Then Saturday night we celebrated our friend Mark’s birthday at a lovely little West Village restaurant called Palma.  The party was in the restaurant’s charming and cozy carriage house out back through the garden.  Here’s a picture of the birthday boy:

Photo 344 out of 365 – “Max Blows Out the Candle”

"Max Blows Out the Candle" - Settings: ISO 6400, f/2.2, 1/50 sec, 50mm lens)

On Sunday Adam was my model for a photo shoot I had to do for my portraiture class.  Now, this is the part of photography that still makes me the most uncomfortable.  I have this fear about being the director, being the one who creates the vision, the one who has to make decisions about the styling and the mood and the poses… I find it completely intimidating.  Adam was a great help to me in this regard. Since he himself is a director, he was good at coaching me through it.  We picked out some outfits for him and styled his hair and I did some research on poses and moods I wanted to create.  It was fun!  I definitely need more practice to chase those nerves away, but this was a good start and I’m really happy with the photos!  Here is photo 345 in addition to some of my other favorites from the shoot.  He’s such a stud! 🙂

Photo 345 out of 365 – “Adam”

"Adam" - Settings: ISO 100, f/4.5, 1/250 sec, 10-22mm lens (18mm)

And a few more…

And finally, many of you have probably already seen this already, but I just saw this today on Laughing Squid and I think its absolutely hysterical!  It sort of made my day.  Enjoy!