The view from our hotel room!

Happy New Year, everyone! I’ve arrived home from a wonderful night (and day) in New York City and I’m only a little tired. Just a little. I hope everyone had an incredible time counting down the seconds to 2014 wherever you were last night. For the second year in a row, I welcomed a new year within the McKittrick Hotel with good friends and very fun strangers- dancing, singing, checking out some live jazz acts and lounge singers, wandering the hotel, and drinking champagne well after midnight and into the early, early hours of the morning until my feet were sore and my eyes were starting to droop.

I didn’t want to carry around my purse and my camera all night, since it can get pretty heavy after a while, so the photos of the party I’ve posted above were taken at random intervals during the night with my phone. Sorry if they’re a little blurry- everyone was moving around so fast- including me!

Via ModCloth.com

This year’s party theme was “The King’s Winter Masquerade,” and required black & white attire- as well as a mask. For my dress, I turned to trusty ModCloth. I found, and fell in love with, the black dress shown above, which had a comfortable, flattering cut, white lace trim along the bottom hem, and strategically placed cut-outs that showed just the right amount of skin to be flirtatious without going overboard. I paired the dress with black thermal tights since it was pretty cold out last night, and black & white Oxford-styled pumps by Poetic License. The shoes gave me a little bit of height without hindering my ability to dance for hours, and held up well when I went searching for a cab after I’d left the party.

The mask came from Pier 1 Imports, and was the piece that pulled my whole ensemble together. It was beautiful, elaborate, fancy- and I received a ton of compliments on it throughout the night. It didn’t fall off or fall apart- and I look forward to using it for a future Halloween party (or any occasion that pops up.) It’s gorgeous.

Just to give you all an idea of how massive the windows in the room were! My knees made an appearance.

When it came time to rest and recharge after the festivities, I retreated to my room at the ink48 Hotel, which is hands down one of the nicest hotels I’ve ever stayed at while in NYC. My friends and I were given a corner room on the top floor which provided two breathtaking views from the floor-to-ceiling windows. On one side, we had a brilliant view of The Empire State Building and Times Square (perfect for New Years Eve!) and the other was a crystal clear overlook of the docks down by the Hudson River. See that aircraft carrier in the last photo? That’s the Intrepid- where Sean and I participated in “The Walking Dead: Escape” last October! I hadn’t realized it was right there until this morning when I was looking outside and spotted it in the sunlight.

The hotel’s toiletries were also provided by C.O. Bigelow Apothecaries, which was a huge hit for me- and the staff were so unbelievably friendly and helpful (they brought me a bottle of contact lens solution directly to the room at 4 a.m. when I’d realized I forgot to pack some in my bag and asked the front desk where the closest drug store was so I could go purchase one!) If you’re looking for a great place to stay while in NYC- this is it. Definitely my new favorite.

Before we headed back to Boston, we grabbed breakfast at Market Diner down the block from the hotel on 11th Ave, which was probably the best meal to start a new year with. The food was delicious (as always, I stuffed my face with a Greek omelette), filling, and reasonably priced- which was a lot better than the meal we’d had at Ristorante Amarone on 9th Ave last night before heading over to the McKittrick. That’s not to say the food wasn’t good- it was okay– but it wasn’t anything extraordinary- and it was kind if overpriced for the quality. Oh well.

Overall, last night was the perfect, fun way to bid adieu to 2013, and today was a beautiful, relaxing day to usher in 2014. I had such a lovely time.