fields of gold

As part of my West Village excursion on Sunday, I went up to the High Line.  I usually go there when it's lush and green, but it was just as beautiful on a sunny winter day.

these are the same hydrangeas I photographed in the summer

continuing my proclivity toward robin's egg blue.  isn't it gorgeous against the brick?

hope you're having a lovely evening!

giving pretty things away in a giveaway!

♥

oh to dream

The prettiest, prettiest bedding is on its way to me.

photos from anthropologie.com

Isn't it lovely?  I'm so excited for it to get here!

Oh, and a quick update about school-- Diane Von Furstenberg rescheduled for Wednesday.  So the squealing/hyperventilating continues!

everybody loves a giveaway!

♥

west village love

Today I went for a long walk around the West Village and a few of my favorite streets in Chelsea.

it took a moment for my eyes to adjust to these church doors...which open onto another set of doors.

I love love love this robin's egg blue door.  I so hope I have a door this color someday, it would be so happy to come home to.

sets of symmetrical doors...these make me think about the nature of new york city, and how we're all living our lives on either side of shared walls.

...and maybe even riding matching bicycles.

such a fantastic color!

My final semester at FIT starts tomorrow-- eeeeek!  Good luck on your first day of the semester, FIT kids!

♥

girl of a thousand projects

Oh my gosh, you guys.  I have been working on so many projects lately.  Not that it's at all unusual for me to have a zillion projects going at once-- if I'm not busy with schoolwork, I make something else for myself to be busy with!  So here's what I've been up to.

I snagged the Dulcie Dress from Anthropologie over winter break-- it's feminine and floaty and oh-so-soft.  But the high neckline was doing nothing for me, so...

I'm just finishing up lowering and widening the neckline, I plan on completing that tonight.  I tried it on and pin-marked where I wanted to new neckline to be, and then used a bit of the lining to create a new neckband.  I tried it on and it's so much more flattering.  All I have left to do is to stitch the clean edge of the band on the inside.  Yay!  Also, isn't that knit lace beautiful?  The photo from Anthropologie's website really doesn't do it justice.  Cutting into that was a scary moment, even after careful consideration.

I've also been making paper garlands for my etsy shop!  I'm so pleased with how they're coming along. I have three up for sale now, and I'm working on a fourth that might be my favorite one yet.  (Pssst... you know how in my etsy shop giveaway post, I mentioned a personalized surprise?  Just saying.  If you like the paper garlands, now would be an excellent time to enter the giveaway.)

Last up is my Field of Flowers blanket.  I've started joining rows together!  I only have 4 put together so far, but each one consists of 63 flowers, so it's still a pretty major undertaking.  My next step is to weave in the ends on each of the rest of the flowers I've crocheted so I can keep joining them.  I love, love, love how this blanket is coming along.  When I'm stitching the rows together, I put it across my lap, and I can already tell how warm and cozy it will be when it's done.  In case anyone's curious, the yarn is Louisa Harding's Willow Tweed-- it's 40% alpaca, 40% merino wool, and 20% silk.

What projects are you working on?

♥

fill-in-the-blank friday!

via the little things we do

1. My favorite place I've every traveled to is Cape May, NJ.  It's so pretty and holds so many of my favorite memories.

2. Someday I'd like to go to Venice.

3. I pass the time in a plane, bus, car, or train by listening to audiobooks and sleeping.  If I'm in a car, there is virtually no chance that I'll be awake longer than half an hour.  

4. My three must-haves when I travel are my ipod, a pillow, and a 'warmie,' as my mom calls them-- either a blanket or a big sweater.

5. My favorite travel companion is it's a tie between my mom and my brother.  My mom and I bop around to carefully curated playlists, until I inevitable start snoozing.  My brother and I mostly just harass each other in the car, making funny voices and asking would-you-rather questions.  Traveling with both my parents and my brother was the best-- my dad would always put a bunch of fruit in his jacket pockets while we were leaving, which made my brother and me laugh, but it was great when we'd start feeling snack-ish and he'd say "Want a clementine/apple/banana/orange?"  So now I'm in the habit of stashing fruit for car trips.  I love traveling with Marissa, too-- we always laugh hysterically.  Which probably contributes to why we take wrong exits pretty much every time we're in her car.  Once, we were following her GPS on the way back from Six Flags, and I was so incredibly car sick, and of course the GPS takes us down this tiny little dirt road that snaked around like crazy.  We couldn't help finding that hilarious, so the conversation was sort of, "Hahahaha!!!!  Can you believe this?  Hahahaha!!!  ...Oh god, pull over..." 

6. The craziest thing that ever happened to me while traveling was when Marissa and I were going to Disney World and we were (naturally) wearing our Minnie and Mickey ears in the airport, along with out t-shirts with our motto, "What could possibly go wrong?" and the most obnoxious baggage guy EVAH was all, "Oh, Florida, huh?  Heading down there for Girls Gone Wild?"  Marissa and I looked at him with perfectly blank faces and I replied.  "No.  We're Girls Gone Mild."  So we thought that was the last of him, and then we got on the plane and surprise, surprise, he was on our plane.  It doesn't sound that crazy now, but at the time it was both hilarious and horrifying.

7. The most exotic food I've tried while traveling was ...hmmmm.  Marissa and I tried a lot of different foods at Disney World, but nothing's standing out to me at the moment.  I tried Mexican for the first time while I was actually in Mexico, which was really delicious, but not anything wild and crazy.  

8.  If I could live anywhere else, I'd live in Boston, I think.  I love it there, I love the history and the swan boats and the aquarium.  It has everything I like about New York City, but in a much quieter, less crowded space.

9.  I have been to eight states in the U.S.  I might actually have been to more, I don't remember all the fife and drum trips I took when I was younger.

it's a fantastic day to enter my etsy giveaway!

♥

both sublime and absurd

It's no secret that I love cats.

So I'm sure you won't be surprised to learn that I desperately wish I was present at the filming of this video.

Because what's even cuter than one cat?

One hundred cats in a kitty playground, naturally.

enter to win my etsy shop giveaway!

♥

Oh. My. Gosh.

So, as a lot of you know, I'm going into my last semester at the Fashion Institute of Technology in Manhattan, majoring in Fashion Design.  During the upcoming semester, I'll be making three complete looks, based off the sketches in my portfolio from my fall semester.  Each class is assigned an industry critic, who critiques our work and advises us in our design direction for those looks.

The critic for my class is DVF.

Um, yes.  That DVF.  

I will be alternately squealing and hyperventilating for the next few days.

YAAAAAY!!!!!

etsy shop giveaway!

♥

flutterby

Hi there lovelies,

I've been spending the last few evenings decorating the sixth floor hallway for the spring semester!

 each door has pink, red, or white hearts with names of the people who live there-- this is my door!

the first floor event of the semester is going to be making paper flowers to fill this garden bulletin board.

here's the current events board, for fliers.

This heart was in with the hearts I used for the door decorations.  I want to carve initials in it, but I haven't decided which ones yet.  

scrapbook paper butterflies fly around from the ceiling...

...and perch on the wall.

My residents are coming back next weekend-- I'm hoping they like the decorations!

EDIT:   This post has been viewed more times than any other post on my blog ever.  Like, a lot more times.  Just out of curiosity, if you're viewing this post, how did you get here?  Let me know in the comments!

enter the etsy shop giveaway here!

♥

snow day

It's snowing in Manhattan!

YAY!

I love snow.  I love looking at it, I love walking around in it, I love feeling it on my face like hundreds of little kisses.  I love bundling up and going outside and getting giddy with cold and then coming in and shedding the layers of scarves and hats and mittens and drinking tea.

So far, I made my first trip of the new year over to The Ink Pad, my local scrapbooking/stationery/washi tape store to pick up some little treats, went to Trader Joe's to replenish my supply of pink lady apples, bananas, and animal crackers (I have the palate of a mildly discerning six-year-old), and came home and put my groceries away.  Next up:  a hot shower and settling in to work on my crocheted flower blanket while alternately listening to back episodes of the WTF podcast and watching Stargate on Netflix.

This is just my favorite kind of day.

What are some of your favorite snow day activities?

etsy giveaway.  enter it.  win stuff.

♥

the cat post.

You surely saw this one coming.

It's time for that blog post.

It's the post in which I talk about...

...my cats!

That's right, I said my cats.  These wonderful little sweethearts were my grandmother's cats.  I've always liked them, but while I was staying with her over winter break, I got to know them very well and I became very attached.  When my grandmother passed away, my brother suggested what I'd been hoping for but didn't want to ask-- whether the kitties could be mine, and come with me when I get an apartment after I graduate this May.  It turned out to be the perfect solution-- they would need a home, and the first thing I was going to do when I had an apartment was to find a cat or two to keep me company.

Aren't they adorable?  The bigger one is named Bucky, for his little white chin that resembles buck-teeth, and the smaller one is named Cocoa.  They are everything I could have hoped for in a pair of cats-- loyal, sweet, playful, and cuddly.  There is nothing else quite like the bliss of falling asleep to soft, rhythmic purring...

...except maybe waking up to it.

care to enter the etsy shop giveaway?  you could win bobby pins, a velvet bow brooch, and a special personalized surprise!
♥

that thing you do

You guuuuuys.  One of my favorite movies, That Thing You Do, is on Netflix right now!  Basically, it's the story of a 1960s rock band with one major hit song.  It's a really fun movie, and Tom Everett Scott is completely adorable as the leading man, and Liv Tyler looks so ridiculously pretty.  Go watch it!

I've been feeling a bit under the weather lately-- by 7 p.m., I'm so ready for bed.  I think it's just belated exhaustion from everything that's happened during the last month.  I haven't been taking particularly good care of myself recently, because there were other people who needed care way more than I did, but now I'm paying for it.  So I'm going to try to get back to yoga more often, and I think I'm also going to cut out sugar, at least for a few weeks.  I just feel so sluggish after even a little bit of it lately.  Alright.  Yeah, let's do that.  Has anybody else tried cutting out sugar?  How'd it work for you?  

Also, since I've been so narcoleptic lately and sleeping instead of blogging, I'm extending the etsy shop giveaway until February 20th.  Yaaaay!  Enter it!  There are only two completed entries right now, so your chances of winning are excellent.  

Hope you're all having a fantastic Thursday evening!  Or whatever day you read this.  I hope it's a good one.

♥

i like friends who blog.

photo

Two of my favorite people have recently started blogging!

The first is a lovely boy who has been a close friend of mine since we met in fourth grade, at age nine.  Taryn is articulate, witty, and sweet, and he has a particularly unique sense of humor that manages to be both cynical and optimistic all at once.  He recently began blogging over at So It Goes.

My cousin Monica has started a blog, too!  Her blog is over at 180 Days to Paris.  And that's exactly what she'll be doing-- going to Paris in (slightly less than, at this point) 180 days.  She's quirky and adorable and smart and I can't wait to hear more about her escapades, both preparing for Paris and being there!

Each of these blogs only has three posts so far, so now is a good time to follow their adventures from the beginning-- I can't wait to see everything Taryn and Monica write in the future, and to join them on their journeys both literal and figurative.

♥

lady in yellow

 

Lady in Yellow

Thomas Wilmer Dewing, 1888

I absolutely love this painting... Not least of all because it looks like how I imagine Belle from Beauty and the Beast would look if she wasn't animated.  Her expression is so thoughtful and serene, and I love when portrait subjects have a more relaxed posture.  The 1880s through the early 1900s is probably my favorite period in American art.  This lovely painting is in one of my very favorite museums, the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston, where my grandmother, my mother, my brother and I went every summer while I was growing up.

don't forget to enter the etsy shop giveaway!

♥

fill-in-the-blank friday

via the little things we do

1.  The last thing I ate was Kashi granola with milk and a cup of tea.

2. The last song I listened to was "Lay, Lady, Lay" by Bob Dylan.  His music is kind of 'comfort music' for me, mostly because it reminds me of my dad.

3. Using the letters in my name I can spell (from Julie Rose) so, lie, sore, see, juice... I'm sure there are more.  

4. If I had to dress in one color for the rest of my life I would pick peachy-pink, I think... or fawn brown.  Oh, for someone who wears prints all the time, this is a rough question!  I think the fawn brown would probably be more flattering, but gosh, I do love pink.  ...Heh.  Clearly, judging by my blog colors.

5. If you were to look in my bag right now, you'd find my planner (mmhm, I use a little paper planner, I can't bring myself to make the switch over to iCal or something on my phone), Burt's Bees honey lip balm, lots of shimmery mechanical pencils (does anyone still call them that, or are wooden pencils the exception rather than the rule these days?), glittery pens, Moroccan Oil Intense Curling Cream (I just bought a new bottle yesterday and haven't put it in my suitcase yet, I don't usually carry a whole bottle with me), a few receipts, and my wallet.

6. When I finish filling in the blanks I'm going to keep making decorations for the 6th floor hallway back at school!  They're going to be super cute this semester.

7. My all-time favorite song to dance to is "Banging Camp" by The Hold Steady!  Particularly when it's live.  I wish they would come back to New York, it's been aaaaaages since I've gotten to see them.

y'know what's fun?  winning giveaways!  

enter the etsy shop giveaway here.

♥

Nanny

"Adventure is worthwhile in itself."
          -Amelia Earhart

     Every now and again the world sees a true adventurer.  My grandmother was absolutely one of those special few.  Sometimes it took a little while to get going, inspiring Nanny's cry of "Off we go, like a herd of turtles!"  But other times the adventures were speedy-- like when she and her neighbor/ partner-in-crime were burning rubber in a 1974 Thunderbird convertible.  Nanny didn't stress over the small things, her motto in life was "Just roll it!" Her riotous sense of humor and infectious laugh endeared her to all those who knew her.

  

She will be very dearly missed.

♥

once upon a dream

Ann He takes some of the most beautiful photographs I've ever seen.  She has such a sensitive, feminine aesthetic.  Can you believe she's only sixteen?  I'm so looking forward to seeing more of her work.

care to enter the etsy shop giveaway?

♥

fill-in-the-blank friday ♥

via the little things we do

1. One of my favorite things to do when I have free time is reading, at the moment.  I was given a fantastic book for Christmas (more about that soon!) and every time I have a second,  read a few more pages.

2.  When I have free time I tend to make big plans for productivity, then end up watching Netflix and cuddling with my cat. Or, if I'm in the city at school, I end up running a million little errands and cleaning my room, and then I'm out of free time.  But at least I get a nice clean room out of it!  I spent some free time cleaning my room before I left for winter break, so when I go back, I'll have everything nice and tidy!

3.  If I had an entire day completely to myself, I would watch some movies and television on Netflix, knit, cuddle with my cat, putter around the internet, and snooooooze.  No matter what I try to do in my free time, I usually end up snoozing.

4. I would prefer to spend my free time (alone or with others) hmmm... generally alone, but I also love spending my free time with my best friend Marissa or my cousin Kaleigh.  We kind of do the same things that I would if I was alone-- making crafts (ok, I make crafts while I watch Marissa play video games), playing around on the interwebz, watching television and movies, and-- you guessed it!-- snoozing. 

5. Most of my free time happens during RA training week and move-in week at the beginning of each semester, and during closing week at the end of the semester.  It's the only time I don't have homework!

6. The best thing about free time is being able to do whatever I feel like doing, whenever I feel like doing it!  

7. The next time I have free time, I should probably do yoga, but that's kind of out of the question at the moment because I don't like leaving my mom by herself downstairs with my grandmother, in case she needs some help or needs me to get something or call someone or whatever.  It wouldn't be a zen experience.  And anyway, I forgot my yoga mat at school. 

like pretty things?  like winning things?  like winning pretty things?

enter the etsy shop giveaway!

♥

bend...and snap!

Ugh, you guys.

Today has been just ridiculously frustrating.

I couldn't seem to get anything done.

But that's ok... because Legally Blonde is on television, and I'm surrounded by craft supplies.

I'm just going to hole up in my grandmother's upstairs living room and wait for the stars to realign.

nothing like velvet ribbon and vintage flowers to salvage a bad day

want to win some pretty things made with those ribbons and flowers?  
click here to enter my etsy shop giveaway!

♥

i like spiral stairs.

I love the light in the window-- so cozy!

A pink spiral staircase covered in jars of adorable candy. yes please.

how beautiful... I would sit on these stairs and read for hours.

I do so love a good wood stove.

1.2.3.4.5.6.7
I love spiral staircases... I love how open they look, and how it seems like they could go up to the sky, only needing the support of one beam, like a magic beanstalk.  I think I also like their resemblance to DNA, as though two of them could come together and a whole environment would rise out of their intersection.

etsy giveaway!  enter it here.
♥