Well, I've finally achieved what I've been inching towards for years.
I've become a Disney princess.
Lifetime goal: achieved.
You can princess-ify yourself at AzaleasDolls, too! I was never really into the whole online-dolls thing growing up, but this one was just too good to miss.
Happy birthday to my wonderful Mom!
We've had so much fun together, and we've been there for each other through so many ups and downs.
And I know we always will be.
And here's Cocoa! He is full Siamese, and he's the baby of the kitty-family. His favorite things are...
meowing loudly and often
grooming Bucky
his catnip scratching thing
sneaking up on Bucky and play-attacking him
napping in sunny spots
taking off at a sprint and running and leaping all over the house for no apparent reason
And some fun facts about Cocoa...
Cocoa is tiny even though he's fully grown. His paws are so little and adorable!
Bucky is his protector. If it thunders, or there's an unfamiliar person in the house, Cocoa can almost always be found hiding behind Bucky.
Cocoa also loves shrimp, but he's more adept at picking them up than Bucky is. I have to put Cocoa's on the other side of the house so that Bucky has time to eat his, or else Cocoa eats both of them.
So now you have a better picture of my kitties!
Feel free to link to photos of your kitties in the comments-- our cats can be internet-friends.
I hope you had a lovely weekend!
I wear dresses pretty much exclusively. It works out particularly well this hot and sticky time of year (for those of us in the northern hemisphere, anyway). There's one kind of dress that seems especially light and breezy-- the 1920s robe de style.
I love this one-- it's a classic, ethereal robe de style in a beautiful pastel color palette
c.1927
this is one of my favorite dresses ever. it's by the Boué Soeurs circa 1923-1925.
it has a beautiful metallic-embroidered tulle overlay and grey-blue silk insets and clusters of the most exquisite ribbon flowers
is it any wonder I love this dress? when I design, I want the person wearing my clothing to feel just as special and magical and beautiful as it must have felt to wear this dress.
pale pink robes de style became a popular option for wedding dresses, like this one.
this is the hoop skirt worn under the wedding dress- hoop skirts are only slightly behind crinolines on my list of beloved undergarments.
this is a court dress by the Boué Soeurs circa 1932-1934.
I love tea-length dresses with trains-- it's so sweet and playful even in the most elaborate fabrication.
1. The best surprise ever would be a weekend at the beach or a surprise camping and hiking trip.
2. Vacations in Cape May with my family every summer when I was growing up is my favorite memory.
3. The hardest, but most worthwhile thing I've ever done was getting my BFA from the Fashion Institute of Technology. Yay! It was sometimes rough, but I learned so much and made friendships that I know will last a lifetime.
4. The best part of my day is mid-morning-- It's when I'm at my most productive. But I also love when I wake up first thing in the morning and have the whole day to plan out, and right before bed, when my kitties snuggle up and purr. I don't think I have a least favorite time of day.
5. Something I like that most people don't is waking up early. I'm definitely a morning person.
6. Something I am willing to fight for is my family. I'm usually a very relaxed, calm, even-tempered person, and it takes a lot to get me riled up, but when it comes to my family I'm quite protective.
7. Something you might not know about me is raspberries and hydrangeas are two of my favorite things.
On Tuesday May 22nd, I received my BFA from FIT, graduating summa cum laude with a major in Fashion Design, specializing in Sportswear, and with a minor in English.
My family arrived on Monday morning so we could have some time together in the city.
It was rainy, but that didn't stop us from having a lovely time.
My mom, my brother, and my Aunt Nancy were staying at the Jane Hotel, and this is the bottle of water from the room-- my mom gave me the bottle because it's so my style and so cute! thank you mom!
My friend Cara and me before the ceremony-- thanks for the photo, Jewels!
the stage and student seats-- Carolina Herrera received her honorary doctorate from FIT during the same ceremony, which was so cool! And I was in the center of the front row, so I had a perfect view. Yay!
After graduation, we went to the Russian Tea Room for celebratory dinner. It was so wonderful, definitely one of the coolest places I've ever been. We had dinner on the first floor, in the main restaurant area, but afterward, we were allowed to go upstairs to see two of the coolest features of the restaurant.
The first one is this glass bear aquarium-- it's 9 feet tall not including the base, and it revolves! Since we were there when there wasn't an event going on (which is why we were able to go up in the first place), it wasn't lit or revolving at the time, but it was still amazing to see.
The second beautiful curiosity in the Bear Lounge is this incredible egg tree, decorated with Venetian blown glass eggs. It's one of the most magical things I've ever seen. I'm absolutely enamored with it. Full disclosure, this picture is the one off the Russian Tea Room site (with a little post-processing by me) because we didn't want to over-stay our welcome with the very sweet manager who let us go into the closed area. But it was just as gorgeous in person.
Just to give you another look into this amazing space...
Congratulations to everyone who graduated from FIT on Tuesday! I feel so privileged to have been able to share the past four years with you. And congratulations to everyone who has graduated this year, from any school!
Last Friday, after my last final exam ever, I went for a celebratory walk on The High Line.
Today I'm graduating from the Fashion Institute of Technology. It's a weird feeling. I'm excited, of course, it's a milestone and graduating from my dream school is surreal. But knowing that my dad and my grandmother, two people who I never imagined this happening without, won't be there is giving me a knot in my stomach and a lump in my throat. Late last night I was imagining what graduation would be like, and without even thinking about it, I was picturing my dad's proud, beaming face as he saw me for the first time as a college graduate. I think that's why graduation feels a little...anti-climactic. Knowing that no matter how wonderful it is, and how excited I am to move into the next stage of my life, my dad won't be there holding flowers after the ceremony. It's a reality I wasn't ready to face quite yet. But all I can do is make the best of it.
So this is the end of the hardest, most stressful, most transformational, and most rewarding four years of my life.
Yesterday my beautiful cousin Kaleigh and I did a little photoshoot of one of my senior thesis collection looks.
It was so wonderful to see Kaleigh walking around the city in this look. It's one thing to see your pieces on dress forms, or on models during a fitting, but to see the clothing I made out in the world was such an incredible feeling. She was the best model I could have possibly asked for.
And we had so much fun! These are just a few of the hundreds of photos we took, but I was too excited to share them with you to wait! I'll be posting more of them soon.
Have a lovely Sunday!
Model: Kaleigh Young Fashion and photography: Julie Rose Romano
1. Something that is very near and dear to my heart is New York. After living in Manhattan for four years, I've found the neighborhoods and routines that I love, places that calm me down and places that give me energy, and tiny details of this city that can only be learned after spending a good deal of time here. I don't know where the next stage of my life will take me, but New York City will always have a special place in my heart.
2. Finishing my last final exam ever this morning is good cause to celebrate.
3. The most fun I ever had was: oh, this is a hard one... I have had a lot of fun with a lot of wonderful people. I've managed to narrow it down to three possibilities, though. One would be during the yearly vacations my family used to take to Cape May, New Jersey every summer. Another contender is the trip to Canada that the fife and drum corps took in 2005-- I can't believe that was already seven years ago! And of course, I have to include my trip to Disney World with Marissa in the summer of 2010. It was our first big trip on our own, and it's one of my favorite experiences of my life. We're planning another trip to Disney for when we have grown-up jobs and I can't wait! Belle's castle and village will be done by then, i.e. my life will be complete.
4. True friends are a rare and wonderful commodity.
5. Something that makes me terribly happy is when my room is nice and clean, and I have some free time to enjoy it. Since I'm done with college now (aaaah!) I have the free time... now I just have to do the cleaning. And packing!
6. A good way to spend a sunny day is the way that I did today-- a long stroll along the High Line and Hudson River Park, with celebratory gelato and unlimited time to poke around and take pictures. It was perfect.
7. My favorite celebratory food is ice cream! It's so festive. Especially with sprinkles. Or macarons, they are excellent for celebrating, too.
For the past few years, I've really wanted a tattoo of a button, and I figured that with graduation coming up, now was the time to actually do it. It's tiny, just the size of a penny, and on the outside of my left ankle just behind the ankle bone. I absolutely love it. The color is perfect and the shading is beautiful. It was done by Wendi-- when I saw her portfolio I knew I wanted to work with her because her illustrations and tattoos are both so pretty and charming. And she is so sweet, she made me feel totally comfortable even though I'd never so much as set foot in a tattoo studio before my consultation last week.
I was worried about getting a tattoo because I am a notorious chicken when it comes to needles-- shots, getting blood drawn, anesthesia, I get completely terrified. But this wasn't bad at all-- the feeling of vibration was much stronger than the pain. And I knew going into it that it would be worth any pain, because not only did I get my button to commemorate graduating from school, but also in remembrance of my dad. I sketched out a button with four holes to represent the four members of my immediate family (my parents and my brother, Zach), and with a raised edge to signify the sort of-- bubble the four of us traveled in when we were together, no matter where we were. The music playing while I was getting the tattoo done was pretty great, too. "The Weight," by The Band, "Like a Rolling Stone," by Bob Dylan, and "Brown-Eyed Girl," by Van Morrison, all played in a row-- three songs that my dad always sang and played on his guitar in our living room and at family gatherings. It was a wonderful final touch on something that already meant a lot to me.
And then it was done! I'm so excited that my little green button will be there every time I look at my ankle for the rest of my life. How crazy is that! Now all that's left to do is study French in preparation for tomorrow morning, my last final...ever. Yay!
I hope it's as sunny and lovely wherever you're reading this as it is here!
Today I turned in my last garment of my FIT career!
This is the dress for my leather class that I mentioned yesterday.
The bodice is a beautiful, soft, deep brown leather, and the skirt is cranberry and white gingham seersucker cotton. It has an exposed gold zipper down the front, with cranberry zipper tapes, and the straps are looped through gold grommets.
The back of the dress has cute bows where the straps loop through the grommets.
This is one of my favorite garments I've made this semester-- it's very comfortable to wear, and since the skirt is so full (160 inches at the hem!) and is supported by a separate crinoline, it moves in a fun, flirty way. When I run down the millions of escalators at FIT, it billows a bit, fulfilling one of my life-long goals...
...running/gliding down stairs like Cinderella.
Yesssss!
In other news, even though there won't be any new school garments to show, I'll have something exciting to share with you after tomorrow afternoon. Yay! In addition, my b-e-a-utiful cousin Kaleigh has agreed to model my garments for me, so there will be some pretty pictures coming soon-- I found the perfect place for the photoshoot, I'm really excited about it.
I'm so mysterious today! But not to worry. All will be reveeeealed.
Hi lovelies!
Just a few school updates I wanted to share with you...
My illustration work was chosen to be displayed in the FIT Museum! Each of the approximately 200 seniors graduating in Fashion Design prepared a two-page spread as an overview of one of our portfolio collections from seventh semester, then thirty were chosen to represent the Fashion Design BFA program.
Here's mine! We weren't told ahead of time if our work was picked, so I had the fun surprise of walking by the display and realizing I was looking at my own designs! If you're in New York, you can see it in person, along with a lot of other beautiful work by graduating seniors in a variety of majors, on display on campus.
eyes, why won't you stay open for photos?
this, people. this is why I don't have an actual fashion blog.
I also finished my third look for my senior collection-- a double-layered embroidered silk taffeta skirt, with a separate crinoline, and a stretch cotton jersey top in a soft heathered gray.
I really love this look, it makes me feel like Alice from Alice in Wonderland.
And the skirt makes a very satisfying rustling sound when I twirl around in it.
Now all I have left to do is finish up my last dress for my leather class! It's soooo lovely to work on, the leather is buttery-soft and thick and pebbled, it's gorgeous. And while we're at it, I'd like to take a moment to acknowledge my sewing machine! From my first garment at FIT to this, my last one, my darling 1973 Singer has never let me down. Yay!
I hope you're having a wonderful week!
p.s. Lexie, over at Pieces of Wonderful, is having a giveaway to celebrate the one-year birthday of her blog! Having been partners with her in our two-person craft exchange, I promise you that the things she makes are absolutely adorable and you should definitely enter her giveaway before it ends on May 21st!
