Acne Autumn/Winter 2011

As usual, I'm totally in love with Acne's latest line. Polka dot skirts, wide leg pants, silk blouses and dresses.....but when will it all come to the outlet??

Rainbow Love

Over the weekend New York became the 6th state in the US to legalize gay marriage. I was lucky enough to be in downtown Albany when the bill was passed and experience the jubilation in the streets. What an amazing step forward for gay rights. Congratulations, New York!!

Photo from Brooklyn Bride

Gone Sailing

Loving this high waisted sailboat skirt and the endless possibilities for pairing. A dainty bow blouse tucked in and red maryjanes? Or a loose yellow tank and waist belt? So many options!

Moroccan Oasis

The desert is harsh, but with an oasis like this, how can you resist? This vacation rental is officially in my top 5 coolest hotels list.

Jean Claude Elena

Slowly but surely ramping things back up here! I have to apologize for the sporadic posts, but I've at last been settled long enough to put some semi-decent blog posts together. Although I usually focus on fashion/design/food, I wanted to switch it up a bit and highlight some amazing scents from my favorite perfumer, Jean-Claude Elena. He's currently the house perfumer for Hermes, and he keeps knocking it out of the park with one amazing perfume after another. Light, fleeting (ie low sillage) scents are his trademark, so even if you're not a huge perfume fan you might love his. By far my favorite right now is Rose Ikebana, which is a light, fresh, earthy version of rose. Jardin Sur le Nil is another great standby with slightly citrusy notes. And for evenings I love Osmanthe Yunnan, which has notes of black tea. JCE's latest in the Jardin collection is Un Jardin Sur le Toit, which I have yet to try and I'd love to get my hands on. Anyone else given it a whiff?

Back on Board

 Its been a hectic couple of weeks--2 weeks of business travel, starting to move into a new apartment, and getting ready for a new job. With all that activity the blog has taken a backseat, but I'll be getting back into it soon with more recipes and photos to come. The photos above are a couple of my favorites from our recent trip to Austin, TX. They remind me of what is quintessentially Austin for me--sun, swimming, and friends. For more photos, check out our new flickr photostream (hopefully the link works, I'm new to this!).

Coming Back

Just returned from Austin last night, and now I'm making a steady descent back into the regular world. The whole time I was there I felt like these photos--free, warm, happy. It's home for me and there is no where else in the world like it. Which is why, as Kyle says, we'll "claw our way back" if we have to.

Great Brights

There are some really fun handbags from Asos and Zara right now. Here's a few of my favorites. They actually all look really good together....would it be weird to carry 4 handbags?

two-tone bowler/ leather portfolio/ buckled messenger/ wrist clutch

Molino de Aceite

I just found my new dream home: this 12th century oil mill in Extremadura, Spain. The mill, which operated through the 1960's but has been abandoned since then, was restored by architect Ricardo Elizondo. Following restoration the interior was decorated by three sisters from the design studio Laminter. I'm very impressed by their work--it can't be easy to make an ancient stone building feel homey, but I think they've done it.

Travelling in Style

Kyle and I are doing a lot of traveling this year. Our next stop is Austin, TX (its my hometown but I only get to visit once a year), then after that we visit Montreal in July, and for our honeymoon in October we'll head to Spain. In honor of all this traveling, here is my little three step guide to having a great trip: 

1. Pack your camera and a good wide-angle lens into camera bag organizer
2. Insert camera bag organizer into purse
3. Take great photos

Isn't that easy?

Italy photo via feel the current

Etsy Faves

Sharing some of my favorite Etsy jewelers. I wish I could buy it all (and make my own, too!).

mixed crystal ring/ apatite beads/ turqoise earrings/ diamond ring

Summer

This was the first weekend this year that its truly felt like summer. The last couple days I've slept with the windows open, wore short sleeves outside, bought fresh flowers from the farmer's market (aren't they pretty?), and made homemade raspberry jam and ice tea. My favorite season has arrived!

Friday Favorites

Ok, you may have noticed that my blog posts have been a bit more sporadic lately. Lots of travelling, work and general life upheavals have been getting in the way. Plus, my computer is 7 years old and every day becomes more of a struggle with it. So I'm changing things up a bit around here. The Wednesday Wishlist will be gone (or at least less frequent), and the Weekly Roundup is being renamed Friday Favorites. In general, I'm going to focus more on sharing my own photography (like the photo my fiance took of 5th Ave, above) and original ideas (clothing design, travel experiences, recipes, etc.) and less on things I find on the internet. Why? Because I started this blog in part as a creative outlet, and its time to focus on creating. 

So here is my Friday Favorites post, 2 days behind schedule (better late than never). This Friday Favorites is something of a travel guide to New York City--we discovered so many great things there that I want to share.

1. Blossom Vegan Restaurant. This place has a steak-house attitude with earth-friendly, vegan execution. The seitan scallopini with lemon caper sauce, mashed potatoes, and sauteed kale was amazing. And the porcini cigars--sauteed mushrooms rolled inside crispy phyllo dough and served with cashew basil pesto--were one of the tastiest things I've ever eaten in my life. We'll definitely try to recreate them!
2. Dirt Candy. This vegetarian restaurant in the East Village takes a quirky approach to vegetables that I really appreciated. Dishes are titled by their star vegetable (celery, carrot, etc), and rather than work the meat-substitute angle, chef Amanda Cohen simply lets the veggies shine. Plus, she has an absolutely hilarious blog.
3. Hotel Delmano. This little bar in Williamsburg has a totally speakeasy vibe and the best cocktails I've ever had in my life. The Devil's Garden was my personal favorite, and as it turns out this drink has a burgeoning cult following on the intertubes. The bartenders take their cocktails seriously, and you can taste it.
4. Mast Brother's Chocolate. Absolutely, without a doubt, the best chocolate I've ever had in my life. (I feel like I'm saying "best I've ever had in my life" a lot. But NYC is a seriously tasty place!) Surprisingly, it wasn't the usual fleur de sel or espresso varieties that stole my heart, but the Brooklyn Blend--an unadulterated blend of cocoa beans from around the world with a slightly citrusy, slightly roasty flavor unlike anything I've ever had before. Buy some chocolate and take a tour....or at the very least, check out some nice photos on The Makers.
5. Brooklyn Brewery. Its a brewery, they serve good beer, they're in Williamsburg, and they have a resident brewery cat. Need I say more?

Simple Scenes

I've been getting lost in the photostream from the creator of the blog 3191 miles apart. Such simple scenes of home that reinforce what is really beautiful and important in life. Take a look, I promise its worth it.

The Garment District

As you can probably imagine, I wasn't about to let a trip to New York slip by without a visit to the city's famous Garment District. Covering 1 square mile of Manhattan near Times Square, the district was the original birthplace of the manufactured garment. In the early 1900's this dense center of manufacturing actually supplied 70% of women's garments in the US! Of course, as with all manufacturing businesses, much of the Garment District's activities have been outsourced for cheaper labor. That has left this neighborhood, which still serves as the main incubator of up-and-coming fashion labels in the US, at a crossroads. Even among designers who have chosen to keep their garment production in New York, many have moved out to hipper areas like Tribeca and SoHo. Still, if its high-end fabrics and notions you're looking for, there is nowhere else in the world that can compete with this concentrated center of fashion. I made a stop at B and J Fabrics on 7th street to check out the goods, and man, was I in heaven. Ethnic prints, Liberty of London, Italian suiting, fur.....they had it all (although I can't say I felt too good about the fox fur). The stuff was a bit pricier than I'm used to, so I forced myself to leave with only 2 fabrics....but they are awesome. AWESOME. I'll share later this week.....along with more highlights from NYC.