Starbuck's spells my name wrong

For your amusement.

3 different occasions, 3 different locations. Things that make you go HMM...

D&D

The Decoration and Design Building, across the street from Bloomingdales in New York City, is the mecca of design showrooms. The building is 18 stories high, and houses some of the most important companies' showrooms.

I've always known about the D&D building, but had never been inside. Until today. The elevator banks are unique on each floor, which was a fun surprise.
This was one of my favorites:

The walls are entirely paneled in wood, like a lodge. The only thing missing was a deer head adorning the wall. 

I think I liked it so much because of how unexpected it was.

Most of the upholstery showrooms had student samples (A.K.A. discontinued fabrics that they no longer needed) in big plastic containers. Myself and two friends from school must have gone through at least a dozen of these containers. We started on the 18th floor and worked our way down, so we could explore every floor (none of us had been here prior) and get as many samples as possible. It was a great way to spend the morning, and I think it energized all of us about our impending project.

Another perk of going to the D&D building:

My new pencil collection.

WHAT?! THEY WERE FREE OK!

New Bedding

What's a girl to do after a mild emotional-breakdown due to over-exhaustion from working and going to school and working and doing homework and working?

Buy new bedding, obviously.

These are my new Kate Spade sheets that I splurged on.

I loved the grey, white, and pink geometric pattern the moment I saw it.

The grey polka-dot pillow cases are Royal Velvet.
I couldn't find any coordinating Kate Spade pillow cases, so I searched the store and came up with the dots. Not too shabby, eh?

The duvet cover is one I've had for quite some time. I knew that this sheet set would work well with it, which was one of the driving factors in me purchasing these babies. (Ok fine that's a blatant lie. I would have bought them anyway.)

So a bummy day turned out to be not so bad.

Shopping makes things better. Always. That is a rule of life. You should probably start practicing it...

Going Home Again

After much deliberation and many indecisive moments, I have decided to move back in with my parents. This was not an easy decision, and I am extremely apprehensive about it, but as of right now, logically speaking...it seems to be my best option.

I have not lived with my parents steadily since high school. Sure, there were a couple of years after high school when I was going to college and living at home, but I was always spending time elsewhere. There were summer vacations spent here, there were intermittent periods of unloading all my belongings just to pack up again and leave.

Comings-and-goings of that nature, I have found, amount in an excess of...stuff. Years and years worth of junk. I would post some pictures of the clutter...but it looks like a hoarder has been living there. My bedroom was demoted to a storage closet about two years ago, amassing not just my junk, but my family's junk as well.

My mission for the past couple weeks, which will span into as many weeks as necessary, is to get rid of EVERYTHING that hasn't been touched in over a year. So far I've parted with three garbage bags full of clothes (2 closets and 2 dressers, and I still can't fit everything I own? Give me a break.) One bag of shoes, three bags of things stuff for the trash, one bag of books...And I'm maybe halfway through the trenches.

BUT!! There is a light at the end of the tunnel, and it is this:

Tempaper is a company that makes removable wallpaper. It's similar to a contact paper, made of vinyl, and goes on as a decal.










The wall behind my bed is flanked by 2 closets, making it a perfect candidate for some snazzing-up. I've chosen the Honey Jade Marrakesh pattern, and am yet to choose a wall color to go with it.

I want to avoid a Moroccan theme, so I plan to keep the rest of the room pretty neutral (Orange? Purple? No thanks.) I'll update as the project progresses. Heres hoping it goes well!

Inspired By:

I find inspiration for my style from almost everything I come in contact with. The most tangible and easily accessible way for me to reinterpret this inspiration is through clothing. It would be fantastic if I were also able to apply my ideas to the space I live in, but unfortunately it's just not feasible. (ie: furniture etc. is expensive, thrift store finds risk beg-bugs in NYC, I'm not the only one living here, and there's the small issue of the 5 story walk-up.)

So for the time being, I stick to clothes.

I just attended an awesome Housing Works event called Buy the Bag, to which I was invited by NLP (one of my friends and old Managers from The Palm). Housing Works, apparently, has a warehouse full of donated clothing that never has a chance to make it to one of their brick and mortar locations. So, for this aptly named event, you go into the warehouse, rifle though thousands of items of clothing in what is similar to a sample sale on crack, fill up as many of the provided paper bags as you wish, and then buy the bags. Each bag cost $25, and I walked with two of them, stuffed to the brim with label and non-label clothing.

My favorite item, albeit slightly difficult to find a wearable purpose for, is this amazing sweater:

Sure, it's a little juvenile/ christmas-esque/ welcome to the 80's, but I love everything about it. From the sparkly bows, to the princess shoulders, it is perfect. Actually, I almost put this gem back because of it's impracticality, but NLP encouraged me to take it. Good call, NLP, good call.

Another great find were a pair of flared Citizens of Humanity jeans that I also have on in that sweater photo, although you can't see very much of them. I love the jeans, but I've been having a hard time figuring out how to wear them in a casual outfit. I haven't purchased a pair of bell bottom jeans since...let's see...my first year of college, seven years ago. I think it's safe to say that my style aesthetic has evolved since then, as has fashion itself (Skinny jeans?). So, not wanting to look like a high school version of myself, I needed a little inspiration on how to wear these. But where to find it? 

I was perusing What I Wore this morning, and came across this fantastically wearable outfit:

YAHOO! I'm not intimidated by these jeans anymore! And I'm also not in high school! I can totally reproduce this outfit in a way that is my own, and I am muy excited about it. I don't love every little thing about the look, but it feels accessible and, overall, looks good. Mission accomplished.

Now I just need to figure out a way to wear that sweater...

Project I

Last week I began my classes at Fashion Institute of Technology, a.k.a FIT. I'm taking three classes: Drafting, Survey of Interior Design, and Presentation Techniques.

In drafting class, we're learning about what life was like before the invention of a lovely little thing called autoCAD, which is a computer program that assists in creating floor plans, layouts and such. In other words, I am learning how to hand-draft.

Here's my almost finished first project:

To create this, I used vellum, a drafting board, architectural scale, T-square, circular template, lead holder, drafting tape, a steady hand and a LOT of patience.
No idea what any of those things are? Yeah, neither did I until last week.
I still have a couple of squares left to finish, but so far so good.


In other news, it's been raining for three days straight, and the subways are still in service. Maybe...if we give this week of rain a name...Bloomberg will shut everything down again. After Irene we'd be on J, so let's go with...Joan. HEY BLOOMBERG, JOAN IS HERE! LET'S SHUT DOWN THE CITY SO NO ONE GETS WET!

Hello Irene

New York City is officially in Hurricane mode. All of the subways and busses have been shut down in preparation for hurricane Irene, currently a category 1 storm that should be hitting us any time now. Stores are closed, banks, Universities, restaurants, super markets, everything. The few places that remained open either have "X marks the spot" tape across their windows or are completely boarded up on the outside, like the Petco by my parents' apartment.

I want to say that this is a bit drastic, but the storm still hasn't hit. I do think, though, that boarding up to that degree is a bit extreme. After all, this is the Upper West Side we're talking about, not some po-dunk beach town.

Update:
8:35pm- lots of rain, but still no sign of a hurricane...

Sunday, 10:12am- What a monumental overreaction by EVERYONE. 

Mama's Day!

Happy Mother's Day!

I hope that everyone had a lovely one and got to enjoy some time with the people (mothers) they care about. Mine was quite enjoyable.

Early in the day, JP (my roommate) and I went for a jog in central park. After that, we walked around a street fair that was happening in our neighborhood. BF came along also, and snapped this photo of us in our snazzy new sunglasses:

We're awesome, in case you can't tell.

Also, check out the background. Yes, those are the projects. No, we do not live in the projects, let's just clear that up.

The Fair was surprisingly lacking in vendors. There were long empty spots (such as the one behind us) that were unoccupied. Seems silly, it was a beautiful day. Perhaps no one wanted to set up shop in front of the projects. For that, I can not fault them.

This picture below is an attempted shot of the actual street fair. Not sure how much of a success it is, but you can't blame a girl for trying. And hey, at least there are no projects!

After the street fair, I met my family for dinner at an Italian restaurant in Midtown. The food was delicious, and my loud, unruly family was tame compared to most of the other disastrous families there.

After that delicious dinner, I took a cab home, got in bed, and napped away my fullness. I'm still extremely full from eating so much yummy pasta and chicken and salad and calamari and cheesecake, but it was well worth it. Mother's day was a success.

Slimer!

I'm sure you've all seen the Ghostbusters movies. If you haven't, you've clearly grown up under rock. My sincerest apologies to you if this is the case.

The Ghostbusters took residence in an old New York City firehouse. Below is a paper model of that firehouse. A doll house, if you will, but...not quite.

Now the picture you're about to look at is one that I took while walking with PB. She actually pointed it out to me.

Look familiar?
Well, it should.

This is the actual firehouse that was used for the outside shots in the Ghostbusters movies. It's located in TriBeCa.













On the sidewalk in front of this famous firehouse that i've walked past a million times and not even thought twice about is a giant emblem giving recognition to the Ghostbusters.

Pretty cool, huh?

Is a good deal ever really a good deal?

Judging by the Mani/ Pedi/ 10 minute back massage for $25 that PB and I went for today, no, a good deal is not EVER a good deal.

Yes, the price was right, but there was a reason for it.

The pedicure chairs had wooden covers on them, like the kind taxi drivers put on their seats. And the nice bubbly tubs that your feet go in? no bubbles. no soap. just scorching hot water.

PB opted for just the pedicure and back massage portion, while I was planning to do just a manicure and pedicure. By the time PB was done with her massage, I was still getting my shoddy manicure (aren't you supposed to cover my nail with polish? no, not my finger...my whole nail? isn't that what you do everyday? how can you not achieve this yet??).

PB offered up her credit card to pay for her pedi and back massage. $27. Eh...What?
Turns out it would be cheaper for her to get the manicure in addition to what she already had.

She got the manicure. Mid-way through her manicure, I relocated to the massage chair.

The green, 20-87 year old massage chair was dragged into the center of the shop, a little paper towel was put on the face piece, and I was instructed to sit down. This is what ensued:

1. The paper towel slipped and my face touched the green leather that probably hadn't been cleaned in a decade. Ew.
2. The chair was rickety. Like, really almost about to fall to the ground.
3. The massage was barely a massage. It was a set of hands going at my back as if they were trying to kill a super fast ant that was racing all over the place.
3. While trying to kill the super fast ant that must have existed, the body attached to the set of hands was HUMPING me. To reach my shoulders and neck (which she basically just prodded at) she straddled my back and leaned into me. Personal Space? Not during this "massage".
4. Don't think it can get any worse? You're mistaken. Directly under the face piece that my cheek was touching, there was a metal bar. Every time the woman touched me in her jerky way, the bar slammed into the space between my bottom lip and chin. At one point my tongue was rested between my teeth. I promptly clenched my teeth together after the bar smacked me and made me crunch my tongue.

DING! finally, the bell went off and I was done. I get up and sit down next to PB at the nail drying area.

"How was it?" PB inquires. I look at her and smile. The woman who performed the torture is still standing within earshot.
"Then you must have had the good one, oh my god mine was so awful. She didn't know what she was doing and there was a bar digging into my face the whole time." This entire sentence escapes PB's mouth before I can manage to explain that I had the same loathsome experience. We spend the next half hour or so comparing the crappiness of all that happened.

Cheap is not always better. And here, the icing on the cake:

Disaster

We dried our nails in a foot dryer. Note the words "Pedicure Dryer" clearly stated on the machine. Oh, and see that little wooden thing? That's what all the chairs were covered with. Guess they were going for a theme. Um...mission accomplished?

Goodbye Winter

I live in a small New York City apartment with 2 of my oldest childhood friends. We live in a three bedroom, fifth floor walk up on the Upper West Side, the same neighborhood we all grew up in.
For each perk of living in the City, there is an equally miserable drawback. The one my attention is focused on today is...(drum roll please)...lack of closet space. my hangers are doubled up, my dresses are wrinkled from being cramped so tightly together. And, since it's been winter the whole time we've lived here, (4 months) I have all of my cold weather clothes and not much of my summer wardrobe. The summer clothes are at my parents house. Which means I have to pack up all my winter stuff, lug it on over to my parents place, and exchange it all for summer stuff. Not.Fun.

So un-fun, in fact, that it was clearly a perfect opportunity to sit down and write. And drink coffee. and readjust my curtains. and eat some crackers with hummus. and try on my new swim suit for the fifteenth time. Um...I guess it's time I get started on the closet.

...

10 minutes into the cleaning out of the closet, and i'm being much less picky about what I "might" wear on cool spring days. Usually I have a hard time parting with things, even though technically I'm only parting with them for a season...but how do I know I won't want to wear a black wool sweater in July??? It could happen! Maybe! But i guess, if it does, I can just go get it from my parents house.
And into the bag goes the black wool sweater.

...

2 huge suitcases and an hour and a half later and i'm done! And, may I add, my closet is now color coordinated.

This is the final product (I wish I had taken a "before" photo as well, but...oops, I didn't.)

My newly organized closet

It's a nice feeling to accomplish something that seems daunting. And today was the perfect opportunity for me to get it done.

I work in a restaurant, and have recently switched over to working nights only, as opposed to previously working days only. This leaves me with copious amounts of free time during the day, so while my 2 roommates and most of my other friends are at their 9-5's, I have little to occupy my time with. I'm on week two of this new work schedule, and filling my days with productive activity is proving to be no easy task. So far, I've given myself 3 manicures, watched almost 3 entire seasons of a show called Say Yes to the Dress, and I've gone jogging. A lot. Oh, i've also read samples of about 5 books on my kindle. I have a hard time deciding whether I'll continue to enjoy a book after reading the sample, so more often than not I don't end up purchasing them. I have read the first few chapters of more books than I can even begin to count. I did, however, commit to Tina Fey's book this morning, and shelled out $12.99 for it. Hope it's good.

Well, it seems i've passed a suitable amount of time today. Time to get ready for work.