Tuesday, November 30, 2010

Birthday Hike

Our friend Gareth had a birthday recently and his wife planned a great day for a bunch of us to celebrate it! We started off by visiting a local farm to have breakfast away from the bustling city.
Since it was so close to Halloween, there was a contest for costumes and there was an old man playing the banjo dressed up as Dracula. It was inside a barn but we sat near the potbelly stove.
It was good food and terribly corny fun.

When we were done eating, we all picked out pumpkins-the pregant ladies choosing pumpkins that matched the size of their bellies. After that, we went on a hike at a nearby state park.

We brought a ton of food and spread it out on rocks to eat near the water.

Our friend Erin has this amazing huge camera and he gets the credit for all these photos.

Out of the three, no four ladies there, I was the only one who is not pregnant! It was too cute to see these preggers ladies waddling up the hills. Me included, but waddling is how I get around in general. Here is a shot of me, so you can see my fabulous hiking ensemble.

This state park was amazing because the forest is made up of maybe 80% rhododendrons trees. We will definitely go back in the spring when they are in bloom!

This is me and Ian collecting walking sticks for those who want 'em.

This is maybe my favorite picture, because my Sweety is making the BEST face.
He is soooo charismatic.


We were full of food and skipping stones.


We look sort of epic here, no?

Maybe one of the rare times I am not making a squinty face....

Erin took maybe 200 pictures, many of the guys who have been friends for at least 10 years, so they really know how to ham it up and take great photos. I thought it might be odd to put up photos of people who...you know, don't love fashion as much as me...

This is the birthday guy and his wife, who is my fashion idol, even while pregg-O.

We depart the Rhododendron Forest for the next adventure....

Monday, November 22, 2010

Well Girl

Yay! I'm mostly over my sickness and Thanksgiving is over! It was the best Thanksgiving yet-and it was my and my sweety's first Thanksgiving in our own home together!
Our system was that we combined our Thanksgiving with that of our neighbors, who are our close friends. We cooked the turkey, sweet mashed potatoes, german dark wheat stuffing, creamy corn, baked a couple loafs of bread and I made an upside down pear cake.
We ate appetizers down at their apartment, the dinner meal at our apartment, and dessert down at their apartment again. It was so beautiful. A brother took pictures so I only have a few pictures that I took. I will share them later this week.

I am still in recovery mode from the holiday and from my mom visiting. The day that I went to pick her up at the bus station, I couldn't find her. I was there for hours, she has no cell phone, she doesn't know her way around Port Authority, the subway, or NYC in general. I was there at 3pm and we didn't get home until 9 pm. I was a big mess. A big, tired, blotchy mess. All of us were, I think.
So on Sunday I literally laid on the couch for most of the day and napped. Naps are glorious.

The park where I usually take my outfit pictures also has this huge white marbled monument for WWII. Its not as far for me to walk and there is something really incredible about the way light hits it. Plus it makes for a good windbreaker.

Herringbone trousers plus white snakeskin-y peep toe flats? Yes, please.

This outfit is all about the white and greys. And it matches beautifully with the background, too, huh?

The amber and pearl necklace just looks so well with grey.

I like simple, easy makeup because I'm lazy. So what I do a lot of the time is just take a simple gold or copper eye shade and line the edges of my lashes with it, sometimes covering the whole eyelid.
Since I don't have the pix ready from Thanksgiving, here are some pix of a mango, strawberry and blueberry pie that I like to make.

Mango is really an ideal fruit to put in a pie. It doesnt fall apart but the tangy flavor goes well with anything you want in a pie-especially strawberries or blueberries. Plus the orange color is just really different and makes the pie seem really gourmet or exotic. Not to mention the taste! The texture! Mmmmmm!


I know Thanksgiving is barely just over, but now I'm thinking about Christmas, which is a great time to live in New York.
My favorite, favorite activity to do around Christmas time is to go look at the window displays at the Bergdorf Goodman store. They are the most elaborate, detailed and imaginative window dressings you have ever seen. I spend at least an hour looking and staring in admiration, taking dozens of photos.
So look forward to me taking pictures this year so you can see how amazing they are!

I found this video about all the time and effort it takes to do these windows, and it just got me excited for this year's displays.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KeRrIdOXVow&feature=player_embedded#!

Outfit details:
hat: uo
top: charlotte russe
necklaces: charlotte russe and f21
sweater: thrifted
pants: daffy's
shoes: old navy

Sunday, November 21, 2010

Sick Girl Continues...

So Day Ninety Hundred of Being Sick.
Not really, it just feels that way.

I was very very brave to take an outfit picture outside even though my nose was running like crazy and I couldnt breathe and I was very grumpy. Thats why I am making worse faces than usual.
I am wearing my DIY-tastic hand warmers yaaaaaaaaay. I have been struggling to clean the house and shop for groceries for Thanksgiving and do laundries and all sorts of fun things like that. Its even tougher when I'm whining and complaining to myself the whole time. I just hate being sick, and this particular flu doesnt let me eat or sleep so I feel half crazy and super grumpy.
I don't know how these city girl bloggers can take pix out on the street. I felt horribly awkward. There were a couple of women digging through garbage cans searching for cans and I was sure that I looked very vain and insane for not wearing a coat. I love taking pictures outside in Nature with no people around...

My lovely foyer...
I love these textures so much! Why is this writing underlined? I guess blogger thinks what I am saying is very important.

I made this ring!
I know that statement necklaces are all the rage but for some reason I found this delicate necklace in my jewelry box and have been wearing it constantly. It matches with everything!

Isn't it cool how this lawn shirt makes a cool shadowy tattoo on my bosom? Heck yeahs.

I can't tell whether these colors work or not. I think my color sense is pretty messed up right now, like when you can't smell anything when you're sick. Can I blame poor fashion decisions on my being sick?
Oh, pooh, I forgot to include a close up of my headband. Its a thin headband made of tiny black and white spotted feathers. Its awesome-sauce. I've never said that. Where'd I get that?

This is my 'i am feeling so tired and gross bleah' pose. Thanks for letting me lean on you, building.
Don't worry I am sure that I will be more witty and have better outfits/pictures soon. But since its so cold lately, I'm worried I won't be able to as much. But it WOULD be pretty neat to have a fashion shoot in the SNOW.

Outfit details:
shoes: uo
socks: can't remember
skirt: daffy's
belt: thrifted
top: uo
cardigan: f21
hand warmers: h&m

DIY: hand warmers

Hey! So this is possibly the most lame DIY ever, but. I'm sick, I get bored and I start making things and taking pictures. Thats just how I roll.
I love arm warmers, leg warmers-pretty much anything that will keep me warm. Why not just like mittens or socks, you ask? I dunno. It started out as a childhood dislike of socks and went on from there somehow.
I wanted these from Free People but they're too expensive. So I made some instead.
DIY Go Time!!
1.Purchase some gloves! I found these at H&M for under $10. The Free People ones I like are $40, I think? So....yay I saved moneys!!

2. Figure out the length of them that you want. Do you want your hand warmers to just show the very tips of your fingers? Or do you want to lop off the fingers in their entirety like the pair from Free People? A good thing to think about also is, what kind of fabric are these gloves made of? If they are knit gloves, is the weave tight or loose? If its loose, it might become unravelled. In that case, don't cut the fingers too much, you may need to fold down the edges inside each finger and use fabric glue to make each finger have a hem. So no worries!

I wanted a length that was something in between...

3. You maybe don't want to wear the gloves as you are cutting the fingers off so...yeah.

It is a good idea to keep putting the glove on to make sure you don't just cut indiscriminately-if you just chop at it, when you put the glove on it might look odd, or be too short!

Since the fingers are different heights when you hold your hand up, you see that you may want the lengths of the fingers of your gloves to be different for each finger. Why cut off most of the pinky when I don't really use the pinky when I'm outside? It made more sense to me to not cut so much for that. But the thumb and the index finger I use to pull stuff out of my pocket and whatnot, so i chopped those glove fingas off like whoa.

4. When you're done with the first glove move on to the second one. This is the hardest part: making sure the other glove is identical. Unless you want to rock the asymmetrical look. I bet you could do it!

.....right, second glove! You can measure it this way. Snip, snip.

I could not for the life of me figure out how to take a picture of my own two hands except by making this weird hand warmer crab creature. I feel like when I am sick my brain doesn't work as well.

So, what to do with the chopped up bits from the glove??
Why, put on a puppet show, of course!!

Ta-daaaaaaaaaa!

Tuesday, November 16, 2010

Summer Girl in Winter

You know how there are always articles in fashion magazines in the winter spouting, 'WEAR YOUR SUMMER CLOTHES IN THE WINTER-NOooo ITS NOT A STUPID IDEA!'
Well, today, since I'm feeling so bleah I thought I would try it out. I took out my ruffliest, summeriest dress and wore some sweater tights underneath and put a giant cableknit sweater over it and...its actually...super comfy! I wouldn't wear it in a blizzard, but maybe even in winter this could work. If you wore tall socks over the tights, and some tall boots...

I'm not sure how I feel about the belt. And I wish it weren't quite so match-tastic, but maroon and grey look super beautiful together.

After this, I'm heading to the doctor to make sure I don't have strep throat...last night i went on webMD and freaked myself out. I have a lot of the symptoms of it. I've never had it before, I'm strictly the ear infection type.

Oh! I never told you about the FIT visit. The whole thing took a couple of hours. But it was really great, and I usually hate stuff like that. The campus seemed small but fun and super cozy. They have great facilities and they even have a little boutique store where the students sell their work, and order stuff themselves to learn how thats done. I just really loved the intimate, friendly vibe. Afterwards I visited the FIT museum, which is free.
If you live in the NYC area, its just a fun little thing to visit if you're on the West side near 27 street.
Right now, the exhibit is about Japanese fashion, the deconstructionists, etc. So if you like Comme des Garcons, Jun Watanabe (i'm a horrible speller) and funky Japanese street style, you should definitely check it out! I looooove Japanese culture, so I was in heaven. Its soooo great to be able to see the garments close up so you can see the textures and the construction. Heaven.

They also have an exhibit on Eco Fashion (I think it just ended, unfortunately) but I was kind of disappointed in it. Not to be mean, but it was all ugly stuff. And thats the stereotype of eco clothing; but the thing is, organic and reused garments don't have to be, and a lot of times are not. I wish they had a better range of the eco fashion at the museum. They could have made better choices.

See now I know this is shapeless but I prefer it without the belt. I am not quite at the point yet in my fashion evolution where i wear huge oversized things with no definition and feel chic. A lot of models and fashion-y bloggers do, and it looks great on them.

I am at the point where I am getting over the idea that tight and fitted are not the same thing, and i am trying to wear more things that actually fit me and feel comfortable. In the store I will try things on and then when I get home I realize they're too big sometimes. My comfort zone is everything two sizes too big, but I think it will get better.
It doesn't help that clothing sizes are not very consistent.

This is how i feel today.

I'm taking pix inside cuz its rainy out.


Sigh. This is so pretty. I love the muted gray near such vibrant colors.

Outfit details:
shoes: daffy's
tights: h&m
dress: h&m
sweater: thrifted
belt: thrifted