hail to the chief

i dared jenna to wear this headress to a party. she didn't take it off all summer. in the car, on the beach, off to parties. she was the chief.

opening night

last night, i attended the opening night performance of the new york city ballet. it was magical. truly. going to the ballet is so romantic. a luminous celebration of art and beauty. everyone dressed for the evening. ladies and gentlemen. the feel of it all. one of my favorite ballerinas came as a guest dancer from the paris opera ballet, aurelie dupont. seeing her perform was indescribable. her artistry, energy, grace.

i managed to sneak a quick picture of the delicious jewel of a chandelier.

but, as i don't have any other pictures of the evening, i have this. here i am at age seven. in stravinsky's the firebird. yes, the one in the center, smiling with her eyes closed and completely out of the elaborate (and somewhat symmetrical) pose, is yours truly. precious and clever.

calligraphy

for the past four months, i have been teaching myself calligraphy. it's enjoyable to just scribble little, frivolous words in my sketchpad. practice, practice. it's all rather fancy.

midtown

(i never thought i'd say this)

and maybe it is because the weather is changing and the holiday spirit is starting to sweep across the city,

midtown manhattan seems rather beautiful lately.

on pups

dogs bring a little extra joy to the streets of new york. i've actually never owned one but i had frequented the benches outside of the washington square dog park when the weather was a bit warmer. unfortunately, "no people without dogs, no dogs without people," so i watched a bit from afar. but it truly was such a delight.

furthermore, nothing makes this girl's heart smile more than seeing a pup in clothing. sweaters, shoes. all terribly silly looking.

last april, i saw a dog in front of whole foods. a golden retriever. it's owner had drawn on thick, black eyebrows. it was rather batty. i wish i had a picture.

beatrice

november brings many birthdays for the people that i love! in college, three out of seven of my roommate's birthdays were evenly spaced out over a twenty day period. luckily, everyone was in new york to celebrate this as we usually would, beatrice even had three cakes for her, emily and natalie!

we spent saturday evening celebrating beatrice in a rather stately city apartment. elegantly decorated with muted colors and row upon row of books. a gathering of delightful friends and a birthday girl who looked like a delectable piece of cake!

happy birthday!

and happy birthday to my nana!

times square

fall in love with new york! travel to times square! in the simplest of ways, coming to this rather absurd part of the city makes me feel like a kid again. absolute astonishment. looking up and in one million directions. lights so bright you always think it's daytime. signs for broadway shows, chain restaurants with everything fried and delicious on their menus, the double-decker sightseeing buses. oversized and over-the-top. tourists from everywhere taking pictures of each other. smiling. new york city. feel the energy.

sometimes i think that no matter how sleepy my little west village street is, forty six blocks away, there it is. times square. it seems as though it is a different world.

i've only lived in manhattan for (almost) a year, but i hope that for how ever long i am here, times square will always give me the same feeling it did visiting when i was nine years old. glamour. excitement. magic. and i hope and hope that even the most supercilious of new yorkers feel the same.

la danse

last night, i went to see la danse: le ballet de l'opéra de paris at film forum. it was a two and a half hour glorious journey behind-the-scenes of the paris opera ballet. i had waited and waited for this film. and it certainly lived up to everything that i had dreamed of. they said that the ballet is a present to the audience. and everything that leads up to that fanciful gift was shown in this film; the costumes being sewn, the props constructed, the music being practiced, the meetings with the artistic director, the endless, endless rehearsals.

they quoted maurice béjart saying that a dancer is "half nun. half boxer." that is the perfect description. so much work goes into each performance. so much thought. dedication. diligence. to result in effortless beauty.

oh and the film even showed the beekeeping above the palais garnier.

annie rescued a heap of old photographs out of a trash can in uruguay. she let me take these two home. love!

hannukah/christmas gift this year: a 2010 abt subscription? i can not think of anything that i would greater adore.

emily is twenty four

happy birthday to emily! twenty four years old. i hope you have the happiest of years. truly. you're the most wonderful friend and roommate. and, as always, you're the best emily in the world. 

we celebrated em's birthday at sweetiepie on friday night. quite possibly the most charming restaurant in all of new york. with an absurd amount of tater tots and the loveliest of friends. 

(song: wolf parade, i'll believe in anything)

my window

i love the perfect amount of light that shines from my window as i wake up and spend a splendidly idle afternoon in my apartment.

on music

seventy five percent of my records and what i listen to is classical music. i am wildly inspired by it. it's beauty is timeless. everlasting. i especially favor the impressionistic movement. debussy. respighi. ravel. ralph vaughan williams. i am just enamored by it all.


with every treasure i have, i am constantly surrounding myself with beauty and happiness. naturally, the music that i listen to represents this. going to the ballet is one of the greatest joys in my life. truly. the dancing, the costumes, the glamor. the music. it is comprehensively glorious to me. i am so lucky to live in a city where the most beautiful of performances are held. and i feel fortunate simply having the ability to realize my favorite things and pursue them.

the street

new york city streets contain every scent imaginable.
some smells are certainly more pleasant than others.

my favorites; fresh bakery bread, a few seconds of an opened-door nail salon, the fresh and fluffy fragrance from passing by an apartment building's laundry room dryer vent, the horse and carriages of central park, burning nag champa from the woman selling incense in front of the w4 subway station.

but none are more wondrous to me than the saccharine scent of nuts 4 nuts on a chilly, autumn night.

greetings

i love collecting vintage greeting cards. they seem a little bit lovelier than the ones that are created today. less obligatory, in a way. more charming. polite. thoughtful. set in an era where they were more likely to be adored.

costumes

in honor of halloween:

in college, we had this lovely costume store called old gold that everyone would rush to in the beginning of october. throughout the years, i got my costumes there. it was wonderful. and easy.

and then my senior year, after a weekend of two separate marie antoinette costumes (my friend jessica and i traded each other our different marie dresses), the actual night of halloween fell on a wednesday. i knew i didn't want to be a marie again. i rushed home from class and got to work. i had an idea in mind and got creative. i was going to be madeline! i used my yellow dress, a neck-tie from steph's sailor costume. elbow length gloves shortened. cut and glued fabric to make a collar. it was perfection.

that night, emily decided to be ramen. liz and i ran to city market to pick up as many packages of her favorite noodles as we could. about an hour before going out that night. we bought her twenty eight. she used the packaging and saved the ramen. adorable costume and she ate all of the noodles by thanksgiving break. win-win.

swiftly piecing together a costumes is rather fun.
this is annie circa junior year.
a very detailed hiker-mom created in a jiffy!

this year, we went down to dc for the festivities. my friends and i intentionally waited until the day of halloween to find our costumes. we rummaged through countless thrift stores. without even a thought of what we should be. we just knew when it was right. a funeral attendee, a fancy lady, a fortune teller and a priest.

vanity

is there anything more perfect than a vanity tray of your loveliest fragrances?