carry-on

until my new [rose + gold!] spring bag arrives from across the pond via topshop (i dislike the weekend crowds in soho almost as much as i dislike the phrase "across the pond"), my [cynthia rowley, pony-hair, increasingly unseasonable] backpack stays.

wishes and dreams

oh god, i would probably never go through with it, but when asked a few weeks ago if i would ever have cosmetic surgery i said: "only lip injections." they seem [relatively] harmless and sometimes pretty. have you ever had surgery? i had non-elective surgery three years ago and it is not something i would do again if you paid me. let alone something i would ever pay for. it's painful and disorienting, though the hospital was an adventure of sorts and was fairly interesting.

anyway! lip injections. ever since my comment, it's been a total case of "you get what you wish for." last week, ben's friend gave me a robust side-hug in which his watch went straight  for my bottom lip. much pain. the next day, the solid-block-of-ice in my water bottle [thanks, freezer!] came crashing down on my top lip [more pain] as i tried to take a sip [of the 3 droplets] of water.

all the results without the price and stigma!

ink

when i love something, i can not stop talking about it. to the point where i might as well just do the product's/place's pr. this list includes dr. dennis gross glow pads, clarisonic [order your mia 2 today─you're welcome], wolford tights [in matte opaque 80], ysl volume effet faux cils luxurious mascara and/or eyelash extensions, wild ride beef jerky, momofuku milk bar birthday cake truffles and blue bird coffee. 

and magazine cafe. oh gee, i have definitely blogged about this joyous store before. but really. this is one of my favorite places in manhattan. they have all of the best mags. and even though i am there twice a month to pick up my required reading, they always tell me that they've missed me. and even before they were featured in the daily a few seasons ago [should find a scan of this, they proved to be very knowledgeable], it has always been my go-to.

magazine cafe
15 west 37 street
new york, new york

rabbit

last year's weekend in burlington included at least four trips to thrift stores. i was trying to stock up on tschotskes for my apartment. my bedroom [in the lower east side apartment that i shared with emily] was stuffed to the brim with beauteous knickknacks, but i soon realized that i would have to distribute everything from a single bedroom into a kitchen and living room when living on my own. my new apartment suddenly seemed empty. so last year's trip to burlington was my chance to stock up. new york just doesn't have that many options. at least not in my budget. nothing ever seems that unique at picked over second-hand shops in the city that i can afford. 

my usual motto of don't buy unless i love did not apply so strictly on this trip. this phrase pops into my mind when i am debating whether something is a must-have. if there is any debate, i put it down. this time in vermont, i purchased just about everything that caught my eye. including a seashell rabbit.

and this rabbit [or mouse, i can't quite tell] is so bizarre. because, though hard to see in this picture, it has googley eyes. and i always try to understand if it was someone's craft project or something that was once sold in a store. after painstakingly taking the time to apply all of the shells to the animal's body, why are there googley eyes? there are plenty of real-looking eyes at craft stores that would make this shell rabbit look less like a [talented] 14-year-olds arts and crafts idea. i didn't exactly love it at first, but now i really find it quite fancy.

a suntan

after reading a book with my dad before bed, he'd tell me stories about his childhood. mostly about his friends, brett and boo, who he would get into all sorts of harmless trouble with; breaking their arms falling out of tree houses and the like. think dennis the menace. he had many, many stories to share about growing up. friends, family, school. all entertaining enough to become bedtime stories.

one story that i remember: a boy from his school, in preparation for a dance, used a [first generation?] self-tanner that turned his skin orange. everyone laughed at him at the dance and, after countless requested story-repeats, so did i. every time. an orange boy? ha. just think, that self-tanner tale was so memorable that my dad used it as a bedtime story, and i still remember it over 15 years later.

and still, i laugh, because i [countless times] have had an orange hue. at the start of my job, i willingly tried every tanner that passed through the office doors. nobody else would. streaky skin and orange palms were just a part of the job. i am now more discerning, i swear. there were also the unseasonable [winter in vermont] spray tans from body le bronze in preparation for ultra-glamorous nights out in college. and i still get slightly nostalgic every time i smell some variant of that jergens gradual-tan moisturizer. i was champing at the bit to buy it as soon as it hit store shelves. oh and of course, sally hansen airbrush legs. clearly i am no stranger to an enhanced complexion.

but, i can not fail to mention my first dabble into the world of self tanning at age 11. bizarre to think that i even cared about tanned skin at that age, especially only years before i was laughing at the thought of changing your skin's tone. but, it was a purchase from [now defunct] limited too. they had just launched a collection of personal care products, va-va-vanilla shower gels and berrylicious body sprays, which oddly [since its target customer was more/less 10 and this was before the reign of paris hilton] included a self tanner. it came in a sky blue tube and had a yellow sun squiggled on the packaging. i remember using it several times, without any truly noticeable difference, before it remained untouched in a bathroom drawer for several years.

though i am no longer in search of the perfect faux glow, a hint of color is always nice and i can't get enough of dr. dennis gross skincare alpha beta glow pads. they provide a reasonable amount of warmth to winter's skin-sans-sun without the risk of leaving streaks or orange hands; and offers a dose of vitamin d. see? i am now discerning.

time management

last night emily, justin, andre, ben and i saw the dead fingers in park slope and then had a massive feast at daisy's diner. i stayed over in brooklyn and then met my friend for brunch at the brooklyn star in williamsburg. after brunch it started to snow and i had an epic journey ahead of me to get back into manhattan. the L is not running this weekend so, from the g to the f to the m15 select bus, it took over an hour to get home. i just crawled back to my warm apartment and even though i have some work to do tonight, i can't stop staring at the stack of magazines in my bedroom. i suppose it is a lot to keep up with, 11+ subscriptions plus the foreign fash mags that i buy each month at magazine cafe, but i must find the time read them all.

gone forever

i once had a little mirror. it was hot pink plastic, in the shape of a heart, and on the back of it was a purple rhinestone heart. i loved it. i remember driving to my aunt's house with my mother, grandmother and older brother. vague memory, but i was sitting behind the driver's seat and i had the mirror in my hand. as soon as we got out of the car, my brother took it from me and threw it in the woods. never to be seen again. i must have been three or so, but i still remember. and i am still slightly bitter.

other things that i loved, lost/broken and think about:

heart necklace

on a family trip to the american museum of natural history in the city when i was nine, i bought a little crystal heart necklace at the gift shop. to remind me of the gem and mineral room, of course. that room has always been my favorite. anyway, i remember playing out on our front lawn when i realized that i was no long wearing it. i had an inkling that it fell near one of the trees but i was never able to find it. i looked for it for years. when ben and i went to the museum in april, they no longer sold that necklace.

green ring

it was emily's birthday weekend and all six of us piled into justin's suv. one of us had to sit in the trunk. alternating. but we went over to the brooklyn flea in fort greene and i bought two marvelous pieces of jewelry. a crystal bracelet that i am over-the-moon about but rarely wear because i am that afraid of losing it [because i did lose it! but it was returned to me], and a massive, [faux] emerald ring. seen below:

the emerald fell out. somewhere. i don't even remember where, but i think it might have been lost in my apartment. i still have the metal ring so i suppose i could easily replace the stone with another lovely big jewel. i just haven't yet. the ring and the bracelet were five dollars each.

pink ring

oh, this was my favorite forever 21 jewelry purchase. ever. it came as a set of five rings, but i really only wanted the gold band with the magenta stone. i actually bought two sets. just in case anything happened to the pink ring. and something did happen! maybe i should just not think these thoughts. the stone broke off within a few days. and the same thing happened to the next. yet it seems funny because absolutely nothing happened to the other rings in the set. which i've been wearing on and off for over a year now. whatever.

here is a wonky picture of the beauteous ring that i took on photobooth at ben's old apartment this summer:

i look for a duplicate of this ring everywhere. but nothing ever seems exactly like it. not in stores, not on etsy. it should be fairly easy to find another, right? but i just haven't. have you seen it?

le sigh. 

nyfw FALL 2012

the monday before fashion week started, i got an iPhone and quickly became an addict. au revoir, blackberry. so you can imagine how much fun i was having using instagram backstage. even though i have always thought the app was super cheesey, once i actually had it, i was hooked.

pretties backstage at marc by marc jacobs:

and even though the pictures' saturations and contrasts were all changed with i.g., all of the beautiful things [and people] i captured still would have been just as lovely.

and the models! they're so young, but so fab. one of my favorites is daphne groeneveld. she caught my eye ever since i saw the dreamy jill stuart spring 2012 campaign [shot by mario sorrenti] and i am obviously not alone. it seems like she is everywhere. i snapped this pic of her at derek lam:

super geeky but i instagramed this photo, tagged her in it and she LIKED it. and then she looked through my other pictures and LIKED others, too. i also saw her many times backstage...at marc by marc, jill stuart, and other shows that i just can't remember right now. i should have written this post when everything was fresh in my mind. anyway. here she is on the cover of tuesday's daily. does the collar look familiar?

also, here is frida on the daily's cover on day one:

i've mentioned my love of the daily before. lighthearted fun but informative. there was a nice piece on the gentlewoman's EIC penny martin in the weekend edition. i love the gentlewoman. i can't even get started on my pile-up of magazines right now [stress], but my gentlewoman copy is definitely on top. anyway, i was up at lincoln center everyday except for thursday, so i have almost a complete collection from fall 2012.

i also saw hanne gaby odiele. again at derek lam:

and another favorite: miss lindsey wixson. this was taken backstage at jill stuart:

 

see how fun instagram is/was? i just wish i kept things more in sync with each other - so many options for colors/borders. whatever.

backstage at elie tahari:

at jill stuart:

 and narciso rodriguez:

 

so now it is all over. and i have free time again, though everyone knows how much i love this time of year. it's not every day that you say hello to betsey johnson. or witness a rather moving pep-talk by mr. tahari himself, which was full of warm thanks for his team. or the chance to talk to super-famous models about jeweled cellphone cases. or get photographed outside of a backstage entrance like a celebrity. ha! le sigh, along with all the wonderfulness that happened last season, and the season before that.

oh and i was photographed by the cut! they took down my name, profession and such -- but sadly, i didn't make the cut. literally. but whatever. it would have been quite funny if i did as i was wearing my big sleeping bag coat. [courtesy of my mother, from talbots, which i refuse to give back.]

and here are a few more!

at marc by marc jacobs:

 

at richard chai:

makeup at charlotte ronson: