Summer Loves

Check out my newer blog Summer Loves, which is all about what inspires me and what I love.  Personal style, travel, food, design.  Pretty much everything that I discussed on this blog, but with a more appropriate name.

xoxo-

Summer

Such a Great Week… And It’s Only Thursday

This week has been amazing.  So much has been going on.  Sunday was a potluck brunch with the girls at my loft, then I accompanied my friend Whitney to get her very first well-deserved, tattoo at New York Adorned.  Today, my good friend Doug moved to Chattanooga, TN to start a new phase in his life.  We held a very spontaneous good-bye dinner last night after packing up his apartment and loading his moving truck.  On the wedding planning front, we nailed down our wedding venue, our DJ, and got a really promising proposal from a wonderful caterer. We also just started to meet potential wedding photographers so it’s all coming together quickly.  I’m so excited for our wedding and I still have to wait another 6 months.  Jeezy-peezy.

I’ve been wearing this printed scarf a lot recently.  Here I’m wearing a Steven Alan plaid shirt, a Madewell white ribbed tank, a Theory cropped blazer, and a pair of skinny J.Brand jeans.

Gold and jade Dina Sutter earrings that Dina gave me for my birthday a few years ago.

The aforementioned giant Zara printed silk scarf.

My vintage leather bag.

My red-laced vintage leather boots.

The beautiful Whitney sitting in the New York Adorned waiting room, anticipating her new tattoo.

If anyone deserves to have the Japanese characters meaning “Courage” tattooed on their body, it is Whitney.

-Summer

Check It Out

I know, I know, I know.  I’ve been super busy recently and haven’t been posting that much.  I’m sorry, but these things happen.

And then, I go ahead and instead of posting here, I guest post for my good friend Aneta‘s blog Bobbin Talk, while she’s on vacation.  Check it out here.

Aneta and I posing it up during a break in our model drawing class at Parsons, circa 1998.  So funny that she now teaches at Parsons, all these years later.

Later.

-Summer

Ukranian Christmas Dinner 2010

Every year my fabulous friend Janet hosts a Ukranian Christmas dinner on January 6th, which is Christmas on the Ukranian calendar.  And every year she outdoes herself preparing the most incredible homemade borscht, pierogies, sauerkraut, bread, and kutya.  This amazing dinner and celebration has become such a tradition over the years, that it literally doesn’t feel like the end of the Christmas season for me until Janet throws her Ukranian Christmas dinner.

I wore my Rebecca Taylor printed silk dress layered over a Madewell white ribbed tank and a pair of Wolford black opaque tights.

It’s cold out there.  So, to help keep warm I chose to wear a wool donegal tweed scarf that I knitted years ago.  The necklace is the ring I bought in Singapore on a simple gold chain.

Vintage Salvatore Ferragamo boots that I found on Ebay.

Oh, and just in case you were wondering…  This is my fabulous new engagement ring!!!  He did a great job, didn’t he?  I couldn’t have done a better job had I chosen it myself.  It’s so sparkly.  It’s been 3 weeks, and yet I still find myself thinking that’s not my hand I’m staring at.

Janet’s amazing homemade pierogies.  (photo:  Craig Copelin)

Mmm-mmm, Janet.  Thanks so much for last night’s delicious dinner.  We had such a great time.

-Summer

2010= The Best Year Yet

One thing that I’ve learned in my 33 years is that every year continues to get better.  More wisdom, more experiences, friendships grow closer, relationships deepen.  I don’t typically make resolutions in the new year, but why not try something new this year, right?  Besides, maybe if I share my resolutions with you, I’ll be more likely to keep them.

Resolution #1:  Marry my best friend.  (photo: Bill Schimpf 2006)

Resolution #2:  Grow and evolve my business.

Resolution #3:  See more of the U.S.  Specifically Portland, Napa Valley, and San Francisco.

Resolution #4-  See more of the world.  Pictured here, Mayan ruins on the Yucatan Peninsula in Mexico.

Resolution #5:  Rediscover climbing.  The above photo of me was taken in 2006 in the Shawangunks on my favorite boulder problem by Bill Schimpf.  I’ve been climbing for 11 years and the past few years I’ve been very off and on.  So, this year I want to be on. 

Resolution #6:  Run at least 2 times a week.

I’d like to add more, but then I think that I would be a little unrealistic, so I’ll stick with these 6. 

HAPPY 2010!

-Summer

Big News

I’ve been biting my tongue for the last two weeks, dying to tell anyone who will listen.  I’ve been on a gag order for all technology related mediums so that we can tell everyone in person before they hear it through the grapevine.  However, now I can tell all of you that my wonderful boyfriend Rich and I are engaged! 

I’m so excited to marry this man, I can’t even begin to tell you.  It’s as though a button was instantly pushed inside my head and I began to plan our wedding.  Okay, I’d be lying if I told you that I hadn’t sort of been planning this for a while.  I’ve always known he was “the one”, so I’ve saved web addresses and made mental notes over the years whenever anything wedding related caught my eye.  I figured it would be beneficial to have a starting point when we actually began to plan our own wedding.  Lucky for me, there are a million great blogs and sites out there for the novice planner.  So, planning is under way.

Obviously, I’ve been super excited to find a dress.  My friend Lauren is also getting married in 2010, so she’s become my wedding dress shopping buddy.  We’ve been to a few stores already and have another couple of appointments, but I think I’ve already found my dress.  It was the stereotypical experience when I saw it and I just knew it was mine.  Anyway, I’m not going to show you my dress until my wedding day later this year, but I will show you one of my runners-up that I found at Temperley in Soho.  FYI, Temperley has the most gorgeous dresses.  My favorite one was a mere $20K.  LOL!  Me and my fabulous taste.  Needless to say, I didn’t even try that one on for fear of becoming obsessed.  The one I did try on was in my price range and still stunningly gorgeous.  A perfect dress for a summer wedding.

Pretty right?

Lauren and I are headed to The Bridal Garden this evening to check out their selection for her.  (Although, I’m not opposed to trying on some more gowns myself.    )  The Bridal Garden’s concept is really cool.  It’s a non-profit bridal salon where all of the gowns have been donated by top designers, stores, and individuals.  How cool is that?

-Summer

Dinner and a Show

Friday night, our friend Greg’s band Drexel and the Bootleggers was playing at a the Parkside Lounge.  We met up with him, his lovely fiancee Lauren, and her friend Eileen for some pre-show eats at the Kuma Inn, a yummy Filipino/Thai tapas restaurant.  It was bitter cold.  In fact, I have decided that I am going to purchase a full length down coat this year.  The truth is that if I could just wear my zero degree sleeping bag around town without being stoned by the fashion police, I would.  But alas, that is not going to happen.Me at the bar preshow.  I’m wearing a navy silk/cashmere J.Crew v-neck sweater, a white Madewell ribbed tank, black Jimmy’z skinny jeans, my new fabulous, super warm, Rosetung handknitted wool cowl, a vintage brown leather bag, and my grey Dru New York leather boots.

Me eating some porky goodness at Kuma Inn.  You can sort of see the cowl a little better here.  LOVE IT!

Pork buns anyone?

Lauren digging into our whole grilled Dorado.

The tiny open kitchen at Kuma Inn with Greg and Eileen in the foreground.  So jealous of that super warm hood, Eileen.

I loved that they had all types of different currency taped to their refrigerator, so I took a photo of it.

Lauren’s fabulous vintage coat that she inherited from her grandmother.

Drexel and the Bootleggers playing that good ole’ rockin’ roll.

Lots of fun happening this week so stay tuned.

-Summer

Two Shows

Wouldn’t you know it?  Just as soon as I talk about it being sort of Autumn-like, the weather goes full-on blustery cold on me?  It’s 27 today, and with the wind chill?  I can only imagine.

Anyway, this post is not about me complaining about how cold it is.  No, it’s about two art shows that I’d like to invite you to attend next week.

The first is at the Nau pop-up store in Soho and it features one of my best friends, artist Joe Iurato and photographer/ super famous ex-proclimber Boone Speed.

The second is at my boyfriend’s bike shop, The Tenafly Bicycle Workshop, in Tenafly, NJ and it features amazing photographer Nick Brandreth.

Definitely stop by and say hi.

-Summer

Thank God I Didn’t Miss Autumn

I don’t know how many times I’ve gone on and on about how wonderful Autumn is in New York.  It is my favorite season for all of the stereotypical reasons like the crisp air, falling leaves, and the golden light.  I thought that when I signed on to be in Singapore for October and November that I was going to miss out completely on Autumn in New York.  Well, lucky for me, global warming has taken effect and it still feels a little Autumn-like, even in the middle of December.  Some days the temperature is crisp, rather than frigid, so that I can wear my favorite blazers or cardigans as an outerwear piece rather than a heavy overcoat.  Even if my Autumn in New York is for an abbreviated amount of time, it still feels good to be able to experience the season.

To celebrate Autumn, my return, and the fact that our change bowl was full, my boyfriend cashed in our year’s worth of pocket change and we headed out to a delicious tapas dinner at West Chelsea’s yummy Tia Pol for the evening.  Good times.

Me in one of my very typical Autumn outfits.  I’m wearing a Club Monaco navy light weight merino scoop back sweater, a Vivienne Westwood glen plaid wool jacket, and J.Brand dark skinny jeans.

The ring that I bought in Singapore’s Little India was just a little too big for my fingers, so I’ve taken to wearing it on a gold chain around my neck.

My big Erotokritos knotted leather bag.

My favorite Frye boots which I’ve been wearing almost every day since I got back.

The view from the inside of Tia Pol’s window.

Just a few of the dozen or so tapas that we had that night.  Pictured at the top from the left is the embutidos ibericos: jamón, chorizo palacios, lomo embuchado, the pan con tomate, and below is the taquitos de atún relleno de boquerones.  All totally amazing.  My favorite thing that we ate was the chorizo con chocolate, which was a dark chocolate paste smeared on a baguette topped with chorizo.  Hello!  AMAZING!  I would have liked to photograph everything for you, but we were too busy eating it all.  In fact, you’re lucky you get this.  LOL!  It took some restraint to photograph this first round of tapas without just digging in.  From that point on, restraint went out the window.

Movie Date

Today was girlie date day.  At least once a month the ladies and I come from all over New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut and have a date which includes eating and then seeing a chick flick.

Lucky for me, the girls actually managed to restrain themselves from seeing New Moon until I got back from Singapore.  (Thanks Ladies!  I know how hard it was for you to wait!)  We’re all a little obsessed with the Twilight books, okay some are a little more obsessed than others, but I’m not going to name any names…  Oh, and we’re all in our 30′s/40′s.  Mmm-hmm.  You should have seen the e-mail thread that went into planning this date today.  Half of us were Team Edward and the other half were Team Jacob.  Then someone happened to mention that we’re obsessing over men/boys that are half our age, to which I argued “they are definitely not half our age!”.   Later I had to eat my words when I found out that one of them (Jacob, a.k.a. the shirtless wonder) is in fact 17 (!) and therefore HALF MY AGE!!!  Oh, I feel dirty.  Needless to say, I’m now on Team Edward.  Yay!  He’s only 10 years younger, and legal, so I don’t feel so bad.

Me at the AMC Theater at Garden State Mall, happy as a clam to see this movie, which by the way was SOOO much better than the first one (Thank God).  I’m wearing a 3.1 Phillip Lim coat, Zara heather grey tee, and J.Brand dark skinny jeans.

My Muji light weight wool scarf and Forever 21 Lanvin “inspired” white beaded necklace.

My Costume National black boots all dirty from the snow we had yesterday and my Marc by Marc Jacobs bag.

Kathy showing off the fact that her small soda is the size of her head.

Oh yeah.

All of the lovely ladies ready for the show to start.

Thanks for the welcome home girls!  Can’t wait for our next date when we see The Lovely Bones!

-Summer