Surrealism LIVES!!

Marco Zanini has pumped fresh brilliance, whimsy and beauty into the Schiaparelli label. Take a look and swoon for yourself.

To Do List

Today's to do list:

1. Find the things you love most about yourself & celebrate them. Those quirks, idiosyncrasies and  flaws...love on them, accept them. Those things are as much your strength as the other stuff that "works". 

2. Catch a moment when you want to react with anger and spend a second thinking about what you would gain if you reacted with love instead. 

3. Take a long shower and laugh. Hear the echo of your laughter fill the bathroom. 

4. Sit and do nothing and don't feel guilty about it. 

Frigid.

This is how today feels. The entire country has been hit by a polar vortex. Which is just another way of saying, stay in bed and don't leave your house. For anything. If you do however, here's some inspiration on what to wear. Stay warm bears!

Smells like spring spirit.

Oh Vivienne, How I love thee!

In the midst of this nasty winter we're having I'm dreaming of a punk spring with a twist of 1940. Only one woman can really nail it & it's Ms. Westwood:

The Look

Valentino, you make me want to dress like a woman again.

Emotional Correctness

This woman is amazing and what she's talking aobut is so on point. I feel like I want to watch it every day just to remind myself...I love the idea of emotional correctness vs political correctness. 

Please trust me & spend 6 minutes and Watch this video.

NYI

New Years intentions...I think resolutions feel too much like rules and I'm not really one for abiding by rules but I love the beginning of a new year to set intentions. So I'm putting them down here so I'll be held accountable...and can remind myself (sometimes I forget. sometimes daily.)

Here goes 2014, intentions here I come:

1. To be more patient, especially when walking behind a group of slow walkers.

2. Compassion. Yes I can have compassion for a child, a dog or an elderly woman crossing the street. Crazy people screaming on the subway, the loud talker at the table next to me at dinner or the person on a job who just demands attention all day long...not so much.

3. Less social media, more quality medium. Lunch dates vs text conversations. Less insta, more gradual, delayed gratification. More focus.

4. I would like to read a book. From start to finish. I have friends who read a book in a day. I'm not one of those people. I get distracted, there's tv, there's Facebook (see #3), there's magazines and oh wait, there's a pile of dust I should vacuum...

5. Using language that supports my intentions. Language is so powerful and the words we choose shape our lives & our relationships.  I want to operate on a higher lever of consciousness when I talk...which I suppose means I should use 4-letter words a little less too...

6. Realizing that laziness is just fear. I can be super motivated and move at mach-speed for a long time and then I can lose steam & become lazy. I mean full on I don't want to get off the couch L-A-Z-Y real easily. I'll sit and make a to do list that I won't get to because another episode of Law & Order just came on... and on and on...so I'm ready to face the facts: the things I avoid doing are especially the things I should be doing. Sigh.

New Year Gratitude.

With a new year comes a lot of reflection on the past, ideas & intentions for the future and realizations about what works in my life and what needs to change.  One thing that I plan to continue with frequency is my gratitude list. Nothing creates present moment happiness like being aware of all the beauty and goodness in my life. Right now. I was talking to one of my closest friends yesterday who told me she is doing this with her 2 year old daughter & I just thought that was brilliant- imagine if we were all raised to acknowledge our gratitude to the world around us? Heres a little start...

Today I'm grateful for:

1. Snowstorms! I love a snowstorm so much, the way it quiets the city and coats it in clean, fresh snow...I love the communal energy it brings pulling all of us together through it.

2. Calm mornings to focus & work. 

3. Cookbooks. I have become obsessed with cooking & baking and spend hours trolling through food blogs & cookbooks getting inspired for daily dinners and breakfasts.

4. A new year. I love a fresh symbolic restart. Whether a birthday or a new year I love the marker of time that makes me think about my life, the energy I put out & the energy I take in. Its a great way to mark change & progress and to start new. 

5. Organizing. I spent 9 hours cleaning and organizing my storage unit (my second home) yesterday and it was as emotionally cathartic as it was physically fulfulling. I once had a boss who said what you do is being done to you and I think with cleaning & orgazining it is especially true.

6. Butter & honey. Yep its true. I love these two ingredients, especially on a warm biscuit espcecially in the winter...add some hot tea & I'm like a 90 year granny in blisss.

7. Sweatpants. I know, my younger, hotter self would cringe but when I walk in the door to my apt I love nothing more than putting on sweatpants. Its winter- I choose comfort!

snow gathering in my skylight

Note to self...

Advice to Myself

by Louise Erdrich

Leave the dishes. Let the celery rot in the bottom drawer of the refrigerator
and an earthen scum harden on the kitchen floor.
Leave the black crumbs in the bottom of the toaster.
Throw the cracked bowl out and don't patch the cup.
Don't patch anything. Don't mend. Buy safety pins.
Don't even sew on a button.
Let the wind have its way, then the earth
that invades as dust and then the dead
foaming up in gray rolls underneath the couch.
Talk to them. Tell them they are welcome.
Don't keep all the pieces of the puzzles
or the doll's tiny shoes in pairs, don't worry
who uses whose toothbrush or if anything
matches, at all.
Except one word to another. Or a thought.
Pursue the authentic—decide first
what is authentic,
then go after it with all your heart.
Your heart, that place
you don't even think of cleaning out.
That closet stuffed with savage mementos.
Don't sort the paper clips from screws from saved baby teeth
or worry if we're all eating cereal for dinner
again. Don't answer the telephone, ever,
or weep over anything at all that breaks.
Pink molds will grow within those sealed cartons
in the refrigerator. Accept new forms of life
and talk to the dead
who drift in through the screened windows, who collect
patiently on the tops of food jars and books.
Recycle the mail, don't read it, don't read anything
except what destroys
the insulation between yourself and your experience
or what pulls down or what strikes at or what shatters
this ruse you call necessity.

"Advice to Myself" by Louise Erdrich fromOriginal Fire. © Harper Collins Publishers, 2003

**one of my best friends sent me this today, it was too good not to share**

Randoms...

A few random holiday pics from the old iphone...

Family time in Chicago!

excited to be heading home for the holidays

my nephews, cutest boogers ever. 

and my niece who I'm completely obsessed with. 

Gentle Man.

There is nothing sexier or more lovely than a gentleman. A well mannered man with grace and etiquette go further than all the money, looks and talent in the world. A gentleman has self-respect, depth and patience.  He respects women and men equally regardless of sexual preference or the color of his/her skin.  A gentleman has a well rounded depth and and doesn't flaunt his life across the Internet. In the modern world I must admit it takes some searching to find a true gentleman amidst the knuckle dragging Neanderthals we see so often. But trust me, they are around and they should be honored & acknowledged because it takes confidence and courage to be a gentleman these days.  In case you're looking for a little direction this is an age old reference that makes for a good start:

Grateful Wednesday.

After many days of rest and some calm weeks I am officially back in the fray and working non-stop. It makes me so happy to be back at it, rushing through the day and running against the clock. Today here's what I'm grateful for:

1. Sunny winter days. It feels bleak and 10 mental degrees colder when the sun is covered, today the sun was out & it made running around all day tolerable.

2. Soup. I can't get enough soup this winter. It's sort of like taking a bath in that it seems to warm you all the way through. 

3. Being back in Manhattan. After a few years in Brooklyn I just moved back to the city & I love it. For someone like me who runs all over the city all day long its wonderful and such a convenience.

4. Seeing my collection pulling together. There's been a lot of fits and starts, a few major duds but mostly some smashing successes and at last I can see it coming together. 

5. Having down time. I usually feel like I have two speeds: mach paced & horizontal. Lately work has been intermittent and allowed me to learn a new, unfamiliar gear: steady & calm. It's been great to learn how to adjust and take it easy and also helps me really be ready for the crazy times. 

Empire State.

I've had a love affair with New York since I was 13. Maybe even before, watching An Affair to Remember and all those Astaire & Rogers movies as a kid and having this romantic vision of THE city. The city of all cities. The city where you can fall down a different rabbit hole around any given block and will when you're least expecting it.  The city where anything you want to be, do and see opens its arms (with some blood, sweat & tears) to you. And if you work hard and keep your head up and keep pushing you see the magic, you get caught up in the giant wave of magnetic energy that gets into every single one of your cells and keeps lifting you when you feel you can't go on another second. It humbles you, it comforts you and when you need it it will give you the power to rule your world, but only when you're good and ready. This city is not for the weak, the faint of heart or the easily shaken. This isn't a city for the complacent, no sir, stay in your hometown for that. This city is for those who want to push, they want to fight for what matters in life, they want the best of everything: the whole world in one city.  This is a city for people with depth & dynamo, gumption & grit. It is a life force, it is contagious. It is a drug that once you taste it you will never be the same and you can never get it out of your system.

New York, I love you. 

If my cliche testimony doesn't convey the spirit, Woody Allen nails it in what is the best opening sequence in the history of film: 

Bed time.

It's winter, my pace has calmed a bit and I'm in the midst of moving in with my boyfriend...so essentially I'm in nest mode. This is what I'm dreaming about these days:  

Collection

I've been working on my own collection slowly over the last few months...a small collection of beautifully made basics in gorgeous fabrics. Here is a sneak peek of one of the first finished samples:

I'm getting excited!

Social networking

We are all connected. 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Bing, blip, ping and ring. We are inundated with new information, new images, new messages, new everything all the time. We don't need to think too hard, to reflect, digest or sit still with our thoughts. Nope. There's so much distraction why would we ever need to?

There is now a growing discipline of philosophy and pop psychology on the subject and articles are popping up everywhere from mainstream magazines to highbrow literature. It's not just a phase folks. 

We all experience the conflict of the convenience against the mind numbing, social disturbances of what technology brings. I feel (I hope) the backlash will come soon and there will be a shift in the way we engage with one another and with our machines. I'm guilty of the exact things I criticize. And I am working hard on changing the addictive behavior and sitting without distraction. Walking down the street and observing. Observing. I think that is an undervalued art form.

I walk down the sidewalk & watch as dozens of zombies wobble and zig zag down the street unaware of their surroundings, of the potential dangers, the small details, the subtle beauty of the way the light hits a street corner or an old man holds a smile. What is our present state if we are all constantly in a frenzy of techno trances obsessed with the future? And in turn, what becomes our life when the beautiful moments, the human to human connections, the pauses and reflections become overtaken by our devices. What is it we are hiding from?

(Is this what we want to teach our children?)

Black Friday.

There is nothing necessary or natural about this. If you find yourself in this situation its because you've been manipulated to behave like a robot and submit to the consumerist machine. No one needs anything being sold by stores that force their employees to get ripped out of bed at 2am to go to work in a retail store. If you engage, you are consenting to this insanity. Your refusal to participate is your voice, your vote. Wouldn't you rather spend the day connecting with someone you love? 

Giving thanks

We can only be said to be alive in those moments when our hearts are conscious of our treasures - Thornton Wilder



I'm feeling super overwhelmed by gratitude these days. Thankful for my health and the health of my loved ones, thankful for the love of my life and the love in my life. Thankful for the way my path seems to be unfolding in beautiful ways. So many angels, guides, helpers along my way that seem to be sending me along the right path. Thank you. Every single one of you.

Loveliness is the loveliest.

Today I received the most beautiful flower arrangement from one of my favorite designers (J. Mendel). How super lovely are these?! It completely brightened up my day. 

Remember...

Pay it foward

Don't you just love good manners & grace?  I feel like lately when I'm offered a seat on crowded subway car, a door held by a stranger or a kind farewell from a cab driver it really makes me want to send it on into the world. It also renews my faith in people & manners. 

Consider that next time you have an interaction with a stranger...it's the little act of sweetness that can carry us to our better selves and give someone a little loveliness in the moment. 

Winter's arrival...

I woke up this morning to the soft flurry of snow against the gorgeous palette of golden leaves out my window. Winter has arrived and it's gorgeous.