One thing I love about living in New York is all the culture and the art scene. With the holidays quickly approaching, it reminds me of a few things I'd like to do in New York that I still have not gotten around to do. Well, there's really only one holiday-ish thing I'd like to do that I haven't done yet, but that thought triggered a few other things I'd like to do around the city at this time!

See The Nutcracker. I've seen both San Francisco and Hong Kong's ballet versions, but have yet to see the New York City Ballet version and I'd love to see it! I say that every year and still have not gone. Tsk tsk!

Image via The Met

See the Matisse exhibit at The Met - Matisse: In Search of True Painting. Although the Matisse Museum in Nice was a little disappointing, I still like Matisse and his use of colors and patterns and I'd love to go see this exhibit. (Starts Dec. 4th, member previews going on now.)

Image via The Morgan Library

See the Beatrix Potter exhibit at The Morgan Library - Beatrix Potter: The Picture Letters. This is probably shameful, but I'd never even heard of The Morgan Library. I mean I have vaguely, but never really paid any attention until I saw a poster in the subway advertising this exhibit. As a lover of children's books and of children's book illustrations, I think this is a must for me! (Going on now through January 27th 2013.)

And finally, although previews don't start until January 25th, I want to see Cinderella on Broadway! I didn't realize this is the first time the Rogers & Hammerstein version will be on Broadway - I guess I always assumed it'd had its share of the limelight on Broadway previously. Cinderella was one of the musicals I participated in (as the Coach Driver, no less) in high school, so I'm very familiar with it! 

I've had a one track mind lately...concerning apartments! All I've been doing after work this week is looking at apartments - I'm sick of being technically homeless, and need to move on with my life! Then, because of my really awesome fun jet lag, whenever I wake up I'm thinking about something to do with apartments. Sunday night was all the stress of figuring out how to move without an elevator, when to pack, how quickly we need a place, etc. Monday was all about which apartment to go after. And last night was all about where I envision my next bedroom to be...dreamy!

Obviously budget-wise I don't think I'd be able to achieve the overall look and feel of all the pins on my Bedrooms pinterest board, but one can dream, right? I do think it's important to try and create a haven in your bedroom though, and I personally love a clean, white/natural/light purple or pink theme...if you couldn't tell for yourselves!

What does your dream bedroom look like?

 

Pic taken by me this morning

Happy Monday!

I'm bright and cheery right now, but I know that'll completely reverse this afternoon. Woke up at 2:30am and couldn't get back to sleep so at 6:30 I just decided to get up and get on with my day. 

I'm not going to lie - I was pretty sad to leave Hong Kong and especially my friends & family (& Molly!), but it was such a good trip and I got to catch up with everyone important to me. Plus I had a blast and ate too much good food (diet starts now, right?), AND I'm already planning my trip back in September for a friend's wedding. Yay! 

The weather is beautiful (albeit somewhat chilly) today, and that makes the city that much prettier and me that much happier to be back!

This week I have the fun task of finding a new apartment and figuring out how to pack & move out of my current one since it's still unlivable...it's always so stressful when you feel/are homeless! Hope everyone has a much less stressful week than my week ahead!

xo

via

This year, I am thankful for:
- Old friends - there's nothing quite like them, is there? A friend and I realized yesterday that we've been friends for 21 years. That's a whole legal drinking aged-person. In-sane!
 - Getting to celebrate at home.

I am celebrating at home this for the first time in about 5 years - before I moved to New York! I've just set the table and am feeling quite festive, even though there's no parade here, nor is there Thanksgiving day football (my Niners aren't playing until Sunday anyway), but just having a big party at home with friends & family is enough to get me into the holiday mood! Plus, I'm having my first slice of pumpkin pie this season tonight - I baked it yesterday to free up the oven for the candied yams & turkey today. Mmm pumpkin! My pie ain't no Veniero's, but it's still pretty good, if I may say so myself. ;)

Hope everyone has a great Thanksgiving (and score some deals over Black Friday/Cyber Monday) - I'll see you all when I return to New York next week!

What are you thankful for this year?

Pics via my Instagram

Hello! Just wanted to do a quick post to say I arrived safely home this morning (well, Wednesday night NY time) after a flight that was far too long, but it's been so worth it so far! I've already seen most of the family, took Molly for a walk, had yummy home-cooked meals that I could never be bothered to make myself, and had a lovely, much-needed nap! 

The time change and 16 hour flight has thrown me for a loop a little, but will be back to regular posting next week. Plus, I'm looking forward to doing some outfit shoots around the city, even though I am completely unprepared for how warm it is here and will probably need to shop tomorrow (any excuse, right?)

Hope you have a great Thursday!

The past week has been a challenging time, to say the least. Lauren and I live downtown in Zone A, so at the last minute Sunday night decided to evacuate, and good thing we did - after we got to a friend's place, we received calls saying the building was going to shut down the elevators. Unfortunately, power went out Monday night at my friend's place (due to whatever happened to the 14th street substation/transformer/plant  - not totally sure which it is), so Tuesday morning we went over to midtown.

Then the real nightmare began - Tuesday night we received calls telling us our building's basement flooded 20 feet and that they were issuing a mandatory evacuation as our building is unliveable in its current condition, and that they estimate it'll take two weeks to get power back on, which coincides with when we're leaving for Asia! So I had to pack for the next month pretty much, and my sister's boyfriend helped us move our suitcases down too many flights of stairs - I felt both bad and grateful for him!! 

So, Lauren and I are temporarily relocated to midtown thanks to the kindness of some people we know.

With all of this, my head has not been in a lifestyle/style/fashion place, and I still need to catch up on my blogs and everything else I do when life is more "normal". The city is a ghost town downtown - yesterday on the bus going back to the apartment I saw that Soho was completely shut down. I felt like I was living in a movie! Plus, just seeing how crippled a thriving city like New York can get is pretty eye-opening. 

I consider myself lucky for sure, especially compared to the devastation in Jersey and that whole section of houses burning down in Queens - I can't even imagine going through loss like that! 

I'll be back to regular blogging next week hopefully, and now that I'm so close to Central Park expect some gorgeous background scenery (assuming they open it soon!) in my photos. 

Hope you're all well!