I left my heart in Firenze

Hey guys, how have you all been?
I've been doing really well. I just got back from my 2 day (really only 1.5 days) in Firenze (Florence), Italy. All I can say is I am IN LOVE. I also decided this was probably good I didn't get to see everything there because now I have an excuse to go back.

I definitely am on a gelato diet. But seriously, gelato here is like eating a sweet cloud...nothing like it!

A true Italian brand, Missoni!

Cute little stores everywhere . . .

The art in Florence is amazing e molto bella!

This is only a fraction of the pictures I took there (don't worry, I'll probably post images for days after I come back).

I stayed at the Westin Excelsior in Florence, and the reason why I have to mention that is, if you ever stay in Florence and really want to stay somewhere nice or have people with whom you can split the cost (it's pricey), stay there. The rooms are amazing, fully equipped and comfortable, and the service is top notch! Ilaria, the woman who checked me in, was super attentive and personally took me to my room. And the next day, Alessio (it's something similar to this but not exact) at Concierge was amazing. He was personable and super informative, and helped me reserve tickets at the Academia and Uffizi so I wouldn't have to wait in line (after letting him know I was leaving that same night). I just thought I would let everyone know because I work at a hotel and after staying there, it's really inspired me to be even more amazing.

Oh Firenze, mi manchi già (I miss you already!)

Doing the art thing...

Cell post #2!


Recently doing art again. Love color eyeshadow!

The days are long and cold.

When I was little, every time I got sick, I stayed home and watched a Disney movie.

Today was no exception.

I appreciate animated movies on VHS (yes, I still use VHS players).

Also for some reason this old picture I uploaded a few months ago resurfaced. Before I couldn't use it because the Starbucks name was so obviously in your face that I think it broke some copyright laws by the image server. But now it seems fine.

Do you like the handy work? That's what I do when I get bored in class. Math class, to be very specific.

I'm alive.

Hey guys and girlies. Guess who's back?

I've been trying to update on and off for the past few months but in all honesty, it's been tough juggling a job and going to school. I'm glad now I at least have this break to catch up.

So what I have been up to:

1. A hangout with friends:

2. A trip to the Met (museum report):

I LOVED THIS.

3. Finishing my term garment:

The belt I made for the dress.

A classmate made cute gingerbread men!

An extra picture, I modeled the sweater my friend made for term garment!

4. Gift wrapping:

I bought little baskets and stuffed them with cute little gifts, candy, and ornaments! This is just a mock up (I haven't decided final arrangements and what to give!)

As you can see, I've been a busy bee! I've also been working and doing other school work. But I'm still alive and well, which I feel is always a blessing. I have to finish wrapping gifts, but see you soon?

Shoot time flies.

Hey y'all, what's up?
I like using the term y'all not because of the implications, but because I'm literally so lazy I like it when words come jam packed together. I swear if I could, I'd shorten all my words.

For example, "How y'all do?" would be "How are you guys doing?" Judge me hard, but that's just the way I roll.


Anyway, lately I've been coloring my life away.

Flats:

All for my fashion art class. I have to admit, I don't think I ever was so meticulous about a fashion art project. I am after all, the lazy one. Here is my end result, photoshopped and ready to be graded.

What'cha think?

Sadly, I heard my professor gives terrible grades (apparently he's a nitpicker) so you can expect me to be very sad and exhausted come Monday. Fun.

I did come across a beautiful spice rack recently in a Lower East Side Co-op though.

Random I know, but this got me excited and happy. I love my spices.

Well, now I'm off to go and drink tea and catch up on some pre-afternoon z's. See y'all 'round?

Why you can't put me in the same room as . . .

Well, there are several things you can't put me in the same room as. Some things start or end with the word "chocolate" (or it could be the word itself!) Other things include Food Network stars or bands.

But clearly, you can't put me in the same room as a single sharpie and a paper bag from a certain warehouse sale, because I will be inclined to draw hands and other worldly things.

I usually try to draw realistically, but this time I just decided everything should be mangled. And my sea creatures should be angry. And my tomato should not really look like a tomato.

Speaking of that warehouse sale, basically what went down:

I waited early to go in, and took no time at all to get in. But once in, there were just women EVERYWHERE. Clothes were on the floor (oh no, my brands!) and women were trying on all sorts of shoes.
I saw those gold Givenchy boots I posted about before (yeah, dream shoes right THERE) but they were still pricey. So watch me check in around September to see if it's still there (no one seemed interested when I was there).
I left with a pair of pants (will pop up in the blog in the future).

But now that we're on the topic of fashion, let me show you what I found recently.



THIS JACKET IS BOMBER. Not the style, I mean, THIS IS AWESOME.

Lately I've been into two things:

1. The combination of black and brown.
Years ago, I thought it was taboo because of that one episode of Will and Grace where Jack says it's basically terrible if you wear black shoes with a brown belt (and gay men are almost always right). But now I really like buying pieces that mix the two colors together.
2. Beaded
I don't know what it is, but I'm so into beaded embellishments all of a sudden. During the warehouse sale, I kept staring at the really expensive designer clothing and looking at the bead work. Also, lots of vintage has beading.

Hence why this jacket I found at Beacon's Closet is like, WOAH. I also like velvet jackets so it was like win. However, I felt broke and it felt big, so I felt unsure and I didn't buy it.

Now, a recent outfit.



And a face shot (Look! I can smile!)



Lowdown:
-Long wig
-Urban Outfitters printed shirt
-Uniqlo yellow shorts
-Urban Outfitters lace leggings
-Booties found at Buffalo Exchange
-Bag found at Daffy's

I wore that to karaoke with my friends I haven't seen in a while. Here's the lunch I ordered there!

I love salmon!


Maybe a week or so ago, I went to the new Crumbs bakeshop in the financial district and picked up some cupcakes. They have a promotion special going on until Sept. 5th that on weekends, you can buy one cupcake and get the second free (coupon here)

The chocolate covered strawberry wasn't as good as that coconut one right next to it. Chocolate and coconut just rock together!

Finally, I tried the ULTIMATE in waffles and food trucks, Wafels and Dinges.

The first topping (dinges) is free, so I got the BEST SPREAD IN THE WORLD. It's called Spekuloos (as is on the menu, but when you search for it, it's actually spelled with a "c"). It's a sort of cookie spread, but it was such a "Move over Nutella!" moment.
I recommend them if you find their truck somewhere because although a tiny bit pricey for waffles, it's delicious and the guys are super nice!


So this post was nice in that it summed me as a person: fashion, art/sketches, food. Now to go and walk around Manhattan for no reason! See you guys later!

Blue skies, hot suns, and colorful dancing.

Yesterday I went to the Annual Thunderbird American Indian Mid-Summer Pow Wow at the Queens County Farm Museum.

I go every year with my mom and because I conveniently didn't have work yesterday, we kept the tradition! Here are some shots from yesterday's event.

I tried to get a better picture of this man's face but I failed. HE LOOKED LIKE KARL LAGERFELD. But you know, with braids and color.







Zoom was good to me yesterday. This kid's hair is awesome!

After the afternoon show, there's another show in the evening that involves a bonfire and more dancing. My mom and I always miss that one because it takes too long to get back and make dinner if we stay. So of course, we used the rest of our time to shop the booths.

Gorgeous beaded hair accessories.



This doll was adorable!

I also saw this tiny owl emblem that looked like one of my co-workers and it entertained me quite a bit. Other than that, my mom managed to buy a cool necklace, a dream catcher, and I got some pretty leather strips (a future arts and craft project perhaps?)

Finally, I loved snapping pictures of the tribe's colorful clothing because it's so inspiring! I love color and it's just fun to see all the patterns and the beading they use. I was talking to this one man who was explaining a lot of the symbolism of the colors and the animals. For example, purple signifies heart (purple heart), green is grass, brown is earth, dark blue is night sky, white is the north wind, etc. And turtles signify mother nature because it carries the earth on it's shoulders. Quite poetic.


Right now I have to get ready to go to work and after that, I'm hanging with one of my amigas! See y'all again!

A Food Adventure with a side of Art

Hey guys! What a lovely Saturday it is. Of course, it's going to be a killer day weather wise (88 degrees!), but I'm hopeful. Today I'm going job hunting with my friend. We're basically starting down and going up. If I'm up to it, I may join her for a concert later, but if not, just expect me to go home and sleep! I've written another set of goals for June, and one of them includes sleeping earlier. Hopefully that gets accomplished!

This morning I had a lovely breakfast of Fage Greek Yogurt + honey and a banana.

I also added raisins to that. (Note: I found Fage on sale at Westerly for $.99! That never happens . . . I love Westerly)

Okay, so about yesterday. It all started out with a text to my friend Lesley, asking if she was free for some good ole Moma hoppin' and possibly shopping. Eating wasn't really on the agenda initially, but OH MAN, I should always know that being with friends who are also foodies will ALWAYS lead to food.

I started off with this bad boy.

Yeah, I don't really do iced coffee, but on a blazin' day like yesterday, it hit the spot. I may or may not have had a donut with that.

After meeting up with Lesley and her sister and her friends in the Upper West Side, we decided it was only fitting to hit up Urban Outfitters. And of course, because we've been talking about going to the Lite Choice forever and Lesley just happened to have a phone with internet and she just happened to check their twitter and see that there was a bogo special for bars, we had to go. And go we did.

It was sad to see there was no almond butter left, but ah well, I never say no to frozen treats.

Buying retail now is really a challenge for me because unless it's really worth it, I tend to think I can make it for myself. Or thrift it. So nothing was bought at Urban Outfitters.

OH WAIT, but you know what was HAD at Urban Outfitters?

I call it the monster, otherwise known as a cookie from Levain. I remember seeing this insane monstrous cookie on Throwdown with Bobby Flay months ago and I've been dying to try it ever since. Well, we were in the area, and Lesley's sister so kindly got us one, so we split the devil.

COOKIE HEAVEN.

Well, after stuffing our faces with sweets galore, we knew the only thing left to do was walk all the way to the Moma in the crazy weather. Yay, sore feet.

After getting to the Moma, we split into two groups and wandered around.

They had a weird curtain projection, so of course, everyone was taking pictures in front of it including us.

Lesley had a museum report so off we went to look for the gallery she was told to visit. We seriously went on a wild goose chase cause we couldn't find the Irving Penn gallery at all, until someone told us the gallery was actually CLOSED for a temporary memorial. Fun.
Well, some of the stuff was apparently upstairs, so after fooling around, we went to the third floor for some photographs.

I saw some Cindy Sherman which got me excited (since I actually know who she is). Although some of it got me a little annoyed because I feel like it wasn't really worth putting in the museum, or rather, the artist was banking more on their name than the quality of the piece. Just like my art teacher said, "Just because it's in a museum, doesn't mean it's necessarily good."

Well, we were all pretty exhausted after walking around the museum too, so we went downtown for some eats. Let me tell you, the village is PACKED after 7. We gave up on two places, and only when we say Hummus Place did we sit down to eat.

My Hummus Fava.

The decor was nice and I was kinda in love with the little hand wash station in front of the bathrooms. The service was also cheerful and polite, so no complaining there. I think the only thing may be to have a little more variety in the dishes, just because I didn't really expect my dish to be a plateful of hummus. Good hummus, but a lot of hummus. And beans. Everyone cleaned their plates well though, so me thinks this was a success!


After the meal, we all headed to the train, stuffed and tired.
When I got home, I blended myself a smoothie for today and went to sleep. I think I'm going to go and actually have that smoothie now.

I hope today will be as slammin' as yesterday was! Good day everyone!