Paris vs. New York: The Book

You've probably glimpsed Vahram Muratyan's beautiful graphic comparisons of Paris and New York during your travels around the interwebs. But have you seen the book?





J'adore. T'would make a great gift. The postcard box is pretty great, too.

Lucas Maassen & Sons

Um, this project is amazing.

12 for '12: Purify

Intention #12: purify with plants!
Living practically on top of the BQE gives us a nice, calming lull to fall asleep to at night. It also provides less than optimal air quality and a nasty layer of soot on all the windowsills. But rather than enlist the help of a machine to do some purifying, I'd like to fill our apartment with pots and pots of plants! I want to hang them in the windows, stack them on the 'sills. I want to fill our entire fireplace with all of this redeeming greenery.

If you'd like to do the same, these are just a few of the best air purifying plants...

Weeping Fig

Spider Plant

Snake Plant

Golden Pothos

Bamboo Palm

Areca Palm

Rubber Plant


Here's to a happy, healthy, refreshing new year ahead, friends. XO

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12 for '12: Bizness

Intention #11: Stay focused on entrepreneurial endeavors; set aggressive but achievable milestones.

It seems soo so easy to be distracted by other ways to spend my free nights and weekends (yoga with amigas, brunching with boo, ebay surfing). But I will make a conscious effort to create, and stick to, a timeline that helps me to push things along (and allows for a little fun).

To my friends who are in the midst of building small businesses (there seem to be so many of you): how do you balance business planning, a full-time job and, uh, life?

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12 for '12: Bettering

Intention #10: Be a better friend, daughter, sister and boo to all the loves in my life. I think this might mean picking up the phone more often, making impromptu plans (avoiding 'penciling in' 5 weeks in advance), writing love letters, and spending some time on the west coast (happening! see paragraph #2 of intention #7).

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12 for '12: Crafts pt.III

Intention #9
Lately I've had this huge urge to take a ceramics class. I would love to make my own mugs, bowls, plates and vases. Do you know of any great studios in Brooklyn/ NYC?

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12 for '12: Get outside

Intention #8: Hike more. Swim more. Ski more. Bike more.

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P.S. follow me on pinterest

12 for '12: Sleep under the stars

Intention #7
Travel is always near the tippy top of my to do list for each new year, but this year it's looking like most vacation days will be spent stateside, which I am totally cool with. There are approximately 800 places I would die to visit in the U.S., so I plan to cross at least a couple of them off my list. I'd like to try something off the beaten path in 2012 and sleep out under the stars and among the forest canopies in...a treehouse! You may have noticed that I've been daydreaming of treehouse vacations for years. I think this year my little dream will finally be realized.

Thanks to my boo, sometime this Spring we'll be visiting our City by the Bay, after almost two long years away. My mind is already spinning with visions of favorite people to see, places to visit, and foods to eat (and eat and eat and eat). I'm also thinking this might be the perfect opportunity to burrow into a Human Nest in Big Sur, or climb into a sky-high suite at Post Ranch Inn.

In the midst of my obsessive searching, I also discovered these amazing treehouse hotels in my own home state. Yes ma'am!

Have you ever slept in a treehouse hotel? One of my good friends lived in New Zealand for a year and always raved of these stargazer huts she would stay in - they had large windows above the bed where you could peer out into the night sky...dreamy.


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12 for '12: Crafts pt.II

Intention #6: Learn to sew. I'm sooo serious about this one. I'm actually taking a class next week and cannot wait to conquer my fear of the big, bad sewing machine. By the end of the year I'd like to have a few projects completed...

*a curtain for our bathroom window
*something supercute for my ever-growing baby niece to wear
*something supercute for me to wear
*tea towels!
*hand-stitched stationary
*an oven mit or two

Do you sew? What have you whipped up lately? I'm on the hunt for inspirational (and easy) projects :)

I'll keep you posted on my progress...

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12 for '12: Mostly plants

Intention #5: "Eat food, not too much, mostly plants." I recently read Michael Pollan's Food Rules around the same time that I did my very first 3-day juice cleanse. I felt uhhhmazing at the end of the 3 days - lighter, clear-minded and more energetic than usual.

So, in 2012 I plan to maintain a plant-rich diet including stalks and stalks of...kale! I have a slight obsession with this leafy green. I love adding it to quinoa salads, burritos, pastas, etc. But lately I've been eating kale as a salad green topped with mushrooms, radishes, avocado, olive oil and lemon juice. Try it, it's so good. Know what else is good? Sweet potatoes.



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12 for '12: Crafts pt.I

Intention #4: Brush up on my hand printing skills. Anyone have fun printed fabric projects to share? I'm thinking of making tea towels and maybe an apron to match. A lady can never have too many aprons.

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12 for '12: Wander

Intention #3: Explore my city.

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12 for '12: Arts

Intention #2: See more art. Support more art. Make more art.

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12 for '12: Mindfulness

Happy, healthy new year, you!

2011 was a good one, with a mountain of moments to be grateful for, but I feel excited to reassess my goals and hopes for the year ahead.

Intention #1: Be more mindful of what I buy and consume, and my personal impact on the environment.


P.S. That photo was taken last week at beautiful snow-kissed Snoqualmie Pass. I miss the Pacific NW oh so much.

Sebastiaan Bremer

The paint-splashed photos by Dutch artist Sebastiaan Bremer make me want to strap on my snow shoes and hit the Alps right this second. Aren't they gorgeous?

James Henkel: Light Work, Nov.11

Beautiful imagery by James Henkel

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Hembakat ar Bast, Apr.11

Don't you love this ingredient art? Beautifully styled food by Evalina Bratelle for the IKEA cookbook "Hembakat ar Bast" or "Homemade is Best".







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2/30: handprint a tablecloth and napkins

i bought lena corwin's beautiful "printing by hand" book a few months ago and am finally ready to give it a try. most of the projects involve having a custom rubber stamp or screen made, so i thought i'd ease into it by carving a rubber block stamp and hand printing a tablecloth and matching cloth napkins. the hope is that they'll turn out looking like that blue page above...

wish me luck!

the rain in spain falls mainly on the plains, mar.10

the pouring rain, 45mph winds, sore throat and runny nose couldn't keep me from my saturday lady date with esther (and brunch with beaus).

some things that really made my day...

*i finally found my dream pen necklace, but in turquoise and for only 12 bones with my employee discount.
*the sunroom at cooper hewitt- even on a grey, rainy day
*postal co. notebooks at the museum giftshop
*getting up-close and personal with the mulleavy sisters gorgeous work...shimmery spider web tights, whimsical rib cage frocks
*prune! brunch was amaaazing- the beau and i split the dutch apple pancake and soft scrambled eggs. the 5 of us shared a plate of mini marveilles- fried scones in powdered sugar, mmm. plus they played an awesome, janet jackson-heavy, assortment of 90s tunes throughout our meal.










then a quick jaunt to the jack spade broome st store for some handsome new duds for boo




and finally we made it all the way uptown to cooper hewitt, where i fell in love with this sun room and rodarte's impeccable designs




i wish i could say i ran home when my head started feeling like it would explode, but instead it took us an hour just to get to Houston and another 45min to find out that the W.4th station was experiencing a power outage and no F trains were running in either direction! after a 2+ hour trip home i quickly plopped down on the couch and cozied up to my audrey hepburn collection and chicken soup with kale. feeling a teensy bit better today.