New Year, new closet?

When the seasons change I get pretty antsy with my wardrobe. Back in the days of my younger youth when that happened I'd hit the stores and buy new things to spruce up my closet. These days that just makes me feel bad about my earth-loving ways so I've got to find other options.

Mostly when I need something new I head to my favorite vintage store on 5th Avenue in Park Slope - The Odd Twin - do you know it? I love it a lot.

This weekend, however, I was presented with a new and even more exciting opportunity to ring in the New Year - a New Year's Eve clothing swap! How delightful. Tonight I'll be cleansing my wardrobe of the things that make me cringe to make room for some hand me-over awesomeness and to make use of my old things in turn. What a wonderful proposition.

I'm still at a loss however for what to wear to celebrations tomorrow evening. I was gazing through Etsy, though it is too late to buy for the festivities I started to swoon a little. I wish I'd seen this Gold Sequined Holiday Top or this Gold Brocade 1950's Wonder about a week ago when the New Year's outfit buying time was right. Le sigh. Trés chic.

The holidays just swallow you up...

Don't the holidays just swallow you up? They surely swallow me up. In our house the holiday season starts early and goes strong. We've got Mr. Awesome's birthday in mid-November, Thanksgiving, my birthday in mid-December, Christmakah, the New Year and then my brother's birthday in early January. 

Thank goodness the rest of my family had the decency to be born at another time of year. 

Here's a photo of Christmas dinner cooked by Mr. Awesome and I:

*wild mushroom risotto: recipe a bit of an adaptation of Ms. Alice Water's      risotto bianco from the Art of Simple Food (what, you don't have it? shame      on you)
*haricots vert with garlic
*fresh green salad with dried cranberries and local goat cheese     
*tarte tatin (with apples)
*peak organic winter session

Can you say delicious? I know, you're mouth is already watering. It was great. 

it is my birthday...

Today I am 27. I feel old.

I know it isn't really that old but it has been the first birthday of my life where I've thought, "wow, I've really racked up some years here, haven't I?"

In an effort to remain fresh and new, this past weekend the greatest friend and I painted the greatest man and my hallway. We live in New York City and we have a hallway. That's right.

It is an icy blue with painted molding that mimics the real molding we have in our pre-war living room(s). We live in New York City and we have two living rooms. That's right.

Strangely, I think the painting of the hallway and the mentioning of the hallway and the living room(s) makes me feel even older.

At least I get to come home to something pretty -- that is something pretty other than the greatest man's pretty face.

"this was going green 1949 style bitch..."

I just logged off of a webinar with folks that were attending the Climate Talks in Durban. My mood was low and there was little hope for the day to brighten. 

That was until Ice Cube crossed my path on the New York Times. As part of the new exhibit Pacific Standard Time: Art in L.A. 1945-1980, a sprawling exhibit meant to show that LA can rival the NYC with beautiful home-made modern art, the always cool Ice Cube made a video about the Eames House. 

Ice Cube made a video about the Eames House. Ice Cube studied architectural drafting before he became a rapper. Do you love him now? Because I do. Thanks to Ice Cube, my day just got great. 

monday. madness.

Mondays are hard. I was recently chatting with a friend about how working from home can be super tough some days. Today is one of those days - but for all the bad things about Mondays there is one wonderful thing: Monday morning news rush! 

Today has been a good day. My friend Jacob Krupnick was featured on CBS 2 News for his incredible project Girl Walk // All Day. Buzzfeed posted a visual reminder of how incredibly crazy this year has been. More people are riding public transit in New York City. The U.S. Military is taking the leap into major biofuel usage. NASA found a planet that is so similar to Earth, they believe it can sustain life like ours and we found out we just might need that planet now that carbon emissions had a record rise in 2010. 

Monday madness. Working it out. 

there is beauty in the world...

I can't wrap my head around the arguments against gay marriage. As a Manhattan Mini Storage ad once said to me in the subway, "If you don't like gay marriage, don't get gay married."

That's just about all there is to it and this beautiful ad by GetUp!, a group fighting for marriage equality in Australia, shows it all. It is the first look, the first smile, the good times, the sad times, the support, love, friendship and commitment that all of us who just so happen to be straight are welcome to seal in the eyes of the law. 

I'm proud that I live in a state that doesn't discriminate. I am sad that there are so many places, including Washington DC, that still do. 

Why some people feel the need to crush the hopes and dreams of others and then spit on the quality of their commitment is beyond the realm of my comprehension.

The truth is there's not much more to it than any great love story. 

things I want...

I used to be a little bookmark crazy. I'd bookmark everything in one big category and then months later realize I wanted to find something and be just as lost in looking for it in my bookmarks folder as I was searching for it online. In the last year I've done a noble job of categorizing my bookmarks and in one spot I've especially excelled. 

I have a bookmark category in Chrome now that is just called "things I want". I bookmark anything that I want whether it be the totally attainable and necessary items like a new set of sheets or a mixing bowl or the completely unattainable things like this marvelous brownstone in my neighborhood in Brooklyn that one man perfectly restored by himself that Dwell so perfectly documented in this slideshow. 

I am sure it is his prized jewel and I'll never own it myself but I like to keep it documented with the other "things I want" to remind myself that someday I can meticulously restore a home as beautiful as this one.