the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree

my mother has recently joined the 21st century and is familiarizing herself with email!  this is very exciting as i often stumble upon a brilliant DIY or wonderful designs that i would like to share with her, but am unable to, until now.

i sent her a link to this couch i loved, but wanted her opinion as she has a great eye for a classic piece as well as determining the quality.  when i checked my email this morning her response began with “you have got to be kidding!”  As it turns out this was either identical to or the exact same as one that my mom was looking to purchase! seriously, it’s scary how often our taste for design are the same.  i am a product of my mother, which is not a bad thing at all!

let’s move on to the couch.  It’s made by Mitchel Gold & Bob Williams and can be found here. it’s a beautiful button-tufed fabric and looks as if it jumped out of the Victorian area.  I love the details in the feet of the couch very classic.  I found the closet retail store, which was conveniently located in the most aesthetically pleasing store,  ABC home . this sofa is eco-friendly and made in the USA!

I would love to pair this sofa with a rustic leather chair and vintage factory cart! oh la la.

it’s fall!

there is nothing I love more than a beautiful fall day and it’s here.  this weekend was super special.  I was able to spend time with my dear friends Connecticut a.k.a my other family…let’s sum is up; fire, friends, and hickory nuts!

today there was a really neat article in the New York Times about an artist and how he coped with the gut retching events of 9/11.   after witnessing the events first hand from his South Street Seaport apartment he headed to the Catskill to refresh.  His journey begins with a farmhouse and unable to continue with his art he dives head first into remolding his home.  his beautiful transformation of 19th century furniture into a beautiful story that is ever changing.  this is inspiration.

i could definitely entertain here.

it’s rex manning day!

this weekend i would say i was very productive; which is a great accomplishment, i tend to be a bit lazy on the weekend.

about 9 months ago (no, this is not going where you think it is) i moved rooms and well, never quite moved in. I had to take the door off of my closet, because well, my room is the size of a match box, so i put up and old green curtain to replace the door, which didn’t go with my shabby chic decor. so, finally i dragged myself along with my roommate stu! to ikea via the ikea (free-ish) water taxi.  BOY it was such a great way to get there as opposed to the 18 subways and 24 bus transfers it would have taken thank you to our lovely MTA.

i was able to score a few gems; white curtain (for my room), a cotton bedspread (i planned to turn into chair cushion cover) side note, i did the unthinkable in nyc i found a chair on the side of the road and took it home. GASP!  pictured below (don’t worry no icky bugs per my moms cleaning instructions).

before

after!

I also grabbed some CHALK and then made a B-Line to home depot to get some CHALKBOARD PAINT.  now, if you know me at all you will know that i have been obsessing over chalkboard paint for awhile now.

yay for productive weekends. and chalkboard paint.

now, heading to bed.

a little piece of heaven

a few things that i really want when i “grow up” and have my own house or space (depending on where i end up) NYC if i had my own house that would be impressive, considering i think i’ve only seen one real house in nyc.

i want a room that opens up to the outdoor world and a shower outside.  the later has always been something for some odd reason that i have always desired.   probably because i often would go frolicking into the woods behind my grandmothers house and pretended a tree or a deer stand were my sanctuaries.  i enjoy being outdoors with of course all the modern day luxuries; i don’t want you thinking i like to rough it by going camping, building fires,etc. that’s not really me.  honestly if i could live in Robinson Crusoe tree house meets Manhattan, that would be ideal.

* i am not sure where i found these photos! so sorry!!

except the last one which i found here

one of my favorite moments in a movie is the last 10  minutes of Forces of Nature.  it’s  beautiful and full of life, energy & it’s sweet in a sad kind of way, which i am really into; call me crazy, but i enjoy crying. sometimes.

let me give you a run down; Ben  is traveling down to Georgia for his wedding, but on the way he meets Sarah & questions his pending nuptials.   heaps of other things happen, but when he finally gets to Georgia he falls in love with his fiance, Bridget, all over again.

clip!

I was reminded of this  because i recently stumbled upon a song by Sia called Breath me.  i find it to be  beautiful, yet heartbreaking.  oh and the video is AWESOME, i love Polaroids.  

enjoy!

tick tock.

after dead duck day i was pretty pissed about losing all my photos, but now as i sit in the Eastview Mall apple store (2+ hours and only at 2006) i am thinking i can just scrap the past and start creating my photo future.  don’t get me wrong i am shocked and pretty darn excited that the mac genius is able to pull photos from it (especially after the tekserve guys told me they had to do data recovery for $900 hundo), but mostly my back hurts and i want to be at cristina’s house eating BBQ ribs with her family!

alas i have a lot of time on my hands, so i decided to start drooling over lenses and i have come to the conclusion that i no longer can afford me my taste in expensive things.

here she is isn’t she is beautiful?: AF Nikkor 14mm f/2.8D ED Ultra-Wide-Angle Auto-Focus Lens.

can i have this for christmas please.  don’t worry it’s mere pocket change, only $2,274.00.  serisouly.

do you think i could trade my first born?  okay no, but how am i going to get my hands on this! this lenses gives you an ultra wide angle creating very dramatic photos; pretty much me in a lens.  maybe i could go for the 20mm f2.8 still a wonderful lens at a little better price point.

i have a 50mm, 18-200mm, and the 55mm it came with.  don’t get me wrong i love my 50mm, but it’s just not giving me everything i need in a lens and my 18-200mm is a bit clunky and hard to carry with me everywhere.

this is reminding me of a scene from “10 things i hate about you” where Bianca and Chastity are discussing the difference between like and love:

Bianca: “You see, there’s a difference between like and love, because I like my Sketchers, but I LOVE my Prada backpack.”

Chastity :”But I love my Sketchers.”

Bianca: “That’s because you don’t have a Prada backpack.”
Chastity: “ohhhhhh.”

**skip to 5:09**

on that note i bid you adieu.

lights, camera, carnival!

success! at home with my computer on my lap, this feels right.  oh and good news, the tech guy actually told me he could probably pull the data from my computer for cheap(er) than originally quoted! sweetaction! (of course it would be on the side…stora sketchy, but hey i’ll take it).

once home with my beautiful laptop i was a bit distracted by my phone; i don’t know how that happened?!  i wasn’t able to take zola (my tiny pooch) out until it was a wee bit dark and once outside a tiny shimmer caught my eye, a ferris wheel!  i immediately jumped at the chance to begin my photo extravaganza since the dead duck day and was at the carnival in t minus STU minutes camera in tow.  

it was your run of the mill carnival complete with fried dough, fish, tilt-a-whirl, & creepy carnival guy.  it also had the quant New York City charm; crabby people.  I loved every minute of it and the it’s going on all weekend!  i think i am going to make a few more visits with different lenses.  i’ve post a few of my photos here and will soon post more to my flickr account (in the process of doing that right now.)  enjoy! 

photos by: me!

dead duck day.

in effort to try and get back to my creative side i have failed miserably. i procrastinate.  everyday i would go home with every intention to upload my pictures to flickr, but everyday i went home and sat on the couch (or i was too tired from tiger).

i defiantly regret not uploading photos and doing my thing because…

yesterday was the dead duck day.

my hard drive died.  according to the guru at tekserve “it’s doing weird things” (thanks for that i log that away) and he cannot pull information from it and it $800 BUCKS for data recovery. awesome. ( i bet you’re wondering why i didn’t take it to the apple store? i did! the 24 hour one at 12am of course i am “a few months out of my warranty” damn!)

sadtimes.

i felt like carrie from Sex and the City and yes i did go there.  being a single girl in the city i can identify with the ladies, not every aspect, but the real life NYC moments.  like when Carries computer has the sad mac face and she brings it to tekserve.  they chastise her for not backing any information up, they talk down to her and make her feel like she shouldn’t own a precious mac. (they don’t always talk down to you, but they have this i know everything and you know nothing air to them. sometimes.)  it was the same scenario;old computer, i never backed it up and so the sad story goes.

well, i did back SOME of my stuff up, just not my new photos, pretty much everything else i don’t need…reports from college i haven’t tossed and a bunch of other useless crap i can’t even think of. (jen, i could totally use a copy of my pics from ali’s wedding!)

i had some great shots from cooney island, really great shots. i had some awesome shots of amber’s dogs, nights out, staying in, just being funky and fun. so, i am kicking myself in the arse.

about $300 dollars later i have upgraded my hard drive from 120 GB to 250 GB!  which i am pretty stoked about and i’d been wanting to upgrade anyways, just on my own terms.

needless to say our tv remote broke too. i have NO idea how that happened.

photos by me!

(yes, last time i uploaded was halloween.) grr

Modern Art

I love art.  with that being said, i don’t always understand or interpret it in the same way that someone else might because, my friends, art is subjective.  you don’t have to like it or understand it to appreciate it.  i was just looking at one of my favorite paintings i did while at school; it’s of this beautiful Dominican boy holding a stone, and when i flipped it over to the back i saw my grade…b-.  ugh. not only was it my favorite paintings, but a handful of other people like it as well, okay, so my professor didn’t really think it was the bees knees…no skin off my back, i liked it.

that got me thinking. would my professor have given jackson pollock an A?  i think not.

i like pollocks work because he did something different, he stepped out of the box of his time and dared to try something new.  Pollock gave the art world something refreshing, a little edgy and by defying the norms of the modern art world he succeeded.

i know what you guys are thinking; when you look at his art work your two main objections are going to sound like: a.)”I could do that/my 3 year old could do that” or 2.) “that is just ugly/that is not art.” Yay.  congratulations!  you have an opinion and thanks to freedom of speech you are allowed to share it, but let me remind you…although you and or your cat/2 year old could do this; you didn’t do it first.  as for it being ugly or not art; you don’t have to look at it or buy it, but someone still likes it and is entitled to hang it up in their museum.

photo is from “new math” by craig damrauer found here

secrets to success

i love the movie Pay it Forward; i think that if more people did things out of the kindness of their heart, maybe this world would be a better place.  i’m not preaching, just saying.  this kid i know told me the other day that he doesn’t give to charities, cause he is too selfish.   i don’t believe him.  i choose to believe that people are good by nature, but that would get us into a whole philosophical debate and it’s too early for that.

to my original post; secret to success, other than following your dreams and your passion (which is actually a post on am currently working on), having fun with friends, having people in your life that care and encourage.

or inspirational posters.

i found this great link for creating your own motivational posters!  i found it on photojojo.  it’s too fun.

here is one i quickly whipped up: