Whoops.

So, I didn't get to take the pictures of my lovely vintage show outfit today because I was out of the house until after dark on an unplanned adventure...

This morning (ok, early afternoon, but that counts as morning on vacation, right?), I went to the gym to get my bike on. I like to ride the stationary bike because I can read a book while I ride and as you may know, I wear reading glasses. Anyway, I finished my ride (and was getting to a really good, near the end, part of my book too) hook my glasses over my shirt (like you do with sunglasses, you know) and went to stretch. Then I pulled out a mat to do some crunches and was about to sit down, but oh hey... where are my glasses? Answer: under the mat. Smushed. Whoops. One of the ear pieces was essentially at a 90 degree angle to the lenses (impressively still attached) and the other was not much better off. I do have a second pair of glasses, but of course, they're at school. So, new glasses quickly became the project of the day.

After a shower and some lunch, my mom and I headed down to Fabulous Fanny's, a veritable hipster and gay guy's haven of vintage glasses frames. They had a lot of cool stuff, but a lot of the more "out there" looks didn't sit so well on my face, haha.




{a sampling of their selection via the online catalog. They carry sunglasses too}

Glasses are a big commitment because you wear them ALL the time (I know you don't see mine much on the blog, but I wear them in class and when I'm doing homework which is probably about 85% of my life, haha) so after an excessive amount of hemming and hawing I chose a pair and we headed over to their recommend place to get the lenses, in Chinatown. My mom decided this was walking distance... and it was... but it was quite the hike. A hike which involved lusting after some beautiful boots I wasn't willing to spend $125 on and some free sampling at Whole Foods.

Eye exam in Chinatown: only minorly sketchy. Of course, they had the lens available for one of my eyes, but not the other. boo. So the ready in one hour option was alas not an option pour moi. While waiting to get my eyes checked, I also got a text from my friend inviting me over for pizza and ice cream cake for her birthday. At 6. It was 5 and I was waiting for my eye exam... in Chinatown... uhhh... but luckily, the doctor was able to see me shortly and we were done at about 5:20. Since the glasses couldn't be ready in an hour anyway I decided to forgo an early dinner and dessert at Vegetarian Dim Sum House and Chinatown Ice Cream factory and whip uptown at super speed.

I was also able to bend my glasses back far enough (that was scary- I was sure they were going to break!) to use for tonight and tomorrow. Though right now I look like this:


As you can see, I am also much in need of a bang trim. Thankfully, both the bang trim and picking up the new glasses are on the agenda for tomorrow (and maybe that Dim Sum/Ice Cream trip after all).

So much for a day where I had nothing to do, huh?

Regards,
Freddie

For Spacious Skies

So I didn't plan for my return after my unannounced, but very forewarned, hiatus (it seems like it's been way longer than a month and 10 days... a lot can happen in that amount of time I suppose) to happen when I was in such an odd and deep mood... but I did plan for the return to be today, so blame it on the man on the subway. Or just the shock my return to the New York City atmosphere has provided in general.

There was just something just so profoundly beautiful and sad about the little Asian man playing America the Beautiful on his Casio electric saxophone on the train, while a mother tried to control her five small, rowdy children and a bunch of teenagers yapped and fought. And then when the man ended, he stood there for a moment, eyes closed, as if deeply moved by his final high note (or maybe just out of breath). And all that was going on around him with people caught up in their own worlds, not paying attention to him. Though to her credit, one girl gave him some change. Not me.

{yes, this is actually him. I googled "man playing electric sax on subway" !}

There's just something different, and sad, about being back in the city. Like it's changed in the past 2 months since I was here. Which is silly... but maybe it's true. Or maybe it's me who's different? I will always love New York, but I just find myself more saddened and disgusted by a lot of what I see than I have ever been before. Maybe I'm finally noticing the recession? Or maybe that's just an excuse.

Sorry, I'm not describing any of this very well... I'm not terribly poetic, I just needed some place to write it down. Perhaps that's one of the reasons I'm finding my playwriting class this semester so terribly challenging? The whole, not so poetic thing? hah.

Anyway, I had planned to post again today anyway for a few reasons:

1. I have missed blogging and the blog world so! Though I'm still poking around some foodie blogs now and then, it's not quite the same as when I'm posting and reading my favorite fashion blogs too.

2. Today was the first full day of my self imposed, elongated fall break. We do have this coming Monday and Tuesday off of school and I had been planning to come home, but I also have an audition (for that elusive abroad program... while a lot can happen in a month and 10 days, finding out about this was not one of the things that did) and was going to have to go back to school Tuesday evening, come back to the city Friday evening, and then go back to school again on Sunday o_o The number of hours on a bus (and yes, I get car sick) that would mean = not fun. And so, I have decided to take the whole week off! I firmly believe I have earned it.

{ShortLine buses: a necessary evil}

3. Today my mom and I also went to the Manhattan Vintage Show! It seems to have become a sort of tradition for us. Sadly, they don't allow pictures in the show, but I will have pictures of the bag and dress I bought sometime soon :) We did our best to be conservative with our spending but I'm really happy with my two pieces. You can also see pictures from some past shows here (if you look at the 8th picture in the April 2007 show -- I am the owner of that dress. I wore it to my high school graduation and that was not an example of conservative spending ;) haha) I think this is my third time attending the show, or fourth if you count the time my mom went and sent me picture messages of things.

{Inside the Metropolitan Pavilion during the Manhattan Vintage Show}

4. Somehow, according to sitemeter, my little corner of the virtual world had 472 visits last week! What? I haven't updated in more than a month... and even when I was updating, I never had more than 100 visitors in a week... often more like 40. Looks like a lot of people have been searching for pictures of sunflowers on google images lately. hahaha. Statistics are so very interesting and amusing.


Anyway, I keep saying that so much has happened in the past month... so, what exactly has happened?

1. My show opened, played 7 performances, and closed.


2. I auditioned for this show and didn't get in (don't worry, I made a fairly quick recovery)


3. I dropped a class (New York Women) and added another one (Costume History)

4. I took some tests, presented some scenes, wrote some papers, did a lot of reading, wrote part of a play, scrapped part of a play, went out a lot, stayed in a lot, pulled two almost all-nighters, made some new friends, saw a dance concert, a show (Love Song), and an improv show, signed my lease for a beautiful apartment to live in next year, finished my abroad application... and well, a whole lot more. This was really not as interesting as I intended it to be, but point being: I've been a busy bee. Also in just over a month: the weather can go from appropriate for sundresses/shorts/t-shirts to requiring tights/pants/jackets... we've had a frost advisory in Ithaca already folks, how insane is that?

{ok, so it doesn't exactly look like this yet, but you know}

5. A lot happened in the world too of course (Obama's peace prize anyone?). But we don't need to get into all that.

OK THAT WAS A LOT OF WORDS. Should I stop now and wait until I have interesting fashion-y content to share? I think so. Also, my apologies for all the random, uncredited pictures- I saw how many words I had written up there and knew I needed to break it all up a bit. haha.

I hope to catch up on some of your blogs this week too.

Kudos if you made it through any of this.

Regards,
Freddie

Walking on sunshine

Do you folks ever blog in your head? Like when you're walking (or biking) to and from class, or sitting in a less than stimulating lecture? haha. Well, lately that's been happening to me quite a bit, but of course now that I'm finally sitting at my computer I can't remember all those things I had wanted to say!

However, I do remember one thing... the weather is actually getting warmer... for real this time! (I think... please Ithaca, don't prove me wrong!). Yesterday for a small portion of the day I didn't even have to wear the sweater I had with me. Today was incredibly bright and sunny but of course deceivingly colder and extremely windy... but still, there was sun! And I took outfit pictures outside! Both days. I am definitely going to try and keep this up as I think the results are much more interesting than my perpetually showing off my messy room to you all ;)


{target dress, vest - ?, vintage brooch and boots, j.crew tights}


{target shirt, tights and shoes, thrifted belt and skirt (reconned), hat from a flea market in germany}

The little target boater shoes are new, courtesy of an excursion to the mall on Thursday to try and find some shorts and other work appropriate clothes for the summer. I'm hoping they will qualify as closed toed shoes that aren't ballet flats. I did also manage to buy two pairs of shorts at the gap and while I'm not absolutely thrilled with them, I think they will certainly do... I just need to style them right ;) I also foresee trips to h&m, topshop, and urban when I get home. However, while target didn't do me any good on the shorts front, I did find these shoes, a white skinny belt, and a fabulous band inspired vest that I can't wait to incorporate into an outfit.

Also, today, as I was stopping to take a picture of whatever strange statement someone installed on our arts quad (those are all bags of hay I believe... Cornell does The Gates anyone?) some girls complimented my outfit. Actually, to be more specific I think they were talking about my outfit to each other saying "she looks good" and then I awkwardly ended up stopping right by them to take a picture so one of them was like, "hey, you look good!" So that made me smile :)



Thanks so much for all of your lovely comments as well... especially on the facial hair ;) hahaha But really, I do appreciate them so much!

Regards,
Freddie

p.s. I think I'm going to work on the layout of my blog to make it a little more interesting as well... so bear with me in the meantime if it starts to look worse before it looks better ;)

Confessions of a Shopaholic

So, remember this post where I was having a major shoe decision dilemma? Well, today I went to Orva to try on the hunter boots (and came home and bought them online for cheaper, haha) but you see, Steve Madden is on the way back from Orva and um... well... those other shoes I wanted were now 50% off! Only $35! How could I not? Oddly enough the 7 1/2 seemed to fit just perfectly with my tights on (shoe sizes are so bizarre... my hunter rain boots are a 6, and might have been a 5 if I wasn't getting the fleece liners) so I got them. I couldn't resist. But I figure if you go back to a store 3 times for something it means you really want them and should get them. Like those shoes, and this book for example. Both of which I now own. See, Orva is near Banres and Noble and so I went there (also for the 3rd time) looking for Gregory Maguire's A Lion Among Men and maybe I had missed it before because it wasn't with his other books, but there it was on the 50% off table! Two things for 50% off today... good things come to those who wait perhaps? ;) Or maybe I just got lucky.

Sorry no outfit pictures. Both today and yesterday I'm wearing almost exact repeats of recent outfits so I figured there was no reason to take more photos. Yesterday I wore the brown dress with my other pair of new j.crew tights (kind of a rusty color... I can't find a picture online)


And today I'm wearing this, and am going to change into my new shoes:


I'm trying to both look put together (I'm meeting some people about possible summer internships today and tomorrow) while conserving clothes for going back to school. A little bit after I get back we have rush (yes, I'm in a sorority, though I would not consider mine to be typical in any way, haha) which involves a week of needing to be dressed rather nicely while not having any time to do laundry. haha. We'll see how that goes ;)

Sorry this is probably the most boring post I've ever written... I was working on some inspiration collages from free German style magazines I picked up on the way back from Switzerland and wanted to post those today or tomorrow... but I got lazy. Plus my scanner is at school. But we'll see... maybe I'll finish one anyway.

Regards,
Freddie

If a bullet should go through my head let that bullet go through every closet door

So I'll keep it short and sweet today, but I did go to Connecticut to see my cousins (well one cousin and her two daughters, ages 9 and 11) and aunt, which was rather nice. The nine year old especially adores me and looks like she could be my little sis (which I wouldn't mind so much--she is adorable and a real live wire!) I even managed to get some unexpected sales shopping in to boot. I needed new pants courtesy of the bit of weight I have recently put on (thanks college slash having a house cook, haha) and snagged a really cheap pair of jeans from J. Crew (where we got an extra 15% off the sale prices with my student ID!) along with two pairs of tights and a pair of blue cords with cute pocket details from Rugby. I would have forgone the jeans had I seen the cords first, but alas, and at that price, one can't really complain.

When we got back into the city my mom and I went to 86th street where I showed her the aforementioned two pairs of shoes I was debating about and I tried on the Steve Madden flats. Sadly they just didn't seem to fit quite right... like my feet were the right length for the 7 1/2 but the right width for the 7, or something... alas. Well, it does mean I'll be getting Hunter Rain Boots (and I think I've decided I like green) for a belated Hannukah gift and those will be more practical too, so after some brief pouting, I'm satisfied... especially because we then went across to B&N where I finally picked up a copy of The Tales of Beedle The Bard (though it will take me all of 20 seconds to read it) for myself. yay :)




{hat knit by me, target dress and puff sleeved tee, long sleeve tee-?, calvin klein leggings, frye boots}

I also discovered today that Polaroid now exists for windows, which is kind of fun :) I don't think I'll use it all that much, but I do quite like how it flatters today's outfit photos, and I didn't even have to do any picnic editing.

Anyway, I also saw Milk this evening (pretty busy day in retrospect) and it was really excellent. The actors gave such amazing and believable portrayals of the real people and the whole story is just extremely inspiring, sad, and slightly infuriating. I have so much more I could say about it, especially in relation to recent events like Prop 8, though this post is already getting a bit long for short and sweet, huh? (Though I will say, if you haven't seen it, go see Prop 8 the musical- an important message with a Jack Black related smile, haha) Also I really should be off to take a shower now and then go to bed if I want to leave the house by 9am to try and get rush tickets for tomorrow's matinee of Equus. Wish me luck for seats with a decent view ;) (I mean of the show... not of daniel's... well, you know... oh damnit :P haha)

Regards,
Freddie

The value of repeats

So much for doing the Switzerland outfit post yesterday, huh? I got pretty busy actually... and didn't even end up taking yesterday's outfit photos which disappoints me because I had pretty new boots (well, new to me) to show off. But it's an outfit that will surely be repeated up at school in the near future.

Yesterday, I woke up early (yay jetlag, though I think I am pretty much back on schedule now) and went to get student rush tickets for my best friend and I to see Gypsy, after which I went to Barnes & Noble, Goodwill and Housing Works. I snagged a few real gems, including a super shiny shirt to wear tonight. Some of the things are in need of a little editing (shortening and shoulder pad removal) but I am so excited to show them off when they are done. Housing Works was also having an end of the year 50% off sale, so I got a bag and a dress there for $2.50 each - fantastic! (Thift/Second-hand shops in NYC are not always all that cheap.) I also stopped briefly into Steve Madden and Orva Shoes to tortue myself a little, because I really want a pair of hunter rain boots (though what color, I know not) and, thanks to The Sylish Wanderer, a pair of clydde flats. My mom said I could choose one as a belated Christmashannukwanzukah gift as the only thing I really got were theater tickets, but I just don't know which to choose! ;)



Anyway, after that, I got my bangs trimmed, had lunch and then went home to rest/nap a bit before going with Mike to Ollie's (the good one, not the noodle shop chain) for dinner and then to Gypsy... which was, by the way, so so fantastic. I love the show and Patti Lupone never ceases to blow me away, she is a true, old fashioned Broadway Diva and does not fail to deliver wonderful performances. This may have been my favorite show that I've seen in a long time... it was long too, we didn't get out until 11 and then of course waited at the stage door to get Ms. fabulous diva LuPone's autograph on our playbills and such... but really, you could not feel the length at all, it was so wonderful. We also saw Jessica Rush, who was understudying Laura Benanti's role as Louise (Ms. Gypsy Rose Lee) and while I was momentarily disapointed to be missing Ms. Benanti's Tony award winning performance, Ms. Rush really impressed me as well.

Alright, alright, enough of that. I promise I will have less Broadway related blabbing to do when I'm back up at school... life is much less exciting there ;P

So, on to my Switzerland outfits, yes. As I mentioned, I was rather ill on Christmas day, but after spending the whole day in bed, I pulled myself together for the Christmas dinner we had to go to. It was pretty cool actually- we were in the bottom of a building, under a bar in an old fashioned bowling alley!


{vintage red cardgian, urban outfitters dress, white tights - ?, hotel room key}

I know this outfit is an almost direct repeat of a recent one, but this dress deserved a more official spin. Also, I was lucky enough to lose a button of my cardigan as soon as I put it on, haha, but now that I am home with sewing supplies it has been reattached ;)

You may also be wondering what exactly I mean by hotel room key. Well, I mean just that...



This key went to my closet in the hotel room (though it turns out it didn't even work) and I thought it was too fantastic not to wear. I really wanted to steal it, but in order to restrain myself and save my parent's friends a potentially absurd fine for a missing key, I decided wearing it on Christmas would have to do. I had to giggle when I got compliments on it at the party... I just said thank you and smiled to myself thinking about it's origin.

I also brought my tape measure print clutch, which is my usual going out bag up at school, and wore earrings which my dad had surprise gifted me with that day. We weren't expecting presents, but he brought the earrings for me and a necklace for my mom all the way to Switzerland from a shop on Lexington avenue. It was really sweet :)



So, I felt quite a bit better after a few glasses of prosecco at the party, haha, and even found out one of the Swiss-German girls around my age who was at the party is the cousin of a friend of mine from school. What are the chances??

Anyway, the next day I was feeling quite a bit better, though woke up with an eye infection, (which was probably just a stye and is now cleared up thanks to some antibiotic), oy vey. After sleeping in and then going to another snowboarding lesson, we had another long dinner and I went out with my parents and our hostess to "The Casa," the local discotheque which was in a big house. It was quite a thing to see, though not really much fun for me to go out to with my parents. I had a few drinks but we didn't stay long.


{vintage red cardigan, vintage pinstripe vest, h&m turtleneck, bitten locket, AG jeans, frye boots}

I really need to find a better way to get my shoes in these photos....

Speaking of shoes- Patti LuPone had the most fantastic shoes in Gypsy! She had a new pair with every costume- some t-strap, some buckled, some pumps, and all fabulous colors- yellow and orange, green... oh they were epic. I wish I could find pictures to share.

You can see her shoes in this picture, but they are far from the best pair:


Well anyway, I suppose that's all I have for now. A real mouthful anyway... haha. Time to start cleaning up a little for my New Year's party tonight, I'll let you know how that goes ;)

Happy New Year to you all!

Regards,
Freddie

Feathers in my hair

So, today was my first full day back at home in the city I went to the holidays markets in Union Square and Grand Central. I was excited to see that the temperature was a balmy 38º, balmy at least in comparison to what the temperature probably is up in Ithaca (where I go to school) right now. Last night when I was out with my best friend I stole a free (ok, so then it wasn't quite stealing...) Christmas Tree branch from a stand which I thought I might use in my first outfit shoots today, and of course, I forgot. hah. Oh well, perhaps tomorrow.

Anyway, I do wish I had a better backdrop for these shots, but my room at home is not terribly exciting, and my lack of a tripod means I can only take pictures in places where there are ledges and such for me to put the camera on. I think I may have a nice picture-taking spot in my room up at school (if I'm able to keep up with the blog then - I hope so - my outfits are not always that exciting and my time is often rather incredibly limited) but we shall see.


{vintage bowler hat, h&m dress}
{locket, generally worn daily- my mom's when she was a kid}
{flik flack kid's watch (with dinosaurs) - also generally daily fare}


{N typewriter key ring - my last (almost) daily item}


{tights and boots, folded over - unknown}


{h&m coat, street fair scarf, vintage leather gloves}

When I got back from the markets (as well as a stop at urban outfitters where I grabbed a cute brown dress from the sale section) I got a call from my best friend saying he had tickets to go see Jersey Boys with his parents, but they could no longer go (though nothing serious to worry about). I traded my bowler for the lovely feathered headband I bought today at the Union Square Market (I'm a little obsessed with this thing... but a bit worried about how delicate it is) and off we went!


{dark taken after the theatre (which was great by the way!) shot}

Regards,
Freddie