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Viktor Luna Show in Chelsea.  My good friend Jeffrey invited me to a show during Fashion Week to preview the new SP2013 Line from Viktor Luna. While I was expecting a runway show, I was pleasantly surprised to find it to be a presentation where we were able to get up close and personal to the garments and the models were very willing to show of the clothes with stunning poses. The construction of his collection was amazing with pleating and beautifully structured jackets along with a gorgeous print of The Met’s rooftop exhibit titled “Cloud City.” The color palette included smoky gray, rich navy,  and fresh coral rounding out the neutrals of black and white.  There are more than a few pieces I wanted to add to my own closet. Which one is your favorite?

Oh Fashion Week, WHY must you be so fun and only come twice a year? Not sure why I am complaining, it’s comes twice as many times as Christmas. Although if it could be Fashion Week AND Christmas all the time, my head might explode. SO here we go. Day one, for me started with Fashion’s Night Out. Somehow I lost my mind last year and accidentally booked a trip out of town, so I missed it.  So I had to make up for it this year. I planned my excursion so as to get the most bang for my proverbial buck. I knew I wanted to start at Henri Bendel (favorite store in the the city) and maybe pick up some cute little bauble as well as get my hands on a signed print from my favorite fashion illustrator, Izak Zenou . I wanted to purchase an FNO tote from him 2 years ago but just didn’t and I am still kicking myself. I was determined to get something this year. I just adore the Bendel Girls he creates. I see myself in so many of them. From there the plan was to hightail it to Loehmann’s becaus...

I have only had one father in law in my lifetime. I no longer have a husband but I definitely kept the family in the divorce settlement. Well, ok we got joint custody. And while it’s been a while since I have spent time with them, I have fond memories of Elmo and Nilda James, both together and in separate relationships. There was the girl’s trip to Vancouver that Nilda and I took and I think my abdominal muscles hurt for at least a week upon returning home from all the laughing we did. There were the multiple phone calls to her from Puerto Rico on my first Thanksgiving with Mike when all the directions on the turkey package were in Spanish and I needed serious help or we were going to die of food poisoning. Even with 8 years of Spanish, they never covered stuffing a turkey. There was the road trip from Florida to Arizona in two cars with in laws and a lot of open highway. There were the family holidays in Puerto Rico with roosters, hammocks and lots of bread. And there were the e...

I found out about Dead Horse Bay last year and thought my mom wold be chomping at the bit to go explore a 50 year old capped dump that burst, spilling trash out onto the beach for the last 40 or so years. Oh and it's called Dead Horse Bay because before it was a dump, it had a horse rendering plant. You get the picture? Yeah, so did she and she wanted NO part of it. Chicken!!! So it only took me about 8 months to talk someone in to going with me. Amanda and I grabbed a Zip Car and spent a blissful 3 hours by ourselves digging up old bottles on a quiet Brooklyn beach.    It took numerous soakings in bleach water to remove the sediment and scum from the bottles but what treasures! And then we had a party and I had the perfect little bottles to fill with wildflowers as tablescape.  Who wants to go next?

I used to spend hours playing with Barbie. HOURS. I might even go so far as to say days when you consider I would go to bed with my “town” intact ready to pick right back up the next morning. I had Barbie and Ken and Skipper and Barbie’s friends. Heck I even had Barbie’s Afghan Hound. And trust me when I say the first time I saw one of those in real life (30 odd years later walking down a Manhattan sidewalk) it was like I was 7 again. Tossed right back into the middle of my make believe wonderland.  And it was a magical place. Barbie was happy. She had great friends, a cute boyfriend, she took trips on the Barbie plane. Sometimes she was a passenger, sometimes she was a flight attendant. She had a fun car and drove around with her friends laughing.  She dreamed big and had plans for the future. Maybe she had hard times too, I don’t remember. I also don’t remember EVER holding Barbie up and thinking to myself, “this is what I should look like.” And for the record I...

My mom was a phenomenal mom. She didn't have it easy being a single mom but I have very vivid memories of yearly traditions that the two of us shared as I grew up. We made our own Christmas ornaments, strung popcorn, made cookies from scratch and decorated them. Each holiday had it's own fun. Every year at Easter she made a bunny cake, from the time I was a baby. And each year we got out the cookie cutters and made cookies to decorate. She still has the cutters and made them for my niece this year. You can check out her blog  here . Now, I haven't really done any Easter stuff in years. I think the last time I dyed eggs I was still living at home. I always aspire to do it every year and have even bought the dye only to get busy and never get around to it. But this year I made a valiant effort to be more festive. So last week, I pulled out my batch of hard boiled eggs and took to decorating. While it made me miss my mom immensely, it was also very fun and quite comforting. I...

I have been living in the Rabbit Hole for almost 2 years now. It has become my safe haven from the storm of this city. Don't get me wrong I love this city but it is nice to have a little sanctuary to retreat to when all the hustle and bustle starts to overwhelm. I love sitting at my window every morning to write and watch the parade of neighbors stroll by. I have come to "know" some of them, not personally but just by virtue of seeing them on a regular basis. But that will be another post. This is all about the Rabbit Hole. As I come up on the 2 year mark, I took a look back at where it all started. I remember walking into the apartment with my mom and my broker and falling immediately in love with this little space. I am so thankful we were able to pull off the painstaking process of actually getting the apartment. It has been such a great place to live. And there have been some changes. So here are the before and afters of the last two years.  It was so bare and crisp...