Gift Guide Part I: For Your Sisters Who Recently Moved to London, Are Currently Obsessed with 'The Big Lebowski', and Have Just Begun University

SORRY this is a bit late—due to a busy holiday season and travel plans (writing this from London--cheers!) I was a tad behind deadline. But better late than never, no?

1. Ariella Elovic Pet Portraits, $60 When they can't take their beloved dog Prada to college with them, hang this on the wall for the next best thing (almost).
2. Anthropologie Pop-Print Measuring Spoons, $25 To put that British cooking course to use, in the quaintest way possible.
3. Cute Tape Mini Vintage Floral Washi Tape, $2.50 The only way to decorate any surface, damage-free (aka a college student's best friend).
4. J. Crew Brushed Scarf, $72.50 Keep them chic and warm during those cold Boston winters.
5. Amazon 'London Style Guide: Eat, Sleep Shop' by Saska Graville, $22.69 The best technique for getting to know a new city? Eating your way through it.
6. Glossier, Phase 1 $80 Because everybody needs to jump on the Glossier train (I know I have…).
7. Vinca USA Arrow Studs, $16 A pair of simple gold arrows to decorate their ears.
8. Etsy Vintage Leather Bowling Shoes, $40 To up the game when she and her friends sip white Russians and refer to each other as "the Dude".
9. Pintrill Pin Hundred Classic, $10 Better than a text.
10. ModCloth Glitter Hair Ties, $12.99 To add a little sparkle to their day.
11. Lady Luna Small Laced Cuff, $125 Because when they aren't looking, you can steal it back.
12. Bobbi Brown Metallic Cream Eyeshadow, $25 For rambunctious office happy hours.
13. Paperless Post Party Invitation, 2 Coins To inform their guests the time and place of those cocktail parties they're going to start hosting.
14. In God We Trust Leather and Knit Gloves, $115 A gorgeous color combo and a genius fix to the biting chill that attacks that naked bit of skin between the gloves and coat sleeve.

Stay tuned for more! (T-minus 4 days!!)

Brazil + the World Cup!

Sitting on the shelves upstairs in my house in Austin are albums after albums filled with photographs of various travels from my childhood. Trips to Bali, Thailand, and the UK have thankfully all been physically manifested into books because my memories wouldn’t do them justice. But towards the late ‘90s, the documentation stops. Photo albums just aren’t a thing anymore. Sure, we still take pictures, but how many are being printed and placed methodically into heavy leather-bounds? Even the culture of picture-taking has changed. Freshmen year of college, I remember having my trusty, little red digital camera glued to my hand for EVERY SINGLE THING I ever did (interesting or not, and let’s be honest, most of them were not) before I gleefully uploaded them all onto Facebook. Today, however, you could be at the most exciting event of your life, but you're only limited to one Instagram. Just the one. Any more than that is seen as over-sharing or annoying and will just "clog up your friends' news feeds". 10 years from now, we will all look back at our major milestones with only one (highly-filtered) image to remember it by. 

What I’m trying to get at is that I can no longer rely on photographs as fulfilling souvenirs, so I have turned to video. Capturing little moments while traveling and putting it all together at the end is so much more satisfying as a means of looking back than your occasional #tbt pic from studying abroad in Shanghai. My only regret is that I didn’t start doing that sooner (imagine the possibilities!), but I now have a (hopefully growing...) collection of videos from trips around the world. The first one I made was for my dissertation on my textile research grant in Southeast Asia, followed by a family trip to Cuba, then the Stans, a Catskills adventure with my friends, and now (drumroll, please): the World Cup in Brazil!

This past summer the six of us spent some quality time in Recife, Brazil during the 2014 FIFA World Cup. Watching the games was exciting, to say the least, but there was also plenty of coconut water-sippin, food-eating, and beach-lounging that needed to be done as well. Returning from that country was not easy; once you get used to the lifestyle of fresh fruit on every street corner and spending your days reading and being with family, it’s makes coming back to the concrete jungle that much more painful. But I'm so thankful to have been given the chance to be in the middle of such a global phenomenon, even if it is the only sport-watching I do all year…

Check out the video below and try to forget about the depressingly cold weather outside.



And now I will conclude this post with the exact tendency I mentioned above: singular Instagrams!

That time that Teen Vogue regrammed this picture of Selina, Lorelei, and myself:

Happy Independence Day! 🇺🇸Celebrate the red, white, and blue in style with tips from TeenVogue.com/fashion. #regram from @chantagold.

A photo posted by Teen Vogue (@teenvogue) on Jul 7, 2014 at 6:48am PDT

Re-hydrating:

Mondays, amiright?

A photo posted by chantal strasburger (@chantagold) on Jun 6, 2014 at 1:57pm PDT

The most spectacular sunsets:

Not tryna leave.

A photo posted by chantal strasburger (@chantagold) on Jul 7, 2014 at 5:21pm PDT

What we woke up to every morning *sigh*:

The Last Breakfast #tchau

A photo posted by chantal strasburger (@chantagold) on Jul 7, 2014 at 5:24am PDT

Stay tuned for the next installment—who knows what it will be! Perhaps India, or Bhutan, or maybe even Nepal? One can dream xx

Teen Vogue Handbook: The Second Edition

 

Exciting news! Last Friday the second edition of The Teen Vogue Handbook: An Insider's Guide to Careers in Fashion launched! Our team worked tirelessly on it for months, and I was thrilled to have had the opportunity to interview the likes of Chanel Iman, stylist Micaela Erlanger, our very own Andrew Bevan, the Man Repeller's Amelia Diamond, and Nasty Gal's creative director Lina Kutsovskaya for the guidebook. There are some truly insightful profiles on some very talented men and women, and you can even get a glimpse of me on the page featuring Teen Vogue's most liked Instagrams! Who knew? (I sure didn't until I opened the book.) Buy yourself one here for good karma and even better advice.

Talk about coming full circle. When I first decided I wanted to be in the magazine industry and move to New York, I was told that the Teen Vogue Handbook was the first thing I needed to buy. I remember picking up a used copy at Strand Bookstore on a rainy day and pouring over it at a nearby coffee shop (I was unemployed and had plenty of time for these kinds of things). I remember a few tips that stuck with me: Karl Lagerfeld pointing out the significance of knowing more than one language (I immediately signed up for Chinese classes again), the importance of having a strong personal brand (I went home and wrote 5 blog posts), and the overall message that you just need to get out there and experience as much as you can as soon as you can. Now I work with many of the people featured in the book, and it's mind-blowing how far I've come since then. Not a day goes by that I don't walk past the Teen Vogue sign on my way into work and think, "Woah, wait, HOW did I get here again??".

Life's just crazy that way, I guess.

Desert Chic

Fashion inspiration can strike in the most random of places, from subway rides with strangers to street art in the 'hood. I recently watched the short film Lady Lonely, and I can't stop thinking about this cropped shirt/overall combo worn by Sosie Bacon. The boxiness of the collared top protruding out from the sides of the bib creates a wonderfully playful silhouette, and I'm dying to track down substitutes to cop the look. Now, if I was swimming in money (give me time), I'd just buy those exact pieces—the flick is outfitted by Brooklyn-based boutique In God We Trust. When I pass their storefront in Williamsburg, I have to manually restrain my head from checking out their display. History has proven that I WILL want that quirky printed dress in the window and that I WON'T be able to afford it. But so is life.

The short film, written and directed by Janey Feingold, is also worth a watch for it's whimsically abstract characters and though-provoking plot. Beautifully shot, its fashion plates are just a bonus prize. Watch the video below and keep an eye out for a cropped button-down for me, won't you?

Keep On Keepin' On

This past weekend a few friends and I bundled up in a rented Jeep and made our way upstate to the beautiful Catskills. We airbnbd (verb?) a little house smack dab in the woods and did our best to pretend we didn't live in the most populated city in the United States that also happens to have recently come down with a slight touch of Ebola. I decided to take a little footage and make a short film because you're not really truly in nature unless you have a camera strapped around your neck, right? Isn't that what Thoreau said? Also because I think this will be funny to watch in 30 years.

Sidenote: I actually had the surreal experience of interviewing First Aid Kit last week, and I think being in their magical presence was what prompted this little endeavor. So as we stomp through the forest to their sweet sibling harmonies, pretend we're Swedish and everything will be 100x better.

And here are the beautiful ladies behind the soundtrack ("Stay Gold" was a close second but it's a little dark so "My Silver Lining" it was):
      

   A photo posted by chantal strasburger (@chantagold) on Oct 10, 2014 at 11:17am PDT

Oh, and on the way back we made a pitstop to the Vanderbilt mansion because why not?

Playing on Repeat: Hozier

I cannot for the life of me stop listening to Hozier's "Take Me To Church". Not entirely sure where I first came across it, but it's addictive.

There doesn't seem to be much information on Hozier, but I've gathered that he's a 24-year-old Irishman by the name of Andrew Hozier-Byrne. If you have Spotify check out his other tracks—they're far and few between, but I recommend all of them, especially "Work Song". Not sure where he came from or where he's going, but I'm hoping we'll be hearing a lot of him soon.

 Here's a gentler, more soulful live rendition of "Take Me To Church", and another track called "Sedated".

Can't. Get. Enough.

Pinterest Picks of the Week

As I mentioned in my last post, I've been spending quite a bit of time on Pinterest lately. One must practice constant vigilance in planning for their future house, defining their personal style, and finding fitness motivation, otherwise who knows what might happen. I figured I'd start sharing my favorite images each week because there really are some beautiful graphics on that site. Check out my Pinterest boards to see the original pins, and don't be surprised if you get sucked into the blackhole of DIYs and OOTDs.

Selfie Journalism

Guess what! I wrote an article for Teen Vogue about living my life as a YoPro in the big apple. Pretty cool, huh? Check it out here for some tips and advice on everything from where to eat on the cheap to how to decorate your apt. 

The Tiny Transforming Apartment

Ariella and I renewed the lease on our amazing apartment last night(!), and signing on to the same space for a whole other year made me think a little decoration-tinkering might be in order—you know, to keep things fresh. So as I was Google-ing "how to transform your average NYC apartment" (because, as always, Pinterest has me wanting more), I stumbled across an interesting solution to the severe lack of space in NYC. "The Tiny Transforming Apartment That Packs Eight Rooms into 420 Square Feet" was designed by LifeEdited and is the brainchild of Graham Hill. Creative? Yes. Liveable? Perhaps, depending on your character and if you are the kind of person willing to pull out your bed every night and unpack your oven tops. I personally am not, but I love the concept of endless storage units. It is a firm belief of mine that one can never have too many places to put things. But the every-surface-is-a-closet situation doesn't leave much opportunity for wall hangings...I guess you can't win 'em all.

Would you live here?

Emoji-Nation

More fun with modernizing art! Ukrainian artist Nastya Nudnik pairs famous paintings with applicable social media-speak. My favorite is the Edward Hopper piece below, which reminds me of this Banksy-esque street art. Because isn't that feeling of no new Instagram followers the worst?

A 4-Day Work Week? Sign Me Up.

I just read the thought-provoking article, "5 Reasons It’s Time for a 4-Day Work Week," and I must admit, I'm convinced. The piece's main stance is that a shorter work week will make people a) happier and b) more productive. The idea is simple: By compacting the hours we have to get work done, we'll waste less time and be more efficient. And imagine having a FULL three days to reset, relax, explore, and live. A few US company have already employed the tactic and report "increases [in] both output and morale." There's also the interesting point that one less day of running electricity in millions of office spaces and one less day of gridlocked commuting would positively impact the environment.

When I got my first full-time job in NYC, it was the middle of winter. As I accustomed myself to a 45-hour work week, not only was I dead tired by the time I headed home, but the lack of sunlight and freezing weather didn't leave much desire to go to the gym, much less socialize. Happy hours? Forget about it (both figuratively and literally ha). I began to realize that the only time I felt like I was doing something with my life was on Saturdays and Sundays. Friday nights didn't even count, because I would go straight home and fall into bed. I promise I'm not as lame as this is sounding! (Just kidding I totally am.)

Needless to say, summer in NYC is a whole other planet. Getting out of work when there's still sunlight left makes it feel like a crime to head home. I've shifted my routine so that gym time comes at 6am (groan) and the infectious joy of summer nights has made me start making plans after work. Revolutionary! Now I'm getting drinks with friends on Monday night, watching a movie with the roomie Tuesday night, heading to a rooftop party Wednesday night, hosting a dinner party Thursday night, and--lo and behold!- going out on Friday nights. Weekends are no longer my only window to fraternize, so I can take things outside the city. This past weekend I rented a car with some buddies and headed upstate to Dia Beacon and Storm King (instas below). Usually I would suffer insane FoMo leaving NYC for so long- but I knew that whatever was going on in the big apple could happen again tomorrow or the next weekend, and life as we know it would continue.

Now as much as that sort of digressed into an argument against the before-mentioned case, my point is that even if you are living your work week to the fullest, it's still exhausting. Having three days to catch up on rest, visit family, or just learn to exist in a new city would raise one's level of living dramatically. Several other highly-productive countries already have the Mon-Thu rule, so let's say we give it a shot, eh?

Things I could do more of with more time: art appreciating.

Playing on Repeat: Vance Joy

Vance Joy has been on my radar for a while now (thanks, Selina!) and "Riptide", their biggest hit, is what I wake up to every morning (sorry, Ariella!). But even though the Australian singer-songwriter's latest track, "Mess is Mine," seems to be featured on a multitude of Spotify playlists, I feel as though it's not getting the attention it deserves. I mean, the music video doesn't even have 200,000 views on YouTube! And I'm convinced that half of those views are mine...So what's up with that?

Let's all take a minute to appreciate good music and creepy polar bears and show the song a little love—it's worth it, I promise.

Hip Hop + Art = Fly Art

It's a surprisingly beautiful marriage you don't often see: the aggressive (if not occasionally witty) rap lyric mixed with the classical beauty of fine art. It's the type of stuff my mother would hate because she would detest the foul language and wouldn't understand the written references. I would suggest she listen to more Jay-Z, but I would also most definitely not suggest she listen to more Jay-Z. A classic catch-22.

Fly Art is a project "born out of boredom, frustration, and the internet" and inspired by other genius art hacks like Swoosh and The Carter Family Portrait Gallery. Class and taste aside, I think it's pretty on point for Millennials (excuse the obnoxious self-awareness) and hip-hop aficionados. The juxtaposition ends up breathing some cultural relevancy into the Old Masters and everything ancient is new again.

I've curated (if you will) a few of my favorite NSFW images below. If you can name the songs titles, you get 2 points. If you can name the paintings, you get 5. And if you can name both, let's date.

Spotted by Ariella.
Spotted by Danielle: Wearable Fly Art x Rad.

 

Playing on Repeat: Champs

Stumbled across "My Spirit Is Broken" by Champs and haven't been able to stop playing it. Give it a whirl and lemme know what you think.

 x

Starlight Express

My friend Grant was in town the other week, and the first thing he requested to do? "Roller disco". More specifically, the "Crazy Legs Skate Club" roller disco.  Located inside a Salvation Army in Brooklyn, this spectacle happens every Wednesday night with a live DJ.

The three block radius of this building is completely dead, so we heard the music blaring from the gymnasium before we even turned the corner. If we hadn't been about to enter a rollerblading disco party, I might have feared for my life. The street was dark and there was no one in sight, but slowly, one by one, people started to roll up. Literally. Out of the shadows, people came skating up to the door in their roller blades. They meant business. My care-free attitude about the night's events quickly turned into an, "Oh My God I am so in over my head." As we walked in, people were standing around in their skates, socializing with drinks and snacks in the entry room. It was a mixture of young hipsters in high-waisted mom jeans and older, die-hard locals in un-irconically high-waisted mom jeans. We paid our $15 (steep!) and sat down to put on our skates.

On our way over, Ariella had been confessing her anxiety about getting back on skates for the first time since the '90s. While I was in the same boat, I had this idea in my head that rollerblading is one of those things that, even if you were terrible the last time you attempted, the power of time and maturity would magically have enhanced your skills. I would pop into those bad boys and skate away like Nancy Kerrigan pre-Tanya Harding. Fun fact: Nope. I refused to stand for the first 10 minutes, terrified out of my mind. These weren't inline skates, mind you. These were those terrible, old-school kind with the "brake" in the front. But the "brake" is actually impossible to use so you have to adopt a kind of pizza-wedge technique I typically reserve for skiing. And while Grant and Michael swore they hadn't skated in years, they zipped away like the graceful water nymph and child of an ex-Rollerblade employee (true story) that they are.

My second mistake of the night: "Oh, a disco-themed roller rink? What fun! Let me just throw on my most obnoxious '70s gear and tease me hair! I'll blend in with everyone else and look fabulous at the same time!" Apparently, "disco" refers solely to the type of music played and not the dress code. All of a sudden my furry coat, patterned pants and gold sequin top became my worst enemy. I turned into a shining beacon of light, slowly orbiting the gym in such a pronounced way that when people started lapping me (which they did. over and over again) they knew. They were well aware. No blending in for this gal! Every time Michael or Grant whizzed past me, I'd get a tender, encouraging touch on my upper back and a supportive wink. Sometimes these intimate gestures came from other people. I think that's part of the skating culture(???).

By some great act of God, I never fell. I must say, however, that when you're going at a snail's pace, it enables you to really take in the endearing details of Crazy Legs Roller Club. For example, the way star crossed-lovers skate arm-in-arm, backwards, with their eyes closed while you claw along the wall like a leper from Jesus Christ Super Star (honestly, that's the only comparison I could think of at the time). And while people skate laps around the dimly lit gymnasium, center court is reserved for the break-dancers. Yes, break-dancing in roller blades is a thing, and these guys are good. The majority of them are middle-aged men and I found it fascinating that this is obviously their Wednesday night, every Wednesday night. One man took pity on us as we encircled the seasoned pros and gawked at their talents. He tried to teach us some moves, and Michael was dedicated enough to actually get on the ground and bust a few. Grant, being a naturally elegant swan, didn't need any lessons and floated away.

Michael attempted to convince the DJ to play Beyoncé's Blow, because, duh, but the DJ stuck with B-list disco songs (except for when he played Lorde's Royals...?). But once our back sweat had thoroughly soaked through our paisley button downs and fur, we decided it was time to turn in. And like the true Brooklyn-dwelling, disco-skating bohemians that we are, we Uber-ed back to our warm beds and called it a night. While I can assure you that Michael and Grant will be back for more, I will probably opt out for a new, slightly less death-defying adventure. Canoeing down the toxic Gowanus canal, anyone?

getting our blades on.

Photo cred: Michael Offerman. See, I wasn't kidding about the shining beacon of light. Or the being in pain thing.

xx

A Weekend Outing

This past weekend I received the most welcome text from my friend Michael saying, "Hey! Let's go on an adventure!" When I moved to NYC, the first advice someone told me was: "In order to live in New York City, you have to leave New York City." For this specific person I think that entailed more of a weekend-trip to-a-house-in-the-hamptons kind of deal, but until I sign the lease on my beach house, I'm content with a slightly less glamorous approach. After living here for 8 months now (!!!) I completely understand the sentiment; as wonderful as this concrete jungle is, human beings need nature. 

So Ariella, Michael and I voluntarily woke up at 7 a.m. on a rainy Saturday morning, hopped on over to Grand Central Station and, with coffee cups and pretzel packs in hand, boarded the Metro North. What an incredibly pleasant experience! We spent the train ride catching up, listening to Michael's dramatic reading of the mind-blowing NYTimes article on Mole People, and re-introducing ourselves to the concept of scenic views. 

We got off at the beautiful little town of Cold Spring and made our way up Main Street, which was, in fact, their main street. Not a ton going on at Cold Spring, which made a day trip more manageable. Every storefront on Main St. was jam-packed with antique stores ("depression-era glass and Bakelite nicknacks" according to our Hudson River Valley pamphlet) and everyone was SO NICE. I forgot that there are people in this world who will give you the time of day without expecting something in return.

 We had the most scrumptious brunch of bacon-basted poached eggs, raspberry cornmeal pancakes and babka french toast at Hudson Hil's Cafe & Market (HIGHLY recommended if you're ever in the 'hood) and perused Old Souls, the local hiking shop (a super hip transplant from Brooklyn). We then set upon our trail, getting directions and advice from locals and finding ourselves down a wooded path that led to a beautiful waterfall, all set in the historic site of the West Point Foundry Preserve. Along our hike we:

gawked at the beautiful babbling brook,

 risked our lives while channeling our inner Troop Beverly Hills,

drank from the fountain of youth (not me, though. I played enough Oregon Trail to know this is exactly how you get dysentery),

and contemplated the meaning of life.

Once we were thoroughly soaked to the bone, we wanted one thing: soup. Thankfully, we found just the spot and downed bowls of butternut squash and chili. As soon as we were nice and cozy on the inside (though still very damp on the outside),  we grabbed a few muffins from a local bakery for the road and jumped back on the ole steel horse.

All in all, I would do it again in a heartbeat (but maybe wear a real raincoat and two more layers.) The round trip cost $25, and for a ticket out of town, it's not a bad deal. Heck, if I had a lot of work to do or a good book to read, I would head out and spend the day in a cute coffee shop along the way, just for the change of scenery. But of course as the weather gets nicer, there will be a million and one things to do in the city every weekend and it will get harder and harder to get out. I guess I just found the upside to bad weather.

Let me know if you ever want to adventure!

 xx C

The Secret Correlation Between Plants and Adulthood

I've said it before and I'll say it again. I love my apartment more than anything. The Williamsburg location, the four story walk up (jokes) and my wonderfully talented roommate. But lately I've been feeling as though I'm missing some key element that will take my apartment from pleasant to sophisticated, and yesterday I realized the answer: plants. 

Now that I've landed a J-O-B (!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!), having living things in your apartment feels like a natural transition into the next stage of proving that you are a responsible adult capable of taking care of others. Plants will eventually be replaced by an animal of sorts (chinchilla? sugar glider? a cheetoh?) and then, finally, fingerscrossedIgetmarried, small humans. But for now house plants will have to do. 

We must take baby steps when entering new phases of life, however, and I'm not sure I'm quite ready for the challenge of watering plants per se, so I've contently settled on some adorable succulents (read: can survive in the desert). Ariella bought me the most beautiful terrarium for Christmas from a local store called Sprout, so I took a trip down to Grand Street (they also have a Chicago location!) because yesterday was perfect plant-buying weather. I would highly recommend Sprout's extensive selection of make-your-own terrarium ingredients (plastic dinosaurs included), floral arrangements and abundance of moss. I settled on three little fleshy Echeverias (only $3.50 each! BUY ALL THE ECHEVERIAS!) and re-potted them into some Anthropologie glass jars I had lying about (below).

 I put them on the windowsill next to my bed, and this morning the sunlight was streaming in and I felt very positive about life.  I must say, it was the loveliest sight to wake up to. So do yourself a favor today, and go buys some succulents. xx

BYOB(runch)

This post is about brunch. "Brunching" is a thing I did not do enough in college (the amount of mornings I wasn't eating at Half and Half or Winslow's is my biggest regret in life) and I still don't do enough of today. The concept of sleeping in on a lazy Sunday and then rolling up with friends to New York's hottest restaurant to discuss the previous night's cacophony over mimosas and pancakes for hours sounds like all I've ever wanted in life. But when it comes down to it, it takes quite a bit of organization and, more importantly, MONEY. Adding brunch to your list of hobbies and activities can set you back a significant amount each week. So it's something I'm going to aspire to.

 In conclusion, I am job-searching so that I can brunch.

As a solution, I found a temporary substitute: The BYOB.

My good friends Jacob and Sarah were visiting NYC last weekend and obviously wanted to max out their socializing, but trying to meet up with 10 people for brunch in Williamsburg is like trying to get a reservation at the Dorsia in American Psycho. So Ariella and I had the genius decision to host the brunch at our apartment! However, we decide this the night before and didn't have enough time to shop for a full-out brunch. So to make it as easy as possible, we ended up doing a Bring Your Own Brunch. Instead of worrying about cooking for everyone or even bringing a dish large enough for everyone, you just worry about yourself! This is especially convenient when you have gluten-free (and fabulous) or vegetarian friends. Our BYOB still ended up being a little pot-luckish though because I have generous friends who are willing to pick up a dozen donuts and bagels and (my favorite, thanks Hillary!) macarons. It was a lovely get together and I would fully recommend the concept when you're feeling lazy or poor or selfish and don't want to share your food.

I promise Jacob and Steven are having more fun then they're letting on. 

I Wore This

Am I the only one who hates the abbreviation of Outfit of the Day? Whenever I see people hashtag #ootd on instagram I get a weird feeling because my immediate reaction is to try and sound it out and then I end up say "ooh-t-d" in my head and it's uncomfortable.

I digress. 

I often have these moments where I say to myself, "Hey, I kind of like my outfit today. And the world needs to know." But the idea of forcing my roommate to take glamour pics of me or, even worse, posing in front of my camera on a tripod in self-timer mode gives me amateur shivers. So I figured I'd do a more forgiving version of portraiture using watercolor of what I wore when I had people over for  brunch the other day (post to follow on that).

It was incredibly therapeutic and after having done hundreds of fashion illustrations for my major, it was kind of nice to get back into the grind, as rusty as I may be. I'm still deciding, though, if this is something I should do more often. Thoughts?  Also figured I'd go ahead and put some info on what exactly I have on although, not gonna lie, my life is all URBN all the time since I started working for Anthropologie (you can't really not use the discounts, you know?) so sorry for the lack of excitement in the labels on this one.

Necklace: Anthropologie

V-Neck: Anthropologie

Printed Harem Pants: Urban Outfitters

Chunky Platforms: Topshop

Bangles and Bracelets: Chan Luu and a lil sumin sumin I picked up in Uzbekistan.

Looking back, I got every single thing I'm wearing on sale (the Chan Luu I got at 60% off (!) at a great 2nd Street Boutique in Austin). Guess I'm just naturally thrifty. Also that Anthro V-Neck is the softest thing I own, I highly recommend it. 

peace out.

Gold Heads

As many of you know, I went to Wash U to pursue a sculpture major. I ended up switching to fashion because sculpture is something that, no matter what, I'll always be doing regardless of my job. Fashion, however, was something new to learn and would open many more doors than sculpture would. Since moving to New York, I've been searching for the right career path in fashion, but sculpture is something I've consistently kept up with. I rented some studio space in Brooklyn in a beautiful facility with a wonderful community, and I've been spending a lot of my free-time there. I've working on sculptures that are a smaller version of what I did in high school/college  because I just don't have the storage for any more 5 foot sculptures! The process of making these guys is a rather long-winded one, as I have to sculpt them, wait for them to dry, bisque fire them, apply the white glaze, fire them again, then wait until I have enough of them to fill the small kiln (which I have to rent out) to high-fire for the gold lacquer. So all in all it's taken several months to complete all of these.  

Being in studio is my happy place as I just sculpt while going back and forth between listening to NPR to catch up on world news and serious deep-thinking time. The only problem now is forcing myself out into the polar vortex to get there. I'm also trying to decide/figure out the whole "making money" thing as a sculptor- so let me know if you have any ideas! (There are a few more pictures over at my website)

 

How To: Chia Seed Pudding

Were you aware that Chia Seeds have three times the calcium of milk? Along with a healthy dose of omega 3 fatty acids, protein and a slew of other good-for-you things. Soooo the idea of turning this superfood into a "dessert" type substance intrigued me. Introducing the Chia See Pudding. The consistency and texture is a little gooey, so you're gonna have to be into that. Le Pain Quotidian had the most AMAZING chia seed and coconut pudding this summer that I could not get enough of. Here's a link to their recipe, if you're feeling a little more advanced and fancy. 

For the simplest of recipes, just combine the ingredients below and refridgerate the mixture over night and *voila!* you'll wake up to a delicious (and nutritious) snack.

Other flavors you can add and try: pear, ginger, almonds, honey, coconut, agave, raspberry- the list goes on and on. I just made a batch and added carob chips, so we will see how that goes. Bon appétit!