Memorial Day, Vegetarian Edition.

Veggie burger with homemade special sauce (using this recipe). Potato salad + coleslaw from the grocery store. Pickle.


Coke float.

Double feature of Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides and The Curse of the Black Pearl. Perfect start to summer, perfect celebration of all the lives that lay the path before us.

Sunday Style Section: Mermaid Style

Like many girls of my generation, weened on repeated viewings of The Little Mermaid, I have a mermaid complex. When I was young, I would tell my mom that I wanted to be a mermaid and she would say that I missed the whole point of the movie.

This morning, I picked up these mermaid-y vintage necklaces at the flea market - which sunk me into a full fledged obsession.

My summer style theme is going to be MERMAID. Seafoam greens and nude pinks, matte ombre beads and soft tulle layers. Watercolors and transparent overlays. For more mermaid inspiration, check out Jen of The Fabled Needle's Pinterest board. It's all the mermaid inspiration you need and more.

London Trip: Last Day

Our very last stop (well, before the pub) was the Dennis Severs House. Which is unlike anything I've ever visited before. You should take a peek at the website, and possibly put it on your London to-do list because. Well. You'll never experience anything quite like it. But I promise, you will enjoy it. Just look at that door. It just don't give a fuck.

London Trip: What Day Is It?

At this point, I've lost track of all the days. We had an amazing visit with Rob Ryan, which deserves another post all its own, so I'm fast-forwarding to our last day. That morning we had a tour of Nicholas Hawksmoor's churches, which included this very one - St. Anne's Limehouse. It was all quite angular.

London Trip: Paul Smith!

For our visit with Sir Paul Smith, we presented him with a lovely accordion fold book of everyone on the trips' portrait of him. Here's mine.

London Trip: Day 3

Thursday was an incredible day: we met with the great guys at NoBrow in the morning, then we were invited to the studio of the magical Paul Smith, where he showed us all sorts of toys and gifts people had sent him from around the world, and gave us general pearls of wisdom (like the one above).

Then we went to the V&A, which really warrants a day in itself, and we got to visit both the Yohji Yamamoto show and the The Cult of Beauty exhibition. So delighted as the Aesthetic Movement is one of my very favorite movements of all.

After the shows, we had a lecture on British fashion - which had me on edge for its reverence of the genius that was Alexander McQueen. I SO want to be in NYC to see the Savage Beauty show going on. Such a good year for exhibitions!

Finally, we had a studio visit with royal portrait painter Rupert Alexander, then a dinner with illustration guest speakers Linzie Hunter and fellow alum Ping Zhu.

It truly was a day of an embarrassment of fortunes to visit with such incredible, passionate artists and just soak up the richness of the V&A.

London Trip: Day 2

We walked through St. James' Park to get to the London Eye (which made me very nervous indeed as I'm dreadfully scared of heights), and we passed this really adorable swiss cottage that was originally built for the duckkeeper.


P.S. the London Eye turned out to not be so bad.

London: Day 1

I couldn't sleep at all the first night we were there - in fact, I didn't sleep for a near 48 hours straight and I was almost convinced I'd never be tired or sleep again. After lying awake all night, trying all sorts of relaxation and fall-asleep techniques, I finally got up when the sun rose at 5am and just read the entire guidebook for the week (making me the Hermione of the trip) and then the eat.shop london guide we got as a present.

I was so happy to peek out at 6am and find our daily comp petite breakfast hanging outside the hotel door, I drew it. I found the spelling of "yoghurt" especially charming.

*Part of a series of sketchbook drawings from my trip to London.