skyline

One more photo I forgot to put in my film post, a quick shot over my shoulder on a drive home from brooklyn. Thats the sun setting behind the empire state building. I see this skyline so often, but I can never get enoiugh. Sometimes it's extremely foggy and you can't see anything over the side of the BQE (brooklyn queens expressway) other times you catch it from the east at sunset like this, and it's beautiful. Then you get to drive by it at night and you get to see it all lit up, I never wonder why I love this city so much. Can't hardly wait for it to be right outside my door.

June sponsor: As The Crow Flies

Sorry I have been a bit slow with these sponsor posts, June has been a bit of a crazy month for me, I think all of summer is going to be that way, what with job and apartment hunting and all. But sometimes it's nice to take a break and browse etsy for new shops that catch my eye. And this brings me to As The Crow Flies, A sweet shop just starting up based out of Charleston, SC.. and we all know what good the south has to offer when it comes to thrift!

The shop is run by a real sweetie, with a great name, Emily! She also has a great tumblr which I was already following before Emily got in contact with me about sponsorship. Very inspiring and eerie, just what I like! Here is a little bit aboute Emily:

What is your favorite era in fashion?
My favorite era lately has been the sixties and seventies. I am really into crazy prints, shift dresses, exaggerated sunglasses, and bright colors. I have also really been into the 90s aesthetic that's been popular for awhile now- I remember a lot of this stuff from it's first time around and it's fun to play with a little nostalgia. The drabness and tackiness of the 90s are great.

What inspires you and influences you when looking for items for your shop?
When I shop for items for my store I try to buy things I would want in my own closet! The reason I actually started my store was because I kept finding things that were too awesome to pass up, but I didn't want them for myself either because they didnt fit me or I didn't need it. My biggest sartorial inspirations are tv and movies: anywhere from hal hartley movies to valley of the dolls.

Best vintage find?
Either my perfectly worn in, fits-like-a-dream denim jacket or these egyptian print t-shirt dress I found a few weeks ago. The pattern is amazing!

As The Crow Flies will be offering a 30% off discount to my readers from now until June 29th, be sure to hop on over to her shop and check out her goodies. Just use code "ITGIRLRAGDOLL" at checkout to receive money off.

NYC & Philly blogger meet up

So saturday was the NYC & Philly blogger meet up at McCarren park in Brooklyn. This first photo here was the only one taken by me.. I'm so bad at breaking out my camera sometimes! But this photo only shows like half the people who came, it was a pretty big gathering, it was just perfect!

I came in a bit early to grab some bagels and coffee with Anna Li, (the one behind the rest of these photos) she's the lovely lady that shot The Loved One's video look book and since then we got to know each other online a bit, and so we became fast friends when we hung out allll day saturday. Then Liz from Olive, My Love came to join us before heading off to McCarren park. I don't know why I didn't know this lady before, or how we could have not hung out before, she's so funny and sweet. And she makes funny faces like I do, she was super down to earth and I'm sure once I move to Brooklyn she will become a regular fixture in my life :)

Then we made our way to the park, about 10 girls were already there with a bunch of blankets all laid out. It looked like the nicest picnic around! I brought some yellow balloons with me to help others find us, it's a fairly big park. There was snacks for munching (trader joes!) and some spiked punch for sipping. Veronica of Tick Tock Vintage made cute name tags for everyone to wear with their name and blog name on them. Hannah from Heart City Vintage was there too, we had been corresponding a bit through email since she invited me to this get together, so I was excited to meet her. She was really sweet, just how I expected, come to NY again some time!!

I got to meet a really great Long Island blogger names Kallie, she writes a blog called Happy Honey and Lark and I as so so happy to meet her! I never come across any bloggers from LI, and out here it's hard to find cool stylish people. I don't know why her and I have only met now.. I can see her becoming a good friend, and she lives so close! Ah, the wonders of the blogosphere! Another lovely lady who I ended up spending most of the day with is Alley, who writes a blog which is pretty much just inspiration stuff. But she also has a dream job and works for Stylelikeu, shes got amazing vintage clothing, and shes smart and funny. I knew her in real like before this meet up too hah, we met at Hannah and Landons christmas party (also where I met friends Wray and Annie who I mentioned in my Ambit trunk show post) but that was the last time I saw her. Once again, a wonderful lady I hope to be seeing more of once I make the move.

Okay, I'll try and wrap this up now, at around 5 the party started breaking up, after that Anna, Alley, Liz and myself hung out for quite a while, this brooklyn walks thing was going on, like a street festival, so Bedford was all closed off with vendors and chairs set up. We grabbed a table and just talked for a while. It's amazing how conversation is never ending with these fashion girls. Yay for finding girls with stuff in common! Then we went uo to Anna's roof, the best roof I have ever been on! Pretty close to the water, amazing view of manhattan, spend another hour up ther talking. Then went to get food at Pop's and talked for an even longer time haha.

Thanks so much for everyone involved with making this meet up happen! We need these more often, or at least twice a year. I expect to have another in september come fashion week. Girls from all over are in town then, I went to the one last year and it was a blast!

After coffee, on our way to the park. Had to get some photos with the bright yellow balloons!

Anna Li

Alley in her lovely green dress.

We all suffer from living with chronic bitchface

film

These are some photos from the first roll of film I shot in years! I took photo classes in high school, but that was probably the last time I shot some. I used this vintage little camera Ali gave me, it's simple to use and I really like the results! I need to learn not to take photos too close, like of my flowers as you can see. I need to stay three feet away at least, but the blurry look on some of them I quite like!

My blurry cat Mongo, he lives at my parents house

My favorite beach on the north shore. The Weld Nature Sanctuary. Some vandals came by and made it funnier.

More of the beach, spent the day their on my own, the water was so nice!

Some of the past weeks flowers.

My favorite of the bunch, taken at a small park while with Jeremy on his break from work in NYC. w72nd street and Broadway.

A lovely set up outside the house of friends Chris and Courtney.

Ambit trunk show at End of Century

Friday I had the great honor of working with Wray and Amber of Ambit again at their first ever trunk show and sample sale which was held at this great shop End of Century which is co-owned by two super cute and friendly girls. Most of these photos are just from around the shop before the big crowds came. I was one of the three models standing around and socializing in Ambit clothing. It was a hot sweaty night in NYC, but everyone came out to give some suport to these great girls! Ambit is really starting to take off, getting press here and there, and it's all very well deserved. Amber and Wray are so hard working, driven and dead on with their style. Sleek shapes, great colors and they do wonderful things with buttons!

Friend and makeup artist Annie Strole was there doing her thing, she writes a great blog where she reviews products and gives her honest opinion. She is a big advocate for all natural products , and so well informed on the subject! be sure to go check out her blog here. Once I find more photos of the night floating around I will be sure to share, there was a girl snapping away photos all night so I will have to track them down! There was also a camera crew doing some filming for a project I can't quite talk about yet.. but it was an exciting night. I love the creative people in the city area I have become friends with, super sweet and very talented!

The Loved One "forever" Shop!

I think most of us, if not all of us know about The Loved One's real, permanent, brick and mortar shop that's now open in Pasadena! Or as I like to call it, a "forever" shop, because of the two pop-up shops the ladies held on both coasts since the birth of TLO. Lovely vintage and pretty underthings were just a fleeting chance back then, now Elvia and Hannah have their own shop, complete with two shop girls and a large following already.

I am really so so proud of them, It was only the end of last year when they received their funding from their Kickstarter project to get the ball rolling. And here we are not even a year later with some pop-up shops under their belt, countless ladies around the world traipsing around the streets with such pretty things under their dresses, and now a real shop! I think it's only a matter of time before they find a prime NYC location, and then TLO will really be bi-coastal! It makes me a bit sad it's all the way over in California, but I have hopes for a visit over there in the coming year, lots of great people out that way I need to meet!

So if you are in the area, or not even, stop by The Loved One shop at 2 Holly Street in Pasadena. Also, follow the TLO shop girls and the goings on in the store at the shop tumblr where you can find cute customers trying on cute vintage, and more!

snapdragons and lisianthus

Last weeks flowers, some beautiful Snapdragons and lovely yellow Lisianthus. My flowers always come from Trader Joe's, usually from the store I work at. But I went to another one on LI last week and I got these there. They had a really great flower section, usually the snapdragons we get at out store come in all crushed. These ones were perfect, they really made my week. I think I might start going there to get my flowers!

The Family Jewels Vintage and Jille magazine

SO, the exciting news I was talking about in my last post goes a little something like this.. So last week I got an Email from this writer Michiko Yoshifuji asking if I would be interested in being in this japanese fashion magazine Jille, they wanted to do a feature on me at my favorite NYC vintage store styling some outfits. And I jumped at the chance! I did not know about Jille, but I have seen japanese fashion magazines in the past, and not unlike this one, they are packed cover to cover with style, and a lot of the time personal style. I know street style is pretty big there, with a huge focus on real people, as well as big trends in their magazines. So I felt it was a good fit, considering I don't like to call this a "fashion blog" since I don't claim to know anything about fashion per say, I just that I like to express myself through my style and document it here.

I do not do most of my vintage shopping in nyc. In fact I hardly do any there! But I have been to a good deal of them, I just like to look around, these are mostly one of a kind pieces and I just love the thrill of finding something amazing, even if I can't afford it. But when I had to choose, I picked The Family Jewels Vintage on west 23rd because of their amazing inventory, and cool shop girls! This place is only a few blocks south of FIT, so when I went there I would come here sometimes just to look. It is quite pricy, but you can find a deal here and there ($138 for this one dress, but I also found a hat for $8) and they have SO MUCH! Things are mostly hung according to era, and then by color, blouses buy cut and style. Even all the summer dresses were all waiting for me on their own rack. The two girls working were decked out in vintage as well, they looked like they had great style and a good deal of knowledge too.

So Michiko asked me to take a look around and style a few outfits. It was fun getting to shop around and pick out whatever, and to get to have all these shoes and hats and bags and jewelry to play with, it was seriously awesome. Plus it was right when they opened to it was pretty much just us. I have a few photos here of the outfits I styled, not the best quality but once I get the issue I'll be sure to post whatever it is they write!

Pretty cool huh? It was also a nice day out, and after when I was walking to the subway, I got stopped by this cool chick who said "Hey, you look like a nice person who loves the planet!" and I do! And then ended up donating money to Greenpeace. I felt good, It was getting a bit hot and she said I was the first person to stop and donate, and she was funny and I was feeling good at the time so, yea. Check out the video about their protest on Matel for packaging their toys with destroyed rain forests!

flora

Sorry I'v been a bit absent this week. I mostly did a lot of working, and it has been ungodly hot and humid here, so I was not in the mood to get very dressed up in this kind of heat. I do have a bit of exciting news, something I went into the city for yesterday, but I will share that after the weekend. In an hour or so Jeremy and I are headed up to western MA once again for our friend Chris' 30th birthday bash! There was a bounce house involved.. but now it seems it's going to rain, bummer! But it will be a fun weekend either way.

These are my flowers from last week, just a simple bouquet. The ones in my kitchen right now are amazing! But I will share those after the weekend too.