Pink in Williamsburg

On Sunday, S and I met old friends, who recently moved from Australia/Hong Kong to New York City after having won the Green Card Lottery. Back in the day, I used to religiously apply for this every year to no avail. These kids (and a few other people I know) got through on their first attempt - some people have just the luck! Well nothing brings us great joy than to see our NYC family growing. Friends and family ex-USA: if you didn't guess already, that was a PSA to apply this year and come on over!

Stressed but Well Dressed

Happy Memorial Day Sunday!

For the first time in weeks, S and I have no plans this weekend besides eating our way around town. 

For our usual Friday night date, we went to French Louie, the new sister restaurant to one of my favourite places in the city, Buttermilk Channel. I didn't mind what we ate but it was difficult to not compare it to its far superior sibling. 

Switching out Autumn/Winter wardrobes for Spring/Summer meant a few old favourites are feeling new again. Unfortunately, they were terribly poor choices in light of the skies opening up just as we arrived in Brooklyn. Our little umbrella didn't stand a chance against the torrential downpour. Well dressed but stressed, more like. 

Red, White and Tippsy

I had so many stomach-churning moments at work this week that Friday couldn't come any sooner. For date night, S and I took the F to Carroll Gardens for dinner at Nightingale 9. We both love Vietnamese - in fact our first date, 9 years ago was at a Vietnamese restaurant. So while we anticipated Nightingale 9 to be less than authentic, we didn't quite expect to add chili sauce to every dish to bring about any sense of flavour. The only respite was a caramelised pork belly dish served with sticky rice - we licked that bowl clean!

Sunday at Prospect Park

All plans for a Sunday at the Brooklyn Botanic Gardens were thwarted by unexpectedly large crowds. No sakura is worth lining up for hours so we wandered into Prospect Park across the street. While cherry blossom trees there were set few and far between, there were enough spring blooms to keep me happy:  

Scenes from my Saturday

After 24 hours of feeling terribly under the weather, I was so glad to get out of the house on what can only be described as a gloooriously warm Saturday.

The day started off with lunch at Smorgasburg at Williamsburg with visitors, P and A from Toronto:

I think Dough makes the best doughnuts in NYC and my heart skips a beat when I find their wares anywhere other than at their Bed Stuy store. My favourite is the toasted coconut:

With dessert out of the way, I honed in on Scharf and Zoyer, a jewish sandwich stall - which I was most intrigued by after reading them in Serious Eat's new series: Anatomy of a Smorgasburg Pop-Up:

 The Ajoulk:

 And the Kugel Double Down - both as tasty as they looked:

Weekend Recap

Happy weekend-before-Christmas!

Ours started off with usual date-night-Friday, our first one since getting back from travels. I wore this festive DVF dress (I paid pittance for it at the recent sample sale so I suggest waiting for a markdown). Looser than her regular wrap dresses, it was perfect for a hearty winter meal at Barbuto followed by some serious cocktails at Pouring Ribbons.  Really serious. The drinks menu contained a graph which categorised cocktails in ranges of "refreshing" to "spiritous"on one axis; "comforting" to "adventurous" on the other - making it a breeze to order drinks I was in the mood for.

Suffice to say, it was a GREAT night which resulted in a luxurious sleep-in on Saturday. We had two pressing matters to attend to that day - the first: engagement ring shopping! On recommendation, we met with a dealer in the Diamond District and a few hours later, we decided on the one! My patience will still be put to the test though, as I wait the month it will take to be custom-made. 

The 2nd pressing matter: coffee and cake with darling Dea - who was lovelier in person. In my sparkliest top, Thea and I took the birthday girl out for cupcakes and probably talked her ears off! I digress a little but blogs do make the world a smaller place and I am thankful for the friendships I've made and the bonds I've built through this tiny website of mine.

On Sunday, I got well into the Christmas spirit and so, we headed out to Brooklyn to check out the seasonal holiday flea. Truth be told, there was probably more spirit in my tree-less apartment. We were home well within the hour, where I promptly put on some Rat Pack carols. A little bit of Sinatra later and all was well with the world. 

Reindeer sweater from Taipei (so many fun ones here and here!)

Comfiest boots for miles: J Crew MacAlister Shearling Wedge Boots in Nut

Rosegold Stripes Dress layered underneath sweater, bangles from Cartier, Sydney Paddington market and Hermes, Sally Hensen Salon Effects in Check Please!

MAC Show Orchid lipstick, Swarovski hoop earrings

This is truly a wonderful time of year and I hope your weekend was as good as mine. Here's wishing everyone happy happy holidays! 

Fall Highlights

While I may not be a fan of the cool change that has all but arrived (if I had my druthers it would be summer all year round), life has been pretty fun lately. Here are a few highlights:  

#1: A couple of weeks ago, Thea and I attended the celebratory party for Tracy Reese and Timo Weiland's collaboration with Anthropologie. 

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It was delightful to meet the brains behind the pretty frocks and Ms Reese is as lovely as they come. It was inspiring to hear her talk about how her relationship with Anthropologie began, her pattern-design process and the future plans she has for her brands. Thea wrote a great recap here.

Before I left, I tried on one of Timo Weiland's dresses from his new collection:

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I DID NOT WANT TO TAKE IT OFF. The dress is very Downton Abbey and I have wishlisted it very hard. 

#2: The new Barclays Centre in Brooklyn opened ceremoniously with a series of concerts by Jay Z. We are HUGE fans of Mr. Carter, so we headed out to the new home of the Brooklyn Nets for a mid-week show.

While the performance itself wasn't as great as some of his other shows we've been to, it was pretty awesome to see a local Brooklyn boy making it big on home ground. The venue itself is pretty shiny - with vendors like Fatty Cue and Calexico (and hallelujah, bathrooms every 100m!). I am looking forward to many more concerts here (Gaga 2013 woot!) 

#3 - After a brief break, I renewed my subscription to the 2012-2013 season of the New York City Ballet. The most recent performance I went to was brilliant - under the theme of 21st Century, the repertory that day comprised of Two Hearts, Year of the Rabbit and Les Carillons. 

Out of all, I was most impressed by Two Hearts, choreographed by Benjamin Millepied (aka Mr Natalie Portman).  The routine was modern and very playful, yet it stuck true to what I consider to be classical ideas of ballet.  

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This modern-traditional swing extended to the black and white, geometrically-patterned costumes designed by the Mulleavy sisters.  If the skirts were more opaque I would wear them out in a heartbeat! 

Outfit details: #1: Anthropologie Allnighter Dress, Roberto Cavalli belt, Padini Malaysia clutch; #2: Zara polka-dot top (sim), DL1961 denim