Bedroom Plans.

I've posted pictures of my New York Kitchen, Living room and Bathroom, but have omitted the bedrooms because they are not complete. We only spent 1 week in the city, and with my mom there with us we spent the time focused on the common areas of the apartment. For my room, I have been struggling to figure out exactly what I wanted to do with it. The challenges I am faced with are, 1) I like things very simple. clean and neutral. That doesn't leave a lot of space for anything too out-of-the-box. and 2) my room is has a peculiar shape, which allows for numerous windows and natural light (a plus) but not much space for a whole lot of furniture, which is fine, since I opted out of downsizing my bed.

Each of these hurdles seemed to solve themselves, however, which is nice. Being a minimalist, I don't care for much bedroom furniture, I don't fold much of my clothes, so adequate/efficient use of the closet is paramount (my clothes and closet will be a post all their own....). The pictures are all pulled from the

"apartment ideas" folder on my desktop. These are things I've seen on this blog that caught my eye, and are more or less the direction I am going with my room. I have decided against a for

mal bed, I'm going for a platform base with storage cabinets and drawers (in lieu of a dresser or nightstand). I love picture frame collage as an alternative to a headboard. Also, My room had this perfect window nook at the south end, which would house a little simple desk. It outlooks the fire escape, which E and I will use for outdoor plants/flowers, making for the perfect view.

My next big task is figuring out what to put on my walls. The apartment has huge tall walls and seemingly endless wall space. E and I combined our art from our previous apartments and it filled out the common areas pretty nicely. More on my wall space later.

CD's Bachelorette Party.

A good friend of mine is getting married in November, and I am super pumped. CD (the friend) is like the

quintessential perfect girl. You know the type: good nice girl, super sweet. She never has that bitch-ass stank

attitude that a lot of girls have. Never trashy and dramatic. She's the kind of girl you'd want to wingman you because you're certain she'd do the job without stealing you the guy in the process. Pretty much, if CD was still single, didn't have a job, and was down for drinking cheap beers 3 nights a week,I'd want her to ride out, for sure. Ok, enough with the hardcore bramance I'm writing right now. Awk.

So when her Jack and Jill shower/Bachelorette invite was sent, I made it a point to get back down to NC use so I could make it. Looking at her pictures triggered my hazy memory and I am now 100% positive that it was a top night, and I know for a fact that she had a "sorry I partied" next morning, too. Pretty much, I love this girl to death. These 3 pictures are the before, during, and after... use your imagination to fill in the gaps for yourself. Really, only one word is needed to describe the night, and that word is Rage.

"The Wrinkle" and other photo trends.

Well, what started off as a quest for a new blogger user ID picture became an all out photo analysis.

I was on facebook looking through my

tagged pictures, trying to find an acceptable one. I was thinking about the reasons why I didn't pick certain pictures. The most

reason I passed on a pictures was because of The Wrinkle. Sometimes when I smile it makes the space between my eyes wrinkle. Who notices that mess? I do. I remember a few months back posting a new facebook pictures, one that contained "the wrinkle" and then texting my brother to look at it. His response was that it was fine, however, when I asked "does

it make me look devilish?" his new reply was "now that you've said that, I can see what you

mean." Epic Fail. Picture removed. What is the said wrinkle? see pictures above. These are excellent examples of it, and each one goes even farther as to highlight another commonly seen element in my pictures, a) almost closed eyes, b) a smile that has bust out the frame of a regular smile, and c) the (pretty much standard) open mouth-- extra points if you can spot the ever-present blue chewing gum. So in hunting for the perfect picture, sans "the wrinkle" I started to notice a lot of other expressions and traits that seem to make up the usuj of my pictures. Don't worry. I'm not on some queer self-hate rampage, I'm not into that. It's more that any of my friends know these faces and they have their own, (which I will detail later, trust and believe. ) I think it's hilarious, and what's better is looking back at particular pictures, with certain faces or whatever, and remembering what it is that I was doing/thinking or that was happening at the time. I had fun collecting the faces, so get pumped for the posts that will follow.

Learning the Map with the help of pop culture.

I literally had to study the map of the Upper West Side for a couple of weeks before I could effectively apartment hunt. Now that the housing is handled and we're all moved in, I really want to learn the areas I have heard so much about. I remember Samantha Jones moving to the Meat Packing District on Sex and the City, or about the tents at fashion week in Bryant park, as seen on Project Runway and in The Devil Wears Prada. I know the Upper East Side from Gossip Girl, Gramercy is where Whitney from The City lives. I could go on and on. So where do I fit? Up at the top of the map, boarding Harlem(in blue) and overlapping with the Upper West Side is Morningside Heights (in red.) It pretty much consists of Columbia, Barnard, Teacher's College and a slew of hospitals ( like St. Lukes) and churches (like St. Johns). What I've learned (and you have too, after reading this obscure geography lesson) is: I live uptown. I live right by the school of social work, and I am seriously a student. Seriously.

Pictures: the bathroom

Crazy Outfits

I've described my style pretty extensively I think. The one area I have yet to elaborate on is my weekend/night life clothing choices. In a few words. In general I wear black. I like the my hemlines shorter and my necklines higher. Sequins, beading, (not embezzling or a ton of glitter) I appreciate heels, boots, and tights. I like jackets/vest/blazers, belts, chunky necklaces, dark eyeliner, pink lips, oversized clutch. However, living in NC and going out predominately in Chapel Hill/Durham/ Raleigh, made it a little impossible for me to wear what I wanted without people saying "um that is a crazy outfit." Now, I'm not insecure, I like what I like... but I just can't really stand people sweating me, or my shit. So, that is a definite pro of moving to New York. I can wear all my crazy get ups, buy a lot of even crazier stuff and be as bad as I wanna be. I'm excited.

more pictures

kitchen bar-- stool side, sink side, cabinets, bottom of pantry