More entertainment.

I have always found it pretty therapeutic to have some good tunes playing while I paint, or do any work for all that matter. But of course, being a child of the 21st century, I am always looking for bigger and better ways to entertain myself enough to be able to slip into a somewhat mindlessly efficient state where I do not realise how much work I am completing. For math, it was always Idioteque by Radiohead and art always changed depending on the daily mood. I recently stumbled upon some interesting looking online television on the Vice Magazine TV site.  Looks like they have some interesting programs to watch, or just listen to. Sounds like a good substitute for an audio book.

Happy multitasking!

xo D

La la London.

Seems there have been a lot of studio photo shoots going on lately. My mama Susan is taking photography at the London College of communications and asked me if I would help her with an assignment. So, off we went to the studio to snap some shots and share some laughs. She got quite a few good ones and it was lovely to be in a real studio! Kudos, Mom! I could get used to being pampered. I should come back every weekend. Home cooked meals are so much yummier than my own cooking.

xo D

Yum.

I have not moved from my current position on this couch for more than two hours. This is what I made. It's a good thing I get to sit on a plane to London all day tomorrow. I don't think I would have the energy to do anything else.

Maybe I should go pack and stop procrastinating. Too bad I don't have this outfit to pack.

xo D

Little holiday hints.

There are always those little things that let us know Christmas is on its way.  Yesterday, much to my content, one of my favourite flea markets was set up and I browsed around for a while. While I was there, I heard my first Christmas carol of the year, (parum pa pum pum) playing on the antique radio at one of the booths. Not going to lie, I was slightly disappointed that it happened to be the Little Drummer Boy, (not one of my favourites), but nevertheless, it gave me a big smile that I sported the whole way home.

The weather has been pretty chilly lately. Freezing cold weather without snow doesn't seem fair in my opinion. I hope we get some of that fluffy white goodness soon. 

xo D

Take me back.

Photos by Caroline Jones

Oh, if I could be taken back in time, please take me back to this night. In October, Yelle graced New York with her presence and we jumped for joy and and snagged us some tickets. So, off went down to Webster Hall and meandered through the crowd until we were satisfied with our view. I, being somewhat vertically challenged, couldn't see a darn thing from the floor, so us ladies found a way to boost ourselves up onto a side platform giving us that stunner view in the first picture. I sang along as much as I could, but when she held her microphone out to the crowd, the Anglophone audience didn't quite have their french down. She had a good laugh about that. Of course she was called out for an encore, wearing a new outfit and looking magnifique!

Overall, we had a ball. Please come back to NYC, tu nous manques!

xo T&D

Non, je n'accepterai pas la blondeur.

                                             Photos by Leighanna Webb

So normally I don't impulse shop but I really couldn't help it today. Lab class was so unbearable this morning that a couple of the girls and I slipped out to H&M for a browse. I spotted this long navy dress and couldn't fight the urge. 80$ for a dress-up-garment didn't seem so bad. So what if I tried it on this evening and didn't take it off for a couple hours? Not much opportunity to be fancy around here lately. Maybe I should do some social networking and find some elegant soirees to attend.

And no chouchou, I am not, or was not, and never have been blonde. Tu m'entends Simon?

xo

Margot, go, go, go.

Hi, I can't wait to see you. 

There better be a darn good Turkey waiting for me when I arrive in London. I'm not used to these American dates, my tummy has been hungry for it since September. This supposed "memory mattress" on my new bed sounds a little intense so I've decided to bunk in with you. Okay, thanks.

xo D

Tooley, Belton, I could kill you both.

Thanks to you ladies posting such lovely ensembles on your blog, I decided I would check out what all the hype was about. I have now spent all night in front of the computer on polyvore.com instead of studying for my art history exam. 

xo D

p.s. my favourite website from Polyvore was definitely lagarconne.com. Too bad it's so darn pricey.

RAIRities.

So my Limewire has been letting me down lately. Tisk tisk, I know, serves me right for using the darn thing in the first place. However, I am now  back to using torrents and am finding some great new disks. Here is a 6 disk ensemble of, I quote, "b-sides, remixes, rarities, edits and exclusive live only tracks" by Air. It has now been loading for over 24 hours and I am growing impatient but hopefully torrent will be kind to me and give me something yummy. 

If anyone is up for testing their patience, let me know what you think.

xo D

I'm all dressed up and I'm ready to play.

Scheming boys.

Seriously, who has the time or energy anymore for hitting the club dance floor? While some of you feistier kittens may be tough enough to brave the outside world, we have been perfectly content lately with stay-at-home partying. So another trip was made to Danny's in Brooklyn a few Saturdays back for some nice quality bonding time together over cocktails and great tunes, (the black theme was for kicks).  Many photos were taken, as we all know alcohol tends to bring out our creative sides and Scott brought some of his colleagues from Buckler to meet the gang. 

All in all, a very successful night and some yummy left over Halloween candy to go with it.

xo T&D

p.s. the title was stolen from a great track that everyone should check out. 

Box.

Very, very good weekend.

On Friday night I trekked up to Canada visiting some of my friends at the University of Western Ontario, hence the lack of posts. (Sorry!) A trip to see my ladies from Toronto, Jackie and Kristina and some of the crazy boys from VB was the perfect way to escape from the busy city for a while. 

Somehow I think I may have forgotten over the past 4 years that it snows in Canada. It's been a good while since I've had to tough out a cold Canadian winter and I made the silly mistake of packing my converse and  my vintage loafers with holes in the sole. Kudos me. 

Scott, Brodie and Mark were very nice to host us in their lovely home and feed me breakfast one morning. A big thank you to Brodie for driving our lazy asses around all weekend. It was also great seeing Chris and Riley on in their huge house on Saturday night and even Michael Pollard made a few cameo appearances. We listened to lots of Girl Talk in the car, which I guess makes up for the fact that I missed out on the concert in NYC this weekend. Boo!

I guess you can call me a blogger amateur for not bringing my camera along for the ride. But in my defense, my big Nikon wouldn't have fit in my carry on! 

To all my darling hosts this weekend, here is one for you.

Much, much love. 

xo D

Cut my hair, bitch.

So maybe I was wrong in thinking that I'd find a cheaper hair cut in NYC than what I was used to en Suisse. It is in fact impossible to find a decent looking haircut for less than $100 in this crazy city. So us poor art students have resorted to frequent visits to the Betsey Leighanna Barbershop. Tonight, much to our surprise, the only person miss Leighanna managed to injure in the process was herself. On top of that amusing fact, miss Hana ended up with quite a beautiful 'do!

Y'all should come by for a visit. Oh, and she only accepts payments in wheat thins and/or sex (not the low sodium kind). 

xo D

Tune.

Probably one of the most handy things to have in your NYC survival kit is an iPod loaded with tunes that get you excited about walking. Thanks to my handy step counter on my cell phone, I am now aware of how much I actually walk in a day. Try 10+ kilometers in a 24 hour period. Needless to say I am always searching for my new favourite walking tune. This one has been my ultimate favourite for the past couple days. The calmer intro is just short enough that by the time I make the move to change to another song, the upbeat part starts again and I end up listening to it a second, third or fourth time before I force myself to change the song. 

Enjoy!

D

So Chelsea Piers is a sinking ship?

Yes it's true. Soon we might not have a place to escape to in the middle of the night to get our nature fix. The four of us had ventured off at 1AM to sit in the beautiful park and stare out across the Hudson River at New Jersey. Unfortunately, our favourite sitting spot was closed for the night so we were pretty disappointed. Luckily we found some cool places along the way to goof around in. It has been crazy warm out this last week so I was even a little toasty in a scarf (my new favourite find) and sweater.  Meanwhile, Tyler and gang were off trying to find a way into the Benny Benassi concert in Midtown. 

Speaking of Tyler, the poor boy has been working hard and playing hard lately. His new job works long hours and he is certainly burning the candle from both ends with quite a large amount of essays for school. New routines are tough as we all know, so we should be hearing more from him soon.

Miss you T-Straw. 

xo D 

There's this place I like to go to.

So my friend Kelsey and I recently discovered this wonderful flea market on W 25th Street. We have made frequent trips to the indoor market close by, but this outdoor one was definitely one gem of a find. So far it has just been small purchases like purses and these great brown leather boots but I can't wait to go back for some chairs and tables to furnish my home next year. I have my eye on a white painted wooden vanity desk.  Too bad I have a feeling this market is seasonal. Soon it should be too cold for those poor vendors to be sitting outside all day. 

xo D

A violent, yet flammable world.

So I got a pretty neat assignment today for 2D. The task at hand is to make a poster for a band/ artist of choice on the computer using no text, practicing transparency and layering. I went through my iTunes and searched images on google for hours until I came across these great pictures of Au Revoir Simone and thought they would be perfect. These three talented ladies are from Williamsburg, Brooklyn, which I have considered as a possible home for next year. Of course it's far too early to go apartment hunting, but I can't help peaking on websites at some of those dreamy studios in Soho! All I know is I have to find a place with lots of floor space to fit a couple blow-up mattresses so you kids can come visit.

 xo D

Oh, Bom, Uh.

After a couple hours of following cnn.com we finally received word of the results at 11:04 PM tonight. To be honest, the way I noticed it was time to refresh the page was when I heard the faint sound of horns and cheering from outside my window. This is quite the historical day folks, so let's enjoy the fact that we can sit back and trust that this country is in better hands. I think its time to crack open that bottle of red wine and celebrate. No class until 12 tomorrow so it's a perfect night to get a little wild. 

Gotta run, the cheering is too loud to not partake in and Tyler has run off to Times Square without me. 

xo D

Can't seem to sleep =/

Here we go boys and girls.

It is 2:35 a.m on November 4th 2008! Its a bit of a scary day. Not sure how I feel about everything. I heard some teachers and students talking today about how their expecting some pretty weird things to go down today; riots, mean gays (Go Hillary) angry old people and all those Obama folks do whatever it is they even do.  Stay tuned guys. If anything crazy goes down, we'll be sure to capture it all...or as much as we can ;) 

Perhaps I'll sit in my cozy lofted bed and look down on 8th Ave and not partake in the rioting...even though it's kind of my thing.

On another note...

 remember when I looked like K-Fed this summer/into the school year?

I'll leave ya'll with this one for the night.

well morning.

God.

xo T-Straw

Polka Dot.

Today, Dom and I ventured up to W 39th Street to the Anna Sui Sample Sale.

I somehow managed to leave with a whole bag of goodies, including this polka dot dress that I fell in love with. I've been stuck in leggings and cardigans lately so I figured it might be nice to have a change of pace. Now what I need is a leather  jacket to keep my body warm! The snow will soon fall in New York City. Be prepared to bundle up!

xo D

Bitchy kitty.

Take caution when meeting...

...Betsy Leighanna Webb or Kitty Kat. (yes with a K)

Who was it that said "the street is not your runway?"

Sure Chelsea is a fun neighborhood to venture out in...but we decided to take our trip up to the Meat Packing District tonight.  From looking at beautiful apartments in the West Village, to observing the life of a homeless man in his shopping cart, we decided we really do love New York.  I gave a poor man a cigarette and a rich woman a dirty look.  We froze our noses off and warmed our hands as much as we could then the words of Scott, "Im tired, we're going back" lead us to our happy little home at 20th street. 

The expression "Your eyes were bigger than your stomach!" was not the case tonight...or really any night.  We ordered a large cheese pizza with green peppers on it for the five of us.  It was beautiful.  Sitting around singing Lady Gaga and attempting to watch Two Guys One Horse (so god damn nasty) are the nights we big ladies call "girls night in." With homework on the back burner we sat and talked about nothing for a few hours, and although we did get that extra hour of time today, we can all agree it will be spent painting, writing, traveling, or trying to find our hard drive.  Goodnight everyone...well good morning now =] 

xo T&D