anthropologie

a few weeks ago, i was lucky enough to receive an invite from my friend emily to a book signing at the Rockefeller Center Anthropologie store.

but really, the highlight was the champagne and empty store that we got to peruse.

if you've never been to new york city at christmas time (Nov. 1 - Jan. 7) then you have not the slightest idea of what a crowded store looks like. first, let me refresh your memories that most of the stores in Rock Center have 3 floors: basement, first and second. the basement is typically the men's section of the store, while the 1st and 2nd floors are devoted to women and/or kids. so, backtrack, three floors does not equal less crowded, it equals 3x as crowded at christmas time.

so retailers beware: 3x as crowded equals julia doesn't want to step foot into the store at christmas time, unless there is free champane offered.


note: this is not the first anthropologie event i've attended. my first was at the store opening in Austin, TX with danielle of so great. there was also free champagne at that event.

NYFW

this friday culminates this installment of New York Fashion Week. a week that arrives once every September and February launching the spring and fall collections of designers from all over the world. it's a week that you can either: completely avoid, become completely wrapped up in, or settle on something in the middle. every fashion blogger out there has their daily write ups on the shows they were invited to, critiques on the models, make up, hair, shoes, runway style and the celebs that are in the audience. i am not writing about any of these things primarily because i did not attend NYFW. i did however attend Fashion's Night Out, and let me tell you, it was fantastic!

first off, a little description. FNO was created by a few fashion moguls to increase retail sales after the slump they felt during the recession. translation: most of 5th avenue, soho, meatpacking and the rest of the nyc fashion meccas all provided free drinks and extended shopping hours. a few of them even promised celeb appearances. (oh my)

i started the night out at Bloomingdale's for a Martha Stewart Wedding's event because i was promised a... gift bag (what can i say? i'm a sucker for swag). it turned out though that the rest of Bloomie's was offering even more in the way of freebies! we took a picture, then got it autographed with Eli Tahari, (such a nice man!), drank from mini champagne bottles and noshed on popcorn for DKNY's birthday, oohed and ahhed over the wax statues of Leo, George and Mr. Pitt, and we even caught a glimpse of Gwen Stefani. it's too bad, but we missed Anna Wintour. (pics below)



after our star studded and popcorn highs we traversed the city to 5th avenue for a small visit to Cartier. best drinks of the night. the bar tender told me it was made of, "grapefruit juice, vodka and some berry juice!". Cartier was the hot spot of the evening for my gang of friends, so it was great to relay the star sightings. and by "relay" i mean brag whole heartedly, like a 12 year old. next stop was Versace for their runway of live manikins, and then onto Juicy because we thought we spotted Rihanna. we were mistaken, and took that as our sign to bow out gracefully, while we still could.

all in all it was a fab night, i saw plenty of people with shopping bags, and best of all it falls very nicely in with my free wine series that sadly lapsed over the summer.

stay tuned for next time!

Free wine* *wine is actually beer this time

so it's been a little bit since i've attended a free wine event. i'm sure most of you are thinking that that series was an early spring thing i did, and for the most part it was. i'm not sure if it was the economy, my busy calendar or what, but now i'm back with another free wine piece! and this time, it's actually free beer.

the kind folks at welovebars.com are giving away beer for blog posts. according to their website, these guys run a group of bars consisting of: the Black Bear Lodge, Kingshead Tavern, Bullshead Tavern and Whiskey River. when you go to the site, make sure to listen to the tunes!

they claim the giveaway is in honor of the man who invented the global hypertext system (what?) which became the early internet. this all happened in the late 80's/early 90's when i was but a wee lass who though beer was disgusting. thankfully that is no longer the case! so bring on the beer boys!

much thanks to my friend Tushy who forwarded on the article.

wine - that costs $

today on a rare jaunt away from the office during lunchtime, i was enjoying my BOGO from Jamba Juice while strolling back through the intermittent clouds with Emily and Abigail, wondering how it can be cold in july. don't get me wrong, i'm not complaining about the weather, it is absolutely delightful, just curious is all. so it was during this thought session that Abigail enlightened me on this fab sounding place called City Winery.



basically it's a regular wine bar, no big deal right? well ya, but the big deal they do have is this: you can create your own barrel of wine. a barrel, people! that barrel makes about 250 bottles of your customized brew. to start the process you go in and meet with wine consultants (what a great job) and determine what flavor, body, style, color, and other characteristics you want your wine to have.

once your barrel is complete, you can go into the restaurant and drink it, have it bottled for dinner parties at your house (how awesome!?!), or do whatever you wish with it. the cost to create your own wine comes in at a cool $5,000, but you can split it by up to five people. any takers?

maybe if you hear what i've decided to do with the wine you'll want in? ok fine, i'll give you a small synopsis below.

my ideal wine would be a rose (since it's summer and roses seem appropriate) and i would have 100 bottles prepared with a very nice orange/peach/pink paisley (similar to the paisley in the guitar)




the label would have gold embossed type, and it would be called: Vacheron. i would have the cask shipped to my summer home somewhere in between NYC and Cape Cod (if it existed, it would look eerily similar to the cottage below which is actually a home/palace in Newport, RI built for Cornelius Vanderbilt).



for whatever reason, or maybe no reason at all i'd be throwing a party for all my nearest and dearest. the wine would be paired with the appetizers and then brought out again at the end of the evening and be given out as a party favor. one per couple please! oh! and it would be a themed party too: Great Gatsby/Kentucky Derby, think Daisy, and big hats, and...colored seersucker! how lovely right?

Pure Lines

when Rachel, a member of the gaggle, invited me to Wolfram Ruoff"s Pure Lines Collection at the Sous Les Etoiles gallery last thursday night, i jumped at the opportunity.

in my usual fashion i had no idea what the art opening would entail, so i was pleasantly surprised to walk into the small and simple gallery. it was the perfect size for a (max) 10 piece show. the first thing my eyes were drawn to ended up being my favorite. it was a black and white photograph of times square, something typical that you see on the street, being peddled, in times square. but there was something different about this photo. there was something jumping out at me, a lot of things, they were enhanced lines, lines that had seemingly been pulled out of the image and almost turned into tubes of neon that the XXX signs are made of in Vegas. it was Awesome! every time i looked at a different piece, there was something else there.



even with all these lines jumping out at me from every photograph, we were able to finish the gallery pretty quickly. good thing too because the artist himself was there just to talk to us! ok, maybe not us, but he did answer our questions. see below for a recap, and pictures:

J and R: So how exactly do you create these pieces?

WR: I do them on the computer.

J and R: Oh, cool. It's really interesting, we haven't ever seen anything like it...

WR: Yes, I think I'm the only one who does this kind of art. I've been doing it for 2 years now and not seen anyone else attempt it.

J and R: Well it's really fantastic and you did a wonderful job, we're glad that we came to check it out. Thanks!

it seems as if we only had one question, you say? well that's because there is a fine line in the question asking, when you're at a gallery, you don't want to ask too many questions because then you may come across as interested in purchasing the piece, when really that is not the case. and especially during these trying times you have to tread lightly.

which brings me to the 2nd best piece of the gallery, they had free wine. while i did not partake, getting over a cold, it still added to the experience.

if you're down on broadway between prince and spring any time before may 22, 2009 be sure to hop in for a looksie, and ask a lot of questions!

free wine for a good cause

if you read my previous post you'll know that i'm entertaining myself in a different way this spring season. free wine is my new mantra, and you'll never guess what happened today at work, my friend emily was trying to recruit someone to attend a fundraiser/informational meeting at a friend of her parents' apartment on the UES (upper east side, for my non-nyc readership). now, i would have attended even if my new mantra wasn't in effect, but this invitation also held two other things that have become near and dear to my heart since i moved to the big apple: the UES, my current and favorite neighborhood, and fundraisers.

fundraisers have a different connotation in nyc, not one of required donations to get in the door, or snobby snobs looking down their long noses. it's more of a "let's get together in a formal, slightly dressy way for a really good cause that you probably won't care about but that i want to talk to you about." you see, wildly different.

anyways, this specific gathering was of the typical fashion. held at the amazing apartment of Beth Daniels a devoted volunteer with the Women's Refugee Commission. she has poured her heart and soul into the organization since a spur of the moment refugee camp visit to Thailand in 2006. it was sometime around that visit that she met Ada Williams Prince, the senior advocacy officer at the commission, at the Women's Refugee Commission office.

ms. prince was the presenter at this evening's affair. she gave a very inspiring overview of the commission. did you know that the average refugee is in a camp for 17 years? that means that children are born into the camp and in some cases never attend school, that also means that the chance of their mother's being attended to properly before, during and after childbirth is slim to none. that used to be the case, at least, until the commission began taking action and rectifying these wrongs by raising awareness of women's reproductive health issues, education, and other needs and rights of women and children displaced by conflict or natural disaster.

it is a truly inspiring mission and one that these women have not taken lightly. there are only 25 employees in the new york office, and it is through the help of these employees and the many dedicated volunteers that all this work gets completed.

find out more on their website. they are always looking for volunteers.