My favorite dresses from the Academy Awards (that I saw):

I want reiterate that I really thought everyone looked superb – they are movie stars, after all – but I especially loved these dresses. I am drawn to things that are unique… classic is always beautiful, but a little boring.

• The first dress is Givenchy worn by Zoe Saldana. I just think it is awesome. She looks so beautiful in purple and I love that it has sparkle and a lot of flair. This was my very favorite dress!
• The second is Sarah Jessica Parker, of course, in Chanel. Lots of people did not like this dress, but I thought it was unique and pretty. I like that SJP takes risks. Now, her hair, on the other hand, I did not love…
• The third is an Elie Saab dress worn by Rachel McAdams. I think it is so fun and young, but still really elegant. It looks like a dress you would wear to have a good time at the event – not be the very fanciest. It is unpretentious glamour. (Is that an oxymoron?)

What were your favorites of the night? Any red carpet looks you really disliked?

I met my friend, Suzanne, at the Whitney Museum on Saturday to see the 2010 Biennial. The Biennial, for me, has been a somewhat mythic art event ever since I learned about it as an art student in undergrad. It was always touted as a crazy, contemporary, magical exhibition where artists’ careers were made – If you can get into the Biennial, you are golden. Collectors will be knocking down your door. That is the myth, anyway…

There was no way I was going to miss viewing this year’s show in person! I considered this first visit with Suzanne as a preliminary scouting mission. I wanted to browse the entire show (consisting of 55 artist – less than in the past) and get a general feel for my likes and dislikes without stressing over studying every single detail. My plan was to get an overall impression. I was excited to learn that for the first time ever there were more women than men represented in the Biennial. As I expected, there was a lot of video, installation, and performance pieces, but also plenty of paintings, photography, and textiles. There was only a handful of sculpture.

I may be old fashioned, but I liked the paintings the best. My very favorite (at least after this first viewing) were three pale oil paintings by Julia Fish of the floor, entitled “Thresholds.” (The two paintings above are hers, but not the exact ones in the show.) They are nearly abstract paintings, showing transitional spaces between two types of flooring. They reminded me of Agnes Martin – one of my favorite painters. I am drawn to washed out palettes. I think they calm me. I also loved the small, simple landscape paintings of Maureen Gallace which were displayed in the same room with Fish.

I was excited the see Ellen Gallagher in the show. Gallagher’s “DeLuxe” was one of my favorite contemporary pieces when I worked at the Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art in Oregon, but I must admit that I did not understand the collaborative installation she created with Edgar Cleijne for the biennial… Something about space inside a big plywood box with a hologram of JFK’s head in the middle… I may need to revisit that one.

I also enjoyed the full room of flower paintings by Charles Ray. I had kinda thought he was a sculptor – he has been in the biennial before with sculpture – but the full room of flowers was pleasing. There were more than a dozen of them and I think they may have been drawn with magic marker…

Other favorites included the beautiful, wall-size tapestry by Pae White and the watercolor/drawings by Storm Tharp. I think my favorites represent the most tame pieces in the show. There was plenty of much more controversial, heart-wrenching, and strange items… and maybe I will grow to love them in time. Each and every piece was definitely thought-provoking! I’ll let you know if my favorites change after a second, more in-depth viewing.

When we ventured out to Soho on Saturday, one of my intended stops was the Kate Spade flagship store on Broome St. I had heard about a cool neon tape art installation by Rebecca Ward and wanted to check it out in person. Rebecca Ward is an installation artist who creates colorful, site-specific environments using mostly tape. (btw: I loved the installation in the store, but it wasn’t as extensive as I had anticipated.) The Kate Spade brand sometimes feels a little too ladylike for my current style, but I have always loved its playful use of color and pretty designs. For a long time, Kate Spade was my very favorite designer, mostly because she is from Kansas City, like me, but also because her designs were always so simple, but unique. It is exciting to see the brand supporting such a hip, young artist in such a public way! In addition to the cool installation, I also loved all of the corresponding displays throughout the store – so beautiful!

After the stop at Kate Spade, Travis and I continued our stroll over the the Madewell store. (my favorite!) I was totally caught off-guard by the awesome airmail-themed windows and displays there.

Vintage airmail envelopes and mail packages were everywhere! I think that they were all reproductions – not actual old letters – but I was still tempted to swipe one to take home… I love anything mail related because it reminds me of Swap-bot. Don’t worry, I didn’t end up stealing any of the envelopes, but I couldn’t resist taking a few photos of the displays. Three cheers for snail mail!

And in a serendipitous turn of events, Gilt Groupe was having a sale on Kate Spade accessories on Monday! With my “free shipping” coupon, I scooped up this airmail-themed cosmetics case at a nearly-free price. I am going to use it to carry my Swap-bot arsenal to crafty events. Who knew that fashion and the postal mail went together so well… Swap-bot is so stylish!

Another snow storm hit New York yesterday and it has been snowing non-stop for the last 24 hours, at least. It is really beautiful… especially since I get to stay inside and watch it through my window!

New York City is back on my good side! On Sunday, Travis and I went for a late (really late, like 4 pm) brunch at Penelope Cafe in Murray Hill. (It was very delicious, by the way. I highly recommend it.) Afterward, I thought I should do my blogger duty and pick up some more cupcakes to objectively review for my loyal “NYC Cupcake Review” followers. ha!

Travis and I stopped by the small Crumbs Bake Shop near Union Square and picked up a chocolate coconut and a “Half-baked” cupcake to review. Crumbs is a relatively new bakery that was started in 2003 by a former attorney and now has over a dozen locations, both in New York and LA.

This was not my first taste of Crumbs cupcakes. Travis and I have picked them up at least twice in the past and I also always manage to have one at the museum cafe when I visit the Met. I don’t remember all of the flavors I have tried, but I know that caramel apple, blackout, brownie, vanilla coconut, and carrot are on the list. In the past, I claimed that Crumbs is my favorite cupcake shop in NY, and this review definitely reinforces that!

Crumbs cupcakes are large – about the size of a large muffin – and they come with tons of frosting and fun toppings. The bakery case reminds me of a gelato shop because of all the goodies you find stuck in the mounded frosting. The flavor selection is amazing and overwhelming, and they always have a
“cupcake of the month” that they are featuring. It is hard for me to choose anything other than the chocolate flavors, but every time that I do I am pleasantly surprised. Of course, for this review I went with chocolate!

Both of the flavors we chose were perfectly moist, with light, sweet icing. The chocolate coconut cupcake was simple with chocolate cake, vanilla buttercream frosting, and coconut sprinkled on top. The “Half-Baked” flavor consisted of chocolate cake with a vanilla buttercream filling (yum!), chocolate and cookie dough flavored frostings, and brownie and cookie pieces crumbled on top. So decadent and so delicious!

I tried to avoid giving Crumbs a perfect score, but couldn’t. Everything about the cupcakes was perfect, from the store presentation and the flavor selection to the texture and taste of the cakes. Even the take-out containers are terrific, with separate holders for each cake to keep them from toppling over. The only downside that some people may find is the large size and corresponding price. Each cupcake is $4.50, but they are definitely worth it and are easily large enough for two people to share. Travis and I ate our two cupcakes for dinner and we had a hard time finishing them between the two of us. (Luckily, Travis stepped up and ate the last bits, and he wanted me to add that he thinks these cupcakes are “fantastic.”)

I cannot recommend Crumbs cupcakes highly enough! They are the best cupcakes I have had so far in New York. Yum, yum, yum!

I have another installment of the NYC Cupcake Review in the works, but today I just needed a smile… so here is a cute photo of Crusher wrapped up as a burrito. Enjoy!

(I recently read a cool eBook about how to improve your blogging skills, and writing about how cute your pets are is definitely a no-no… oh, well. My blog may have to remain unimproved.)

I took a couple hours today to play around with a few projects I have been watching and wanting to try out. The new blog is hosted on github at http://travisj.github.com. Github is quickly becoming my favorite site on the internet. It is a great place to share code and find cool new projects.

The new blog is built using Jekyll and Compass. You can read more about both of those projects in my introductory post.

For fun, I also added fonts from typekit. I went to school with one of the founders and have been wanting to try out the service for some time. I leave all our design efforts to Rachel, but still had a lot of fun searching through the typekit font library and choosing fonts for the site.

Living in New York City is difficult. Especially for a midwest girl who spent the previous four years in the laid-back, hippie town of Eugene. I have been trying to stay positive about the move (almost a year later!) and have tried to be the strong, confident, optimistic woman that I would like to be. Ha! Some days it works, some days it doesn’t.

On Monday, I had a meeting in Manhattan and then Travis and I planned to eat dinner at one of the many confusing, but oh-so-popular Momofuku restaurants. I was so cheerful and energetic when I started out! I took the 40 minute subway ride, ran some errands, went to my meeting, did some shopping, then hung out at Barnes & Noble waiting for Travis. Barnes & Noble is cool because they let you use their bathroom even without a purchase (very rare in NY), but they are uncool because I got scolded for sitting on the floor reading a book. There are no comfy chairs in this NY Barnes & Noble, only a handful of folding chairs that were already full with other tired city goers, and apparently, you aren’t allowed to sit on the floor. So… basically, by the time Travis got to me I was exhausted and dehydrated, and promises of Momofuku pork buns wasn’t enough to get me pumped up. Plus, we had to walk lots of blocks to the Noodle Bar (one of the Momofuku restaurants), which was too crowded. Then, we walked lots more blocks to the Momofuku Ssam Bar and waited for a seat at the super-crowded, loud bar. I was so tired and so hungry. Poor Travis. BUT, here is the good news: New York City always seems to make up for its inherent hassle and hardship. Our pork buns and barbecue sandwich arrived and they were just about the best food I have ever tasted! Too expensive, too trendy, too difficult to get, but still worth it. Plus, then we went next door to the bakery (the Milk Bar) and got two slices of amazing cake and their signature Cereal Milk (above you see the left-overs in our fridge). Travis even splurged on a taxi ride home! Ahhhh.

What else have I been up to?

• Watched The Hangover last weekend and I loved, loved, loved it! I was totally caught off guard by how much I loved it. It is, like, my new favorite movie, and I don’t even like Las Vegas!
• Travis and I have also been making our way through Entourage, and again, I was surprised by how much I like it. I thought it was all about womanizing and partying (and it is), but it is way sweeter than I expected.
• Oh. This isn’t great, but I have abandoned the thing-a-day project. My daily creative submissions just weren’t very good and I didn’t need another thing to feel stressed over. I am a thing-a-day failure.
• This guy is my favorite thing about the Olympics.
• I had another article (a book review of Weekend Sewing) published on CraftCritique.com this week.
• I have been doing these Dance and Be Fit workouts on FitTV and I am really enjoying them. The instructor, Kimberly Miguel Mullen, is really cute and fun. They make me want to take some “real” dance classes…

What have you been doing to keep sane during this long, cold February? I need suggestions!

My 29th birthday was last Wednesday and it was a perfect day. It had snowed overnight which meant Travis got to work from home. We started the day with muffins from my favorite bakery, and I spent the day crafting and avoiding email. In the evening, we headed out into the two feet of snow and sleet to get dinner at our favorite, local restaurant, Stone Park Cafe. We went all out with an appetizer, entrees, dessert, and coffee. It was all delicious, and because of the snow, the restaurant was almost empty and very quiet. We sat by the window and watched the snow fall. It was a perfect evening, and it didn’t even end there! I came home and opened too many fabulous presents and cards from my family. Thank you so much to everyone, especially Travis, for making my birthday so special. I know that I am spoiled.

I am still working on a big birthday wrap-up post, I promise. I know all of you want to see photos of me opening presents, but for now you will have to settle for my 11th creative thing-a-day. My parents sent me a very cool sketching pencil/pen and I was eager to try it out. Now, I haven’t drawn without a computer for quite a while and I am out of practice, so forgive my quick, simple sketch. The subjects of my still life were two of the fabulous birthday gifts sent to me from Chelsea & Scott. I love them so much and have no idea how Chelsea read my mind and got me the two make-up items I was wishing for. I really liked using the sketching pen. It kept my hand clean and is comfortable to hold… now I just need to do more sketches!