cinderella

well, i was late waking up this morning, and didn't have time to take a photo; but this post's title is apt not only because i hid in the broom closet to take this, but because at last i found my beautiful slippers! well, by found i mean they arrived in the mail, and by slippers i mean miraculous, wear-em-three-ways pumps by devotte, but still. i think the metaphor stands.

actually, the fairy tale doesn't end there! a week or so ago i aired some grievances i had with SOTTO boutique, near portland, OR, where i'd ordered the shoes from. i'm here to tell you that they not only sent me the shoes, but have found a customer in life for me: a girl who works there got in touch with me after 3 weeks of me trying to contact them, apologized profusely, and told me to pick something else off the website that they'd send along, free of charge, as an apology gift. i chose the blouse i'm wearing today, and i have to say, it is absolutely gorgeous. pure silk, scalloped ruffles, a matching bow belt.



shirt: church and state, from SOTTO boutique
skirt: american apparel
belt: anthropologie
tights: HUE
saddle shoes: vintage, from etsy
necklace: ebay

i also want to say, in sotto's defense, that there site crashed as they were moving offices, which would cause anyone to fall behind, and they certainly more than rectified the situation. the girls who buy for them have impeccable taste and great sales on beautiful things. check them out.

i have so many new things to post this week. stay tuned.

xo audrey

weekend recap

happy monday everyone! insomnia struck me last night for the second sunday in a row, but for some reason i feel pretty alert today. maybe all the extra sleep on wednesday and thursday are carrying over. who am i to question it?

this weekend was short and wonderful. friday night was spent dancing in windows and taking shots with spramps and some of her friends. couches acquired. high-fives given and received. glasslands dance party sneaking. and dancing, naturally. saturday we had brunch and a lazy day spent in the sun, dipping in and out of boutiques, smoking on a roof and then going to a loft party in brooklyn and eating a giant slice of pizza in the back of a tahoe. yesterday i finally slept in, had brunch, then spent the evening sewing and cleaning my bedroom.

the result of some of that sewing is this shirt, which was a never-worn american apparel short sleeved shirt (one of the first things i ever bought at american apparel, i remember the stars in my eyes when i walked out with it.) i cut off the sleeves, hemmed them in, and added this panel of distressed shirt fabric from a tank top i'd unraveled a few weeks ago. ta-da!



shirt: reconstructed by me
skirt: american apparel
tights: same
shoes: pour la victoire
necklace: ebay

class tonight, then hopefully i have more luck sleeping. hope everyone has a pleasant monday.

xo audrey

hepburn

i have a completely predictable semi-obsession with audrey hepburn. up until about 3 minutes before i popped out of my mom back in the mid-eighties, i was supposed to be named lauren; after watching my mom caterwaul for a few hours, my dad conceded naming rights to my mom, who wanted to call me audrey. thank god. i love my name, and i love my namesake; i'm not one of those fans who has her bedroom wallpapered in breakfast at tiffanys posters or anything, but i'm a huge fan of her movies, her activism, and her style.

someone asked me the other day who i would "be," if i could be someone famous. i said audrey hepburn in love in the afternoon: gary cooper, paris, fabulous clothes, faux escapades.



having to think about this got me looking at photos of audrey, and all of her fabulous hats, and i decided to look into getting some of my own. i've never been a big hat person - i dread hat hair, and for a long time my hair's been too short to show from underneath a hat - but now that it's getting longer, and the sort of hats she wore aren't the sort you take off once you've reached your destination, i'm going to give it a try. everything vintage seems to be coming back into style, but i haven't seen any hats coming back - we'll see if that changes.



all above hats can be found on ebay, except the middle one, which is on its way to me as we speak!

i've been sick the last couple of days and not up to much. . . hopefully that changes this weekend and i have some new things to post.

happy friday!

xo audrey

taste the rainbow

we are on my favorite unit so far in culinary school: petit fours! here are some photos from making macaroons last night. mine were pistachio flavored, but there were lots of different ones around the class. they were gorgeous.








have a lovely night, folks, i'm going to chug some nyquil (it matches this post quite nicely, actually) and try to get some shuteye.

xo audrey

marni lovin'

i am not knowledgeable about labels, nor do i pretend to be. nor, really, do i want to be - since i've started paying more attention to other fashion blogs, i've started to see things i like and think, wow, that's cute, maybe i could find something by that designer i like! . . . and then experience [virtual] sticker shock when i find out that those shoes/that dress/these earrings are $900 or so. but i've seen two different blog posts mentioning the marni runway show, and i LOVED what i saw, so i had to check it out for myself.





i saw this first on glamorai's site - she made it into a nice little DIY, which i am attempting myself. this has meant scouring etsy and ebay for lots of brooches (and losing two bids on them in the process.) i'm hoping to make it out of work in time to stop in the salvation army before heading home to see what i can scrape together there.

i'm working on another DIY that i'll post soon. i'm having a sick day (wearing pajama shirt with some wide leg pants, verrry cozy) so no photos today.

xo audrey

somebody else's clothes

this is the first bit of sewing i did when i moved to brooklyn. i smuggled this shirt from sam's dresser, spirited it away in my suitcase and, upon arriving in williamsburg, decided that i desperately needed a onesie. it was a quick few stitches, and voila!

of course, this renders it entirely work-inappropriate, so i donned it under a pair of jeans and some boots today for a more rosie-the-riveter sort of look.



shirt: sorry sam. club monaco?
belt: anthropologie
tights: hue
shoes: akira chicago

tonight we made macaroons! they are rainbow-colored and gorgeous and i'll post photos soon.

much love!

xo audrey

i got them back

well, it took several days longer than it was supposed to, but my georgina goodmans are back and right where they belong: on my feet. i may never remove them. being soft leather, they molded to my feet long ago and wearing them feels like going barefoot, only better, because i could walk over hot coals with these babies and not feel a thing.

amanda richards, i don't know if i want to hug you, to throw several scarves around you and accessorize them with big, sloppy kisses - or hunt you down, put you in mom jeans and ugly sweaters and force you to watch lanvin catwalk shows and agnyess deyn montages. because that, my dear, is effectively what you have done to me. you showed me the glamorai and i am now powerless. do you know what i did until 1 am last night, amanda? i stayed up sewing baubles onto a cloth collar. tonight i am having friends over for fish tacos, and do you know what i would rather do? ransack my wardrobe for things to add ruffles to. okay, so i love you. and her. but jesus. if you don't know the glamorai, beware. she is highly addictive.

i've also decided that these myspace, pose-in-the-mirror shots are not acceptable. i'm going to do my best to take shots of myself without the aid of a mirror, but it will be difficult since i don't have 1. a cute hipster boyfriend to take my photo like the glamorai or 2. a huge mansion in the form of my parents' house in which to set up a camera like childhood flames. but dammit, i'll try.



detail of shirt:



shirt: hi-line (american apparel wannabes, from what i gather) beautifully destroyed thanks to childhood flames' tutorial, posted earlier
skirt: american apparel
tights: welovecolor.com
shoes: georgina goodman
necklace: woman on the street
belt: anthropologie

have a lovely sunday, i'm going to go fry some fish.

shoe battle

my shoes are being held from me against their will. i am doing everything in my power to get them back, but my best efforts are no match for the anonymity of the interwebs.



i ordered them online from a small boutique in portland about two weeks ago. i received a confirmation email and since then, nada. i've called. i've emailed. i've anxiously awaited the post every day, but all to no avail. what do you do in this situation?

and on the other hand i have my georgina goodman flats, which i dropped off to the cobbler a little over a week ago. i was promised they'd be ready yesterday, and when i called, told to come this morning instead; when i called this morning, the guy muttered something about it being a "big job" and "maybe two weeks" and that i should call back this afternoon to talk to the boss.

uuuuuuuuuaghaghhhh. i'll stop my kvetching.



shirt: not american apparel
skirt: forever 21
shoes: pour la victoire
necklace: mom
tights: have a hole in them. i own 3 pairs of grey tights and every single one springs a leak within a wear or two. what gives?

had a test in class last night - ACE! 98% on the practical exam. translation: my croissants are nearly perfect. it was very satisfying after an incredibly frustrating day. now we move on to petit fours, which is the unit i have been looking forward to since the start. bread is delicious, and i love the process of it, but it just isn't exciting; it's a lot of hurry up and wait. wait for the autolyse. wait for the bench rest. wait for the proof. wait for the bake. wait for the cool. petit fours are just tiny, beautiful bites, which are right up my alley.



tonight - finally a night off! i have plans to make dinner with my dear friend jess, skype my dearest friend ashlee, and dear god hopefully get a decent night's sleep.

until the morrow,

xo audrey

st pats

happy st patrick's day, everyone! green has gone from a color that dominated my wardrobe to one that i find difficult to wear. what color shoes does a person wear with green? add brown and (especially with my features) you look elfin, another color is too much, black just seems off. this is actually a dress that i'd intended to include in my virtual frock-swap, should that ever happen, but now that i've maybe figured out how to wear it, i might just keep it.

another frustrating day of class yesterday. i was exhausted, and ended the night by having my arm slammed into a just-out-of-the-oven pan by my clueless chef (who didn't even notice, much less apologize, as i raced to rinse my scorching arm under cold water,) thus the giant bandage on my left arm. my appendages are pretty banged up overall, mostly from cooking, but also from having to wash dishes and my hands constantly - tiny cuts all over my fingers, cracked cuticles, burns here and there. at the end of this all, though, i'll have some truly tough mitts, which might be handy.



dress: anthropologie
necklace: bought off a lady selling her clothes on the street at midnight
tights: who cares
shoes: irregular choice
belt: forever 21

tonight, lots to do and little motivation. i don't really plan on celebrating st pat's day - last night i feel asleep with my hand around a glass of red wine, and i should probably just lay off for a little while. um, that sounds a lot worse than it is. my plans are basically to study for a test tomorrow, do a bit of sewing, and possibly meet up with a couple of friends for a nightcap. hope everyone has a fun holiday, and manages to brush all the green off their tongue by tomorrow. . .

xo audrey

supper!

good morning! i hope everyone had a lovely weekend. saturday i met up with an old friend from college and pretty much drank all day long, which is not something i do often and not something i recommend. i have a baseball sized bruise on my left knee and i cringe to remember how i inflicted it upon myself. it was a lot of fun, though, and i met up with a couple of friends that night at this private speakeasy in the lower east side, which was incredibly cool and a nice way to wrap up the night.

yesterday i went over to chris and john's place to work out the final details of next weekend's supper.



if you'd like to attend, you can purchase tickets at www.audreycards.com.

today. . .



new skirt, j crew - i love the bow but i think i need to make the whole thing a bit smaller, take it in a tad on the sides and maybe shorten it by a couple of inches
blouse/dress: anthropologie
tights: anthropologie
shoes: thrifted from etsy

not feeling very chatty, but perhaps i'll be back on later.

happy monday!

xo audrey

thinking spring

despite the fact that it was 24 degrees outside when i left my apartment this morning and my legs goosebumped all the way to the L. tonight in class we're making ciabatta, sweet potato brioche, irish soda bread and english muffins.

i got a $85 gift certificate from bloomingdales in the mail a couple of weeks ago and was filled with joy. then i visited the bloomingdales website and realized that bloomingdales dollars equal approximately equal 4 standard us dollars. translation, i couldn't afford shit. except! this cute silk dress, which i was juuuust barely affordable with my bloomie bucks.



dress: by aqua, from bloomingdales
belt: salvation army
cardigan: akira chicago
tights: anthropologie
shoes: forever 21
necklace: gift from ray ray

tonight? after class? there will be dancing.

happy friday! the weekend holds in store for me

brunch with an old college buddy
fancy times at milk and honey
hanging with my homeboys chris and john

i hope yours is fun-filled as well.

xo audrey

laundry day

good morning! thursdays are generally good days for me. i catch up on lost, get the night off of school, and bask in the knowledge that tomorrow is friday. today i have a pretty full list at work, too, so the day should go quickly.

class has gotten a bit harder. not technically speaking so much as we switched chefs, and the new one is. . . challenging. it's difficult because i loved the chef we had in level one, and this one just seems kind of bipolar; kind of spacey and meandering and then all of a sudden all barking and army general-esque. i really like the unit we're on, though; last night i brought home one of those giant bed bath and beyond bags LOADED with food: 3 different kinds of croissants (ham and cheese, plain, and chocolate,) a malty oat bread, 4 different kinds of danish (cheese, apricot with almond cream, pastry cream, cream cheese and blueberry,) and a cheese tart with onions and and bacon that's gonna serve as my dinner tonight.



shirt: vintage ck pajamas
shorts: handmade mary meyer
tights: two pairs, one anthro, one urban outfitters
belt: anthropologie
shoes: DSW

i have noticed a pattern in the shape of shoes i'm pining after lately. i ordered some pumps online a few days ago, but i haven't gotten a confirmation yet, so if for any reason that doesn't work out, i'm going to have to get one of these pairs instead:



left and right via 80spurple.com; center shoes via buydefinition


tonight: more sewing. eating cheese tarts. probably drinking wine. trying to fall asleep before 2 am. and much, much more.

xo audrey

anthropologie roundup

also, real quick, i dashed into anthropologie after work yesterday (bought the belt i am wearing today, on sale for $9!) and took a look around to see that there is a lot of stuff i really like in there right now. and, maybe it's a conscious decision because of the economy, but i feel like the stuff i liked was less expensive than usual. generally when i am wandering around anthropologie and i see a dress i like and fumble for the tag, the sticker shock is great enough for me to quickly stuff the tag back in place and make a beeline for the sale section. but these are 3 dresses that i saw last night and loved, and was surprised that they weren't more expensive than they are.




underwood shirtdress, $168; carillo shift, $128; orava shift, $138.

now i just have to decide which one to splurge on when i get paid friday.

tuesday evening DIY

good morning! i took a quiet night to myself last night and did a little bit of sewing. i'm actually really bummed because i had wanted to post a DIY - i had the idea to make skirts from a couple of sack dresses i never wear, and i made them and they turned out pretty well (i'm wearing one today,) but i realized once i got home that i had left my camera at work. so, no how-to today, but i'll try to do another this weekend and post that.

planning a trip to portland in a month! i haven't ever been and am soo excited to get out of new york city for a few days. if anyone has any suggestions as to anywhere i should go or anything to do, i'd love to hear it. (amy, don't worry, we'll talk.)

class tonight and then coming home and maybe doing a little more sewing. once i have a couple of successful projects it's all i want to do.



details:

homemade skirt


vintage silk blouse


blouse: thrifted on etsy
skirt: made from an old sack dress i bought in dublin a couple years ago. DIY to come!
belt: anthropologie
tights: anthropologie
shoes: payless.

until we meet again. . .

xo audrey

baguettes

i woke up this morning at 8:55 am. i'm supposed to be at work at 9. so this morning is pretty lacking in imagination.

last night was my first day of pastry II. this means a new chef, a new kitchen, a new way of doing things. i can see that it is going to take some getting used to. last night our chef forgot about my bread and it burned to a crisp in the oven. it's really not a huge deal (well, sort of,) it isn't like i've never had a baguette before, it's just that i hadn't ever made baguettes before and so i wanted to be able to bring them home. and the chef's attitude about it was the most frustrating part; it's her job to make sure that everything is baked properly, or to at least assign someone else to do so, and the fact that she just kind of shrugged it off was pretty irritating. anyway. i hope i learn a lot and i'm sure i'll settle in to it soon, but i am very grateful to have a night off tonight.



sweater: anthopologie, ebayed
dress: american apparel
tights: american apparel
shoes: pour la victoire
new purse!! a better view this time

and now. . . the great experiment.



i loved these shoes. clearly, a little too long and a little too hard. they are hand-painted leather shoes that sam brought me from italy, and today i am going to put my cobbler to the test and see what can be done with them. the other shoe is even worse; it has a huge hole in the toe, and the leather is filthy. i'll take after pictures and see what happens.

**update: dropped the shoes at the cobbler this afternoon. there was much head-shaking and turning over of the shoes, but he assured me they could fix them: "this is what we do," he said. a final run-down of the repairs needed:

replace both soles
replace both heels
new leather on the inside
full cleaning
repair two holes on the left shoe

the total cost was $65 (!! but the shoes are handmade and were expensive, and a gift, so i'm okay with it, as long as they fix them. . .) and will be ready a week from tomorrow. we shall see.

got a little online-shopping happy yesterday so i have a couple of things coming my way this week that i am very excited about. hope everyone enjoys their tuesday. . .

xo audrey

uno

good morning and happy monday! i woke up this morning before my alarm and got to work a bit early, because THAT'S how refreshed i feel after this weekend of sun and fabulous weather. i went to anthropologie after work on friday and picked up this skirt for $20, despite the fact that it was about 2 sizes too big for me and kind of looked awful. i liked the idea of it and figured it wouldn't be too hard to take it in on one side since it was an off-center skirt to begin with. and it turned out great!



i ended up sleeping at a penthouse in the upper west side that some friends were housesitting, so this outfit lasted me most of the weekend. i kept hoping i would run into the sartorialist; i finally felt worthy. the full thing:



shirt: an old slip i thrifted years ago, turned into a shirt
skirt: anthropologie, tailored to fit
belt: anthropologie
tights: anthropologie
sweater: old, thrifted
shoes: payless
new purse!: cool antique shop on the lower east side

and for this morning, back to drab; it's pouring outside and the temperature has dropped to the low 50's (which, frankly, still sounds really nice to me.)



shirt: anthropologie
necklace: erica weiner
skirt: american apparel
stirrup tights: american apparel
shoes: thrifted from etsy

i just posted a ton of photos from the weekend on my facebook page and don't particularly feel like pontificating much here, so maybe i'll post more later! hope everyone had as good a weekend as i did (although it seems unlikely.)

xo audrey

night and day

happy friday! today marks the first day of my life as a level 2 culinary student, and tonight we begin with savory breads. i can't wait.





my hair is finalllly starting to get longer. i mean, it's always getting longer. but it's finally getting to a point where i can see the difference. i'm about an inch away from a full ponytail, so i should be able to do that just in time for the warm weather that i hope is just around the corner. i REALLY can't wait to be able to do this poof <--- with my hair.


made possible with a hilariously ridiculous product called bumpits. once my hair is long enough i'm buying the package and wearing my hair like audrey hepburn every. day.

today!




dress: an old skirt from express circa 2001 or so
sweater jacket: thrifted
tights: bebaroque from brooklyn fox
shoes: dsw
ring: forever 21

tights detail:





have a wonderful weekend everyone!

etsy rodeo

well, i forgot my camera this morning, so my outfit-posting will have to wait. (i know, i know, you're waiting with bated breath. hang in there.) i'm attending a whiskey tasting after work (read: meeting friends at the whiskey ward in the lower east side and trying whiskey until i can't try whiskey no mo) so we'll see if i'm in a state to photograph when i get home.

until then, i spent part of the morning scouring etsy for boots for a friend (her new pup made a chew toy of her favorite shoes) and while i had pretty limited success with that, i did find a few new shops that i think i'll be frequenting.



starting clockwise, from the top left corner: cocktail dress, green wallpaper vintage; 60s mini dress, green wallpaper vintage; leather bandaid dress, vintage hollywood; red cowboy boots, ninth avenue vintage; golden feather-collared blouse, leolucaescobar; silk pink blouse, ninth avenue vintage; blue pleated dress (top half of dress in bottom left corner), ninth avenue vintage; 80s prom dress, vintage hollywood; cute spring dress, ninth avenue vintage; gorgeous party dress, leolucaescobar; 50s feather cap, ninth avenue vintage.

in other news, i officially graduated from level one in pastry to level two! meaning i'm 1/3 of the way through, and tomorrow i start on a savory bread unit. honestly, i am extremely grateful to be making something not sweet for a little while.

until we meet again!

xo audrey

omg shoes

i foolishly signed up for the net-a-porter email list, and now i get a beautiful package of html in my inbox every morning, tempting me with beautiful clothes i can't afford. this morning they were announcing a sale (40% off!) which renders their usually outrageously expensive splendors still out of price range, but now close enough in some cases that i can almost talk myself into it. these shoes do not fall in that category.



but a girl can dream. anyway, if any of you have a lot more disposable income than i and appreciate gorgeous, expensive things, this is the site for you.

back to reality. . .





dress: american apparel
tights: old, from mom
shoes: payless

BIG test in class tonight, on cakes, so i'm hoping to dip out of work a bit early and have a cram session with some classmates. it's kind of amazing how hard a test about food can be.

happy hump day! we're gonna make it after all!

xo audrey

supper

greetings! probably just about everyone who reads this knows that in chicago i used to do an underground-restaurant dinner the third friday of each month, aptly named third fridays. it's taken awhile but i am finally getting the concept off the ground in new york. the details (including price and location, which i'm still narrowing down) haven't been completely nailed down, but the menu and the date have, and i am working on an invitation and email to send around to possibly interested parties. here's a working invite:



more information to come as i pound it all out. hope to see some of you there!

xo audrey

recipe hijack

it was way too cold to think about anything other than how many clothes i could pile on top of each other this morning, so i'm not even gonna try. instead, a recipe! i should do this more. now that i'm in school i'm actually cooking less, partially because i'm so busy and partially because after baking for over 5 hours the night before the last thing i want to do on my night off is slave away in a kitchen. last night, however, i got an unexpected night off (snow day woooo!) so i decided to try my hand at one of my favorite recipes from my favorite sushi place in chicago, kaze. one of the soups on the menu is total crack and comes in a tiny little cup that i always literally lick clean. it's a miso carrot soup with king crab, and it is to diiiie for. having worked at the restaurant, i had a vague idea of what goes into the soup, so i decided to try my hand at it last night. the results were incredibly delicous, and i post them here for your viewing/cooking pleasure.



what you need:

3-4 med carrots, peeled and chopped
about a quart of miso broth
2-3 chopped garlic cloves
small yellow onion, sliced
1 cup heavy cream
crab legs - i used snow crab, but king crab would be delicious (if expensive)
a couple T butter
spices: i used ground fennel, white pepper, tarragon, a touch of mustard, and a littttle cayenne, but you can tweak as you like
optional: chives, rice cracker

total cooking time: about 20-30 minutes. and if you have some of the basics (spices, butter) at home, it's pretty cheap! made the whole she-bang and bought a $9 hitachino to go along with it for less than $20.

simmer the carrots in the miso broth for about 15 minutes, or until the carrots are soft. add chopped garlic as it cooks. after about 10 minutes, start to sautée onion until it just starts to turn yellow. add to soup. use a bit more butter to sautée the crab legs (break the meat up into bite sized pieces) for a couple of minutes until they are warm and slightly browned. turn off the pan and let them sit while you use an immersion blender/food processor/regular blender to mix the miso/carrot/onion mixture with the spices you decide to add. add about 1/2 a cup of cream until the soup is lightened in color. whip a little of the cream (you want it unsweetened) and set aside. put the crab in the bottom of a bowl and pour the soup on top, topping off with a dollop of the unsweetened cream and a chive, with a rice cracker on the side if you like. ta-da! warning: there is a reason why kaze serves this soup in small doses. it is extremely rich.

enjoy!

xo audrey

saturday! saturday! satur-day!

afternoon:


pants: american apparel
shirt: american apparel
sweater: thrifted
boots: etsy

night:


dress: thrifted today, chelsea flea market
belt: thrifted
shoes: pour la victoire
tights: anthropologie