aunt audrey presents the tea collection

hello! i hope everyone had a wonderful thanksgiving, and a good long break to be able to enjoy it. i certainly did, with some high and lowlights; but that's not what today's post is about. . . two saturdays ago, on november 20th, i became an aunt! my older sister has been impatiently awaiting the birth of her first child, josiah "pete" dalton, and he finally arrived (pretty quickly, from what i understand,) that afternoon.





i have also been anxiously awaiting little pete's debut - for many reasons, of course, one of them being that not long ago the kind folks of the tea collection asked me to style up some children's clothes for them. being without child myself, and happily so, i was debating whether or not to do the project, and mentioned their clothing in an email to emily (new mom/big sis) who, if i recall correctly, responded to the email in such excitement as to use all caps. she's an editor, folks; she doesn't punctuate lightly. so i accepted the project and decided to use clothes that i'd want to give to my new nephew. if they seem bigger than infant size, you are correct! and observant! and masterful at deciphering scale in weirdly laid out photos! he has such an abundance of baby clothes for his first year or so that i bought him some pieces that will serve him well in a couple of years. the anticipation will be tough.






i went with a bunch of stripes - perhaps influenced partially by some mondo-love this project runway season, i am finally braving patterns, and have become quite infatuated with simple ones like stripes and polka dots. i chose three different stripe patterns, then matched them with a practical (and adorable) pair of shoes and this hat that i've been holding on to for awhile - you have the option of wearing it as a sheep, a wolf, or. . . a wolf in sheep's clothing! how cute is that?!

the clothes are courtesy of the tea collection, but the styling, choice, and words of admiration for the brand are my own. seriously - beautifully made, down to the reinforced knees on the pants and the cute little tag in the shirts. everything can be found on their website - where, coincidentally, they are having a big sale until tomorrow only.

stylesip

good morning! i have snuck off to a corner to post this quickest of posts: i was asked to write about a holiday dessert for stylesip, and my blog appears there today. i now must return to work, aka pie baking purgatory. i swear i have made an apple pie for every household in brooklyn this week.

more soon! happy almost turkey day!

xo audrey

homerunballerina's gift guide, part II

güten tag! happy weekend! part two of my gift guide: for the music lover. (you'll notice that all of these gift guides happen to fall under categories that i consider myself a part of. to any friends and family that may be reading: it is not a cop-out to buy me something off these gift guides. it's *brilliant.*)



the small stakes, $16.50. saw this book at strand today and thought of many friends that would love it. full of clever, beautiful concert posters.




equalizer tee, $29.99. i bought this shirt a few years ago for a friend who is addicted to concert-going; it actually moves with the music. awesome, but only if you like a lot of strangers trying to talk to you while you're at a show.




okay, yes, a little silly, but i love these beatles handpuppets ($25.) also the very clever many david bowies.




speaking of the beatles: my favorite mockumentary of all time, the rutles, $14.50. starring mostly original snl-ers and monty python cast members, it would be hard to go wrong; absolutely brilliantly, wittily, hysterically written faux-documentary about a band that bears a suspicious resemblance to the beatles. if you don't buy this for someone else, but it for yourself.




grand taxonomy of rap names. $25. 'nuff said.




under the radar magazine. $12.50 for 5 issues. this is not your dad's music magazine (no offense dad.) filled with "intelligent, humorous, in-depth articles that go beyond a band's major influences, accompanied by exclusive and stylistic photos," it's the vanity fair of the music world. plus magazine subscriptions are the gift that keeps on giving.




songwriters calendar, $30. beautiful handdrawn artists. there's someone for everyone! (although stevie nicks is not for me.)




lady gaga christmas card, $3.95. i don't know. i stumbled on this completely accidentally and can't get the image out of my mind. hoping to exorcise it here.


more to follow!

xo audrey

homerunballerina's gift guide, part I

hello loves! happy universal children's day! i've never done this before, but i've spent quite a bit (some would say too much) browsing the interwebs over the last couple of weeks, and i've come up with quite a stack of bookmarks of cool gift ideas. i'm going to try to break them up into semi-logical groups; today's edition: for the chef!



heart shaped frying pan. how cute is that? and for $6.99, how can you say no?



nesting bowls/measuring spoons $50. i've been obsessed with these ever since i first spotted them in the moma store. bright, space efficient, practical. and $40 if you're a member!




your state cutting board. $40. serve cheese on it when you have guests; proudly display your home state when you aren't! genius.




cute apron, $32. it's always a bummer to cover up a cute outfit with an ugly apron. here's your remedy.



l'epicerie spice rack, $39.50. a spice rack and a work of art. you can choose from several pre-selected racks or create your own.




bundt pan necklace, $26. for the baker in your life. i also love this seller's sardine necklace.



garlic zoom, $14.95. sam bought me one of these on a whim around this time last year, and i loved it so much i bought one for all of the women in our family. for the garlic lover, it's a must-have.


more to come! have a lovely weekend!

xo audrey

may she rest in peace

hello everyone! hope you all had a good week. i had a full couple of nights (more on that later) but i wanted to focus on one thing in this post: i don't usually get into very personal stuff on this blog, but my grandma passed away this week and i wanted to share some photos as my little way of remembering her. she was such a classic beauty. she did some modeling in the 50s and 60s and used to go on game shows as a young woman; she even won an organ and lessons (which my dad was the lucky beneficiary of,) among other things. she lived with my parents for the last couple of years, far away in california; she'd suffered several strokes towards the end so i think she went in peace. i love you, grandma, and hope you've found your way to a better place.








thanks for letting me share. have a wonderful weekend, and i'll be back soon!

xo audrey

screen shopping

kind of like the updated version of window shopping, right? anthropologie has suuuuch a gorgeous line of jewelry out right now - i wish i could count on myself to wear such finery more often, but i am kind of accessory-shy a lot of the time so i worry they'd just hang from my little jewelry rack far too often. but how lovely are these?






hoping that posting them here will relieve me of a strong desire to purchase every single one. from anthropologie.

horror movie photo shoot

so - i've been meaning to post these for awhile, but i'm not really sure what to say: my extraordinarily talented friend jess asked if she could shoot some photos of me for a class, and i agreed. i generally hate photos anyone else takes of me - i've got the whole not-looking-at-the-camera thing down to a science now, and photographers always want me to smile at the camera (and i hate my teeth) and i am beyond awkward when posing - even when sam takes photos for me, they end up unusable because they are either blurry from me nervously twitching or i've somehow managed to have one eye open and one closed and my mouth open in some menacing way. these photos remind me of stills from a horror movie or something, but i like them. and i like that you get to see random bits of my apartment in the background.





red top is from urban outfitters (a dress, in fact;) ruffled skirt is lorick; shoes by melissa; in the pink and red, top from dalaga (a little boutique in greenpoint, brooklyn;) skirt thrifted; shoes from nine west.

xo audrey

brown's pond house

(photos courtesy of mr. morgan mirvis and his fancy camera.)

sooo, a couple weekends ago sam and i spent the weekend with 9 friends in a big, beautiful house on brown's pond in upstate new york to celebrate my dear friend jared's birthday. it was absolutely gorgeous - still warm enough to sit outside in nothing but your flannel or a sweater, and all the leaves were at their brightest but still filling the trees. we spent most of the time drinking spiced cider, eating, or playing dorky word games, and it was one of the best weekends i'd had in a while. i brought the cake.




to say that jared is the biggest sally field fan i know isn't really saying much, but it is absolutely true, so i spent a little time at work the day before we left drawing ms. norah walker herself (anyone get that reference? no? you're better for it.) in chocolate on his devil's food cake.



tonight i attempt to deep fry turkey drumsticks. stay tuned.

xo audrey

mod squad

hello dear readers! hope everyone had a lovely weekend. my last two have been spent primarily out of town and unfortunately out of camera - i tried to bring it to new jersey when sam and i went this past weekend, but it fell out of my bag and ended up as a stowaway somewhere in his backseat for the last several days. but i am back, and i am blogging!

two weekends ago, i drove upstate and with sam and a bunch of friends and stayed in this gorgeous house near poughkeepsie (more on that later.) this past weekend sam and i drove down the shore for a couple of days for some fishing and outlet shopping; i hit the le creuset and the j crew pretty hard (more of that to come,) and sam took me to this little vintage shop he'd seen a few times and thought i'd like. score.

i've never been much for halloween - i grew up not allowed to trick-or-treat, because my family was very religious, so i feel like the lack of practice has given me a costume-planning handicap. this year i thought of a perfect costume and i was so excited: i was going to dress all in grey and get a big headband from american apparel and bend some wires into a whisk-y shape and be, yes, a whisk. cheap, easy, comfortable, and non-slutty! the perfect costume.

of course this all required a trip to michael's sometime saturday, and once i entered the le creuset store i was pretty sure there just wasn't going to be time. luckily i'd snagged this dress and shoes from the vintage shop, and had been waiting for the right outfit to bust out these tights, so i decided to just go as a mod chick from the 60s.



dress: vintage, thrifted
shoes: vintage, thrifted
tights: hansel from basel
brooch: little shop in florida

pretty sure i'm going to start wearing my hair in a beehive at all times. i've always been so lazy about my hair, so maybe i can bring back the whole getting your hair done on a monday, just touching it up throughout the week thing. sounds perfect.

i'm off to sear some tuna for dinner! have a lovely evening, everyone!

xo audrey