suit

gooood morning. last night i finally had a quiet night in, so i cracked my knuckles, set up my trusty tripod, and took a few outfit shots so that i could put the "blog" back in "blogger." i can't believe how fast this week went - friday through sunday were spent basking in sweet, sweet music (highlights: flava flav and chuck d leading a 2 hour long public enemy set that was absolutely incredible, and probably the best show of the weekend; jeff magnum playing pretty much every neutral milk hotel song you could ask to hear with the aid of nothing but an acoustic guitar. i may have shed a tear or two.) i also probably consumed my body weight in beer and tacos, so i haven't much felt like getting dressed up and looking at my feet for photos. and as for cooking - monday night i had popcorn for dinner, tuesday chinese takeout, wednesday i went out for korean bbq with some friends and last night i ate leftover storebought pasta. so really, this week has been nothing to write home. . . or you guys. . . about.

one of the things i really wanted for fall was a vintage-feeling suit. i looked at a couple of shops near my office, but nothing was quite right (for the fit or the price) - i spotted this one on asos and patiently waited for the price to drop. it did - plummet, in fact - so i snatched it up and plan on wearing the heck out of it during this not-quite-hot-but-not-quite-cold weather.




blazer: asos
shorts: asos
shirt: thrifted, similar here
shoes: miu miu via ebay (and about 5% of the original price)

my hair is a source of much frustration these days. it kind of wants to do this "i'm a dandelion!" frizz thing at the top of my head, instead of lying down all nice and smooth and happy; as a person who's basically shunned a hairbrush for most of my life, i don't really have the skills necessary to tame it so i've taken to spraying it with a water bottle every morning, smoothing it down, and going. it's working okay, but what i end up with at the end of the day is. . . well. . . what you see here. anyone have any tips? how do you get your hair smooth and calm?

this weekend is shaping up to be a good one: tonight sam and i are going to see the ides of march, and tomorrow i'm making a bunch of cookies for a friend's engagement party then going to a yom kippur dinner at another friend's place. sunday there's a street fair not too far from my apartment that a few of us are going to hit up.

what about you guys? big plans? thanks so much for all the comments - i'll be finally getting back to everyone today, with my apologies for the delay!

xo audrey

matchy matchy

i snagged this rather un-characteristic top on sale at urban outfitters recently. i've been feeling a little body-conscious and the fit and drape of this lets me relax a little bit; i also was surprised how much i love the neutral color, given my usual penchant for bright bright bright. of course i couldn't completely let myself dress like a grown up, so i paired it with (new favorite) some bright red shorts and a pair of flats i thrifted in connecticut a couple of weeks ago, and broke one big fashion rule: don't be too matchy-matchy. the color of the shirt+shorts perfectly match the two-tones of the flats, but i think i like it.






top: urban outfitters
sunglasses: asos
shorts: urban outfitters
shoes: thrifted

i wore it for the first time last week, right after deciding i was going to wear a big girl outfit, with painted nails and everything. i never paint my nails, because i'm too much of an impatient spaz - of course, the moment i put the shirt on, i got a smudge of bright yellow polish on the damn thing. i think i'm going to cover it up with a button, but i'm pretty annoyed at myself.

more from me soon,

xo audrey

colonel mustard

good morning! a bit of catching up to do after one day of dead camera & one day of camera forgotten. this is what i wore wednesday, for a day of work before meeting up with keiko and some new friends for dinner in dumbo, a dinner that heavily featured pork belly and beets, two of my favorites.






my mess of a closet. i've been compulsively buying stuff on thrifting missions for months now without updating my store and the situation is out.of.control. i finally broke down and ordered a dressmaker's mannequin yesterday so i can easily take pictures of & post a lot of stuff quickly; expect major shop updates in the coming weeks. some really amazing stuff, too! my hips are not what they used to be, and it's time to let go of some old favorites.

dress: asos
slip: thrifted
heart: bando shoe clip
shoes: ebay

this dress is really similar in shape and color to one i pretty much wore into the ground over the last couple of years. it started to shred around the bottom, so i chopped it off and made it into a blouse; i finally just replaced the buttons a couple days ago so i can get it back into rotation.

what are your plans for the weekend? i'm meeting a few girlfriends for drinks this evening, which i'm looking forward to; the rest of the weekend will be spent, i think, hunkered down on some invitations i'm working on.

more soon to come,

xo audrey

in technicolor & sepia tones

now, with all the videos and wedding photos out of the way, it's back to our regularly scheduled programming.

wednesday night i had the privilege of attending an event at the coach store on bleecker street. it was a lovely event (as per usual, the waiters pegged me as "the girl who will eat anything" and always came to me first with their trays of h'ordeuvres and champagne [not that i'm complaining,]) not only for the food, drink, & beautiful bags, but it was teeming with lovely ladies - claire, christine, keiko, kim, natalie, lindsey, katy, and jenni. we all chatted, ate and drank, eyeballing the lovely purses all the while, until closing time when we got to choose whichever one we wanted. i selected this bright red shoulder bag from their new collection, which i think will work nicely with all the color in my wardrobe. i wore this peter jensen dress i snagged on sale at asos awhile ago and have been saving for a special occasion since. (for the purpose of full disclosure, these photos were actually taken in my kitchen last night while macarons were resting, haha. i woke up too late wednesday morning to take pre-event pictures, and got home way too late on wednesday.)





dress: peter jensen
brooch: c/o tiffany
shoes: thrifted
belt: thrifted
purse: c/o coach

i adore this dress. it has all this smocking (is that the right word?) coming off the collar that floats behind you as you walk. it's a tad big, though - i need to figure out a way to take it in a tad at the waist. and the red of the purse and blue of the dress are pretty much my favorite color combination, ever.

so! one of my exciting weekend plans is attending a bastille day party tomorrow evening in manhattan. i have a feeling i was invited half because they wanted me to bring sam and half because they wanted me to bring macarons - but hey, if i can put on a dress and dance, i'll take whatever invite i can get. so i stayed up last night baking a batch of vanilla bean shells, to be filled with dark chocolate ganache.



now. a word about macarons. i get emails asking for tips or advice from time to time, and i'm always happy to share any tips i have - after all, i've made my fair share of them, for events large and small, and i even went to french culinary school to be taught the proper way, for goodness sake. i STILL have my struggles with the things. some of it i blame on my awful, brooklynite oven - it's got hotspots worse than a damn volcano, and it often leads to leaning, wonky-footed macarons. sam has seen me lose it over a botched batch on more than one occasion. BUT. after a few pretty-damn-perfect batches in a row, i think i have three words that will change your macaron world forever: egg.white.powder.

when i'm having a tough time with macarons, i turn to this lady: she is a macaron master. her most recent french macaron recipe (linked) includes 5 grams of egg white powder with your sugar (what you use to make the meringue) and every time i've used this recipe they've been spot on. last night i tried it in my awful oven for the first time, and every single macaron came out, dare i say, perfect. here's the recipe i used last night:

+ + + + + + + + + + + + + +

vanilla bean macarons with dark chocolate ganache

100 g egg whites (room temperature)
29 g sugar, with one whole vanilla bean's seeds scraped in
5 g egg white powder
125 g almond flour
200 g powdered sugar

sift together the almond flour and powdered sugar; set aside. combine sugar & egg white powder. whisk your egg whites (i just use a hand mixer, it gives you a bit more control than a stand mixer,) until there's no more yellow and they're white and foamy; slowly add the sugar/egg white powder, whisking all the while, and beat and beat until you have not-quite-stiff peaks and your mixture is white and glossy. use a sieve and sift in the almond flour/powdered sugar mix in five batches - mix in a fifth, fold in with a spatula until it's well mixed, and repeat 4 more times. once it's all combined and no lumps remain, spoon this into a piping bag and pipe onto parchment paper on a heavy duty sheet pan (pipe a tiny bit of batter onto the four corners of the tray, so that the parchment sticks down,) leaving about an inch between each dollop. tap the tray twice, hard, on a table to release any bubbles and let the macarons sit until they don't stick to your finger when you touch them - i let them go for about an hour. place them in a pre-heated 300 degree oven and bake for about 12 minutes, rotating halfway through.

for the ganache:

4 ounces of dark chocolate and 4 ounces of cream. bring the cream to a boil and immediately pour over the chocolate; let it rest for a minute or two, then whisk slowly, from the inside, until it's all combined and smooth. let it sit until room temperature and then pipe a little dollop onto one half of a paired up macaron shell. voila!





what are your plans for the weekend? tonight i think we're staying in and taking it easy, and then tomorrow we've got some more baking to do (and i'm hoping to sneak off to the brooklyn flea) before our party in the evening. then on sunday, any of you new yorkers should come to williamsburg - my friend rachel, who started up terrific magazine, is bringing together a bunch of awesome brands, food, and booze for a big sale at union pool.



i'll be stopping by there early afternoon then heading to another friend's place for some barbecue and homemade ice cream.

hope you have a great one!

xo audrey

shimmer in the city

hi guys! last month i was approached by stylecaster and hawaiian tropic to collaborate on an exciting video project. they asked me to do a three-part web series featuring their products, my closet and my food. as a fair-skinned lady who loves the sun, dressing up and eating, i quickly agreed.

my favorite thing about the arrival of summer is visiting my neighborhood farmers' market every weekend — nothing makes me happier than being surrounded by ripe, juicy fruits and local meats and cheeses. this first video in the "shimmer" series features me going out for one such trip to the market.

and check out the next two videos, where i hang out by the pool and then (my favorite) put that farmers' market produce to good use. i'll be posting them here over the next couple of days, and they'll also be up on the stylecaster site.



what i (end up) wearing:

blouse: charlotte taylor
shorts: asos
belt: asos
shoes: thrifted, j crew
hat: some cheap store on manhattan ave

i had such a great time making these videos, so i hope you guys enjoy them!

thanks so much for reading,

xo audrey

white collar girl

nothing new or notable here, just a quick outfit post (a more substantial, VIDEO-INCLUDED, post to come this afternoon) - i ordered this cute little pearl collar off etsy only to realize, once it arrived in my hot little hands, that it was about big enough to around my bicep and not much else. no matter! i cut it carefully in half, stitched the ends to secure the pearls, and sewed two ribbons, about 5 inches long, between the two halves. voila! a pearl collar.

top: j crew
shorts: asos
shoes: rachel comey (similar here)
collar: vintage, etsy


more soon!

xo audrey

tiger stripes

good morning! happy friday! it's been a long time coming. i'd had lofty plans to attend an event last night, but sometime around noon my teeth started hurting. real bad. now, i've had this before - i'm 25 and my wisdom teeth are still dwelling somewhere deep within my gums, and i've long clung to the fact that i have room in my mouth for mine and shouldn't have to have them removed (information imparted on me when i was about 12 by a backwoods south carolinian dentist.) i suspect he was incorrect. what started out as an annoyance became a throbbing pain so intense that i was begging sam to hit me in the face hard enough to knock a tooth or two out. (to his credit, he demurred.) needless to say i skipped the event in favor of pumping myself full of ibuprofen and relishing every bite of mango italian ices. it wasn't very glamorous, but it wasn't too terrible, either.

so this morning it was a little hard to drag myself out of bed. it's been growing increasingly hot in my apartment, too - an apartment that is so hot even in december that i wear t shirts and shorts inside. so the glisten in these photographs is no photoshop trick; it's sweat, pure and simple.





shirt: j crew
shorts: asos
belt: asos
tights: hue
sandals: j crew
tiger pin: thrifted, a gift from sam

sam has gotten really, really good at picking out little gems like this brooch for me while he's out of town; it is not only awesome but also quite impressive. i've never known a guy who could pinpoint my weirdo taste in jewelry. yep, he's a keeper.

any big plans for the weekend? sam and i are heading up to boston, to attempt entry into the beer and bacon fest and attend the going away party of a good friend (and groomsman.) should be good times.

enjoy your weekend! also, i wasn't so sure about tumblr at first, but i'm pretty much addicted to it now. should you want to follow me, you can do so here.

xo audrey

**edit: i just realized the whole name of this post was incorrect. that is not a cheetah. it is a tiger. i need to review my big cats.

snowy day #2

as i'm sure everyone has heard by now, new york is covered in snow. from what i understand, manhattan was in somewhat better shape today - but brooklyn (or at least, what i've seen of it, which is very little, since i've only trudged about 4 blocks to walgreens and back in the last 2 and a half days) is absolutely buried, with many bus lines cancelled, including my sole way to get to work. so the last two days have been spent pent up in my apartment, making soup (italian wedding soup, which is so, so good on a cold, trapped day,) posting a few things in my etsy store, doing a bit of sewing, and doing entirely too much window shopping online. it seems that absolutely ever online shop you've ever heard of has a massive sale going on right now, so i'm going to purge some of my major lusts on here in hopes that it cures the aching in my heart. (i'm a dork. also i think cabin fever is making me lose my mind a little.)



darling dress in tweed, drop waist pin tuck dress, laser scallop dress, embellished collar shift dress mina silky bow dress, & bow front mini shift dress

all from asos.com. which has free shipping both ways. which is making it really, really hard to close these tabs.

hope everyone's having a lovely week, and had a great christmas! i got some great thrifting done, ate a ton of pierogies, and came home flush with leftovers and stocking stuffers. now i'm looking forward to new years; sam and i will be in chattanooga, tennessee for the weekend (strangely enough,) so if any of you have any suggestions of thrift spots, i'd love the tip!


sleep tight & warm, everyone!