I'm pining, not whining.

Tonight Judson, my cute fiance, asked me what I think about when I have nothing to think about. I thought for a moment, and was a little ashamed to admit that lately I've been thinking about how much I miss New York.

I miss staying up until 4 in the morning working on mood boards, flats and croquis. I miss my friends (a lot). I miss riding the subway to school every morning. I miss the hot chocolate from La Pax and eating lunch in Bryant Park. I miss taking cabs. I miss wandering around the city by myself. I miss art supplies. I miss the cups of berries from Whole Foods. I miss the security guard who would push the elevator button for me when I got to school each morning. I miss the subway station musicians and the calm of the city on Sunday mornings. I miss being excited to go to school, to be learning about things I am interested in. For example, that Tim Gunn really is that nice in real life.

I was not at all ready to come home when I did. In the cab ride to the airport, I turned around to get something out of my bag, saw the city fading away and I lost it. I couldn't control myself. Tears were streaming down my face. My driver probably thought I was crazy.

Moving to New York was one of the most amazing experiences of my life. I want to go back. I'm not finished there quite yet.

I know I stopped blogging about half way through my time there. It just got so busy. Lots of things have happened in my life since then that I need to catch up on, for instance, the fact that I am getting married. Yes. Never thought I would see the day. Anyways, I doubt anyone reads this anymore, but I am going to blog anyways, because it is much faster than writing in a journal.

some pictures and stuff

I am so excited for tomorrow! We are learning how to drape and the guy who is going to teach us is in charge of the Victoria's Secret Runway show costumes and coats and stuff! It's going to be soo great. Anyway, time for bed. I got two hours of sleep last night and my brain isn't functioning.

Here are some pictures from this past week....sorry it has taken me so long! I have been insanely busy.

I took some pictures of my classmates! Above on the left you will find Forever 21, then Genevive in the white. My teacher is the black lady. She is awesome.
J. Crew and Ted Baker
we loved the fruit they had for us. We ate half of it before take off.

All of these pictures loaded in the wrong order, sorry! moving backwards on these...

This was my room...

view from my balcony

One of my bathrooms.
Margaux, Paula and I getting on our plane to Virginia to spend the weekend at one of Margoux's dad's hotels. It was in the mountains and I didn't have cell service all weekend. It was beautiful there. It was sunny, quiet and couldn't have been more relaxing. We did tai chi one morning, went horseback riding, hung out in the spa, got massages and rode bikes and golf carts around the course. It was the perfect getaway from the noisy city.

This was taken at 2 in the morning last Thursday night. There was something going on by my building because it was super loud and there were a billion limousines. I looked out my window just in time to see this double-decker drive by. I'm pretty sure there is a hot-tub in the back...insane.

homework evidence

Walking through Union Square last Wednesday and stumbled upon a crowd of people/paparazzi. I was with my friend Rebecca and we decided to stop and see what was going on. We stood there for a little bit and then asked this lady next to us what we were waiting for. She said, "Paris Hilton". I couldn't believe my luck! Then, I looked over and this guy was holding this sign, which happened to be something that was in a newspaper a couple of years ago. He had taken it out, blown it up and put it in this plastic case. He was a die hard fan, so naturally I went across the little street to get a picture of him without him knowing. He was too perfect to not be documented. We waited for about five minutes and then decided we had better things to do. We started walking and right when we did, two blacked out SUVs drove right by us. I said, "I bet she is in one of those cars right there"...we stopped and watched as the cars pulled up to the crowd of people and stopped. I knew it!! So we ran back and I tried to snag some pictures, but there were lots of people and my camera was focusing on the wrong things. Anyways, after this encounter, and Swatch the dog, and the two Project Runway people I have run into at the fabric store, this counts as my 4th celebrity sighting. I'm on a roll.

endlessly entertained

this couple in Bryant Park would not stop making out. At one point they were eating orange slices out of each other's mouths, yes, like birds.

Check out this lady's hair. I thought she HAD to be wearing a red wig on top of her brown hair. What made it even better was that she was with her friends who were eating cherry-dipped ice cream cones that matched her hair perfectly! you can kind of see one on the right...i thought it was hilarious.

My huge kitchen. I tried to broil something this morning, but the oven didn't get hot and my kitchen started to smell like gas...thought that was probably a bad sign and just turned it off.

Yes, those are my real muscles.

Sleeper Hold

I LOVE SCHOOL. Both of my professors are amazing and the subject matter…well obviously it’s the greatest topic to study. I have two classes, Design Concepts and Fashion Drawing. I have Design all day on Mondays, then every morning from 9-12 (except Friday) and Fashion Drawing in the afternoons from 1-4 and all day on Friday. It’s not as confusing as I just made it sound. My design concepts teacher is a black lady with a lot of spunk. She showed up today wearing a cowboy-ish hat, and big sunglasses with purple lenses. As far as my class goes, there are 14 girls and I am one of 4 who are from the United States. There are girls from Taiwan, India, Nigeria, France, Canada, Mexico, Japan, and a few other places. It is pretty amazing. No one is good at fashion design, so that is kind of a relief. For the most part the girls are pretty timid. There are some characters though, I will briefly describe the ones that stand out the most.

First there is Hawua. She is from Nigeria and is super tiny but definitely thinks very highly of herself. She seriously looks like she is 12, braces and all, but she is graduated from college. She sat by me on the first day and our classroom was FREEZING (mostly due to the fact that it has two air conditioning systems in it and they were both on full blast). We were all cold, but she was being super dramatic about it and kept saying “I can’t even concentrate it’s so cold” in this angry tone of voice while she violently (dramatically) rubbed her hands up and down her arms and legs. Our teacher asked us where we liked to shop, when it got to Hawua’s turn, she said, “IIII mostly shop in EEEUUURRROOOPPEEE. I only like thing of really high quality, so I really only shop at Ted Baker because the quality is soo good”. She used the word quality about eighty three times that day. Oh PS, she does not look like she shops only in Europe or at Ted Baker. She had on Target jeans and what looked to me like a shirt from Wet Seal, which is totally fine, but not after you make statements like that aloud to the class. Then today, our teacher was telling us about how this one movie star wore this Tom Ford dress to an awards show and that the dress alone weighed 40 lbs, Ted Baker girl chimed in “Oh my gosh! That is like HALF OF ME!!”. Yep. Not kidding. My friend Rebecca and I just looked at each other, let it go for the time being, and moved on.

Then there is Forever 21 girl. I am not sure what her real name is….oh wait! Yes I do. It’s Megan. The first time she told us all her name I couldn’t understand what she said. I thought she was from a foreign country because she pronounced it “MAAghAn”, or something weird. Then she said she was from Buffalo. She is going to be a freshman in college (a design school, surprisingly) and is majoring in fashion design. She totally fits the mold of small town girl who shops only at Forever 21 and thinks that just because she likes to shop, that she can go to school and be a fashion designer. She asks about 50 questions a day, mostly about things that the teacher has just finished explaining, things that happen to be pretty basic knowledge to most people, or instructions on how to swatch (in order to do this, you ask someone who works at the store to help you…not a hard concept to grasp). Anyways, she is a little bit clueless about everything, not saying that I am a fashion expert, but I know what synthetic fabric is. We went to Mood today as a class and in the front of the store they have these forms that have been beautifully draped with fabric, the fabric is pinned and pleated and they are just amazing. Anyways, my teacher told us that in our Fashion Drawing class we will have a day where we will learn how to do this; I for one, can’t wait! I am so excited to learn how to drape, but after my teacher said this, I heard Forever 21 girl heave a sigh of complaint. I couldn’t believe it! The girl who is going to be starting school as a fashion student doesn’t want to learn how to drape?! I wonder what she thinks fashion designers do exactly… anyways, we call her Forever 21 girl because she said her favorite store to shop was Forever 21…obviously. Rebecca and I totally called it before she could even get the words out of her mouth.

Rebecca and I have two cool friends in our class, there’s Genevive (a darling girl from New York) and Marouchka, a French girl who barely speaks English and has a Russian name (even though her parents are both French and she has no Russian ties whatsoever).

OH! I almost forgot about J. Crew girl. She is majoring in psychology, looks like she is a hybrid and used to work at J. Crew. She raises her hand at least 15 times a day and always starts out with “ok, yeah, I have a question…” (if you have your hand raised, obviously you have a question, you don’t have to tell everyone that, it is assumed)…then she somehow ties everything back into J. Crew, then apologizes that she “keeps bringing up J. Crew. I just used to work there”.

That class ended and we ate lunch in Bryant Park.

We had our first Fashion Drawing class today. We were all in our classroom, patiently waiting for our teacher to arrive. He did. A staggering 5’3” (half black/half asian?) man in a white linen outfit, wearing big sunglasses and carrying a Louis Vuitton briefcase/bag; standing next to him was our model for the day, a really tall skinny black girl in a leotard. They were quite the pair. He is an amazing teacher and I have learned so much already. It is going to be a really fun class.

We had a ton of homework to do today, one thing being getting 10 swatches of fabric. So Rebecca and Alexis and I went to this fabric store right by our school. While in there we totally saw/said hi to Emilio Sosa, one of the top three designers of last season’s Project Runway. I didn’t think he was that great on the show, but still, he is kind of a celebrity, so that brings my celebrity sightings/run-ins up to 2! I’m on a roll. PS he looks a lot better in real life than he does on tv. I guess he is just not very TV-genic.

I am tired so I am going to wrap this up, but I spent the rest of the evening in Bryant Park sketching my mini-collection for tomorrow and then in the New York Public Library where they have an amazing photo collection. We had to get pictures from every decade from the past century for tomorrow morning. They have folders and folders full of all these old, amazing pictures! They had several for each decade and they were amazing to see, because they were all about the clothes! Seriously, best homework assignments I’ve ever had.

May 21st--So Frick-en Excited!

I'm a little behind on my blogging, but I promise to catch up. Now that I know I have at least three people checking this I am more motivated to keep it up to date!

After our late morning run by the East River and a quick 12:00 breakfast at Subway, we(my mom and I) threw ourselves together and headed to Grand Central Station. We took the subway uptown so we could go see the Frick Collection. This is a mansion turned museum showcasing the art collection of Henry Clay Frick. While there, I learned something very important… have you ever wondered why it is called a “drawing room”? It is not because it is a room used exclusively for drawing, but because it is the room the women would withdraw to after having dinner with the men. I love random bits of trivia and immediately catalogued this into my brain, you know, just in case it comes up in a game of Trivial Pursuit or as a question on Cash Cab (which I am determined to find, ride and conquer).

Walking along Park Avenue I was stopped by the most amazing cropped vest in a store window. I just stopped, pointed and dropped my jaw. Luckily my mom stopped and turned to make sure I was keeping up. “Mom. LOOK.” Were all the words I could get out. Turns out, it was the Juicy Couture store!!! I couldn’t believe it! Of course I had to go in. Three out of the4 girls who worked there had super annoying voices and all complimented me on my silver sparkly Toms I was wearing. I was on my way to the vest but got distracted about 75 times on the way to it. Everything in there was absolutely amazing. Words can’t even begin to describe…so anyways, turns out the vest is part of the Bird line by Juicy Couture. Only 5 Juicy stores in the US are carrying it and the collection is to die for! (If my brother reads this I’m sure he will say to his computer, “really Mikelle, would you literally DIE for these clothes?” in a sarcastic but serious manner). All the while, one girl who worked there was following us around and making the dumbest comments. By the time I got upstairs, I wanted to punch her right in the face. She would just make really obvious comments, thinking that it would help sell me on something. For example, I picked up this black satin skirt that was flat and fitted in the front and then I turned it around, revealing the layers of satin ruffles that covered the back…skirt crush…anyways, when I did that she said, “yeah that skirt is really great because it has ruffles on the back”. Well OBVIOUSLY! Tell me something I don’t know or can’t see with my own eyes while I’m holding the piece right in front of me. Tell me something interesting like, “oh, Kate Moss was in here yesterday and she bought three of those”. This happened with everything I picked up or glanced at. A tan dress…”oh that dress also comes in pink, which is really cute”…the pink one was hanging right next to the tan one on the rack and I could obviously see it came in another color. On the second floor there was a white dress with light blue and orange flowers on it. On the same rack there was a shirt made of the same material and some blue and orange cardigans that were clearly made to go with the dresses and shirts. Little annoying girl chimed in, “lots of people have been putting those cardigans with that dress and it is really cute!”. Once again….DUH! I GET THAT! Why do you think they used the exact same colors of the flowers for the cardigans and put them on the same rack? Just for fun?...I don’t know, maybe I am just being overly dramatic about it, or maybe it was a combination of things I don’t like…short girls with annoying voices who think they know about fashion but they don’t, who also have a need to say things that are blatantly obvious to people functioning on normal brain wavelengths. Oh, AND she kept repeating to us, probably about 17 times that they were having a promotion on their jewelry, “buy one, get the second half off”. I had just about enough of her by the time we got out of there. What did I end up getting you ask? Only some killer black leggings with gold button snaps that go half way up my calf and a blue silk ruffley romper. Both are beautiful and the romper is part of the Bird collection J.

Next we hit up Dylan’s Candy Bar. It was like Willy Wonka’s Chocolate Factory, complete with candy printed wallpaper in the bathrooms that looked like you could lick it and it would taste like candy. I didn’t try it. I’m not that adventurous.

We got some dinner and decided to head down to Mood. I had some things on my supply list to get there, so we hopped on the subway and headed to the Fashion district. Mood is on the third floor and so we walked in a pushed the button for the elevator. There was a man already waiting there, he was young, tall, dark and handsome. He had a dog standing next to him, also waiting patiently for the elevator. The man turned to us and asked if we were heading up to Mood, we said yes. He then told us that the dog was Mood’s mascot. Sure was! It was Swatch, the dog often seen running around Mood as the designers from Project Runway searched for fabrics for their challenges! I counted Swatch as my first celebrity encounter.

Mood was all I hoped it would be and more. It is full of awe-inspiring fabrics, buttons, lace, trims, and everything in between. Plus, everyone who worked there was friendly and extremely helpful. I had to buy some muslin and this guy named Adam helped me. He was beautiful, dark and British. He asked me if I had a collection coming up…I melted. I don’t know why. Maybe it was a combination of everything: that I am in New York, going to Parson’s, buying fabric at Mood, and being helped by a sexy British man. He asked if I checked out “blog sites”. I said yes! and he wrote down his for me to check out. He works at Mood on Thursday and Friday, sells vintage men’s clothing and antique furniture at the market on Saturdays and is working on his own men’s clothing line because, “the men here need some help”. I couldn’t agree more.

So I got my muslin, my pins and my needle and thread. We had some extra time and decided to browse a little bit. I came across this amazing pink and gold brocade silk fabric. I stood and gawked at it for a while, then one of the workers came up and asked if we needed help. I nodded, still googley eyed, while he pulled out the bolt. He pulled the tag out of the cardboard tube the fabric was wrapped around, and announced it was Carolina Herrera…amazing. It was love at first sight, for me anyways, and I couldn’t leave the store without it, so I didn’t.

We picked up some magazines on our way back to the hotel (I am supposed to be tearing out inspirations of details for one of my classes, things like collars, trims, buttons, waistlines, etc. Best homework ever). Once we got back, I began taking inventory of my art supplies and writing down what else I needed to get…then SLAM! Hungry again. Neither one of us wanted to leave to get food, so we ordered room service; we got a pizza and a cheeseburger with fries. Oh, and Diet Cokes. All were satisfying and put my mom right to sleep.

She just woke up, looked at my computer and said, “wow Mikelle, that’s a lot of writing”. She’s right. I promise I’m done now.

For the people who watch The City and/or Kell on Earth (two of my personal favorites), ladies and gentlemen, I give you People's Revolution.

Ok, so we were at lunch and this guy was taking pictures of his wife eating for a good 45 minutes. It was ridiculous. I had to pretend like I was taking a picture of my mom...I know mom, you said no pictures of you on my blog, but I cant find any of the other ones I took of him..

This one is for those of you who watch 9 by Design...

i'm finally here!

One word describes this day…surreal and exhausting, ok so two words. My mom and I took the red eye into JFK and couldn’t check into our hotel until 3 in the afternoon! We got in around six and then dropped our bags off at our hotel. What is there to do at seven in the morning in NYC? I’ll tell you…eat bagels. I had been hungry before I got on the plane the night before; the Sprite and pretzels on the plane at three in the morning helped a little, but not much. So off we went down Park Avenue in search of some breakfast. A few blocks down we saw a little diner/café thing and decided to stop. We walked in and sat at a tiny table, which was right by the giant window that served as the front wall of the restaurant. I ordered my hot chocolate and checked out the menu. Then I glanced out the window and saw this old man walking down the sidewalk. He smiled and waved to my mom and I as if we were old friends. He came in to where we were eating, ordered some sort of pastry and asked if we minded if he sat down (not at our table, but one close enough so that he could talk to us). We said of course we didn’t mind. He then proceeded to tell us all about how he is a singer/entertainer on cruise ships, that he has been retired since 1994 from 35 years at the Postal Service, and about all of the friends he made on his last cruise (he got back on Sunday from the Caribbean with his friend who had never been on a cruise before. They met a couple months ago and are best friends. He showed us the picture they took together on the cruise. He was carrying it around in his bag because he was going to show it to someone at his eye doctor that day). He told us about his wife(who passed away about 2 years ago), how she was a model and how everyone loved her and that they met when he was 47 and it was the third marriage for both of them…. Long, long, long story short, his name is Lenny, he is 81 years old, has lived in New York basically all his life, we took a picture together, I have his address to send it to him and he gave me his phone number to keep in touch. Oh, and he also said if he ever ran into me in the city he would love to take me to lunch. So there you have it. My first New York friend.

I forgot to mention that in the middle of story time with Lenny, this kid (about 27) came right up to the window and started pounding on it with both fists. I turned and he waved. His friend was waiting for him and they continued on down the sidewalk. So maybe I can count that as half a friend. So if you’re keeping track, that brings me up to 1.5 friends.

From there, we walked down to 12^th street between 3^rd and 4^th. This is where my apartment is and there is a Trader Joe’s right around the corner…score!!! We walked the two-ish blocks up to the Union Square subway station, bought my unlimited pass and hopped on the train. We were trying to figure out how I am going to get to school every day. We got a little turned around when we got out of the subway on 42^nd and ended up in Bryant Park. It was sunny and warm, so we sat and soaked it in. I saw a sign for “Yoga in the Park”. They are offering free yoga classes there on the lawn on Mondays and Thursdays. I am definitely going. After our quick rest we went and found where I would be going to school! The other programs have their classes in the Parson’s buildings that are down by where my apartment is, but the Fashion program students have all their classes up in the Fashion district. My building is on 40^th and 7^th. It is about two blocks south of Times Square, and yes, it is where they film Project Runway (which, let’s be honest, has not been that impressive the past few seasons. No one can top Christian Siriano. The end). I am really hoping to run into Tim Gunn in the hallway. I would probably tree hug him. He’d love it.

The rest of the day was spent basically stalking people. We took the subway back down to Union Square and headed west on foot until we got to the river. We turned left, walked past the meat packing factory things….yeeeeeaaahhhh kind of gross and smelled even worse. We were determined to find something, so we kept going. Walking walking walking….then…..YES! It was the modern, 25 million dollar house from 9 by Design (my new favorite show on Bravo). The lights were on in the kitchen and their table and chairs were in there, so apparently they haven’t sold it yet. We thought about leaving a note, but we didn’t, that would have been creepy.

Down we went, wandering through Greenwich Village, which is absolute perfection by the way. I am kind of in love with it. We were on our way to find People’s Revolution (Kelly Cutrone’s office for her PR company, which is often featured on The City and Kell on Earth… obviously) and had to stop for food and to buy me flip-flops. We stopped at this little Italian café thing and sat outside at a table on the sidewalk. This place was the real deal. The owner took our order and his accent was so incredibly thick that we knew we were in for a treat. We were right, our salad and pizza were fantastico. While we were still deciding what to order, there was this 18-ish year old kid walking down the sidewalk with two girls. He passed us and said to my mom, “hey! If you’re rich, I’m single!”. We just laughed and continued on with lunch. A while later, we were still sitting at our table and this same kid was on his way back down the sidewalk. As he passed he said, “still single!”. We just kind of laughed again. He was too far away when I came up with a brilliant response…”still rich!”. It was too late. I wish I was quicker on my feet. Maybe they will teach me that at Parson’s. I’m keeping my fingers crossed.

We found People’s Revolution and decided to check in to our hotel. We were walking to the subway station on Canal and stumbled upon an art supply store. I have recently gotten some of my supply lists for school, so we decided to stop and see if they had anything I needed. They did, but I still have lots of things I need to get, like Caran d’Arche crayons (they are French, and water soluble), a clear 18” ruler and vine charcoal to name a few. I have three different pads of paper, one is all purpose, one is to be used as my Croquis book (when I figure out what this is I will let you know), and another is tracing paper.

Lots of people have been asking me what exactly my program will entail. I have had no idea up until today. I have received emails from two of my professors. So the classes I know I am taking as of now are Design Concepts, Fashion Drawing and Model drawing. I will be learning how to draw different fabrics (I have these cool markers and water color paint brushes and India ink…yeah it’s going to be fun). I also have to get muslin, sewing pins, a needle and thread and various trims, fabrics, etc. We are going to Mood to get those items J.

I never thought I would be taking classes where the selected resources would include Vogue.com, vintagefashionguild.org and the Tuesday/Thursday Style Section of the New York Times. My mom told me today as we were waiting for the subway that you sometimes just need to follow your North Star. This is mine and I am so happy to be here doing what I love. That sounds dumb and cheesy, but whatever.

***more pictures to come when i have a better internet connection

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