Winter Sleep

Source: frommoontomoon.blogspot.ca via gracedesign // on Pinterest

Source: frommoontomoon.blogspot.ca via gracedesign // on Pinterest

Source: frommoontomoon.blogspot.ca via gracedesign // on Pinterest

Like many people, I find I tend to sleep much longer and deeper in the winter time. In the summer I seem to wake up with the sun with boundless energy but deep winter is for deep rest, in my opinion. I came across these images this morning and fell in love. The first image especially, I can just imagine lying there, looking out at the forest, listening to the birds with a nice cross breeze coming in. Ah, bliss.

Savannah

Over the holidays I was fortunate to be able to embark on another adventure, this time to Savannah, Georgia. My mom lives in North Carolina so I flew there for Christmas then we went on a little road trip. I have pretty good radar for cool small places and I was particularly excited to visit Savannah. First because I know SCAD is there (Savannah College of Art & Design) and also, have noticed that Savannah seems to be the darling city of a lot of prominent design bloggers. I used the city guides from Design Sponge and SFgirlbybay as my compass for discovering the cool and noteworthy and, all in all, was pretty satisfied with all we did and saw.

First, Savannah is a gorgeous place - though I do get the sense that to bask in its complete charm, it should be ridiculously hot and humid. I can just imagine walking under the Spanish moss and sipping on a mint julep on a hot day. Unfortunately, when we were there it was cool and rainy, though still a hell of a lot nicer than Toronto, where it was snowing.

I'm not exactly proud of this but usually, whenever I go to a new place, top of my agenda is scouting out all of the good vintage clothing stores. I am a little disappointed to report that Savannah did not exactly deliver in this category. However, there were some exceptional design stores. Notably, the SCAD gift shop, full of handmade wares of the design students and, the big glorious, 2 story shop known as Paris Brocante, full of curios, vintage finds and such.

The second thing I most enjoy doing is to simply wander around and snap photos. I have a very nice DSLR camera but, rather embarrassingly of late, I have been mostly just taking photos with my phone. Like most, I can't resist the filters of Instagram, though it is one of my goals this year to get back to, ahem, serious photography.

So we spent the greater portion of the trip just wandering the very beautiful streets of Savannah, gazing at the hanging moss and the stunning architecture. At every intersection it seems there is a large park with trees and historical statues and such. It was nice to just meander.

Some highlights of the trip: 1) having proper afternoon tea at The Gryphon Tea Room. This is a spectacular place run by the students of SCAD. Very traditional British aesthetic with these amazing ethnic details, like sofas covered in kilim textiles and lush velvet chairs. 2.) We did the tourist bus thing which I actually didn't mind and on the last night, most fun, a late night horse drawn carriage tour of all the haunted houses of Savannah. How cool is that! AND, the best, in Savannah, you can get takeout alcoholic beverages. Hot mulled wine, a full moon and scary stories, what was a perfect end to the trip.

New York Part 2

I'm finally getting around to posting the rest of these pics and talking about this trip, though it is old news. Things are starting to get busy around here -  though I'm not complaining. I've been in a Pinterest cave for more than three weeks and, as it turns out, you can look at too many pretty pictures on the internet. One of my new years resolutions was to pay more attention to this here space so I'm trying to get on top of things and get a few improvements happening.

When I look at my photos they seem kind of grey and dismal for the most part and I have to admit, it was kind of gloomy. I didn't think it affected me but realize in retrospect that it was a sort of melancholy time despite the obvious amazing-ness of why I was there.

1. A shot of the Brooklyn Bridge from underneath. On my last day I had the opportunity to visit the Etsy headquarters in Dumbo and it really blew my mind. From the living wall when you walk in to the hand knit viaduct covers to all the amazing meeting rooms, it is a pretty neat place, to say the least. Afterwards I went for a walk in the rain and snapped a few photos, like this one. 

2. & 3. Morning coffee in my super cool hotel, what became a ritual. I adored this hotel, The Jane. Even though my room was the same size as my closet at home, I really enjoyed being in the West Village and walking to Soho for work each day. And, I especially loved this restaurant/cafe downstairs, Cafe Gitane where I found myself hanging out quite a bit. The third photo is of their ballroom where I snuck in and took some photos. The whole hotel has this wild 1920s French Moroccan theme going on mixed with aquatica. The rooms are done up like ships cabins and I just read that the survivors of the Titanic had stayed there.

4. Interesting Speakeasy Bar situation. Some friends knew about this bar in the East Village wherein you enter a hot dog stand, then a phone booth, pick up the phone and dial. A secret door opens and inside, voila! an exciting bar. My friend, who is a sommelier, said it was known to be one of the best bars in North America. I just like that it was inside a hot dog stand!

5. & 8. More shots from my walk over The Brooklyn Bridge and through the Lower East Side, all the way to the West Village. In the rain. Yep.

6. Kelly & Pings, a delightful resto in Soho next door to Etsy. One day I went for lunch there and Jon Bon Jovi was dining next to me. Ha! I looovvveee vintage Chinese and this place looked like something out of Shanghai in the 1920's. Love.

7. No trip to NYC is complete without a visit to one of my favourite shops in the world, Pearl River. I happen to like Chinese kitsch thank you very much and I got my fill of velvet Chinese slippers, floral oil cloth and Chinese tea tins. So much fun.

A few other notable events that didn't make it into photos; my new friends Aymie and Zach took me vintage shopping in Brooklyn on Sunday, a total treat. Nice to have guides to show you all the cool stuff.  A brief visit to the MOMA. (definitely need more time with the museums of NYC, on my next trip in the Spring that will be a priority.) And mainly, just wandering. Every morning I just wandered until I found myself at work in Soho and it was such a delight to not exactly be lost but have every turn be new with possibility.