LACASAPARK » For the Weekend

Chasing the Autumn! North Fork, New York

jaehee — Mon, 10 Oct 2011 05:47:56 +0000

Beautiful Sunday morning at Orient State Park, North Fork, New York

After many of quite dreadful humid and wet September days for New York to prep crisp real Autumn, this was maybe the first truly gorgeous weekend weathers we had! It was dry and warm yet accompanied by cool clean air to compliment spotless amazing perfect blue sky! The Autumn has officially kicked off! Still in a half sleep in the bed Saturday morning, we could see gorgeous sun coming through our bedroom window’s grainy blinders… The sliver of warm sun light was just enough to make us jump out of the bed and just take off to be out of the city! And where we are heading to? North Fork in Long Island, NY!

Just one briskly packed small bag for all of us, we are excite to explore North Fork! It’s our very first time and all I knew was there are many mini vineyards lined up. Yes, some wine tasting, good food and pick up couple of fresh corns… Hopefully we can stumble into a cozy B&B tucked in somewhere. It all sounds good to my soul and my belly! It’s going to be a heck of good weekend!

About little over 2 hours, we are getting into the beginning of North Fork. What can we say…. It got Surf and Turf kind of thing going on here in North Fork. I know we are near the ocean and I see ton of handsome pumpkin farms, small yet swanky vineyards already starting from the very beginning. We know we are really going to like here. Above is a back yard at ” Material Object“, a home furnishing and wine related object store in Jamesport. This 1870’s farm house converted into wine tasting and home decor shop sure shows envious eclectic taste of the shop owner. The natural light filled space is to die for!

The Main house of Material Object, The picture can’t justify the actual space. Here only showing a fraction of entire house. Everything you see here is for sale.

The Barn house/ Cottage like second home which is set back. This felt like a newly built with much charm. But Not the original structure.

Arriving at Greenport. Almost the end of North Fork. It’s a real cute town with many good restaurants, antique and vintage shops as well as oyster and lobster shacks by the water! Here we are chasing early fall but boy I have to say we just can’t complain about warm sun on your back and perfect breeze! It feels sort of early summer and early fall at the same time!

Claudio’s restaurant was opened back in 1870’s! There’s the main one on the main street and also 2 clam bars right by the water. Bit touristy but all good here.

Yeap! It sounds perfect! Lobster roll anyone? It’s already Lunch time!

Hmmm choices choices…

OK waiting for our number to be called. We are at # 2 Clam bar of Claudio’s. This place is run by self service and there’s no live band playing ( sort of wedding band, Haha!) Which we consider as a good thing.

Both are $29.95 plates. Not so cheap. Skip the fake butter, Who needs it? Cole slaw, I always love! Lemon works for anything.

Gael’s too busy eating his creamy clam chowder!

After lunch town strolling begins.

The Greenport town has a good mix of old and new including a tiny Greenport jail ( not pictured..)! It’s charming and not touched by big chain stores yet. There’s a Calypso boutique as far as a known brand shop. No Starbucks or Ben & Jerry’s. Instead there’s ” Sand pipe Ice cream shop” where I had the best ice cream in entire US for only 4 bucks! Maple syrup Walnut and Vanilla black cherries. Yum!

This is The best vintage and antique shop in Greenport! Beall & Bell, 430 Main Street. Right items at right prices. We saw some of the best pieces here!

This old School gym acrobat pads were sold! I was happy that quite many pieces in the shop are marked as sold! Which means we are in the right place! How good are these? Emi had a great idea! One of these would easily doll up your bed as a head board. Especially for guys, that’s awesome I think!

One next to the Beall & Bell. This one also sells home furnishing materials such as textiles and things.

After we checked in at our motel ( yes everything was booked and we were lucky to find quite lovely and affordable motel right outside of downtown Greenport), we came to restaurant, Noah’s for dinner. It’s not the high season since it is already October, but you want to make reservations ahead for better and really good restaurants in Greenport. They get booked up fast. Literally any restaurants in the town will have a some sort of raw bar going on and also good seafood dishes. We wanted to check out Frisky Oyster, but it was too late by the time we called for the reservation. Bit old school and bit groovy here with hefty price tags. We quite enjoyed our meal at Noah’s as they offer many great small dishes are not actually that small. You could call it generously portioned tapas of seafood, great salad and meat bites. We ended up having 5 small dishes and 2 bottles of local 2010 Chardonnay, ” Bedell” from one of the North Fork’s wineries, Bedell . It reminded me of Sauvignon Blanc, Oyster bay from New Zealand.

Now Sunday morning, We are at Orient Beach State Park in North Fork, a short car ride from Greenport! Water’s quite amazing here!

You will see lagoons and ocean everywhere in North Fork. It’s really beautiful!

Running me, Emi and Gael.

Nice run, shower and pack and we go. Here we are at one of farm stand on the road.

Gael loves to shop produces. He loves to touch and smell them. We were peeking inside to see they are full and healthy. And these corns are so sweet and juicy! We also like them raw!

These are called MUMs and they are cheap. 3 mums for $12!

And we didn’t skip one thing! Now checking out a few antique store by the road. We scored a real cute picnic basket filled with 4 of wine glasses, silver wear, plates, cheese knife and wooden cutting board and wool matching blanket to the plaid liner of the basket, probably never used before. All these for $30! Now, that’s a good deal!

I always like these!

Honestly, we were bit tip toeing around the wine tasting as we realized there are hundreds of wineries in North Fork area! Then after the last antique shop we stopped in, we saw the sign if ” Bedell” winery. We love the Chardonnay from them last night! So here we are we are stopping in.

It looks sort of Nespresso shop.

It’s about noon. There are lot of people tasting wine. We realized most of wineries here has small Raw bar. Mostly Clams and Oysters.

Live Jazz is not so bad!

It feels like we are in Napa!

You can also bring your own food and just hang out here with some wine from the winery. It”s a perfect day to do it! I mean look at that sky!

You will find these many little lovely trails that connects to vineyards or the beach in North Fork. So charming!

It was the perfect 2 day getaway to truly enjoy beautiful sun, last minute lingering lovely summer but surely it was beginning of Autumn for us. Hope everyone had a wonderful weekend and if you like to get out of city a little, try North Fork! It is a real little gem that has little of everything you can taste what water and the land can offer!

LOvE North Fork!

Portobello Market, Notting hill, London

jaehee — Wed, 21 Sep 2011 03:28:32 +0000

From a fur jacket to sandwiches to cheap and cheerful Kate and William’s lovely portrait pins, at Portobello market, it’s impossible for one to walk out the market empty handed!

Sorry readers, I have been bit consumed with work for last few weekends in a row, postings have not been so often enough, but I just can’t miss posting the Portobello Market in London! This was my second time and it did not disappoint me as there are mixed thoughts about the market especially ones in fashion world but actually only thought I had was I should have been there earlier like 7:00 am not 11:00 am and I wished I spent the whole day at the market to brows, taste, try on and bargain! It does get really packed before the noon already but the crowd quite behaved I think. No pushing or mean talks to ones ahead of you, but I did hear about pick pocketing, so watch out with your bags if you are there.

Portobello market has quite loaded history as the Market started in 19th century as a fresh food market and even today, the food section of the market is quite dominant and packed with quality street food to fresh produce. Then 1940’s Antique dealers have arrived to the market and it has continued to now drawing tons of people to every Saturday’s Antique market. The entire market runs from the north terminus at Golborne Road to very south end at more up-scaled Westbourne Grove occupying about 0.58 mile long street of swanky Notting Hill area. I highly recommend you to continue on to very north end of the market Golborne Road as there are very much eclectic mix of very good vintage shops, antique & mid century dealers as well as good amount of Moroccan community well established on that strip of road with food markets, street food car and bars in a bit more down to earth residential setting.

Now come stroll with me much famous Portobello market!

The market entrance. Shops to the left and tents with vendors are lined up along the Portobello road.

Anything works here in the market. But the Fur is maybe the one you may consider to buy. So many good options!

There are quite many vintage clothing vendors at south end. Not so hip but good furs again. It”s also pricier than the north end of the market where you get broader selection of vintage for both men and women.

and Ton of vintage bags!

Here’s my tourist moment!

Now the food market starts!

Yummy pastries!

Sea of Keish!

I have to say people eat about the same wherever you go….

OK These chicken bits smelled Soooooo goooood! No I didn’t stop for any food at the market this time… But next time, I will!

All right, one more look from a different angle. And sure it smelled still good!

A little quiet moment off the Portobello road. So pretty and bit Brooklyn here.

The food section ends and there will be a short moment of ” Whatever works” section, a sort of 99 cent store on your block.

OK now, for me the real deal of the market actually starts at the very end of the market. When you pass about half mile long of antique, food and chachkies you will come to a small square under a bridge where there are great small vendors all get together and sell interesting vintages showing off their own individual great styles! They are all friendly and super hip. Take your time and chat with them. They may tell you maybe the best kept secret to go out and eat in London. Don’t forget to keep walking toward the north end toward the Golborne Road!

See that’s the spirit I like! One of cool vendors celebrating his birthday with others at the market!

Another gentleman with a cool vintage Pea number!

After the market ends, you will encounter with many little cute bars, restaurants and vintage shops. And they go on for a while.

Yeap this one is a real good one! Ton of vintage boots, jackets and fur coats.

A great textile shop with their own small line of cashmere, wool, silk blankets. I love this shop!

So now we are at Golborne road. The frist shop we walked in had this amazing original Venini’s glass lamps from 70’s. The owner had about 6-7 of them. All identical. Each costs about $2400.

You can find really handsome furnitures here at Golborne road… Or is it maybe just being in London…

One next to another, there are good numbers of great antique furniture and interior shops on Golborne.

Awesome building and an iconic London vintage shop, Rellik. There are many design vintage pieces from the 80’s.

The lovely shop owner of a progressive clothing shop, Convenience.

Ahhh I so wish I had more time at the market and really dug into it. But a sweet half day of visit surely gave me a good idea of what I need to do better the next time. I really feel people in London are really friendly. More than the New Yorkers I have to say! I have had many small mini chats with many peeps at shops, streets and the market, and they all seem so lovely. So many people admired my tan from vacation in Puglia, Italy. You know how notorious London’s gloomy weather but we only had one short shower the last day at London so we were very lucky as I remember it rained quite a bit the last time. I forgot how incredible London is and it totally reminded me of Alexander McQueen Exhibition at Met in NY. He absolutely loved and was always so proud of where he came from. Great London!

LOvE London!

Un Piccolo Amore: Cherry Grove, Fire Island, NY

jaehee — Mon, 01 Aug 2011 12:38:45 +0000

Sunset at Cherry Grove, Fire Island, NY

What a lovely lovely day! I decided to go to Fire Island by myself and just took off on early Sunday morning as Emi and Gael are still in Italy. Walking down to LIRR Atlantic Avenue station, I found myself humming to silky breeze and gorgeous morning sun. I felt good about getting out of home on a early Sunday morning. I felt a couple butterflies flying in my stomach from slight excitement about my little adventure ahead! A small deli in front of the train station tells me to grab frozen water bottles instead. He knew I was going to go to beach. Smart! These 2 bottles will surely get me through the hot day on the beach. Thank you!

2 water bottles, a book, a small bag of cashew and almond, 2 peaches. And most of all, my happy spirit for a day full of adventure! Come follow me!

LIRR at Atlantic Avenue. Get $31.00 full package pass for a round trip train ride, taxi and ferry ride. Simple.

My reading for the day. ” Please Look After Mom” by Kyung Sook Shin. There’s an English edition too. About to get on a train!

I’ll say the highlight of the whole trip is actually the ferry ride. This 20 minute ferry ride always makes going to Fire Island that much more special. It makes you feel like you are going somewhere far far away from the city! Don’t forget to apply sunscreen!

It’s absolutely a perfect day! Crisp breeze and beautiful sun. It feels amazing on a ferry!

Arriving!

There are lots of restaurants by the port. Actually port is called ” town” as this is where all the shops and amenities are. It’s a small and friendly community.

Getting into the town. Entire island is connected with famous board walk passage. It’s really cute!

Lovely board walk is blessed by never ending beach shacks. Wish I had one…!

Dear crossing! They are super calm in Cherry Grove. Just don’t touch them. You know why!

Hello my Dear!

More shacks…

It feels amazing walking and poking around!

Can’t help myself with these cutest board walks. And all those trees.. Awwwwoooooo!!!

Totally bumping into old friends here in Cherry Grove!!!! Simone and Alison were staying at one of these cute shacks literally 30 seconds away from the beach! Charlie, her baby next to me! We are totally hanging out here today! Fabrizio and wife Anna are here too! What a small world!

Super calm and clean beautiful water! There’s no one around. It’s great!

I swam and swam and took a nap, chatted, lovely lunch back at Simone’s, swam again and… Repeat!

Washing off sand first before a quick lunch!

Emi and Gael, I so wish you were here with me! We will come back together!

To know how to get to Fire Island,

Click here.

Enjoy!

Ultimate Summer Party: MoMA PS1, NYC!

jaehee — Sun, 17 Jul 2011 16:36:22 +0000

Awesome Breezy Entrance at MoMA PS1. Warm Up Ps1: the Ultimate Summer Party for NYC!

I can’t believe it’s already the 14th year now MoMA PS1 is holding this music, dance, art installation that’s all happening in one gigantic outdoor party on Saturdays all summer long at this cool industrial area in Queens, NYC!!! When we all heard then MoMA was branching out a sister MoMA out to Queens: PS1 taking over formal Public School #1 on Queens, We all were bit skeptical even though there are a few prominent Art and Design institutional places like Noguchi museum in the same neighbor hood. \It felt bit out of the way compare to the mail one is on posh and touristy uptown in Manhattan. But PS1 had proved that was only a worry that we didn’t have to have at all after all. PS1 now has grown into a proud and even more rebellious and interesting little yet not so little sister of MoMA fueling Powerful Energy of New and Young Generation of Cool NYC peeps. And maybe even of the “World” as you will be surprised to see and hear how many international visitors at not just “Warm” but maybe more of “Hot” summer Dance parties that PS 1 is housing year after year. Every year PS1 holds a competition to design and doll up their envious grand schemed concrete and grabbled awesomely modern yard, and I personally like to thank to MomA doing this so as this is an absolutely a brilliant idea and also a another definite reason what attracts me and sure all other visitors to go visit PS1 as the yearly brand new Summer installation is something that you must not miss.

This year’s simple yet breezy and green installation is another winner that you want to see and I highly recommend the actual exhibitions that are going on in this beautiful formal public school space as it’s filled with much entertaining (I rather like to call it entertaining! ) Rayan Trecartin’s Any Ever : the short film series, and my absolute favorite of all, a screening of Alejandro Jodorowsky’s The Holy Mountain ( the screening ends on July 24th) which I ended up buying the DVD at the bookstore is another one you should not miss!!

The Warm Up Summer party at PS1 runs until the September 3rd with various DJS from around the world, So you haven’t missed much but certain exhibitions will do end at certain point, so if you are not sure what to do on Saturdays, pS1 Warm up party will be the perfect thing to do for this entire summer!

Now I like to share some pics from my visit to PS 1 Warm Up party this Saturday, July 16!

Yes the kid are welcome, but if you like to bring your little ones go early and live early. It get’s bit intense for the little ones later on. The party hour is 2-9 pm.

Hay Garden. No Smoking!

Real good seating this year. Not too obscure to sit down and there were plenty of these to mingle and chat.

Loving the fact they had brought quite an amount of trees this year.

Gael, no worries, I promise you I’ll take you here! The September 3rd, We will come back all together with Dad!

Yes, we will play ping pong too! Love you. Miss you Gael!

Loving the Crowd. The People. All together. Can’t help it!

DJs and Bands rotating all day.

Inside the Museum building. Entrance at Ryan Trecartin’s.

There were 6 rooms I believe set up in all different way with Head sets for you to use. Plenty of odd and fun seating were built for the audience. And comfy!

Hospital beds turned to mega seating.

I have mixed thoughts and feeling about Laurel Nakadate: Only the Lonely work series. Hmmm , If anyone likes to discuss about it with me, shoot me an email!

I adore PS1’s staircase murals!

Permanent collection: James Turell’s ” Meeting”, 1986

Visitors gaging and enjoying this wonderfully opened up room with natural light and air coming through.

Here’s the movie I was talking about. Crazy, beautiful photography, not normal, disturbing, funny, sick, calm, tripping and everything else. Alejandro Jodorowsky: The Holy Mountain, 1973 and couple more scenes from the film below.

The Book store.

The cafe.

7:30. Now it’s really crowded! Music’s pumping, people are dancing, being silly, whatever!

Ahhh Emi, I so wished you were standing right next to me!! I miss you Emi!!

With Adriana and Dani.

Good job Sir! The last DJ.

If you haven’t yet, go check it out!!!

DBGB next to CBGB

jaehee — Sun, 22 May 2011 15:28:32 +0000

A perfectly dressed waitress assisting Emi at DBGB, a casual meets up-scaled all American food prepared by 5 star French chef, Daniel Bloulud. Check out their funky funk website here, www.danielnyc.com

14 varieties of house made gorgeous links and kick ass burgers prepared in simple 3 ways are the perfect matches for their extensive 22 draft beers and more of bottled ones. Lively and bit 90’s decor makes you feel like you are in somewhere out in some European Metropolitan city. Friendly and speedy service and surprisingly well priced ( quite affordable for the line of super star chef Daniel Bloulud’s restaurant) menu is perfect for a couple or a gathering for a big group of 10 or so. We did not make a reservation as it was a brunch for us but I would recommend you do make one if you are going for a dinner.

The restaurant was designed by Thomas Schlesser inspired by the history of the neighborhood in Bowery Street area, the Restaurant supply district consisting of show casing hefty copper pots and pans hanging off the modern shelving system that carry through out the entire restaurant. But you can’t avoid the classic French bistro coming through to you while you are dinning as you see the handsome waiting staff dressed in long aprons and more than enough of good old classic dishes like Stake tartar, Oysters and house made Foie Gras. We absolutely loved our 2 links and Gael’s burger and well chilled draft beer and fresh lemonade accompanied. When the food arrived it didn’t look like enough amount but quickly you would realize there is more than enough of love to satisfy your hunger.

OK enough of me and let me share some pics of the food!

The lighter color one up front is Left Hand Milk Stout, co ( creamy, roasty deliciousness) and the darker one behind is Spice Route Eye Ale ( rich rye ale brewed with peppercorn) . Check out the Beer Menu.

This is Canard $14, Duck and Pork sausage with crushed rice and 2 all over easy. Delicious! Juicy and well seasoned just yummy!

Tunisinne Lamb and mint merguez with harissa lemon braised, spinach and chickpeas. $15.

Gael chose ” The Yankee” , 6oz beef Burger. Simple straight up beautiful classic burger. Very Gael.

And refreshing Lemonade!

The front room and the bar and the back room below.

Good food and casual yet polished ambiance. Try it its delicious!

And DBGB is located right next door to CBGB now turned into a John Varvatos‘ Men’s wear boutique. So after our happy meals, we made a quick visit to the shop where many original decor or let’s say more of history of CBGB has kept with glass show cases. Good job Varvatos! I am so glad this important history of NYC did not turn into a some gym or another cheap deli!!!!

Changing room.

Now watch New York Magazine’s Store Tour of John Varvatos.

LoVe NYC!!!

duck & pork sausage, kasha varnishkes, duck cracklins

Brooklyn: New Heaven for Fleaing!

jaehee — Sun, 10 Apr 2011 21:06:46 +0000

A new handsome home for “Artists & Fleas” in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. North 7 between Whythe and Kent.

So I’ll say the real golden time for the Flea markets in NYC was then about 10-15 years ago when Manhattan was still managing some low rises and a few empty lots including outdoor parking lots near Chelsea. Remember the big parking lot with $1.00 admission? It was real chilled and cool same time with ton of vendors bragging awesome mint condition vintage clothing’s picked out from some old ladies’ closets from the upstate NY or kicking mid century Danish numbers or Art deco pieces under the beautiful summer sky of sexy Manhattan Island. We always spotted John Galiano in his acid wash disco jean or Anna Sui in her blacker than black bangs and her whimsical yet dark outfits. I learned how petite the designer Alaia was then while I was trying on this big 70’s Miami floral floor length caftan over my shorts and a tank top. Every Saturday was me, Jaehee day spending pretty much an entire day browsing, trying on and bargaining on pair of little heels or cutest sun dresses. Ahhhh I loved it sooo Much!!! Also then vintages were that much younger so they were in better condition. My impressive collection of vintage clothing had really started then. I just loved it all.

When Millennium arrived, things started changing. NYC went crazy riding on so called ” Luxury Condo” business buying up all the empty lots including my beloved weekend flea lots. Ahhh… So disappointing and heart breaking. Ugliness of Home Depot tasted not so luxury buildings were coming in pushing away charming and fun filled such NY things away. There’s still one left inside of parking place called ” The Garage” on 25th street on Sundays in Chelsea area still keeping the tradition in authentic styles and vibe. Then Hell’s Kitchen and all others started but they are just not the same at all. But today is bit different. Manhattan being over developped in general forces to find alaternatives outside of the city. The answer? It’s Brooklyn. Housing, Restaurants, Art, Music and Flea Markets. Young, talented and broke handsome people of city started flowing into down town Brooklyn like Fort Greene and Williamsberg from lower east side and east village. Bettern rent and less compettition brought in new kind of mainds and brains for new food culture in Brooklyn. There are so much more undergournd scenes in Brookly now especialy for fashion and music which goes side by side. Things are ineterstin ghere in Brooklyn. And that includes also Flea markets and vinatage shops!

Artists & Fleas houses many independent designers and numerous excellent vintage vendors. This one above I love! It’s very Janis Joplin from the 70’s. Hippie, Rock and Roll and bit of Voo-doo all mixed in. This booth is located right by the entrace to your right hand side.

Then there is a New home for Sunday portion of famous and beloved ” Brooklyn FLea” also in Williamsberg right by the “Artist & Fleas”. North 6 between Kent and East river. Below, one of over 300 vendors at the Brooklyn Flea. You will also find him on Saturday Brooklyn Flea at Fort Greene, Layfayette between Flermont and Venderbuilt.

Yummmm! The Porchetta Sandwich guys at Saturday Brooklyn Flea. And here check out the vendor list.

Then there are Vintage shops in Brooklyn. Many. There are many especially in Park Slope now! Check out “ Guvnor’s” on 5th avenue between Lincoln and Berkeley, Park Slope, Brooklyn.

Love the shop. It’s small L.A in Brooklyn! Two vintage motos welcome you at the entrance.

Here at Govnor’s, you will find equal amount of boys and girls vintages complete down to accessories.

Just about a block away from the Govnor’s, there is ” Odd Twins” more of feminine version with bit flea market vibe. Check it out!

Hey there will be a party at Odd Twin on April 15th celebrating their 2 year anniversary. Free beer and a live band!

By the way, nice floor at the Odd Twin.

While Emi picking out a few vintage records, I picked up a set 5 very cute grid printed glasses. I think they are awesome! $4.00 each any vinyl and $35.00 for the glass set.

There they are where I spotted. The shop has small objects everywhere up for sale.

And here’s my own shop and showroom, Lacasapark! 542 Washington Ave between Fulton and Atlantic.

I carry ton of awesome jeweleries, high end designer vintages to rare find collectibles!

And here are a few of my favorite vintage places in Brooklyn!

Beacon’s Closet

Bufalo exchange

Film Biz Prop Shop

Repop

Malin

From Pretzel to Prada, NYC!!!

jaehee — Wed, 30 Mar 2011 23:58:43 +0000

Regardless you are Japanese or not, many NYC peeps were there to support to raise every dime to help Japan’s Tsunami relief. Union Square, NYC.

Last weekend, Emi was busy working with Beppe shooting Alegri’s Spring Campaign. So it meant a day date with Gael for me!

We were at the Union Square movie theater to see Johnny Depp’s Rango ( quite surreal for the 7 year old boy! ) then strolled through Union Square farmer’s market ( spring branches, tulips and all) and not to forget to donate for Japan’s Tsumani relief, then quick yummy Korean lunch at Manna! It was bit windy but beautiful as sun was shinning and quite lovely to have a small walk down to Soho. We also checked out great Prada store on Broadway as I wanted Gael to know ” What a great shop means” pointing out at amazing murals in the store, the fab transparent cylinder shaped elevator, fabulous Spring 11 line of acid Bananas and Monkeys that takes you back to the 70’s swanky sea side Castiglioncello or Porto Fino in Italy ( just imagine Sofia Lauren and Marcelo Mastroianni sipping on chilled campari preferably listening to her own song ” Soldi Soldi Soldi from Boccaccio 70″ despite their kicking Super modern Spring Campaign… And the fab custom jeweleries in bright colored resins of everything you can or cant imagine!! KidRobot is always a must stop as Gael just absolutely loves the place and he gets to pick a small something. Then stop at the corner of Prince street to watch a street band singing Motown songs as munching on pretzels then the last stop at Pearl river! When was the last time I was at the Pear River?!! As much as I love nick nacks and all that chachkis, Pearl river can absolutely satisfy you on a dime! Hopefully Pearl river will never close down as my beloved Canal Jean has long gone from Soho since when…? Ahhh I ssssso miss my Canal Jean filled with the best everything from vintage army pants to $10.00 wool coats! Hip. Cheap. And understated Massive Hit! I just found out that Canal Jean had re opened up on Nostrand Avenue in Brooklyn, so I must check it out and I hope it will not disappoint me… Anyway, it’s always a big fun to walk around and do “me and Gael thing two of us together” in the city. Go shopping, movies on a shared kids’ package, street food, fancy shops, spoil him a little with sepecial purchase then stop and watch oh so amazing break dancers on the street of NYC. And what else… oh and just chatting and catching up hand in hand and it just feels so right to spend some descent time with my little cool son on the weekend… Love you Gael and love you NYC!!!

And… the pics!

Proud Gael after a small donation for Japan.

Beautiful colors of bundles of hanging wool yarns.

Is spring here yet…????

Gael inside the Prada store, Soho.

Prada Spring 11 !

Watch this!

The absolute reason why you love NYC! Prince street.

At the shop, KidRobot, Soho.

And the NYC babes.

A street band, Soho.

MAC meets Wonder Woman, Spring street.

And… Mommy and Gael… Cheeeeese!

Flying Gael!

jaehee — Sun, 27 Feb 2011 01:55:45 +0000

Gael approaching the board where the instructor Henry awaits, Trapeze School of New York

Today the Saturday, 26th of February, It was a very special day for Gael as Emi enrolled Gael for a Trapeze class at Trapeze School of New York located on 518 West 30th Street, NYC. Gael was the youngest and the only kid in this total 9 student class and he did an excellent job and was super brave! The 2 hour long class starts with putting on this heavy duty belt where you hook the ropes, then quite quick demonstration from 3 instructors regarding general posture, ways to handle the ropes and finally the simple gymnastic movements that will help you to get you swing and do back flip sort of fancier tricks while you are on a flying Trapeze.

Instructor Laura and Henry takes turns on the ground and up on the board. Laura helping Gael to put quite a belt. And we like those carpets duct taped to make the mega carpet!

Gael looks extra kid here today but also a super kid! Students are learning how to hold the Trapeze bar. Notice Gael’s miss matching socks as always. Or “Mix and Matching” as it is his signature style. Ha-Ha!

Gael volunteers to be the 3rd guy to go on the Trapeze.

All students get to do one on one low bar exercise on the ground in between the turns with Henry.

Make sure to put chalk powder on your palms before you get on!

Slowly but surely, Gael’s on the top.

Ready to hold the bar and launch!

And… Watch the Video of Gael Flying! He did an awesome job!!! Even the adults were getting tired to resist and keep up! Instructors were friendly and clear, and the class is well organized with plenty of time to practice. If you buy a bunch of classes at a time, of course there is good saving there and if you do the full course, at the end of the course you can be a shining star performing in a professionally put together mini circus by the School with costumes and lighting and all! Hmmm… Do I want to be a star..? I was bit tempted to try it today regardless. It’s an exciting and different kind of experience. I may go on it one day!

Gael, Mommy and Dad are so proud of you ! You brave son! The BEST!

14 days to Christmas!

jaehee — Sun, 12 Dec 2010 21:07:55 +0000

Gael pointing out the tallest one…!

Emi started feeling better. Slowly but surely I see the changes here and there and it was a quite lovely day on Saturday, so we wrapped ourselves in coats and hats and went out for a tree hunting. It’s always nice to see “Tree People” starting gathering their handsome trees up and all proud ( especially when it says ” Vermont” , I kind of envy that they are from Vermont always thinking it must be a lovely place to live and raise the trees and horses and all). And… wreaths and garlands…! I always get tempted get these and decorate the stoop cases in very fancy way like those Brownstone veterans do in this neighborhood. They always look so quite rich and it always makes me think of either Dr.Huxstable in Cosby Show and his family or the lady in that cooking show, Bare foot contessa, sure she will have some sort of thing for her porch. Then we always tend to go away around the Christmas, so I give up on it again this year. But one day! I’ll sure practice!

We stopped by at a few spots and again this year, we ended up buying one from the guys on the Myrtle Avenue ( Corner of Myrtle Avenue and Hall Street). They always have the most varieties and the best prices we believe and it feels more local than going across to the Atlantic Avenue. We got a 7 foot tall beautiful one for $45.00! Not Bad. This year, the guys had built this cool little shack to escape the cold wind and it looked quite awesome I thought. This kid delivers for free there, so we had him do it with nice tip on his hands when he arrived at our home with our tree. It sure feels like Christmas already tipping a kid trying to make some money around the holidays. He may want a pair of cool sneaks or a game sort of, or he may need that money to support the family even..? Anyway, the tree is up and it definitely makes our weekend at home much cozier…

Our tree getting wrapped. A simple cool way to do it!

We browsed end enjoyed bit of Holiday decorations at shops and houses in the neighborhood. There are inviting signs and all quite simple but it’s enough to make us think about the Christmas already.

Not sure what this plant is but sure it belongs to Christmas Spirit. Fuzzy like sweater yarns…

And here’s our Tree!!!

Early Merry Christmas to you all!

And this just out beautiful Annie Lenox’s traditional Pagan style music video of God rest ye Merry Gentleman ( Thanks Beppe!)

Autumn in New York : Patrick Dougherty’s Natural History.

jaehee — Sun, 24 Oct 2010 16:39:04 +0000

Japan Garden at Brooklyn Botanical Garden: I totally had Monet moment here…! All the beautiful leaves…

Ahhh, It was a beautiful sunny autumn day to stroll around Brooklyn. We had visited Brooklyn Botanical garden to check out an artist, Patrick Dougherty and his work, “Natural History“: a first site specific art project that was done for Brooklyn Botanical Garden for garden’s 100 year anniversary, an amazing stick work that Dougherty had done for 3 weeks time period back in August this year. It’s a beautiful work and I’m just about to share some pics and my thoughts with you, but also please enjoy the peak of beautiful autumn in right here in Brooklyn, NY! It is almost a privilege to be able to see seasonal changes of the mother nature around us in a big city like NY. Gorgeous Autumn light and colors…

Patrick Dougherty’s woven-wood sculpture in honor of Brooklyn Botanical garden’s centennial.

The woody materials come from Ocean Breeze Park on Staten Island. The harvest site was chosen of garden’s director of Science because of its proximity to the Garden and it’s large population of nonnative willow, which is designated an invasive species in New York State. The exhibition will run for a full year.

Weaving, snagging and flexing sticks into nest-like architectural forms evoke themes of shelter, habitat and sustainability. Created of organic matter, Dougherty’s works have a natural life cycle that changes over the time as the sticks settle and decay, eventually returning to the earth where they came from…

The sculpture gives you endless possibilities of new shapes and angles. Honestly, I felt like I could stay at the site forever. It was hard to leave. Look up, look down, go in, come out, follow the surface in circle… I kept feeling like my hair will start swirling with curved sticks. I can’t pinpoint out what exactly it is but it almost gave me a bit of butterflies in my stomach. I felt like I was a little kid and envied and imagined what if I had such a thing in our massive garden….

Gael mingled with bunch of excite kids for a while… If you only had a furry costume on, it could instantly turn into “Where the wild things are…”

Here we have a book purchased at Storm King Art Center: ” Natural Architecture“, The cover work is by Patrick Dougherty.

The Artist above and more shots from the Garden…

Get out there and Embrace this beautiful Autumn!