The summer before my 1st year in high school, I was looking forward to a summer of doing nothing. I just wanted to sit in the house & read. I didn’t have a lot of friends that lived close by, I was too young to work, and I couldn’t drive yet so this was the perfect option for me….or so I thought. I made it through 2 weeks of this plan before my mother had other ideas. SHE decided that I wasn’t going to spend my entire summer in the house and told me “I want you out of the house by 9:30am and I don’t want to see you again until 6. I don’t care where you go. Here is some bus fare”. Yup! She sure did. That set the tone for my whole summer.

So with that memory in mind I established “Field Trip Saturdays”, where I set out to do something new and different every Saturday, in addition to spend time with more people during the week.And it was a good summer. Of course that meant I didn’t give myself time to write blog posts about everything I did or post pictures on facebook. Now that the summer is over here is a quick recap of some of the highlights of my summer….

McQueen Platos Atlantis

Went to see the Alexander McQueen exhibit at the Met the first week it opened.  I missed the worst of the lines

World Wide Knit in Public Day

WWKIP Day.  Sat at the Vogue Knitting Table in support of the Local Knits book

View from Brooklyn Bridge Park

Traipsed around the city on my day off & made my way to Brooklyn Bridge Park.

Nemo Fisheys @ Mystic Aquarium

Jellyfish @ Mystic Aquarium

Took a trip to Mystic, CT to visit the Mystic Aquarium

Cupcakes @ CityCakes

Discovered City Cakes on one of my random walks through the city.

Economy Candy Store in NYC

Candy! Candy! Candy! I found my new supplier of Sixlets

Hostess in my cousin's wedding in the red dress I made 2 nights before

Had the honor of being a hostess in my cousin’s wedding.

Boat Ride to Governor's Island

Taking the ferry over for my 2nd Annual Lazy Afternoon on Governor’s Island. One of my favorite places in NYC.

Road Trips to Cleveland

I’m looking forward to the fall and seeing what else I can get into.

I love fashion and I love making clothes so I quick my lucrative career as a software engineer to do the the thing that I love. All the while not knowing that a recession would hit and affect the fashion market in the worst way. So all the ideas and plans I had for my fashion career were squashed like a bug and I have been reduce to living like a pauper trying to work in the fashion industry. I want to start my own business but, like I said, money is tight when it comes to fashion and investments are few and far between. So I work a job that mental drains me so much that when I come home all I want to do is eat and sleep. Sounds fun right? So I spend my extra time debating if I should go back into engineering (which would probably require a move to another city) so I can make a decent living and live comfortably again, or if I should stick this thing out and live like a pauper until things get better for fashion, or if I should find some new career that marries the two things together.

So why do I tell you all of this….because at the end of the day I should be posting about my exciting love for fashion and all the things I’m working on but my direction-less life is not helping me do that. I haven’t been knitting or sewing much. Or reading fashion magazines, etc. None the less I shall forge ahead and try to bring myself out of the fog ( side note: I got a Kindle for Christmas too and I’ve been reading alot so my speech may start to sound a little/lot more “literary-ish” for a while.) So if you know any good business-minded people or career counselors, send them my way. Cause I need some help getting back on track.

In the meantime, I’ll be blogging my way out of the funk. I’m hoping that it will help me figure some things out. For now I will leave you with a montage of pictures I was finally able to get off my camera phone and old camera.

These cupcakes are from Downtown Atlantic in Brooklyn.  The cupcake in the back is a Chocolate with Vanilla Buttercream and coconut shavings.  It is by far my favorite “regular” cupcake.  I forgot the actually name of the other cupcake but it was good too. Real good!

The Cupcake Stop Truck!  It took me forever to finally find this truck. If I’m on the West Side, it’s on the East Side. If I’m uptown, it’s downtown.  Tasty flavors but the Red Velvet was actually a little too moist for me.

Lego Heads! I love Legos so I was only too excited when I saw this. To and from work, I use the 23rd Street stop on the A/C/E subway line here in NYC and some wonderful soul has taken it upon themselves to express their creative talents by covering faces on subway billboards with these huge Lego head stickers.

Apparently in Cleveland, this is the new and updated version of “The Club” – big heavy chain & padlock.

And finally a fashion related pic. This is a fair-isle dress I spotted in a Japanese knitting magazine at Kinokuniya. What I love is that this magazine was published before or around the same time the D&G Fall 2010 fair-isle collection hit the runway.

I LOVE the color (you know I’m a big fan of color) and forsee some sherbet-y goodness in my wardrobe’s future. I’ sooooo ready for spring right now.

I see a  little colorblocking and shape-inspired knits in my future too!

And just because I love her, I’m throwing in this pic of Liya Kebede.

Many of the coats in this collection remind me of straight-jackets which I find intriguing yet off-putting at the same time.

And on a random note…have you noticed that the sun is out a longer these days? Well maybe not if you live in the southern hemisphere of the earth, but you get what I’m saying.  Spring is coming! I can feel it.  Are you ready!?!?!

Earlier in January I had the chance to sit down with someone that I consider a fashion mentor. She is the person that I interned under and taught me everything I know when it comes to knitwear design & manufacturing for the fashion industry. She shared with me that she was starting her own fashion line and that if I had the time she would like me to help out. Needless to say I said YES!!!

So for the past couple of weeks I have dedicated my free time to helping a truly great design team create what is now known as “Act.1: art+craft” by Sally Wu.

Let me start by saying that fashion and fashion shows are not all glamour and lights. The43 is A LOT of hard work…tons of running the streets, getting fabric, cutting, sewing, sewing on labels & buttons, etc. And the amount of dedicated people it takes to make it happen is key. Sally had the fortune of being surrounded by a great group of supportive and hard working people.

On Wednesday February 17, Sally Wu presented her line of 20+ looks at the Chamber Fine Art Gallery to a crowd of over 200 people.

These are just a few of the looks that she presented. (You can see more pics in my Fall 10 Fashion Week Flickr Set)

The premise of Sally’s design concept for this line was to create pieces with hand-crafted details through the use of different textured fabrics/knits in a color palette that included black, creme/nude, and burgundy.

I was able to lend my skills  in hand-knits to help craft the scarf and vests made in tulle. Both styles were made with strips of tulle, large needles, and a varied stitch pattern that was very organic and in the moment.

I am glad I had the opportunity to be an intern and help with this line and hope to do more in the future.

Thanks Sally!

I have about 11 fashion blogs on my list of daily reads. But having been on them frequently during Fashion Week I’ve noticed that all but 3 of them have the same exact content, at the same exact time of day.  It’s as if one major news outlet writes a story and then the blogs read it,  re-write it, and publish it.  And when it comes down to, that’s what 1/2 the blogs really are……plagarized content holders without original thought or opinion.

So this is why I don’t publish posts alot. When it comes down to it, I don’t see the point in just repeating things you can read elsewhere.  I want to impart me own voice in my own space otherwise I don’t see the point.  At the very least blogs provide a stage to have your own voice otherwise you are just as meaningless as a chain email. And we all know how much everyone hates those.

And on a related side note… this is why I like Tavi. For all the controversy that a teenage-fashion-wonderkid can generate, I like to read her blog because she’s quirky, cute, has her own voice, and the time to make collages, which is a luxury you can only afford in your youth when you don’t have to worry about work & bills.

So I ask …..what blogs do you read and how interesting do you think their point of view is? I need to update my list of daily reads.

If you want to get constant updates on what’s taking place you can check out NY Magazine’s The Cut blog.

Since I’m stuck behind a desk at a company that isn’t into Fashion Week activities, I rely on blogs to keep me updated. Here’s a glimpse of the few things that I’ve seen and liked thus far.

I’m usually not a fan of  Zac Posen but I’m enjoying his take on skating dresses.

Tracey Reese had an amazing range of models which was refreshing.

And this Thakoon design I love just because I love it.

This week I’ll be attending a fashion presentation for a line that a friend is starting. I was commissioned to do some interesting knit pieces which have been getting some positive feedback.  I’ll be sure to give updates and post pics after.

Ginnifer Goodwin makes holding an umbrella look glamourous. That color is stunning and the haircut….it’s giving me ideas.

Absolutely fabulous.