Following Rabbits Blog

I recently won a messenger bag from seabreezestudio that I'm totally in love with! It's got a London map print on the flap and tons of pockets. (I heart pockets!) I got it in the mail yesterday at my office, promptly stopped what I was doing and moved everything from the purse I carried to work into this new bag (making sure I found something to put into every single pocket, ha!). I absolutely love when bags have a zipper pocket on the outside that I can stash my metro card in- sometimes I hear that train pulling in to the station and gotta make a run for it! Can't be rummaging for my wallet or taking my bag off my shoulder to sift through all of the ridiculous things i find necessary to tote around with me at all times. This is absolutely my new fave accessory, and so well made. Seabreezestudio is run by Yukiko Kamioka who creates all of these fabulous bags in her studio in the UK (soon to be Japan!). You can find her creations on etsy and become a fan on facebook. Even Lily couldn't get over it:

As you might suspect, I'm officially in countdown-mode... Alice in Wonderland comes out Friday! Almost Alice was released today- a compilation of music inspired by the film. There is a great mix of artists that you wouldn't expect to find together on one album- not surprising since it's Alice in Wonderland. Most of the artists are on my iPod already: Kerli, Avril, Grace Potter, Wolfmother, 3OH!3, Plain White T's, Metro Station, Shinedown, The All-American Rejects... The fact that Franz Ferdinand sings a track titled The Lobster Quadrille is really enough reason to download it. Carroll's stories are a mind-altering mixed bag of twisted nursery rhymes, bright colors, loud noises, confusion, and madness... and this soundtrack managed to capture that pretty well. Everything from old trippy classics redone (Grace Potter and the Nocturnals - White Rabbit) to Carroll's poetry recited line by line (Very Good Advice - Robert Smith), to more mainstream Alice-inspired songs (Welcome to Mystery - Plain White T's) this album has a bit of something for everyone. 

I went to brunch at Alice's Tea Cup today. I absolutely love it there! I went to the one on Lexington and 64th, and ate upstairs in the fairy room. I got birthday tea (natch, it's my fave) and crepes with strawberries and blueberries. Their tea menu is overwhelmingly huge... pages and pages. I usually get their birthday tea, but I also love their Phoenix Dessert Blend. My mum and I went there last year for my birthday, and we split "Alice's Morning Afternoon Tea"- which is a 3-tiered breakfast of crepes, granola and fruit, and roasted asparagus and pears with all the tea you can drink. Delicious! Their granola is the best I've had. Ever. The wait for a table for breakfast or brunch is usually over an hour, but you can get any of their teas to go, and they make fantastic scones and muffins to carry out.

Let me first say that so many people help me out on a regular basis. I would never get by on my own in this city without my parents pulling me out of financial (and emotional) binds. My family and friends back home are proud of what I'm doing here and believe in me. Sometimes it's the only thing that keeps me going. A week before I moved to Astoria, my dad came to visit me with his girlfriend and my Gram. It was my Gram's first trip to NYC, and on her first day she bought a lottery scratch ticket. She won $20. Everyday we were in such a rush going here and there, trying to squeeze all of NYC into a 3 day visit. On her last day she pulled the ticket out and gave it to me. She said she forgot to cash it in, and I should buy something for myself with it. For the rest of that week I was packing up my Brooklyn apartment, and tossed it into my box of scrapbook stuff- photos, ticket stubs, admission bracelets... I forgot about it. I'm eking by on a super tight budget right now, so when I pulled out that ticket yesterday my excitement was comparable to Charlie Bucket and the golden ticket. I got dressed, put on some makeup, bundled up against the wintry wet weather, and cashed the ticket on my way to Union Square. I had my postcards and markers in my pocket for my Love for NYC project, and I wanted to get some hot cider, apples, and fresh pasta from the Union Square Farmer's Market with the $20. I had only walked a few paces through the market and saw a mother and young daughter selling pottery. It was already sundown and getting very cold, and the girl didn't have a jacket. One piece on their table was shouting at me- this gorgeous bowl, with periwinkle blue and green glaze, with a foamy white crackle glaze over it all... it looked like the ocean. Everything on the table had a price tag on it but this piece. When I asked, the woman told me it was $25, and her favorite piece she's ever made. I stood there for a minute, looking at the other pieces. The girl whispered to her mum, and the woman said "I would sell it for $20." The amount was all I had to spend, but the little girl reminded me of myself- working craft fair booths with my wares when I was young. She had been outside in the cold all day, wearing just a sweatshirt. I pulled the $20 out of my pocket and tucked the bowl into my bag. The girl told me it was their first sale all day. I walked to the street, and with no more money to spend and the temperatures dropping, I turned around and walked back towards the subway. The mother I bought the bowl from was packing up her table, telling the daughter that now they could go get grilled cheese sandwiches and hot chocolate on their way home. The girl was dancing around the table, so excited. Brought tears to my eyes and made me feel selfish for having weighed buying the bowl or buying myself a hot drink. And now this morning, I was telling my mum this story and she's buying me breakfast at my favorite place... you get what you give.

I decided way before I knew a snowstorm was brewing that I was going to take a few days off. I've been needing some down-time... no one at my office could argue with that. When I realized yesterday just how bad the snow was going to be today, I was kind of happy at the prospect of being snowed in. I have the bare necessities... tea, girl scout cookies, good reading material, warm pajamas. My mailman prevailed through the snow to deliver my netflix rental, 500 days of summer (which managed to be cute and depressing, go figure). I've been working on a lot of different projects, listening to tons of great music, chatting with my family and yelling at Lily for climbing on top of the fridge (she found my quill, her treats, and a roll of twine... she was victorious for but a moment). It's so nice to not have to be anywhere... to actually sit and relax, and know that I have the next 3 days to do the same thing. Everything, nothing. Whatever. Sometimes you need to let it all go and just take care of yourself for a few days. I'm not stressing about work, I'm working on things when I feel like it, laying down with a movie when I want to chill, curling up in my papasan chair with a book. Ahhh... I so needed this.