Love: The King

Happy Deathiversary Elvis. I'll be eating a banana and peanut butter sandwich for you tonight while listening to your crooning tunes, like Crawfish. Looking forward to the chance to descend upon Graceland and light a candle for you.

Made: Invisible Bike Helmet

 If you bike around town as much as I do, you probably hate the helmet hair you encounter on a daly basis. Well, thanks to these two Swedish design ladies of Hovdig, you can let your head go helmet free. To get the full impact of this amazingly innovative design, you have to watch the video below.  The duo design team touch upon their design goals, inspiration, and briefly mention the challenges they encountered as female designers, which I love. The price of the product is a little steep at the moment but I hope it becomes a little more mainstream and affordable in the near future.

The Invisible Bicycle Helmet | Fredrik Gertten from Focus Forward Films on Vimeo.

Vintage Keepsakes: School Books

From "Do You Miss Me Now Vintage" via Etsy

 My school days may be over but my love for vintage schoolbooks still lives on. These classic teaching tools have such great original illustrations. They are a nice reminder of what we will lose once the written word goes completely digital. Will an illustrated cover have any relevance once the kindles and IPads take over the world? I certainly hope so since some of these images are priceless.

The Cherry Chic Vintage via Etsy

Sarah's Attic via Etsy

Meeka May's Market via Etsy

NYC Places: Graffiti

Williamsburg Bridge

I love public art, especially street graffiti, which there is plenty of in NYC. And Instagram just happens to be a great platform to share my many different graffiti finds from the city. Here are a few of my favorite shots from the past couple of months. You can find me on Instagram under my nickname, Laurendy.

1) Hank's Saloon Bathroom-Brooklyn, 2) Light Post- Brooklyn, 3) Cement Wall - LES Village, 4) Auto Shop - Brooklyn

Interview with Eleanor's NYC

A couple weeks ago, I stopped by and chatted with owner, Alison Lucien, about my bike and business. While I was there, I picked up the cutest vintage bike crate which was originally an old tomato crate from Boston, MA. Oh, and just try to ignore my funny looking hair in this photo. This is what it turns into when it is extremely humid outside. :)

Check out Cute Bicycle Accessories HERE.

Found: Retro Iron On Decals

I picked up these amazing retro iron on decals from the Brooklyn Flea awhile back. Printed on tissue paper and most likely circa 1950, these decals are hard to come by and extremely delicate. They caught my attention because I really had never seen anything like them before. I love the illustrative style and macabre design to them too. I am not sure whether the "DRAG" monster is an original Ed Roth design or not, but it's still amazing. I love the vampire head dangling on a string. A little on the dark side but amazing finds none the less.  I'm imagining them hanging on a wall in floating frames.

Dress: Take this Waltz

 Take this Waltz is a film that explores the slightly more intense side of life, particularly relationships. Luckily, Michelle Williams character, Margot, has some adorable outfits to distract you from some of the more heart wrenching moments in the film. Check out a recap of the amazing dress selection below which relied heavily on color, polka dots, and other classic print patterns, like gingham.

You can never go wrong with a gingham dress in a coral color.

My favorite outfit in the film; polka dot blue jumper.

Modern jumper with the cutest peasant top design

The color and floral pattern are a win!

Sarah Silverman's character also sported an amazing dress.

Another vintage cut with a great print. Too bad we couldn't catch a full glimpse of this dress.

And the best dress award goes to this stunning red polka dot number.

Made: The Weekend Purse

I am in no way a designer handbag gal but I still love to carry a functional purse that will compliment my outfit for the day. So I am constantly adding bags to my collection, yet every one of them always seem to be missing a pocket, or other design accessory that I really need. And I know I'm not the only lady out there looking for the perfect tote, working bag, or clutch. So for the past few months I decided to focus on designing a few bags that had everything I needed, were functional, yet still stylish and cute.

The first of a three part collection are my Weekend Purses. These bags hang off to your side with an adjustable strap. Small, yet just big enough to hold all your bare weekend essentials. To top it off, I decided to incorporate some of my favorite fabric, Liberty of London. It gives each bag a unique, refined, and slightly retro look to it. You can now pick them up at my online store too.

Doggy Party

This past Sunday we had a neighborhood doggy party at our local park. . Despite the humid, hot weather we hung out, let the local neighborhood kids judge the dogs, and took a couple of silly photos which you can check out below.  Amusing animal photos always brighten up my day so maybe they'll brighten up your Tuesday.  You can see all the photos from the party on the Tumblr page HERE.

Brooklyn Places: Coney Island

On a pretty warm day in June, I headed down to Coney Island to watch the famous Mermaid Parade. Although the boardwalk has changed and is pretty commercial now, there are still some sites worth seeing and rides to enjoy. A few snapshots below.

 

Local Olympian: Eleanor Holm

Until yesterday, I had no clue who Eleanor Holm was. But thanks to a great post by my local library here in Brooklyn, and a little additional research, I have become a true fan.

Eleanor was apart of the U.S. Olympic swim team back in 1932. She won a gold and achieved numerous world records. But this bathing beauty also had a more adventurous side that got her kicked off the Olympic team in 1936.

After her stint in the Olympics, she became apart of Billy Rose's Aquacade and starred in numerous holllywood films, including Tarzan's Revenge.  Her life was riddled with marriages to numerous men involved in showbiz and she even claimed to have met Hitler at the 1936 Olympic games.

To say the least, she was a talented beauty, with a forward thinking mind and attitude. Cheers to Eleanor Holm and all the other amazing women who have made great strides for our country in the Olympic games!

Love: Floral Designs by Aubrey

 If you enjoyed the strawberry bouquet from Martha Stewart that I shared yesterday, you'll love these bouquet designs by the amazing Aubrey in California. They are absolutely dreamy and so unique! I'm always won over by arrangements that have a sort of unexpected element to them, like a bold striped ribbon, dogwood berries, or succulents. All this prettiness makes me want to try my own hand at floral arrangements and take a class at The Little Flower School!

 

*All images via DesignbyAubrey

Made: Martha Stewart Berry Wedding Napkins

Cute liberty of London fabric from Pins & Needles!

Last July I spent two weeks stitching up these cute berry inspired napkins. The fabric store, Pins & Needles, was recruited at the last minute to create some hand stitched berry themed napkins for a Martha Stewart berry themed wedding shoot and the deadline was tight! I was so thrilled to help design the pattern and teach my fellow stitching companions at P&N a few new embroidery tricks. Between the three of us, we finished 12 sets of napkins. All hand embroidered. To say the least, my fingers were covered in blisters by the time I was done stitching. But it was worth it! Although the napkins didn't get featured in the magazine spread, they got a nice mention Online. You can view a slideshow of the complete Berry inspired wedding by clicking the image below.

I LOVE this bouquet!

Vintage: Amelia Earhart

Love the scarf and the pants!

Amelia Earhart, one of America's most prolific women, celebrates her 115th birthday today. Google pays tribute with a wonderful airplane on their homepage to the queen of flight but did you know that she was once a fashion designer? I had no clue until I came across Vavoom Vintage's great article about Ms. Earhart's short lived fashion designing career. Brittany from Vavoom also tells us that Ms. Earhart was named one of the top ten best dressed back in 1935. Who would have thought? My favorite thing about her clothing has to be her clothing logo tag and the luggage sets she designed. If you want to find out more, I highly recommend reading Vavoom's post HERE. It's so great!

Love this cover! image via Vavoom Vintage

image via Vavoom Vintage