Prime-time prep.

I have been on a very preppy streak lately – my Foursquare check-ins, my choice of TV shows and even where I dine (it’s not everyday you go to a restaurant where the servers are required to where Vineyard Vine)… and you know what? I don’t hate it.

The greatest intersection on the blogosphere.

 

ome companies get social media and some do not. Those who do have one thing in common – they establish a brand. Their brands are authentic, personable and brutally obvious. Some of the the companies who I have found doing the best job with this are in fashion. I have conversations with @katespadeNY daily and feel like @bergdorfs is one of my best friends (who happens to have an amazing fabulous incredible e n o r m o u s closet). I think I have fallen for these brands because of the voice they use to promote themselves. You know there is a real woman behind that twitter/facebook/blog account. She literally lets you into her wardrobe and life.

So here are two social media spots in fashion that can teach any company out there how to create a brand and become more than a storefront.

1. Things We Love: The “behind the curtains” website connected to katespade.com

Flea finds.

ver the past few years I have lost hours days of my life just clicking through blogs – blogrolls have to be the most fascinating procrastination device ever invented.

Some of the blogs that always instantly capture my time, and subsequently my attention, are design blogs. Interior decor, fashion, photos, layouts, prints – you name it, I love it. Even though I’m no design expert in any of these categories, I do think I have always had an eye for what looks good and how to make things interesting. After all, I am the direct product of a mother who only needs a bucket of paint, a spatula, and a piece of newspaper to redecorate an entire house. The creativity gene is there, even if it is not quite trained.

So this weekend I took a lesson from some of my favorite design blogs and I went on a mission in Manhattan. Let’s call it Mission: One-of-a-Kind.

The best home decor and fashion finds are never from a department store or off the shelf at Crate and Barrel, the best finds are things no one else can have (and not because of price tag discrimination) and from places no one else knows. Those were the things I set off to find and the places I wanted to discover. Cue: dun, dun, dun, dun dun dun – Mission: One-of-a-Kind music.

If you know Manhattan, then you know all about the Shake Shack on the upper-west-side. The place has the best 3,000 calorie chocolate milkshakes in the world. Ironically I like to run there on Sundays. My path from Morningside Park, t0 Central Park, and then to the calorie count killer takes me through an “organic” flea market (what organic and flea market mean together I still don’t know). So I decided this Sunday I would bypass the shake and instead go shop with the ‘greenies.’

Rain and a poor sense of direction prevented me from making it to the organic flea market, but instead led me to an even better find – a secret flea market in the depths of a public school basement. Getting lost lead me to exactly where I wanted to be.  Literally the lady ‘guarding’ the door said, “So glad you came…” in the sweetest grandma voice ever, and then “…don’t tell our secret” like some creature out of a horror-flick. I’m pretty sure I can outrun the seventy-year-old woman, but I will keep the secret just in case (and so no one else can get my goods)!

So was Mission: One-of-a-Kind successful? Absolutely. Pictured (COMING SOON) are my favorite finds: drawings of NYC circa 1934. These sketches were made on the back of book pages and have handwritten notes from the artist of what city scene each depicts. I can’t wait to frame these in my first apartment… umm, when exactly will I be sucking it up and moving out of the sorority house?

(Drop cap art via www.thedailydropcap.com)

Happy hump day.

surprise ball on Vimeo by kate spade new york

ize does doesn’t matter. The best places in New York to shop are not always the GINORMOUS department stores or multi-level mazes on Broadway. Sometimes the best places are narrow store fronts that require you to ‘suck-in’ and turn sideways to let another shopper squeeze by. They are marked by conspicuous signs. And they are found by navigating the “mean” back alleys of Soho and West Village. So Happy Hump Day – here’s a video from two great shops I have enjoyed visiting in New York. In this video the team at Kate Spade New York (hello well-known designer name) shows you the magic of a “special ball” from kiosk (hello new find).

Speaking of Kate Spade…

Whoever is running the Kate Spade social media marketing projects – applause to you. Obviously I am liking your video on vimeo, but the other content you have is so much fun too: behind the scenes photos, an aesthetically designed facebook page, a blog titled ‘Things We Love‘ AND a shout out to a St. Louis business (that I am obsessed with) – there is only one thing I can imagine still wanting… an invitation for a job! Hire me, I’m in love!

(Drop cap art from www.dailydropcap.com)

The ten dollar PB&J.

In NYC everyday is a new lesson for this St. Louis girl.

Today’s lesson: the New York City grocery market.

One Friday I received an e-mail from my bank, never a good sign. The note politely alerted me I had “insufficient funds” to continue my spending habits. I suspected the ominous overdraft charge was only one impulsive slide of my debit card away.

Friday was June 10. I had assumed the funds in my checking account would last until July. Uh-oh.

A re-evaluation of my spending led me to one conclusion; I would just have to stop eating. That genius decision and doomed diet plan lasted about two hours until the monster inside my stomach decided to start making noise.

My hunger led to a new decision – I would tour the Upper West Side of Manhattan via a hunt for good grocery deals.

First stop, Morton Williams University Market. My first instinct said, “University – that must mean cheap!” Oh how wrong I was. Do you enjoy paying five dollars for a mini jar of Peter Pan peanut butter? I don’t. This “University” market clearly didn’t understand what a college budget meant.

Second stop, Apple Tree Market. Did I say market? What I meant was four by four room with fridge containing meat. For me the qualification for a market requires at least two different brands of bread – Apple Tree failed that test.

Third stop, Fairway. I will admit I was a bit nervous adventuring to Fairway. The trip required entering into a deeper area of Harlem than I had ever been before, but in the end it was totally worth sacrificing my comfort zone. And apparently everyone else is willing to sacrifice theirs as well. The place was packed with Sunday super shoppers. When I was a kid I used to pretend the grocery store cart was a racecar. Today I didn’t have to pretend, people at Fairway would have given NASCAR’s best a run for their money. I saw shoppers working in teams, setting blocks and pick-and-rolls all to get down an aisle to grab one of the three-hundred available loaves of bread. People were shopping like they were prepping for the biggest snowstorm of the century or a huge Thanksgiving meal three hours away. Newsflash- it is 87 degrees outside and early June. Besides feeling like roadkill, I enjoyed my trip to Fairway. The place had it all and the prices were decent (as in I didn’t feel like I was being robbed but I did still choose one type of pasta over another because of a ten cent difference). Next time I go back I’ll make sure to bring my pit crew.

Other lessons learned:

-       Grocery bags + subway = workout

-       The man begging on the street corner will change ask you for a popsicle if he spots shopping bags

-       A grocery store parking lot proves Manhattan residents do in fact own vehicles

-       Living full time in the city requires a Cost Co. card