Manic About Manhattan

Not a lot has happened in the past few days but there are many events coming up that are keeping my excitement levels high. Saturday morning I am leaving for Kansas City to reunite with a few wonderful friends/designers. Of our college design group Annie will be the second to get married. Her fiance, Matt, is a great guy and put up with a lot of gibber-jabber about design and more than likely still does!

I will be in Kansas City until Tuesday morning and then I'm back in the city for a while. I am looking forward to another summer in New York. Today was the first "hot" day we've had. It 90+ outside and very sunny.

I am looking forward to free concerts, movie nights outside in the middle of Central Park, fresh gelato and street fairs. Mom gave me a tip to check out the Renegade Craft Fair in Brooklyn next weekend (June 5-6). I checked out their Web site and it looks right up my alley. Vendors include some of my favorite bloggers and online artists, including Etsy. Check out the list of over 300 artists that will be there. My birthday is the week following so I'm hoping to find a new piece of art for my apartment or a few knickknacks.

Speaking of my birthday, my Mom has decided to come visit for a few days over my b-day. We already have a few things planned, including the American Ballet Theatre, the Metropolitan Museum of Art and dinner at Little Owl. Mom has been trying to get into Little Owl over the past two years and still hasn't been there, but third times the charm because I was able to snag us reservations the first night she gets in town. There is also a new exhibit at the MET: "American Woman: Fashioning a National Identity" that both of us will really enjoy. Below is an excerpt from the exhibit summary:

"...the first Costume Institute exhibition drawn from the newly established Brooklyn Museum Costume Collection at the Met. It explores developing perceptions of the modern American woman from 1890 to 1940 and how they have affected the way American women are seen today. Focusing on archetypes of American femininity through dress, the exhibition reveals how the American woman initiated style revolutions that mirrored her social, political, and sexual emancipation. "Gibson Girls," "Bohemians," and "Screen Sirens," among others, helped lay the foundation for today's American woman."\

If you follow this blog regularly then you know that I am basically obsessed with Alice's Tea Cup, which I must say for the record... my Mom discovered the "scone gold-mine" first and I just happen to stop by as often as possible. Olive & Bette's and Anthropologie are sure to be stops for shopping along the way as well as lunch at Balthazar the day we're down in Soho. I haven't decided where to go to dinner for my birthday, which I need to figure out soon so I can make reservations, but I'm not sure yet. Heard of any new, fun places that I should try? All suggestions welcome!