Like many people, I don’t just want a cup of coffee in the morning-  I practically depend on it.  Throughout the years, my morning Starbucks coffee order has graduated from a regular coffee, to a skinny latte, to a dirty chai (a chai latte with shots of espresso – aka coffee crack).  At least for me, a regular latte just doesn’t have the same effect it used to. While shopping a pop-up holiday market in Nolita, I stumbled upon a few great finds, including my new-found morning coffee.  You wouldn’t normally think to turn to Brooklyn for a great cup…

Today, December 16th, is your chance to shine and unleash the inner diva within.  Strike a pose and model for Conde Nast China’s contributing creative director/photographer, Chiun-Kai Shih. His photographs have been featured in various publications including Vogue Germany, GQ Taiwan, InStyle, Entertainment Weekly, and The NY Times. What I love most about his work is his ability to capture energy and unexpected moments of excitement.  Shih has an uncanny ability to humanize the conventional model-like perfection without compromising their beauty. After all, the best kind of art evokes emotion and tells a story. From 10 AM to 5 PM…

New York City got its first little round of snow this week, which filled my Facebook news feed with a blizzard of “IT’S SO COLD!” and “OMG: SNOW!” Let me tell you—though snow in NYC is pretty inconvenient– it’s nothing compared to South Dakota.  (Quick story: If I hadn’t moved to NYC, my plan was to invent a magical machine that was a snow plow in the winter and turned into an ice cream truck in the summer.  Brilliant, right?) Anyway, I often check out South Dakota’s news websites to see what’s movin’ and shakin’ back home.  I appreciate the…

I don’t know if I have mentioned it here before, but I have thing for chocolate. So, when i passed a little shop called The Best Chocolate Cake In The World on the way to dinner recently, i fell for it hook, line and sinker. I sat through my yummy meal at Balaboosta (highly recommended) thinking about how i was going to convince my fellow diners to skip dessert and head back over. Luckily, they acquiesced, and we were soon on our way to find out if the claims were true. Along the way, two members of our party dropped…

As the world is gearing up for the holidays, here at VP+C, each of us are plotting our schemes to win this year’s Holiday Bakeoff.   What’s a holiday season without at least five jolly pounds of belly baggage?? Christmas cookies and amazing food aside, there are so many things I love about the holidays: Spending time with family, the cheerful atmosphere, the generous gift giving, white peppermint mochas at Starbucks, and last but not least, Santacon. What is Santacon? “Santacon is a non-denominational, non-commercial, non-political and nonsensical Santa Claus convention that occurs once a year for absolutely no reason.” Everyone…

In college, my male friends and I celebrated  facial foliage with “No Shave November.” The movement is certainly not about being lazy or wanting to look unkempt—no way! It’s a tribute to our Stetson Man forefathers, with the added benefits of keeping maintenance costs down and staying warm in South Dakotan “it’s-practically-Canada” temperatures. Side note: I never used cologne until maybe my last year of high school, but for my first prom as a freshman, I basically took a shower in the stuff. When I arrived at my date Annie’s house, the Stetson Man in me (and on me) overwhelmed…

I have always, always loved the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade, but I have never had any desire to wake up at the crack of dawn and stand along the route, half frozen to death, trying fruitlessly to peer over my neighbor’s shoulders. Instead I spend parade morning on the couch in front of the TV, wrapped in a quilt with a cup of cocoa, happily singing along as my husband makes sarcastic faces. I just love a parade (he could care less). There is, however, one Thanksgiving Parade tradition worth frostbitten fingers. I’m here to share pre-Thanksgiving with you… and…

Rather than jumping on the Harry Potter bandwagon this weekend, I decided to investigate a different kind of movie theater – The Landmark Loews Jersey Movie Palace.  Built in  Jersey City in 1929, the theater is just three Path train stops away from the World Trade Center in Journal Square. Upon arrival, I must say that I was less than impressed.  Based on the website, I anticipated the building looking like this: Instead, it looked more like this: (Granted it was nighttime, and I am sure I missed some of the finer architectural details.) Despite the initial disappointment, once I…

A few months ago, I fell in love with New York Times Visual Columnist Maira Kalman’s  Pursuit of Happiness blog. What did me in, oddly enough, was a post on Benjamin Franklin. Not normally one of my hot-button topics, Kalman transforms Franklin (and pretty much anything else she sets her pen to) into a whimsical, captivating journey. Though Kalman has just posted the last installment on the blog, an ode to George Washington , it turns out there’s so much more for her fans to love. I will definitely be buying her  children’s books (twelve in all) for all of…

V+P is all abuzz in anticipation of next week’s Masquerade Ball at the New York Design Center, where the design community comes together in spectacular costumes to raise money for The Alpha Workshops. It’s absolutely one of my favorite nights of the year. And while I’m sworn to secrecy regarding our costumes (I signed a pretty official-looking contract) I am able to leak one thing: I’ll be wearing a moustache. Specifically, this moustache: Hint: It’s neither Burt Reynolds nor Tom Selleck. (Did you guess “Frida Kahlo?” You’re getting warmer!) I’m totally hands-in-the-air loving into the idea of sporting the ‘stache…and…