3 first and best trip of the year

As you know last week I was in NYC as a guest of Brizo to learn about their amazing brand and experience Mercedes Benz Fashion Week. The Brizo team did a fantastic job making all the designers feel so welcomed & special and I had an amazing time. I wish I'd taken more pictures, but I was too busy taking it all in!

Right after I took this photo, I realized that Susan L. Taylor, formerly of Essence Magazine was sitting across the aisle from me. This was such a full circle moment for me because I grew up LOVING her magazine, and I'd had the chance to hear her speak at a conference I attended in high school. We chatted for a bit on the plane and it certainly was an amazing start to my trip! 

We arrived in the big city and were delivered to the fabulous Eventi Hotel just a few blocks from Times Square by a car service. 

The "living room" in the lobby of the Eventi...

....absolutely gorgeous! The entire hotel was designed impeccably. I wonder who designed it?
The first night we had a cocktail party to meet & greet all the other designers. Everyone came from all over the country but some of us "knew" each other via Twitter and had never met in person. Everyone was super sweet!


The next morning I got dressed up in my brightest colors for our day of Brizo brand training. :)



The team educated us on the entire line of products, including Jason Wu's upcoming line. It was so amazing to see how they draw inspiration, come of up ideas, and the process of putting them into production. Brizo truly does approach their product as a fashion line!



We got to see prototypes and give feedback on brand new designs & finishes. It was really cool to see the ideas, as well as here the design process of the industrial designers.

After class we took a short break before we were whisked away to the Hearst building to take a cooking class at the brand new Sur La Table located on the first floor. *Side Note* This was a "Mary Tyler Moore" moment for me! When I hopped out of that limo and saw this beautiful building in front of me, I wanted to do a cartwheel and squeal with joy! Haha





We made handmade pasta & pesto and ate everything we made. SO delicious!! And fun.


The next day (Friday) we had a champagne brunch before heading out to Jason Wu's show! 

On the way in a big Lexus came rushing in and out hopped Anna Wintour. Just like The Devil Wears Prada. I could not make these stories up y'all!! I snapped this photo before I almost lost it; I was too excited!! 

The show was AMAZING! I was in the first section, on the 3rd row. His inspiration story was so clear, the clothes were amazing and the music was phenomenal. I kinda want the soundtrack! You can see the entire collection here.


Lastly, we attended a cocktail reception at this penthouse with gorgeous views of the city. Jason Wu came, watched his show with us (this is the first time he got to see it!) and had a few drinks. It was a great ending to a fabulous trip! The entire trip was a DREAM. Thank you so much to the Brizo team for including me and I'm so proud to be a part of the Blogger 19 group now! 


I hope you enjoyed the photos!

2 dreamer's digest: week 6

Spring has finally arrived in Paris! The weather is spectacular...reaching to almost a perfect 75 degrees a few times over the past two weeks. I'm now on spring break, so my friends and I have been enjoying the weather and our time away from class by visiting some of the best parks in Paris. Here are a few pics of my visits to Jardin de Luxembourg (Luxembourg Gardens), Buttes Chaumont park and a small part of Bois de Boulogne park, Jardin D'Acclimation.


People enjoying the beautiful weather in the Luxembourg Gardens


Kiddies riding Ponies! Luxembourg Gardens


Me! It was such a beautiful day....


My friends and I prepared a grand feast for our afternoon in Buttes
Chaumont


There were soo many people in the park this day!


We found a waterfall in the park! What a pleasant surprise!


Getting some sun in Jardin' D'Acclimation


A tout a l'heure! (see you later!)

-Adrianne

6 a little paris in savannah

Armon and I got away from the hustle and bustle of the city over the labor day weekend and spent some time exploring Georgia's oldest city - Savannah. This harbor city is full of history and culture and we had a great time just relaxing! I really enjoyed walking around the city admiring the architecture from several different eras, and stepping into the cute little shops on Broughton St. My favorite was The Paris Market & Brocante.


Upon entering the store your greeted with divine smells of burning scented candles mixed with espresso drifting from the small coffee shop in the front.


An art nuveau Paris Metro sign stands tall in the entry way, immediately letting you know this store is filled with vintage goodness! Here are some pictures that Armon snapped while we were browsing.









This little chair was so perfect, I would never sit on it!


And Armon wanted to take this little guy home... not for $1000 though!

If you have the chance, you should definitely take the time to visit this little gem. It's two stories of a well edited vintage collection plus a little spot to rest your feet and have a drink. Can't make it to Savannah? Lucky for you they have a great website + blog !

All photos by Armon Burton

7 venice

Venice is exactly what I imagined it to be: a gorgeous city on water! This northern Italy city is one of the oldest and famous cities in Italy and I had the opportunity to visit this weekend. It was very beautiful but also really COLD!! Ha! I spent the whole weekend bundled up as we toured the city, so I didn't take as many photos as usual. Some of these I stole from Facebook... from a classmate who has a way better camera than mine. Anyway, enjoy the photos!

This cute little boat on the left is a "taxi" : since most of the main streets in venice are water, there are no cars, only boats. If you're going somewhere within the city, you walk! The photo on the right was my view from inside the "aquabus". This is the public transportation in Venice, which is widely used being that most of the people in Venice don't live there. The city itself only has about 60,000 residents, and not even all of them have boats. That means that all the tourists, which make up most of the daily traffic, plus those who don't own a boat are on these boats. If you get motion sickness, don't even think about going to Venice!! We spent half of the time there on boats... and there is no way of getting around it. The aquabus has to stop at every fermata or stop, and each time, the boat rocks back and forth as it quickly brakes and then has to be docked. I don't even really get motion sickness on boats usually and I was uncomfortable!




beautiful photos of the grand canal that I "borrowed"! ;)
It was very beautiful but almost surreal; the whole time feels like a theme park!
If you've ever been to the Venetian in Las Vegas,


Piazza San Marco. This is the heart of Venice!


The Basilica of San Marco in San Marco Piazza. This was one of the most ornate buildings I've seen in Italy. It's breathtaking up close.... but you can definitely tell its age! Click on the photo for a much bigger and clearer view!



A smaller piazza inbetween houses. Everything that you see is built on water...
They use stilts burried deep into the canal and layers of brick, concrete, etc...


The famous Venetian gondolas! I didn't ride in one because they were charging 150 euro for a 40 minute ride....


On the left, a view of a side street near my hotel...
Me on the balcony of our hotel room! If you look really closely, you can see the grand canal at the end of the street.


Our cute little hotel room and the lobby. We got complimentary room service on Sunday morning.. that was great!

Venice is known for Murano glass. (Murano is one of the islands surrounding the main island in the city.) These are just two of the many photos I took of the amazing glasswork... all that you see is glass!! The chandeliers, sculptures, all of it!

And of course, just like the rest of the big cities in Italy, there are all the high end brand stores.
I saw these gorgeous shoes in the Valentino window... bet you can't guess how much they were! I didn't buy anything for myself in Venice but I did get a few small presents for the fam.

Venice was truly a one of a kind city! If you ever come to Italy, I definitely would suggest you visit. This was my last overnight trip out of Florence! I may make a day trip to Pisa this weekend, but my time is running out here... only 25 days left!
Hope you enjoyed the pics. Ciao! ;)