Lower East Side

I was in desperate need of a city adventure on Saturday. It was threatening to be a wash out, so I headed out early hoping to get my fix before the rain started. My very favorite thing to do (maybe ever) is to get diner breakfast, so I started by picking a new-to-me diner.

I had photographed the Cup & Saucer way back for my Need Supply Co. ode-to-diners post, but it hadn't been open when I went. It's very small and narrow inside—just a counter and a few window seats—but it hit all of the classic diner buttons. The staff was friendly, the food was good and cheap and they even have the Greek/Anthora-style "It's Our Pleasure to Serve You" to-go coffee cups.

After breakfast and fueled by diner coffee, I wandered around Chinatown and the Lower East Side. Every time I find myself in the LES, I wonder why I don't make a point to be there more often. Sure it's become impossibly trendy like most of New York, but there are still wonderful old storefronts and beautiful signage around almost every corner.

I walked along the river for a bit, discovering a lot of streets I had never heard of before—Madison (Street, not Avenue), Rutgers, Cherry, Catherine, Oliver—along with wonderful views of the Manhattan Bridge and DUMBO waterfront.

The weather has been pretty terrible this month and I haven't been away from the city since Christmas—lately it seems as if that combination has taken a toll on my overall mood and left me feeling a little blah. But I'll never underestimate the power of a good diner breakfast and city stroll to clear out the cobwebs and make me fall completely in love with this city all over again.

NYBG: Orchid Show 2016

This was my fourth year going to the Orchid Show at the New York Botanical Garden. It's safe to say that it's now a tradition, one I don't intend on breaking anytime in the near future. The orchid show always comes along right about the time I'm getting very tired of being cold and longing for the colors and warmth of spring.

The design and layout of the show doesn't seem to change much from year to year and I've begun to recognize most of the types of orchids. But orchids are so insane that it's still hard to believe that they're actually real. Nature is so strange and fantastical.

This year I became particularly obsessed with the slipper orchid. Named of course because it literally looks like a slipper ripe for slipping onto a tiny foot. With their striped and spotted wings they also look like little alien creatures that might come to life and fly away at any moment.

I took a Tuesday off of work to go with my uncle, who was in town, and it was such a more civilized way to see the show. The orchid show isn't quite the zoo that the holiday train show is, but being able to wander at a leisurely pace and actually see the flowers without having to view them through someone else's selfie stick is definitely preferable.

City Island: Off-Season

One of the obvious perks of living in New York vs. visiting is being able to visit places I love over and over again. I'm particularly enamored with visiting places in their off-seasons, like Coney Island, and most recently, City Island. City Island feels a little strange and abandoned even in the summer, so I was interested to see if it felt any different in the winter.

The contrast wasn't as drastic as I've noticed with Coney Island, but there was still a noticeable lull in activity compared to when JMP and I went in July. Most of the shops were closed, although most of the restaurants were open, even if their hours were limited. The cemetery, diner and antique store were all open, but the nautical museum was closed for the season.

This was my third trip to City Island in three years, and nothing much seems to change between visits—I've had the same waitress all three times I've eaten at the diner. The only major change is that the City Island bridge is being torn down and rebuilt. I wonder what will become of the delightfully charming "Seaport of the Bronx" sign that used to welcome visitors?

I say that winter is the "off-season" of City Island, but now I'm starting to think that every season in City Island is the off-season. I'll never not be fascinated by a place that is so close to the city, and yet seems as if it's part of another world entirely.

2016 Easter Parade: Dogs

I have to admit that I was slightly disappointed at the dog content of this year's Easter Parade. The pug content, however, was definitely higher than last year so that sort of made up for the lack of other breeds. I also got to actually pet a pug—current favorite dog breed—for the first time IRL, so it was still a wonderful day.

I saw a few dogs that I had first met last year—including Chloe the pug and Charro the chihuahua, whose owners were very friendly and graciously allowed me to squeal with the unique delight that comes with seeing an already-adorable dog dressed in his/her Easter best.

May I mention yet again how cute the pugs were?? Blame Doug the Pug or Noodle, but my obsession has reached peak levels in recent weeks. Seeing a pug wearing a fleece bunny suit with his curly shrimp tail poking out did absolutely nothing to subdue my intense, primordial need to rub my face into a squishy pug face.

Right before we left, and after complaining about the lack of dogs, we hit the jackpot—a stroller packed full of six (six!) chihuahuas, all of which were dressed up in some way. The one wearing the dress seemed so proud to show it off (along with her painted nails!) and she was so nice that it was easy not to be jealous that she rocked a fancy Easter dress better than I ever could.

BBG: First Blossoms

I've been noticing some blossoms around the city recently, so I thought it would be worthwhile to check on my beloved cherry trees at the Brooklyn Botanic Garden. If you don't live a few blocks away from the BBG, they have a handy bloom map which is fun to check obsessively.

A few of the trees have just started to bloom, but it was definitely worth it to take advantage of the free admission on Saturday morning (from 10am - noon). I love the BBG in all seasons and I can't wait to go back when the main cherry grove is finally in bloom. It's under those trees that I first seriously decided to move to New York, and they'll always be magical to me.

I don't know much about plants, which is probably why I'm always so amazed by them. The section of the garden around the Bonsai Museum was exploding in blossoms of all kinds and I was finally lucky enough to catch daffodil hill at peak bloom. There were dozens of turtles sunning themselves in adorable little piles all around the Japanese pond, which were somehow mesmerizing to watch, even if they were so still they looked almost fake.

After such a mild winter, spring doesn't feel as revelatory as it has in past years but it's still nice to see signs of life springing up around the city.

2016 Easter Parade: Bonnets

Last year I went to the Easter Parade for the first time and it was so much fun I think I've decided to make it an annual tradition. The parade—which isn't really a parade in the traditional sense—started in the 1870s with people congregating on Fifth Avenue after Easter mass let out. It definitely seems as if there are more photographers now than actual participants, and it can be quite a zoo, but it's still a wonderful way to spend an afternoon.

I saw a few direct repeats from last year, including the guy with the carrot cigar and a pretty busted-looking Easter bunny, but most of what we saw was new. Some people take the traditional egg/basket/bunny ears approach, some get political and some just get downright weird.

Gatherings like this are prime spots for the type of person who has a wizard costume gathering dust in their apartment—while not seasonally appropriate or anywhere near "on theme," I have to give people credit for being creative and weird.

We saw less dogs this year than last, unfortunately, but still enough to warrant their own separate post. As with any creative showcase, my favorites were the ones that clearly took time and thought. There was a group of people with New York-themed bonnets that were really extraordinary, but the crowd around them was so overwhelming that we couldn't stay near them as long as I would have liked. I've already decided that I'm not only going to go to the Easter Parade again next year, but I think it's finally time that I get serious and participate.

2015 Easter Parade: Bonnets | Dogs

The 2016 Blizzard

It's currently in the 70s here in New York, which is wonderful no matter what time of year it occurs, but it's definitely not normal for March. It's no secret that I adore snow, and we've had a pitiful amount of it this "winter." In fact, this was one of the least snowiest winters we've had in a while, and the vast majority of the accumulation that we did manage to get came all in one day.

On January 23rd, New York City recorded 26.8 inches of snow in Central Park. We stayed inside for more than 24 hours during the actual snowfall, but the next day we ventured out to see how Brooklyn had fared. My favorite part of the entire blizzard was seeing the huge, car-shaped mounds of snow that lined the streets. I don't normally envy people that have cars in the city, but I was especially glad to be able to enjoy the snowy streets without worrying about digging out.

We walked to Prospect Park past the back entrance of Green-Wood Cemetery, which was unfortunately closed due to the snow. They actually opened their main gates later in the day but I wasn't able to make it in. I adore snow almost as much as I love cemeteries, so when the two combine I'm endlessly delighted.

Prospect Park was a true winter wonderland, although I did get overwhelmed at times by the amount of screaming children sledding on every possible snowy surface. I love the city even more when it snows because of how quiet everything usually becomes. The traffic slows to a crawl, there are less people out and everything just seems more magical and calm. I felt a bit robbed of this phenomenon since by the time we ventured out it was sunny and it seemed as if 90% of Brooklyn had the same idea as us.

Since we had gotten a slow start, there were already some really excellent snow creations scattered throughout the park, including a Madonna-and-Child sculpture that was hard to capture accurately and the most wonderful snow octopus I've ever seen (it's also the only snow octopus I've ever seen).

We tried to add our own creation, but couldn't get the snow to cooperate so I settled on flopping down into the snow and making a snow angel. Of course because I'm thirty years old now, I felt like I had whiplash for the next week—maybe I should be thankful that my chances to injure myself participating in snowy activities have been so limited this year.

Maple Grove Cemetery

Maple Grove is a cemetery in the Kew Gardens neighborhood of Queens. Organized in 1875 and listed on the National Register of Historic Places, Maple Grove is still an active cemetery. It's pretty small, and a large portion of the cemetery appeared to be from 1950-present, but there were still plenty of wonderful old stones to keep me interested.

Almost immediately I came across what ended up being my favorites in the whole cemetery. I was excited to spot a marker for the "Methodist Episcopal Church Home in the City of New York"—in all of my cemetery explorations I don't see many markers for groups of people (orphanages, asylums, large disasters, etc.), so I always feel lucky to find one. Then I was happy to find (my favorite) an Egyptian-syle marker, but I was pulled away from it when I spotted Tom across from it—is it just me or does he look like he's crying a single tear?

Almost right next to Tom was Baby Gladys in her ruffly dress, and across from her my favorite stone in the whole cemetery: "The Place of Rest of the Patients Dying in the Hospital of the New York Society for the Relief of the Ruptured and Crippled An Institution Originated and Organized by James Knight MD Its Surgeon in Chief."

There were some other stones that stood out for their unusual shapes, like Chipman's triangle marker, Zeiterlund's very uncomfortable pillow-shaped stone and the baby clinging to what I thought was a beehive from far away, but might be a pile of something (books?). The blank headstone is not something I can ever remember seeing anywhere else—did they run out of money or leave it purposefully blank?

There are some wonderful angels and other sculptures at Maple Grove, and the administration building and receiving tomb were both built by the architect James Ware (buried in the cemetery) in the Victorian style. There aren't any big names buried here, but according to a walking tour brochure I picked up, "famous" residents include: the self-proclaimed King of Swan Island, America's Puzzle King and Chess Master, a friend of Cole Porter, the freemason who laid the cornerstone for the Statue of Liberty, a friend of John Wilkes Booth, an assistant to Nikola Tesla and the creator of pink lemonade.

I was intrigued by the description of Ruth Wheeler as "young stenographer and murder victim," so I looked her up when I got home. According to Maple Grove, 15-year-old Ruth received a post card from 20-year-old Albert Wolter soliciting her for her stenography skills. After she was hired, Wolter strangled her, set her on fire while still she was still alive and then finally dismembered her. Although he never confessed, he had recorded Ruth's age, height and weight on a piece of paper later found by the police. Wolter was sentenced to death by electric chair, which was carried out at Sing-Sing in 1912.

But Wheeler's death wasn't entirely in vain: that same year a new law was enacted, called “The White Slave Act”, which held employment agencies responsible for verifying the credentials of their clients. I would have never paid much attention to her headstone without the brochure description which makes me wonder how many other unassuming stones have intriguing tales to tell.

Van Cortlandt Park

Jim and I finally made it up to Van Cortlandt Park recently and it was a pretty perfect Sunday adventure. Van Cortlandt Park is in the Bronx, and is the third largest park in the city. In 1888 the Van Cortlandt family sold their land and house to the city, with the speculation that the land become a park and the house a museum.

The first thing we did upon arrival was take a tour of the Van Cortlandt house, the oldest building in the Bronx. The Georgian-style house was built in 1748 and was kept in the family until it was turned over to the city. According to our (very thorough) tour guide, George Washington visited on at least four occasions and the house was used by high-ranking officials on both sides during the Revolutionary War.

If you're at all interested in history or antiques (the "museum" part of the house is a collection of very valuable pieces donated from various sources), I highly recommend a visit to the house. We lucked out on catching a guide, who basically gave us a private tour of the property from top to bottom, but there is always a self-guided option.

After the house tour, we ventured onto a park trail that follows a former rail line. There were a few things I was hoping to check out along the path, and to my delight they were all very close to one another. In fact, only a few steps into the trail, we came across these stone pillars. I actually squealed with delight ("That may be the most excited I've ever seen you," said Jim) which was definitely over dramatic, but ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

These 13 stones were placed here in the 1910s to test out possible stones with which to build Grand Central Terminal. The idea was to test the durability of different types of stone, although in the end the New York Central Railroad chose Indiana Limestone, which would be the cheapest to transport via their own rail lines.

The trail that we were following is the Putnam Trail which runs along tracks formerly for the Putnam Division of the Central Railroad. There are still some remnants of the trail's previous life, including iron bridges and a really wonderful, rusty skeleton of an old train platform. I love when historical structures are restored and lovingly maintained, but I equally love a good ruin—and any day that includes excellent examples of both is a perfect day.

Roosevelt Island

Roosevelt Island is one of my very favorite places in the city. It's a little strange, a little out of the way, a little crumbling and so fascinating. Of course it's well known for its sordid former lives as Blackwell's and then Welfare Island—home to the notorious New York City Lunatic Asylum, a penitentiary, a workhouse and various hospitals including the James Renwick-designed Smallpox Hospital (some of which is still standing today as the only ruin with landmark status in the city). The island is only 2 miles long and .15 miles wide, so it's a wonderful place to spend an afternoon walking the perimeter.

The best way to get to the island is to take the tram from 2nd Avenue at East 60th Street. The tram is right up there with the Staten Island Ferry when it comes to whimsical transportation options in the city, and it costs the same as a subway ride (and accepts Metrocards). The F train also stops on the island, and the Roosevelt Island station is one of the deepest underground in the whole subway system.

The west side of the island has incredible views of midtown Manhattan, and a wonderful promenade along the waterfront. I am sad, however, that they demolished the old Coler-Goldwater Specialty Hospital, which also means that a majority of the southern part of the island is currently fenced off and under construction.

One of my favorite Roosevelt Island fun facts is their Automated Vacuum Collection system (AVAC) for collecting trash, one of only six such systems in the US. According to Atlas Obscura, "this incredible feat of Swedish engineering whisks away the garbage of all 20,000 inhabitants at speeds of up to 60 mph. Trash is sucked out of the homes of Roosevelt Islanders through large pipelines using a complex system of air valves." I also happen to think that their trash cans—featuring the tram and the Queensboro Bridge—are downright adorable.

I know I've mentioned it before, but the Smallpox Hospital ruin is definitely my favorite place on the island, and I try to pay my respects every time I visit. Lighthouse Park, at the northern tip of the island, is finally open after being closed for years due to damage from Hurricane Sandy. This was the first time I was able to actually get close to the (also James Renwick-designed) lighthouse and it's really wonderful. Both structures were designed in the Gothic Revival style, which seems to perfectly align with the island's dark history.

I'm currently reading a book in which one of the characters is imprisoned in the Blackwell's Island lunatic asylum, so I couldn't resist returning to the Octagon—once the main entrance to the asylum, it's now the lobby for a 500-unit apartment complex.

Roosevelt Island has a strange vibe that is hard to explain, and just kind of needs to be experienced in person. It feels a little bit utopian and a little bit dystopian with its sparsely populated Main Street of small-town USA essentials—a sweet shop, library, grocery, nail salon, post office and daycare—all housed in non-descript, vaguely Brutalist concrete structures. Of course this—coupled with its nefarious history and proximity to Manhattan—is precisely why I love it so much.

Morbid Anatomy Museum: House of Wax

The current exhibition at the always-fantastic Morbid Anatomy Museum is probably my favorite one yet. I'm sure I said that about their last exhibit—The Collector's Cabinet (those dioramas!)—but House of Wax is just so, so good. I'm always annoyed by the collective outcry about spoiler alerts and warnings, but I think it's necessary to mention that some of my photos might be a tad NSFW, which isn't a bad thing in my opinion, unless of course you're reading this at work and you sit in the very center of the room like I do.

House of Wax is a collection of late 19th century-early 20th century waxworks once a part of a Berlin-based Panopticum. According to Morbid Anatomy, Panoptica were "like the dime museums and popular anatomical museums of the US, these largely forgotten spaces fall somewhere between aristocratic cabinets of curiosity and today’s ideas of museums." In other words, totally my scene.

As always, Morbid Anatomy packs a powerful punch in just one small exhibition room with 34 exhibits—the exception being German serial killer Friedrich Heinrich Karl "Butcher of Hanover" Haarmann, who gets his own spot under a curtain by the bathrooms. They have death masks of Napoleon, Henrik Ibsen, Mary Stuart (Queen of Scots) and Kaiser Wilhelm I. There are examples of a corseted torso, syphilis, leprosy, lupus, tuberculosis, diphtheria, circumcision, psoriasis and a variety of other deformities and maladies.

What made the most lasting impact on me, however, are numerous waxworks depicting the unique Hell (I assume) that is childbirth. Although it admittedly takes a lot to make me squirm, seeing a cross-section of a fetus inside (or on its way out of) a uterus is definitely more terrifying to me than all of the skin diseases and genital deformities in the world combined.

Coney Island: Off-Season

After being cooped up inside for a few days recovering from a little something, I very much needed to clear out the cobwebs. I decided to go to Coney Island and as expected, its off-season grit and grime was exactly what I needed. There are a few stores and restaurants open all-year-round, but the parks and rides are currently closed until March 20th this year.

I've posted about Coney Island numerous times before, but I feel like I could go forever and still never run out of interesting things to see and photograph. The weather was spring like, despite still being February, and there were quite a few people on the boardwalk, but less on the side streets and avenues.

It was strange to see the Wonder Wheel stripped of its cars and sitting silent and still. The Cyclone looked downright abandoned, which of course I love because I get to revel in the sadness of that idea, while knowing full well that in a few short weeks it will be up and running again, giving whiplash to anyone with $9 to spare.

Dyker Heights Lights 2015

When I moved to New York in 2013, my first boss mentioned that I might like the insane Christmas lights displays put on by the residents of Dyker Heights in Brooklyn. I took her advice, and it has since become one of my favorite holiday outings.

This was the third year in a row that I went, and although the displays don't seem to change much from year to year, I think this is one tradition I'll hold onto for a while. The houses of Dyker Heights are insane enough on their own, but when you drape them in garland, snowmen, pine cones, nativity scenes, inflatable snow globes and every color of light imaginable, well then you get something truly magical.

As with most things, I look for, and appreciate the creepy things the most. I especially love when beloved figures such as Santa or Jesus manage to take on a sinister vibe, whether on purpose or by accident,  it's always a delight. This year I revisited my favorite no-eyed choir boy (he had one eye last year)—and one-eyed choir girl—and was terrified by a teeth-baring Santa. But it was definitely the awkward animatronic Santa-and-child tableau that took the prize for strangest decoration of the night.

Of course I loved any statue that looked as if it came from the Magic Forest—a little old, a little busted, a little off—and the Jesus-holding-Christmas-lights was a personal favorite. I definitely recommend going to see the lights on a weeknight—the crowds can get quite overwhelming on a weekend—and definitely go by foot. I appreciate anything that's completely over-the-top on a very personal level (I'm pretty much Clark Griswold) and if you could declare a neighborhood as your spirit animal, I'd have a hard time finding a better match for me than Dyker Heights at Christmas.

Dyker Heights 2014

Holiday Windows 2015: Bergdorf Goodman

I mentioned in my post about this year's holiday windows at Saks that as expected, the Bergdorf Goodman windows are the clear front-runner. Every year I've spent the holiday season in New York, the Bergdorf windows have been leaps and bounds beyond all others, and this year is no exception.

This year's "Brilliant" windows comprise millions of Swarovski crystals in collaboration with the company to celebrate their 120th anniversary. My favorite is definitely "Crystal Ball," which features a crystal ball-gazing monkey, tarot cards, spinning wheels and palmistry hands.

In addition to the crystals everywherethere is also an under-the-sea themed window, "Treasured," made mostly of tiny pearls, and an amethyst-mining scene called "Hidden Gem." Bergdorf's packs so much detail into every scene and it's a challenge to see how much you can find in a single viewing. I love the bejeweled hammer and flying bat, and the purple glass stalactites need to be seen in person to be believed.

The "Glitteratti" window features a fantastic party, with crystal cakes, a pin the tail on the donkey game, ice cream cones (the same one I used for my Halloween costume), chandeliers and champagne. I like the birthstone connection, which just adds yet another layer of attention to detail that really is mind-boggling. The strings of thousands of beads that form the hairdo and lion's mane in the "Crown Jewels" window must have taken some intern the entire year to make—and I would take that job in a second.

Green-Wood Cemetery: Fall

Moving to Brooklyn has been wonderful for me in many ways, but one of the most unexpected joys has been my proximity to Green-Wood Cemetery. I've been there countless times since I moved in August, and it's frequently becoming one of my most-visited spots in the city.

We went on a short walk through Green-Wood on Black Friday, when the weather was unseasonably warm and sunny. I can't think of a better anecdote to the $10 flatscreen brawls at Wal-Mart than a walk through a beautiful, historic cemetery and you don't get any better in that department than Green-Wood. I've still yet to cover all of its sprawling grounds, and I discover new delights each time I go even in the sections that I've frequented.

Some of the highlights included some interesting stone inscriptions—"Mother and Sister," "Mother and Son," "Father and Daughter," and the heartbreakingly sweet "They Made Home Happy." I also found a funeral traffic cone, some wonderful worn faces, bricked up mausoleums and one very vigilant dog, guarding his owners graves for all of eternity.

I had a hard time finding any truly spectacular leaf displays this fall, but the best foliage I did find was in cemeteries, specifically Woodlawn and of course Green-Wood. The Japanese maples really came to work this year, and the yellows (never my favorite leaf color) were striking and seemed to hold out a little longer than everything else, which mostly just turned brown and then fell off.

The Northgate Ruins: Revisited

On Sunday my dude and I decided to return to Cold Spring, a town along the Hudson River about 1.5 hrs north of the city, for a hike. We had been in April and although we've been on a few more hikes since then, I think Cold Spring is my favorite for a few reasons. It's super convenient (the hiking trails are walkable from the Metro North station), relatively cheap, challenging but not impossible and most importantly the trails take you past the ruins of several different structures.

I wrote about the ruins of the old Cornish Estate after our first hike, but I was excited to explore the main house further after realizing that we had missed some things. On our first trip we missed the pool entirely and just glanced at the greenhouse, which are two of my favorite features of the estate. The weather and foliage situation was quite similar to when we went in April and although the bare trees afford great views, I definitely regret not catching the leaves at their peak colors this year.

The fireplaces are definitely a highlight of the estate ruins and help you to visualize how grand the house must have been before it burned down (yikes). There are just enough smaller details like tiles on the fireplaces and inlay tiles on the ground to make me wish I could step back in time and see the house and its furnishings intact.

I'm so glad that we got to take our time and revisit the estate ruins—I feel like I could go back many more times and still find something new each time. It's become a joke now that on every hike we take I say "I bet it's beautiful in the fall," but I'm sure that's true of these ruins—and I'm sure they're magical in the snow, if winter ever decides to show up for real this year we might have to go back.

Trinity Church Cemetery

I recently revisited one of my favorite New York cemeteries, the churchyard of Trinity Church on Wall Street in Lower Manhattan. The cemetery opened in 1697 and is one of three separate burial grounds associated with the church. The other two are at St. Paul's Chapel (also downtown) and uptown at Trinity Church Cemetery and Mausoleum, the only active cemetery remaining on the island of Manhattan. The churchyard is one of my favorite retreats from the crowds of tourists that overwhelm downtown on the weekends and I rarely run into more than a handful of people the whole time I'm there.

Trinity has its fair share of famous residents, including (the very in right now) Alexander Hamilton, but my favorite epitaph belongs to David Ogden, "who on the 27th of September 1798 in the 29th year of his age fell a victim to the prevailing epidemic." I'm not exactly sure which epidemic it was that took Ogden, but a yellow fever outbreak centered around Philadelphia in that year is a likely candidate.

It's a fairly small cemetery, but its collection of old, classic tombstones is hard to beat. My absolute favorite type of tombstone iconography is the skull—with wings, or better yet, crossbones—and Trinity churchyard has the highest concentration of this design that I've seen. I'm not sure when or why this motif went out of favor, but I think it's long overdue to make a comeback.

Holiday Windows 2015: Saks

I spent Sunday morning checking out this year's holiday windows at Bloomingdale's, Bergdorf Goodman, Tiffany, Henri Bendel and Saks. In keeping with the last four years that I've been in the city for the holidays, the Bergdorf windows are definitely the best, and Saks is the respectable runner-up.

I definitely preferred the fairy tale theme of Saks's windows last year to their around-the-world theme this year, and I think the main windows are overshadowed by the secondary, fashion-focused windows. Everything was rendered in shades of white and silver—mannequins, wigs, dresses, shoes and tablescapes were all draped in frosty tones and sprinkled with glittery, powdery "snow."

Once again I took these photos during the day, with Rockefeller Center in all its deco glory photobombing any chance it could get. I love an icy winter theme—but I do think Bergdorfs did it better two years ago—and I'm hoping the weather gets its act together and gives us some actual snow soon.