Project 365: Days 190-196

190/365: Crazy eyes.

191/365: We creeped on the abandoned Letchworth Village in upstate NY and David found a copy of The Handmaid's Tale that he's currently airing out on his balcony because it's just a tad moldy // I used a $10 bill that I found at Letchworth to buy us soft serve and a root beer float.

192/365: My mom and I went to 7th Avenue Donuts which is one of my favorite neighborhood diners and walked back to my apartment down 7th Avenue.

193/265: A tiny bouquet that David picked for me during our day exploring Letchworth Village. I should probably get a bud vase but this shot glass from Orange World makes me smile.

194/365: I'm officially obsessed with this book and the story of Jim Jones. Sometimes I worry that I'm so interested in cults that I'm going to accidentally join one.

195/365: We went to dinner in Park Slope and came across a box on a stoop full of plastic play food. I wanted to take the whole box but restrained myself to just taking these two hotdogs.

196/365: Ominous skies. Also, it was approximately 10 billion degrees today is fall here yet??

I should really be packing for my upcoming move but instead I think I'm going to spend Saturday in Philadelphia. Eastern State Penitentiary has recently opened their hospital wing (it was closed when I first went) and I've been dying to see it. If I don't end up spending the whole day at Eastern State, I might also try to fit in a visit to Laurel Hill Cemetery, eat a cheesesteak (with whiz, of course) and shop for some oddities. I'll pack next weekend. Have a great weekend!

Project 365: Days 183-189

183/365: This diva has been sleep-torturing me (pretty much always, but sometimes it gets worse?) and I'm still collecting advice if you have any ideas on how to keep her from screaming at me all night long.

184/365: I celebrated my four year New York-iversary at the House of Wax, a bar that was tailor-made for me and filled with hundreds of anatomical, pathological & ethnographic waxworks. I saw some of these at the Morbid Anatomy Museum (RIP) but I'll never get tired of how cool they are.

185/365: We spent a lazy Sunday lounging and snacking in Prospect Park.

186/365: I'll miss these sunsets when I move.

187/365: We spent our day off lounging and snacking on the beach in front of this abandoned hospital that I want so badly to creep on.

188/365: I'm hopeful that this will help Mozart chill out and not scream throughout the night and into the morning. Results from the first night were inconclusive, but I've read that it may take a while to work fully (fingers crossed).

189/365: My apologies for this terribly boring photo, but I went for a run after work, which I haven't done in a month. I don't want to talk about running all the time and be one of those people but I stopped to let a minor injury heal, because I was sick and felt like I needed time to recover from our recent trip. I will never been good at running but that's ok—it's something I need to do only for myself and I deserve to celebrate the times I do make it, and not punish myself for the times that I don't. 

I've got a lot of packing to do before I move which is daunting, I have to take a ton of stuff to Goodwill and I'd like to fit in a stoop sale (my first!) sometime soon. But other than that, I don't have any concrete plans for the weekend—I am hoping there's some mac n' cheese to be eaten at some point. Have a great weekend!

Project 365: Days 176-182

176/365: A lady of leisure.

177/365: We went to the The Historic Jersey City and Harsimus Cemetery for an oddities flea market and although I didn't find anything and the underground crypt tour was cancelled due to flooding, it was still nice to get to explore the cemetery again. It was more overgrown than the first time I went, which I kind of loved.

178/365: My mom and I went to the NYBG to see the Chihuly pieces. This is a real flower, but I through it was Chihuly at first which I thought was funny but also, it does!

179/365: My senior child.

180/365: We went to Flavor Town aka Guy Fieri's Times Square restaurant—some of us enthusiastically, some of us incognito.

181/365: I walked across the park to Harlem to measure my new apartment—I'm moving soon into a studio in the building where my mom lives and I'm so excited to live alone (for the first time in my life!) and to be able to walk to work again.

182/365: I'm excited about moving but not about physically moving. I'm trying to pare down but getting rid of books is especially hard for me.

Project 365: Days 160-175

160/365: I was feeling major travel fatigue, but watching this beautiful sunset while we sipped mojitos at Café del Mar in Cartagena was a high point.

161/365: Don't let this photo fool you into thinking that going to a beach in Cartagena is worth it. It's not. The water was beautiful but the beach is a nightmare—people try to sell you something every five seconds and we were nearly asphyxiated by jet ski fumes.

162/365: I washed everything from my suitcase and found this bone in the dryer. I always pick them up if they're not gross and I had already forgotten that I had put this one in my pocket from the beach in Cartagena. It's probably a boring chicken bone but at least it's a Colombian chicken bone.

163/365: Someone was very starved for attention after being virtually alone for two weeks.

164/365: I'm horrible at taking photos of myself, but I really liked this outfit combo / colors.

165/365: It was so hot and humid that I'm concerned everything in my apartment is going to melt (especially this wonderful new beeswax candle from Darkness Void).

166/365: Francesca and I tried unsuccessfully to go to the 8 'Till Late felt bodega installation. It was closed for a private party but even just the window display was awesome. 

167/365: I tried again to go to the 8 'Till Late bodega, but was deterred by the long line. It was such a beautiful night that I walked for a while down the West Side Highway before catching the Q at Canal Street. 

168/365: Success! I woke up early to get to the Standard Hotel right when 8 'Till Late opened. There was hardly anyone there and it was definitely worth all of the false starts.

169/365: My mom and I waited out the rain and were rewarded with a perfect Mermaid Parade on the Coney Island boardwalk.

170/365: I figured out the perfect spot to hang my smuggled Peruvian bat.

171/365: We had some pretty intense rain storms but were rewarded by an equally intense sunset.

172/365: I've been plowing through A Gentleman in Moscow—it's one of the best novels I've read in a long time and I've been stopped in my tracks several time by passages that are just devastatingly good (like the one above).

173/365: Mozart has been driving me crazy with her near-constant screaming, which isn't new but is consistently frustrating. I've tried so many things but I think she's just bored.

174/365: A friend wasn't able to go to this premiere of The Big Sick at BAM so I bought her ticket. The movie was great and there was a Q&A afterward with nearly the entire cast.

175/365: I thought this air plant was dying (because I'm still clueless about plants) but realized recently that it's actually blooming!

Project 365: Days 146-159

146/365: I bought all of Target to prepare for 14 days in South America, four of which we spent hiking the Inca Trail (God bless wet wipes).

147/365: I made some iced coffee and feverishly wrote blog posts so my one fan (my dad) would have something to read here while I was gone.

148/365: We went to REI and bought some last-minute trip necessities, but don't think I didn't consider just filling my suitcase with astronaut ice cream.

149/365: Please accept this ugly photo of my new hiking shoes as proof that I spent most of Memorial Day packing for our trip. Our flight was at 11:20pm, which ended up not being as horrible as I thought.

150/365: Our first day in Cusco included some wandering and a lot of vintage Volkswagen Beetles.

151/365: We explored some ruins just outside of Cusco's city center, including Saksaywaman, an Inca citadel that is a stunning example of their impeccable stonework.

152/365: We took a half day tour of the Sacred Valley, including a wool-dying demonstration, Moray and the Maras salt ponds.

153/365: The first day of our hike!

154/365: Day two was so hard, but worth it in the end.

155/365: Please excuse this horrible photo, but I couldn't not show you Guinea Pig rock!

156/365: We made it to Machu Picchu! After the intense hike, it was sort of anti-climactic but still pretty remarkable. 

157/365: We spent the first half of the day exploring the tiny town of Aguas Calientes before catching a train to Ollantaytambo and then a bus back to Cusco.

158/365: We spent most of the day flying—from Cusco to Lima, from Lima to Bogotá and finally from Bogotá to Cartagena, Colombia. The warm, tropical air was instantly soothing to our dry, Andean bones.

159/365: I finally got my act together and researched cemeteries in Cartagena. I hit the jackpot and found the most amazing one ten minutes from our hotel. It reminded me of the cemeteries I fell in love with in New Orleans, but way better (and with so many exposed human remains).

It's been a few weeks without a Project 365 post, so I didn't want to just dump them all here but I'll be caught up by next week's post. Can I just say how glad I am to be back in New York?? I'm staying put for at least a little while, and the Coney Island Mermaid Parade is this weekend, which is one of my very favorite New York events. You can check out my previous photos from it here and here, if you're into that. Have a wonderful weekend!

Project 365: Days 139-145

139/365: I forgot to take a photo—Fridays are hard for me to remember for some reason, despite me publishing this post every Friday ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

140/365: We had a lazy start to the day but we eventually re-entered the world of the living and walked across Prospect Park, which is currently super green.

141/365: I met my mom for breakfast at the other Tom's (on the UWS) and I walked down West End Avenue from 110th-59th streets.

142/365: I stopped in Flying Tiger, which is like a smaller-scale, Danish IKEA for trinkets/household items and bought this eyeball jar which now holds my flossers and makes me smile every day. It's getting along nicely with my Little Friends of Printmaking coffee print.

143/365: After spending a while reading The Last Days of the Incas, I plowed through two books in three days—Hillbilly Elegy and The Stranger in the Woods, both of which were excellent. I'm currently three books ahead in my reading challenge for the year.

144/365: I wasn't sure where I was going to put some of the recent air plants that I bought, but this hand votive holder was just begging to become a plant holder.

145/365: Celebrating Francesca's birthday a day early with this too-perfect card (I'm obsessed with holographic foil ever since I used it in our Gala invite at work—it's mesmerizing).

Project 365: Days 132-138

132/365: Jim and Tag stopped at South of the Border on their cross-country road trip, and I was insanely jealous (I've never been!) until I received a surprise package with souvenirs like this amazing shirt. 

133/365: Poor baby girl wasn't feeling well so I gave her some extra snuggles.

134/365: I took a Sunday stroll through my happy place, Green-Wood Cemetery. Sophie Calle's art installation, Here Lie the Secrets of the Visitors of Green-Wood Cemetery, will be at Green-Wood for 25 years. You can put a secret into the slot, and Calle will return periodically to "exhume and cremate them in a ceremonial bonfire service and moment of remembrance."

135/365: I got to attend the annual 92Y Gala and see the fruits of the last few months of my design labor. 

136/365: Had to take my child to the vet, where they said she might have an intestinal blockage, but x-rays aren't definitive. She seems to be back to her old, annoying self so hopefully I never have to hear "sad meow" ever again.

137/365: I walked to Rockefeller Center from work (50+ blocks) down Third Avenue, which was disappointingly devoid of interesting things unlike Second and First Avenues.

138/365: I know this post is Mozart-heavy, but it kills me when she "hides" under something and I can see her little chicken legs poking out.

Project 365: Days 118-131

118/365: Two of my very favorite people decided to leave New York for Los Angeles, and we hung out at their Bushwick apartment for a goodbye (for now) party.

119/365: My mom and I squealed with joy over all of the adorable dogs at the Dachshund Spring Fiesta in Washington Square Park, and cooled off with burgers and milkshakes at the Washington Square Diner afterwards.

120/365: Jim and I had one last breakfast at our favorite Brooklyn diner, Tom's, before he got on the road to CA (and I promptly burst into tears on the street).

121/365: I read Kaylah's blog religiously every day, and I always want to buy everything she includes in her Friday Favorites posts. Recently I snapped up this mini medical man model before I had even finished reading the post and he fits in my curiosity cabinet so nicely!

122/365: I had a doctor's appointment on the east side after work and I decided to walk 60+ blocks down 2nd Avenue because it was such a beautiful night.

123/365: I tried to photograph some light trails on Flatbush Avenue but ended up being more into these unfocused color blobs.

124/365: I helped welcome Trump to New York during his first visit to the city since he became President (ugh).

125/365: After I had taken this sriracha (cha!) photo, I left my skeleton sitting at the kitchen table. The next day he was moved by my roommate, and it took me a minute to find him hiding here behind the curtain but it made me laugh.

126/365: I generally look terrible in hats, but we are going to Peru/Colombia at the end of May (to hike the Inca Trail!) and I decided I needed a sun hat.

127/365: Baking cookies for dinner is always a good idea.

128/365: Hello, moon!

129/365: Day-after birthday portrait of my sweet and terrible 8-year-old child.

130/365: I'm sure I've posted a photo of this mug (thrifted a long time ago in Ohio) before but it's still one of my favorites.

131/365: New victims!

Project 365: Days 111-117

111/365: I caught this pin glowing on my jacket when I got home.

112/365: My mom and I had breakfast at Tom's, checked on the cherry blossoms (and the bonsai trees) at the Brooklyn Botanic Garden and tried (unsuccessfully) to get into the Quaker Cemetery in Prospect Park.

113/365: We biked to one of my favorite places in New York, Dead Horse Bay. We searched for treasures in the trash for hours and rewarded ourselves with Roll'n Roaster on the way back (20 miles total!).

114/365: I visited the Central Park Conservatory Garden on my lunch break and breathed in all of the lilacs (my favorite flower).

115/365: I've recently (like, five years behind trend) become obsessed with sriracha and my local grocery store was out of the rooster brand so I bought this one—and I can't not exclaim "Sriracha Cha!" every time I use it.

116/365: I went into Duane Reade hoping they still had Cadbury Eggs left and not only did they have a whole tub, but they were 90% off which made them 12 cents a piece.

117/365: This weirdo has been quite the screamer lately (even more than normal) but at least she'll always be pretty.

Project 365: Days 104-110

104/365: I bought this planter knowing that it would be small, but it still seemed comically tiny when it arrived.

105/365: I landed in Ohio and JMP and I hit the road and explored an abandoned amusement park, motel and school. For dinner, we treated ourselves to much-deserved tacos and margs at Barrio.

106/365: I had Easter brunch with my family at the (now closed!) Cathedral Buffet.

107/365: I finally met Kaylah aka The Dainty Squid in real life and she graciously traversed Ohio with us—we had some bad luck with abandoned spots but ended the day on a high note exploring an abandoned trailer park (thank you for being so cool, Kaylah!). 

108/365: My friend Shannon treated me to a Skyway cheeseburg and milkshake and we ended the night bowling, where I was surprisingly good at bowling for a minute.

109/365: A souvenir that I just couldn't pass up from the abandoned trailer park.

110/365: Trying very hard to not kill my air plants.

Project 365: Days 90-103

90/365: New library books—I've started them both and so far, so good.

91/365: We finally saw Get Out (loved it) and I walked through Carroll Gardens to meet my friend Jim for dinner.

92/365: I explored Washington Cemetery and Avenue U in Brooklyn.

93/365: Still life with cat.

94/365: Foggy Flatbush.

95/365: I had a doctor's appointment in Midtown and took a half day off work.

96/365: I finally made it to the Alamo Drafthouse in downtown Brooklyn, where we saw Beauty and the Beast (loved it)—I want this Overlook Hotel carpet in my apartment.

97/365: Spooky morning light.

98/365: Jim cleaned out his storage unit and we finally got to play 13 Dead End Drive—it was just as fun and as complicated as we remembered.

99/365: Jim and I saw a live taping of the Bowery Boys podcast at the Bell House and finished the afternoon with pie at Four and Twenty Blackbirds.

100/365: I had dinner with my mom, so I walked to my old Harlem apartment through the park.

101/365: I celebrated having the day off for Passover by taking the train(s) to Philadelphia, where I finally explored the abandoned Mount Moriah Cemetery and ate a cheesesteak with whiz.

102/365: My dude and I drove up to Beacon, NY where we ate at a cute diner, explored an abandoned cemetery (with exposed human remains!), met a Muffler Man, took a hike and explored an abandoned factory. We tried to creep on this abandoned church/school, but the floor was caving in :(

103/365: Leftover pizza for dinner and the world's nosiest cat.

Project 365: Days 83-89

83/365: My uncle and I had breakfast at Tom's and browsed the Egypt galleries at the Brooklyn Museum.

84/365: This little monster "helped" me pack for Florida.

85/365: We went to The Ringling in Sarasota and toured Ca' d'Zan, the art museum and the circus museum (which houses the World's Largest Miniature Circus!).

86/365: Beach day! I managed to stay mostly un-sunburnt, which is a remarkable feat when you're made of tissue paper, as I am.

87/365: We took a mini-road trip to the Orlando area, including Gatorland and a mandatory stop at Orange World.

88/365:  Souvenirs from our short, but lovely trip.

89/365: This building on 86th Street is currently empty and I worry that new tenants will eventually remove this beautiful lettering.

Project 365: Days 76-82

76/365: We took a work field trip to MOMA, and Claes Oldenburg's big soft sculptures always make me happy.

77/365: We went cross-country skiing again and conditions weren't ideal, but we persevered and had fun anyway.

78/365: I haven't figured out how to display this mannequin head I impulsively bought recently at a thrift store, but I love it so much. And I just realized that this photo shows that I binder clip my curtains because they're too long for my weird window size ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

79/365:

Breakfast for dinner almost every night when I'm left to my own devices—these hideous plates came with the apartment so don't think I willingly bought them.

80/365: Current jacket pin spread (DOGGGSS | Shining twins  | glow-in-the-dark, jointed skeleton | cat hair courtesy Mozart)

81/365: When my uncle is in town, we see shows.

82/365: I took the day off to go to the NYBG Orchid Show (for the fourth year in a row!) with my uncle, and we saw Glenn Close's tour de force performance in Sunset Boulevard.

Project 365: Days 69-75

69/365: It was a snowy morning which made for a pretty lunchtime walk through Central Park.

70/365: My mom and I went on a "tour" of the Museum of Interesting Things, which is located in Denny Daniel's East Village apartment.

71/365: We toured Sagamore Hill, Teddy Roosevelt's "Summer White House," and finally made it to the Big Duck, the holy grail of novelty architecture.

72/365: I hung up my new Pee-Wee print (of the best movie scene ever) and I just love it so much.

73/365: We had a snow day off work, but the "blizzard" wasn't as apocalyptic as predicted.

74/365: Crazy eyes.

75/365: Good morning, moon.

Project 365: Days 62-68

62/365: This ridiculous stock photo finally got used in a real campaign.

63/365: We explored the abandoned Kings Park Psychiatric Center and took advantage of having a car for the day by rewarding ourselves with roast beef sandwiches for dinner in Sheepshead Bay.

64/365: We had a four-course brunch (!!) cooked by my friend Trent, who runs this mouth-watering Instagram account where he posts about cooking his way through allof Ina Garten's recipes.

65/365: Sometimes she's OK.

66/365: I cleaned out my desk at work and found this photo strip from the photobooth at the Ace Hotel in New Orleans.

67/365: A souvenir from the previous night spent having fancy drinks at the 21 Club (where we tried to tip our server and she gave our money back to us, which was mortifying).

68/70: Souvenir mug from my friend Jim's recent visit to PA (that smoke curl though!).

Project 365: Days 55-61

55/365: I forgot to take a photo on day 55¯\_(ツ)_/¯  I'm trying to get better at this, I swear.

56/365: My thoughtful dude knew that I had just murdered my air plant, so he brought me back two from Florida. I'll try my best not to kill these *fingers crossed*. (Dinosaur planter from here, tooth planter from the insanely generous Kaylah of The Dainty Squid and the cow skull was a Christmas present from my super cool dad)

57/365: I had a Jersey City / Hoboken adventure day, including an anxiety-inducing stop at the White Mana Diner.

58/365: Curiosity cabinet scene. I found that "Mother" casket plaque at an Ohio antique mall for seven dollars and later saw a similar one at the now-closed Morbid Anatomy Museum for $60. Oh how I miss thrifting anywhere but New York.

59/365: We left these giant googly eyes on our fridge after the Halloween party, and they make me laugh every day.

60/365: I finished Another Country and started this hilarious book. I've already laughed out loud multiple times while reading this on the subway, which isn't a good look but oh well. Also, how great is this cover?

61/365: This idiot.

Project 365: Days 48-54

48/365: Mozart, forever trying to figure out how doors work.

49/365: Cross-country skiing upstate on a beautiful, 50-degree day with my main squeeze.

50/365: My mom and I explored the abandoned New York City Farm Colony ruins.

51/365: I wandered around Greenwich Village for a few hours before meeting Jim for our usual at Caliente Cab. I walked right by Alec Baldwin filming what looked to be a commercial, which was one of my wish-list New York celebrity sightings.

52/365: My haul from browsing the dollar section at The Strand, aka my addiction.

53/365: This dummy.

54/365: This breakfast towel makes me smile every day.

Project 365: Days 34-47

34/365: An ad I designed wrapped the cover of the New York Metro. It's not my most inspiring design, but it was still neat to see stacks of them in the subway station.

35/365: We arrived in Charleston on a somewhat spontaneous trip (we got a great flight deal with Jet Blue for $96/roundtrip).

36/365: We had a delicious, proper Southern breakfast at Hominy // we explored the small but charming downtown historic district of Charleston.

37/365: We rented a car for the day for a few delights outside of walking distance, including a plantation, the Angel Oak, church ruins and a roadside pie stand.

38/365: We spent our last afternoon in Charleston exploring cemeteries and stuffed ourselves sick with soul food at Martha Lou's.

39/365: I removed my skeleton's Santa hat after Christmas, but he's still dressed for winter.

40/365: New York got a pretty substantial snowstorm and I wandered through Central Park after we got out of work early.

41/365: Good morning, Brooklyn.

42/365: I took a glorious snowy walk through Green-Wood Cemetery.

43/365: I failed to take a photo on this rainy, icy day, but we saw I Am Not Your Negro from the front row of a sold-out showing at BAM and it was an incredible movie that I won't stop thinking about for a long time (hopefully not ever). Inspired by his words, I've just started my first-ever Baldwin book, Another Country.

44/365: I made chocolate-covered strawberries for my Valentine (and ok, for me too).

45/365: I tried to help my dude prepare a Valentine's feast, but the cuteness of the brussels sprouts derailed me. He made the most amazing steak I've ever tasted and I'll be thinking about this meal for the rest of my life, probably.

46/365: I finally finished The Last Tsar, which was a fascinating story told in way too many pages filled with way too many Russian names that all contain the same five consonants.

47/365: I'm forever making food choices based solely on packaging design.