a weekend in brooklyn.

Last weekend, two of my great girlfriends and I reunited in Brooklyn, New York. I hadn't seen Ashley in months and Danielle in over a year because she was away on a Fullbright in South Korea. These girls became like my soulmates while studying abroad in the Netherlands. The fact that we are still such great friends after all of this time and distance still astounds me and I am truly grateful for our friendship. 

To be honest, I was also very much looking forward to the prospect of driving three hours in my car with no one to talk to and with Emotionalism by the Avett Brothers playing on loop through the speakers.

After a few hours belting acoustic love songs and admiring the golden and auburn landscapes along I-87 South, I found myself parallel parking on a Park Slope street, just off Prospect Park. I found Ashley and her roommate Anna in their gorgeous basement apartment.

After some catching up and a short nap, it was time to meet Danielle in St. Mark's Place for dinner, so we put on our fancy clothes. Later we headed to Williamsburg to go to the Levee and the Woods. The Woods was especially wonderful with its strung lights, outside patio, and mix of music.

Danielle works for the Obama campaign in New Jersey, so she works crazy hours right now and had to leave early to head back. When Ashley and I finally rolled out of her apartment, we walked around Park Slope, stopped at the Community Bookstore (where I found out that Zadie Smith apparently has a new novel out!), and grabbed a bite at Café Dada.

Brooklyn was beautiful and I was so happy to be reunited with Ashley and Danielle after all this time. I hope there will be more visits in the near future!

xoxoxoxo

Cara

new york, new york.

We were able to pack in a surprising amount of New York into our day trip. The funny thing about Manhattan is that if you were to start at a corner of Central Park and walk around each street, walking into every business in every corner of the borough, by the time you made it back to your start-point, not only would you have serious orthopedic issues, but several new businesses would have popped up, rendering your attempt to soak everything in obsolete.

Here are some of my favorite photos from our séjour:

I found this lovely bicycle outside Housing Works. What I would give to ride this beauty around the park!

I had a Groupon for $40 to spend at Housing Works that was due to expire August 1st. So much pressure! #firstworldproblems

This particular Housing Works in SoHo also has a bookstore half, comprised of a used book and vinyl store as well as a cafe. Proceeds help those affected by AIDS/HIV and the homelessness. They also promote awareness. There are always free condoms at the check-out counter! I really admire their mission.

After much galavanting, my mom and I decided we must rest up over some delicious Mexican food.

Lately, I've been having mixed feelings in relation to food photography. This is not to say that I don't absolutely believe there is a place for food as a genre of photograph. I mean this more in terms of blogging, Instagram, etc. I still love photographs that incorporate food in a setting and within an interesting composition. I just feel that taking a photograph of someone else's work of art (and I do believe food presentation is an art form) and calling it my talent is misattribution... It would be different if I weren't using my iPhone (which is essentially a point-and-shoot camera) to take most of these photos! What do you think?

One of the top things I wanted to do while in New York for the day was to go to Doughnut Plant. This place makes literally the best doughnuts I have ever had in my life.

Coconut cream doughnut! Ahhh heavenly.

The Doughnut Plant bathroom was an EPIC surprise!! If only they played the Bee Gees while you pee-pee'd... Okay, disregard the fact that I just typed that.

We walked back to Penn Station through West Village and Chelsea. There were so many beautiful gated gardens.

Towards the late afternoon, the overcast opened to a beautiful cerulean sky.

New York, I miss you already! xoxo