{Field Trip Fridays} Laila Rowe

This week I met my friend Pam for sangria and appetizers. We decided to go to one of our favorite places - Cafe Ronda on Columbus Avenue between 71st and 72nd. I'll write a separate post about them another time. One of the reasons I love going there is because of their next door neighbor - Laila Rowe.

Laila Rowe is one of my favorite stores in the city.

Their accessories are fun, fashionable and extremely affordable! Gotta love that! And one more thing, they always have some kind of sale going on!

They hawe lots of bracelets, earrings, rings and necklaces and they are usually organized by color so it makes it super easy to find something especially if you're looking for that perfect accessory to go with a particular outfit.

I absolutely LOVED this necklace!

It had these metal disks with black satin ribbon weaved through them.

I was also eyeing this cameo necklace as well.

Besides jewelry, they have lots of great hair accessories! It's like headband heaven!

Even when it rains in NY, you still want to look stylish. And now you can! Here they have a wide array of rain boots

and even fashionable umbrellas!

Bags, sunglasses and even decorative paper!

Especially with the holidays coming up, Laila Rowe is the perfect place to go to accessorize your holiday outfits.

There are a few locations in the city but I tend to go to the one on Columbus. If you don't live in NY but still want to check them out, no problem - you can go to the Laila Rowe website!!

Their website doesn't have everything you'll see in the store but there's still a great selection.

What's your favorite type of accessory?

{Field Trip Fridays} Thanksgiving Day Parade Balloon Inflation

I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving. Ours turned out well. I cooked a lot so I have plenty of leftovers which means I won't be in the kitchen for a few days. Woo Hoo!!

Since I knew I'd be cooking all day and wouldn't have a chance to get down to see the parade, I thought it would be fun to go see the balloons being blown up Wednesday night. I thought it would be a great photo op as well.

When I lived on 78th & Amsterdam, each night before Thanksgiving, the floats would come up Amsterdam Ave making their way into Central Park. I had the perfect view and it was always fun to watch.

My sister and I decided to take the kids down to see the balloons being blown up. We THOUGHT this would be a fun adventure for them. Riding the subway, seeing the balloons, the energy of the holidays in the city. We thought it would be great.

We prepared - my sister left the baby with a babysitter and only took her older son. This was the best call of the night. We made sure they were fed, dressed warm and went to the bathroom before we left. We thought we had all bases covered.

I was really looking forward to a magical evening filled with fun photos.

My girls started out ok.

We started out at 79th & Columbus. There was a huge line set up to go see the balloons.

The streets were crowded but believe it or not, it was a controlled chaos. At least the lines kept moving.

Then it all started:

"This is boring"

"Where are the balloons??"

"My feet hurt"

"I'm HUNGRY!!"

I tried to ignore it and luckily we got a little closer where you could actually see some balloons through the trees.

This was promising. It meant we were getting closer.

We made our way down to 77th street and just had to turn the corner heading east. The balloons were all lined up along 77th street.

It was hard to juggle 2 kids and a camera in this huge crowd. I constantly had to make sure the girls were right next to me. You can get separated in a matter of seconds. This made it almost impossible to get descent photos. It was basically a point and shoot scenario. No time to set up that perfect shot.

On 77th, we managed to see Shrek, Hello Kitty, Spongebob, Ronald McDonald, Kermit The Frog, and a couple of others I didn't recognize.

Then I saw this...

I knew all hell was about to break loose. I had to make a decision - my camera or my sanity. It took a few moments but I finally decided, my camera had to go back in my bag. It was over.

The whining, crying and complaining from my little one was at its peak. I thought I was so prepared! I guess I was wrong.

We got as close to the balloons as we were allowed and I thought seeing Spongebob would elevate her mood.

Nope.

"Pick me up. Pick me up. PICK ME UP!!!!!"

I ended up having to carry her as much as I can, taking breaks every few minutes so my arms wouldn't fall off. We made it to the end of 77th street, had to turn up Central Park West and head back across 81st street where there were more balloons. We whizzed through this side but I managed to see Spiderman, Buzz Lightyear, Energizer Bunny, Pillsbury Dough Boy, Snoopy and others less recognizable.

We made it out of the crowds, back over to Broadway and 78th and went to New Pizza Town, my favorite pizza place in my old neighborhood.

As if a miracle occurred, the mood changed and everyone was happy again.

Pizza. The miracle drug.

Who was that demon I was with for the past hour?

I learned my lesson. Next year it's just, me, my older one and my camera.

Have you ever been to this event? What was your experience? Did you go to the parade?

{Field Trip Fridays} PhotoPlus NYC

This week in NY there's a big expo going on called Photoplus. It's being held at the Javits Center from 10/28 to 10/30. If you're into photography, you definitely need to check it out!

I cleared my schedule yesterday so I could spend the day there. There were lots of smaller events around the city that were all tied into the Photoplus event.

I started out at a place on 28th & 11th called Shoot NYC

where I went to hear Lindsay Adler, a NY fashion and portrait photographer speak about advanced blogging techniques for photographers. I've been to a few of her seminars already at B&H and really like her. We also have the same crazy hair - just different colors!

Then I headed on over to the Javits Center for the main expo.

All I can say is WOW!!! It was so exciting and intimidating all at the same time. Lots going on!

They had a whole schedule of seminars throughout the day that were a separate fee but there were also plenty of free speaking events as well. My favorite part!!

All of the major camera companies were represented. Nikon had a big presence because they provided the free shopping bags for the attendees. Smart marketing! Everywhere you looked you saw bright yellow bags with "Nikon" written on it.

Canon (my favorite) was there as well.

I was swooning over all of their equipment. Check out these babies...

Jumbo!

They had an 800mm lens set up for everyone to try. (there's that NIKON bag!)

I HAD to take a look! It's unbelievable how far you can see! Without the lens I was trying to find what I was looking at just so I can see how far it actually was and I couldn't even find it!

Some of the companies got really creative with their displays like this company called Hoodman - they make camera accessories.

Maybe this guy will have his own comic book one day.

Sony also had a fun setup - a ramp with a biker and cameras set up around the perimeter so you can photograph the biker making his way around the ramp.

There were also a lot of printers and photo book companies. Check out these cards from MPIX

Love them! You know my brain is already spinning with "how can I make those?!?"

B&H (my favorite store) had a BIG presence as well. They were even providing free shuttle buses back to their store! I just love all of these creative marketing ideas. Genius!

I also went to my first tweetup! That was interesting. Everyone had to put their twitter handle on the name badge. There were vendors set up there as well. I got to check out Lensbaby. Cool lenses that you can actually move in different directions!

So, if you're in NY and you love photography, get your butt on over to the Javits Center. If you're not in NY, plan on coming next year!

Have a great weekend!

{Field Trip Fridays} Madison Square Market

One of the things I really love about the city is when there's an upscale outdoor market to go to featuring indie designers and artists. I'm always inspired and amazed at all of the creativity out there!

I knew there was a market going on in Madison Square Park and I was eager to check it out.

It's always a great sign when you see a flood of white tents! It's gotta be good!

There were lots of interesting things to see. And a wide variety as well

Jewelry

These from Hanami were made from real flowers!

Cool tees from Kataplin

Bags - both vegan & recycled plastic.

Even puppets!

Then I had a few favorites that really caught my eye.

This was a really cool idea. Instead of an Entertainment book that gives you coupons to different restaurants and various venues, this was a similar concept but in the form of playing cards from City Shuffle.

52 cards were in the pack and each card was valued at $10 off a specific restaurant. All for only $25! (at this location) What an amazing gift for a foodie-city girl-blogger-someone-that-needs-a-night-out-because-her-girls-make-her-crazy.

Not that I'm thinking of anyone specific but my birthday IS coming up in 17 days.

Remember when you were younger and folded gum wrappers to make a chain? Well, now they're accessories at Nahui Ollin

I've actually seen this before but they went as far as to even make keychains out of them. They also had a video going on explaining the process. I would have loved to stay and watch because I'm really curious how they get the finished product so smooth and shiny but I had to press on. My time was limited that day.

I like how they even got creative with their displays. One of the display units looked like it was decoupaged with pages from a comic book. So fun!

The colors in this next booth just blew me away! Check out Karma Living.

I honestly didn't even know where to look first. There was so much going on and I wanted to make sure I was able to take everything in The colors were amazing!

So bright and cheerful!

I also loved the creative use of displays - using actual furniture to show their other items.

They had lots of fun pillows - my favorites were the cute owl

and all of the peace signs.

Equally as beautiful, but with a completely different color palette was this next booth - Paradis Found Designs. I just loved this one! Words like precious, sweet, adorable, beautiful all came to mind as I was staring in awe.

The handmade baby/children's clothes were made in various shades of pink and blue but not in a typical way you would expect to see in mainstream stores. Each item is unique and made from vintage and collectible fabrics.

The colors and shades went so well together and all of the little details just put them over the top.

Even the hangers were adorable!

If you need a baby gift, this is the place to go!

If you guys are in the city, you need to hurry because this market ends tomorrow! With the holidays coming up just around the corner though, there will be plenty of other markets to explore. Definitely something to look forard to.

As for me, I'm going to have a table at a local Fall/Halloween festival this Sunday. I'll have lots of accordion scrapbooks for Halloween and the upcoming holidays as well as a sale on hair accessories. I'll also have samples of personalized candy bar wrappers that make great party favors. If you're in the Riverdale area, stop by to say hi. It will be at PS 81 / Riverdale Neighborhood House from 11 to 3.

Do you like to shop indie markets? Have you ever been a vendor? Any creative display ideas?

Have a great weekend!