Chez Larsson

Dublin, here he comes!

Wille’s going to Dublin! And actually it’s a little further away than 20km for us.

After Wille graduated back in June he’s been working at my office and has also had a little bit of time off and as he’s still not sure what he wants to do in the future and is taking a leap year he’ll be going to Dublin for a month leaving September 1st. He’s enrolled in a bartending course which he hopes will help land him jobs while traveling further away (Australia possibly!) after new year. I’m so excited for him!

So, if you have any Dublin tips, Wille and I are all ears! Wille LOVES Irish folk music so if you have any recommendations on where to go for that you get a gold star! We did a bit of Googling and guide book reading and found out about a place called the Cobblestone Pub but we’re not sure if that’s an Irish music tourist trap or the real deal. Anyone know? All other tips are also very welcome! Thanks guys!

Sláinte!

Image from here

New York Shopping Part 2

So yesterday was all about Wille’s shopping but I also had a short list of some stores I wanted to visit in New York. One being Jonathan Adler. I love his stuff when he does it in his house but once in the store I couldn’t really find anything reasonably priced or packable to bring home. I had hoped to get the zebra dish but it was out of stock in navy so I ended up getting this instead. Kind of a boring purchase in retrospect and I should just have left empty handed.

 

While Wille’s mission on this trip was to get some sunglasses mine was to get a new bag. I didn’t. I did look and for a moment considered this one by Diane von Furstenberg but it didn’t really tick that many of my boxes so I left it. This btw is the only photo of me in New York. Me in Soho, the proof I was there! Oh and that’s not me being dusty or the bag being dirty, it’s a smudged mirror at Bloomingdales.

 

One purchase that was on my list I did make was this set of Philosophy scents. I’m trying to find “my” scent and have wanted to try these for a while. The link goes to Amazon but I got my set at Sephora for less.

 

I love American bookstores. The ones over here are nothing like them. For these past two trips to New York a very sweet reader, Donna, has insisted on sending me gift cards at Barnes & Noble. How kind is that? This time I got the new Kate Spade book and some magazines. All very inspiring! Thank you SO much Donna!

 

The reason for our visit to Williamsburg was actually to check out Beacon’s Closet, a large vintage store there. As we realized we didn’t have much time in Williamsburg we kind of browsed really quickly and didn’t get anything but if you go there and have more time on your hands it’s well worth a visit!

 

Clothing wise I didn’t get a whole lot in New York but I did get a new pair of navy sneakers.

 

My best purchase though was this blanket at Church Street Surplus. It’s itchy and wooly and I LOVE its military history. I did some googeling and found out that the Peekskill Military Academy closed in 1968 so this blanket’s probably around my age or older.

 

Bonus loves it too.

New York Shopping Part 1

I’ve decided to split our New York shopping into two posts. Today I’ll show you what we got for Wille and tomorrow what I got. On our two previous trips when he was 14 and 16 Wille didn’t really have an interest in shopping, other than gadgets and New York souvenirs. This time around at 19 he wanted to hit the second hand and army/navy surplus stores + get a pair of sunglasses.

We started our surplus hunt out at Kaufman which turned out to be closed. Bummer. Then we went on to Galaxy. Also closed. Double bummer and we were worried that we wouldn’t find any stores in that category open the week after Easter.

 

Our third stop was Uncle Sam’s and yay they were open! We rummaged around for a while and Wille decided on a nice warm sweater and a bomber jacket.

 

Our luckiest find in the army navy department though was when on the last day as we were making our way back to the hotel from Brooklyn and we stumbled across Church Street Surplus. Oh my, what a store! Wille and I just had time for a quick look but we could have stayed in there for hours. The owner is the sweetest guy, an ex military man himself. That’s him in his army gear in the photo next to the framed shop license. And in person. While Uncle Sam was more of an army fashion store with young rasta guys running it this felt more like the real deal.

I found this Wrangler jacket for Wille. It was manufactured by Big Ben, unused and still had the original paper label sewn in (unfortunately it fell off and got lost in the store). The size says 40 and I was hoping it was a woman’s European size 40 but it turned it that it was a man’s size 40 and that happens to be Wille’s size. I’m very jealous. I did got something for myself in there as well though. Will show you tomorrow!

 

 

Another mission of ours on this trip was to find some cool sunglasses for Wille. He’s always felt that he doesn’t look good in any and while he has some Wayfarers (my now vintage tortoise ones from the 80’s) and some other styles as well he wanted find the perfect ones and preferably vintage on this trip.

We started out by looking in regular vintage and second hand stores in our Chelsea neighborhood but couldn’t find anything. At Family Jewels (amazing store btw. Sarah, if you go to New York you HAVE to go there!) they recommended Fabuolus Fanny’s which is a vintage store mostly dedicated to eyewear although they do have clothing too. We didn’t find THE sunglasses there but it was a very cool shop.

 

I knew of Moscot before we left for New York and was telling Wille we should go there for his sunglasses but he was unsure because he’d never heard of them. When we saw the Rolling Stone cover of John Hamm at Barnes & Noble and we were both going “Those are the ones"!”. We looked in the magazine to see if they mentioned the source but they didn’t. I said lets go to Moscot to see if we can find anything similar there. Guess what we found? Not the exact same but close enough! Wille is now the lucky and good looking owner of a pair of sunglass Izzys (third from the top two photos up). Look at the happy grin on his face. And again, what a shop! Amazing!

 

Another purchase we did for Wille was a pair of new running shoes. Wille had heard of the Adidas Energy Boost ones and tried them out at the Adidas Store on Broadway. Very bouncy. Trainers and such are about two thirds of the price in the US compared to here in Sweden and a good buy in the US for us so we got them.

 

When we were at Barnes & Noble to look for something for me (more about that tomorrow) Wille went to look for Game of Thrones which he loves on HBO. The first four books came in a boxed set so we got that.

Together with the wand, all in all not a bad New York city loot for my boy.

New York Day 4

On the last day of our trip to New York we decided to go to Brooklyn. More precisely to Williamsburg.

 

Let me say this right away. I could live there. Here’s Wille pretending that those are the stairs to our place.

 

Indeed.

 

 

Lovely.

 

It’s not all picture perfect (well it is actually) but it’s all got the Brooklyn charm.

 

Wille and I both loved all the street art.

 

And the murals. Some probably by these local guys.

Our main stop in Williamsburg didn’t open until 11 am and we were a little early so we looked for a place to have some coffee and stumbled across this place. So cute and fun, a little retro Bierstube right there in Williamsburg.

 

I so wish we would have had more time in Williamsburg and Brooklyn but this was the day of our flight home so we had to make it across the East River back to Manhattan to pick our stuff up at the hotel. We took a cab from Williamsburg to the Brooklyn Bridge and walked across and all the way to 24th street. Awesome views of the city from the bridge.

Ok, so all I need now is to find myself a (very cute) hipster Williamsburg husband (who loves cats) to grant me a green card and I’m all set to come over and set up home. Any takers?

Happy weekend!

New York Day 3

The first time Wille and I went to New York together back in 2008 we stayed in Joanna’s apartment on Bleecker Street and didn’t realize that we were a block away from the “Friends” apartment. Last time we went (2010) we forgot but this time our mission was to find it.

 

Yay! Both Wille and I had huge grins on our faces when we saw it. It’s right on the corner of Bedford and Grove if you want to look it up next time you’re in the city! And yes, I could definitely live in this area of Manhattan. Wille also wouldn’t mind. At all.

 

Here’s an obligatory shot of my order at Starbucks. Vanessa? I’ve been called all sorts of things on my Starbucks cups but Vanessa? I didn’t even pick my order up at the counter at first.

 

Back in our neighborhood, Chelsea, and the antiques, and Zen bike shop right next to the hotel.

 

After some shopping (which I’ll tell you more about in a separate post on Monday) we went to the Highline. A lot of people, both here on the blog and in person had told us about this elevated ex railway park along 10th Avenue so of course we had to see it for ourselves. I blame it on the wind and on us being tired but I wasn’t that impressed. Granted it’s a great use of the space and had it been sunny and warm I might have enjoyed it more but we only walked a few blocks and then gave up in favor of sitting down somewhere warm instead.

 

One of Wille’s wishes for this trip was to go to a diner. I did some googeling before leaving and found one on 23rd street fairly close to the highline so we went there. It wasn’t what I’d call a genuine 50’s American diner, more of a pine clad 80’s, speckled tablecloths and fake tiffany lamp kind of place but the food was good and the atmosphere very friendly so after a chilly and windy day in the city it was great.

Day 3 ended at a quarter past seven in our beds at the hotel. We had decided to leave our shopping there and then go out again but were way too tired and decided to stay in instead. I was fast asleep at 7.30. I think Wille made it another half hour.

Next stop Brooklyn!