Friday Five: A Little Bit of Paris

Happy Friday. I cannot believe it is already the middle of July. This Summer is flying by so quickly. CJ is already 11 weeks and I am baffled at how that even happened. I hope to make the most of the next few weeks and create some wonderful memories. Here is my Friday Five for this week. I hope it gives you some great ideas for making your own memories!

Bastille Day Festival-   I have blogged about this before, so it is no surprise that it should make the top of my list. The Bastille Day festival is this Sunday, July 14 on 60th Street in NYC from noon - 5 pm. Can't wait until Sunday to check out the Bastille Day festivities? There are several other celebrations happening across the city to celebrate Bastille Week. Attend a ball, indulge in a decadent French meal or play a traditional game of petanque. There are plenty of ways to celebrate this French holiday. 

Fete Paradiso - This traveling festival of vintage carnival rides and carousels is making its way to Governor's Island this weekend to coincide with Bastille Day. This attraction features a collection of 19th and 20th century rides that are open to the public until September 29th. In addition to the nostalgic rides, Fete Paradiso will feature a beer garden, musical performances and plenty of French food (crepes, please!). 

Cronuts - There is a new dessert craze that is stomping all over the macaron and the cupcake. It is the cronut. Part croissant, part donut, the cronut was created by Chef Dominique Ansel this past May. Getting an original cronut is no easy task. There is a 2 cronut limit per person at Chef Ansel's bakery and only several hundred are made each day. It is  not unusual to see a line forming at the bakery before 7 a.m. daily. New Yorkers are seriously into the cronut. There are even those who peddle the dessert on craigslist . When a $5 treat gets $50 on the secondary market, you know it is just that good! If you don't want to wait on line or cannot get to the bakery, Stew Leonard's sells their version of the cronut and I hear it is pretty good, too. 

St. James for J.Crew -  One of my favorite things about J.Crew is there "In Good Company" section. Partnering with amazing companies across the globe like Comme Des Garcons and The Laundress, J.Crew In Good Company brings clothing, accessories and sometimes home goods to their customers. Their  collaboration with French clothing company Saint James is one of their best. The classic French striped shirt is offered for men, women and kids (check out the adorable striped hat on sale right now). 

Saint James for J.Crew shrunken tee in ivory navy

Films on the Green -  This free outdoor French film festival has been produced annually in New York City by the Cultural Services of the French Embassy and the City of New York Parks & Recreation since 2008. The Festival brings both classic and contemporary French cinema to New Yorkers. This year's theme is Love - a subject synonymous with the city of Paris! Running through September 5, the festival even has a film (U)  that children will love screening on July 26.   

U, 2006

Friday Five: Welcome back, Summer

Today is officially the first day of Summer and there is so much to celebrate - longer days, no more school and plenty of outdoor activities. I plan on spending the entire weekend outdoors with hunny and CJ. I hope you enjoy the gorgeous weather in store for the New York area. Here are my five favorite things for this week. 

1. A Midsummer Night's Dream: This is truly my favorite of Shakespeare's plays. How could it not be? There are fairies, lovers tricked by fairies and an Amazonian Queen in love with a donkey. It is brilliant and very funny. This play is the perfect way to honor the summer solstice. If you do not have time to read it this evening or even watch a decent movie version (it is harder than you think to find a "decent" version), check out Midsummer Night's Dreaming ,  a digital theater project from the the Royal Shakespeare Company. 

James Cagney as "Bottom" in the 1935 movie adaptation

2. Smorgasburg: Every Saturday and Sunday during the summer, Brooklyn Flea hosts an open air food market featuring vendors from New York City and the greater New York region. Saturday's location is on the Williamsburg waterfront and Sunday's is at the Tobacco warehouse in Brooklyn Bridge park. From doughnuts to Thai food, Smorgasburg is a foodie's dream. Not only are the offerings delicious, but everything is created by locally and purchases support the regional economy! This weekend, Smorgasburg welcomes Kelso Barrel aged wheat beer. 

Kelso Beer

3. 2013 Mermaid Parade: Saturday is the 31st Coney Island Mermaid Parade. This annual parade marks the beginning of summer and always features colorful and adventurous parade goers, floats and costumes. The event is rain or shine, but tomorrow's weather calls for warmth and sunshine. This year's King Neptune is comedian Judah Friedlander. The Queen Mermaid is Carole Radziwill - princess, author, and Real Housewives of New York City cast member. This is an all age event, but be prepared for some risqué costumes. 

photo courtesy of coneyisland.com

4.  Haagen-Dazs Gelato: If you have not already tasted this, run to your local supermarket an get a pint of Haagen-Dazs sea salt caramel gelato. It is amazing. There are seven flavors of gelato, but to be honest, I liked this one so much I did not try any others. This is not going to take the place of home made gelato, but it is not so easy to find an actual gelateria.  For those of you on diets, just remember, gelato has less fat than ice cream!

5. Monster's University: After 12 years, fans finally have the long awaited prequel to the beloved Pixar film Monster's Inc. This film takes place while the monsters are in college before Mike and Sully became friends. Even though there is no Boo in this one, I am still excited to see the monsters learn to scare!

Art Lessons: Claudia Varosio

Earlier this week, I was on Etsy looking for some new Audrey Hepburn art to add to my collection. I happened to stumble upon Claudia Varosio's amazing shop and instantly fell in love. Claudia is a self-taught illustrator who creates book and movie posters,as well as amazing paper dolls. Her unique spin on these posters is completely original and inspired by pop culture and various elements of each movie. Claudia uses line and color in a way that brings each poster to life. Although many of the figures have minimal facial features, each one is expressive and jumps off the paper. Claudia was nice enough to allow me to interview her. Read on for my conversation with the London-based artist.

Etsy showcases many sellers on their blog with the "Quit your day job” feature. Do you have a day job or is illustrating a full time gig for you?

I do have a day job, so my Etsy shop is currently a part time gig.

Did you go to school for illustration? If so where?

Nope, I am mostly self-taught, though I would have loved to go to a school for illustration.

 What was the first movie poster you made?

It was for the film The Time Traveler's Wife, quite a few months before it came out: I had read the book, loved it and was very exited about the film. Ironically I have not seen it yet!

What is your favorite movie?
Ahh that is tricky... It changes all the time, but at the moment I would say Chinatown.

How do you get the ideas for your posters? What is your inspiration?Watching the film and trying to find a key image is what tends to work best for me... And then, what comes next is to try and make that particular subject as esthetically pleasing as I can. Visually, I would say that my main references are the vintage poster from the beginning of last century onwards, and 'graphic novels'.

I love the subjects you chose for your paper dolls. To me, they seem to be very stylish characters - some of them even icons. Did you pick them for any specific reasons?Thank you! I tend to pick either actors or characters from movies who have a strong charisma- as well as an interesting wardrobe!

Many artists now create across multiple media - photography, painting, sculpture, video. Do you work in any other media?

Not at the moment, but sculpture is certainly the most appealing of the media you mention, and in the past I have enjoyed doing it, so who knows, I may go back to it one day.

Have you ever shown your work to movie studios or book publishers?

2 of my images (Taxi Driver and the Dude paperdoll) are to be published in a couple of books about cinema, in the near future, but I have not approached neither publishers nor movie studios yet...

How would you like to see your business develop in the next few years?I would be happy to carry on doing what I am doing, enjoying it as much as I enjoy it now.

Which movies are you excited for in 2012?

On the Road and the Great Gatsby, I would say, as I love both books and am really curious to see how they have come out.

Make sure you head over to Claudia's shop and check out her amazing work. Tell her Tara from Life is Beautyfull sent you!!!

Avengers Assemble

We finally got to see Avengers last weekend. After a crazy few weeks of celebrating birthdays, Mother's Day and finishing up end of the semester stuff at school, we decided to get to the theater and see it. Why did we wait so long? It was amazing. Nothing short of awesome! So to honor the film, I assembled (get it?) some Avengers merchandise for adults. Tokidoki has a very wide range of Marvel items for guys and girls and the Disney store is a great place to acquire some cool Marvel additions for yourself and your home.

Thor Rides Again Hoodie by Tokidoki

Nick Fury Tee by Tokidoki

Captain America Shield Tee by Mighty Fine

Thor Glass Tumbler

Iron Man & Black Widow Tee by Tokidoki

Avengers Tee

Hulk Avenger Outline Cap by 59fifty

Iron Man Jacket by Belstaff 

(how amazing is this!)

Nerf Hawkeye Bow

(supposedly this is for kids, but I would totally love to chase hunny around the yard playing with this)

Dark Shadows

Is it May 11th yet? I have been patiently awaiting the opening of Tim Burton's Dark Shadows for several reasons. Tim Burton is probably my all time favorite director. I could be really cliche and say how much I love Quentin Tarantino and Martin Scorsese, which I truly do, but Burton has my heart. Big Fish and Edward Scissorhands!!!! Burton has been a huge influence on my photography. He manages to have these muted colors in his scenes and then out of no where the brightest pop of color comes in and changes the entire feeling of the film. It is amazing. Another amazing thing about Tim Burton movies - Johnny Depp! Burton and Depp have a special relationship and that is fine by me because I love watching Mr. Depp on the screen.

Dark Shadows  is based on the 1966 soap opera of the same name, so there is bound to be some campiness and lots of comedy like many of Burton's films. The initial trailers and stills from the movie look like it is set in the same late 60s to early 70s time period as the original. If so, I expect some gorgeous costumes and a more than a few young ladies to take their cue from the adorable Chloe Moretz and channel their inner hippie.

Original Cast of the Dark Shadows television show

2012 cast of Tim Burton's movie version

Even as a centuries old vampire, Johnny Depp is gorgeous

Does Michelle Pfeiffer ever age? She is flawless.

I love the adorable Chloe Moretz and I need to get my hands on a pair of those purple tights.