Scribbles and Photos

Happy New Year Bergdorf's gave us a bouncing baby boy replete with metallic purse to ring in the New Year!  And so ends 31 Days of Holiday Windows.  Until Next Year. Maybe. As a grand finale, I give you all 31 days of holiday windows….

It's day 30 of this 31 day marathon that I've been on and my energy is flagging.  At the risk of boring those of you who've read every blog post (specifically Wow! and Scribbles and Photos ) and memorized every photo I've ever posted, I am going to dredge up yet one more photo from the 2012 archives to share on Day 30.  I do have other 2013 holiday photos to choose from -- the problem is that there are too many of them to decide. And so, rather than choose among the children, I am posting the winning photo from the #BGwindows 2012 #instagram challenge.  It is still one of my favorite photos. A Handful of Mirrors

Google Bling This week, Google+ left me a present in my inbox -- a video made from photos that Google+ had selected from among my 2013 photos.  It was an interesting assortment to say the least and shall not be seeing the light of day anytime soon.  Or ever.  Google+ also left me the above (and the below) last week.  The addition of some sparkle makes a lot of sense on these particular photos.  By the way, did you know the Rockefeller Center tree has its own security guards? Securing the Tree In anticipation of wrapping up 31 Days of Holiday windows, I acquired a new app -- #flipagram -- and took a test run with some head shots of the mannequins in the Bergdorf windows.  I confess, I took a second trial run featuring photos from my various expeditions to shoot the #BGwindows that I uploaded to #Instagram.  It's a neat little app and a lot easier to manage than iMovie plus it uploads to YouTube.  What more could one want? H...

Today I discovered, gasp, that I posted the same picture twice ( Day 26 and Day 16 )!  When I embarked on this project, I kind of suspected that might happen.  I guess if I ever do something like this again, I should figure out how to mark the photos as "used".  Or not, repetition is good -- or so they say. I also saw the new Coen Brothers movie -- Inside Llewyn Davis -- today.  It was, how to put this,  slightly less uplifting than Saving Mr. Banks.  Come to think of it saving Mr. Banks wasn't necessarily all that uplifting for most of the time.  It's just the ending when that kite starts flying and everyone in the theater is crying that makes you glad Walt Disney persevered with PJ Travers so as to get Mary Poppins made. But back to Inside Llewyn Davis -- I can't say that it was my favorite Coen brothers movie.  The dialogue was good, the sound track just lovely, and the story held my attention for the entire movie.  It just did not have...

Golden King of Mardi Gras The Bergdorf Goodman Windows come in three sizes, big, bigger, and then pretty darn small.  This particular fellow, celebrating Mardi Gras, inhabits one of the small windows.   I particularly like his necklace of shiny beads…..  Above in gold tones and below in silver tones.   I like them both so why choose? Silvery King of Mardi Gras OK, feature window out of the way, on to a bit of prose and then maybe a video to close out this book.  After two weeks of gorging on Lifetime holiday movies off and on (as I was baking), it is nice to be relaxing with an old classic.  No, it's not White Christmas, or Holiday Inn, or even It's a Wonderful Life. Rather, it's You've Got Mail!  I happened upon it just as Joe Fox is beginning to woo Kathleen Kelly in real time without revealing that he is her email pen pal.  It was 1998 and most of us still used dial up to get on the internet from our houses and apartments! ...

O Solo Mio! #Bloomingdales Christmas is over for 2013 and the mad dash to the store for holiday returns -- and sales -- is now underway.  This holiday season winding down into New Years.  I am having a lazy morning at the hotel.  It's always nice to sleep in although these days sleeping in means waking up at 7:30/8:00 am as opposed to the 11:00 am (or later) sleeps of my youth. There were only two appearances of Santa in the windows I visited this year -- at Lord & Taylor's and then at Bloomingdale's.  From the looks of my Facebook feed, this lack of prominence in New York City doesn't seem to have deterred him from making his holiday rounds on Christmas Eve.  He's back at the North Pole now -- until next year that is. Naughty or Nice? #Lord&Taylor

'Tis the season for giving back and before we get to the holiday window of the day, I am hoping that you'll give to the charity of your choice.  There is so much need out in the world.  This year, I have been focusing on organizations that serve the homeless or feed others ( Thanksgiving Day ) and today's gifts were to Partnership for the Homeless and City-Meals-on-Wheels . Every little bit helps. Today's featured windows are from Zurich.  And, before you ask, no, I have not been to Switzerland in the last 24 hours.  The windows are from a campaign created by Pro Infirmis to draw attention to people with disabilities on International Day of Persons with Disabilities.  It would be a dream come true ( That Place between Youth and Scattered Ashes ) if just one of the store's on 5th avenue would do something similar for the next holiday season. Because, after all, who is perfect?

Angels we have heard on high….. Angels Oh wait, this is Day 24 of 31 Days of Holiday Windows -- this angel doesn't quite meet that criteria (although it is one of my favorite photos of the season).   A return to the fourth of July window at Bergdorf Goodman should fix that.  Loved this little fellow -- he made his Mom come back and take his picture.  Pretty good voguer if you ask me. Striking a Pose

Holiday Shoe Shopping Today was fairly productive given that it was a rainy gloomy day in New York City.  I made bread, fancy chocolate chip cookies, and cut up the fudge that was made last night.  I picked up cupcakes (an emerging family tradition) and divvied up the spaghetti sauce so I have a container to up to CT tomorrow morning.  I managed to fit in some work this morning as well and I packed (hopefully in a way that makes it easy to get it all through Grand Central and on to the train tomorrow.  It can't be anywhere as bad as when I'd buy the kids presents and lug them home on the bus.  Or can it? I also cleaned out a bunch of seriously expired canned goods. Meaning that if some disaster happens, I no longer have supplies to tide me over until the cavalry rides in.  Unless I go out and buy some more tuna that is.  Tuna that will no doubt expire at some point.  Maybe I need to look into MREs.   Finally, I managed to fit two...

Funny Face. Funny Man. It was an Al Hirschfeld moment -- or several moments -- last night as we happened upon the Henri Bendel windows while strolling along fifth avenue towards the Rockefeller Center Tree.  The guests at the dinner party included Audrey Hepburn, Carol Channing, Whoopi Goldberg, and Woody Allen to name just a few.   And there in the corner, still drawing away, was the legendary Hirschfeld himself. This could very well be my favorite window of the season. Best Dinner Party Guest List -- Ever! Scribbling Away

A Saks Fifth Avenue Trilogy  Jaded Excited Yeti Waiting in the Corner

Yeti in the City The best thing about day 20 of 31 days of holiday windows is that I am (technically) off for the next two weeks.  The technically is that I did not quite finish up a few things and so I may spend some time catching up over the next couple of weeks.  But, for all intents and purposes I am off which is some kind of wonderful. I can often be found traveling at this time of year ( My Rapa Nui , Lucky Woman , Wildebeest Lessons ,  Paradise Found ) but, this year, I am content to not be on the road in the next two weeks.  I must confess I poked around on the web looking to see if I could put something short (and cheap) together but it was a bit like Goldilocks and the three bears.  The lodging prices were right but the airfare was obscene or the airfare was OK but the lodging was obscene.  There was nothing that was just right.  Which leaves me free to plan some other trips for later on in 2014 (more on those at another time). I...

In the time that I have lived in New York City, Lord & Taylor redesigned it's store front a bit (and also the inside of the store) and the end result is that some of the larger windows went away.  Not to worry, they were replaced by tiny little jewel boxes that are perfect for displaying the jewelry that is on sale inside. Holiday Hijinks

It's Day 18 and I wrapped two presents last night using a steak knife to cut the wrapping paper and really, really cheap tape (there should be a law against store brands using the same color packaging as the real thing and against stores interspersing their own brand with the real thing).  I had thought the steak knife would be the problem but it really was the tape that drove me mad. And, before you ask, I do not know where my scissors are.  They pulled a disappearing sock act on me and several attempts to find them have turned up nothing.  I can't imagine having thrown them out but perhaps I did. Time for a trip to Staples! It seems like it might be time for another Tiffany's window ( Day Six ).  This does not quite qualify as a throwback (it was one of the 2012 windows after all) but it is one of my favorites from last year. Tiffany's Tree

This time of year always seems a bit chaotic and this year is no different.  Always seems like there is too much to do and not enough time to do it.  So I kind of have to wonder why I set out to post every day THIS month?  Surely I could have chosen a less hectic month for this little experiment! Of course, if I had chosen a different month, I would have had to spend some time thinking about the theme whereas choosing December in a city that is awash in beautifully decorated holiday windows makes it kind of easy to select a photo (or two) to feature. Without further ado, I give you the Day 17 photo.  It is of the Fourth of July window at Bergdorf Goodman.  I like the simplicity of this window -- the way it is styled means that one focuses on the mannequin and on that fabulous red coat. Born on the 4th of July 

Wow, how did it get to be Day 16?  Seems like as good a day as any to go to Italy.  Well, hmm, to Italy as imagined by the window designers at Bloomingdale's to be exact. Where's Rudolf?  

Gapstow Bridge - #NYCSnow1214 Today was all about the cookies.  Four kinds in one day with improvisation on the final batch because someone forgot to buy oats (um, that would be me). So a short post that takes us to the Build-a-Bear Work Shop.  I find the heart coming out of his stomach a little scary.  Maybe that's why I've never actually made a bear (although I have visited the inside of two stores (this one and one in Los Angeles -- I dragged to the LA workshop by my friend Jackie-Oh)). Yesterday, we enjoyed our first real snow (read that as it stuck around for a bit) and so I'm throwing in a photo of the Gapstow Bridge in Central Park from my new favorite perch -- the big rock.  Mercifully I did not fall down although it was touch and go climbing up and then climbing down. Heart Transplant

I almost forgot to write this -- which just goes to show that I probably wouldn't be able to post something every day for an entire year.  There goes that ill-conceived New Year's Eve resolution. It was a snowy, sleety, slippery wet day here in New York City but I still managed to walk a mile or so through Central Park.   Testing out the weather-proofed camera.  I forgot to bring a cloth to wipe my lens -- bad move as some pictures of a perfectly round little splotch in them.  Hopefully there will be more and deeper snow within the next month or so. It was a much sunnier day when I visited Barney's to check out their 2013 windows.  They joined forces with French visual artist Joanie Lemercier on their 2013 holiday extravaganza. I kind of liked the people watching here better than the windows but maybe that is because I skipped the more "immersive experiences."  I will say that it was nice to see windows that were focused on art and not on selling prod...

It's a Friday the 13th which I did not account for in my planning on this 31 days of windows gig that I have going -- otherwise I would have held back on the Halloween window from the Bergdorfs'  Holidays on Ice theme (featured on Day 4 ).  It being a Friday the 13th and my being a little tired (6:00 am train to DC this morning), I think I'll just have to go ahead and feature  a few close ups of the inhabitants of the haunted mansion in the Halloween window.  It just feels right. First up, the requisite head shot of our main heroine rising up out of the mansion as if she is about to take flight.  Is she a damsel in distress or a Vampire just waiting for night to fall? The Queen of Friday the 13th Next up, the scary guys who are just sitting -- or swinging -- around the mansion.  I kind of like them and wouldn't mind having one sitting in the corner of my living room (alas, there is no #BGwindows Instagram contest this year and so no opportunity to...

I am a fool for April Fool's Day and for this window too.  Sure, we've seen this trick before from David Hoey and the #BGWindows team.  Most notably in what I fondly call the Upside Down Girl's Band from last year's Bergdorf extravaganza -- see  The #BGWindows Follies  for some photos.  Just because it's an old trick doesn't mean it isn't a good trick.  Plus, I am really digging the animals! Upside Down April Fools

At the Holiday Ball I was not intending to return to the Lord & Taylor (L&T) windows quite so soon (see  Day 8 ) but Google+ threw me for a loop just now with a little feature that they call "auto awesome".  It added a bit of a twinkle to one of my photos.  Well, it actually added twinkle to five of my photos but this is the most ostentatious of the five and so I share it above in its original and below in its "twinkle" forms. It pained me to find out that in addition to "auto awesome", Google has also seen fit to implement "auto enhance".  Of course this just demonstrates that I don't pay enough attention to things since they did this conversion back in May 2013 (so I'm only 6 or so months behind).  This is a "Jeez Google" moment for me.  Since I'm paying for storage, it's a bit like dropping off a blue couch and coming back to my storage unit a month or so later and finding a rose-colored one!  On th...

Day 10 of 31 Days of Holiday Windows finds me trekking back to the Luis Vuitton Windows just because having been an early bird, I know about the "switch" that they pulled in the design of one of the windows.  I'd like to think that they took to heart the comment I made in an earlier post ( #BGWindows :: Holidays on Ice ) about hoping that these windows were not their holiday effort.  Alas, that is not the case. They removed the sleigh -- pulled by three tiny geese -- and put more of the gold shelves that are gracing the other windows which allows for a great deal more product display.  It's a very orangey vibe in them there Luis Vuitton windows and those geese, to be quite frank, are just a little bit scary. The original holiday window design... Reindeer, Reindeer, Goose. (Reprise) And the re-designed holiday window (drum roll please!)… Sleigh Begone

Saturday found me wandering around mid-town in an effort to capture the holiday windows at Saks and to revisit the Lord & Taylor's (L&T) windows when the sun was up.  Sadly, the L&T windows do not shine past the daytime reflections of the buildings around them and so that was a bit of a bust.  By the time I got to Saks, the holiday throngs were in full swing and there was -- gasp -- a line to see the windows.  Seeing these windows in order is maybe a bit more important than some other windows around since they tell the tale of the #SaksYeti.  A fact that I did not recognize until after had moved from south to north along a storyline that runs from north to south.  Oh well. My favorite window -- and apologies to those who saw it on Instagram -- was the traveling photographer version of the #SaksYeti.  My Doppelgänger 

The Lord & Taylor (L&T) windows used to be the ones that I would anxiously await each year.  They were sure to delight with their miniature scenes from bygone NYC holiday celebrations.  For the past couple of years, I haven't made it down as far as L&T and so I was not sure what to expect when I happened to be in the neighborhood and had a chance to check them out.  Like the windows I remember of yore, the central theme is still NYC.  But, just as with Bloomingdale's ( Day 3:  31 days of Holiday Windows ), the folks populating these windows are clearly L&T shoppers. Atelier

Aah, Valentine's Day -- a holiday that makes me wish I traded in chocolates or flowers since the prices of both these items seem to soar.  In David Hoey's vision, we find our young lass seated at her boudoir table with cupid lurking just around the corner.  She is surrounded by sweets as she gets ready for a night on the town. Cupid Draw back Your Bow

The Tiffany's windows feature detailed white mansions accented with -- wait for it -- Tiffany blue, jewels, and tiny little Tiffany gift boxes. If I had the space to build a doll house, these would be the mansions I would build -- right down to the "jewel" accents (particularly the diamonds).  Who knows, maybe I'll win the lotto tonight! Santa Shops at Tiffany's

I think the reason that I love the Bergdorf windows so much is that they they are typically chock full of detail.  Not the least of which is the faces of the mannequins that anchor each window.  I've previously blogged about them in Head Shots -- each face is a miniature work of art in its own right. Arbor Day Goddess

The most dramatic -- and hardest to photograph -- window at Bergdorfs this year has got to be the Halloween window.   I actually love it when the General Motors building gets into the act and with this window it's particularly spectacular given the clean modern lines of the GM building juxtaposed against the model of the Vanderbilt Mansion that used to occupy the 57th to 58th street block on 5th avenue. Halloween on Ice

Well Bergdorfs is awash in a holiday theme, the window folks over at Bloomingdale's decided to take us on a trip around the world.  A world that is seemingly full of Bloomingdale's shoppers! China as Imagined by Bloomingdales

This year's #BGwindows theme for the holidays is Holidays on Ice.   Not surprisingly, Groundhog Day is one of my favorites.  Warning:  the groundhog in this window is a little creepy looking.  The squirrel, on the other hand, is just as cute as can be.  Right down to her teeny tiny little camera. Groundhog Day

It's December and NYC is all decked out for the holidays.  So much so that it is hard to choose what photos to feature if I were to do a single blog post and so I bring you 31 days of holiday windows.  It will be the first time that I've tried to post every day in a month.  It's a busy month at that. I'll apologize in advance as I suspect that the majority of the 31 days will be devoted to the glorious #BGwindows.  I just can't get enough of them. Day 1  I have to give props to David Hoey for creating multicultural windows on the 57th street side of the store.  It may not be what I had hoped for (as chronicled in That Place Between Youth and Scattered Ashes ) but it's a start. City Mannequins