Photo Diary: Brooklyn

I'm going to gloss over the fact it's now November and it smelled like Winter in the air when I left my apartment yesterday and kick it back to last weekend, when I spent the most wonderful, beautiful, sunny fall day in Brooklyn, hitting up places both new and favorites of mine.

I started my morning off with a work event in TriBeCa, originally planning to keep my day pretty low-key but before long the sun was shining and it was beautiful outside. I wanted nothing more than to soak up the sunshine, so I found a friend willing to spend a day roaming in Brooklyn. Since she had a longer trek down than I did, I spent a little time meandering through some new-to-me streets in TriBeCa...how pretty were those trees?

Post train ride: soaking in the colorful streets....and winding up in a new boutique. I usually take the G when I'm in Fort Greene, but since I came in from downtown I got off at a new stop that took me past some freaking adorable restaurants, lots of fall-themed decor and right to the stoop of French Garment Cleaners, an impeccably cool boutique that stocks some of my favorites like Isabel Marant, Rachel Comey, Sea and Christian Wijnants, along with luxe, niche beauty products and perfumes. I fell head-over-heels for a blue velvet jacket, but I'm trying to be good with my bank account before I head to London! They stock both mens and womens, so I highly recommend a trip in next time you're in the neighborhood, no matter who you're with.  

Next stop: the flea! I didn't make it nearly as many times as I wanted to this summer, and the one in Fort Greene is a little easier to navigate most days than Williamsburg. I don't always buy something (this time I walked away with a little sterling silver and rough crystal ring), but it's a great place to go to source inspiration. We're currently in the process of decorating the second living room in my apartment, so I've been on the hunt for unique furniture, mirrors, artwork etc...and my #1 decorating goal is to get our gallery wall up (after three years, oops) before the end of the year, making frames a top priority when I'm scavenging! It's also fun to see some of the artisans, there's always tons of great/fun jewelry but a personal favorite of mine is SKT Ceramics (you may remember seeing some of their mugs on my instagram feed here and here, I currently own both cups and the mug!).

The sun was incredibly bright and I'd eaten nothing but a bagel, so post-flea we set our sights on brunch al fresco. A quick Yelp search led us to Ici, the cutest restaurant tucked on the ground floor of a brownstone and exactly what we were looking for. Garden/patio out back? Check. Good drinks? Double Check. Quiet, relaxed atmosphere? Yes and yes. The brew was La Colombe and served in giant cups (see the first picture!) and the food was unbelievably good. I'm almost hesitant to speak so highly of it for fear it'll become widely discovered and be too packed to get a table next time I go! 

There were still a few hours of daylight left, so (if you're still with me here), we took a stroll to one of my absolute favorite neighborhoods in Brooklyn, Boerum Hill. I first discovered this little gem of a neighborhood last year when my mom was visiting; I really wanted to stock up on gardening supplies and plants for the summer, so we took the subway down to go to GRDN, a well stocked little shop of gardening supplies, plants and home decor off Atlantic Avenue. My mom is as much a wandering explorer as I am, so we strolled up Atlantic into a variety of boutiques, antique shops, bakeries and home goods stores. I loved it so much I took the train back the following weekend, and make a point to pop in some of my favorites (Meg, Collier West and Horseman Antiques to name a few) anytime I'm in the area. 

One last little note—all the photos here were taken with my new Olympus e-pen7 lite, possibly one of the most amazing little cameras I've owned to date. I'm still working out a lot of the features since I'm used to shooting on a full dSLR, but I've been very impressed by the quality, and my favorite feature is the wifi hookup...I can send photos straight to my phone via their app and upload to social media right then (some recent photos #shotwithmypen are here, here and here). It's been especially helpful in lower light situations where my phone camera can't get all the details, and lastly, it weighs about a third of what my Nikon does, so I'm considering traveling with only the Olympus for my trip this week! While the camera was a gift from the Olympus team, this is not a sponsored post—all photos and opinions are my own, I'm just really enjoying the new camera :)