Fun at the Farmers Markets

 One of my favorite things to do in the summer and early fall is head to local farmers markets! I know that whenever my family goes on vacation outside the city the first thing we do is find the farmers market to stock up on goodies, but there are actually a lot of good markets right here in the city! Some of these are pretty well known, like the Union Square Greenmarket, while others are a bit lower key and secret, such as the Marcus Garvey Park HERBan Farmers’ Market in Harlem (bonus points for the punny name).

Since the Union Square Greenmarket is probably the most famous, we’ll start there. I remember going to this market when I was in elementary school because we used to live close by downtown. Even if we didn’t but anything I loved to look at all the colors of the fresh flowers in the summer, the smell of the local strawberries and the look of those big homemade pretzels (every kids dream). Located on E 17^th Street &Union Square W the market is open Friday, Saturday, Monday and Wednesday generally from 8am-5pm (although for special days and times I recommends checking out their website)

Just going by the name of this next farmers market, The Tucker Square Thursday Greenmarket, I wouldn’t recognize it. However it seems so obvious when you mention its located on 66^th & Columbus Avenue right by Lincoln Center! I cant even count how many times I’ve passed this market, admiring the veggies, stopping to look at handmade clothes, and even picking up some fruit for an on the go snack. You know how there are certain things that are a constant in your life, when you see it there it is just normal and reassuring, well when I walk in this neighborhood and see this market, that’s how I feel.

Moving on to the Grand Central Market, on 42^nd between Lexington and Park, we are now inside. While I consider this a market since there is always a fresh flower stand and fresh fruits and veggies, it really looks more like a grocery store. This is a great place to go for fresh food when in midtown, a place you probably wouldn’t think to look!

Lastly, the Marcus Garvey Park HERBan Farmers’ Market in Harlem, located on West 124^th and 5^th Avenue and open Saturdays 9-5, is another one of my favorites and definitely the farthest one up town! I think this is a great location for a farmers market because it brings fresh and local produce to the neighborhood where it is scarce otherwise, brings the community together, and livens up the park! I remember a couple of years ago when we had just gotten back from London and we jet lagged I walked over there with my parents to get some peaches!

I can’t wait to start going to the one up by my school again!

What’s you favorite thing to get at farmers markets? Do you have a favorite farmers market?

~ Monique ~

Montréal Highlights Guide

O Canada! Montreal will always partially be my home because I have so much family there. I love to visit and recently got the chance. This trip we got around the city and had the change to got to amazing museums, eat some spectacular food, shop until we drop, and walk through some beautiful parts of town, including Old Montreal! Since I had a great time I thought I would put together a little guide of the highlights of the trip for anyone interested of planning to go there themselves.

Museums

Museums are always first on my list, and in my time in Montreal we had the opportunity to go to two of the best!

First up was the McCord Museum to see the “Horst: Photographer of Style” exhibition which runs from May 14^th-August 23^rd, 2015 and was organized by the Victoria & Albert Museum in London. Unfortunately there was no photography allowed in the exhibit, otherwise I would have bored you with an endless amount of pictures to scroll through. As I’ve mentioned before I am a huge fan of fashion photography, and that’s exactly what this show was about. Horst was one of the most well known German-American fashion photographers for Vogue’s Paris office throughout most of his life. Horst captured photographs in black & white and color photographs, with particular emphasis on the element of shadows. Some of my favorite photos included Jean Patchett, Coco Chanel, and Gloria Vanderbilt. In addition, I was blown away at the room full of covers of Vogue, it was truly fascinating to walk the timeline and see how fashion and photography changed over the years.  

Next was the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts to see the “Metamorphoses: In Rodin’s Studio” exhibition. This was a treat because the had the room set up with so many of Rodin’s sculptures and plaster studies that it felt as if you walked into his work studio. Here we were allowed to take pictures! My favorite sculptures were “The Kiss,” 1889 and “Eternal Spring,” 1884.

Eats

Who doesn’t love a good meal?! Well I had more than my fair share in Montreal, I almost felt as if all I did was eat the whole trip. There were my top three favorite places!

Aux Vivres (located on 4631 Boul St-Laurent) is a vegan restaurant that I went to with my grandmama on a granddaughter-grandmother date. Everything on the menu looked amazing which made it hard to choose a single dish. We settled on both getting the Buddha bowl, which consisted of a rice base and tons of broccoli, shredded carrots, cucumber, toasted sesame seeds and pumpkin seeds and grilled tofu piled on top. For an after dinner snack we shared a mango lassi (made with mangos, coconut milk, apple juice, agave, lime). On top of the fact that I LOVE magno lassis, this smoothis was certified heavenly and I’m sure any of the other smoothies on the menu would have been equally as good. Since by this time we both were so full our food babies were bursting we decided to take dessert to-go and eat it later (because you can’t just go to a vegan restaurant and not order dessert). We got the chocolate banana pie (which, bonus, was gluten free) to take home and I’m still dreaming about this creamy pie it was so good.

Jardin Nelson (located on 407 Place Jacques-Cartier) in Old Montreal was another one of my favorites! Walking through Old Montreal itself feels as if you’ve traveled back in time to some little town in Europe, but when you walk into Jardin Nelson it feels as if you really could be sitting in a café in Europe. The openness of the restaurant with umbrellas at each table, twinkle lights on all the tree trunks, surrounded by flowers and live music makes you so happy, it’s a must try for a good day out.

Lastly, Kosher Sushi Yakimono (located on 4210 Boulevard Décarie) was another treat! Although the restaurant it small the food is delicious. I am a big fan of sushi, even though I only really eat the vegetarian ones. I went with my family and shared a seaweed salad, “crab” salad and then each got our own roll (I got avocado and cucumber—delish!)

  

Shopping

Since there was a little bit of a heat wave when we were in Montreal we headed to Rockland Centre Mall to cool off and walk around in some air-conditioning. Here there are stores galore, just like in the U.S. 

Walking

Every morning we took a little walk around the neighborhood, my two favorite routes were through the McGill campus and down Rue Sherbrooke. McGill Campus is beautiful to walk through and marvel at the architecture. Since classes hadn’t started yet it was quiet and peaceful to walk through and just observe. Then Rue Sherbrooke is a long long street that is a good walk for window-shopping and people watching!

Have any of you been to Montreal or any of these places? What’s your favorite thing to do when you visit an new city?

~ Monique ~

Blue & White Back to School Outfit Details

As I go back to school shopping I try not to think about the fact that summer is coming to an end and focus on the fact that I now have the chance to add some much needed pieces of clothing to my wardrobe! If you take a peek into my closet you will see that most of my clothes revolve around blue and white. I mean, there are many different shades of blue and white so I’m not completely boring! Recently I’ve been pretty obsessed with aquamarine blue since it reminds me of the ocean. In my closet I have pure white and off-white tank tops (I am a HUGE fan of pretty tanks and wear them year round), an obsessive amount of tops with white lace, and about three different colors of blue jeans and even some blue yoga pants and pajama shorts. Plus sweaters. So many sweaters. Point being you can never go wring with blue and white, and they just so happen to be the colors of my college! Thus, I thought I would out together a back to school outfit post (sporting my school colors).

When picking an outfit for the first day of school it is super important to make sure you feel comfortable and confident. There have been so many times where I’ll pick out my back to school outfit and regret it the second I walk through the doors. In this case I would recommend wearing something that you know you look good in and feel good in. I do this by usually wearing my default outfit of the summer, something I’ve wore before but no one from school has seen me in yet.

This year that happens to be a pair of light blue jeans and a white lace tank top. Where I go to school it gets very hot at the end of August during the first day of classes so wearing anything more then sleeveless is not real an option. I choose this lacy white tank top because it is casual but at the same time very feminine and elegant. I love wearing light colors in the summer because it makes me feel more free and happy, compared to wearing black all winter.

(American Eagle Shirt- on clearance)

As for my bottoms, I choose these light colored jeans because they compliment the white top and are easy to move in. Pants are a no brainer and let me feel more comfortable when moving around, instead of worrying if my dress is going to blow up in the wind or that I can’t sit down cross legged in the grass, especially since you never know what to expect on the first day.

(American Eagle Jeans)

Add on some accessories and your good to go! This year I opted for American Eagle sunglasses and a flowy pair of gold leaf earrings from Francesca’s

(Similar Earrings) (Sunglasses)

The bag I am wearing in these photos is not something I would typically wear at school or even bring to school seeing that it is tiny and wouldn’t even fit my planner! However, I got this Rebecca Minkoff “Mini MAC” Convertible Cross body bag for my birthday this year and have been loving it all summer! I though it looked good with this outfit which is why it’s in the photos! Plus, this outfit can be worn not only on the first day of school but also in more of a party setting, in which case this bag would work perfectly!

(Purse)

Now you’re all set to rock your first day at school!

Let me know what your go-to first day of school outfit is! Was this post helpful? Has anyone else got a blue & white obsession?

~ Monique ~

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Getting Crafty: Dorm Room Wall Décor

Senior year here I come! I honestly can’t believe I’m going to be a senior; it’s crazy how fast the past three years have flown by.

The past few days I have started to get all my school supplies and dorm things ready to pack so that I’ll be ready to move in. The past three years my dorm room wall décor has pretty much stayed that same, full of pictures of family, friends, and inspiring quotes on my wall, a black and white poster at the head of my bed, and to tie it all together some purple butterfly wings next to my desk. This year I have my own room and therefore I have more room to decorate. I want to jazz up my walls a bit and try something new!

The other day I was browsing one of my favorite blogs, Bowtiful Life, and came across Megan’s “Colorful Sophomore Dorm.” I instantly fell in love with the Lilly Pulitzer print flag banner that draped the wall above her bed. The colors lit up the room and make it look really cheerful!

Since I was already feeling crafty I decided to start right away and make my own! It’s pretty simple. All you need is a pair of scissors, a ruler, a pencil, and an old Lilly Pulitzer planner. If you do not have an old Lilly Pulitzer planner on hand (I’ve only ever had one, so that’s what I used) you can substitute the printed planner pages for magazine pages, design paper, old calendar pictures, etc.…really anything with a pattern that you like and are not bothered by cutting up).

I started by ripping out the print pages from my planner. These tend to be the pages that act as month dividers and are full print design. Once I had my pile I began with a trial where I used my ruler and pencil to sketch an even triangle. I then cut the triangle out using my scissors and proceeded to use that one as a base stencil for making the rest of the triangles for the flag banner! Once I had cut all the flags I tried to organize them in color order so I would be ready to hang them on my dorm room wall in a couple of weeks!

If anyone else has wanted to make a flag banner this is a really simple way to do it and recycle/reuse paper at the same time. Let me know if any of you have done this before or will try it now!

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~Monique~