Pumpkins & Poodles.

So pleased to share that my first feature on one of my favorite websites, Freunde von Freunden, went live yesterday (another, based on an interview I conducted over the summer, will appear later this year). For this one, stylist Andreas Kokkino and his fiancé, art gallery sales assistant David Daniels, welcomed photographer Greg Kessler and me into their Bed-Stuy brownstone for coffee and homemade pumpkin cake.

My favorite bit of the interview? Andreas's answer to my question about fashion inspiration: "One day, when we first moved here, I was walking home from the train and there was a kid wearing three pairs of shorts so that you could see every waistband. He had no shirt on, and a pair of Nike slides with socks. On top of that, he was wearing a cape made out of a Disney Princess beach towel, and he was just walking down the street, business as usual. I found that very inspiring."

See the full interview at Freunde von Freunden, here. Photographs by Greg Kessler. Thanks again to everyone involved for such a wonderful day.

PS: I have three features this month in Rue Magazine, as well, including interviews with interior designers Kelly Wearstler and Nate Berkus. Check it out, here.

Typewriter Drawings.

Lenka Clayton and Michael Crowe (masterminds behind Mysterious Letters) used typewriters to create the pictures below, along with dozens more that can be seen here. Have you ever tried to make a typewriter drawing before? I did last fall, and the tree I attempted to create came out looking a little more like, well, a smear. Clearly I need practice.

See more drawings, here. Thank you, This Isn't Happiness. 

POV: Voices.

POV ("point of view") is a series that addresses many of the same themes covered in my Equals Record column: growing up, saying yes to adventure, learning to embrace a quarter-life crisis. Each POV entry will include a photograph and a short reflection based on what’s pictured. While my previous column focused largely on ideas, POV will focus on moments - glimpses, glances, tiny stories.

At age four, I developed a stutter, without warning and seemingly overnight. I went from a soft-spoken little girl who enunciated plainly and precisely in two languages – English and cat– to a soft-spoken little girl who, despite her best efforts, just couldn’t get the words out.

I remember trying. 

Real Life Instagram.

Photographer Bruno Ribeiro's "Real Life Instagram" makes me think of the many times I've looked at something and thought, before anything else: This would make the perfect Instagram. The same goes for tweets, too - Megan and I will often catch ourselves, mid-conversation, cheerfully exclaiming, "that's a tweet!" It's funny. A little unsettling, too.

Do you find yourselves doing this, too? See more at Real Life Instagram. Happy Monday!

Lately.

A few quick snaps before the weekend: our Catskills campfire and other scenes from our adventure upstate,

my favorite bit of graffiti in my neighborhood (I took this days before it was painted over),

a sneak peek from a new collaborative project I'm working on, which will debut in a month or two,

and, lastly, a few FaceTime stills of some familiar faces (my nephew Dash is seven months old this week!).

Wishing you a happy weekend. Any plans? I'll be celebrating Halloween early (I still don't know what to be - maybe a subway rat again?), and hopefully getting some work done - I have four deadlines in the next two days!

Looking forward to seeing you next week; until then have a great one. (New POV post coming Tuesday.)

Higgledy-Piggledy.

I'm in love with artist Mileece Petre's bedroom, which is inside a refurbished airstream trailer nestled in a vibrant, jungle-like backyard (her mother's) in Los Angeles. In the space surrounding, there's a pond, an outdoor shower, a mess of plants and trees and crawling vines. "It's all higgledy-piggledy," Mileece says. It looks like magic to me. 

Read the full article by Steven Kurutz at The New York Times, here. Photos by Laure Joliet.

Butternut Squash/Butterscotch Sun.

I'd been hearing Maria Schoettler's name for months before we finally met this past summer. She's a much-cherished friend of several of my closest pals here in New York (and a fellow UCSC alum, though we can't remember ever having met while studying there).

Maria lives in Oakland now, but came to stay at our Brooklyn apartment for several days in August. She was just as delightful as my friends had described, and, as a bonus, I discovered that she's an incredible artist to boot. Highlights from her website include a 2014 calendar celebrating seasonal fruits and veg,

a lush, leafy homage to herbs,

a series of striking painted portraits,

and "Joni Mitchell's Milk & Honey," which just might be my favorite (available for purchase here).

See more at Maria's website here (which includes a lovely selection of textiles and her online shop), and have a beautiful Wednesday.

Mirrors & Windows.

A collaboration between photographers Gabriele Galimberti (the artist behind Delicatessen with love and Toy Stories) and Edoardo Delille, Mirrors and Windows explores bedrooms of girls around the world between the ages of 18 and 30.

According to Galimberti's website, these rooms are "where girls read, love, dream, work and play...[they] are mirrors of the history, personality, culture, obsessions and social status of the girls that occupy them, but are also unique windows into [their] worlds."

From top to bottom: Cristina, 23, Colombia; Kai, 23, China; Altidon, 19, Haiti; Sandhini, 31, India; Vanessa, 19, United States; Gessiane and Jessica, 20, Brazil; Mickayla, 23, London; Lena, 24, Ukraine.

What would a photograph of your own space reflect? Mine would feature crowded windowsills; a mess of Polaroids; my giant Pete Townshend print; a (slightly creaky) yellow four-poster bed.

Visit Gabriele Galimberti's website, here, and Edoardo Delille's, here. Thanks, My Modern Met.

Double Life.

Tattoos, canoes, flamingos, doorknobs: Sandrine Kerfante's Twin-Niwt is a collection of photographs that celebrates doubles in all shapes, sizes, and sorts.

Also, for those wondering - the word niwt, according to Urban Dictionary, refers to a best friend who isn't technically a twin. The site offers an example of how to use the word: We're so close, she is my niwt. I'd say my life is full of niwts - and, to make matters more interesting, two of them are also real-life twins. 

Images, clockwise from top: 1) Maja Daniels; 2) Budi Cc-line ; 3) unknown; 4) Gerald Larocque; 5) gaetan rossier [trucnul]; 6) Kristina Petrosiute; 7) Dorota Buczkowska; 8) unknown; 9) Jouk Oosterhof; 10) unknown.

Wishing you a wonderful Monday.