Playing Hostess in DC

As you might have discerned from my enthusiastic post about visiting the White House, I don’t spend a substantial amount of time showing out-of-town guests around the tourist sights of the city.  When I play hostess in DC, I spend an hour or so perusing the Washington Post’s weekend section of the paper (delivered on Friday mornings) circling a dozen new gallery showings, movie listings, and restaurant reviews that will give my guest an entirely unique experience.  I make an effort to explore new places in my own backyard, and in doing so, never get bored or frustrated showing a guest around DC.

Here are my picks for April (and how I spent the past Easter weekend with M).

1.   Start the morning at the Corcoran Gallery at 500 17th St. in NW DC.  In the same vicinity you can find the Renwick Gallery and the Art Museum of the Americas.  Although I personally adore art museums, I don't recommend spending more than two hours in one place.  The Corcoran Gallery is perfectly sized so that you can get through most of the museum in that short period of time and they are constantly changing their exhibits.

2.  Leave the gallery in the late morning and walk around.  If your guest wishes to see one or two tourist spots the White House and Washington Monument are the closest to the Corcoran.  I personally like to skip these monuments, but  do not dare skip the April cherry blossoms.  Year after year, I never get sick of the beautiful pink harbingers of spring that line the Tidal Basin (also close to the Corcoran).  Peak bloom for 2013 has been pushed back to April 6-10 because of unseasonable chilly weather, but I find the cherry blossoms to be particularly gorgeous when they fall and create a soft, pastel carpet over top of the sidewalks and streets.

3.  Next, flag a taxi and take a short ride to Georgetown for a late lunch.  A neighborhood favorite is Pizza Paradiso on M Street.  This popular restaurant does not take reservations, but put you can put your name on their list, get an approximate seating time, and go discover some amazing shopping on M Street while you wait!

4.  After pizza, walk down to K Street and spend some time in the sun at the Georgetown Waterfront Park.  When the weather gets warming rent a kayak for an hour from Jack's Boathouse and get some exercise on the Potomac.

5.  Finally, finish the day with a cupcake from Baked and Wired (don't forget water!) and have a picnic on Georgetown University's Healy Lawn.  I personally enjoy Baked and Wired over Georgetown Cupcakes, particularly because it doesn't have a line that's two blocks long.

And there you have it.  I'll write up my tourist picks for May when N comes down from Philly to visit me.

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ΣAE and AXΩ present: the Preppy Games

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Sigma Alpha Epsilon and Alpha Chi Omega [my sorority] of the University of Pennsylvania have partnered for the second annual preppy games!  This Saturday April 6th at noon it's time to don your preppiest attire and meet on Hill Field (34th and Chestnut, Philadelphia) for badminton, bocce, horse shoes, and croquet.  Tickets are $5.00 and all proceeds go to Children's Miracle Network and Women Against Abuse.  Complete with a DJ, refreshments, and prizes by the event sponsors, Jack Wills and Southern Tide, the Preppy Games is sure to be an amazing event.

Sadly I cannot be in attendance, but I pulled up some fabulously preppy pictures from last year's photo shoot taken by Aperture Photography (album found here).  Aren't the outfits fun?  These shots were taken around Penn's campus, predominately in the quad where a majority of freshman live.  If I was going to this year's games  I would be pulling out my pink Jack Wills loafers, my Ralph Lauren seersucker golf shorts, a white Brooks Brothers polo, and perhaps throw on my Lilly hat to top it off (pun intended).

 

Stumbled Upon the White House

A few days back I posted about visiting the Corcoran Gallery of Art on 17th and E in NW DC.  After zipping through the contemporary art exhibits (they weren't vast but they were of an exceptional quality) I still had an extra 30 or so minutes left of my parking meter.  Since it was such a beautiful early spring day, I decided to keep walking until I stumbled upon something else interesting.

Little did I know that I would find ... *drum roll* ... the White House.  Now, I was born in NW DC and grew up just a couple miles outside the city limits but I can't remember the last time (or first time) I saw the White House.  It seems unfathomable that I can't recall a trip to the White House with relatives on some tourist excursion or with a gaggle of school girls in matching black-watch plaid jumpers back in elementary school (that was our adorable uniform).

The one memory I have of the White House was attending the annual Easter egg roll on the South Lawn sometime during the Bush years wearing an ugly corduroy lavender dress and a Peter Pan blouse... but even then, it was the back exterior of the White House with which I am familiar.

Naturally I geeked out and took some tourist pictures (of which I normally adamantly oppose).    I love the first picture at the top of the post because of the rich colors and the stately silhouettes of the tree on the right.  Oh and in the second picture, how about those floral jeans?  I bought them in Shanghai and they are the only printed pants so far that have been both comfortable and flattering.

Bringing Back the Penny Loafer

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My own Jack Wills pink penny loafers[/caption]

Time to Get a Watch

Balancing school, work, an internship, and my social life can be quite difficult.  I spend my days running driving all around town and quite literally between two states and a district.  Admittedly my iPhone helps me wake up and tells me when my parking meter will expire, but I don't like using it to check the time five times an hour.  My solution?  These adorable watches from a company called TRIWA.

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="487"] Alabaster Nevil watch, $305[/caption]

The name is actually an acronym (in some way or another) that stands for "Transforming the Industry of Watches."  This witty and honest quote from their website pretty much sums up their business: "We are deadly serious about being playful and unpretentious and we don’t mind being provocative in a creative, uplifting way."

While the TRIWA watches run at a high cost (roughly between $150-$300), I gravitate toward their classically modern styles and their guarantee of high quality.  I particularly like TRIWA because the company focuses predominately on building durable and creatively designed watches.  TRIWA isn't a spin off of a clothing or shoe line like Burberry or Michael Kors, rather built off of innovation in the watch industry.

My favorite watch is the one up top (also the most expensive, yikes).  Some less expensive alternatives are shown below.

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="487"] Hurricane Nibel, $205[/caption]

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="487"] Aqua Lomin, $205[/caption]

What do you think?  Recommend any other high-quality brands?

Easter in Washington Recap

I had a wonderful weekend in Washington with two of my dearest high school friends who traveled home from their school (the same one) in Pennsylvania for Easter.  The weekend began with spectacular weather on Friday which continued all day Saturday.  Unfortunately, it rained on Sunday, but we were quite thankful for the previous days of spring weather.  Here is a recap of the festivities.

Easter Eggs and Easter Baskets

The top picture in this pic stich (app found here) are eggs that I decorated on Easter morning.  Traditionally, my family decorates Easter eggs on Palm Sunday or just a day or two before Easter, but I did these with my friend A on Easter Sunday.  I really enjoyed this because it brought the whole family (her family) into the kitchen early before the midday meal began to spend time with each other creating fun decorations.  Five of them are mine, the ones that aren't include the pink Easter bunny, the apple tree, and the intricate one in the lower right hand corner.  My favorite egg is the pale yellow, cherry-blossom-inspired egg with the pink flowers.  I first applied blue painter's tape that I had cut into the shape of flowers.  Next I dipped it in yellow dye.  Finally, after drying, I removed the tape and outlined the flowers with paint pen.

The bottom picture is from the Easter baskets I put together for my siblings.  I chose the items, tied all the ribbons, and arranged them... the Easter bunny footed the bill.  I especially love the boys' sand pails which were used instead of baskets.  I actually couldn't find their normal baskets, but this turned out to be a handy alternative.

Easter Finest

And finally, our Easter outfits.  Guess who wore Lilly despite saying here that she wouldn't?  However, I still did choose a sophisticated dress.  M, in the center, decided that she was going to wear my strapless, fitted A-line J Crew dress that I discussed on Friday.  Year after year, it continues to be a timeless Easter/graduation/spring tea party favorite.

How was your Easter?

Watercolor Violet Flowers

I also paint! The colors and watercolor style don't come out quite the same with a scanner, but I wanted to share something I created. My favorite parts of the painting are the transitions between darker and lighter greens with varying hues of yellow, blue, and purple thrown in the mix. Happy Spring!