new websites and displays

Hey ya'll, I know its been awhile but don't worry I've been busy busy busy for Spring roll our at Anthro. I'm especially excited for this years roll out because we are using one source of inspiration (grass lands) for all of our main apparel concepts which is a totally new way of doing displays. The home concepts will still each have their own inspirations and each of the apparel concepts will feel very unique because of the different material choices, yet cohesive because of the overarching inspiration. I'm happy to report that our front of store display is DONE and I'm moving on to the rest of the store. A two story store means a lot of large scale displays but hopefully I'm up for the challenge. Here is a look at what I've done so far.

Mainly turning this...

 into this....

And finally, into this...

 

other than that, I've had a wonderful couple of weeks doing laundry,working on my portfolio, building my website, purchasing a warm coat, planning out all the wedding I get to attend, working out, and of course celebrating Galentines and Valentines day with flowers delivered to my work and some New Orleans cuisine. Speaking of my website - check it out! http://laurenskunta.com!

boulder, breckenridge, red rocks, and denver

Whew! What a mini vacation we just returned from. We checked out some of the places we've been drooling over for about 2 years now and it did not disappoint! We landed in Denver Friday afternoon (1pm local time) rented our car and then immediately started our adventure. Luckily we had some great tour guides - shout out to Alixe "Tiny Dancer" Tobin, Tyler "I'm a pumpkin model" Bergh, and Gina "I've got a personal trainer appointment" Kuzmick.

There are a million things I could say about Denver but as they say "a picture says a thousa.....you know what? I'm probably still going to put a caption on most of these pictures.

Here is Mike in his natural habitat - Boulder, CO

and me!

 And our future dream home!

 The view from the top of the mountain

That night we had a WONDERFUL meal at our second mexican restaurant of the trip, where we sat at the "chef's table" and got to see these folks cook up some perfection in a tiny space.

We also dined VERY well in our bed and breakfast. This was sundays breakfast and on Monday we had a tradition Indian breakfast which is pretty much my new favorite AM food - complete with green chili, a colorado must have.  

Here are some other pictures of our experience at the Queen Anne. We stayed in two rooms - the Aspen the first two nights and the roof top room the last night. And yes, we went in the hot tub and it was awesome.

On Sunday we traveled to another town we wanted to check out - Breckenridge, CO!

There was a snow sculpture competition going on while we walked around town

 And we spotted a Weimaraner puppy that we would have stolen had the owner looked away for a second.

 The drive there and back had breath taking views.

 On the way back we also stopped at red rocks amphitheater, which is now on our bucket list as a concert destination.

Someone from Ohio had visited before us and of course had to leave a "script Ohio" for us to find!

Overall is was such a great experience and I can't wait to return. Of course any trip taken with this guy is sure to be a winner.

bachelor year kick off!

So this past weekend was a doozy! Our good friends, and engaged couple, Dan and Kasey came into town for one of Dan's many installments of his "bachelor year".  A few of our Revere friends and their significant others started off the weekend Friday night by enjoying some wine and tapas at the Stanton Social  which was phenomenal! You can check out their french onion soup dumplings on teh food network's the "Best Think I Ever Ate". Here are a few photos from the evening.

 

The following day we all got back together for brunch and then the boys and girls separated to celebrate bachelorhood. Kasey and I opted to go to spa castle, a 100,000 square foot korean spa that has so many different sauna's, napping rooms, heated floors, cooling areas, outdoor heated pool, swim up bars, salt scrubs, etc. You pay one fee and have access to any of the public places in the 5 story building. We wore beautiful (sarcasm) uniforms and hopped from sauna's ranging in heat from 34 degrees to 192 degrees. After a rooftop swim with back massaging jets we had some pistachio almond ice cream and headed to a comedy show. We saw 4 wonderfully hilarious comedians while sipping some cosmopolitans. Overall a wonderful bachelorette evening while the boys took a slightly different approach of by hitting up a beer garden and going to a club to see a DJ. Mike strolled back into the apartment still laughing just as the sun was coming up so its safe to say a good time was had by all.

Again, we all reconvened for morning brunch before these fools had to fly home. We were all just a tad tired...

I also wanted to update you on my final photos of my color theory window so here they are!

color theory windows are up

As you can tell from the title, our color theory windows are up at Anthro! This was a very simplified, back to the basics window. I chose to do a warm color palette that will hopefully bring a toasty atmosphere in these cold, gray winter days. As always, I have two windows to complete. Take a look at the results! (these are just initial pictures, more detailed shots to come later...)

I'll save the more intricate details for when I post the photos from the window photoshoot. In other news I had yet another fun weekend! We tried out a new restaurant on Friday, Ovelia. We probably wont return because it was a bit over-priced but it was a great atmosphere and a memorable time. I ordered the Saganaki veal burger with blograviera, greek yogurt-tahini spread on turkish pide bread served with hand cut oregano fries. It was delicious.

On Sunday we did a little shopping without buying anything. Mike was looking for a new coat, and I was looking for a bold flannel shirt which apparently doesn't exist for women. On our way we encountered this lovely musical act. They guy in the background they guy is playing a guitar, drums, horn, AND singing. Not sure why the skimpy women were there but anyway, as you can see it drew a crowd.

 During our shopping we encountered this beautiful view of union square.

Oh and also we encountered the famous no pants subway ride! Looks like we just missed it but they sure were celebrating when they got off. 

eat, drink, repeat.

Well its been another fabulous year and I'm so thankful for everyone in my life. The holiday is over and its "back to reality" but i'm focused and determined to keep that holiday spirit in me always and to make my everyday reality one that I'm happy with everyday. 

On NYE we went out for our 2nd year anniversary to what is quickly becoming one of our favorite local places, Milkflower. We dined on the "van dammer" wood fired pizza which had brussel sprouts and a cracked egg in the middle. We then made the trek to Brooklyn to meet up with old friends, drink whiskey sours, and listen to AMAZING music at Radegast bier hall. See some photos below and guess if we had a good time.

 

I unfortunately had to go to work on Friday to take down all the holiday in our store. Luckily I had 

my trusty visual sales associate with me to lend a hand. Together we took down about 30 christmas trees (dried pine needles sticking into my skin and all), de-installed one of our holiday windows, and covered the artwall with some fresh canvas. We definitely burned off a lot of calories from Christmas cookies that day. 

Anyway, on to the weekend! Determined to start the new year off how I want to spend every weekend we went to the next restaurant on our list Astoria Bier and Cheese. It was a very pleasant experience because its an all glass front of the building so we sat and watched it pour rain outside. We then went and had some Thai food next door and later met up with more old friends at our apartment for some whiskey gingers, cosmopolitans, and good conversation. 

After a food and drink filled Saturday we had a very pleasant Sunday of sitting on a bench outside Madame Sou Sou's (the coffee shop around the corner) before heading to Manhattan to FINALLY see the Metropolitan Museum of Art. I plan on going back a dozen times so it was nice to be able to leisurely walk through just a few exhibits and plan a return trip. 

 

Oh...and we had more curry (of the Indian variety) after our museum visit. Surprise surprise.

Other than eat, drink, and be merry for the last couple of days we did manage to plan our Denver trip. We had bought the plane tickets months ago but we finally booked our Bed and Breakfast. Check out this amazing room we'll be staying in for the first two nights!

And the rooftop room will be staying in the last night as my Christmas gift from Mike. Can't wait to check out our next potential home town (yes mom and dad I said it...)