Getting Off the Ground.

As the week comes to an end, an enormous thank you to friends, family, and total strangers for your incredibly kind and encouraging comments, tweets, and emails these past few days. Your support and enthusiasm mean the world to me.

I'll be back on Monday; until then, best wishes for a wonderful weekend!

Image: Robert and Shana Parkeharrison via Potz!Blitz!Szpilman!

Sidelong Glances.

I love the mystery and flirtation in these shots, from Max's latest engagement session. Nazneen and Ali make a stunning couple. Nazneen's pink and seafoam-green outfit's not so bad, either.

Sweet Thing: Coolhaus

It’s no secret to those who know me that my love of dessert borders on obsession. Apropos, I’ve decided to begin a quest to sample all the best sweets New York has to offer. Someone has to do it. You’ll see the results here, in a series called Sweet Thing. First up, my new favorite summer sugar fix:




Behold, the Coolhaus ice-cream sandwich. First served out of a refurbished postal truck at the Coachella music festival in 2009, these mammoth, made-to-order creations are now available in three cities, with a bricks-and-mortar shop on the way in Los Angeles. Inspired in part by the Bauhaus movement and the legendary Dutch architect Rem Koolhaas, founders Natasha and Freya set out to create "architecturally inspired" ice-cream sandwiches using gourmet ingredients. Choose from a plethora of handmade flavors - on my visit, I tried roasted pear and nutmeg sorbet on double chocolate cookies.

Oh, and did I mention that the sandwiches come wrapped in edible paper?

Follow Coolhaus on Twitter for truck locations in New York, Los Angeles, and Austin.

Allergic to Magic.

Remember this little girl, whose wide-eyed – and very creative – retelling of “Winnie the Pooh” went viral earlier this year?

The artist behind the Portland-based Etsy shop Sharks Keep Moving has created a tote bag inspired by her storytelling.



Even cooler: all proceeds from the shop go toward helping the artist – a young woman whose name I can’t seem to find anywhere – pursue her dream of purchasing a sailboat and circumnavigating the globe.

I also love these "Phases of the Moon" buttons.



Visit the shop, here.

Reliquarium.

Walking into Artists & Fleas, a weekly indoor flea market in Williamsburg, there's certainly no shortage of things to look at: handmade jewelry for days, racks upon racks of vintage finery, a live DJ spinning on an elevated platform.

Still, it was a taxidermy pigeon wearing a yellow party hat that drew me away from everything else, and over to artist Jackie Mock's tiny, lamplit corner.



Jackie collects found objects from far and wide and turns them into unique art pieces that celebrate the magic in the everyday. (“Anyone out there who can find me some dirt from Hawaii or Ohio?” she Tweeted recently.)

Some of my favorites from her collection:

"Pigeon Footprint Found in Snow, 2008"



"Water from American Places with European Names, 2010-11"



"Some Wins & Some Losses, 2011"



"The Entire Life of This Pen Stolen From a New York City Post Office, 2009"




More from Jackie Mock, including information about where she'll be showing her work next, here. All photos via Reliquarium and Jackie Mock.