in honor of national cupcake day.

everyday in the world of *~* is national cupcake day. so in honor of delicious sponge cake with cream plastered on top, we give you a list of our top three favorite places to indulge in nyc:

1.) burgers & cupcakes - this gem is located by my former place of employment on 9th ave ave at 36th st. the cake itself is alright, but the butter cream frosting is like a dream.

2.) crumbs - massive, massive, massive. and delicious.

3.) amy's bread - so to be perrrfectly honest i actually prefer their cake to their cupcakes, but none the less you can't leave without an epic win. the frosting is delicious like michael jordan on a sunday night.

there you have it. if you need to indulge in some frosting and cake, try these places and loosen your belt a little, bitches.

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HAPPY BURFDAY TO WE!
*~* is officially 1 years old. like every other 1 year old we want a well fabulous party with tons of presents, cake in our face and mad attention.

we've come a long way in this past year. we hope you've grown with us. if everyone in the world could just give us $1 all our dreams could come true. kthxbai.

stay tuned. wez iz legit.

tru romance

paris is the city of lights, new york is the city that never sleeps - both truly romantic destinations for valentine's day. which is why i went to atlanta. after delaying the trip by a day because of snOMGizzle, we finally made it to hotlanta for some mac n cheese, AND SNOW. seriously, wtf?

anyways, when i wasn't eating biscuits or hitting up the surprisingly respectable vintage scene, i was getting totally romanced by my bf (can't spell romance without _ _ _ _ _).

question: what better way to spend lover's day than watching your bf play in a poker tournament at vortex?
answer: having a photo shoot at margaret mitchell's house (fierce beast) with your gf and picking up some sweet post its (DON'T CALL ME SUGAR). for all you uneducated ragamuffins out there, she wrote gone with the wind.
on a sadder note, margaret crushed my hipsterly romantic dreams of writing a novel on an old typewriter. waaaay to hard and there is no gchat on that thing.

p.s. to be fair, our significant others did throw down some $$ billz for some fierce jewelry (did i hear turquoise?) and presented it a la dick in a box. <3

notes from the homeland.

traveling well is an art form. determining what kind of traveler you are, choosing where to go, and getting a day-to-day game plan together are all key for a successful trip. with that in mind, my recent sojourn across borders should have been a disaster, but instead proved to be insightful and endearing (and somewhat infuriating) adventure. in what shall be a multi-post exploration of the world's highest ranking place on the human development index and 2007's most peaceful country in the world, i bring you a look at *~*NORWAY*~*

after returning from my birth place (okay one of four), i realized i am a shoestring (aka cheap ass, does not like to spend $$$, frugal, thrifty, annoyling bargain) traveler. with this in mind, going to a place that is on average 30 percent more expensive than the united states proved to be a test of strengths, temper, and tantrums. in honor of $5 cokes and $4 to board a bus, i bring you my top five favorite meals (and their cost):

1.) oslo airport food: first off, if you're coming into oslo from an international flight, EAT UP DUTY FREE. the alcohol is a third of the price from supermarkets and the cocaine is half.

now to my main point, the meal above (a bottle of water, a piece of bread, and jam) will push you back $8. i swear i heard some viking scream at the cash register "welcome to norway, SUCKERS!"

2.) coffee & tea: on average, the cost of a coffee in norway is about $5 and anything beyond cup o' joe will pile on at least two more dolla dolla billz. a personal best was paying $7 for tea, which ended up tasting like shit.

3.) breakfast: okay, so an all you can eat buffet should've cost around $13, but the suckers at the hotel didn't know this gangster from the yay area i sly like a fox so i got that for F-R-E-E. suck it scandinavia!!!!

4.) chain restaurants: like any true romantic, no valentine's day meal should be without feeling like you're about to suffer from explosive diarrhea -- this is why burger king is always a perfect place to take your honey bunny when cupid sings. as pictured here, a chicken burger, whopper, two fries, and two drinks added up to a cool $31. the ketchup was free.

5.) finally, my favorite meal was where it all began: oslo international airport. for 49 norwegian kroner (NOK) [~$8], you can get the following: a baguette, fruit juice, apple, YATZE, a deck of cards, and a pen hollering at oslo!!!! this proved to be a great time until a card game turned nasty, but at least dinner was cheap.

all in all, it's a sad state in the world when one enters a uk supermarket and is relieved to be paying in pounds. none the less, this adventure in cuisine culture shock have left a profound impact and great memories. i still love you, norway.

snOwMG

i try to avoid cable news panic attacks at all costs, but fell prey to check on the weather, excuse me, SNOWPOCALYPSE/SNOWMAGGEDON that was heading our direction. i only cared because i was on my way out. at least that's what i thought. blizzard 2010 had another plan for me.

i narrowly escaped blizzard 2009 right before christmas, as i was probably one of the last flights out of jfk, praise be to luck/jetblue/no one in the airport. but this time i wasn't so lucky. the crazy linguistic exaggerations of cnn turned out to be true and rather than sipping champagne in hotlanta with nene and sheree, i'm drinking wine in the dirty jerz and watching bear grylls aka man v. wild aka HUGE CRUSH conquer urban survival. not bad, but i would've rather boarded the plane today.

all wasn't lost though, at least i had today off and got to partake in a retro snowball fight. watch out for this maniac in a park near you.


pray to any celestial being that my flight tomorrow isn't cancelled so all is not lost and i can continue the non-stop dream vacation/valentine's love fest eating buttermilk biscuits down south.

new york in black and white.

hello. you have been asked to participate in a small survey that will take less than two minutes of your time:

1.) do you like decent japanese food, most of which could be set on fire?
2.) do you enjoy black?
3.) is dining in a cave something you've always dreamed of?
4.) do you like magic tricks?
5.) would you be open to sharing stories of how you lost your virginity?

if the answer is "yes" to any of these, then ninja new york is for you! set in the terrible neighborhood of tribeca, this gem of a restaurant will move and groove you. the food is pretty standard (though as our waiter pointed out, we were more of a drinking crowd anyways) with sushi rolls ranging from $8-$12. there are other prix-fixe options available for $38-$88, but as mentioned this place isn't really about the dining, but rather the experience. mixed drinks aren't too bad at $12, $47 bottles of champagne, and $3 beer. oh, and there's a magic show by a ninja who will do mind blowing tricks and then ask for tips. the servers also do little cameos in and out of different dining rooms as well as slap you with towels when you least expect it.

overall, it was the perfect place to spend a final night in new york city. i would def say this is a group place as the people who were on dates kind of got caught in a weird aisle table situation. it's overpriced, but worth the experience.

help me find it!

as we all know by now teal is the color of the year. via someone on tumblr with very good taste, we found the fiercest dress ever, my dream dress! but who is it by? how can i find this amazing piece of apparel? someone help if you know who designed this!

DO NEED