A Whirlwind

It was a whirlwind once I met up with my brother. Woooosh. This is about how my brain was feeling!

Jim had literally arrived in the lobby of the St. Regis at the same time I was walking in to meet him. Perfect timing. We ran up to the room, dropped our stuff and headed back out into city. I had to go back to Takashimaya, almost next door, to pick up my wrapped gifts and thought this would be a nice place to stop and have a little tea to rejuvenate. He happened to be needing a little nourishment also so we went to the tea room in the basement after walking about the store waiting for it to open at noon. He had a bowl of soup and we both had a pot of Darjeeling tea. It was just the right thing to get my motors running again.

Afterwards, I took him to Bergdorf Goodman, first to the men's store (an entire building to its own) and then across the street to the department store. I always go to the 7th floor which is home furnishings. The rest of the floors are women's clothing, none of which I would be able to fit into, so I always pass them on by on my way all the way to the top. Natalie Sarabella's display was gorgeous this year (like last year wasn't, pfffft!). All of her ornaments were on a bookshelf and there seemed to be a lot more designs to choose from. I ogled over each and every one. I picked up a little two-inch stuffed woolen bird ornament as it caught my eye. $32! Geesh. No wonder I wait until the 50-60% sale hits during our visits in January. Ouch.

As I said, it was a whirlwind after the brother arrived so if any of my pictures are mislabeled (to those who may know NYC better than I), forgive my ignorance. I'm thinking these are all from Bergdorf's windows. The theme was "Elements." Click here to see a video, it's worth it, believe me.

(All aluminum cans and bottle tops.)Barney's theme was "A Green Christmas." I have to admit never being near Barney's before. I'm a 5th Avenue girl while Jim is a Madison Avenue guy. Barney's is on Madison. (The bottom picture of all the "heroes'" faces was borrowed from the www.) I think my actual photo of all the faces is the blurr at the beginning of this post. Oh vell. I loved the windows though. Unfortunately, I missed Saks', Macy's and Lord & Taylor this year. There just wasn't enough time with us staying mostly on the Upper East Side. Oy.

Bloomingdale's was mostly done by children which was cute, but then it went into a strange theme. Dunno 'bout that. I did like the snowman though. Guess it was from the mind's of babes.

I loved the elderly lady admiring the window. I wish the lighting would have been better. This was probably about 11 p.m. Monday night on our stroll back to the hotel after dinner. (Again, you can click on any photo to get a larger view.)

The NYC Apple flagship store. Funky.

The Plaza at Central Park. It used to be a beautiful opulent hotel (where we stayed our first night of our honeymoon). It's now private residences. Fa fa fa.

Jewels, jewels and more jewels. There were lots of emeralds on display this season. Yummy. My favs were the Aaron Basha (I think) bell charm bracelet. Still out of my league, I'm afraid.

Designer stores.

Designer wear (Prada). Love the clunky platforms! Blast from the past (just not Prada past). Spring, already?

A mansion for sale and the fixer-upper next door on the Upper East Side.









And a beautiful brownstone a few doors down dressed to the nines. Can't even imagine. But, it's fun trying.