FASHION WEEK FUN + DESIGN SPONGE BOOK LAUNCH = GREAT ADVENTURES IN THE UPPER WEST SIDE!

After receiving an invite from DJ Hardy at 5W Public Relations, I swung by yesterday's promotional event for a super-swanky Krups Espressaria Automatic at The Empire Hotel across the street from Lincoln Center. On my way over, I was joined for lunch at the David Rubenstein Atrium by a couple visiting from New Zealand. Their 32 hour trip to the states made my occasional east to west coast trip look like a drive to the grocery store!

Also on my way over to The Empire, I saw a gorgeous display in the windows of West Elm promoting that night's launch of Grace Bonney's Design Sponge. (Grace runs a blog with a mammoth following by the same name.)

One of the West Elm employees, a great guy named David Strickler, was kind enough to get me on the guest list.(Impressively, David also speaks American Sign Language, which he lets people know on his nametag.)

In between the Empire Hotel event and the Design Sponge Launch, I stopped in an old haunt, the 63rd Street Y, to use their pool. (I used to teach pre-school there 15 years ago!)

The Design Sponge book launch was a blast. First, my friend Jeffrey and I took a series of 3 photos in their makeshift photo booth. (Ya gotta love the pipe and dog cutouts!) Then, I walked around to look at all the merchandise and displays, talked to the super-friendly staff who had been pulled in from lots of West Elm stores, and enjoyed the upbeat music played by DJ Billy Beyond (see above photo).

There was so much creative energy in this neck of the woods, due in part to Fashion Week. This is definitely one week that typifies the season for launches and premiers. I think I got invitations to about 5 different events happening tomorrow night, the 15th. But of course, I will go to my number one priority, which is the documentary Manufacturing Stoke that my brother and nephew are in.